Photographer Juergen Teller was born 1964 in Germany, where he studied photography for two years. To avoid military national service he learned English and moved to London in 1986 (age 22). Here he started working for record companies and photographs record covers. Later he got commissioned by magazines to make feature portraits. He meets stylist Venetia Scott and together with her, he started to photograph fashion stories for magazines like Face, i-D and Vogue Homme International.

 (Venetia Scott & Lola, daughter of Juergen & Venetia. Years later Marc Jacobs named his perfume after daughter Lola)

Juergen teller’s early fashion series were very much influenced by Venetia Scott’s styling, which wasn’t negative ofcourse… Later styling will still be an important element of Teller’s pictures, but it’s more blending in with the pictures, not dictating them….

The Magic Show

Face, December 1994

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Juergen Teller by Juergen Teller

In 1996 Taschen published the book Juergen Teller. On the cover, and inside, pictures of Annie Morton and a wide range collection of Teller’s work from 1990 till 1996.

The pictures of Kristen McMenamy, made for the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, were considered shocking to a lot of people. Teller was accused of ruining her career ( the pictures show bruises and a scar on her body), but Kristen loved and still loves to work with him.

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Pictures of Juergen Teller, behind the scene of Helmut Lang fashion shows, like the ones from Kirsten Owen. Helmut Lang liked them so much, he decided to use them for his next ad campaign and a collaboration, which stayed on for many years, was born. Teller recently told he fell completely in love with Kirsten Owen the first time he saw her in a hotel bar in Milan, where she walked in with Peter Lindbergh (but Teller was with Venetia Scott a the time). Many years later, backstage at another Helmut Lang fashion show, Teller finally had the courage to tell Kirsten he was in love with her,  she answered: “So was I”.

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A fashion story with Linda Evangelista for Interview magazine 1993, photographed in Central Park showed a pure side of her, while most magazines and other photographers worked with Linda because she was a incredible chameleon.

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Juergen Teller had already met and photographed Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain in 1991 for Details and got commissioned by i-D to also photograph Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love. He flew to Seattle and was able to capture her outgoing (read outrageous) personality…

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Björk & son, in Iceland for Face (1993) was the beginning of a still going on working relationship between Björk and Juergen Teller. Teller likes longterm creative relationships with the people who inspire him, like Kristen McMenamy, Kate Moss, Helmut Lang and Marc Jacobs.This picture became quiet iconic for Björk.

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About the way he works:

‘I can achieve something in a very quick moment, but it does get very personal. I think I open a lot too. I don’t come around as the archetype fashion photographer dude, playing the big guy with the horde of assistants. I let them know I’m also nervous and insecure. Them I let them relax. The way I photograph is quite hypnotizing. I found a way to hide my insecurity – I have two cameras and I photograph like this [mimes cameras in each hand moving hypnotically] and this helps me to figure out what I should do, where they should go…it’s so intense, so psychologically draining, it’s like my brain works on overdrive in those minutes -or hours or days- I’m photographing.

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Uno Stille

Kate Moss by Juergen Teller for Vogue Italia October 1995, Styling Venetia Scott

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The last picture of the book Juergen Teller I show, is one for Vogue Hommes International , 1992. This picture always stayed with me, I don’t know  why. Maybe because I have a soft spot for (miniature) boats? It just makes me  happily emotional….

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/3822883107/sr=/qid=/ref=olp_tab_collectible?ie=UTF8&colid=&coliid=&condition=collectible&me=&qid=&seller=&sr=

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Working with Marc Jacobs

Juergen Teller’s work with Marc Jacobs, started 14 years ago. Venetia Scott turned down the work with Marc Jacobs, because she was about to give birth to the couples child, but CEO Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs were persisting. They was flew over to reconsider the offer and Duffy and Jacobs were very understanding and clearly Venetia Scott couldn’t say no.

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Marc Jacobs asked Juergen Teller if he was interested in photographing Kim Gordon, who was in London and wearing Marc Jacob’s dresses on stage. There was a small budget to place the pictures in a magazine and Teller thought it was a nice thing to do, to go to a Sonic Youth concert. Teller said he wanted to be in control of the image and how about it was going to appear on the double page and wanted to design how the Marc Jacobs logo was in relationship to the advertorial… Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy agreed and Juergen Teller created Marc Jacobs imagery.

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After this adventure Juergen Teller did numerous things for free, just like in the beginning at Helmut Lang. Teller said it was just the pleasure of being involved in such a thing. When Prada took over Helmut Lang and LVMH bought into Marc Jacobs, Teller got a proper share of earnings for all

his contributions.

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People were saying: “How do you get away with that, being in control of how it looks?” and Teller answered :”Weel, I put my heart and blood into it.”

And the better Teller and Jacobs got with what they were doing, the more confident they became, the work they did together was an excellent package. When, at one point, Juergen Teller became very insecure, Jacobs told him: “I really like that you get the best result if I let you do what you believe is right.” For Teller this was the nod of confidence he needed….

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Most of the time it was just Juergen Teller on his own with a handbag full of bags and shoes, no art director, no assistent, no stylist or anything. That’s how it all started…

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Book about Marc Jacobs advertising 1998 – 2009, all photographed by Juergen Teller.  Published by Steidl

http://www.amazon.com/Juergen-Teller-Jacobs-Advertising-1998-2009/dp/386521715X

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(Lola photographed for Marc Jacobs by her father Juergen Teller for the perfume named after her)

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Next week  Juergen Teller, collaborations (part2), with Viviënne Westwood, Celine, nominated actors and a recent exhibition…

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Juergen Teller, Go-Sees

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In 1999, Juergen Teller had another stroke of genius! After becoming successful, model agencies started calling, asking if they could send over models for a go-see (casting), which means, new models come to show their portfolio and hand over a setcard. At first he didn’t know what to do with these requests, but then he turned the procedure around and called the agencies to send girls and photographed them all at the entrance to his studio. Juergen Teller, Go-Sees  became a photographic log of every model that had visited his studio May 1998 and 1999. The hundreds of portraits made for an artistic concept exploring identity. The book is an uncompromising journal of the uncharted world that lies behind the outward glamour of the fashion industry. These portraits of models, most of whom are unknown, are sometimes deeply moving.

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The Missoni family

“We wanted the campaign to be a snapshot of an evening with the Missoni family,” said creative director Angela Missoni, “I always think that our product has some extra value – an artisanal, traditional value – and I know that people often collect the pieces and keep them for a long time. The product is real so I wanted to show it in a real context – and that is difficult to do with traditional fashion imagery.”

The campaign was shot at the home of Missoni founders Ottavio (or Tai) and Rosita Missoni in Sumirago, in Italy’s Lombardy region and starred three generations of Missonis: the founders themselves, their daughter Angela and son Vittorio and grandchildren Margherita, Francesco, Theresa, Marco, Ottavio Jnr and Giacomo, all wearing pieces from the Missoni ready-to-wear collection.

“It was very relaxed, we had a lot of fun,” Missoni laughed. “Juergen had only one assistant so there was no big crew – it was just us and him. We did have to make some samples up specially for the shoot – because my son and my nephews are huge compared to catwalk boys – but apart from that it wasn’t a big effort. At half past midnight my father said ‘Are you planning on staying much longer?’ but it was definitely a good day.”

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Céline , autumn/winter 2012

Recently Daria Werbowy returned as the face of Céline for a/w 2012. Daria cut her hair and dyed her eyebrows a lighter color. Posing without makeup and unstyled hair, she wears the Parisian label’s clean-cut tailoring and signature oversized coats in unique shades for a mixture of candid shots which are interspersed with some accessory close-ups and some quirky snaps of pink flamingos.

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Juergen Teller is one of the most influencial fashion photographers of his generation

(Juergen Teller & his wife Sadie Coles)

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The film is a satire of the French mid-1960’s fashion world, in which William Klein, writer and director of the movie, unapologetically skewers the fashion industry. William Klein, an expat American in Paris and former fashion photographer for Vogue during the Diana Vreeland era. His explosive New York street photography made him one of the most heralded artists of the sixties. He was ranked 25th on UK’s Professional Photographer’s ’100 Most Influential Photographers of all time’: ‘The anarchic rebel of fashion, reportage and film making. His wide-angle ‘in your face approach’ lives on, as does his attitude.’

In 1954, Alexander Liberman, then art director of Vogue hired William Klein, launching his career as a fashion photographer, “a journey marked by his ambivalent and ironic approach to the world of fashion. Klein worked for Vogue till 1965. ” Klein did not want to continue with mundane fashion poses, but wanted to take, in his own words “at last real pictures, eliminating taboos and clichés.”

William Klein’s move into the cinema world was a natural progression in his artistic career. He only made three fiction features. His debut, Qui Êtes-Vous, Polly Maggoo? (1966) with, in the leading role as Polly Maggoo, Dorothy McGowan.

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Polly Maggoo, the movie

Fairly loosely plotted, the film uses a fictional documentary TV news program called “Who Are You?” to take a close look at Polly Maggoo, the world’s most popular supermodel and in the process, ruminate (often satirically) on fashion, fame, and wealth.

It’s an art film through and through, and in the truest sense of the word. It’s extremely edgy, surrealistic, and critical of the fashion world, which exploded into a new shape during the 60s (haute couture really getting “out there” – no longer about wearable clothing but about making ‘art’ on the human form).

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The movie starts with an absurd runway show in which the models are wearing aluminum sheets as clothes. When one of the models cuts herself at the aluminum, the designer says :”no problem, we can fix it with some foundation”, instead of caring about the pain and cuts in her arm. When the show is finished Miss Maxwell, the most famous fashion editor, who is obviously based on Diana Vreeland,  proclaims the designer has ‘recreated the woman’. Then fashion crowd goes backstage and give all ridiculous (but very funny) comments about the show and the creations and the designer pronounces: “I have great plans, I am going to do the whole collection in copper too’”.

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Admittedly, this won’t be for everyone, as it is rather strange (sometimes too psychedelic for me). It’s delightfully absurd and extremely stylish, crammed with awesome pop art costumes, makeup, sets, and more. It’s worth watching for the visuals alone, but it also has quite a bit of intellectual weight and interesting ideas well-presented.
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Dorothy McGowan played the role of Polly Maggoo

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Models aren’t generally the most loquacious bunch. In fact, talking seems to be generally discouraged among their numbers: they are meant to be visual entities, whose mystique is only heightened by the lack of verbal insight they give. As such, it is usually assumed they don’t have very much to say.

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Fortunately, Sixties mannequin Dorothy A. McGowan was perfectly at ease last Friday evening when the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Harold Koda and historian Kohle Yohannan chatted with her before a screening of William Klein’s “Qui Êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?” in which she stars.

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The Brooklyn-born McGowan, child of Irish immigrants, was discovered at Kennedy Airport and joined the Ford agency’s roster in 1959. She went on to work with Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Melvin Sokolsky; nab four Vogue covers back-to-back, and most famously, become one of Klein’s favorites and the star of his 1966 French film.

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It was all a rather bemusing trip for the young Bay Ridge native, who claimed, “I had no ambition for the future.”

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“What happened that made you see [modeling] as a career opportunity?” asked Koda.

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“Everyone would say to me, ‘You should be a model.’ I wasn’t stylish. I was long and lanky and had a baby face,” explained McGowan, between sips of water. “I saw this ad that said ‘Wanted: model trainee.’ And so I went to this place and this man asked me to come back the next day…it was a model agency on East 40th Street. When I was leaving his office, somebody said, ‘Who was that girl?’ and he said, ‘Oh, she’s not interesting; she’s too skinny.’”

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“Last time that was ever said in fashion,” said Yohannon to much laughter.

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In the satirical film, McGowan plays Brooklyn-born supermodel Polly Maggoo working in Paris. She becomes the subject of a French TV documentary series “Qui Êtes-vous?” and is simultaneously courted by both the filmmaker and a Soviet prince, all to her bewilderment.

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“I met William Klein in 1960 in the offices of French Vogue. I was working with Penn and I guess he saw some of my pictures…and he asked me if I would do some pictures [with him],” said McGowan, who stopped modeling in 1974 and has since earned both a bachelor and graduate degree in the arts.

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And despite Klein’s infamously intimidating reputation, McGowan was a willing foil.

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“People were terrified of Klein as though it was a lion’s den; I was never more at home.”

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William Klein

The World Photography Organisation has announced that legendary photographer William Klein received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award at the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards.

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Watch the following documentary about William Klein

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The Delerious Fictions of William Klein

dvd box with the three movies William Klein directed: ‘Who Are You, Polly Maggoo’, Mr. Freedom’ and ‘The Model Couple”.

http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Series-Delirious-Criterion-Collection/dp/B0011U3OB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361893312&sr=8-1&keywords=polly+maggoo

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Hedi Slimane’s most exclusive photobook-box

http://www.amazon.com/Hedi-Slimane-Anthology-Decade-2000-2010/dp/3037641150/ref=la_B0058V1EP6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363705850&sr=1-1

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Tim Walker, born in 1970 in England, ‘invented’ a whole new style of (fashion) photography.

Extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterise his unmistakable style and his work is instantly recognisable.

It sounds a bit scary, body manipulation in fashion, but this post is about changing the natural shapes of the body though a garment or undergarment, not changing the body itself. It’s about Crinolines, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme Des Garçons inspired by crinolines and the “Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress” collection by Comme Des Garçons. These, together with for instance corsets and shoulder pads, are samples of body modification in fashion.

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Crinolines

Women did suffer for the sake of fashion for many centuries and many do so today with high heels and plastic surgery. Ridiculously large crinolines, protruding bustles and heavily boned corsets often did restrict movement and the range of activities women could engage in.

In 1837 Victoria ascended to the throne. The fashion press looked to this new young queen to endorse new fashions. Contrary to popular belief Victoria was, until Prince Albert’s death at least, interested in fashion. She was not a frivolous royal leader and her belief in simplicity and demure elegance is echoed by the fashion plates of the day. Gone were the flamboyant fashions of the mid-1830s with the huge balloon-like sleeves, large bonnets and trailing ribbons. Dresses of the late 1830s and 1840s were characterised by drooping shoulders, long pointed angles and a low pinched-in waist.

Panniers

Then fashion changed and the skirts of the new dresses  presented new problems. They increased in size and had to be supported by layers of heavy petticoats which were very hot and unhygienic – particularly in the summer. Bustle-like structures made of down-filled pads or whalebone and stiffened petticoats helped give added support. The most popular type of stiffened petticoat was made out of horsehair and linen which earned it the name crinoline (‘crin’ is the French for horsehair and ‘lin’ the linen thread it was woven with).

The development of the sewing machine in the early 1850s was one of the most important innovations of the 19th century as it led to the mass production of clothes including underwear. Although many corsets and crinolines of the 1850s were still stitched by hand, the speed of sewing on a machine meant that manufacturers could produce in far greater numbers and increase the variety of designs. Corsetry and underwear manufacture therefore became a major industry with a turnover of millions of pounds per year. During the 1850s the skirts became the focus of attention. They grew ever wider and wider, and the flounces and light materials they were made of meant that they needed more and more support. Layers of petticoats including the horsehair crinolines were no longer sufficient, and they were very heavy and uncomfortable. Something more structured was required.

Partial Panniers

A patent was taken out in May 1856 for a garment inflated by means of bellows and deflated to enable the wearer to sit down.

In 1858, the American W.S. Thomson greatly facilitated the development of the cage crinoline by developing an eyelet fastener to connect the steel crinoline hoops with the vertical tapes descending from a band around the wearer’s waist. The cage crinoline was adopted with enthusiasm: the numerous petticoats, even the stiffened or hooped ones, were heavy, bulky and generally uncomfortable. The cage crinoline was light — it only required one or two petticoats worn over the top to prevent the steel bands appearing as ridges in the skirt — and freed the wearer’s legs from tangling petticoats.

Unlike the farthingale and panniers, the crinoline was worn by women of every social class. The wider circulation of magazines and newspapers spread news of the new fashion, also fueling desire for it, and mass production made it affordable. It took several years for high society to accept the wearing of the cage crinoline as it started as — and remained in perception — a middle class affectation. It not only freed women from the weight of massive numbers of petticoats, but also the expense of owning, washing, and starching such copious petticoats. The wider skirts were now achievable by a greater number of less wealthy women.

Crinolines

Crinoline-inspired skirt by Comme Des Garçons

There were many tales of accidents that could befall wearers of crinolines, such as being caught in her hoops as she descended from a carriage or of causing damage if she were a factory girl or servant as china, glass and other delicate materials could easily be swept off shelves and tables. In 1860 the textile firm Courtaulds instructed its workers ‘to leave Hoop and Crinoline at Home’. The most frequent, and terrible, accidents were caused by sparks from open fires, a situation not helped by the wearing of highly flammable fabrics such as muslin and silks. Some husbands were even advised to insure their wives at Fire Insurance offices.

It’s easy to imagine how women could stray too near an open fire in their large crinolines.  The stories about ladies not being able to fit into carriages or through narrow doorways are exaggerated. The cage crinolines might look very rigid but spring steel is in fact incredibly flexible and could be compressed. Accidents did happen but women would learn how to walk in crinolines and how to sit down so that they did not reveal all their underclothes.

Crinolettes

The spring steel structures were  very light so rather than imprisoning women in cages (as some of the reports and images suggest) they had a liberating effect. They freed women from the layers and layers of heavy petticoats and were much more hygienic and comfortable.

The crinoline had grown to its maximum dimensions by 1860. However, as the fashionable silhouette never remains the same for long, the huge skirts began to fall from favour. Around 1864, the shape of the crinoline began to change. Rather than being dome-shaped, the front and sides began to contract, leaving volume only at the back. The kind of crinoline that supported this style was sometimes known as a crinolette. The cage structure was still attached around the waist and extended down to the ground, but only extended down the back of the wearer’s legs. The crinolette itself was quickly superseded by the bustle, which was sufficient for supporting the drapery and train at the back of the skirt.

Crinolines are still worn today. They are usually part of a formal outfit, such as an evening gown or a wedding dress. The volume of the skirt is not as great as during the Victorian era (except for ‘Big Fat Gipsy Weddings’), so modern crinolines are most often constructed of several layers of stiff net, with flounces to extend the skirt. If there is a hoop in the crinoline, it will probably be made of plastic or nylon, which are low in cost, lightweight and flexible, or steel.

Bustle

Bustle-inspired skirts by Comme Des Garçons

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Yohji Yamamoto

was inspired by an old picture of a woman being dressed and wearing a ridiculously large crinoline.

Yohji Yamamoto wedding dress

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Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress

The s/s 1997 collection by Comme Des Garçons, often referred to the ‘lumps and bumps’ collection, was a much talked about show in Paris that season. It featured predominately tight tops and skirts that were swollen by goosedown-filled lumps which distorted the body shape.

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Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy. It is often done for aesthetics, sexual enhancement, rites of passage, religious beliefs, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, for shock value, and as self-expression, among other reasons. In its most broad definition it includes plastic surgery, socially acceptable decoration (e.g., common ear piercing in many societies), and religious rites of passage (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures), as well as the modern primitive movement.

Walter van Beirendonck, Alexander McQueen & Riccardo Tisci found inspiration in body modification and its jewelry.

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Piercing

It’s a misconception that body piercing is a relatively recent trend or fashion. Ear piercing is incredibly common in almost every culture throughout history, with a huge range of legends, myths, and meanings behind the jewelry worn and its placement. Nostril piercing has been documented in the Middle East as far back as 4,000 years. The fashion continued in India in the sixteenth century, and is still widely practiced there to this day. Both ear and nostril piercing and jewelry are mentioned in the Bible. And piercings in other parts of the body, such as labret or lip piercings, are widely practiced often in the form of enlarged piercings and lip discs. Tribes across Africa, in Southeast Asia, and in North and South America all participate in lip piercing.

enlarged nostril piercing

enlarged ear piercings

lip discs

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Tattooing

Tattooing, as we know it, is documented as far back as 3300 BCE as seen in the discovery of Otzi the iceman in 1991 and ancient Egyptian mummies bearing tattoos of animals and various creatures.  The practice, however, is believed to have originated over 10,000 years ago. The mechanics of tattooing have changed over the years, and the pigments and inks used have wildly improved in recent times, but whether hand-tapped, poked with a single needle or administered with the telltale buzz of a modern tattoo machine, the basic reasons behind the choice to become tattooed haven’t changed much in all that time: fashion, function or just to make a statement of some kind.

People have also been forcibly tattooed to identify them permanently as criminals or undesirables in society and that associated stigma of tattooing as ‘lowbrow’ or undesirable still exists in the minds of many. Despite that, tattoos are enjoying a resurgence of popularity and are very common in modern culture and for the most part, accepted as the norm.

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Neck rings

Neck rings are one or more spiral metal coils of many turns worn as an ornament around the neck of an individual. In a few African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn usually to create the appearance that the neck has been stretched. Padaung (Kayan Lahwi) women of the Kayan people begin to wear neck coils from as young as age two. The length of the coil is gradually increased to as much as twenty turns. The weight of the coils will eventually place sufficient pressure on the shoulder blade to cause it to deform and create an impression of a longer neck.

The custom of wearing neck rings is related to an ideal of beauty: an elongated neck. Neck rings push the collarbone and ribs down. The neck stretching is mostly illusory: the weight of the rings twists the collar bone and eventually the upper ribs at an angle 45 degrees lower than what is natural, causing the illusion of an elongated neck. The vertebrae do not elongate, though the space between them may increase as the intervertebral discs absorb liquid.

The South Ndebele peoples of Africa also wear neck rings as part of their traditional dress and as a sign of wealth and status. Only married women are allowed to wear the rings, called “dzilla”. Metal rings are also worn on different parts of the body, not just the neck. The rings are usually made of copper or brass. If these rings are removed from around the neck, the neck could collapse under its own weight.

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Scarification & Branding

Traditionally, scarification is seen most widely amongst dark-skinned people in equatorial regions-people who tend to have so much melanin in their skin that tattooing isn’t very effective, visually. The “crocodile” people of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik region, several Aboriginal tribes in northern Australia and the Karo people of Ethiopia are just a few of the many cultures who, to this day, participate in traditional rites involving scarification.

In the modern-day Western context, scarification and branding, while markedly less popular than tattooing, are still common forms of body modification, with beautiful end results for many devotees. The aesthetic outcome of a healed scarification, however, has less to do with the artist and more to do with the healing and genetics of the wearer and that (along with the pain and discomfort of the procedure and healing) will probably ensure that scarification never becomes as common as, say, getting a tattoo.

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Hardcore

Other surgical modifications seen in recent times are ear pointing, tongue splitting, and many different genital modifications, all offered by “cutters” and in many cases, by sympathetic board-certified surgeons. But even within the bodymod community at large, these types of modifications are often considered “hardcore,” are generally more unusual (though not uncommon) and are mostly of interest to those body modification enthusiasts motivated to push the boundaries of social acceptance.

carved teeth

(Teeth Chiseling is a tradition often performed without any anesthesia by the  Mentawai people in Indonesia).

Body modification has been around as long as humans have lived and with its rich and fascinating history, the practice is unlikely to die out anytime soon. But despite some lingering societal disdain, modifications, even of the more esoteric variety, are becoming more mainstream and acceptable every day, and the craft behind performing these procedures is being constantly perfected and refined by the artists involved. And as new ideas and techniques become reality and traditional standbys are adapted and perfected, it’s safe to say that

humans will continue to reshape and redefine themselves by modifying their bodies.

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Influence on Walter Van Beirendonck

Influence on Alexander McQueen

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Influence on Givenchy

Riccardo Tisci (head designer of Givenchy)) was inspired by the look of singer Keith Flint of the Prodigy in the 1996 hit video Firestarter for his mens collection a/w 2012. Also Keith’s nose ring became an item of the collection. For Women Tisci also found inspiration in piercing objects for jewelry.

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Women jewelry f/w 2012 by Givenchy

Haute Couture

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Most information in this post  from:

The Art and History of Body Modification by Lori St. Leone

Twice a year I took the train to Paris, just so I could get my hands on the next issue of Six Magazine by Comme Des Garçons, the most inspiring magazine at the time.

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In 1988, Comme des Garçons founder and creative director Rei Kawakubo created bi-annual creative journal Six (and abbreviation of Sixth Sense), presenting her own work alongside that of other artists, photographers, designers and writers. The magazine closed its doors in 1991, by which time it had become an institution for the Japanese brand, and it’s now the subject of a stylish new iPad app. Moving Six takes an interactive look back into the archives, still a source of inspiration for Rei Kawakubo, packed with photos by Steven Meisel, Minsei Tominaga and Karl Blossfeldt, all tinted and enhanced especially. Be inspired.

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Comme des Garçons’ Moving Six app

Comme des Garçons presented a brand new iPad application in 2012, exploring the world of Six magazine, edited by designer Rei Kawakubo from 1988 to 1991.

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(most pictures in this post were published in Six Magazine, the other pictures are also related to Comme des Garçons)

A couple of years ago, my sister Mary showed me a great online shop specialized in books on crafts like sawing, knitting, beading, embroidery etc. She had bought a Japanese book with patterns for children’s clothes which was really great, so I started searching the shop for other pattern books and found the best ever. They were written in Japanese, but because I am a very advanced sewer this didn’t withhold me from buying some of the books. A little while ago I noticed one of these books in a bookstore in Amsterdam, but this one was translated in English. So for my fellow craftsmen who haven’t been introduced to these fantastic books, read this post.

 Pattern Magic

Pattern Magic is the cult pattern-cutting book from Japan. Taking inspiration from nature, from geometric shapes and from the street, this book harnesses the sheer joy of making and sculpting clothes. The book takes a creative approach to pattern cutting, with step-by-step projects for fashion designers and dressmakers to enjoy.
All the basic information you need to start pattern cutting is included, from the basic block to measurements and scaling. Each project is beautifully illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs showing the stages of construction, the toiles and the finished garments. These easy-to-follow illustrations and detailed instructions make it easy to create stunning, sculptural clothes with a couture look.

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 Pattern Magic  vol. 2

About the Author

After serving many years as a professor at Bunka Fashion College, Tomoko Nakamichi currently delivers lectures and holds courses on design making, both in Japan and overseas.

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Pattern Magic even has its own Facebook page on which people show their own Magic Pattern-garments and their own designs !

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pattern-Magic/367180714172

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Pattern Magic  Stretch Fabrics

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All three books (English version)  can be ordered by Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Magic-Tomoko-Nakamichi/dp/1856697053

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Men’s coats by Ryuichiro Shimazaki

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Japanese Sewing Pattern book for Men’s Coats with Full-Sized Pattern Sheet Basic & Cool!!! These cool coats are all designed by  Ryuichiro Shimazaki. Ryuichiro Shimazaki is very famous Sewing Designer for men in Japan!! This book is absolutely FANTASTIC! It’s written in Japanese though… Don’t worry You can get step-by-step instructions  in illustrations ! 01 – Trench Coat 02 – Trench Coat (Spring Coat) 03 – Casual Trench 04 – Short Trench 05 – Pea Coat 06 – Pea Coat (Vintage Style) 07 – Pea Coat (Marine Style) 08 – Pea Coat (Military Style) 09 – Duffel Coat (Traditional) 10 – Duffel Coat (Off-White) 11 – Duffel Coat (Canvas) 12 – Balmacaan Coat (Traditional) 13 – Balmacaan Coat (Used Style)

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http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Coat-By-Ryuichiro-Shimazaki/dp/4579112202

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Shirts by Ryuichiro Shimazaki

This book is can be bought in the French or Japanese language

(photograph by Robert Maxwell)

Feu means fire, and there’s a lot of fight in Limi.

 Born in 1974 by the famous fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, it was not surprisingly that Limi Yamamoto chose a creative path and took up fashion studies at Bunka Fashion College and is now one of Japan’s most promising fashion designers.

She started work as a pattern maker for the Y’s line of Yohji Yamamoto Inc. in 1996. After working 2 years as a pattern maker for Y’s, she started her very own label named Y’s bis LIMI in year of 1999 and presented her first 2000 autumn/winter collection in Tokyo. In 2002, the brand was renamed as LIMI feu and with a huge success, Limi further expanded her fashion territory to Paris and debuted her 2008 spring/summer collection there obtaining praises immediately.. In 2009, she was awarded the Designer of the Year award by the 51st Fashion Editor’s Club of Japan.

LIMI feu  spring 2013

In one interview, when asked how Limi’s  style differs from the style of her famous dad), the designer replied simply: “by the fact that I’m a woman”. If the question was what they have in common, it would be that they are both Japanese.  Where the designs of Yohji are considered to be more romantic, the clothes of Limi are femininely sensual. Her signature is, first of all, in the volume: the garments are oversized, as if migrated from the men’s wardrobe to women’s as well as the combination of military style and delicate floral prints on the same coat, or those funny high bowlers. At one show several men came out on the runway which had the audience wondering if Limi has launched a men’s collection. “Ah non,” exclaimed one of her French  staff.  “It’s just that in Japan men often borrow LIMI feu from their girlfriends closets so she wanted to play with that”.

LIMI feu catwalk pictures

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A tribute to that infinitely complex and perfected very “Japanese” cut is in order: that black-white-grey palette, only occasionally broken by the bright colour splashes of blue, red or their mosaic combination, and that seemingly simple maximally elongated male snow-white shirt, and the curiosity of the trousers with strap,; and short leather jackets with inevitable motorcycle boots.
Sensuous rock and roll on the verge of anguish, or simply on the verge of.. male and female.

“She made it” declared a beaming Yohji after his daughter’s Paris debut. And papa had every reason to be proud: The collection was a walking advertisement for fashion DNA.

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LIMI feu Prankster

LIMI feu also produces a kid collection called LIMI feu Pranster, which is very popular in Japan.

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                                                  (Coco Chanel by Richard Avedon)

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I must have read it 4 or 5 times now, Chanel: A Woman of her Own by Axel Madsen and like to recommend it as a very good read.

   “I didn’t create fashion, I am fashion.”   

Coco Chanel’s genius for fashion may have been distilled in simplicity, but her life was an extravaganza. A brilliant array of luminaries fell under her spell – Picasso, Churchill, Cocteau; lovers included the Grand Duke Dmitri; the English roué, Boy Capel; a French poet; a German spy and the Duke of Westminster, who offered to leave his wife for her permanently, if she would only bear him an heir. Paradoxically, though she might have been regarded in some lights as a pioneering feminist – sacrificing marriage to a revolutionary career in couture – Chanel was utterly baffled by the idea of women’s politics. Educated women? ‘A woman’s education consists of two lessons: never leave the house without stockings, never go out without a hat.’ Chanel’s rise from penniless orphan to millionaire designer – ‘inventing’ sportswear, the little black dress and No. 5 – makes compelling reading, not least because she was inclined to design her own life as deftly as she did her fashions. Axel Madsen negotiates Chanel’s smoke screens with skill, bringing this tantalizing woman to life in all her alluring complexity.

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PEERS BOOK REVIEWS

Review by Cathleen Myers

It’s not easy to construct a biography of a compulsive liar, especially when your subject is a highly creative liar who told a different set of lies to each biographer and eventually came to believe some of her own fantasies.

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According to Axel Madsen’s well-documented biography, most of the “accepted” story about Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s romantic early life is pure fantasy. She didn’t learn dressmaking from sewing samplers for her strict “aunts” or from “taking courses in design;” but from the nuns at the orphanage where she was raised after her mother’s death and from an ordinary apprenticeship at a provincial dressmaker’s. Her first hat shop was started on money from her first protector, Etienne Balsan, not from her first love the polo-playing Englishman “Boy” Capell. Her father was not a respectable horse trader but an itinerant market fair trader who abandoned her; and she was illegitimate, a disgrace she sought to hide all her life.

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Madsen’s biography is an eminently readable celebration of Chanel’s genius as both a couturier and as a self-made business woman who refused the easy life of a kept woman to start her own business, rise to the top of a male-dominated profession and help transform women’s fashion from the opulent Edwardian style to the practical, natural, “modern” look most of us wear today (to work, at least). The author’s style is lively and novelistic and he does have a good knowledge of the fashion industry, though he gives Coco credit for innovations that were not her own (The “feminization of masculine fashion” had been going on in England before Coco’s birth). But Madsen dishes so well about the deadly world of Haute Couture that his lavishly illustrated book is a must for anyone interested in the history of fashion and costume.

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Historian’s warning: Madsen’s main weakness is a lack of understanding of the class structure of Chanel’s world (as his misuse of British titles makes clear). A true American, Madsen wonders why Coco fought so hard to conceal her “roots.” Since her true rags-to-riches story is so remarkable, why pretend to have risen from the lower middle class? But those of us who understand 19th century social history understand Chanel’s motives. Nor does Madsen seem to understand the social cachet that an English duke carries even today – which explains Chanel’s desire to marry the eccentric Duke of Westminster, her ruthless erasure of her past, and Westminster’s ultimate refusal to marry her. He was desperate for a male heir and, judging from Debrett’s, preferred well-born brides .

Coco Chanel’s life in photographs & quotes

Coco Chanel at the age of 23

. Coco & Etienne Balsan

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Coco Chanel & Boy Capel, 1912

Coco & Adrienne in 1913, in front of Coco’s first boutique in Deauville

Coco & Serge Lifar (The principal dancer of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes during its final years in the late 1920′s)

Coco photographed by Cecil Beaton, 1937

Coco & Salvador Dalí

Coco Chanel at 50 by George Hoyningen-Huene

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“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

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Coco working on het beloved jewelry

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“Fashion has become a joke. The designers have forgotten that there are women inside the dresses. Most women dress for men and want to be admired. But they must also be able to move, to get into a car without bursting their seams! Clothes must have a natural shape.”

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My friend Eddy de Clercq is and has always been a very stylish man. During his teens he regularly went on a ferry-boat to London to buy the newest and hippest clothes. His shopping trips started at Biba, the most fashionable & exciting department store ever and to Seditionairies, the boutique  by Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren at World’s End, where he bought the infamous t-shirt with the drawing of two half-naked cowboys by Tom of Finland.  

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In Paris he strolled the streets wearing a black suit with pagoda shoulders designed by Yves Saint Laurent, who had recently opened his store ‘Rive Gauche’. Prêt-à-porter as still a new concept then and Yves was the first haute couture designer to embrace the London street style, as one of the first Parisian fashion designers  promoting young fashion at affordable prices in specially designed stores. 

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One of Eddy’s style icons, maybe even thé style icon, is Brian Jones, founding member of The Rolling Stones.

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When he was 14, he asked the barber to cut his hair just like Brian Jones. Little did he know that Brian never had a serious haircut in his life, he just grew his blonde tresses into a helmet type of hairstyle that covered his forehead and floppy ears completely. When Eddy’s father came into the barbershop and saw his son’s new haircut, he freaked out and ordered the barber to cut it again, but this time into a very short crewcut, American style. 

Tears gushed and Eddy was so upset with the result that he ran away from home, only to return after a few months with a genuine Brian Jones hairdo.

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Biography 

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born February 28, 1942 in Cheltenham, UK. Young Brian was an excellent student at school and his father hoped his son would follow in his academic footsteps and go to university, but Brian decided against university and started a series of random jobs. He had only one passion: music.

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After being introduced to the music of Charlie Parker, Brian persuaded his parents to buy him a saxophone. Having mastered that instrument, he received an acoustic guitar. At nineteen, he went to a concert of the Chris Barber Band at Cheltenham Town Hall. The set they played  included a blues segment and it stimulated Brian to practice the blues on a slide guitar.

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At twenty Brian hitch-hiked to London where he would go to the Ealing Blues Club. It was there one night Mick Jagger and Keith Richards heard Brian play slide guitar and were impressed with his version of Elmore James’s “Dust My Broom”. Soon after Brian, Ian Stewart, Mick and Keith formed a band. On the 12th July 1962 they played their first gig at the Marquee Club, billed as The Rollin’ Stones.

Brian came up with the name the “Rollin’ Stones” (later with the ‘g’) while on the phone with the venue owner.

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Brian’s musicianship had an inevitable influence on the singles that pushed The Rolling Stones into the pop charts. But he was also one of the ultimate 60′s pop stars, with a creative and cutting edge fashion sense and an iconic hairdo to match.

Though they were sharply dressed, Brian always stood out

The Rolling Stones looked like a clean-cut “boy band”.

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In the early days The Rolling Stones looked like a clean-cut “boy band”. Though they were sharply dressed, Brian always stood out (when they weren’t all dressed exactly the same) and he always played the coolest, quirky guitars. The short time he was in the band, Brian Jones transformed from a young lad keeping it sharp to a man living the full on rock and roll decadence.

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A fashion Icon, sharply dressed and always clean cut, Jones wore meticulously fitted velvet jackets. Always more than often, donned in shirts, some striped, others plain, or patterned and often worn with cravats. Style of an eccentric. Brian was the embodiment of unconventional, his famous blonde bowl haircut, hazel eyes and the aesthetic representation. Decorum and grace were all there. Brian had a tremendous lot of clothes and spent an awful amount of time preparing himself for late-night appearances into the clubs.

Brian Jones & Anita Pallenberg

Brian was featured alongside Anita Pallenberg, in an issue of ‘œMen in Vogue’, in 1966.

Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg were a couple from 1965 untill she started dating Keith Richards in 1967. Anita suggested he always tried to look like Francois Hardy. He certainly took a good swing at it, almost hitting the look of darling Hardy, on the very fine nail. Jones’ biographer Geoffrey Giuliano writes about him and Pallenberg: “Together they forged a revolutionary androgynous look, keeping their clothes together, mixing and matching not only fabrics and patterns, but cultures and even centuries. Jones would parade the streets of London wearing a Victorian lace shirt, floppy turn-of-the-century hat, Edwardian velvet frock coat, multi-coloured suede boots, accessorised scarves hanging from his neck, waist and legs along with lots of antique Berber jewellery.”

Marianne Faithfull remembers: One of the best things about visiting Anita and Brian was watching them get ready to go out. What a scene! They were both dauntless shoppers and excessively vain. Hours and hours were spent putting on clothes and taking them off again. Heaps of scarves, hats, shirts and boots flew out of drawers and trunks. Unending trying on of outfits, primping and sashaying. They were beautiful, they were the spitting image of each other and not an ounce of modesty existed between two of them. I would sit mesmerised for hours, watching them preening in the mirror, trying on each other’s clothes. All roles and gender would evaporate in these narcissistic performances, where Anita would turn Brian into the Sun King, Francoise Hardy or the mirror image of herself   (Quote from Faithfull  by Marianne Faithfull & David Dalton. http://www.amazon.com/Faithfull-An-Autobiography-Marianne/dp/0815410468)

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That blonde bowl haircut that’s so indicative of  Brian started to grow out as the suits and striped jumpers were replaced with velvet jackets and shirts with cravats. The jeans got tighter, the boots got bigger.

Beyond the music, trend setting hair style, loves, loathes and lusts, Jones was burdened, like many of his fellow artists, with the abuse of substances such as drugs and alcohol. Brian’s demise was a tragic one, like most of the 27 club ( Music artists who all died at 27 : Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim  Morrison, Kurt Cobain… and recently Amy Winehouse). 

Brian saw his influence over the Stones’ direction slide as their repertoire comprised fewer of the blues covers that he preferred; more Jagger/Richards originals developed, and Andrew Loog Oldham increased his own managerial control, displacing Jones from yet another role. Bill Wyman stated:  ”There were two Brian’s… one was introverted, shy, sensitive, deep-thinking… the other was a preening peacock, gregarious, artistic, desperately needing assurance from his peers… he pushed every friendship to the limit and way beyond”.
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Brian pulled out of (or actually was forced out) The Rolling Stones in 1969, prior to a planned North American tour. He was unable to join, due to a criminal record for possession of cannabis, but he was also physically no longer able to play instruments. Brian Jones died on the 3rd July 1969, at the age of 27, after he was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm.

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Book

Brian Jones  The last Decadent

“This is the book that every Brian Jones fan has been waiting for, the most sensitive and honest portrait of Brian yet. Finally justice is done.”

The Official Brian Jones Fanclub

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http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Jones-The-Last-Decadent/dp/1871592712 .

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Movie

Stoned

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‘The life of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones was as wild as it was short, filled with gorgeous groupies, unimaginable decadence, and groundbreaking music.  By age 26, he had achieved enormous fame and fortune; a year later he would be dead.  The story of rocks forgotten father, Stoned unravels the mystery surrounding his death while re-living the sex, drugs, and rock and roll that made the sixties swing.’ .

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Eddy de Clercq music blog: http://soulsafari.wordpress.com/

information for this post:

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Jones

http://www.rollingstones.com   

http://dandyinaspic.blogspot.nl/2011/09/brian-jones-1960s-peacock-style-icon.html

I have been fascinated by traditional costume for as long as I can remember. Not only the Dutch traditional costume, but from countries all over the globe. Whenever I travel, I always try to find something of the regional clothing. It can be shoes, a handbag, jewelry, a hat or an element of the clothing, for men or women.

Vaguely I remember cycling to my grandmother on Sundays, together with my mom. Grandma was dressed in traditional clothing every day and it made her look very impressive. Together with my grandfather, she lived in the village they were born and had grown up in and there a lot of the older people were still wearing the lace caps, embroidered vests and I don’t know how many skirt piled over each other. Strangely enough I don’t remember much of my grandfathers clothes, but I think it was traditional too.

Through the years, many designers have been inspired by traditional clothing.Cristóbal Balenciaga was influenced by the Spanish folk tradition, being from Spain himself, but other designers were also influenced by clothes from all different countries. John Galliano and Alexander McQueen produced several collections inspired by China, Mongolia, Japan, Russia, etc. And in 2007, Viktor & Rolf created a collection on Dutch folk costume: tapestries, checks, and pure white buttoned-up blouses,  their fall 2007 collection.

Dutch Traditional Costume from different districts

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Viktor & Rolf fall 2007 ready-to-wear collection

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most pictures in this post come from:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20665/20665-h/20665-h.htm  and  www.style.com

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Kurt Cobain

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March 04, 2013     Paris, Saint Laurent a/w 2013 by Hedi Slimane

By Tim Blanks     (edited version)

California grunge was the inspiration for Hedi Slimane’s second women’s collection for Saint Laurent.

With a little adjustment, that’s a pretty fair description of what Slimane has been trying to do with Saint Laurent. The legacy today was grunge, not YSL; the longing was his own ardent attachment to a scene that was a continent and an ocean away from a kid in Paris at the beginning of the nineties. Slimane is not the only designer motivated by a powerful impulse to reimagine youthful yearnings. Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs (for Perry Ellis, s/s ’93 collection) immediately spring to mind as masterful mediums of pop-cultural watersheds like The Factory or the Beats. And of course, it was Jacobs who famously lost a job over his original recasting of grunge in a high-fashion context.

But there was no job on the line, no sense of present danger, with Slimane’s collection today. And with regards to that adjustment, there was no expert skirting of nostalgia. Almost nothing looked new. Which didn’t trouble Alexandra Richards, Alison Mosshart, and Sky Ferreira in the least. Such dream clients were all thrilled by what they’d seen. “That’s the way I dress anyway,” was their party line on the baby dolls, the schoolgirl slips, the vintage florals, the random mash-ups of sloppy cardigans, plaid shirts, and sparkly dresses accessorized with ironic strings of pearls and black bows, fishnets and biker boots. All well and good, and money in the bank for retailers etc., etc., but anyone expecting the frisson of the future that Slimane once provided would have to feel let down yet again. At the odd moments when he allowed it to happen—as in a cutaway jacket over a plaid shirt over slashed black leather cuissardes—there was a glimpse of the kind of rigorous sensibility that hybridized passion and fashion into an irresistible force at Dior Homme.

But wouldn’t it be radical if Slimane was actually saying that there is nothing new under the fashion sun, that all that ultimately exists is the energy and inspiration you derive from those elements of the past that you value and love. The same kind of fanboy ardor makes, say, Shibuya 109 in Tokyo or Trash and Vaudeville in New York such wonderful retro romps. This collection will undoubtedly send orgasmic tremors through such places.

Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent a/w 2013

Grunge music is inspired by Alternative rock, hardcore punk, heavy metal, punk rock, hard rock and indie rock, Grunge fashion is a combination of the same, but it’s also boyfriends and girlfriends wearing each others clothes. And the ultimate icons of Grunge are Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love in the late 80ties and early 90ties.

Grunge

“Grunge is nothing more than the way we dress when we have no money,” designer Jean Paul Gaultier told Vogue in 1993, the year fashion co-opted the look. It had grown out of the raw, messy scene surrounding the raw, messy sound—produced by a bedraggled pack of flannel-clad Pacific Northwest dropouts—that was suddenly the talk of the fashion establishment.

Grunge’s Goodwill aesthetic was, as Gaultier observed, largely born of necessity; it was functional, too (flannels for warmth, boots to keep out the wet). In 1989, Everett True, reporting in Melody Maker about an upcoming band call Nirvana, had drawn readers’ attention to the authenticity of an emerging music genre: “Basically, this is the real thing. You’re talking about four guys in their early twenties from rural Washington who wanna rock, who, if they weren’t doing this, would be working in a supermarket or a lumberyard, or fixing cars.” The grunge-grunge style (as opposed to fashion-grunge) was slept in, picked up off the floor, swapped, scrounged from the ragbag. It was a sartorial representation of nihilism that had been evolving among members of the college-rock and hardcore underground for more a decade but was only just beginning to meet the commercial mainstream via MTV.

“Punk was antifashion,” James Truman, then editor in chief of Details, said. “It made a statement. Grunge is about not making a statement, which is why it’s crazy for it to become a fashion statement.” Truman’s quote appeared in The New York Times in November 1992, the month that Grunge was served up to Seventh Avenue by a trio of young downtown designers: Marc Jacobs at Perry Ellis, Anna Sui, and Christian Francis Roth. (At Roth, models were accessorized with laminated backstage Nirvana passes strung on ball chain.) The shows’ immediate impact was one of those tempests in a teapot that are rehashed with relish in the fashion annals.

Critics were then, and remain, divided over the new up-from-the-street look. The English actress Sophie Dahl, then an impressionable pro-Grunge teenager, would later reminisce in Vogue: “The word itself was antisocial, the premise antidotal to what had gone before. The style was perfect for that awkward stage of adolescence, layers that one could shrug off and hide behind, an armor of sorts.” In contrast, the fashion critic Suzy Menkes distributed “Grunge Is Ghastly” buttons among her colleagues.

Jacobs, the prime mover of the trend, described his infamous grunge collection, which eventually cost him his job at Perry Ellis, to the Times as a “hippied romantic version of punk.” Visually, the look dovetailed neatly with the neogypsy chic coming out of Europe and modeled by Madonna on the October 1992 cover of Vogue. Yet grunge was, on a deeper level, more about garages in Granite Falls than ganja on the beach in Goa. And unlike the bondage pants and shellacked mohawks of punk, it wasn’t just low-maintenance, it was no-maintenance. The faux-real grunge aesthetic was a difficult fit for fashion, which is—by the very nature of the beast—marketed with aspirational images and biased toward fantasy.

“Your rendition of grunge fashion was completely off,” one disgruntled reader complained in a letter to Vogue. “If the whole idea is to dress down, why picture models in $400 dresses? No one who can honestly relate to the music labeled grunge is going to pay $1,400 for a cashmere sweater (especially when they can buy a perfectly comfortable flannel shirt for 50 cents at the local thrift store).

It irked retailers in the extreme and, materially speaking, didn’t amount to much. Jacobs’s famous collection was never even produced. Still, the movement was a game changer. It challenged the status-oriented status quo, and introduced a layered, rumpled new silhouette. “All fashion is loosening up, in an apparent rejection of the hard-edged styles and attitudes of the ’80s,” observed a reporter for Knight Ridder Newspapers in the seminal year of 1992. “Grunge is the realization of that backlash at its most extreme. And ugliest.” (Vogue, too, would later lump the “clunky downtrodden look” among the “worsts” of the 1990s.) And while grunge disdained—or just didn’t think about—the hierarchies of fashion, it also played loosey-goosey with gender. Though a male-dominated scene, it embraced androgyny. “In the wake of an overload of macho,” the journalist Charles Gandee wrote in Vogue the following year, “and with the rise of the gamine, a new breed of young actors, models, and musicians is reshaping our idea of what’s attractive in a man.”

Fashion images, both in advertisements and in editorial pages, began to attempt to represent what was “real.” The photographer Juergen Teller talked about this sea change in the March 1994 issue of Vogue: “We’re not this generation of finding a girl with tons of jewelry attractive—nobody has to have some bloody nose job and breast implants,” he said. “We live in very hard times, and that’s why the people in my pictures maybe look a bit fucked-up or, you know, maybe tired. Because life is tiring.”

Grunge & Glory

Vogue US December 1992 Steven Meisel (this story was based on the grunge collection Marc Jacobs presented for Perry Ellis)

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La fièvre Grunge

by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott for Vogue Paris September 2013

(shortened version)

information : www.style.com  and  http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Grunge

Audrey Hepburn wearing Givenchy, photographed by Bert Stern for Vogue, 1963

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Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn - a match made in heaven. Similar ages, the French couturier and Iconic screen star immediately empathized with each other – an intimate relationship that continued into old age. 

Givenchy intuitively understood Audrey’s petite frame – the perfect foil it would seem for the sophisticated and ladylike look of the late 1950s and early 1960s – tiny waist, full skirt – often with underlay and a simply cut bodice, often collarless to show Audrey’s swanlike neck. 

In turn, Audrey’s iconic movies served as the perfect environment for the ultimate catwalk – raising Givenchy’s profile. And perhaps due to the timeless design of both the couture and the movies both are still much admired decades later.

“His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality.”

Audrey Hepburn

“Balenciaga once said the secret of elegance is elimination. I believe that. That’s why I love Hubert de Givenchy… They’re clothes without ornament, with everything stripped away.”

Audrey Hepburn

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Audrey & Hubert

Start of Audrey Hepburn’s movie career

In the Italian-set Roman Holiday (1953), Audrey Hepburn had her first starring role as Princess Ann, an incognito European princess who, escaping the reins of royalty, falls in love with an American newsman (Gregory Peck). While producers initially wanted Elizabeth Taylor for the role, director William Wyler was so impressed by Hepburn’s screen test that he cast her in the lead. Wyler later commented, “She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence, and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting and we said, ‘That’s the girl!’”

Originally, the film was to have had only Gregory Peck’s name above its title, with “Introducing Audrey Hepburn” beneath in smaller font. However, Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing so that her name appeared before the title and in type as large as his: “You’ve got to change that because she’ll be a big star and I’ll look like a big jerk.”

Audrey was nominated for an Academy Award for Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Wait until Dark and did win an Oscar for Roman Holiday. She was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance.

And than they met

Audrey and Hubert de Givenchy first met in 1953, in a romantic twist of fate that rivals any of her films. He had in fact been expecting Katharine as the Mademoiselle Hepburn he was to dress for the forthcoming picture “Sabrina”. Audrey is said to have arrived in a tied-up T-shirt, tight trousers, sandals and a gondolier’s hat.

At that time the twenty-six-year-old Hubert de Givenchy was already the rising star of French couture, competing with the famous  forty-eight-years-old Christian Dior. The technique of Givenchy was influenced by his mentor and friend Cristobal Balenciaga. After he had worked for the well-known Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli, the young designer  opened his own salon in Paris in 1952. His clothes were revolutionary for his time: feminine, yet very simple, and beautifully tailored.

Givenchy was in the middle of putting together his new collection. He suggested to Audrey to choose anything she liked from his current collection, a suggestion that satisfied her.  According to Givenchy, Audrey knew exactly what she wanted to have, as well as the fine points and faults of her body. She only wanted to adapt some designs… This would eventually become an incredibly popular  fashion style named after the film.

“Sabrina” would win only one Oscar, for the costume designs, and Edith Head would take all the credit. Audrey Hepburn felt very sorry for Givenchy, she called him immediately in Paris to apologize.

“I was very touched, but told her not to worry, because Sabrina had brought me more new clients than I could handle,” Givenchy recalled. “But Audrey was still upset, and she made a promise to me that  in the future she would make sure that it never happened again. And she kept her promise. This was one of the most marvelous things about her. She thought constantly of others.”

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Perfume

It was meant for Audrey’s personal use, and was given to her as a surprise. She loved it. Because many of her friends wanted to have it also, she kept asking Givenchy to put L’Interdit on the market. As soon as the designer was ready to launch it, Audrey offered her help for the advertising campaign. The color ad with a beautiful photo of Audrey Hepburn made by Richard Avedon, stated: “Once she was the only woman in the world allowed to wear this perfume. It was the first time the world had seen an actress as the face of a perfume.

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Pixie Haircut

Audrey Hepburn by Richard Avedon

A pixie cut is a short hairstyle worn by women, generally short on the back and sides of the head and slightly longer on the top. Pixie cuts were popularized first in the late 1950s when Audrey Hepburn wore the style in her debut film Roman Holiday, and later in the 1960s by actress Mia Farrow and British supermodel Twiggy.

Hair cutting scene in Roman Holliday 

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Auction

The clothes worn by Audrey Hepburn in the many movies she made are auctioned of through the years, like when Kerry Taylor previewed her Audrey Hepburn auction in Paris, 2,000 people showed up, including Hubert de Givenchy, who’d designed most of the dresses on display. Taylor introduced a little crowd control for Monday’s London preview—you had to buy a £10 catalog before you got in the door—but if the turnout was substantially smaller, it was just as avid. No surprises there: Given Hepburn’s unimpeachable style icon status.

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Book

Vogue on  Hubert de Givenchy

The fashions of handsome, aristocratic Hubert de Givenchy combined the traditions of haute couture creative, luxurious and perfectionist with a modern entrepreneurial sensibility. In a career spanning forty years he created the most glamorous of evening dresses, developed the influential ‘sack’ dress, pioneered the princess silhouette and fielded debonair daytime suits that have never gone out of fashion. He famously defined the sartorial image of Audrey Hepburn both on-screen and off creating the Sabrina neckline and the little black dress for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A history of chic caught by leading photographers and illustrators, Vogue on Givenchy reveals what the magazine called his ‘stardust touch’.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vogue-Hubert-De-Givenchy-Designers/dp/1849493138

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information for this post : Wikipeia, Famous Women and Beauty & Vogue

Jacqueline Bouvier, photographed by Horst P. Horst on the 
announcement of her marriage to John F. Kennedy, 1953
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Introduction

The 1960′s were considered to be a time for change, and that is  exactly what first lady Jacqueline Kennedy did for White House fashion. Jackie Kennedy became a fashion icon during her few years as first lady  and her influence on women’s attire continued throughout her life.  Everyone fell in love with Jackie’s grace and style largely because of  her wonderful fashion choices.

Jackie Kennedy loved wearing bright colors such as pink, yellow, red  and ivory. Her own personal fashion icon was Audrey Hepburn and  throughout her life, Jackie’s style would always feature the flavor of  Hepburn’s old Hollywood glamor. As a result, Jackie chose Hubert de  Givenchy as her go-to designer since Givenchy created looks for Audrey  Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’ Jackie Kennedy’s daywear generally consisted of simple sleeveless  dresses, Chanel jackets and A-line skirts by Dior, paired with her  signature pillbox hat, pumps, long white gloves and usually pearls or  brooches. 

For days around the White House or in the office, Jackie  opted for a high-waist trousers paired with a blouse, turtleneck or  cashmere sweater.  Jackie always completed her daywear with her black,  oversized sunglasses – a trend that is still in style. 

 For eveningwear, Jackie’s style was generally a sleeveless look in a  single color with a founded or bateau neckline as well as long sheath  dresses that showed off her slim figure.  Jackie also loved backless or  off-the shoulder gowns, which made her look like Hollywood royalty. Her  shoes and accessories would always match her evening apparel perfectly. A pair of white gloves was another signature accessory of Jackie  Kennedy’s. 

She also knew the meaning of the word ‘occasion.’  When  traveling to foreign countries, Jackie always dressed accordingly to  complement the customs of her host nation. For example, when visiting  India, her style was more conservative than what she would wear to an  American event. It’s this quality that helped foster Jackie’s classic  and classy sense of style and drew infatuation from people all over the  world.

Amazing experience

Where to start a post about Jackie Bouvier, Kennedy, Onassis, who was and still is a style icon? I did go to the exhibition ‘Jackie Kennedy, the White House Years’ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001 and it was one of the best I’ve ever seen (except ofcourse the exhibition of Alexander McQueen at the same museum). To see these clothes, you know so well from all pictures and tv broadcasts, from nearby was an amazing experience.

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Exhibition

The reason for the exhibition was to mark the 40th anniversary of her emergence as America’s First Lady and to explore her enduring global influence on style. Some 80 original costumes and accessories had come from the collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, to which the former First Lady donated these landmark pieces after she left the White House. The collection included elements from her formal White House wardrobe – what Mrs. Kennedy herself called her “state clothes” – as well as pieces worn during her husband’s 1960 presidential campaign. Hamish Bowles, European editor-at-large of Vogue, served as creative consultant. “Jacqueline Kennedy is one of history’s great style icons. Her profound influence on the way an entire generation wanted to look, dress, and behave cannot be overestimated.” Hamish Bowles  Hollywood’s preeminent designer, Edith Head, called her ‘the greatest single influence [on fashion] in history’ 

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Advice to Jackie

Jackie studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and she returned with a smart, sophisticated Parisian wardrobe, containing pieces of Givenchy, Balenciaga and Chanel. When John F.’s career climbed the ladder, Jackie was issued a discreet ultimatum: For political expediency : Cut the Paris cord. She began consulting with Diana Vreeland, the fashion oracle, on a selection of American designers. In December, the Hollywood costumer Oleg Cassini, a French-born American of aristocratic Russian and Italian descent, was made official designer of her White House wardrobe. An old family friend, Cassini would create for his star client a polished wardrobe of both original designs and Paris copies—for which Jackie often supplied sketches, pages torn from magazines, and fabric swatches.

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Another advice came from Manhattan hairdresser Kenneth: loose the short, wavy “Italian Cut” hairdo, grow your hair and stretch it out on rollers. (In the coming years, Kenneth will be responsible for Jackie’s famous trend-setting bouffant)

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Famous outfits

Inauguration Day

On the Inauguration Day, January 20, 1961, Jackie dressed in Cassini’s trim greige coat, worn with Halston’s news-making pillbox hat and a little sable circlet and muff. It set the tone for the new first lady’s wardrobe.

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Inaugural Bal

For the 1961 celebration,Jackie Kennedy collaborated on a design with Bergdorf Goodman’s Ethel Frankau and Emeric Partos. “What you see with the inaugural gown is the triumph of her own personal style,” the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Valerie Steele has said. “To use fashion as a way of representing her husband’s presidency—to look modern, elegant, simple and American.”  An Ivory column with silver embellished bodice, veiled with a sheer overblouse and a matching cape to add a royal touch.

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Inaugural Gala

Jacqueline Kennedy’s Inaugural Gala Gown. Ivory silk satin evening gown, by Oleg Cassini, American, 1961. Worn by Jacqueline Kennedy to the Inaugural Gala, National Guard Armory, Washington, D.C., January 19, 1961 the evening before President Kennedy’s inauguration. The cockade at the waist pointed to Jacqueline Kennedy’s pride in her French Bouvier ancestry and her profound love of history.

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Television broadcast

Jackie Kennedy wears a red wool day dress by Christian Dior for a televised tour of the White House on Valentine’s Day in 1962

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Nobel Prize winners diner

A Grecian draped Celadon column in silk jersey, draped to form a pleated skirt and a gathered bust line. Designed by Oleg Cassini.

This dress was worn by the First Lady to the dinner honoring the Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere at the White House in Washington, 1962.

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Opening of the Mona Lisa exhibit

Pink silk chiffon strapless evening dress. This sari inspired evening dress is delicately beaded with porcelain and rhinestones. Jackie had noticed a photograph of Audrey Hepburn wearing the original yellow version of the dress in the May 11, 1962 issue of Life magazine, designed by Hubert de Givenchy.  She supplied Cassini with a sketch from which he created this version after a spring-summer 1962

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Visiting the Pope

A full-length long-sleeved black dress in black Alaskine with a taffeta petticoat. This dress was worn by Jacqueline Kennedy during her audience with Pope John XXIII, Vatican, Rome, March 11, 1962. Protocol requires that women wear a mantilla or hat and dressed in black.

This dress is one of my  favorites worn by the First Lady, because of the  fabulous simplicity.

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Fatal day

Jacqueline Kennedy wore a double-breasted, strawberry pink and navy trim collared Chanel wool suit on November 22, 1963, when her husband, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Accompanying the suit was a trademark pillbox hat in matching pink. The suit has become an emblem for her husband’s assassination and one of the iconic items of fashion of the 1960s. It has been variously described as “a famous pink suit which will forever be embedded in America’s historical conscience“, as “one of those indelible images Americans had stored: Jackie in the blood-stained pink Chanel suit”, as “the most legendary garment in American history“, and as “emblematic of the ending of innocence“. Jacqueline Kennedy was a fashion icon, and this outfit is arguably the most referenced and revisited of all of her items of clothing and her trademark.
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Catalogue-Book Exhibition

A beautiful illustrated, very inspirational, must-have book.

http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-Kennedy-Selections-Library-Museum/dp/0821227459

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“I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

-John F. Kennedy-

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A friend asked me recently if I had noticed all these boys and men wearing beards lately. I laughed, because this trend isn’t just lately, it’s been going on for a few years already. But not many people know how and with whom it started…?

In 1996, Patrick Petitjean was already well known as a model, he’d done some great editorial jobs. I met him during a job for a Dutch magazine called Man. I told him I would in Paris during the next menswear shows-week and promised to give him a call. We met again backstage at the Claude Montana show and later we went to the Hugo Boss show, he was booked for. I never saw him again after that day, but I remember him as a really nice guy, with amazing blue eyes!

Early editorial picture of Patrick Petitjean 

Polaroid of Patrick Petitjean, ph. Patrick Demarchelier
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Soon he appeared on billboards for Missoni, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss, and became one of the most photographed male models during the late 90ties. 

Missoni Campaign, 1996

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After a few years of lots of editorials and campaigns it became quiet around Patrick Petitjean, but in 2008 he appeared in a campaign again, this time for Prada, photographed by Steven Meisel.

Prada campaign, photographed by Steven Meisel
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Then Patrick did something that bombarded his career to the  absolute top and changed men’s fashion: he grow his beard… Magazine editors and photographers recognized immediately it was thé new look for men. He first appeared  with his new look in 10 Men magazine, 2008.

Ph. by Marcelo Krasilcic for 10 Men magazine

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Growing his beard wasn’t all Patrick did, he also grew his hair. This Jesus-look has inspired  photographer Mario Sorrenti and stylist Emanuelle Alt  to make “On the Road” for Vogue Hommes International, september 2009.

Vogue Hommes International, september 2009
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But the absolute break-through for the bearded look came with the fall/winter,2009 H&M campaign, photographed by Andreas Sjodin.

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That’s how the beard became a fashion item again and lost its hippy / 70ties image.

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Other great photographs of  a bearded Patrick Petitjean

And in 2012 without a beard

Ph. Jean- Baptiste Mondino

Ph. Jean- Baptiste Mondino

Mongolia, 1921. Ph. published in National Geographic/Fashion
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In this post I’d like to share photographs I find very inspiring, like the story by Martina Hoogland Ivanow (photography) and Desiree Heiss (styling and 1/2 of the Bless duo)  for  Another Man, issue 1 autumn/winter 2005. 

Actually, the complete debut issue is a great source of inspiration. If you’re interested, dubble click on the link underneath the cover photo with Joaquin Phoenix, and scroll through the pages….

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Another Man, issue 1  autumn/winter 2005

Martina Hoogland Ivanow (photography) and Desiree Heiss (styling).

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National Geographic   FASHION

by Cathy Newman

This book is also inspiring to me. It contains archival and contemporary photographs focussed on fashion while documenting the people and cultures who wear them.

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http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f78/another-man-debut-issue-32640-3.html

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http://www.amazon.com/Fashion-Cathy-Newman/dp/0792233751

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