On the Beach

The clothes in Marc Jacobs Resort could be good or bad, I'm not sure, because the photographs are just so darned entrancing. The models are airbrushed like white dolls and their passive, reclining poses make me think of that Prada campaign. It is also so strange to see Marc Jacobs images that aren't shot by Juergen Teller. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was nagging me about these photos - and what has been nagging me about all MJs resort images - but then it came to me: "no Jeurgen!". It feels like an alternate universe Marc Jacobs, with slightly more odd and slightly less funny.

Ever a genius with colour, Marc's outdone himself this time. I can't believe I've lived this long without being introduced to the wonders of golden syrup and brown, black and carob, and pastel yellow and purple. And since we're on the topic, OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED for Luella's return to design. And at Marc by Marc! It's perfect! She'll be fun and quirky and whatnot, hopefully not creatively crushed by working under a label not her own. Oooh next post will be a Luella tribute, since I didn't have the opportunity to do one when her label closed since this blog didn't exist then. 

And how could I forget? Here is the legendary-amongst-campaign-enthusiasts Prada Spring 2001 campaign. For some reason it is v. hard to find good images from this campaign online, these scanned ones are the best I can do.

Resort images from vogue.com

Moonrise Residence

From what I can gather from the myriad of interviews I've read, the art director and production designer of Moonrise Kingdom seem particularly proud of the Bishop Family Home set - and you certainly don't have to have more than a passing interest in architecture and design to appreciate how incredible it is in the film's opening sequence. Now I've never been to New England, and really don't know too much about its aesthetic beyond hurricane lamps and adirondack chairs, but that first 3 1/2 minutes seemed like a crash course in New England style. Well it turns out that the influence for the house was an amalgamation of five New England houses of varying iconic status. 

Thanks to a great piece on the film's official website (shout out to Focus Features!) I could learn all about the most important of these house inspirations. The first one, Conanicut Light on Rhode Island, was used solely for the exterior, and has been replicated almost exactly: (set house on left, real house on right)

Another great influence was Clingstone house, the inspiration for interior shingles, which literally sits out in the bay off Newport, Rhode Island. The New York times has a detailed piece on the house, but I'll just steal some of their photos:

From Comfort Island house, which sits on the St. Lawrence River right on the cusp of Canada, the designers took the Alson S. Clark impressionist wall murals and the kitchen and inserted them into the Bishop family home. And apparently they even rented furniture from the house itself!

Clingstone house images by Erik Jacobs from The New York Times

Comfort Island images from here

Curls!

I'm sorry to have been absent for a while and then to return with another less-than-substantial post, but I have an excuse, I have exams! Well, one exam to be more precise, also the last exam of my degree, and thus ever (hurruh!). So no excuse really.

But for what it's worth, here are some editorials which feature glorious curls. First up is Love magazine, which in a fit of inspiration realised that Edie Campbell looks much better with a perm. And that Janice Alida looks great with a masculine blazer, and that Marie Piovesan looks great without.

And I'm getting all proud of being a New Zealander looking at this Vogue Paris ediorial (what? They've actually produced something good since Carine?) which is inspired by Jane Campion's bouncing 'fro.

Penn; Flowers

Not Sean! Although I will forgive you for thinking that. Here we're talking about Irving, and here we're talking about flowers. Glorious, glorious flowers. As one commenter said on a random forum "nice lighting, good photos". Quite.

Saw these beauties in the Diana Vreeland documentary (which, if anything, has taught me it's deeee-anna, not die-anna) during one of the many swooping shots of opened magazine pages. In most of those shots I dived for the pause button - if only Harper's Bazaar had an online archive like Vogue...
But gawd I mean really. These were commissioned for a fashion magazine? Not to put fashion magazines down, but goodness that's radical. Including original work from a fine artist, even one who works most of the time in fashion photography, would be unthinkable in most major monthlies these days. It was unthinkable back then! But that's what makes Vreeland the visionary she was.

Voila! Des fleurs! (Les fleurs? Whatever)

images from all over the show, but original source is late sixties, early seventies issues of Vogue