3.10.11

Architecture and Fashion

Architecture and fashion are two things that are always on my mind, but I got thinking about them in relation to each other recently after re-reading an amazing editorial that Vogue made with Arizona Muse. They've popped her out in the Mojave Desert in Arizona (of course), in a sparse, minimal house that is all glass and concrete. The reason that the editorial works so well is that the clothes aesthetically match the architecture. They are minimal with clean, striking lines and the fabrics also have a pretty earthy, linen-y feel. I guess you could label it 90s minimalism and classic American sportswear but it seems much fresher than that. Although I guess poor old Narciso Rodriguez will never escape the 90s...
This shoot is also a magnificent example of stylist Tonne Goodman at her best. I'm the first to admit that she can produce some really atrocious celebrity shoots, but when she focuses on American sportswear and minimal dressing for powerful women, man that lady is good.












And this editorial made even more sense when Goodman released a sort of 'favourite things' for Vogue, and photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe was included.

Tom Ford's a big fan of, well lots of things but architecture is one of them (he's one of those men that appreciates things isn't he? Do you know the kind of man that I mean? The kind that feels he has a great a amount of power because he enjoys great things). The John Lautner house in A Single Man had so much screen time it was almost a character in itself. And he is the lucky owner of of a Tadao Ando designed house, which was shot really beautifully for Paris Vogue.


Architectural photography is so often very impersonal (bar World of Interiors, of course!), and so fashion photography is fantastic in making it seem more exciting and dynamic, even when you're meant to focus on the clothes first and the building second. You'd think fashion photography would create watered down reproductions of architecture but instead I think it invigorates it, and of course distributes it to a wider audience.

Side note: you know what's great? The fact that US Vogue puts up selected editorials on their website in really really good quality. It's just so nice of them.

                                                        US Vogue and Louise Dahl-Wolfe photos from vogue.com

No comments:

Post a Comment