Proenza and Schouler and Divola and Dance, Together

Boy, they sure ain't kidding when they say fashion moves fast. Not a month since New York Fashion Week this Document Journal editorial springs up, influenced by Proenza Schouler's F/W2013 Collection. To be precise it's not exactly influenced by the collection, but by Jack and Lazaro's own influence for the collection (which is somewhat dubiously related to the resulting clothes), photographer John Divola's Zuma series.

The menacing mood, surreal lighting, and the state of disrepair of the location have all been toned down for the editorial, but a sanitized spirit of Divola's California-in-decay still remains. In the hands of a lesser stylist the concept could have seemed derivative or gimmicky, but as usual stylist Stevie Dance manages to capture - or create - the spirit of the times while producing something that looks and feels completely unique. Dance is exceptional for her ability to make high fashion look, if not "street" exactly, less like the wardrobes of bankers'-wives and more creatively and culturally relevant - as well as oddly wearable.

Unlike those editorials which literally re-present entire looks from a collection, in the exact same spirit and narrative of their show, Dance reinvents the context and attitude of clothes so that it's harder to pinpoint which designer or collection a look comes from. Essentially Dance has unusually great creative influence for a stylist, she influences how an audience interprets clothes rather than merely offering them up for view.

But back to Divola, better not forget Zuma itself:

But referencing the Zuma series is all pretty controversial at the moment. Divola himself is a little miffed by the extent to which his work keeps "inspiring" shoots like these. Before the Zuma series was an influence for Jack and Lazaro's Winter 2013 Collection, it was directly riffed off for the Spring 2013 Campaign. So this editorial is a little stupid on Document Journal's behalf - or not of course, they could have already known about the controversy, and any press is good press yadda yadda.

Document Journal editorial from Fashion Gone Rogue

John Divola images from his website

Proenza Schouler campaign from the depths of the web

Badlands

A second Stevie Dance styled editorial for RUSSH magazine, and an example of her storytelling at her best. It may be a borrowed story, but one worth telling and Dance perfectly presented the most memorable clothes of that season. Oh Louis Vuitton. Oh those ears.

In case you were wondering, the movie was Badlands (duh, but if you haven't seen it, then do) and the season was Winter 2009. Apologies for any bad scans (oooh I can see a bit of a pun formed there).

Stevie and Russh

She's not as well known as Grace Coddington or Katie Grand or Venetia Scott, but Stevie Dance is truly one of the best stylists working today. I've always known her as the muscle behind Russh, from when she was just styling up until she was the editor. Dance is also what made Russh the great magazine that it is - before her it was good, but it took Dance to get you excited about an editorial. It's hard to explain exactly why Dance is so excellent, but I think it has something to do with her presenting clothes as part of a story rather than as well designed objects. She said herself she's more into the story than into trends, and as a result a Dance shoot will take you anywhere from a juvenile runaway with her delinquent boyfriend to a girl who likes metal just hanging out in her apartment.
And now she's left the magazine and I was incredibly surprised and all doom and gloom about Russh's future. A couple of issues are out under the new editor Jess Blanch and its clear that it's, y'know, still good, but gone is my excitement for the new issue to land at the shops.

This is one of many of my favourite Dance styled editorials, and is how the world got introduced properly to Julia Nobis. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting more because they are just too good not to be here.

Also it seems that I keep coming back to Julia Nobis. I'm really not one of these model watchers or obsessives or whatever, but I cannot lie that Nobis is my fave.