fashion celebrity

Above Abraham Pelham Haute Couture, Paris, 1999 by Jean-Marie Périer and below Didier Grumbach, president of the Chambre Syndicale In 2011, only 11 couture houses remain in Paris. This is the smallest number since the founding of the French federation. Couture is fashion as art. It is an original work with a great investment of time and resources in order to express values of beauty. Because the fashion industry treats all the creations as commodities, it is also a product. The clients, from fourth generation Chanel wearers to Middle East nouveau riche, are just a tiny percentage of the world. Custom clothing will always be made, but the point of the French system is to raise the bar of the custom clothing to the highest standard, to encourage integrity of design and aesthetic value. Left original Chanel couture presentation and in 2010, below Chanel couture As impressive as the designs, the couture shows are also an enormous investment of time and re...

November 2013, more here

Am I the only one who feels these photos sell the clothes better than the formal shots? See 100 great outtakes at Vogue UK here Am I the only one who feels these photos sell the clothes better than the formal shots? See 100 great outtakes at Vogue UK here

This is a short history of fashion photography through the 1970s. Part II, the 1980s through the present, follows this post at the bottom and here . Guy Bourdin, 1978 In order to discuss fashion photography, it should first be understood as a unique type of photograph, one that is simultaneously documentary and art work. In addressing fashion photography in his book The Fashion System, Roland Barthes explains that the world is a backdrop. That backdrop can be transformed into particular stages for specific theater themes. The theater of meaning in fashion then walks the line between the serious and the whimsical. Barthes identifies 3 common strategies in the fashion photograph: 1. literal representation: the catalog shot displaying the garment Tom Kublin, Balenciaga, 1953 2. romanticized: fashion becomes referential, a story where real life becomes art like in acting out dreams Chris Von Wangenheim, Vogue, 1979 3. mockery:...