{Art} Gil Elvgren

Yesterday, I made a trip to the Kennett & Lindsell ltd showrooms as I desperately need a dress form. They were extremely helpful and were more concerned with saving me money and catering to my needs rather than lining their pockets. I cannot wait to actually make a purchase. One of the forms they showed me was specifically designed to help with making corselets and it had a lovely silhouette with a nipped in waist. As they were being so nice to me I thought it would be too rude to ask if I could take pictures, but it looked a little bit like this….
(But with bigger boobs)

Louis Vuitton
Now we’re only just starting to see that silhouette make what may just be a comeback in fashion, but I’ve always loved it. It may be because all the women in my family carry that shape, but when I stumbled across the work of American painter Gil Elvgren, that was it for me. I remember for my AS Art portfolio, I painted my own African pin up girl wearing an Ankara print bikini (I had to incorporate fashion in there somehow).


I came across some before and after images of his work, and being a nosey person that likes to see the creative process behind the works of artists and designers, I kind of found the difference fascinating.

It’s like Photoshop the early years don’t you think?
Another thing that caught my attention was the styling in his paintings.

I can’t find the be fore’s and afters for many of his work but it would interesting to see if he included the detailing when painting (which would say a lot about how much attention to detail he paid to fashion) or if the models did the styling themselves (in which case, good job girls)

Givenchy Fall 2010 Couture

At university, there would always be that one person who claimed that they did not look at other designers work or read magazines. Whether or not they genuinely did so because they did not want to be influenced by what they saw (which is understandable) or they said so to belittle those of us that did I don’t know, but it always irked me. That’s like a photography not looking at other photographers work, or even a doctor not reading med journals-mind boggling. You learn a lot from watching, and Riccardo Tisci’s Givenchy Fall 2010 Couture collection is an example of why you should always pay attention to what designers are doing.
Inspiration is something you will see I talk about a lot on this blog (it’s something that fascinates me), and upon seeing how beautiful the Givenchy Couture collection was, “What was the starting point?” was the first question that entered my head. The “art” of extracting from your inspiration and working it into a collection is something that I still haven’t perfected. I have the ability to do it but it’s not great (my reference is either too obvious, or I deviate so far from what I was inspired by that I may as well have not researched it in the first place), so it was interesting to see how Tisci’s inspiration-Frida Kahlo and the three things that she passionately painted about (religion, sensuality and the human anatomy) were shown through the striking dresses.
Kahlo was half-Jewish and half-Catholic and this you can see represented in the silhouette of the dresses and the length as well as the sharp white-think nuns and Mexican wedding dresses.

I assume the sensuality is shown through the feathers, warm colours, crystals and pearls *drools* and the human anatomy drawn from her suffering with Spina bifida and breaking her spine, is represented through spine belts, and the meticulously straight lines that bordered the zips.

The Creators Project

I’m on a nails did hype (as if you couldn’t already tell from my latest posts)! And now twice a week whilst I’m waving my hands in the air trying to fan them dry I catch myself singing Kid Sister featuring Kanye West’s ‘Nails Did’. It’s so bloody sad, but it leads me onto Fool’s Gold the label because the art work for that track is one of my favourite track covers. Infact, I tend to like a lot of the art work done by Fool’s Gold’s very own Dust La Rock. There’s something pleasing about seeing it whilst scrolling through your iTunes (…well for me anyways) and it definitely sets a Fool’s Gold track apart from other’s.

Check out this video from the Creators Project…

Veik's Lady Gaga Barbie Tribute

I stumbled across these images on Refinery29 of an artist called Veik's homage to Lady Gaga through Barbie.





When I was younger, I too would recreate my favourite celeb looks on Barbie dolls (I'd even do mini mock photoshoots as well) but they weren't anywhere close to this guys level-I mean I tried to recreate the clothes, however they just never did fit right (this applies to the clothes I make at uni as well-story of my frikkin' life).

I must confess, I feel like digging out my old Christie doll and giving her a makeover too. check out the rest of his work here.

A Woman and A Warrior

Is how Thierry Mugler describes the costumes he has designed for Beyonce's world tour.
He also says that there will be "a lot of dramatization and metamorphosis on stage".
I can't frikkin' wait to see this!

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Kanye West X Complex

It seem's like they're referencing M.C. Escher in that last picture which I love!

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Britney X DSquared2

I love looking at designer fashion illustrations

The Insa Heels Have Landed

Graffiti artist Insa has finally released his heels. I waited so long for them to drop that I forgot about them. But anyways, they're here at £200 a pair in 3 different colourways named after three different towns in London...



CHELSEA

LEWISHAM

HACKNEY

I want the chelsea ones.

and whilst your checking out the shoes, I recommend you take a look at his work-it's nuts what he can do with paint (spray paint that is).