Mind Description

As a starting point for this project I have simply written down the first few words that come into my mind when thinking about the humble matchbox and match.

Some initial ideas;

-we could do a shoot based on the idea of what is left behind. i.e if there were a fire, what is left behind- decay and derelict atmosphere- could base our location on this and contrast completley with s/s 10 feminine nude pieces


-when looking at the trends for fall 2010 and also s/s10 there was a lot of reference to sportswear- 'Game, set match' could be our idea title??? where the shoot is based around sportswear




-when I saw the matchbox it immediatley made me think of the cowboy- lighting his cigarette, quite macho masculine


-inside the matchbox contained 2 matchsticks we could play with the idea of 'The best things come in two's'
-we noticed that the matchbox brand was a british brand-we could base the styling and come up with a concept for british-ness?


-as we picked the smallest object, we could literallly base our shoot on the idea of smallness??? we could set the shoot as the size of the matchbox??
-we could research into different types of matchboxs/matchbooks-brands

Game, set, match....

Our new brief for fashion photography, 'Objet Trouve', links very nicely with our fashion promotional, still life styling brief.

We are again in groups and each of our groups were presented with a random selection of objects all wrapped up in brown paper; our group member Adam, chose an object (one which we all wanted) from the selection and we were presented with this, a matchbox.


The brief states that we needed to use our object as a starting point for our 5-7 image fashion story. I do prefer this brief to the last as we have a starting point because with the last photography project we kinda had to mingle 4 people's interests to come up with a concept for a shoot, and in some ways we still obviously need to do this for this specific shoot but as we have 'The Matchbox' as an accessory for our initial ideas, I reckon it may be easier to distinguish our ideas for the shoot.

Photo taken By Marie Benli

Kids being kids???

After watching the film 'Kids' I had to question why, as fashion promotional students we were asked to watch this specific film. Yes, I under stood that the director of the film is involved, or has been involved in photography and image making but the film, with all its graphic scenes and heavy sexual theme, running alongside this drugs lifestyle, from a fashion perspective I didn't initially understand why we needed to see the film.

However, in our lecture yesterday we broke the film down: analysing our thoughts and looking at film stills to understand the film that little more.

We firstly as small groups discussed our ideas about the film, here are my notes; graphic scenes, street cast-bad acting-able to notice this- good or bad? Old fashioned skins, street style/culture, 90's youth culture, similarities of heroin chic (Corrine Day)-aesthetic style. We then as a whole class considered other elements.

'Kids' is a film that really highlights, in my opinion, an undesirable lifestyle. Larry Clark's direction seems to have been deliberately shown in a gritty way, and with the actors being street cast for this film, the reality of the film (youth culture from the 90's) seems to be more apparent. Clark is well known for his themes of drug use, youth culture, under-age sex and violence. His book 'Tulsa' which is a documentation really of his life, is one which highlights this 'exotic' lifestyle. These themes that Clark has are 'timeless': emotions, sex, alcohol, drugs and relationships are all themes that happen on a day to day basis and may always will, this is probably why he is so successful with his work and is very successful at really creating an experience.

When thinking about the film in terms of fashion relation, we could apply the emotion provoked to the 'Heroin Chic' photographer Corrinne Day, the references are really strong, the styling, although quite simple and under-styled- at first glance, helps in showing this lack lustre, gritty student culture.



There was an image, which Adam showed us, that highlighted this idea of suggestion, the image, from the opening scene, shows a young girl being 'controlled' by 'Telly' the main kid, played by Leo Fitzpatrick. The styling really emphasizes her innocence and his dark edge and character. The use of the pale blue background, behind the girl references her naivety because of the connotations we have with this specific colour, and the meanings that we get through the teddy bears also, only highlights this more so. In the background of Telly, we see what looks like a vinyl, a Beastie Boys vinyl at that, which again comes along with connotations of its own and his side, in terms of colour, is more darker. All these stylist choices aid the scene and the look for the film. The snapshot aesthetic too, emphasises the film's 'reality' aspect and although this style is more simplistic, it could be seen as creative and constructive as a cinematic style.

When I left the lecture my head felt slightly more clearer in terms of why this film choice, but still the film isn't one of my top 10.

Another shoot, from Another Magazine.

(apologies for some of the fuzzy images, these pictures I took really don't do the originals justice: buy the magazine it's a real good read :)

Another shoot from Another Magazine, (pardon the pun :) Anothermag is very popular in my world at the minute :S).

The photo shoot story, shot by Gerard Uferas, consists of gorgeous imagery, all black and white, taken behind the scenes at s/s10 collections. I love the angles that Uferas took the shots at and the way he has cropped the imagery really helps in creating the unpolished look and chaotic atmosphere that the backstage of a catwalk show has. Backstage is a place that truely showcases the collections. Lovely.

Photographed By Gerard Uferas.

For girls who like to shop....

I came across some stunning photographs in an article in Another Magazine, based around the story of documenting shopkeepers' clothing. As the article points out, these are the people that work with clothes in their job, all day, so seeing what they wore was quite interesting. Their clothing shows us a glimpse of their character and it also highlights why they have been chosen by their employer to work at the specific store.

The shoot didn't have a specific title, but what it did have I thought was much better, it was a small written piece of what the photographs were about: '...portrait projects documenting the unsung heroes of the fashion industry'. The images are of London's shop assistants and the stores they work at range from Dover Street Market to Issey Miyake to a Brick lane Thrift store.

Photographed By Gareth McConnell
Styled by Joanna Schlenzka (which is quite interesting in itself, you would have thought the girls styling themselves would have been enough for this specific, personal portaiture shoot).

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike....all whilst wearing a pencil skirt?

The bicycle. A fashion statement?

Beauty and the Bike, a new book and soon to follow a DVD, is about a new movement, a very green one at that, where young girls look to the bicycle as the 'new cool' must have accessory to get around the city.

I love not only this whole idea, but the attitude that the girls have for the charming bicycle, they no longer feel freakish to use this form of transport, and the bikebeauty.org group are wanting to simply promote this idea further. The Darlington based girlies that managed to get funding from the council to buy a variety of dutch bikes, although they don't break, you gotta peddle backwards for that one, are not only re-learning how to ride the bicycle but are promoting its benefits for the world, and are trying to take away the stigma image of 'nylon riders'. The girls have teamed up with contemporaries in Germany, to produce a 40 minute film. Exciting stuff. Check out the website for more details.

Rankin: Seven Photographs that changed Fashion Photography.

Yesterday we had a lecture where we were given our new project brief for fashion photography,which I will post about soon, but firstly I just wanted to talk about the documentry we were shown before the brief was explained.

We watched 'Rankin: Seven photographs that changed fashion'. I haven't seen the documentry before but I had come across the images that Rankin recreated, I had seen them in the Sunday Times Magazine a while back now, and when I saw them then I didn't really (although I should have!) known the background of the images so im really pleased that we were shown this documentry.

The 7 photographs which Rankin recreated included; an iconic Cecil Beaton image taken in 1934 'Hat Box'; a 1950's Vogue cover by Erwin Blumenfeld; a 1955 image shot by Richard Avedon of 'Dovima with Elephants';a 1963 image of Jean Shrimpton captured by David Bailey; the iconic image of Helmut Newton's, Rue Aubriot, Vogue 1975; Herb Ritts' 'Fred with tyres' taken in 1984 and finally the brash photographer Guy Bourdin, 1970 'Untitled' fashion photograph.

Cecil Beaton
1934
Hat Box

Rankin chose to use Sophie Ellis Bexter as his model as he believed she had a simliar look to that of Elsa Schiaparelli, the original model way back in 1934. Rankin spoke of the fact that when the original was shot, technology of the time wasn't as it is today, respectively, so when looking at past images the final image will be heavily influenced by this fact. For this particular image, the use of a 10 by 8 camera was utilized, which shows the photographer an upside down image, so it proved that little more difficult than using a digital camera. Also, with using the 10 by 8, Rankin wasn't able to see the final image, something which is so simply apparent today, so he took the photograph with digital also to understand how the image is looking. I think the final image turned out very well, but like Rankin states in the documentry the 10 by 8 image works better when looking at Sophie's expression and the camera alone evokes this nostalgic sense.

Erwin Blumenfeld
1950
Vogue Cover
For this image, Heidi Klum was used as the face for the cover, for her uncanny resemblance to the original face in the image. Watching the shoot looked like it was fun, playful and quite simple. Heidi took on her role as the character really well but added her personality into the image aswell which I loved. The original image is heavily influenced by the surrealists: it portrayed initial links that fashion and art have, but with Rankin's recreational element for this image and Heidi's cheeky character Rankin gave the image a modern twist.


Richard Avedon
1955
Dovima with Elephants
When I saw this image in the Sunday Times magazine, this one struck me the most, I think it was the sheer size of the elephants against the pale, slender Erin O'Conner that grabbed my attention: I liked the literal contrast. Richard Avedon is known as one of the first celeb fashion photograghers: he grew in the golden age of fashion photography which is really evident in this image. This image as Rankin states, 'Introduced drama and specticle' it's seen as something very special even with todays modern ways of thinking. Rankin cast Erin O'Conner as the model which was quite ironic given that Avedon himself said to Erin, at the naive age of 19, that she was the modern version of what the image embodied. Gorgeous image and very cute elphants....it was quite funny to see the shoot too, Erin towered over Rankin, they had a good giggle.


David Bailey
1963
Jean Shrimpton
For this specific image Rankin cast his girlfriend, Tuuli a professional model, as the model for this shoot, don't really understand why as she doesn't look anything like Shrimpton, she is blonde with long locks and has fair skin, maybe Rankin did this to show a modern twist of the image or maybe because his girlfriend is out of work, who knows, anywhoo...the set up for the shoot was very simple which was surprising as the final image that turned out was stunning. Bailey was on the set the whole time too, which was nerving for Rankin, but just looking at the final image, we're unable to see the nerves.


Helmut Newton
1975
Rue Aubriot Vogue
I have come across this image many times, with my love of androgony, so it was quite exciting to see if Rankin could pull off the original. In the documentry too, we were introduced to the original model from the fashion image, which was great as she spoke of the image from its first time around and described how Newton was in his work and as a person. The recreated shot was shot in the same street in Paris, the Rue Aubriot, which gave the recreated image that little extra nostalgic feel. The recreted image is stunning and almost identical: one of my favourite images out of this series.


Herb Ritts
1984
Fred with tyres
It was nice to see a stark contrast from the romantic streets of Paris to the scrap yard in london, but the image recreated really works. Rankin, through post production, recreated the tone of the image really successfully.


Guy Bourdin
1970
Untitled
Rankin chose the fashion designer/socialite/model Daphne Guinness to recreate the iconic look of this image, which I felt was quite random as his other 'recreational models' have had some similarities, but for Guinness, I'm not too sure. The set choice really resembles the one from the original, I don't really like though, the use of the red hoisery against the pink back drop, I think it would have worked that little more effectively if the legs were bare. Rankin's image also references in a way, a kinda of raunchy, s&m feel to it, with the leather waistbelt (or top, I can't really make it out) and with the sexy black heels and red tights which I'm not that keen on, but then again this is a strong reference to Guy Bourdin's work. To be honest this image is my least favourite out of the selection, just because of personal aesthetic choices, but it still really works as an image.


Rankin was quite brave in looking at recreating these images, as the iconic aspect is so huge that he seemed to have a real job to get this right and really show his respect for the original photographers. I believe he shot the images with great success and with Rankin's touch of mdernity.

Gwyneth Paltrow as Marlene Dietrich?!?

I read in The Sunday Times at the weekend that Gwyneth Paltrow is to play Marlene Dietrich in an up and coming BBC Drama of Dietrich's life, with Gwyneth's past roles being played, more so, quite delicatley and then taking on this role of Dietrich, a woman who didn't take any shit this will be interesting.

Davies, the writer, said his script would start at the time of The Blue Angel, Dietrich’s breakthrough film in 1930 that brought her a Hollywood contract and a new life in America.

“I’m concentrating on her from that period into the war and the 1950s,” said Davies.

To be honest I will check it out, for the fashion of course.

L'Enfant terrible....

In memory of Lee McQueen

Creative excitement

We had a new brief given to us today for our Still Life styling project, set by Clare Buckley, our lecturer.

It was a very motivating lecture and I'm really excited about the process of coming up with the final fashion editorial. We also, during class, discussed different types of still life styling; visual merchandising, styling for catalogues and window dressing, because as Maxine Groucutt of Liberty said 'If eyes are the window to the soul one could argue that windows are the soul of the store' , and as still life styling is more about selling the product practising this practice will be really beneficial to us all and in terms of the lecture, seeing past work is always inspirational to look at examples and get the ideas cogging around in my head.

Our new brief includes us, the still life stylist and more importantly 'The Artist' to look at and absorb the Fall 2010 collections and pick out our favourite 3 trends. As you guys can see I have already been following the shows and picked out some of my favourite looks and key pieces, so I'm a little ahead which is good. Then, with the trends in mind, plus our interests always acute, we need to find, through charity shops, car boot sales, jumble sales, the net, our grandma etc a jigsaw that either relates in some way to the trends and our interests or it could literally be something just completely random, which then will be included (partly or wholly) in our 3-4 page fashion editorial. For next week we need to produce 3 mood-boards based around our 3 trends we have researched and keeping in mind the jigsaw puzzle, as a part of the board and the fashion trends, we can get really creative with this and include on the 3 boards other elements outside of fashion- film, interiors, food, animals anything.

I'm very excited, for the whole of this semester we haven't been working with a sketchbook, and its always nice to go back to basics and get those creative juices flowing. I will keep you guys updated with the progress of my work on the briefs.

Prim n Proper Prada

I saw the other day some charming images in my email, sent to me from Hintmag.com of backstage shots of fashion week from Milan.

The first image got my attention, the model looks so cheerful and it's simply great to see the model with this expression rather than the usual, straight faced, emotionless look. I'm begining to like the idea that the fashion show is the stuff that happens backstage more than what happens front of house, the fashion house to be exact. Thus I clicked on the image, which then lead me onto the show, which then cycled me through to look at the whole Prada collection (the image taken from the Prada backstage show sent to me in my email) and im so glad I did, I mean I know as a stylist I should be looking at the shows daily, which I honestly do, and have been doing what with the live streamed shows too, but we have been set new breifs for uni so im busy too...

Anywhoo..the collection.

I especially loved the styling and the look of the show. Mad men sprung to mind, with the lady-like look of the models and the look heavily referenced Bardot with the 1960's beehives and the delightful glasses on show.

Clothing: what does it say about us?

Today we had the design history lecture where we watched a documentry on 3 designers and their design houses.

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Ralph Lauren for Ralph Lauren and Shawn Stussy for Stussy.

Watching the documentry really highlighted to me how much has changed when considering a catwalk show, especially as London fashion week has just passed, with most of their shows live streamed over the net. The abundance of the usual celebrity clad front row wasn't apparent at many of the shows in the late 80's early 90's (the year of the documentry): the front rows consisted heavily of the photographers who brought to the world all the new trends and showed a glimpse of the glamourous fashion lifestyle. A lovely quote, one which is very distinctive of the times now I loved;

'Fashion became a mingle of the road and runway':

what with all the street style websites and now, famous photographers for street style, Tommy Ton, Scott Schmann and Facehunter to name a few, this idea of the way a design happens has flipped, it now seems to come from the streets upwards rather than the other way around, this idea seemed to be noticeable even at this time.

We were introduced to Karl Lagerfeld, who could not stop working! He constantly drew design after design after design during the interview, which was quite charming to see how he thinks, visually, upfront. The narrator of the documentry spoke of how a certain design piece, here being the Chanel handbag, communicates a certain status and shared values between specific people, which I highly agree with, and after finalising my essay yesterday, the idea of the role of clothing and what it says about someone is still present in my mind. I find the idea of how people want to become a part of the brand, simply by buying a product from the brand no matter how small, one thats interesting to notice.

Then in a totally different design theme if you like, we were introduced to Shawn Stussy the founder of the 1980's company Stussy. His pieces played aeround with Chanel's design identity with their double, interlinked C's. Stussy had, wether obviously chosen (which I belive it was) taken the idea of the interlinking C's and had as a logo on his pieces, interlinking S's. Stussy states that he wants to be a brand that is exclusive, the company hardly did any advertising, as as the narrator says, the customer freely advertisies the clothing literally on their back. Stussy concludes that if your clothing is made well, and doesn't drop off the customer then really, no advertising is needed. The key product for Stussy being the hat, as the narrator says

'The hat is the Chanel bag of street culture'

(500) Days of Summer

The other day me and the lady watched, '500 Days of Summer' which aired on the big screen in september 09 (I know, how late am I?!?) anywhoo, I really enjoyed it.

My interest in the movie (initially) came in a package, the size and shape much similar to Katy Perry, they could literally be twins (and if you guys have bought Look magazine, this weeks, you will see that even journalists and stylists in the know have even made this mistake) that is Zooey Deschanel. She has a cool quirkyness about her and of course she is a beautiful actress.

I love the direction of the film mostly. It's so nice to see the way Marc Webb, the director, shows us the difference in time with the cute little countdown clock, which adds to the comedy of this rom com, flitering between the present and the future, showing a stereotypical view of the first few months of dating and then 300+ days into the relationship - its comical to see how the characters change. My favourite scene has to be the one where Tom (played by Joseph Gordon- Levitt) and Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel) go to the cinema to watch a film, then they are on the cinema screen, shown in black and white with Tom in the background and Summer in the foreground, arranged as if they are in ABBA's Knowing me Knowing You music video, the dialogue is sometimes random but funny.

The storyline does hint at the cliche love story, but as the narrator states at the beginning, 'This is not a love story' which in some ways it isn't, specially not your cliche girl meets boy, girl falls in love boy doesn't as in this film, it is the exact mirror opposite and we get to see the heel on the other foot (well, the shoe) with Tom's outlook.

A film that made me laugh, made me question and made me wonder. Lovely.

A quickie on the fashion- loved it, Zooey seeming pretty, pretty pretty and Tom, nerdy, handsome and preppy.