Thursday, December 30, 2010

Goodbye 2010, hello 2011 !

Days are too busy…
Hours are too few…
Seconds are too fast…
But there is always a time for me to say…
Happy New Year… 

To all of you
After the storm, Marina del Rey, CA , Dec. 30, 2010


Compilation of several posts from 2010

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Fashion - Fashion Photography Through Time

Fashion - Fashion Photography Through Time at Fotografiska is the most comprehensive exhibition of fashion photography ever to be shown in Europe. The exhibit features more than 200 works by 51 internationally famous photographers.
Fashion reflects the development of fashion photography over the decades, from Man Ray's experimental compositions in the 1920s, via iconic figures such as Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, to the supermodel cult fostered by Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh in the 1990s. A few acclaimed 21st-century photographers are also featured, including Michelangelo Di Battista, Mikael Jansson and Esther Haase.

"Today, fashion photography is an art in its own right. A visual language that is both powerful and has extended the boundaries for what photography can be. For more than 90 years, we have been influenced and astonished by this dream world that is conjured up before us," says Jan Broman, founder and director of Fotografiska.

Russel James, "Scarlett", Los Angeles 2005

Paolo Roversi, "Guinevere in Red Dress by Yves Saint Laurent", Paris 1996

Ralph Mecke, "Still Not Sure", New York City

Esther Haase, "The Fearless Lola Walking The Lion King", Miami 1999

Michelangelo Di Battista and Tina Berning, "Face Project 1", Paris 2007

David Drebin, "Over the Top", New York City 2009

Robert Nettarp, "Missy Raider smoking", Paris 2001, Spoon

Robert Nettarp, "Hanging with meat", Stockholm 2002, Fjords

Robert Nettarp, "Ase beautiful pain", Stockholm 2000/2001, Bibel unpublished


Photo by Pauline Benthede

Images courtesy Fotografiska, Stockholm

Monday, December 27, 2010

Zarb, the artsy bubbly bottle

Following the successful launch of their own-brand champagne Zarb in the Netherlands in 2009, THEY, the Amsterdam-based communication agency introduces the latest collection of designed bottles. The brand takes its name from the French slang word for bizarre. The agency's concept, why drink champagne only at times that tradition prescribes? Why not everywhere, always, here, now..... an unconventional champagne with an unconventional look, based on an unconventional idea. A champagne for any day does not have to come in everyday bottle. So Zarb has broken with the outward cliches for bubbly bottles, and comes in sensational bottle designs. Some of the photography for the first series of designs is by famous artist Cornelie Tollens. The new Deep Black underwater collection is a series of bottles designed in collaboration with underwater photographers David Shale, Zena Holloway and costume designer Vin Burnham.

Deep Black Angels

Deep Black Surface

Deep Black Octopus


Package Design, Lips


Package Design, Hope


Package Design, Navel


Package Design, Black


Special Edition, Life by Cedric Laquieze


Dress


Feathers



Source They and Dezeen



Friday, December 24, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Happy Holidays 2010

Wishing you all the best


A Holiday Season filled with beauty, love and laughter
with a selection of festive items
Seductive 
 Alexander McQueen
Alberto Guardiani
Mini bag, Lanvin
Snake ring, Ela Stone


or mysterious
Alexander McQueen


Balmain
Lanvin
Diamonds and gold earrings, Solange Azagury Partridge


And to end this post, a touch of magical scent....
Annick Goutal
Or Imperial Guerlain



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Valentino Retrospective: Past, Present, Future goes to Singapore

The exhibition - Valentino Retrospective: Past/Present/Future - pays tribute to a man who has been placed in the history of haute couture as an 'undenieable' ambassador of elegance. Developed by the prestigious Paris' institution Les Arts Decoratifs and, originally held in the French capital in 2008,  the exhibition travelled to Brisbane, Australia, last year before making its final stop in Singapore. One hundred pieces of exquisite haute couture designs by Italian maestro, Valentino Garavani, will be on display at Resorts World Sentosa from December 22, 2010 to February 13, 2011. The show will also feature collections from the 1950s and gowns worn by celebrities such as Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and more.

"His designs accentuate accentuate the silhouette, giving it fluidity, femininity and sensuality. Forms are clear, fabrics are sumptuous and all collections always possess a large scale of colors enhanced by rich embroideries." ~ Pamela Golbin, curator for the Fashion and Textiles collection of Les Arts Decoratifs.


Haute Couture A/W 2007-08


Haute Couture S/S 1969


Haute Couture S/S 2003


Haute Couture S/S 2008


Haute Couture A/W 2004-05
Haute Couture F/W 1990-91


Summer 1959-1960


Summer 1967


Haute Couture Summer 1971


Haute Couture Summer 1998


Images are from Valentino Archives / Photograph: Jean Thorance




Monday, December 20, 2010

Holiday Gifts: Murakami Versailles

A last minute gift, "Murakami Versailles." If you missed the exhibition of the Japanese pop art artist Takashi Murakami at the Palace of Versailles earlier this year, the once in a lifetime event was captured in the following book published by Editions Xavier Barral. The 280-page book is available at Colette -Paris, and also on line at Amazon.



 
Images courtesy Editions Xavier Barral

Babylon: Surreal Babies

I came across a series of 'bizarre' and delightful images, a collection of baby postcards featuring in James Birch's latest book "Babylon: Surreal Babies." These weird and wonderful postcards show babies as never seen before. Babies hatch from eggs, flower pots or cabbage patch, and bubble from cauldrons. They ride in zeppelins, and sit atop clouds. They also play instruments, drive cars, harvest the fields and more....
James Birch gathered this collection together as the result of his personal interest in Surrealism. He first discovered the postcards when he was a student in Aix-en-Provence. "A froth of smiling babies boiling away in a cauldron" caught his eye and he bought a small number of cards. He became hooked and started collecting until years later in the 1980s when he visited the Pompidou Centre for an exhibition on Surrealism, where a collection of fantasy baby postcards was on display.

The postcards were a source of inspiration to many artists in the 1920s and 30s, in particular to both the Dadaists and the Surrealists. They were collected by Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Hannah Hoch, Herbert Bayer, and Man Ray. Little is known of their history. The postcards were produced from around 1900-1920 and were found from Russia, to Spain to England and most countries in between, however the majority appear to be from Germany.

A foreword is written by the late George Melly, best known as a jazz and blues singer, writer and broadcaster, he was also an art critic and an expert in the field of Surrealism.


A lovely holiday gift, "Babylon: Surreal Babies" is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing

All images courtesy Dewi Lewis Publishing