The Eyes: Scherzo di Follia

Pierre-Louis Pierson 1822-1913

'The Eyes, 1863-66'

Scherzo di Follia

The Countess of Castiglione was a socially ambitious italian aristocrat. Her 40-year collaboration with Pierre-Louis Pierson resulted in over 400 photographs taken between 1865 and 1895. The Countess was an active participant in the construction of these images, drawing inspiration from contemporary fashion magazines and theatre performances for her diverse poses, costumes, and fantasy identities. The photographs anticipate a modern understanding of the celebrity persona whose identity is constructed through photography.

The important of the eyes, where we see things though out our lives, we adopt specific performance for different roles, occasions and spaces. The combination of roles and performances compose our sense of self for individuality. We somehow take the notion of self as a given as natural and normal thing but in fact individuality is a product of our historical moment and our dominant cultural moves.

Smith Westerns and Girls film by Ryan McGinley

Watch the film here.

La Vitesse Et La Pierre

This is one of my favorite fashion film.


'La Vitesse Et La Pierre' is an epic short film created with audio and still images. A film about the restrained Iris and the fleeting Bernard and the solitude that unites them. The film directed by Igor Zimmermann and photographer duo Frode Fjerdingstad and Marcus Palmqvist. Music written and produced by Yourhighness.


More information here 

The Girl with the Pre-Fabricated Heart

Scene from Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947), directed by Hans Richter.

This is one of my favorite surreal film, I personally think it said something very strong about relationship of fashion,decorative exterior of ourself, one personality, and the way we see ourselves. It somehow give us back message of the way we could be perceived by others as well. 

About the film

Berlin-born Hans Richter - Dadaist, painter, film theorist and filmmaker - was for four decades one of the most influential members of the cinematic avant-garde. Richter assembled some of the century's liveliest artists as co-creators of Dreams That Money Can Buy, his most ambitious attempt to bring the work of the European avant-garde to a wider cinema audience. Among its admirers is film director David Lynch.

Joe, a young man down on his luck, discovers he has the power to create dreams, and sets up a business selling them to others. The 'dreams' he gives to his clients are the creations of Max Ernst, Fernand Lger, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder and Richter himself, and the result is by turns playful, hypnotic, satirical, charming and nightmarish.

 

It's so 'Surreal', so it is fashion.

"Chronology" 

click to watch the film.

Chronology is styled by Cathy Edwards, and in an innovative fusion of inspiration and instant gratification, the looks seen on Boscono are available on Net-a-Porter, which is debuting a version of the film today (while NOWNESS hosts the director’s cut).  “Short film is a way to capture the imagination of our clients,” says Loehnis. Guadagnino does this and more—with its rich palettes and flashes of surrealism, Chronology ignites our desire for the textured, glamorous folds of fall. 

Mariacarla wears clothes by Christopher Kane, Chloé, Miu Miu, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Sigerson Morrison and Azzedine Alaïa (all available from Net-a-Porter); chandelier earrings by Alexis Bittar; young girl wears skirt and shirt byBonpoint, velvet pumps by Gap. 

NOWNESS Premieres the Director's Cut of the Fairytale Created in 

Association with Net-a-Porter

Directed by : Luca Guadagnino

Disembodied Experience - I Am Sad Leyla

    

Hussein Chalayan
I Am Sad Leyla  (Üzgünüm Leyla) 
Lisson Gallery, Until 2 October 2010


Taking this art form, which has evolved through shifting environments,conquests,political reforms, geo political and cultural relations, and recontextualizing it in a gallery environment in London also with a new dress code... is another shift which alters and reframes the way in which this genre of music can be perceived.


The new installation explores music as a cultural form, creating a “disembodied experience” of a performance of a traditional Turkish folk composition by Sertab Erener, one of Turkey’s most successful female singers, accompanied by an Ottoman orchestra. The installation is made up of a nuanced combination of audio, film, sculpture and musical notation. Here Hussein examines the experience of music as layered, exploring both the sounds created by different instruments, and the diverse cultural influences on the composition, which include Persian poetry and Greek orthodox chanting. 
[ FRILLR ]

The Game Of Perception

Clare Stephenson's Sculptures

 Made from Silkscreen on wooden panels, Prop-like cut-out stand.

La Belle Toute Savante 2009

Our Lady Of The Conscious Optics 2009

Ornament And Boredom 2009

   Clare Stephenson's sculptures occur to me in the similar way of seeing fashion as artistic experience. The game of perception, of subverting material with image and vice versa, is redoubled in her work's development process. By manipulating appearance of physical bodies and recycled its own images. These sculptures embodies a fashion of aesthetics. What I really like about her work is that she brought together influence of pop-culture and historical elements. It is a self recreation and these figures conflate Modernism and medievalism. The installation recalled a mannequin display in a department store, or a waxworks museum, or a stage set.