Social issues...

Fall is coming.


The Fall 2012 Louis Vuitton Ad Campaign is here. It's stunning - exploding all over the blog-o-sphere. Although, I first stumbled upon it while flipping through my best friend's September issue of Vogue. 

Fall 2012 Louis Vuitton Ad Campaign via Style by Red

Fall 2012 Louis Vuitton Ad Campaign via Fashion Gone Rogue

Legendary fashion photographer Steven Meisel shot this campaign with models Mackenzie Drazan, Marie Piovesan, Franzsika Mueller, Julia Nobis, Ros Georgiou, Marina Heiden and Elena Bartels. Meisel is beyond clever setting up these images of these beautiful models clad in the finest of luxury. It's no doubt a tongue in cheek ode to Daumier's Third Class Carriage - a beautiful painting of the less fortunate working class on their evening commute. The compositions are strikingly similar as the disparities between the social statuses of the women in each image. 

Honore Daumier, Third Class Carriage, ca. 1862-1964, oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 35 1/2 in. H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Currently on view in Gallery 802.


This painting was made by an artist who was well known for his political caricatures in the Parisian journal Le Charivari, in a time of social and political upheaval in France. Plenty of correlations can be made with the economic status of France at the time and that of the United States. There were few extremely wealthy people with a great deal of power and a lot of working class people with little power and wealth. 

Do you think Steven Meisel is making a statement about our Society? Or is it just Smoke & Mirrors?

XO
M

P.S. - A little known fact: Daumier began his career as a caricaturist who mocked the regime of the French King Louis Philippe. He often drew him as a poire (french word for "pear", slang for "fathead"). Aren't those LV hats huge? 

Louis Philippe by Daumier via L'Historie Par L'Image

Your Sidekick - The Side-Braid

Sometimes in the summer you need to tuck away your hair. It gets really humid and hot - and then you just need it out of your face! Besides, sometimes I take my very adorable The Londoner bike for a ride and I can't be bothered with a wayward fringe. Here's what I do - I basically braid my hair into the side of my head and then pin it all together in the back. You can pin it easily by rolling your hair into a horizontal twist along the bottom of your head. 

Me with a Sharon Moody painting entitled Great Wave (2011)
Rings (from left): Guess, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Vintage, Earings: Betsey Johnson
Nails: "Bubblebath" by OPI and "Afterhours" by Urban Outfitters

Dress: Audrey 3 + 1

Sharon Moody, Mjolnir - To Thy Master!, 2011, oil on panel, 16 x 16 inches

Sharon Moody has been getting a lot of hype recently. (She's gotten mentions on Beautiful/Decay and Flavorwire  & a myriad of other online publications.) Her paintings of comic books are without a single doubt technically stunning. There's a lot more to them - at least on a theoretical level. The artist gives them a new life with her own interpretation of the storyline - as they are displayed to us, seemingly floating on a wall, beyond their entierity. The storyline is jumbled to us as the artist picks her own view of the comic book to show us. Another important bit of information is her comic books appear to be about a quarter of a centimeter smaller than the original. Ceninno Ceninni once wrote in his 15th Century manuscript, Il libro dell'arte, that the highest form of flattery from one artist to another is to copy an artist's work - but - on a smaller scale so as not to magnify their mistakes. 

xo

m

Peter Pan Won't Grow Up to Be a Man

After a very tiring week at the Gallery I like to enjoy my weekend to the fullest. Luckily - my weekend falls on a Sunday - Monday. This is great because everyone seems to have to work on Monday, except me! So, I kind of feel like I'm living in Never Never Land - where I'm always a kid who doesn't have to go to work. 

Peter pan collars are instrumental in helping me revisit a time when my life was care-free and stress-less.

On this past Monday - I walked over to my BFF's Mischa G.'s house. She lives across Tompkins Square Park from me - so when I walk to her house I get to see a bunch of really cute French bulldogs in the dog run!

Mischa G. is a stylist at Bumble & Bumble and she always makes sure that my hair looks beautiful. She  is the one responsible for my super straight fringe. 

At Mischa G.'s house ...

Hair Products by Bumble & Bumble, Hair by Mischa G. from Bumble & Bumble
Dress - Top Ten

Oh and this dress has the cutest silhouette!

Dress: Top Ten, Deer Necklace: Forever 21

It's always fun to pair an adorable peter pan collar with a small pendant. This teeny tiny deer necklace gives it the right charm - doesn't it remind you of enchanted forests and fairy tales? And look at that broken heart print - doesn't that remind you of adolescence?

Ring: Vintage (Onyx + Silver), Nails: OPI in Fiery Fiona

Throwing on some polka dots in white over yellow nails gives your nails a subtle pop - like a twig snapping under the hooves of a doe.

Oh - and here's a really smart way to hang some hats - look at the background in this picture.
Mischa G. added hooks to her wall in a grid formation and hung her hats on them. It saves space and adds grace ;-)

(Yep. I rhyme.)

&

Sometimes I get lost in a world of intricacy when I look at the details of a lace collar. So does artist Katherine Mangiardi. Below you'll see one of her large scale, intricate paintings of lace. She makes lace feel like a witness through time - as it appears old and worn. It tells secrets from another time, as it decays and transforms into something even more beautiful.  

Katherine Mangiardi painting - acrylic on panel
via Artlies

Watch this video of Katherine discussing her 2010 exhibition at the Hunterdon Museum of Art

xo


...oh so, don't ever be afraid to grow up.