Marie-Lou Desmeules is an artist who uses pure pigment to transform living models into bizarre sculptures of surreal celebrity lookalikes. Her work refers in particular to plastic surgery which often for some reason or another, didn’t exactly go as anticipated. We can read in her work a veiled complaint to reality television, which imposed this kind of beauty.
Hundreds of colourful bristles emanate from headdresses in Maiko Takeda’s millinery collection, presented at the Royal College of Art fashion show earlier this week.The adornments consist of transparent plastic spikes tinted with colour gradients at the bases and tips, which are held in place between sections of acrylic joined
by small silver rings.
“While hats are commonly made with substantial and durable materials such as fabric, felt, plastic, leather so on, instead I wanted to create ethereal experiences for the wearer through the pieces,” Takeda told Dezeen.
“Through the experiment process, I developed the technique to create a visual effect of intangible aura by layering printed clear film, sandwiched with acrylic discs and linked together with silver jump rings.”One head piece comprises two domes covered in orange and red spines that sit either side of the face with in thin gap in between, and another mask with orange and purple spines wraps around the head like a sea cucumber.Peacock-tail-coloured quills fan out like ruffled feathers around a visor that masks from forehead to mouth. Another design covers the head, shoulders and bust but leaves the face exposed, while a different garment reaches from one wrist to another along two sleeves that join across the chest and back.
“When I saw the Philipp Glass and Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach last year, it became my main inspiration and its futuristic mood of the space age heavily influenced the aesthetic of my collection,” said Takeda. Her collection was part of the Royal College of Art‘s annual fashion show, which took place on several occasions this week.Last month we wrote about headsets that allow the wearer to adjust their sight and hearing, which were also developed by a group of Royal College of Art students.
Photography is by Bryan Huynh.
“She had the courage to paint women’s pain, which must never be revealed in patriarchal warrior societies. Yet she was true to her longing, as a female, to create beauty even out of an imperfect female body. Viva Frida! I visited Casa Azul, and everything I see and read about her still touches the deepest core of my feminine soul,”
Frida Kahlo wore her heart on her sleeve, though not the way one might think. In real life, as on the canvases of her many self-portraits, Kahlo used fashion to channel her physical and emotional insecurities into statements of strength, heritage, and beauty. Yet for nearly 50 years, her personal wardrobe remained hidden to scholars and fans alike, locked away shortly after Kahlo’s death in 1954.
“Because of its geometry, it was the perfect dress to disguise Kahlo’s imperfections and distinguish her from her famous husband.”
When Kahlo passed just after her 47th birthday, her husband and fellow artist, Diego Rivera, began placing her most personal belongings into a bathroom of their Mexico City house. Upon Rivera’s death in 1957, their home, also known as La Casa Azul or “The Blue House,” became the Museo Frida Kahlo. But shortly before Rivera died, he gave instructions to a close personal friend, Dolores Olmedo, that the room containing Frida’s wardrobe should stay locked for the next 15 years. Olmedo took Rivera’s request so seriously that she ultimately decided to keep the room sealed until her own death in 2002.
During the last decade, the museum has finally been able to catalog and organize the bathroom’s contents, which included hundreds of documents, photographs, and artworks, in addition to around 300 articles of clothing and personal objects, from a pair of earrings Picasso gave Kahlo to her customized prosthetic devices. Just last November, in collaboration with Vogue México, the museum opened the first exhibition of Kahlo’s personal garments, presenting her attire through the lens of disability and female empowerment, as well as her continued influence on fashion. The exhibition focuses on the ways Kahlo used her iconic style, often composed of traditional Tehuana garments, to project her feminist and socialist beliefs while also masking her debilitating injuries.
the history:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/uncovering-clues-in-frida-kahlos-private-wardrobe/
Enrica Sacco
The Lane Bryant #IMNOANGEL initiative celebrates women of all shapes and sizes by redefining society’s traditional notion of sexy with a powerful core message: ALL women are sexy,” the brand says.
It’s a direct dig at Victoria’s Secret, and social media is loving it. Women have jumped on the trending hashtag, posting their own photos and declarations with #ImNoAngel.
Ashley Graham, one of the stars of the Lane Bryant campaign (she was also in that Swimsuits for All ad in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue), posted a fun photo to Instagram yesterday, writing: “On the F train, literally. Can’t hide these curves!!!”.
Source: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/lane-bryant-bashes-victorias-secret-im-no-angel-campaign-163944
Post-Glitch fashion: http://post-glitch.tumblr.com/
Contessa Rosafosca is a laboratory where there are projects and strictly handmade items made with the belief that “beauty is not perfection: the imperfections, unique details, the mistakes make beautiful and personal collections of accessories, clothing and above all make it interesting and unique people. ” Contessa Rosafosca wants to shape an ancient tradition with new … joining present with future. Design and craft, a winning combination to propose new stimuli, creating shapes from harmonic lines capable of transferring the glass jewel a charming and elegant timeless style. Contessa Rosafosca is a trademark of OZ SIGN Cesaretto Silvia, a young graphic designer of Venetian origin. After working for seven years in the advertising agencies of Padua, Rovigo, Ferrara and Milan, in 2004 she moved to Switzerland, where she still lives and works as a graphic designer.
Source (in Italian): Contessa Rosafosca
With time, a shaven head has became fashionable as skinheads have eventually lost their shock value. Bald and beautiful is what these women would like to be called.
Source: Weheartit.com
Georgia Jagger, is a British model become famous beyond her imperfect teeth.
The vampire, a strange evil creature. It can hide it’s rot just with magic and it drinks women’s blood. He his a living dead, a deceiver…but he is also very charming and last year one of the strangest teen fashion was the “vampire teeth”. Many gilrs and boys want to shape their canines to be close to a vampire. it looks like it’s an effect of the “twilight saga”.
Anyway some people don’t need a cosmetic surgey operation: Danieledoesntmatter is one of the most popular Italian youtubers (200000 followers) and his canines are just like that, but they are natural…he was born this way and his teeth are one of his main strenght, he says.
Source (in Italian): http://planetstarblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/daniele-doesnt-matter-il-vampiro-piu-simpatico-e-famoso-del-web/
See also: http://beautifullyimperfects.net/2012/12/17/the-yaeba-smile/
Last year on the June issue’s front page of the Italian fashion magazine Vogue were photographed curvy women with the headline “Real Beauties”. Seems that finally fashion gives way to curvy gilrs considering them as expression of beauty and femininity.
Britain’s Missing Top Model was a British Reality TV modelling show aired on BBC Three. The première episode aired on 1 July 2008. The show courted controversy, with many speculating that the show made disability a spectator event.
The show followed eight young women with disabilities, who competed for a modelling contract (which included a photo shoot with Rankin and a cover photo in Marie Claire). Aired over a period of five weeks the women lived together and competed in a series of challenges and photo shoots. Each week at least one contestant was sent home.
The eventual winner was Kelly Knox.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain’s_Missing_Top_Model
“Ripped jeans started it all. Before there were premium denim brands boasting a million different cuts, color washes, whiskers or “worn in” looks it was the jeans with holes gaping at the knees, which were the purest form of denim customization. These tried and true sartorial soldiers wore their state of dog-eared disrepair like a badge of honor. They were jeans so well loved by their owners that the idea of parting with them , even after the textile has rubbed away into threads of its former self, was inconceivable.Today it is impossible to know who has put the time into authentically creating their porous jeans with the all natural air conditioning at the knees and who has just bought a prefabricate designer version. The new challenge with the ripped jeans look is to come up with a novel way to wear the style. To this end some fashionistas are brazenly slicing chunks of denim out of their jeans and brands are targeting unusual areas for faux “wear and tear” features like on the upper thighs or down the length of a seam.It doesn’t really matter how you got your rips in your jeans. But why not come up with an interesting back story for your shredded denim. After all, something that looks so deliciously ragged should have tale to tell.”
Source: http://www.vogue.it/en/trends/vogue-manias/2012/07/ripped-jeans
A great contribution by Gloria Maria Cappelletti:
Catwalk Ghost by Gloria Maria Cappelletti (2003)
