A Notebook on Cities & Clothes

When I first saw Win Wenders 1989 film, the scenes of Paris rooftops inspired me as much as the hands of Yamamoto. Twenty years later, the director is still shooting underseen projects and Yamamoto has been through bankruptcy. But the film's glimpses of Paris and Tokyo, and of inside the fashion studio, retain the beauty they had at first. Thanks to the Centre Pompidou for supporting this project, for asking the viewer to slow down and watch fashion as a graudal creation, a philosophical process, a memory.

Yamamoto, 1991, photo by Soon Hyung Noh

Yamamoto AW 1998-99 collection

Music Vs. Music

Judging by the cover design!

Feist 2007 Vs. Marling 2010

YSL in Color

Thanks to the fabulous RDuJour, check out the YSL coloring book accompanying the YSL retrospective. Check out my review of the exhibition here.

Angleo Plessas

Interactive Internet artist Angelo Plessas

Heels & Balls, 2002 changes by the movement of your cursor

Behind the scene

When dealing with the public, sunglasses are the presentation & the shield.

See more at Ceylan Kırmacıoğlu's sunglasses study and this blog devoted to eye wear.

Cassius, 2009

Bruce Weber: Now & Then

When I was 17, my boyfriend Theo was discovered by an agency. He was sent to have tests done on the beach and surfing. When I went to pick him up at the photographer's house, I recognized the swimming pool, and then the bandana. It was Bruce Weber. He was the kindest and sweetest ever - talking with us about our teenage lives, letting us play with his dog Bear. He took a few more shots and then we headed out. Somewhere in his negatives are images of my youth that I have never seen. Now, many years later, whenever I see Bruce's shots of all American teenagers, I am not only nostalgic for my youth, but I value the gentle nature and consideration of his lens. Click here for more on Weber.

Newton in Color

Moschino Vs. Magritte

Vintage Moschino 1993 Vs. Magritte Empire of Light 1953

I can remember when I first saw the above Moschino ad as a teen in 1993 (yes, that is a scan of the original tear sheet I took from Vogue). The ad made so much sense to me, transparency of intention and the simplicity of selling luxury as valuable in itself. Only later after studying art history did I understand the ad is contingent on Magritte. But what I love about the Moschino ad is rather than negate representation (this is not an ad!), it playfully exposes itself and our consciousness. It allows us to enjoy the ad without having to deconstruct it, and it commands that we accept the value of couture(!). Some could argue this is the very problematic tautology of advertising and capitalism, but that is only if you do not see advertisements as art. If we can see the Moschino ad as a work of art, then it is a window onto contemporary values - the luxury on demand and on display way of life. That window and its point view, offer aesthetic and historic value just like art always has.

After All

IN A WAKING DREAM from V Magazine on Vimeo.

After weeks of pressure, the new is finally finished and fashion is exhausted. The great spectacle of the circuit of shows is one of the most fascinating phenomena of our era. Nothing explains our tireless pursuit of indulgent dreams. Unlike art however, which tries to immortalize those dreams, fashion just moves on. But the fashion that still retains meaning after a season, or year, or decade, has incidentally fulfilled the role of art, that is, it has fulfilled dreams. The question is if those dreams are a product of the spectacle of consumption or genuine to the human experience?

While some may say fashion is to blame, the dream of lights and reflection, seduction and adornment are not specific to our era, just common to it. Of course we must continue to dream, just grander dreams, inclusive of the reality of the world and those who do not bask in the radiating aura we call fashion. This is the great potential of fashion as an art, not in totalizing the world with an overriding aesthetic and veiling it, but in unveiling the truth of humanity and our values.

Richard Phillips Vs. Josephine Meckseper

Lip Biter, 1999

Richard Phillips arrived in New York in the second half of the '80's. His work finds inspiration in 20th century media sources such as fashion, advertisements, celebrities and the work of other artists. He appropriates the glamour of images and translates them into hyperrealist paintings. Last fall, in a collaboration with MAC cosmetics, he remastered his own painting.

Phillips MAC collaboration, Fall 2009

Spectrum, 1998, featured on Gossip Girl and re-printed in limited edition, 2009

Phillips' partner Josephine Meckseper is interested in the commodification of feminist and protest culture. Both artists have chosen a high modern aesthetic to point to the naivety of capitalist desire. Rather than hold the art object as sacred and apart from commodification, both Phillips and Meckseper use art to study the consumption of images and the commodification of glamour, reflecting back our unconscious values.

Josephine Meckseper, Blow Up, 2006

Josephine Meckseper, Blow Up, 2006

Blow Up, 2006

YSL Toujours

In the future, little children will hear the name "Yves Saint Laurent" and think this man was actually a saint. This is because he is not a designer, he is a legacy. The first ever comprehensive exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent is being presented at the Petit Palais in Paris March - August 2010.

YSL joined Dior at 21, released the tight waist and suddenly made Dior's "new look" old. Then with his own design house, he gave women the right fashion at the right time, both more masculine and more feminine forms that satisfied their demands for freedom of expression.

The exhibition unveils the design process from sketches, color palette, fabric swatch to final product. The historically linear presentation is combined with a room of evening wear from all eras. While some of YSL's designs look decidedly 60's, 70's or 80's there is a cord of excess across all eras. His relentless study of glamour was expressed in all forms.

Raffia coat and dress from Saint Laurent’s African collection, SS 1967

The exhibition also gives an overview of the man. YSL's personal life was an extravagance that matched his designs. Both his belongings and designs are archived by the Foundation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent. No longer just a man, designer or brand, YSL is protected as a French cultural asset.

In the 19th century, Charles Fourier wrote of utopia and feminism but in the 20th century it was YSL who enacted these ideologies. YSL met needs that were invented in dreams, augmented needs of late capitalism. Many pose by contrast that YSL's simple elegance transcends his era and that his work is timeless, as the best of all arts. The proposition of timeless fashion however is contingent on the idea that fashion has always existed and will always exist, which primitive societies disprove. YSL's creativity connects to the human experience but his type of expression is historically and culturally specific.

Also worth considering is the ancient style of presentation evident in fashion exhibitions. Like Valentino's retrospective in Italy, YSL's retrospective uses classic white body forms as mannequins. The forms bear similarity to ancient Greek and Roman statues. Like the Greek and Romans, we too have made our temples but we do not allow anything to be set in stone. What is worshipped is production, variety and a feeling of the new, all of which YSL delivered.

Schiffer Vs. Bardot

Claudia Sciffer, Ellen Von Unwerth, Vogue Italia, April 2008

Bridget Bardot, Andy Warhol, 1974

Schiffer by Unwerth

Bardot, Russell Young, 2008

Schiffer by Unwerth

Bardot, Gerald Laing, 1968

First Spring by Yang Fudung

The merger of media into screen culture includes fashion as film. Yang Fudong's project was inspired by the Chinese proverb: “The whole year’s work depends on a good start in Spring."

Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton

Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton on the top floor of the Louis Vuitton flagship, is one of the best kept cultural secrets in Paris. You can enter through the store or at 60 rue de Bassano. Free and open daily, the gallery hosts global art in theme exhibitions several times a year. Details here.

Barbara Kruger, Semi-Silent, 2009

Spatial Design, 2007

Confusion of the Senses, Fall 2009

Vanessa Beecroft, 2005

Vanessa Beecroft, 2005

Winds & Sails, 2007

2009