" Wonderland " viewed by Kirsty Mitchell

Fashion theme continues with the "Wonderland" series of UK based photographer and fashion designer Kirsty Mitchell.  A graduate with honors in fashion design at Ravensbourne College, Mitchell also completed two internships at the design studios of Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan, who both  have effected her greatly, and have given her a hunger for the extraordinary.

Not only Mitchell shoots amazing pictures, she also makes her own props, costumes and sets. She spends a huge amount of time walking in forests, and driving around randomly, to scout the locations. Color and environment are vital to her work.

"The stories my mother read to me as a child and their illustrations inspired me greatly, and are the root of almost everything I create."


Discover the imaginary world of Kirsty Mitchell, a world of beauty, field of dreams, blooming flowers....

Wonderland

Courtesy Kirsty Mitchell

The Textile Sculptures or Fabric Art of Emilie Faif

A huge heart, secret landscapes, some floating meadows, red flowers .... Discover the exquisite world of Emilie Faif, a world that adheres to the logic of dreams and where dreams take on the colors and contours of reality.

Body, dream, everything is there: the body in dreams, dreams in the skin, the tissue woven between the two. Emilie Faif plays with the fabric, using every inch to create these unique sculptures.

Born in 1976, Emilie Faif is a visual artist and a scenographer. In 2000, she graduated from l'ENS d'Arts Appliques Olivier de Serres et des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Her creations include installations and scenographies for l'Atelier des Enfants at Pompidou Center, Isabel Marant, Hermes, Tsumori Chisato and more...

Red, 2011, window displays for Printemps Haussman, Paris

Under the skin, 2011

@Tsumori Chisato, Paris

Rainbow scarf, 2011, window displays @ Tsumori Chisato

Paris - New York, 2010

Mamelle, 2010 @Centre Culturel de Gentilly, France

Prairie (meadow), 2009

Heart, 2010, window displays @Isabel Marant

Courtesy Emilie Faif

Diane Arbus, the Exhibition at Jeu de Paume

Diane Arbus (New York, 1923-1971) revolutionized the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are.

Arbus found most of her subjects in New York City, a place that she explored as both a known geography and as a foreign land, photographing people she discovered during the 1950s and 1960s. Her contemporary anthropology - portraits of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities - stands as an allegory of the human experience, an exploration of the relationship between appearance and identity, illusion and belief, theater and reality.

In this first major retrospective in France, Jeu de Paume presents a selection of two hundred photographs, including all of the artist's iconic photographs as well as many that have never been publicly exhibited. Even the earliest examples of her work demonstrate Arbus's distinctive sensibility through the expression on a face, someone's posture, the character of the light, and the personal implications of objects in a room or landscape.

"I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them."
~~Diane Arbus

Identical twins, Roselle, New Jersey 1967

Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus 

Untitled (6) 1970-71

Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Teenage couple on Hudson Street, N.Y.C 1963
Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962
Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Boy with a straw hat waiting to march in a pro-war parade, N.Y.C. 1967
Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. 1966
Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Xmas tree in a living room in Levittown, Long Island 1963
Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Courtesy Jeu de Paume, Paris, France

Diane Arbus

October 18, 2011 - February 5, 2012

@Jeu de Paume, Paris
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Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones - a collaboration between the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and Stephen Jones, the world's foremost hat designer - is  currently on view at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) in New York City. The exhibition held for the first time in this country, displays more than 250 hats chosen by the master milliner.

On display are hats ranging from a 12th century Egyptian fez to a 1950s Balenciaga hat and couture creations by Jones and his contemporaries. The designer spearheaded the fashionable revival of British millinery in the early 1980s. Using unusual materials and daring designs, his exquisitely crafted hats have pushed the boundaries of hat design forward for more than three decades.

" I was honored when the V&A asked me to curate an exhibition about hats. I had so much fun finding unique head decoration in the most interesting places. This exhibition draws on millinery collections world-wide and is truly an eclectic and exciting anthology of hats from the last millennium to the present day." --Stephen Jones

Stephen Jones

©Justinephotography

Stephen Jones for Christian Dior Haute Couture

"Olga Sherer inspired by Gruau" Hat

©Catwalking.com

Jo Gordon, "Kiss of Death" 1994

©V&A Images

Crown, 1800-1900

©V&A Images

Elsa Schiaparelli, Shoe Hat, 1938

©V&A Images

Caroline Reboux, Feather Tricorne, about 1935

©V&A Images

Graham Smith, Pirelli tire, 1985

©V&A Images

Stephen Jones, Silk Twist hat, 1982

©V&A Images

Stephen Jones, Pas de deux, 1982

©V&A Images

Philip Treacy, Feather Hat, 1995

©V&A Images

Kirsten Woodward, Sex on the Brain, 1989

©V&A Images

Bonnet, about 1805

©V&A Images

Quilted cap, 1800-1900

©V&A Images

Paulette Hat, about 1960

©V&A Images

Balenciaga for Elsa, Spiral Hat, Winter 1962

©V&A Images

Twisted straw hat, about 1937

©V&A Images

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones

September 15, 2011 - April 15, 2012

@ Bard Graduate Center, New York City

Courtesy Bard Graduate Center
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Mary Katrantzou S/S 2012: Metal meets Petal

Nature versus Nurture, Mary Katrantzou's inspiration for Spring/Summer 2012 is the contrast between natural and man-made, artificial against organic, industrial fabrication vs the inherent beauty of nature.

Imagine the change encounter of a crushed cadillac and a field of wildflowers at the bottom of the pacific ocean: industrial and natural juxtaposed, still separate but in perfect synergy.
The basis for the prints this time are tin cans, metal drums, microphones and car parts. 'Natural' prints are derived from the scales of fish and frogs, birds' plumage, coral reefs, cherry blossom trees, repeats of branch and foliage and finally, armies of flowers marching across every surface.

Color is eye-popping, saturated, print drenching the models from top to toe. Garment or fabric, every inch is smothered in pattern. Embroidery, beading and applique pop flat surfaces into three dimensions. Metallic shards leap from printed backgrounds sparkling with precious Swarovski Crystal Elements, vegetation is reworked in bugle fringe. Legs are rising from banks of thick embroidery clasping the ankles of metallic Christian Louboutin heels.

This season, Katrantzou's vision engulfs not only her clothes but her venue as well. Flowers leap from the clothes to the catwalk, combined with metal in a site-specific installation as background to her latest aesthetic experiments.

The result is stunning. Man meets machine meets Mother Earth. An army of petal, metal and print. True flower power.

Mary Katrantzou Spring/Summer 2012

Courtesy Mary Katrantzou
Images, courtesy Catwalking
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