Painting is like silent poem, said Simonides, poet from ancient Greece.Paintings are icons, doors to the Platonian world above the heavens. Paintings on my blog are just those icons, which lead a viewer into the magic world of harmony and beauty. Artists who present their achievements on my blog have a very different cultural and national background, they represent variety of artistic traditions and schools
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 )
"Guo Pei swings between reality and fantasy as easily as one walks through a door. This season, she was firmly in wonderland and turned her set at the Cirque d’Hiver into a gateway toward Elysium, a paradise found. In the middle, the tangled roots of a tree served as an organic chandelier, the work of French papier maché artist Charles Macaire.Out came an oblong dress woven in bamboo harvested from the forests of Huangshan mountain ranges in China, beset with golden flowers; 22 more dresses followed, all inspired by flora and richly embellished. Few take florals to quite the lengths that Guo does. She has been considering life as a quasi-mystical force and shaped her work of the season accordingly, letting handcraft take its most exuberant course.Each look pushed the envelope on a technique that the Chinese couturier harnesses when her real-life clients come calling: appliqués, beading, pleating, fringing. Perching on transparent chopines, models resembled flowers in a violently bountiful garden. One purple pleated number looked like a blowsy peony, while another came heavy with pearly drops. Elsewhere, blooms simply climbed up a tabard.For the finale, an immaculate gown with trailing crystals glided across the slick surface of the circular runway. A djembé performer came out as the models took their place around the circular platform. Feathers fell from the rafters. The clapping was as loud as for any performance.At a time where commercial realities abound even in couture, Guo Pei approaches creation is an end unto itself. Who cares if her designs look like they belong in the costume department of an opera house?" (By Lily Templeton on January 25, 2018 wwd.com )
“We are giants!” said one of the models backstage as a sneak peek spoiled the surprise that one of them would be encircled in an embroidered and gilded ovoid shell that might have represented the sun, moon, or perhaps a golden egg. Another looked as though she had been outfitted directly from the forest floor in lustrous leaves and tangles of undergrowth. The recurring presence of dark blue floral embroideries hinted that this could have been dawn or dusk—the so-called l’heure bleue, when twilight casts a mystical blue aura on the world. Each model, no matter what she was embodying through her dress, towered over the heads of humans upon stepping into crystal-like platforms that hovered above the ground. With their gothic crowns and fantastical halos, they embodied Guo Pei’s extraordinary imagination, once again elevating her pursuit of handcraft to the sublime. Through a translator, the designer explained her vision as something along the lines of representing the life force of roots and flowers, which explained the stylized structure suspended above the stage of the Cirque d’Hiver venue. “Roots are the source of life and vitality,” she said, offering “primitive” as a description of these creations that were anything but. “Without roots, there’s not life. This world is a very mysterious place, but it’s linked intimately with our lives. That’s why the tree is onstage, and you’ll see a lot of flowers.”
"With much of the fabric research done in Switzerland, Pei uses her atelier in the Chaoyang District of Beijing to realize embroideries worthy of royal or religious ceremonial dress. While this extreme flower theme doesn’t technically overlap with the Costume Institute’s forthcoming exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” several designs would easily qualify for the gala. From her otherworldly gothic theme last Spring to today, a divine aspect remains consistent in Pei’s work. How else to account for all that gold? “I like gold, obviously! I think gold embodies what is at the top in terms of knowledge and wealth,” she said, before offering something of an epiphany: “I think it is the color of our souls.” Now a regular presence on the Paris calendar, Pei has elected to reserve her fantastical visions for January, while proposing a comparatively wearable offering in July. In other words, don’t expect a similarly ornate adventure next season. But what links them and reflects back on her immense skill is a complete and utter devotion to the handcraft of couture. “You have to have time to do this,” she said. “Just as it embodies life, it is the result of a lifetime.”( Amy Verner www.vogue.com )
Kansai Yamamoto (February 8, 1944) is one of the leaders in Japanese Contemporary fashion, in particular during the 1970s and 1980s.Kansai was born in 1944 in Yokohama, Japan. After studying civil engineering and English at Nippon University, got a so-en prise at Bunka Fashion College in 1967.Among the designers with whom he apprenticed are Junko Koshino and Hisashi Hosono; in 1971, he opened his own company, Yamamoto Kansai Company, Ltd., Tokyo. His first collection debuted in London in 1971 and in the USA at Hess's Department Store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which was renowned for many avant-garde collections. His 1975 debut in Paris was followed by the opening of his Kansai Boutique in 1977.In 1999, he and Junko Koshino renewed the kimono, reviving interest in this classical fashion. He is also known for his avant-garde kimono designs, including ones worn by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust Tour.In 1999 he organized a fashion program under the aegis of the India-Japan Mixed Cultural Cooperation Committee.Since 2001, he has been known for his fashion eyewear, sold by Aoyama USA.He is a recipient of the Soen prize at the Bunka College of Fashion (1967) and the Tokyo Fashion Editors award in 1977.In 2008, an exhibit named "Netsuki Shinten: Kansai Genki Shugi" (or "Passionate Exhibit: The Energy Principle of Kansai") was held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.[3] In 2009, a major retrospective of Yamamoto's work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Yamamoto designed the Skyliner train, unveiled in 2010, that connects Japan's Narita Airport with central Tokyo.In July 2013, he made a comeback to the fashion industry with a showing in the 19th New Britain Mask Festival in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea.Wikipedia
"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 )
