Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

Ghost World originals at Oakland Museum of California

 Ghost World movie

Elemental worlds

An imagined journey drawn by Moebius for Voyage d'Hermès

Photo credit: Hermès

Watch it from  Hermès

Starwatcher

Photo credit: comicscube

la mort d'un maître 

Photo credit: jerksinspace

Seduction of Jonathan Saunders colors

 David Hockney's flower on iphone
Photo credit: The telegraph

 Jonathan Saunders, Fall 2012
Photo credit: style.com

If Jonathan Saunders were to have a live performance on stage as Dries Van Noten did, wouldn’t it be surreal to see David Hockney painting flowers on the wall? Hockney, working on a runway, may have to photo reference his own work on ipad. Well, the second best choice for Jonathan Saunders show would be projecting David Hockney’s picture taking into shape, the way he works on screen now, at the background.

Hockney was no stranger to fashion runway, as the documentary “ A bigger Splash” opened with young Hockney sitting in the front row at a vivid fashion show.

“No one knows what makes a picture memorable” said Hockney with an air of nonchalance. He does not mind that color seduces on an iphone or ipad screen, compared with a canvas. “Don’t you want to be seduced?”, said Hockney wittily at his Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation show. The same vibrant color was splashed all over the runway of Jonathan Saunders show. Who wouldn’t want to be seduced by the bright geometric and floral prints, dreaming that they are sitting by a sunlight-reflected swimming pool in California?

Jonathan Saunders, Fall 2012

Photo credit: style.com

Runway show or runway walk

Dries Van Noten, Fall 2012 Men, Photo credit: i-D

When Sarah Burton admitted that theatrical runway shows are Lee’s territory and she can’t try to pretend to be him, we realized that gone with McQueen was the era of runway shows with the confluence of performance and stage design.

A few designers, however, are stubborn enough to keep putting on runway shows that are the antithesis of simple-white-background runway walks .  2012 opened up with a runway performance of Dutch artists live-painting the artworks used in Dries Van Noten’s prints. The prints are so fresh that they seemed to be still wet and smeared on the psychedelic canvas.

Backdrops are to runway shows what clues are to detective stories. A 60’s underground art scene could be deducted from a Warhol interview scripted on Yves Saint Laurent’s chalkboard. Using Café de Flore and the chanson duo Bridget as the setting, both Alice+Olivia and Victor&Rolf revealed a typical French gamine. A backdrop of Jean Brodie's classroom in Peter Jensen’s show set the scene of the dismissed Miss Jean Brodie suspecting who betrayed her. Without backdrops, the runway, although less distracting, may not be approved by Agatha Christie.

 Yves Saint Laurent, Fall 2012 Men, Photo credit: Style.com

Alice+Olivia, Fall 2012, Photo credit: Style.com

Victor and Rolf, SS 2012, Photo credit: gala.fr

 Peter Jensen, Fall 2010, Photo credit: Style.com

On Trompe L’oeil

 

Mae West lip Sofa, photo credit: hitomimatarese

Mary Katratrantzou Fall 2008 Graduate Collection, photo credit: ozenweb

Prada Fall 2011 Mary-Jane shoe boots, photo credit: MTV

One could only wish, at the Christmas time, that it has been a surreal year -  that one has spun in a dress with giant pendant prints by Mary Katrantzou without breaking the neck, has strode on the Mary Jane shoe boots by Prada like a school girl, and has sat on a shocking pink sofa shaped like the lips of actress Mae West. Surrealism in fashion was debuted by Schiaparelli in 1927 and has been taking on new forms (or deformations) ever since then.

Schiaparelli’s bowtie sweater does not seem avant-garde after 80 years, but its acceptance then could be imagined in the way that the shoe boots by Prada are tolerated today. Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada both had truthful eyes for trompe l’oeil, and both experimented playing with beauty and ugliness, earning a side-by-side comparison at the Costume Institute of MET next year.

A fresh form of trompe l’oeil is the play with print and texture in the Fall 2011 collections by Christopher Kane and House of Holland.  Crochet is, all of a sudden, more gratifying and less granny when printed on leather.  André Breton said: it is true that we would not dare venture so far. But if even crochet could be charming again, perhaps fashion will, with years to come, dare venture further and further. 

Schiaparelli sweaters in 1927, photo credit: chrissystyles

Schiaparelli skeleton dress, photo credit:  twentythirtyforty

 

The Costume Institute's Next Exhibition "Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: On Fashion", May10, 2011

Comme des Garçons by Rei Kawakubo, AW 2009, photo credit: wallpaper

 Chirstopher Kane AW2011, photo credit: myfashionlife

House of Holland Fall2011, photo credit: Instyle UK

 Markus Lupfers, a dream trompe l'oeil dress for 2011 Christmas, photo credit: asos

A Very Gaga Thanksgiving

She said, she would go to school with her hair combed for a long time when she was little, her friend would say, why do you need to make up your hair? Only girls come to school, nobody will look at you. She said ,"I want to look like my mother".

Reference: ABC show "A Very Gaga Thanksgiving"

 Photos from: NYT

You can’t judge a book by its cover

You have worn your favorite bands on T-shirts. You have put your favorite stickers on cars. Now there is a chance to carry your favorite books on clutches and minaudières. Olympia Le-Tan, daughter of renowned French illustrator Pierre Le-Tan, launched her label in 2009, crocheting covers of Catcher in the Rye and Lolita on bags. Utilizing no other than felt pieces from the handbags, Le-Tan and Spike Jonze made a stop-motion short: Mourir Auprès de Toi (French for “to die by your side” ).

Set in Paris’ iconic Shakespeare & Co, the short film knits through the bookshelves a simple yet adventurous story between Macbeth the skeleton and Mina Harker from Dracula. Soko’s voice for Mina Harker, even of one short line, added a perfect dose of obscurity to the story and there is no better song than her “Hump and Jump” for the tracking back of the film. 

You can’t judge a book by its cover. Can you judge a clutch by its flap?

Reference: i-D Slate