Barnumville

I’ve had Matt Hoyle‘s photography on the brain for a couple months now.  The majority of his stuff is hyper-realistic in style, so shiny as to make the subject seem to be out of a vintage illustration for the Saturday Evening Post. His “Barnumville” photos lack the gloss of his  other series, but the colourful subjects made me even more curious about the project.

In an interview about the series, Hoyle reveals that these portraits “were initially just a recording” of the performers, in preparation for a greater thematic project depicting his imaginary town of Barnumville, where sideshow performers live in their time off. I’ve always had a soft spot for the idea of circus performers, so the thought of a fictional sideshow community just about made me jump about in glee. I can completely see these people pictured below retiring to some small town in the Florida panhandle. Scandals abound, outrageous acts are pulled off, but at the end of the day the charming characters spout good ol’ fashioned horse sense, peppered by observations from their crazy experiences. Into stereotyping, moi? Never!

I think the big thing that strikes me about this collection is that it manages to tread a very careful line between strangeness and  and complete normalcy. When I saw the picture above, I gleefully prepared myself for a freak show, but as I scrolled through the shots, I found myself pleased by the fact that these people who are so often fetishized because of their careers are shown as normal people. Some of them, at least. Others are in clown makeup, or are human blockheads (shudder!) so can’t quite tread that line, but I like the contrast. Anyway, check out the shots below.

Boudoir

The lighting in Marie Claire Italia’s Boudoir editorial is sheer magic, mirroring the softness and romance of the clothes and settings with its muted golden tones. I’m reminded of indolent  upper-class country degeneracy as described in books set in 1920s Britain (though obvi the clothing evokes a different period.) I’m having fun filling in the story–the heroine here, played by Sophie Vlaming, is a bored ice queen who discovers her lusty side through either a lesbian fling or through the teachings of a degenerate chum, depending on how you read the pics. I’ve been trying to come up with a name for her. Something like Patricia or Charlotte. The result, through photographer David Bellemere’s lens, is dreamy and saturated in golden light. The shots are as pretty as the clothing.

Still pondering her name… I’ll have to come up with something soon, or I’ll just have to call her Fenella as a joke.

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Give ‘Til it Hurts

Now, I have to present this with the disclaimer that I never have seen a Saw movie, that I hate torture-porn, that the very thought of movies like that make me want to curl up into a ball and rock back and forth like a gibbering fool. I like horror and all, but I’m more a fan of the psychological mindfuck stuff, rather than knives and gore and… ugh. Shudder shudder shudder.  Despite all that, this ad for Saw VI (sorry… I refuse to link to it…. yuck.) and their “Give ‘Til it Hurts” blood drive, benefiting the American Red Cross, is completely eye-catching. The corset is by The Blonds, and it is so outré and  fantastical that I can’t stop looking at it. Such a fanciful idea, surreal-looking until you really focus in on it and see what it is made of, contrasting perfectly against her skin. This image is so simultaneously gorgeous and full of horror that I’m just in awe.

Death Rock Cocktail Hat

I am mesmerised by this headpiece. I don’t know how I could ever wear it (beyond prancing around in front of a mirror at home when my roommates are well away from the apartment) but it is magnificent. I’d die to see it on somebody.

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A Glimpse of the Portrait of an Uncomfortable Gentleman Surrounded by Mysterious Things

Michael C. Hsiung‘s drawings have brought hilarity and intense joy into my life in the midst of a very stressful day. I love the style and vaguely macabre subject matter, but most of all, it is the deadpan weirdness of the titles that makes me happy. I want to visit this bizarro little world of his, where drunken mermen and unitaurs frolic, and be privy to the secret inner lives of all the waiters and chefs of the land. Very inspiring.

“A scene in which the street performer with six fingers may or may not need the passerbyer’s help to untangle himself.”

Despite having successfully purloined the penny-farthing from Mr. Starley, the armed brutes find themselves in a pickle.

On the Sobriety of Certain Mermen

Merman examining his friend’s injured tail

On the subject of teaching a child how to prepare an animal’s blood for a feast.

In a moment of folly, the waiter slips, but manages to point his toes.

Chef trying to break the neck of giant chicken for an expensive feast.

Unitaur checking the stability of horn after battle.

On the devotion between the clown man and the unknown boy.

Sailing along the turbulent sea, the Roman soldier believes he may or may not be going towards the battle.

Valentino A/W 2009-10 ramblings

Valentino has always been one of my favourite designers. My mother has a couple of his dresses from the mid Eighties in her closet, and when I was a little girl, I would always sneak in and stroke them with a finger, awestruck by their beauty. I daydreamed about what it would be like to be a grown-up woman and be able to slip into one of those gowns. I imagined going out and looking beautiful and glamourous, everyone unable to tear their eyes off the mysterious woman in the fancy dress.

Fast-forward 18 years, and sadly I find that, as I inherited my figure from my grandmother rather than my mother, those glorious gowns refuse to fit. (I did get the boobs, though.) Still love Valentino, though, so it’s been interesting seeing where Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioliare going with the line. I’m not 100% enthused with what I’ve seen, but I did think there were some definite hits in the A/W 2009-10 collection. Vintage-inspired lace is a swift route to happiness in my book.

Lace sleeves and mask. Love.

Despite my love for vintage lingerie, I tend to be iffy about lingerie-inspired detailing on things, but this dress does it in an original way. I’d wear this in a heartbeat.

I actually am not crazy about this dress, as I find it boring. My opinion might be revised if I saw it one someone possessed of a breast or hip or two, but for now it stands. Not a Gigantic Bow fan. I had to put this up, though, because I am simply in love with this particular mask.

And in that line, the two below are all about the gorgeous headpieces, beautiful though the bodices pictured may be. They’re what I would wear if I were the beautiful but badass spy-heroine of some OTT steampunk novel, attending a ball to stop the heinous, be-monacled Baron von Pfumfenhumfen from realising his plans to unleash his steam-powered minions on  the known world. Then, having saved the world with a combination of my brilliance and mad skillz, I would change into the outfit at the very top and stride into the meeting of the International Cabal of Bigwigs and Nabobs, brazenly showing off my anachronistic bare legs, and stun them all into having an iota of sense in their heads, through sheer display of badassery.

Ahem. Reality check. Purty hat-veil-thingmabobs. And bodices. Yes, purty bodices too.

Enchanted Forest

This bed from Attila Design truly enchants me.

It’s a little over-the-top for me to consider it for my own personal use (even if I happened to have a spare $10,000 to use to buy a new bed), but when the particular person who it is destined for finds it, it’ll be wonderful. I love the fairytale quality of it. I wonder what you dream of at night in a bed like this.