A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

I know absolutely nothing about Eric Saeter except that his hand made creations are beautiful and not afraid to engage with the darker aspects of the human psyche.
I came across his blog purely by chance last week and had to refrain myself from immediately sending him an email applauding his brilliance and the power of his craftsmanship. The designs, textures, linearity and symbolism of his pieces seem to willingly embrace individual architectural creativity, a formula which could have been acquired from looking at post-modern buildings and mathematics. A complementary interpretation to this last version is that he is using his skills and expertise to describe his own truths through his jewellery. I’m guessing that the powerful imagery and poetic resonance are direct references to the creation myths and Pagan legends. The elemental quality of some of the rings is reminiscent of modern druidic, New Age and Eastern concepts. Similarly the geometry and proportions of the pentagram pieces could indicate that Eric is interested in magic and the occult. His use of base materials is very efficient in expressing the difference between naturalism and industrial production. Compare his work to what you find in shops today and you will feel like he has arrived in the earth’s orbit from a utopian galaxy! A sci-fi fantasy.
His achievements to date rest principally on a body of work which includes rings and necklaces (they can be purchased from his Etsy store).

All pictures courtesy of Eric Saeter

A DIFFERENT NOTE

At a time in our modern world when religion and politics are not seen as the saviour but as the cause of many of society’s problems, we have become skilled at turning a blind eye (especially the fashion world). Thank god (maybe literally – haha) for designers like Tina Kalivas, whose wonderfully beautiful clothes dare to shake us out of our complacency. I first came across her clothes a few months ago when I was contacted by a PR agency representing new young Australian fashion designers. I’ll admit that I initially rejected the opportunity to write about Australia and its fashion scene on the ground that apart from RUSSH magazine, TV, Dress Up, Willow, Arnsdorf and Sass & Bide I felt that there wasn’t much style and energy to blog about. Well, I soon realized my mistake when I discovered several other inspirational peripheral characters, notably Tina Kalivas.
Yes, I know. Instead of being stubborn I should just learn to embrace my faith in creativity and as a lover of good fashion I can only rejoice in the fact that style nourishment can be found … even in Australia!
Tina Kalivas created her latest collection in collaboration with highly skilled Hazara women living in the suburbs of Sydney. The idea was not to create controversial pieces or be provocative. There is of course a gentle tension and complexities emanating from the clothes but the challenge was to set beliefs and conflicts aside to reconcile with the world. Politics should never overshadow the talent and relevance of the designs. Tina combines real traditional crafts (intricate embroideries, beadwork, cross-stitched patterns, motifs and symbolism) with more contemporary cuts and colours often reminiscent of the joyful reds, greens, yellows etc used to enliven the austere and often harsh environments of Afghanistan. The military tailoring is a big part of the collection and I suppose another way of approaching our ignorance when it comes to the Afghan spirit. The flavour of this collection is refreshing but remains cool at the same time.
Tina Kalivas trained in London for 8 years. She worked for Alexander McQueen, Clements Ribeiro and Russel Sage.

All pictures courtesy of Tina Kalivas

LAUNCHING THE GUY BOURDIN CLUB!

Yes, another Guy Bourdin post!

For purposes of comparison (see previous post) and for those of you who have yet to discover Guy Bourdin’s work, I’ve attempted to find other less known visuals. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that I find it impossible to be dispassionate about this particular photographer. I genuinely believe that you could learn the science and craft of fashion photography from him. His achievements are really important and it is no coincidence that he has influenced so many contemporary photographers. I find it hard to understand why until recently his ingeniousness had been frequently left out in many of the tributes to fashion photography. Revolutionary and groundbreaking, it is a shame that no concise informative history of his life can be found. His unusualness comes from the way he saw things, with originality but also poetry, as well as his sense of colour and composition always so obscure as to be almost perverse or violent. A lot of reviews and critics have focused on the tragic series of events that underscored Bourdin’s life, punctuated by turbulent and dark love episodes, a context which offers little to the viewer except a theatrical characterisation of the character. I’ve been looking at some of my books about him and reading articles which never delve deeply into the depths of his character or given events, and at times I’ve wondered why people hardly ever refer to the humour and playful spirit of the man. I’ll admit that it is scarcely visible but it’s certainly there, on the edge.
He is a magician in the world of fashion with a long-lasting pulling power.
Have any of you seen the show at the Wapping Project?

All pictures from The Fashion Spot

ROMANTIC SQUALOR

The name Guy Bourdin is every photographer’s wet dream. No, it’s better than that. The moment it is pronounced – presuming you’re a fashion photography enthusiast – you will experience not only a rush of ecstasy, but also a surge of renewed fervour and evangelical zeal. You’ll want to call all your friends and tell them the wonderful news: “I’ve seen the exhibition!”
It is hard for me not to like him. He is French, a genuine myth, controversial, a technical virtuoso, the introduction to his first solo show was written by Man Ray, he told absurd, surreal and dangerous stories though his images and he strived to achieve perfection. And as the creator of visuals, he is arguably one of the most influential and provocative radical fashion photographers of the last two decades.
Last Saturday I was finally able to see the “Unseen: Guy Bourdin” show at the Wapping Project in East London. 32 of the photographer’s works are displayed in the back room of a former hydraulic power station with an Astroturf floor (highly reminiscent of the vivid green grass often found in his pictures). The darkly lit cold industrial space is the perfect place to show his work, enhancing its brute dark emotion and theatrical narratives.
If you live in London, go and see this show!

All images from www.guybourdin.org

MARRAKECH EXPRESS

Last night, on returning to previous posts, I realized that my blog is featuring more and more fashion photographers. I’ll get pigeonholed soon enough if I continue presenting these mini studies on the art of fashion photography. But it’s like a good novel, fictional or not, you’re left enthralled and thrilled with the experience. It’s inspiring, conveys separate messages in different registers and becomes a necessity in your life. It can be compared to Elizabeth’s unsuitable weakness for Lady Gaga or Emilie’s addiction to bad boys and porn moustaches, you’re gripped and you can’t distance yourself from the object of your desire…
And this week, it’s a story in the May issue of Italian Vogue that had me transfixed.
It begins with a destination: Morocco. The main narrative evolves around Sasha Pivovarova looking like an incredibly exotic creature. She is extravagantly ravishing and almost culturally alien in her clothes and wigs. The colours, tone and textures used by Steven Meisel create almost painterly lines, working a kind of peaceful magic on me while the male model provides fleeting glimpses of sensuality and sex.
This is exactly what I wanted to see this week: a series of vivid images swaying miraculously into life, an exquisite spectacle of fashion reminiscent of old masters in its traditional approach.
Tomorrow I’m going to see the Guy Bourdin exhibition at the Wapping Project. I hope that I’ll learn something new about his career or at least see pictures that have not yet been unveiled elsewhere.

All pictures courtesy of Steven Meisel, taken from The Fashion Spot
Vogue Italia May 2009

VISUAL TRADITION

Even people who wouldn’t dream of having anything so trashy as Grazia on the kitchen table, who claim not to be interested in the state of Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson’s relationship and despise the gutter tactics of other self-obsessed celebrities will be gripped by the online photographic diary of Hedi Slimane.
Every time I veer away from fashion photography and look at his work, I feel the same rush of visual excitement! Mild scandal and tragedy are poetically represented through highly sexual characters like Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss, Courtney Love and Pete Docherty. Hedi Slimane knows that there is great potency in showing someone young, beautiful, broken-hearted and close to the edge. With extraordinary talent, he gives us a modern day picture of the young and famous accompanied by savvy romanticism and formal clarity.
His artistic versatility is a combination of many talents including photographer, fashion designer, furniture designer, cultural anthropologist (his youth culture investigations are inspiring) and diarist. And he seems to do it all with a mixture of sophistication and passionate innocence, expressing his observations without interruption from external influences.
I love the fact that his online diary is coherent in a classical way. It is simply based on his obvious relationship with teenage culture, music, photography and a logic which allows him to include himself in this cycle of youth.
I really believe he must have looked at a lot of classic photography before embracing the camera. His use of black and white, his compositions and controlled precise framing show an uncompromising acceptance of literal photographic descriptions. At a time when so much technology is available and retouching widely used, his images almost seem willfully old-fashioned.

All images courtesy of Hedi Slimane

CELEBRATING THE MUSE

The Costume Institute Gala is always fascinating from start to end, invariably providing fabulous and dazzling paparazzi close-ups of models and fashion personalities under terminal stress. I find it difficult to explain why this event intrigues me so much but it clearly has something to do with the climactic and absurd number of A list fashion characters yearning for approval, all under the same roof. A huge fashion VIP enclosure (and me with my nose pressed against the glass)!
It’s a finely calibrated production that sends Internet fashion journalism and competitive gossip mongering into frenzy. This year’s closely monitored drama unfolded when Kiefer Sutherland allegedly head-butted Jack McCollough, one half of the Proenza Schouler fashion design team. What is wrong with Jack Bauer?
This year’s theme is particularly engaging, more accessible and possibly even capable of reaching a new public: “Models as Muse”. The show explores the relationship between high fashion and models from post World War 2 haute couture to grunge and minimalism. It stages a comprehensive spectacle of versatile beauties merging with powerful and imaginative designs to form arresting images.
So far, so good. Highly enjoyable contemplations of fashion talents. But what I find interesting is the concept of the “muse”. In my experience, these mythical infatuations are now redundant and relegated to the dusty vaults of fashion history. This is probably a rather debatable topic but I do feel that since the demise of the 80s supermodel the fashion industry always seems ready for the wild promise of the next “muse”, an unrealized ambition, the grail they’re all seeking.
Kate Moss has been hailed by common consensus as the ultimate muse, admired even by her opponents, and emerging from public drug fuelled disasters with her reputation enhanced. Her appearance at the Costume Institute Gala as a co-chair reminded me of a thinly veiled caricature of Gloria Swanson in Hollywood Boulevard. A satirical bite. Like the aging and scary film goddess on screen, Kate Moss looked decadent and decaying. She allegedly described herself to Cathy Horyn as the faded Norma Desmond, showing a strange willingness to evoke the glamour and ruin of stars who subsist on the dream of a comeback. Sinister or self-deprecating humour? Just like the main character in the Hollywood masterpiece, I thought she looked washed-up, still clinging to life while new young Eastern European models take centre stage.
Too much makeup, too much blusher, too much bronzer, too much gold lame.

All pictures courtesy of Just Jared

THE SMELL OF SPRING

This weekend I'm going to Somerset, a destination not affected by the paranoid swine flu frenzy!
I like the intimate narrative and snapshot quality of this picture my husband took of me a while ago. It reminds me a little bit of Nan Goldin’s work.