BRITISH PATHÉ: CHRISTIAN DIOR FUR SHOW IN LONDON (1969)

Ordinarily I wouldn't mind the unseasonably warm weather we've been having.  But you know, I'm "between sizes" right now (which is too say a little too chunky for the slim-tailored shirts that make up the better part of my closet), and I was really counting on hiding under sweaters and coats until at least April.  Guess I'd truly be distraught if I had a new coat from this (unbelievably groovy) Christian Dior fur show from 1969, as reported in a wonderful vintage British Pathé newsreel.  Swoon! 

There is so much here to celebrate:  that Sixties sense of chic, the use of white to enhance the stage presence of the coats, the groovy electric organ music ("if the coats didn't send the customers, the music certainly did..."), and of course all that odd, playful period modeling that seems (sadly) almost unfathomable today.  Frankly, I am living for all the synchronized "jigging about," especially in a chinchilla cape! 

I've written a little bit about Sixties style modeling before on The Social Design -specifically I think on a scene from a '68 Ungaro show used in the Catherine Denueve film Manon 70.  I wish I had a better grasp of the vocabulary of choreography, dance, and movement -  but to me there really is something paradoxical about the dominant modeling expressions of the time that both bewilders and entrances me.  It seems they sought to simultaneously exaggerate both the lines of the clothes and also the terrific sense of movement and freedom of the age.  The result is a recurrence of stiff, stylized postures that work quite well for print editorials (and here I definitely have Peggy Moffitt on the brain) but when applied to the movement of runway come off, well, a little bit bizarre...

It sort of calls to mind some observations I once read in a feature on the Audubon-inspired painter Walton Ford and how there is something distinctly unnatural in the naturalist Audubon's work,  because he was in fact not working from live models but rather from "freshly shot birds pinned into macabre dioramas."   Well, Dior isn't using dead birds but rather ballet dancers - and to great effect in my esteem.  And in my amateur musings on the Sixties modeling milieu I am probably discounting the influence of popular dance anyway. I will also add that Geoffrey Beene, a designer of great intellect, often cast dancers for models in his shows as well.

I wholeheartedly invite anyone with an opinion on Sixties modeling to chime in, or Sixties fashion for that matter (but really, I'm not so interested in the anti-fur sentiments)...

Enjoy!

KRISTEN MCMENAMY FOR ITALIAN VOGUE (MAY 2011)

#1:  USE GRAPHIC OP-ART PRINTS TO ENLIVEN AND CONTEMPORIZE AN INTERIOR, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO WEAR THEM YOURSELF...



#10: UPHOLSTER YOUR PAD WITH LOUNGING, SMOKING DISCO HIPPIES.

Kristen McMenamy was and always has been my absolute favorite of the great 90's Supermodels.  Maybe she didn't have the broad recognition of a Linda, Kate, or Naomi, but she did have (and still has) a spirit to her work that made her a muse-y favorite among designers and stylists looking to push beyond convention.  So last year when Kristen reappeared on the modeling scene - making her return with a distinctive head of very long, very straight, very grey hair - it really was like a breath of fresh air. 

Check out this editorial being published this month in Italian Vogue. http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/cover-story/2011/05/swimwear 

Of course for me, it's like hitting the trifecta.  Kristen is back and looking as good as she ever did. She's 46 and frankly fabulous.  Stephen Meisel shot this spread at the famous Chelsea Hotel, pretty much synonymous with the Warhol Factory set, and (in congruence with design principle #2) Kristen and company are giving us some very serious lounging, disco hippie vibe.  And finally she's styled in one shot with Op-Art printed bikini bottoms (see design principle #1).  The Op-Art accent is just a jag of mine that is not going to go away.  Of course nudity is always great - though is it an accent, too, like Op-Art or piece of chinoiserie, or is it a neutral, like diamonds or camel hair?  Food for thought, when the appetite is very light...

BLACK EMANUELLE MODELING ON CAMEL DUNG, "VELLUTO NERO" (1976)

#16:  IF YOUR JOB STINKS, MOVE ON.

(In celebration of my new job!)


Some jobs are better than others. And some jobs stink. In this scene, the most often cast Black Emanuelle Laura Gemser is trying to make it work with little more than a caftan, an asshole photographer, and a smoldering pile of camel dung. Well, clearly two of these things have to go...

If your boss treats you like shit, tell him to eat it.


From the 1976 Italian film Velluto nero (also known as Black Emanuelle, White Emanuelle as well as Emanuelle in Egypt and apparently also Naked Paradise).  Also staring the very bleached Annie Belle as the complementary White Emanuelle.