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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Prêt-à-Papier or Couture Paper: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

For over 15 years, inspired by the rich history of fashion represented in European paintings, famous costumes in museum collections, and haute couture designs, the Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave has turned her passion for painting toward the recreation of elaborate costumes - crumpling, pleating, painting, and sculpting the surface of ordinary paper - to achieve the effect of textiles and create the illusion of haute couture.

A selection of iconic dresses, reinterpreted in trompe l'oeil paper masterpieces is presented in the exhibition Prêt-à-Papier: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave, currently on view for the first time at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in Washington, DC. More than 25 of de Borchgrave's quintessential interpretations of historical costumes and haute couture dresses, with six new pieces made for this exhibition, including one commissioned solely for Hillwood will be on display.

From the lavish apparel of the Russian imperial family and 18th century French aristocracy to turn-of-the-century fashion designers Mariano Fortuny and Charles Frederick Worth, discover the extraordinary paper sculptures of Isabelle de Borchgrave.

Prêt-à-Papier: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

Installation view

Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Pompadour Dress
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Pink Dress, costume realized at the occasion of the installation of the Marie Antoinette Bathroom at the Palace of Versailles. Inspired by ca. 1776 engraving in the collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Ballerine, Black with Red Ribbons
Photo © Pauline de Borchgrave
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Callot Soeurs Dress based on c. 1908 design
Photo © Andreas von Einsiedel
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Fortuny Light Green Dress
Photo © Alain Speltdoorn
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Fortuny Orange Dress, after late 19th century design

Photo © Jean-Pierre Gabriel

Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Lanvin Dress based on 1924 period in spirit of Chinese prints and lacquers. painted to resemble diamanté and bead embroidery
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Peter the Great dress based on c. 1730 design

Photo © Andreas von Einsiedel

Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

French 18th Century dress à la Polonaise. The patterns come from a costume at the Kyoto Costume Institute and the shape of the dress is from an etching by Antoine-Jean Ducios, c.1760, based on a painting by Augustin de Saint-Aubin
Photo © Alain Speltdoorn
Courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museums and Gardens

Redfern Dress based on 1924 Redfern ofLondon dress

Courtesy of the artist and Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington, DC

Prêt-à-Papier: The Exquisite Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

June 16 - December 30, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

Sophie Calle; For the Last and First Time

I went to Istanbul. I spoke to blind people, most of whom had lost their sight suddenly. I asked them to describe the last thing they saw.
~~ Sophie Calle

La Dernière Image (The last Image), realized in 2011 in Istanbul, once named the "city of the blind", gives voice to men and women who have lost their sight and asks them to describe the last image they remember, their last memory of the visible world.

The new solo exhibition by the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle Pour la dernière et pour la première fois (For the Last and First Time) is currently on view, alongside a series of recent films, Voir la mer (See the sea) from the lens of Caroline Champetier's camera, at Les Rencontres d'Arles, Chapelle Saint-Martin du Méjan, France.

For the Last and First Time is a heartbreaking exhibit. The photographs are so moving that you will have tears just by looking at them.

Born in 1953 in Paris, Sophie Calle's work, which combines image and narrative, amounts to a systematic laying bare of reality, whether it be her own or other people's, with a limited portion left to chance. Absence is a central theme in her work. She is now considered as one of the most important artists of our time.
Sophie Calle lives and works in Malakoff, France.

Courtesy of the artist, Les Rencontres d'Arles and Galerie Perrotin, Paris

Sophie Calle: Pour la dernière et pour la première fois (For the Last and First Time)

Chapelle du Méjan, Arles
July 2 - September 2, 2012

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Yiqing Yin; Spring of Nüwa

Another fabulous couture collection by the Paris-based designer Yiqing Yin. After In Carne showed on January, Spring of Nüwa, Yin's new Autumn-Winter 2012-13 collection re-imagines the female form in a world of purely mineral and vegetable composition.

Light cascades of satin and muslin offer oblique suggestions of chasteness through their mounting layers. Skin is laid bare beneath pink-besprinkled tulle. Red remains pure. Silver and blue fade into one.

Yiqing Yin constructs her volumes through a series of metamorphoses enacted upon the body. Rough surfaces are honed and fluid materials sculpted in pursuit of the right weight. Garments are hand-made in Yin's studio, each bearing the mark of the designer's hand.

Yiqing Yin

Spring of Nüwa

Courtesy of Yiqing Yin

Friday, July 6, 2012

Peter Lippmann's Luxury Chicks

Have you ever seen chicks adorned with gorgeous gemstones? This amusing series of images will put a smile on your face.
Peter Lippmann did this photographic shoot for the French magazine Marie Claire 2 to promote luxury jewelry brands. This is not his most recent work, but nonetheless it is unique and stunning!!

Peter Lippmann is a still photographer, born in New York, but has been living and working in Paris for 30 years. Well known in the advertising world, he has collaborated with the most famous brands (Cartier, Audermars Piguet, Christian Louboutin, Fürterer...) and is regularly published in editorials such as Vogue, New York Times magazine, Marie Claire, and Le Figaro.

In his free time, Peter Lippmann writes and sings in a Parisian band "Lobotonics".

Peter Lippmann

Luxury Chicks

Courtesy of Peter Lippmann