The Dying Swan
Posted: February 29, 2016 Filed under: Art, Fashion | Tags: caribbean art, carnival, carnival 2016, carnival king, costume design, dying swan, getty images, jha-whan thomas, mas man, moko jumbie, pavlova, Peter Minshall, ras nijinsky in drag, swan, Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad Carnival 1 CommentTrinidadian carnival artist Peter Minshall returned this year in full force with his Carnival King, The Dying Swan – Ras Nijinsky in drag as Pavlova, a sublime Moko Jumbie ballerina brought to life by Jha-whan Thomas. Its beauty lies in the simplicity of the costume and the delicacy of the movement which accompanies a steel pan rendition of Camille Saint-Saens’s ‘The Swan’.
From Getty Images
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After Gauguin
Posted: July 6, 2015 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Photography | Tags: Arthur Elgort, fashion photography, fashion shoot, Gauguin, Harper's Bazaar, Liya Kebede, Naomi Campbell, Noa Noa, Paul Gauguin, Peter Lingbergh, South Pacific, Tahiti, vogue Leave a commentTwo fashion shoots with the exotic taste of Gauguin
“All her traits combined in a Raphaelesque harmony by the meeting of curves. Her mouth had been modeled by a sculptor who knew how to put into a single mobile line a mingling of all joy and all suffering.
I worked in haste and passionately, for I knew that the consent had not yet been definitely gained. I trembled to read certain things in these large eyes–fear and the desire for the unknown, the melancholy of bitter experience which lies at the root of all pleasure, the involuntary and sovereign feeling of being mistress of herself. Such creatures seem to submit to us when they give themselves to us; yet it is only to themselves”
Extract from Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin
1. Peter Lindbergh shoots Naomi Cambell for Harper’s Bazaar, 1992
2. Arthur Elgort shoots Liya Kebede for Vogue
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Build Your Own Body
Posted: January 21, 2015 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Painting/Drawing, Photography, Sculpture | Tags: body, collage, fashion, Guy Bourdin, Hanna Holch, head, Jean Arp, sculpture, shoes, torse, torso feet Leave a comment
1. Hanna Holch
2. Torso by Jean Arp
3. Guy Bourdin
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Olympia
Posted: June 19, 2014 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Painting/Drawing, Photography | Tags: art history, black, contemporary art, controversy, Felix Vallotton, man, Manet, Mario Sorrenti, Mel Ramos, nude, nudity, odalisque, Olympia, Picasso, prostitute, roles, white, woman, Yasumassa Morimura, YSL Leave a comment
Olympia. Edouard Manet. 1863.
A Parody of Manet’s Olympia with Junyer and Picasso. By Pablo Picasso. 1902.
The Black and The White. Felix Vallotton. 1919
Mel Ramos, Manet’s Olympia, 1974. Lithograph.
Portrait (Futago). Yasumassa Morimura. 1988
Olympia, YSL Spring 1999 ad campaign for Rive Gauche, shot by Mario Sorrenti.
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Mona Lisa
Posted: May 29, 2014 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Photography | Tags: advertisement, campaign, classic, fashion, fragrance, La Gioconda, Leonardo da Vinci, Mario Sorrenti, Mona Lisa, Noot Seear, rive gauche, tattoo, YSL, Yves Saint-Laurent Leave a comment
Mona Lisa, YSL Spring 1999 ad campaign for Rive Gauche.
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The Midnight Robber
Posted: February 26, 2014 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Performance/Installation | Tags: Caribbean Beat, carnival, costume, death, design, designer, folklore, mas man, midnight robber, Peter Minshall, skull, tradition, trini, Trinidad Leave a comment
Peter Minshall. The Midnight Robber, the king of Danse Macabre (1980)
A Carnival costume by the legendary Trinidadian Carnival artist Peter Minshall, also known as Mas Man.
Click here to read about him in the Caribbean Beat magazine.
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Wild Hair
Posted: February 21, 2014 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Photography, Sculpture | Tags: Africa, anthropoligical, b&w, black and white, hair, hairstyle, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, Nigeria, ojeikere, sculptural, shapes, style, Venice Biennale, women Leave a commentThese stunning photographs are from the Hairstyle Series by the late Nigerian phototagrapher J.D. Okhai Ojeikere :
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Lobster
Posted: August 8, 2013 Filed under: Fashion, Photography, Poetry, Writing | Tags: Anne Sexton, costume, Dali, Horst, lobster, poem, Salvador Dali, sea, The Dream of Venus, venus Leave a commentA poem by Anne Sexton
A shoe with legs,
a stone dropped from heaven,
he does his mournful work alone,
he is the old prospector for golf,
with secret dreams of God-heads and fish heads.
Until suddenly a cradle fastens round him
and his is trapped as the U.S.A. sleeps.
Somewhere far off a woman lights a cigarette;
somewhere far off a car goes over a bridge;
somewhere far off a bank is held up.
This is the world the lobster knows not of.
He is the old hunting dog of the sea
who in the morning will rise from it
and be undrowned
and they will take his perfect green body
and paint it red.
Costume Design for “The Dream of Venus” (Collaboration with Salvador Dali). Horst P. Horst. 1939.
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Picasso Haute Couture
Posted: June 23, 2013 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Painting/Drawing | Tags: Eugenio Recuenco, fashion photography, haute couture, high fashion, inspired, Picasso Leave a commentFashion Photographer Eugenio Recuenco shoots a beautiful series inspired by Picasso paintings:
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Elephants and Dior
Posted: June 3, 2013 Filed under: Art, Fashion, Photography | Tags: age, beauty, captivity, circus, Dior, dovima with elephants, elephants, fashion, fashion photography, fine art, freedom, Harper's Bazaar, Richard Avedon, youth, Yves Saint-Laurent 1 CommentFashion meets circus act in this 1950s Dior shoot by Richard Avedon. Aside from the elegant pose and fantastic elephants, the images have become iconic for their representation of contrasts: youth and age, strength and frailty, grace and awkwardness, freedom and captivity. These images were considered revolutionary when they were first published in 1955, they exceeded the realm of fashion photography and were elevated into fine art.
Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris. Photo by Richard Avedon. 1955.
This dress was the first designed for Dior by his 19-year-old assistant, Yves Saint-Laurent.
