Orange Ya Glad

↑ Ivan de Pineda and Lonneke Engel by Bruce Weber, VERSUS s/s 1996

Spring is coming, it's almost here! This winter was dark and brutal, like an enchanted sword made out of black ice. Everyone on the island got sick at the same time this year, myself included. Everybody died! (Just kiddin'). Collectively,  everyone seems as excited as I am that the sun is getting stronger and that our bodies aren't laying prone on scraps of carpet in freezing makeshift quarantine tents. (Not really, that didn't happen).

↑ Kirsten Owen by Mario Sorrenti in "Suburban Outfitters" for W Magazine, July 1998

Observe!

I love to see the insides of a final product! So, needless to say, I am utterly amazed at this eight hour behind-the-scenes SHOWstudio production of a full work-day on the set of W Magazine's October 2012 editorial "Sweet Escape". Also, I am totally fascinated with this simple observational style of cinéma vérité.

It's refreshing to see a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the fashion world without all the stupid vanity and frenetic post-production riffs, soundbites, and quick cuts. I am interested in fashion culture well enough, but what I most appreciate is its craft. Editorials are vast appreciations of clothing as art. This is what I love about fashion: the ways that we present, admire, and wear clothes.

      (via SHOWstudio):
      "Karlie Kloss dies an elegant death in Nick Knight and Edward Enninful's arresting couture editorial for W Magazine. The pair drew inspiration from the kind of macabre, nightmarish illustrations that litter childhood fiction, offering up a vision which is part Grimm's fairy tale part mature Parisian opulence. The final images - which see Kloss clad in the best haute couture from A/W 2012, including pieces by Dior, Givenchy, Chanel and Iris Van Herpen - straddle dark and light, combining symbolism that is both sweet and sinister.
      Continuing his exploration of contrasts, Knight juxtaposes the delicate vintage-look images with pithy modern 'death app' films that see Kloss suffer various violent deaths, all while clad in couture. The striking images in this editorial mark of the start of Knight's investigation into fashion illustration."

Morgan le Fay

      Clad in chain-mail, structured armor, leather, and lace, Kristen McMenamy broods like a hellion in W's September 2012 editorial "The Dame of Thrones".

I love how barbed wire and a conical Philip Treacy transparent head-piece (#4) give this Medieval Britain thing a whole Seam-In-Time feel. I remember hearing an interview with Monty Python's Michael Palin that a lot of the chain-mail worn in The Holy Grail was actually just knitted creations spray painted silver (sounds soggy). Craig Lawrence's metallic yarn chain mail shirt and pants (#3) are very convincing and wearable... something maybe Daphne Guinness would don to check out a litter of dalmatian puppies (or whatever it is that she does with herself). Her inspired silver glove by Shaun Leane (#8) certainly seems useful for glancing blows from little doggie paws.

mmm

Photography:  Tim Walker Styled by:  Jacob K Hair and Headpieces:  Julien d'Ys Makeup:    Val Garlande