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Madame Gres, Couture at Work

The Musee Galliera is launching its extra-mural exhibition programme at the Musee Bourdelle with the first Paris retrospective of the work of one of the great masters of couture, Madame Gres (1903-1993). Regarded by her peers as the tutelary spirit of the profession, Madame Gres constantly said throughout her life: "I wanted to be a sculptor. For me, working with fabric or stone is the same thing." Her quest led her to the ancient world, but also to North Africa and India. A fifty-year journey from Hellenistic sculpture to the intransigent minimalism she pioneered in the fashion realm.
The exhibition showcases some eighty creations from the Musee Galliera and private collections, and fifty original photographs and a hundred drawings from the Maison Gres Archives, generously acquired and donated to the museum for this retrospective by the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent.

Madame Gres, Couture at Work gives pride of place to her most emblematic pieces: the draped evening dresses for which she received the De d'or award in 1976. Created from the 30s to the 80s, always in jersey and often ivory or pearl grey, these sculptural dresses have radiantly withstood the test of time. Photographed by Richard Avedon and Guy Bourdin, they were widely featured in women's magazines. her day wear - the dresses and coats of the 50s and the purified designs in double-sided wool of the 60s and 70s - are still an inspiration for couturiers and designers today. The art of Madame Gres is timeless.



Courtesy Henry Clarke/Galliera/ADAGP, Paris 2010


Gown, around 1955
@Ph. Ladet and CI. Pignol / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


F/W 1974-1975
@Stephane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


Around 1947
@Stephane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


Spring 1946
@Stephane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


Cocktail, Fall 1950
@Stephane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


Bustier, Spring 1964
@Stephane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet


Eugene Rubin, around 1946
Madame Gres
@Eugene Rubin


Model Alix, Winter 1934
@Studio Dorvyne/FNAC/Centre National des Arts Plastiques - Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication, Paris

Fashion with Feathers

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood divas Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow had already adopted the look, inspired feather dresses. Then in the 1950s, it was Marilyn Monroe. Today, the Spring/Summer 2011 feathers style trend echoes the old time Hollywood. Ostrich, pheasant, peacock or other bird's feathers are embedded in breathtaking evening gowns, sandals, accessories or adornments.

A look at the old Hollywood glamour
Carole Lombard

Jean Harlow

Marilyn Monroe

These pieces are one-of-a-kind. A selection of dresses, accessories and jewels whose craftsmanship borders on art.
Givenchy Couture 2011

Givenchy Couture

Alexander McQueen, Spring 2011
Pheasant feathers

Anna Sui's silver sequin-silk-tulle dress with feather-trimed

Roger Vivier Couture 2010

Manolo Blahnik, feather T-strap sandal

Valentino, satin, brass, and ostrich-feather clutch
Lanvin, pochette satin bag

Aurelie Bidermann, 18-karat-gold-dipped goose feather necklace
Pippo Perez, white diamond angel wing

Sydney Evan, feather on lotus seed beads

Fashion Shoot Paris

I love shooting fashion! Fashion is a team effort and I have passed some of my favourite days of photography working alongside talented make-up artists, stylists, hairdressers, models and assistants. You start out with an idea and storyboards but the final images always have a life of their own.

This photo was part of recent fashion shoot at the George V hotel in Paris. Shot in the Empire suite I wanted an even light with very few shadows and lots of static poses. I used a large soft box on a pro-foto flash pack synced with pocket wizards to my Leica M8.

I shot all the images at iso 160 and F stop F 5.6. This time the talented make-up artist and hairstylist was Italian Paolo Baroncelli, the stylist Lynette Collins from Simply You and model Justine Mazzoni from New Madison Agency. Lights, softboxes and pocket wizards were hired from Matphot republique.

Thats about it! Hope you enjoy the info.

Carla x

...lily, lily,


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" Garden Study of the Vickers Children"
John Singer Sargent, 1884
54 3/16  x  35 7/8 inches



do you think Sargent painted the perfect lily?
one that stood tall, arrow straight, proud, face to the sun?



 "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose"
John Singer Sargent, 1885-1886
68 1/2  x  60 1/2 inches





His famous and perhaps most beloved painting "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" is one of those that has captivated the gardening side of me for years-one side that has been curtailed by bad back, bad knee-especially the knee right now-I knew I was not meant for kneeling in this world- maybe the next.

I have an abundance of sun in the front of the yard and though the lilies thrived there two years ago I had a gardener-I now have none. I had envisioned rows and rows-masses-of different lilies. I have added 7 species over the 6 seasons I have been scratching the soil in this place.




Well, this is what really happens to the poor darlings-
stooped over, bent stems,heavy heads,trying to face the sun.





It is my fault-I admit. I do stake them-using handy rods with curls at the top-though when a lily insists on topping out at 4 feet-the rods with curls are useless. Bamboo-though beautiful- does not hold up either.
I wanted the lilies in the back of the house &  moved them to the sunny side of the yard-that yard that is waiting to be a garden- without the help of a gardener. Their destination was not sunny enough, nor I think- large enough to do them justice.






THE FANFARE LILY -the first of the season

a strain comprised of huge flowered, substantial creamy white trumpets with golden yellow to apricot centers. Stronger stems bring fabulous blooms to eye level, and fragrance right to your nose.  They do!  As you can see these lilies are tall- at least 4 feet and rather than their usual bloom time-July, they are the first of the lilies to appear in the garden this year, I noted a June 1st arrival.




Do I move them again?
Some strays were left in the front beds and should be moved. As I predicted that location has been over shadowed by several tall camellias and a rampant climbing Cecile Brunner -in an otherwise very sunny yard. Leaving them in their current spot, I feel, would be limiting them their majesty.
Not allowing them to reach their heights, heaven's just look at those poor little backs! 
Moving them would be ideal-if I didn't have to do it, or make the bed they will lie in-or & so on and so forth. I see them along the long run of the fence-but out more- so I can walk around all round & have room to add floaty plants-tall floaty ones- within the bed like the Carnation... the Rose.






My passion for LILY was fixed after reading Beverly Nichols' garden books and his vivid descriptions of his own bounteous lilies.
Why can't mine be more like Beverly's?
Well actually they could- if- I were to write of them not as they are-but as I wish them to be.  I wrote about lilies and summer scents here last year, I  include the Nichol's quote again-because it is beautiful and I love it.


"that was the moment I first saw the lilies. and that was the moment when, having seen them,I mentally signed the contract to buy the house...I had to possess those lilies...The lilies were a variety known as Regale, and they stood in rows of glistening white down the whole length of one side of the kitchen garden.a faint breeze was stirring, & as they nodded their heads there drifted towards us a most exquisite fragrance.never before, in any garden of the world, have I seen such lilies; their loveliness was literally dazzling;the massed array of the white blossom was like sunlit snow. nor was this shining, shimmering beauty merely the result of mass, for as I walked closer I saw that each individual blossom was a perfect specimen, with a stem that was often four feet high, bearing on its proud summit no less than a dozen blossoms." BEVERLY NICHOLS



Here, LILIES bow, paying homage to, while desperately seeking the SUN.




Here, LILIES grace the Sitting Room in a vase




FANFARE went the way of most of my blooms- cut to fill the house with their heady smells-besides I had to spare the darlings, what an awful thought that rain might break their little necks.
But Yes- it still matters that they are beautiful in the garden & in harmony with the Sun & all living things in Nature.












Polly and Dorothy Barnard Studies by Sargent, 1885







see more of the Studies and read about the premise behind the painting here





The SARGENT STORY
a first hand account of the proceedings by Sir Edmund Gosse


Sargent painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose at Broadway 
Photo c. 1885-86

 
from the letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (here)

The progress of the picture, when once it began to advance, was a matter of excited interest to the whole of our little artist-coloney. Everything was used to be placed in readiness, the easel, the canvas, the flowers, the demure little girls in their white dresses,before we began our daily afternoon lawn tennis, in which Sargent took his share. But at the exact moment, which of course came a minute or two earlier each evening, the game was stopped, and the painter was accompanied to the scene of his labors. Instantly, he took up his place at a distance from the canvas, and at a certain notation of the light ran forward over the lawn with the action of a wag-tail, planting at the same time rapid dabs of paint on the picture, and then retiring again, only with equal suddenness to repeat the wag-tail action. All this occupied but two or three minutes, the light rapidly declining, and then while he left the young ladies to remove his machinery, Sargent would join us again, so long as the twilight permitted, in a last turn at lawn tennis"  

"The seasons went from August till the beginning of November "Sargent would dress the children in white sweaters which came down to their ankles, over which he pulled the dresses that appeared in the picture. He himself would be muffled up like an Artic explorer. At the same time the roses gradually faded and died, and Marshall and Snelgrive had to be requisitioned for artificial substitutes, which were fixed to the withered bushes . . . .  In November, 1885, the unfinished picture was stored in the Millets' barn. 


When in 1886 the Barnard children returned to Broadway the sittings were resumed. For Sargent it seemed the fun was in the process. Edwin Howland Blashfield recalled that when he saw the canvas each morning, the previous evening's work seemed to have been scraped off, and that this happened repeatedly at each stage.  




read more of the painter's story at John Singer Sargent Virtual Gallery here
this is my source for Lilies- none other than the Lily Garden


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Team Uncool Making of: Arch Magazine, June Issue.

One of my favorites. Lets see if they select it for the final editorial. 

Here is a little sneak peak into my new fashion editorial for Arch Magazine, Melrose Arch in Johannesburgs magazine. The team was amazing and we had a fun day in a maze with model Kirsty from Star who is ever friendly, professional and down right amazing to shoot.

With the team of Jenny Andrew as stylist and Liz van der Merwe on Hair and make-up the day went well and even with rain pouring down we managed to get a good 8 - 10 pages of fashion editorial. Themed around warm woolen wear and the maze in the back of the Melrose arch hotel, mystery was hopefully created.

During Make-Up & Hair, Jenny in her amazing gold raincoat. 

Kirsty from Star Models.(Johannesburg).

Photography by Chris Saunders
Make-up & Hair by Liz van der Merwe
Styling by Jenny Andrew

when straw calls on a sunday


.
Saintly Straw


Saint Margaret
Zubaran 
c. 1630-1635. National Gallery



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Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

The exhibition, organized by The Costume Institute, will celebrate the late Alexander McQueen's extraordinary contributions to fashion. From his postgraduate collection of 1992 to his final runway presentation which took place after his death in February 2010, Mr. McQueen challenged and expanded the understanding of fashion beyond utility to a conceptual expression of culture, politics, and identity. His iconic designs constitute the work of an artist whose medium of expression was fashion. Approximately one hundred examples will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, May 4 - July 31, 2011.


"McQueen's work fits easily in the discourse of art. He can be considered no less than a great artist," said Thomas Campbell, director of the museum.


All the images below are from the exhibition catalogue Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011.


Courtesy of Alexander McQueen (1969-2010)
Dress, F/W 2010

Dress, F/W 2010

Ensemble, VOSS, S/S 2001

Dress, VOSS, S/S 2001

Dress, The Horn of Plenty, F/W 2009-10

Dress, No. 13, S/S 1999

Dress, Irere, S/S 2003

Dress, Sarabande, S/S 2007

Ensemble, Plato's Atlantis, S/S 2010

Dress, F/W 2010-11


Ensemble, It's a Jungle Out There, F/W 1997-98


Dress, Widows of Culloden, F/W 2006-07