So here it goes..
For my first, I just had to go with Nick Knight's editorial shoot for British Vogue.
Nick Knight is one of my favourite current photographers & the director of SHOWstudio which I was fortunate enough to go and see at the Somerset House last year. Anyone who didn't get a chance, you missed out!
The colour, movement and oozing innovation within these two images offer alot to be spoken about however I am mainly focussing on Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake & Yohji Yamamoto - three highly inspirational and fashion forward Japanese designers.
I am particularly concentrating on these three designers for the pure fact that they have all had an equally massive part in influencing/changing the fashion industry. They are three extremely avante-garde designers, constantly challenging Western design - re-examining the way we look at fashion today.
They combine fashion & art to create something constantly new whether it be Miyake with APOC (A piece of cloth) or Pleats Please or Kawakubo heading the Comme Des Garcons.
For my second I chose to go with an old classic - Erwin Blumenfeld's 'Sur La Tour Eiffel' Shot in 1938.
Blumenfeld was a German/Jewish pioneer of colour photography and one of the most well renowned photographers of his time.
This photograph was his first mark on his professional career and is easily classed as one of the most ground-breaking and iconic fashion images ever. I love the spontaneity to the image, the movement of the garment and the way the model seems so relaxed yet perfectly poised.
I also love how this will pretty much never be able to be done again - the model had no harness or safety equipment on of any kind - now that is dedication to a good image!
I have always been a lover of black and white photography, I used to love spending time in the dark room at college experimenting with distortion of the negatives, playing with the chemicals or using filters to create different feels...And this is why I have used one of Blumenfeld's images.
...A bit of extra info:
It is said that 1 year after the image was shot, the Nazi's came to Paris so he fled to America the day they turned up to arrest him where he continued his career with Vogue shooting more front covers than any other photographer of his time.
And for my third, the lovely Grace Coddington.
First off, this is possibly my favourite picture of Grace and she is my number three as I feel she has had a massive and constant input into the fashion industry for many years. She is a former stunning model, inspirational photographer and stylist along with being the creative director of American Vogue.
I love her attention to detail and very classic/romantic feel to her shoots but still manages to keep them current.
But what particularly made me mention her was an article I came across in this months Harper's Bazaar on the famous Vidal Sassoon and how he discovered Grace when she was around the age of twenty and transformed her into this high fashion model. She was also his guinea-pig for his crazy 'five point cut' which created a sensation at Paris fashion week amongst both models and designers.
Grace is a hard-working and dedicated woman who I feel creates a great role model in the fashion industry.
On my wishlist...
Grace Coddington's book 'The Catwalk Cats.'
And finally for the fourth, a designer that I have recently come across called Natalia Brilli.
I came across this designer in a book called '100 New Fashion Designers' by Hywel Davies.
She is an accessory designer who received a degree in costume design before gaining a degree in fashion design at the IFM in France. She designed accessories for Olivier Theyskens at Rochas for three years before launching her own leather-based accessory collection in 2004.
Brilli works primarily with leather and suede but her signature style is over-sized pearl necklaces with exaggerated bows & vintage cameos encased in leather or suede.
She defines her aesthetic as 'ghostly heritage' from the North and a certain 'elegance' from the South.
I find her work and attitude towards fashion (from this short interview) graceful and quite delicate yet she seems driven and has something quite unique going for her.
END.
