Art & Fashion - Karl Lagerfeld - Egyptian-themed collection

Chanel presents Egyptian-themed collection around The Met's Temple of Dendur

"An ancient Egyptian temple at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art provided the setting for Chanel's latest catwalk show, when the French fashion house debuted a collection featuring glittering tweeds, golden garments and bold jewels. The catwalk looped The Met's Temple of Dendur – an Ancient Egyptian monument completed in 10BC – to create an appropriate setting for the debut of Chanel's 2018/19 Métiers d'art collection earlier this week. With a taste for elaborate shows, creative director Karl Lagerfeld chose the decorative sandstone temple to provide the backdrop for the presentation, as well as inform the Egyptian-style aesthetic of the pieces. "Egyptian civilisation has always fascinated me: I get inspired by an idea, which I make a reality," said Lagerfeld in a project statement. Floating regal garments, bold geometric prints and lavishly colourful accessories featured throughout the collection, along with plenty of golden garments in sparkling, shimmering and crackled textures. Beige, white and black tweeds – a Chanel staple – are threaded with mohair, gold and beaded cotton. "I think the image of this collection is very much down to this refinement which should be seen close up, almost touched, to understand how it is done and to really appreciate the beauty of this work," said Lagerfeld, who also drew on the antiquities for pieces in his first sculptural exhibition. Other motifs included the Ancient Egyptian scarab beetle, which can be seen a necklace, buttons, belt buckle, earrings and handbags, while the models' makeup resembled the Eye of Horus. American music producer Pharrell Williams – who is set to collaborate with Chanel – was adorned with the facial marking while modelling baggy gold trousers and a bejewelled jumper. Other features of this year's garments were intended asa  nod to New York, including street-art-style graphics on printed t-shirts, and a patched denim two-piece worn by model Kaia Gerber. "New York, it's an energy and a melting pot of cultures, it's very stimulating," said Lagerfeld."(Dezeen - youtube )

Art & Fashion

Art & Fashion : Shail Upadhya

Shail Upadhya (1935-2013) was a Nepalese diplomat, United Nations disarmament expert and fashion designer.
In a second career, Upadhya worked as a fashion designer, becoming a social fixture in New York City, known for his flamboyant and colorful suits and outfits. He was a prominent presence in the 2011 documentary film Bill Cunningham New York, about New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham.He lived in New York City, Southampton, New York, and Miami, Florida.
Upadhya was interviewed on Da Ali G Show by Sacha Baron Cohen's character Brüno at New York Fashion WeekWikipedia

Art & Fashion

Avant-garde fashion Hu Sheguang

"Spectators in the front row could have been forgiven for thinking they had wandered into a screening of a horror film rather than a catwalk presentation at China Fashion Week today. Designer Hu Sheguang's show was a riot of red with unsettling touches such as a model holding two dolls that looked as if they were covered in blood; horned figures and numerous prosthetic hands adorning the necks of garments.
The Chinese-Dutch fashion designer sent his models down the catwalk in nightmarish creations at the show in Beijing, with liberal splatterings of fake blood. 

 One model stepped down the catwalk in a full-length red gown accessorised with a fake mask and huge devil horns. Another made for a creepy sight as she walked with a model who looked as she could be her twin.
The sinister pair's appearance was enhanced as one was wearing a top that looked a lot like a straitjaket, binding her arms to her sides. A fake hand stuck out from each of their shoulders.
Even the models' hair was red, and was given a shiny appearance, possibly to echo the appearance of flowing blood as the showed off the designer's Autumn Winter 2016 collection.
A PVC dress with a huge flower on the shoulder made for a dramatic site, and was even more arresting as the model wore a matching mask covering her entire face with two slits for the eyes and one for the mouth.
Masks were a popular element of the collection with another model sporting a full face mask with two huge ears at the side, looking like a large bow. 

Although there were slits for the eyes and mouth, the person's face was completely invisible behind the creation. Body parts such as hands and heads featured liberally with one model sporting a huge cape-like garment with prosthetic hands emerging from the neckline. Another had give red heads with no eyes lined up along their shoulders, while a model walked down the catwalk with her face painted red and her eyes closed was almost impossible to distinguish from the mannequin heads around her shouldersA full skirted ballgown with coils of wire on top made the blood covered model look as if she'd been involved in a particularly nasty accident.
While models are known for strutting down the catwalk with blank sphinx-like expressions to let the clothes do the talking, this particular fashionista got into the spirit of things, with the angry look of a wild animal ready to pounce. Another paused for effect and stretched out her arms as she showed off her elaborate head gear, which featured a kite with ribbons that streamed to the floor.The designer moved to the Netherlands aged 16 and runs a fashion store in Amsterdam, and he's known for designs being at the more extreme end of the spectrum.."(  "Sexy as hell! PVC-clad models clutch demonic dolls and sprout devil's horns in bizarre Chinese catwalk show that is the stuff of nightmares"  dailymail.co.uk )

Art & Fashion

Art & Fashion - Surrealism and Fashion

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality". Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement.Wikipedia

"In Paris in the 1930s Surrealist artists and designers began to radically blur the boundaries between art and commerce, plundering each others’ toolboxes for a new and more daring language. Surrealist artists regularly distorted and reconfigured the body. They used corresponding fashion-related imagery including mannequins and cuttings from fashion magazines, as seen in Conroy Maddox’s The Cloak of Secrecy, 1940 and André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba and Yves Tanguy’s Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse), 1938.
This in turn led the fashion industry into braver, more unsettling territory. Designer Elsa Schiaparelli worked with artist Salvador Dalí to create a wide range of clothing including skeleton and lobster dresses, while photographer Man Ray transformed fashion photographs into works of art.
Surreal approaches to fashion have continued to this day with flamboyant characters like Leigh Bowery, Isabella Blow, Björk and Lady Gaga. They can also still be found across contemporary catwalks as demonstrated by designers Gareth Pugh, Philip Treacy, Viktor & Rolf, Comme des Garçons and many more.
As the following pages demonstrate, students at Galashiels have gained a solid understanding of the relationship between Surrealism and fashion which has greatly influenced their designs."(www.nationalgalleries.org)

Art & Fashion

Carnival masks - Carnival of Venice

The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday (Martedì Grasso or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is world famous for its elaborate masks.
It's said that the Carnival of Venice was started from a victory of the "Serenissima Repubblica" against the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico di Treven in the year 1162. In the honour of this victory, the people started to dance and gather in San Marco Square. Apparently, this festival started on that period and became official in the Renaissance.In the seventeenth century, the baroque carnival was a way to save the prestigious image of Venice in the world. It was very famous during the eighteenth century It encouraged licence and pleasure, but it was also used to protect Venetians from present and future anguish. However, under the rule of the King of Austria, the festival was outlawed entirely in 1797 and the use of masks became strictly forbidden. It reappeared gradually in the nineteenth century, but only for short periods and above all for private feasts, where it became an occasion for artistic creations.Wikipedia

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