NYFW, Marchesa: Underwater Kingdom

An aquatic theme inspired Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig's collection for Marchesa. The designers behind the grandiose label noted in their program a number of nautical inspirations, such as the 19th century Ilya Repin painting "Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom," and Ernst Haeckel drawings of tentacles and jellyfish.

Model Karen Elson opened Marchesa's show in a glittering dress made of cascading silver fringe. Several of the dresses were made entirely of sheer tulle, with sequin embroideries creating coral-like patterns on the model's bodies.

Marchesa Ready-to-Wear Spring/Summer 2012

Source NYTimes

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Chan-Hyo Bae: Existing in Costume, Fairy Tales

Chan-Hyo Bae was born in Busan, South Korea, in 1975. After graduating in photography in 2003, he moved to London where he took out a further degree from the Slade School of Fine Art. His photographic work is shown regularly in the United States, the UK and Asia.

Chan-Hyo Bae focuses on the complexity of relationships between East and West, and the exacerbating influence of colonial imperialism. His large-format color prints, in which he plays unidentified female British monarchs from the 13th to the 19th centuries appear to be a cheeky sort of wish fulfillment.

As I see it, Orientalism was born out of Western cultural preconceptions about Asia a conquered territory out of a false image that sees the culture of the other from an ethnocentric, self-absorbed point of view. It was this kind of anti-Oriental prejudice that suddenly made me aware of the chaotic, alienated state of my own identity - a confusion I try to show in my work. I began by examining portraits of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, which highlight the forces behind the building of the British Empire.
My recent work on Fairy Tales deals even more explicitly with the feelings of alienation and prejudice I see at the core of Western culture. This involved studying and interpreting the most representative of these tales, like Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast. What I found was class-based social organization and, above all, the implicit message that in order to be happy, the weak must submit to the order of things established by the strong.
~~ Chan-Hyo Bae


Chan-Hyo Bae lives and works in Toronto. Existing in Costume, Fairy Tales is on view at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.

@Chan-Hyo Bai / Musee du Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

@Chan-Hyo Bae / Musee du Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

@Chan-Hyo Bae / Musee du Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

@Chan-Hyo Bae / Musee du Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

@Chan-Hyo Bae / Musee de Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

@Chan-Hyo Bae / Musee du Quai Branly, Photoquai 2011

Courtesy Musee du Quai Branly / Photoquai 2011, Paris

Chan-Hyo Bae: Existing in Costume, Fairy Tales

Group Show, Sepember 13 - November 11, 2011

Harper's Bazaar: A Decade of Style

Sophisticated, elegant, and provocative,  Harper's Bazaar showcases the work of visionary stylists, expressive photographers, and talented designers, covering what's new to what's next.  In the ten years since Glenda Bailey became Editor in Chief of Harper's Bazaar, she and Creative Director Stephan Gan have carried on the magazine's tradition of publishing innovative, high-impact photography.

Harper's Bazaar: A Decade of Style, on exhibit at the International Center of Photography (NYC) distills that decade into a group of nearly thirty images by some of the most important photographers working today, such as Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier, Tim Walker, William Klein, Jean-Paul Goude, Marc Seliger, Terry Richardson, Camilla Akrans, Solve Sundsbo, Mario Sorrenti, and Karl Lagerfeld.

Under Bailey, Bazaar has been especially alert to shifts in the culture. Photographers are encouraged to borrow freely from the wide world of pop, so Demarchelier casts Stephanie Seymour as a Warhol superstar, and Julianne Moore looks like she stepped out of a John Currin painting in Peter Lindbergh's witty transformation.

" Fashion reflects what's going on in our world, and Bazaar makes pop culture fashionable. This exhibition is the culmination of a decade in a new world where every popular phenomenon comes with a fashion spin." ~~ Glenda Bailey

Harper's Bazaar: A Decade of Style

@The International Center of Photography, New York

Patrick Demarchelier, Stephanie Seymour (Harper's Bazaar, February 2002)

Peter Lindbergh, Julianne Moore (Harper's Bazaar, May 2008)

Jean-Paul Goude, Naomi Campbell (Harper's Bazaar, September 2009)

Solve Sundsbo, Freja Beha Erichsen (Harper's Bazaar, March 2008)

Tim Walker, Untitled (Harper's Bazaar, October 2009)

Patrick Demarchelier, Carmen Kass (Harper's Bazaar, November 2001)

Patrick Demarchelier, Man Ray's floating lips (Harper's Bazaar, February 2002)

Peter Lindbergh, Kate Winslet (Harper's Bazaar, August 2009)

Ralph Gibson, Caroline Winberg (Harper's Bazaar, May 2005)

Terry Richardson, Lady Gaga (Harper's Bazaar, May 2011)

Courtesy Harper's Bazaar / International Center of Photography, New York

Harper's Bazaar: A Decade of Style 

On view @ The International Center of Photography, New York

September 9, 2011 - January 8, 2012
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