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| Dior "Venus" dress, Costume Institute |
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| Richard Avedon's photo of "Junon" |
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| "Junon" dress, Costume Institute |
And a few variations on the scallop theme:
For drama of a different length:
the lives and junk of the Blackbird girls...
Showing posts with label Richard Avedon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Avedon. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Junk Love: Dior Drama
When the Blackbird girls go shopping for junk, we like to start out the day with a little fantasy element: In a perfect world, what would we find today? The answers usually involve fantastic mid-century furniture (signed of course), really good costume jewelry, and Robert Downey Jr. (oh please, like you didn't know this about us already). And then we close our eyes and chant vintage Dior, vintage Dior. Someday, there will probably be a rain dance of sorts, but our chances are still pretty terrible of actually finding any. But while we keep the dream alive, we like to spend a ridiculous percentage of our free time looking at photos of Dior dresses. Today's collection features dramatic skirts, starting with Dior's iconic scalloped ladies: Junon and Venus, both of which are in the collection of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
And a few variations on the scallop theme:
For drama of a different length:
A bit of basket weave:
And...her.
And a few variations on the scallop theme:
For drama of a different length:
Friday, June 7, 2013
The Skinny -- That Bazaar-ly Funny Face
Audrey, Astaire, and Avedon-worthy fashion photography. What could get better than that?
But did you know that the movie really is based on the magazine, Harper's Bazaar?
It's true. Fred Astaire's character, Dick Avery, is modeled after Bazaar fashion photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon worked at the magazine from 1945 - 1965. He liked to show a woman's character in photographs -- making her move, telling a story, or just basically making a model more than a pretty woman in pretty clothes. Selling fashion was about selling a lifestyle, and Avedon's photos captured that lifestyle. Dick Avery in the movie says, "What’s wrong with bringing out a girl who has character, spirit, and intelligence?" And that was Avedon all over.
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| An Avedon cover for Harper's Bazaar |
Wait, though! It goes even further. Kay Thompson's character of Maggie Prescott -- the editor of Quality magazine -- was based on Harper's editor, Diana Vreeland. Vreeland was editor from 1936 - 1962, and is pretty much thought of as the quintessential fashion editor. She is said to have invented the word, "Pizzazz!", and made sweeping pronouncements about fashion. You know, much like Maggie Prescott's opening number -- THINK PINK! -- and her constant complaints that things need "More pizzazz!"
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| Kay Thompson as Maggie Prescott |
Well, to be honest, Maggie's close, but let's be more accurate. What Vreeland really said is, "I adore that pink...It’s the navy blue of India."
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| Portrait of Diana Vreeland |
Friday, January 11, 2013
The Skinny: Martin Munkasci
I had planned to write about Richard Avedon. I will, someday. But today is all about the man who inspired Avedon, Martin Munkasci.
Multiple sources cite him as "the father of fashion photography." I had never heard of him before today. It turns out that a lot of people have never heard of him. In fact, after his death in 1963, his archives were offered to multiple museums. Nobody wanted them.
He was a Hungarian Jew (actually born in Transylvania) who got his start as a sports photographer in his native country for a newspaper called Az Est. He was an adventurer, often called "Crazy Angle" by his colleagues. Instead of standing behind the fence to photograph the races, he would be on his knees in a puddle on the side of the track. One source claims that he strapped himself to the side of a race car in order to photograph it in motion around the track.
Martin moved to Berlin, where photography was booming, and ended up working for several German publications in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He even photographed Hitler (no small feat for an Eastern European Jew in Nazi days). When the atmosphere in Germany started to get a little rough for people of Munkasci's roots, he took an overseas assignment in America for Biz, one of his German magazines. While in New York, he agreed to do a photo shoot for Carmel Snow, budding editor for Harper's Bazaar, and that was the day he made history. Not only was it the first outdoor fashion shoot, it was the first motion fashion shoot. Until then, models were posed and primped on carefully regulated sets in carefully regulated studios. With Carmel Snow, Martin Munkasci shot his model on the beach. He didn't speak English, and his interpreter was having a difficult time of it, but the model, Lucile Brokaw, understood perfectly. He wanted her to run. To move around. To splash. Looking at the photographs, you would never know that the day was actually miserably cold and damp, the model shivering.
The shoot was such a success that Carmel Snow offered him a job. The next year, he moved to America to become one of the most groundbreaking photographers of the time. He was one of the first photographers to put nudes in a mainstream magazine (tastefully, of course).
He continued to pioneer the art of motion photography for Harper's Bazaar, Life, and Ladies Home Journal before turning his eye to Hollywood. His work gave us one of the most well-known pictures of Fred Astaire in motion. At his peak in the mid-1930s, his annual salary was $100,000. He lived in a Long Island estate with art from the Masters on his walls.
In 1939, his luck took a hike. His wife (the second of three) divorced him. He lost a lot of money. Then, his daughter died of cancer. While he was still in mourning, Ladies Home Journal gave him a cross-country series assignment called "How America Lives." The stress of driving from city to city, day after day, caught up with him, and his pictures weren't good anymore. They fired him. He had a heart attack. Another wife, and another divorce, led him to poverty. He was finally reduced to loitering in the hall outside Harper's Bazaar, hoping for some work. He finally had to pawn all of his camera equipment. His last published photograph was for that magazine, in July of 1962. A year later, he died of a heart attack. The only food in his refrigerator was an open can of spaghetti with a fork sticking out of it.
People finally came around, and several decades later, interest in his work renewed. Someone discovered a series of undeveloped negatives, and an exhibit of "lost" photos was born. A few books were written, with quotes from photographers that Munkasci inspired, including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon. I think my favorite is Avedon's remembrance of his 11-year old self discovering Munkasci magazine cover and gluing it to his bedroom ceiling: "His women [strode] parallel to the sea,
unconcerned with his camera, freed by his dream of them, leaping
straight-kneed across my bed."
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| "Woman on boulder with bicycle", 1936 |
Multiple sources cite him as "the father of fashion photography." I had never heard of him before today. It turns out that a lot of people have never heard of him. In fact, after his death in 1963, his archives were offered to multiple museums. Nobody wanted them.
 |
| 1940s Harper's Bazaar |
He was a Hungarian Jew (actually born in Transylvania) who got his start as a sports photographer in his native country for a newspaper called Az Est. He was an adventurer, often called "Crazy Angle" by his colleagues. Instead of standing behind the fence to photograph the races, he would be on his knees in a puddle on the side of the track. One source claims that he strapped himself to the side of a race car in order to photograph it in motion around the track.
| Munkasci, on a car |
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| European motorcyclist, 1920s |
Martin moved to Berlin, where photography was booming, and ended up working for several German publications in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He even photographed Hitler (no small feat for an Eastern European Jew in Nazi days). When the atmosphere in Germany started to get a little rough for people of Munkasci's roots, he took an overseas assignment in America for Biz, one of his German magazines. While in New York, he agreed to do a photo shoot for Carmel Snow, budding editor for Harper's Bazaar, and that was the day he made history. Not only was it the first outdoor fashion shoot, it was the first motion fashion shoot. Until then, models were posed and primped on carefully regulated sets in carefully regulated studios. With Carmel Snow, Martin Munkasci shot his model on the beach. He didn't speak English, and his interpreter was having a difficult time of it, but the model, Lucile Brokaw, understood perfectly. He wanted her to run. To move around. To splash. Looking at the photographs, you would never know that the day was actually miserably cold and damp, the model shivering.
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| Lucile Brokaw, Harper's Bazaar 1933 |
The shoot was such a success that Carmel Snow offered him a job. The next year, he moved to America to become one of the most groundbreaking photographers of the time. He was one of the first photographers to put nudes in a mainstream magazine (tastefully, of course).
 |
| Harper's Bazaar, 1935 |
He continued to pioneer the art of motion photography for Harper's Bazaar, Life, and Ladies Home Journal before turning his eye to Hollywood. His work gave us one of the most well-known pictures of Fred Astaire in motion. At his peak in the mid-1930s, his annual salary was $100,000. He lived in a Long Island estate with art from the Masters on his walls.
 |
| Fred Astaire; Life, 1936 |
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| Katharine Hepburn |
In 1939, his luck took a hike. His wife (the second of three) divorced him. He lost a lot of money. Then, his daughter died of cancer. While he was still in mourning, Ladies Home Journal gave him a cross-country series assignment called "How America Lives." The stress of driving from city to city, day after day, caught up with him, and his pictures weren't good anymore. They fired him. He had a heart attack. Another wife, and another divorce, led him to poverty. He was finally reduced to loitering in the hall outside Harper's Bazaar, hoping for some work. He finally had to pawn all of his camera equipment. His last published photograph was for that magazine, in July of 1962. A year later, he died of a heart attack. The only food in his refrigerator was an open can of spaghetti with a fork sticking out of it.
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| 1936, "Peignoir in Soft Breeze" |
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| New York World's Fair, Harper's Bazaar 1938 |
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| The Puddle Jumper |
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| Bathing Beauties Information obtained from: http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8597512/Martin-Munkacsi-father-of-fashion-photography.html; http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/04/decisive-munkacsi-moments |
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