The end of the plain plane

 

Who should be in charge of an ad campaign? The clients or the ad agency? That’s a question presented to interviewees in the documentary “Art & copy”. If the ad agencies were to please the clients in anyway they could and not push the boundaries, there may not have been “The end of the plain plane” or “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” Braniff campaign.

Braniff revamped the look of airline uniforms with Emilio Pucci’s bold colors — turquoise, parrot, green, and purple, go-go boots, and even space helmets. The stewardess job has since been more appealing. United Airlines, in 1967, recruited with the slogan “Marriage is fine! But shouldn’t you see the world first?” and with Jean Louis’s mini dresses and matching hats.

Long gone is the “golden-age” of flying. Christian Lacroix for Air france or Kate Spade for Delta were not much fanfare. The plane is back to be in plain and the stewardesses are now married. No more fun colors and prints for the long haul. Who is to blame? The companies that are too conservative, or the ad agencies that only work for the clients' needs?

 Pucci for Braniff

 Pucci for Braniff

 Pucci for Braniff

 Jean Louis for UA

  Jean Louis for UA

  Jean Louis for UA

Pictures of Jean Louis for UA from: Colette

Fellini, la Grande Parade

Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina

“I haven’t been to Via Veneto since La Dolce Vita” Valentino said so in “Valentino, the Last Emperor”, kicking off his couture show with Nino Rota’s music. It is in a café on the Via Veneto in 1960 where he met his lifelong partner. It is also on Via Veneto where Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” was born, although the street in the scene was created in a studio.

Composed primarily of photographs and drawings of Fellini, the exhibition “Fellini, la Grande Parade” at Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris raised the veil on part of the mechanisms of Fellini’s creation.

Fellini went to Rome and made a living, first as a caricature artist then as a scriptwriter, both using pencils. Whichever medium Fellini used to express his fantasies and anxieties, the same world in his imagination seems to have been created—a world where all desires were explored. As he himself noted, “All art is autobiographical.” Through the movie characters, the exhibition again shows the dreams and obsessions of Federico Fellini.

Reference: Jeu de Paume

 Jeu de Paume, Paris

 Fellini drawing

 Fellini drawing

 La Dolce Vita

 La Dolce Vita

Museum of Everything

Filled with eccentric pop-up collections including circus mirrors, Victorian taxidermy, and vintage dolls, Museum of Everything is a collection of disoriented curiosities, located in a quaint street in North London.

It is not hard to comprehend how Peter Blake’s trademark collage style would be a good paring of the visual aesthetic of the Museum collection. The objects in Peter Blake’s work--postcards, second-hand books, and illustrations from vintage children’s books, could easily blend in with the quirky surroundings in the Museum. 

It is, however, a little difficult to picture such a surreal collection to be the backdrop of Missoni’s fashion campaign. Angela Missoni brought in every member of the family, from 19 to 80, to model—the first fashion shot allowed in the Museum. Perhaps because of the kaleidoscope effects of the Missoni prints, or perhaps because of Juergen Teller, the Missoni models in multicolor chevron prints turned out to be properly dressed for the bizarre circus and fairground and the animals’ drinking parties in the Museum.

Pictures from NYTimes

Fashionista Reindeer

To respect, but to reinterpret

Anybody appointed to revitalize a 70-year-old fashion house that has been through hands of various owners and designers would be under great pressure. Rodolfo Paglialunga, a former designer at Prada was told to re-launch an idea of fashion that is contemporary, without forgetting the outstanding aspects of its history, the history of Vionnet.

Madeleine Vionnet's trademarks—handkerchief hems, halter-necks, and form-fitting silhouette captured the most beautiful aspect of classical Greek aesthetics: the body and movement. The code decided by the new owner—drapes, asymmetry, and geometry—however, are easier to be deciphered than to be reinterpreted.

In the fashion world of 4D technology, live-stream filming and more experimental marketing tactics to come, generating excitement whilst staying true to the legacy may be a daunting task. If any narrative and commentary beyond the clothes themselves better underlie the inherent authenticity of the fashion house, I think Madeleine Vionnet’s very own perspective of fashion may provide a rooted standpoint for interpretation: “There is something superficial and volatile about the seasonal and elusive whims of fashion which offends my sense of beauty.”

References: NYT, Independent, psfk

Vionnet's handkerchief dress, 1920

 Vionnet Salon in Paris

Madeleine Vionnet

Vionnet under Rodolfo Paglialunga

 Carey Mulligan in Vionnet

A trench of four cities

Although certainly not at the same scale, and perhaps not even in the same genre as the films that the Fashion Film Festival includes, 4 x 3.1 presents a modest debut of Phillip Lim’s collaboration with young artists.

The opportunity to collaborate with Lane Crawford was presented to Phillip Lim, which was no less than a quick entry prelude to the flagship store in Hong Kong under plan for 2011. As chief executive of 3.1 Phillip Lim, Ms. Wen Zhou, who started 3.1 Phillip Lim at age 31, sees Hong Kong as a hot spot for opening the first location in China—a good reason to choose a Hong Kong based photographer Victoria Tang, daughter of the founder of Shanghai Tang, to shoot one of the quartet.

“There is a real mysterious aura that comes from a woman wearing a trench”, said Phillip Lim. The white trench, with feminine bow detail—a trademark of the designer, wonders through the streets in four cities: HongKong, Beijing, Paris and NYC. If only the white trench could make into a film with a mysterious heroine character, designed to fit with the distinctiveness of the clothing line (Rodarte for Black Swan as the most recent endeavor), it could be more memorable.

Reference: Dazed, WSJ

Drawing fashion

“Drawing Fashion” show (Nov3-Mar6 2011) at Design Museum in London

Back when the covers of magazines were not glossy with processed and polished headshots of celebrities, the marketing approach of fashion industry was centered on visual luxury and the form of art. Depicting from a turban by Paul Poiret to the simultaneous fashion by Sonia Delaunay, Lepape graced Vanity Fair and Vogue till the 30’s; Gruau’s Dior advertisement brought the “New Look” of the 40’s; and Antonio Lopez shows fashion the energy and movement of life in the 70s.

There are too many magazines printed now in a desperate attempt to keep readers’ interest, said Colin McDowell, who curates the “Drawing Fashion” show at Design Museum in London. Lacking the creative collaboration between fashion designers and the artists (The recent attempt of fashion and art team up at MoMA PS1 seems more appropriate for fast fashion at an amusement park.), the next New Look may have to wait much longer to come.

Lepape for Poiret

Lepape for Sonia Delaunay

 Lepape 

 Lepape

René Gruau for Dior

Antonio Lopez: Joanne Landis Carnegie Hall Studio
New York Times Magazine (1967)

 

"Shanghai" exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, 2010