Specially Made

-



Alexander McQueen,S2000

Alexander McQueen was renowned for his thought-provoking and often controversial runway shows. One of my absolute favorites was Spring 2000 when he sent double-amputee Aimee Mullins down the catwalk in a pair of hand-carved wooden legs and boots. What was the point? Did he have one? I only know what I take away from it myself and that is his extraordinary ability to find beauty in the most unconventional of places. In some cases, others follow years later and its true in this instance. There is now a reality show contest for models with disabilities including missing limbs. Alessandra Stanley wrote a great article in The New York Times about “Britain’s Missing Top Model” In it she ponders whether or not this show is a positive step forward or in the general acceptance of people with disabilities. One thing is for sure, McQueen drew the eye to a place where others often preferred to look away and once he had your attention, he kept it there.


Photograph by Nick Knight

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Streisand Effect

-
Image
It's not that Barbra Streisand had actually gone away anywhere but she had been kind of quiet in recent years. All that changed recently. First, in the September 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar an editorial story entitled, "A Star is Re-Born" featured Jennifer Aniston in an homage to the mega-star shot by Mark Seliger. This photo reminds me of a very similar pose struck by Isabella Rossellini, made up to look like Barbra by the late, great Kevyn Aucoin. My Dec/Jan copy of House Beautiful arrives with a feature on Streisand's first-ever book, My Passion for Design in which she "shares the intimate story behind her obsession with home" plus the cover of the August 1974 edition of the magazine which included a feature about her Hollywood home. As if this wasn't enough to convince me that Streisand's star was back in the firmament, along comes another magazine, another story on Streisand's home. This time, December's Harper's Bazaar, photog
Read more

The apple of My i

-
Image
Japanese ad for iMac, 1998 iMac in 5 colors 1999 My obsession with Apple began in 1999 when I bought my first i-Mac. I don't mind admitting that the main reason I bought it was because of the way it looked.The ergonomic shape was both futuristic yet comforting and who could resist those fresh and juicy colors? Mine was blueberry but you could also have strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape. It was a eureka moment for me, that first realization that computers and electronics don't have to be beige and boring or worse still frightening and hard to use. It's quaint to think about it now but my hesitation about buying it was based on the fact that it was a hard drive and monitor "all-in-one". Based on the comments of the few computer buffs I knew back then, this could prove to be a problem later on if the hard drive broke down but the monitor was still good or vice versa. Well form won out over possible malfunction, I bought my first Apple product and I have never l
Read more

The Divine Decadence of Helmut Newton

-
Image
As I mentioned recently, the current fascination amongst certain runway designers and celebrities with racy lingerie looks often brings to mind Helmut Newton 's style of photography. If only he were still alive, what a moment he'd be having. Unfortunately he died in a macabre accident when his car hit a wall in the driveway of Chateau Marmont which had for several years served as his L.A. residence. It has been speculated that Newton suffered a heart attack in the moments before the collision. Newton favorite Nadja Auermann appeared in many of his portraits including these photos taken for American Vogue in 1994. Newton was born in Berlin in 1920. The 1972 movie Cabaret based on a novel written by British author Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin evokes the air of danger and desperation prevalent during the years of the Weimar Republic as Hitler rose to power and Jews were increasingly discriminated against. Seemingly the spirit of smoke-filled, pre-WW2 German night-clu
Read more