Polychromatique.

I'll give you a break from my favorite blog topic, nevertheless - brace yourself for another one I've touched on twice before : Dazed and Confused. Another publication that would deserve to be bestowed much grander praises upon than it already is, because even though their covers tend to be underwhelming they can do no wrong in terms of contents. Hiring newcomers and emerging photographers? Not the type of delightful combinations we get to savor from every magazines out there. This month we're spoiled and get Polish image-maker Kacper Kasprzyk and Swedish model Theres Alexandersson working in concert in a twelve-pages long colorfully flowery editorial.

The vibrancy of the colors takes over your sight at once ; the textured quality of the images draws out the fabrics the clothes are made out of, while the model's stately poses add a certain starkness to the whole. There's a certain dichotomy organic to the spread in that despite its being a glorious bacchanal of colors, it still has a statuesque austerity to it. Theres's modelling has a lot to do with setting up this chilling atmosphere. Naysayers would argue that oh my God! she sticks to the same facial expression all throughout the editorial! but within certain aesthetics, a semblance of inertness can be more befitting than smiley faces and extravagant poses. Being a good model doesn't solely amount to having a wide repertoire of poses and expressions. It also - and above all - comes with knowing when to use this repertoire, when to change the things up. A good model is able to adapt to the defining signature of every photographer she works for, and here the lack of variety expressions-wise is not only welcomed but also meshes together and increases the brooding intensity of the imagery.

In regards to the latter, I think you have to see past the pared down and and stern feeling that sticks out from the overall composition of the set to fully get absorbed into Kacper Kasprzyk's photography and his painterly approach. Being a dilettante art enthusiast, I can actually detect a tenuous reference to French artist Matisse here. He is deemed the leader of Fauvism, an art movement that spanned over four years (from 1904 to 1908) and was characterized by a cheerfully vivid aesthetic, in which colors were utilized as the main mean to channel your emotions and feelings onto the canvas (just as a heads-up). The resemblance may seem quite implicit - and even insignificant to some - but the color palette that runs through the set is very much akin to the colors Matisse falls back upon all throughout his oeuvre, while some of There's poses also happen to echo back to the painter's work.

Yet again my eyes may just be playing tricks on me and deceiving me into making out references to art that by no means exist, but given the photographer studied both painting and sculpture before branching out into photography, I might aswell allow myself to think he did take his cue from Matisse's paintings. I suppose you're starting to know my inclination to make fashion and art intersect by now, so this whole babbling shouldn't leave you overtly bemused. It's just that I've had enough of people pigeon-holing fashion into the uni-dimensional misconception it's widely attached to, and even though I'm just whiling away the time by dropping a few lines onto this online platform, I hold out hope some passerby changes their mind about fashion (or at least, about some aspects of it) after reading them.

source : scanned by williscrazy @ tFS

Le Diable au Corps.

Evija Kreismane, Latvian, unfortunately on the shorter side. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for this one since late June and looking forward to her evolution with avidity. Needless to mention the bittersweet feeling I've felt filled with everytime I've browsed through her portfolio and found no recent test material whatsoever. Bitter, because when taking notice of a compelling newcomer, you consequently want her to put out substantive test shoots - firstly to get treated to new work from her, secondly because you want her to manage to keep her head above water later on in her career, and for a model, this partly comes with being familiar with the camera and able to thrive off of editorial sessions. Sweet, because I appreciate it when agencies keep mum on the developement of the newfaces they hold in store - that's how they're most likely to get people intrigued and keep them anticipating. It all boils down to straddling the line between overdone hype and utter muteness - all about being moderately secretive, as I've already stated before. An endeavor far away from being effortless, since lots of things today (from means of transportation up to means of information) are designed to give people access to whatever they want increasingly easily so they can indulge their appetites - the faster, the better, I would also say.

In the age of the Internet, the word patience has lost its significance and actually seems to belong to the days of yore ; you can't even begin to feel the willingness to know about something that it has already been splashed all over the Web. The Spring / Summer ad campaigns are starting to roll in for instance, which signifies a certain angst related to the haste of all these releases starting to wash over me. It struck me last season, when a few hours after the first images of the Louis Vuitton campaign came out, the whole set was already up on their website and onto The Fashion Spot. It took away all the excitement linked to discovering the ad. It's just going too fast, really.

I'm not trying to hold responsible all the so-and-sos kind enough to scan / get pictures off brands websites and put them up for everyone to see them, because the real culprit is our impulse to find out about everything always faster, which prompts us to embrace the leaking craze and take part in it - and this is an impulse earned through the era of mass media and what it shoehorns us into doing (don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly count myself in that plight). Then again, I guess utilizing mankind-friendly innovations (whether they be technological, ideological etc...) at hand beyond the boundaries of reason is equally inherent to human nature - instead of being wise and getting the best out of them, we get anything likely to provide us instant and personal satisfaction without thinking of the impact of this all on the future - ours. Not that (almost) entire magazines issues being spread across the web within two days after their releases is that serious. Not that we could boycott the Internet into a more level-headed use of it even if we wanted to.

source : joystars.lv via *Bianca* @ tFS ; facebook.com via lanvinray @ tFS ; draugiem.lv via fadedcolors @ tFS

On the passage of time.

While starting off writing this article, I swear I was meaning to touch on a topic related with neither Steven Meisel nor Vogue Italia (because I'm under the impression I've already touched on both of them a bajillion times) - but then their January 2011 cover emerged within sight and I couldn't help but give in. This is such a pictorial image, pastel-colored yet far away from being corny, reminiscent of long-gone fashion eras yet anything but rehashed-looking.

This cover actually stands out due to the opposition you can draw up between the overall feel of it and its components took apart. Paradoxically enough, it echoes back to the past and yet it's firmly pinned down in the present : on the one hand you have the setting, the numbers held up by both mannequins and the color palette that bring you back to the 40's, on the other hand you can spot two pieces from the Chanel Spring / Summer 2011 collection, two of today's most en vogue models and the 2011 Allure words printed below the picture. When you strip away all its aesthetic value, you can begin to feel the underlying issue that's raised by the covershot : time within fashion and to a further extent, within life.

I'm aware I might be sounding like I completely missed the point of this photograph, but what most drew my eyes in is the kinetic figure in the background. It is so loaded with significance that it makes it tough to just see it. It appears like the signifier of the most menacing characteristic of time, namely its invincible restlessness : what is right now will be gone a second later (and what's in as of now will grow outdated next season). However detached from time you're willing to be, it won't stop it from slipping away ; the more you try to cling to it and hold it back to you, the more it drags you down into its nomadic course. Whatever you do, you lose, for struggling against time equates to struggling against the unknown, an unpalpable might you get put through but can't begin to describe let alone fight off.

I think this adds a brilliant touch to the picture because it also seems to question the primary purpose of photography. Prior to being an art or a hobby, it intends to capture and document fleeting moments so they're never fleeting anymore. It's utilized as a medium to keep a semblance of a chockehold on time (and is a nice testimony of what human beings are capable of thinking up to leave bits of themselves behind), but if you keep in mind that this bustling silhouette is the depiction of the continous passage of time, you're elusively reminded how much of a deceit photography is. You don't capture an instantaneous moment but an image of it ; photography doesn't enable you to immortalize the instant but only provides you with a stagnant representation of it. Magritte called it the Treachery of Images in regards to painting, but this is also applicable to all the recording means that have surfaced ever since.

As for the models choice, it earns an A+ from me. If you are either an Arizona or a Freja follower, you have probably witnessed their blossoming friendship and this should leave you as eager as I am to see how this possible chemistry between them will translate onto the main editorial (assuming and hoping they were commended to interact with each other). I personally don't belong to Arizona's fandom (not yet) but she's slowly been growing on me by means of the solid printwork she's put out and there's undoubtedly potential to be tapped in her. Besides, you may have felt how big of a Freja fan I am, so it should be enough of an explanation to back me up, but I still feel like trying to throw light on why.

I think that one of the greatest factors in keeping me hooked on Freja is her constancy in terms of persona. Working amidst a hubbub constantly moving on from the past, she embodies the sustainable force who not only sticks around but also takes on increasing importance all the while remaining the same at heart - and even through the image she projects. All throughout her most prosperous years (from late 2008 up until now) she's stayed true to the nonchalance she's crafted and that has basically taken part in making a true brand off of herself. Funnily enough, just when you think the inconceivable success she's been gaining is likely to get to her head and gets you wondering if it will cause her to change wholly, she seems to reach her peak of steadiness - untouched hairstyle, immutable streetstyle, pervading casualness.

This is a comforting feeling indeed, to know that you can count on one model at least to provide you with a certain stability that is hardly ever to be found in fashion and its endless fluctuations. Accordingly, this stability that defines Freja seems to translate into her fanbase through a certain loyalty intrinsic to a lot of her followers. Perhaps you can chalk it up to hazard, but to me there's something more than coincidental about how most of her fans can't seem to stray away from her once they start answering to the name of Freja fan. It's a tacit give-and-take relation - she guarantees you constancy, you guarantee her lasting dedication.

I am fully aware that these last sentences might come across as out of the blue, but it seemed to me that they'd fit in with the rest of this article somehow. It isn't lost on me either that this post - its length and the topic it deals with - might be off-putting to some, but sometimes you just have to get your thoughts down and write for yourself, don't you?

source : scanned by ZFashionBlog @ tFS

Asche zu asche.

By Franck Gelabert

If you've been a long enough follower of this blog, you certainly know that I don't deem exclusives indicative of successful careers prospects when it comes to newcomers. IMG's Eileen Hydorn walked exclusively for Prada in Milan, and seemed more than randomly thrown in the all-around brunettes casting, as though with the purpose of rounding out the line-up. So if you can take anything away from this all, it's that I don't raise my hopes as to Eileen and don't lull myself into thinking she's bound to rack up countless opening slots and prestigious covers (I wouldn't mind eating my words within the couple years to come though). Nonetheless the shots above, deftly lensed by Franck Gelabert, led me down the path of writing a few words down about her, because she remains among the newbies I'm most keen to see exist, at least. What warmed me up to her is that antagonistic quality to her presence : that runway-ready sterness about her, which dies away and grows into a certain vulnerability - though slightly androgynous aswell - on pictures.

By Karl Rothenberg

Killing two birds with one stone, I'd also like to devote a few lines to Karl Rothenberg, who is among my favorite tester around as of late. Actually his work doesn't clamor to be more than what it has the humble goal of being (i.e. testing models and make them more familiar with the camera), but it's all to do with how he captures the essence of every girl he snaps a shot of through his photography than his photography per se. He lays bare the beauty that lies beneath in every model ; it's not a type of beauty that instantly burns into the cerebrum but one you can identify with, or at least feel close to, because it's neither burried under insane amounts of airbrushing nor rolled up in unaffordable clothes. There's also a tangible sense of modesty and a palpable emotion to his imagery that makes it truly stick out.

Just when you're certain that superficiality has a stranglehold on fashion as a whole, you stumble upon such odes to naturalness, and there's no denying it is refreshing. This is a little puzzling when you think about it, the way fashion is capable of breeding two ideal beauties that utterly go against each other - abstemiousness versus shallowness : the first one that people embrace with the will to stay true to themselves, and the other one that a decent amount of fashion aficionados buy into at all costs. I won't dare any conjecture as to what pushes the latter into such an attention-demanding, (self-)deceptive take on beauty and style, but it most definitely isn't the crowd of fashion lovers that sollicits the most positive responses from me... Though Anna dello Russo approves of it, and it's naturally all that matters at the end of the day.

source : franckgelabert.com ; karlrothenberg.blogspot.com

Lignes et Attitude.

Denmark's Cover is not a publication whose releases I usually look out for. I think this magazine fails at cultivating a solid connection to Danish fashion scene and the talents it most likely holds in, and hiring home raised insiders is the most crucial standard I expect a local publication to live up to (don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming that foreigners should continuously get written off the editorship of the magazine - let alone that the era of globalisation must make this increasingly tough a project to take on... but still). However, a most pleasant surprise turned the corner as their January 2011 issue hit the newsstands : Snejana on and inside the magazine, wearing denim from head to toe (or almost.)

The impetus behind the editorial may not consist in challenging the fashion codes related to wearing jeans, but there's something about this that is so akin to Daria Werbowy's printwork circa 2003-2005 that I cannot help being partial to it. Nostalgia takes up an important place in my relation to fashion and I will be more prone to soak up a recent editorial if it brings to mind an older one that had a hand in reinforcing my love for the fashion industry. As for the instant association I drew up between Daria's early body of work and these images, it must have to do with the strong sense of rawness pouring off them, the proeminence of casual pieces throughout the set and the subtle range of expressions - no wonder I'm drawn to this spread so much all in all, not to mention it features Ukrainian model Snejana Onopka, who is high up in my book.

If they're going to stick around, mere models can't allow themselves to miss out on opportunities to pop up in magazines, as opposed to Snejana, whose scarce appearances only add to her mystery, and who has this brooding daintiness to her that holds her up a notch higher than the sea of tall faceless creatures that will get whisked away sooner or later.

The downside to being a model whose work extends beyond the pages of low-key publications is that you consequently earn a certain reputation and ineluctably run the risk of getting entrenched within the stereotypes people attach to you. Snejana is no stranger to getting labelled as someone she might or might not be, and sadly, her supposed persona seems to overshadow the role she's playing here, at least from the opinions I've read. To be honest, I wish her going tough wouldn't equate to her letting her inner bitchiness shine through - in people's minds, that is. I wish they would see a model getting into the character she was prescribed to get into. I wish they would stop letting what Snejana is rumored to be tarnish/magnify the image they hold of her, and I wish they would concentrate on her capability of channelling emotions into print instead.

That's why, to a certain extent, I wish models wouldn't emerge as public personalities as they've been doing for a while, so we could all objectively dwell on their actual work rather than what they may be like outside the modelling sphere - although this non-distinction between work and privacy also applies to commoners, and I find myself a little startled at how these two often get intertwined together into a single entity. Who you are privately shouldn't overstep your job, while your job shouldn't come to define who you are. At any rates, this makes me wonder if that increasing enthusiasm towards models and the personalities behind is due to fashion and the part they play in it rendered more accessible and thus more recognized thanks to the Internet, or if models are shaping up to be tomorrow's mainstream entertainment...?

source : scanned by iluvjeisa @ tFS

Néo.

June July 1988 - October 1989 - August 1992

Christmas... What a fantastic excuse to slacken off and float through the consumerist craze that has come to define this celebration (unless, of course, you prefer using your common sense rather than mindlessly throwing your money about just for the sake of being obedient to the diktats society has set). All bitterness aside, I could - at least - take advantage of the meaningless atmosphere of this all to get offered a couple fashion-related books I had been eyeing forever, among which Steven Meisel : Three Hundred and Seventeen and Counting, which pulls together all the covers the photographer has lensed for Vogue Italia from July/August 1988 up until April 2009. This book may seem too meager a mean to round up twenty one years' work (back when it was published) to some, but I personally apprehend it as an encyclopaedia not only recording Meisel's major body of work but also lifting everything it consists out of from undergoing the onslaught of time and neglect.

December 1992 - August 1993 - October 1996

The front cover is adorned with black capital letters superimposed over a plain, white bakground while the back cover provides us with a mild overview of Meisel's work ; mild, if right on :

[...] Meisel not only depicts fashion. He defines it and gives it cultural reasonance.

Way to 1) set the tone 2) sum up a two decades-long undertaking in a handful words 3) express why I admire this photographer better than I ever did. Meisel has seemingly been slagged off quite a lot recently, as well as Vogue Italia has been claimed to be going downhill. As a fan of both the photographer and publication standing in the midst of this all, you would expect me to react indignantly, but being a fan shouldn't preclude from being realistic, and fact of the matter is that I consider 2010 to be more of a down than an up for Franca Sozzani and what she's come out with.

March 1999

Nevertheless, this book helped me comprehend that the views on Steven Meisel I had been holding up until one day ago were actually incorrect. I used to think he had never been outdone because of his capability of singling out current phenomenons at the right moment and basing his photography on them, which is inaccurate. Not only does he master topical fashion photography but he also knows how to give birth to typical, though amazing, fashion photography. That is why he is unparalleled. He can swing back and forth from reality, irony or harshness to beauty, luxury and dream, and that's why I cannot pick on him for going from Water and Oil to Vision of Feminity as nonchalantly as possible. I think that's what every image-maker worthy of the name ought to be able to do : make the beauty that may not surround us on a daily basis more accessible, broaden the primary goal of fashion to more up-to-date of a function, get us to face up to reality, mock some of our current zeitgeists ; and sway between these styles in the blinking of an eye.

July 2000 - April 2002 - October 2002

However awe-inspiring and talented Steven Meisel is, here's to keeping in ming that talent is worth nothing when not left open the possibility of expressing itself and blossoming out. It is in collaboration with Franca Sozzani, editor in chief of Vogue Italia, that Meisel has churned out fashion-forward and life-inspired concepts every month since mid-1988, and thanks to her that his visionary skills got to reach their peaks of intelligence. I've always felt Franca was unfairly left out of the cuddle in terms of public recognition, as opposed to her peers Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour, who relentlessly get put up on a pedestal and crowned as fashion godesses. Of course I'm not trying to play down Anna and Carine's impact on fashion, the control they had/have had over their respective publication and what they have achieved as business women but unlike Franca, they can't purport to uphold fashion as a thoughtful art and can't take pride in setting creativity above selling clothes, that's why I can't help feeling resentful when realizing how poor the recognition the latter's gained outside (and even inside) the tight fashion-lovers crowd is.

July 2003 (Supplements) - November 2003

I'm sorry to harp on this as much as I do. In real life I would tend to say being under the radar is nothing worthy of getting worked up over, but it's fashion we're talking about, and the fashion industry is miles away from real life. It's a world within which you can set forth the reputation that precedes you as a favour to make your way up. The image you cast is nearly as important as what you do, while what you do, however brilliant it may be, guarantees you neither acknowledgement nor praise. This is the realm of fashion, and this isn't lost on me. Should I necessarily swallow it down without further protest notwithstanding? Don't blame me, complaining is just organic to human nature, and making your complaints heard rises up as a safe balance between utter apathy and attempting to actually change something - both being absolutely intolerable to mankind.

August 2005 - September 2008 - March 2010

source : lexposure.net ; kristenmcm.altervista.org ; scanned by iluvjeisa @ tFS ; scanned by Mojopin @ tFS ; scanned by Proximity @ tFS ; scanned by Diciassette (17) @ tFS ; vogue-italia.blogspot.com ; fashionmodeldirectory.com