From "Maison Margiela Closes Couture Week With a Transcendent Artisanal Collection/John Galliano put on a runway show filled with fantasy" (W).
Brighter, clearer photographs at the New York Times piece, here, where Vanessa Friedman says: "At the end, the audience members were so overwrought they didn’t just clap, they stamped their feet hard enough to make the floorboards shake. It has been awhile since anyone had experienced a world-building show quite like it. It looked tortured, in a way that is rarely considered acceptable anymore.... Once upon a time such fashion theater was Mr. Galliano’s signature. But between the transformation of houses into global brands and his own drug- and alcohol-fueled antisemitic self-immolation, exile and penitent return at Margiela, it had begun to seem like a thing of the past. A relic of an earlier age of histrionic self-indulgence of which he was the cautionary tale. Is it time for reconsideration?"
I found that at the Bazaar article by Tara Gonzalez, which ends:
Some models held themselves in their own embrace; others careened their arms like bird wings. And in the audience, too, there was movement. Instead of the usual stone-cold pursing of lips, grins slid against cheeks and feet beat against the floor in excitement. At home, I made the same expressions. Fashion hasn’t felt like this for a very long time. Let’s hope this is the start of something new, and not just a quick nostalgic dip into a past long gone.
38 comments:
Very Blade Runner 2049. So hawt right now.
I like the outfit that shows nipple and bush.
Wince said...
I like the outfit that shows nipple and bush.
So does the guy in the white beanie, if you scroll through the runway photos.
Victorian steampunk porcelain dolls
What ungodliness.
Nothing spectacular here but female soloists always have the policy issue of what to do about breasts. Are they to be part of the performance, part of the background, or not even noticeable.
It's a large part of the camera's time with not much else to do.
Orchestra goes for the latter.
"antisemitic self-immolation"
The perfect prelude to an evening "filled with fantasy."
Ick.
God, I just hate this sort of faggoty shitshow.
- Krumhorn
Just what every woman needs -- to pay high couture prices to either look like she's wearing nothing at all, or else look as though she's homeless.
Very atmospheric. Liked the pace. Too many of these shows are so hectic it's hard to appreciate the garments.
Very atmospheric. Liked the pace. Too many of these shows are so hectic it's hard to appreciate the garments.
It’s been done.
Can't believe that Althouse didn't pick up on the W article's note that one model carried a "garbled umbrella." Did the garbled umbrella garner accolades?
Per Wikipedia:
In 2010 a drunken Galliano insulted a group of Jewish women in Paris bar La Perle,[38] saying: "I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed.
Amazing he came back from this. Of course France doesn't have an ADL, they just arrested him and fined him.
Per Wikipedia:
In 2010 a drunken Galliano insulted a group of Jewish women in Paris bar La Perle,[38] saying: "I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed.
Amazing he came back from this. Of course France doesn't have an ADL, they just arrested him and fined him.
Just curious, which if any do you picture yourself wearing?
I do believe some of those women aren't wearing brassieres.
I'd guess most of those young women would be quite attractive if they were wearing normal clothing.
Imagine having this kind of mentoring and industry support and still creating such vapid and mediocre art. It's fascinating how the word "fashion" has been stood on its head. It once predominantly meant phenomena that were ubiquitous or definitively prevalent in a culture. Now it refers to the domain of cognoscenti and elites, usually wealthy.
I can't imagine being that close to the models, being apart of such an artistic presentation and looking down at my phone. Next time, they should make people check their phones at the door. So annoying.
"Well, you must tell me, baby
How your head feels under somethin’ like that"
Hmm. Is hair down there back in style? This might be the sign of a comeback.
rehajm's "it's been done" just slayed me. Well played. Wish I'd thought of that.
Le Mizz chic?
At the risk of being an old fogey, does anyone ever imagine people actually wearing these “fashions” out on the street?
Oh puhleez.
Hmm. Is hair down there back in style? This might be the sign of a comeback.
It’s called a merkin and it’s held in place with spirit gum. I suspect taking it off is no fun.
Betelgeuse!
Betelgeuse!
Betelg...
I wish I could remember where, years ago, I read a long piece about the misogyny of haute couture - the literal effort to make women look either ugly or like men, thanks to the domination of gay male designers. Even when I read it, the article was old; it was from the supermodel era, so it stood out to me as very counterintuitive - until the writer pointed out the models' unusually square shoulders and narrow hips (as compared with the augmented breasts), the strong jawlines, the height. He - I have a vague recollection that the author was himself a gay man? - noted that these features were stereotypically masculine, even though these women were supposedly sex symbols for straight men at the time.
And the fashions themselves, according to this guy, seemed intended to cause either objectification, pain, or disgust.
The writer's thesis was that these male designers, angry (on some level) about their inability to have All The Men, wanted (again, on some level - I don't think he was claiming this was a conscious impulse) (1) to masculinize the standards of female beauty so that gay men could have more of a shot with a straight man who might be willing to try bi, and (2) to make women suffer for their ability to attract men, and welcome and seek out the suffering.
I mean, it's a take. This is high fashion - not something your average Joe or Jane really gives a hoot about, but even once its effects trickle down a la The Devil Wears Prada, it's very significantly women and not men who are interested in it, and we have a long history in many cultures of being willing to suffer for beauty.
But when I looked at the men's versus the women's runway looks here, I couldn't help noticing the very artificially tiny waists, for instance, and thinking what that would feel like to wear; the revealing of breasts and pubes in a collection that explicitly - and I do mean explicitly - references prostitutes, and thinking how that would feel; the "I work nights and on my back" hair... versus the men's comparatively barely altered business wear.
I found it derivative, of course - the designer himself says it's derived from Paris in London's Jack the Ripper era, though he only referenced the time period, not actually Jack the Ripper (though, boy, I certainly smelled a strong whiff of it). And not a celebration of beauty, but instead an exploration of how to turn beauty into grime and despair. A new, or old, version of heroin chic.
Speaking of Jack the Ripper, I'm creeped out by the concept of "emotional cutting." What's the emotion?
That first picture at the link is pure Bag Lady Chic. "It looked tortured" isn't quite right; it looked homeless. There are many "tattered broken creature[s]" among the sans-abri found beneath any urban underpass; I would like to think they tossed some cash to a genuine hoboette, but the models are probably all professionals. They don't wear it as well as the real toothless gals showing off the real thing.
Shades of Siouxsie Sioux, circa 1978. It's been done.
what Mezzrow said
I'm all for fashion. Yeow!
Galliano was role-playing Coco Chanel—also a fan of Hitler.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe but except for that little problem with the arm the Freddie Mercury android experiment worked well.
Would have been cool if Ken had shown up with a blaster, said "Time to die," and put an end to it.
Penny Dreadful with breasts and netherregions. Why are the men dressed and the women showing their goods? I also resent the visual exploitation of Freddie Mercury, the greatest musician in modern history.
Extolling old-school Barbie body shape is ba
ck!
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