Never thought I would meet an object that so thoroughly would fulfil my loves for both furniture and typography. I think the only way I could love it more would be if the letters were backward. Sooooo very cool however.
from Kent and London. Yours for a mere £2700.00.
(Aside: I love the way pound signs look in this font. £££. ££. £. Yay!)
Barcelona has been popping up everywhere of late. That’s right, the entire city. The marvellous book I’m reading right now is set there. The last three little red Netflix envelopes that appeared in my mailbox were also all situated in the city, and all featured lingering shots of sun-kissed Gaudi architecture. An old friend from there just got back in touch, a more recent friend is currently there having the time of her life (probably having to do with some character named Jorge who keeps popping up in emails.) For the moment, I can only dream of being there, but I’d thought I’d take this opportunity to celebrate one of my favourite artists, Ramon Casas i Carbo’.
(Can’t figure out how to do accents on this keyboard. Purists, I dearly apologise. I am lazy and slatternly, and I laugh in the face of Romance languages, apparently. No other excuse.)
If you mosey on over to the Wikipedia article I’ve linked to, you’ll get a fuller story, but the short version is that Casas was a Catalan artist, who lived from 1866 to 1932, who played a major part in the Catalan modernisme movement. He lived between Barcelona and Paris, and painted all aspects of their societies. I find his portraits most appealing, but he also made some beautiful depictions of things such as bullfights, and also did some great commercial work.
Just a note: I’m not sure of all the names of his paintings, and in some cases there is so much conflict between the Catalan, Castillian, and French names that I am just leaving some blank. Don’t fret about this too much.
[above: Autoretrat Vestit de Flamenc, a self-portrait dressed as a Flamenco dancer.]
Interior a l’aire lliure
La Sargentain— this is a portrait of Julia Peraire, his favourite model and eventual wife. She was 22 years his junior.
Madeleine
Ramon Casas i Pere Romeu en Tandem
Entre Dues Llums
Sensualitat
This painting above was probably destined to become an advert of some variety.
Portrait of Pablo Picasso
Thought I’d post one of my favourite editorials, the Alice in Wonderland shoot by Annie Leibovitz for US Vogue in December 2003. I find this an overwhelmingly happy combination– one of my favourite stories with beautiful dresses and photography. It stars Natalia Vodianova as Alice, with a host of designers playing the story’s characters. In each scene Natalia wears the relevant designer’s take on a blue dress.
Above: Natalia as Alice Liddell and Olivier Theyskens as Lewis Carroll.
Tom Ford as the White Rabbit.
Drink Me.
Marc Jacobs as the Caterpillar.
Pig & Pepper.
Jean Paul Gaultier as the Chesire Cat.
Viktor and Rolf as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Stephen Jones as the Mad Hatter, Christian Lacroix as the March Hare.
John Galliano as the Queen of Hearts. Alexis Roche as his King.
Donatella Versace and Rupert Everett as the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.
Nicolas Ghesquiere.
In celebration of my very first beach trip this year (yes, I’m aware it’s the end of July) I’ve pulled together some Jantzen ad campaigns from the days of yore. Let’s hope that my day is similarly characterised by glamour, wacky hijinks and burly men. Sadly, I am not possessed of the suit above, else I don’t think I’d need to worry about anything ever again.
Enjoy! And keep your fingers crossed for good weather for me. My skin has achieved astounding new levels of pallidity.
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[via] This one above may be my favourite of the series… I love the green and the stylised lines of the design.
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[via] Not strictly swimwear, but i couldn’t resist the patterns and that little father-son interchange in the background.
[via] You see? Jantzen = wacky hijinks and burly men!
[via] And how adorable is this suit?!
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I’m in love with these illustrations done by Rene Grau for Dior. Such simple subjects, but so easily evocative of glamour, luxury and beauty. I also love his illustration work for other houses, but for now I’ll focus on Dior.
Images found here.
I have a new guest post up at Shrimpton Couture, this time on 60s flight attendant uniforms. Head over and take a peek!
A dear friend of mine moved to Cairo a couple years ago. This was a very selfish action on her part, as I am now deprived of her presence, but I have come to terms with this loss and can now reluctantly concede that there are a few benefits. First is a place to stay if I ever make it out to Cairo. Second is her newfound interest in things Egyptian or things referencing Egypt, which I then benefit from, as I get to discover things like this photoshoot below.
These pictures are shot by RJ Shaughnessy. It’s definitely worth giving his whole portfolio a look, as the other shoots are equally gorgeous. I’ve posted an unusually high number of pictures here because I kept TRYING to pare them down and simply couldn’t bear to cut any more. I’m enchanted by his take on Egypt, and hopefully you’ll agree.
Apparently, I’ll never get tired of book art. I discovered Kaspen‘s promotional images for Prague’s Anagram Bookshop and was enchanted– what a perfect way to pull in new readers!
[via BibliOdyssey]
Those of you who have been playing along for a while might have learned that my taste runs a little to the bizarre and macabre side of things. Not to any crazy extent– I’m not possessed of a cabinet full of deformed things in jars, for instance, but I do enjoy things that are just a bit twisted.
Ray Caesar‘s art suits me perfectly. The world of his work is a world of nightmares, peopled with creepy little girl-women equipped with coy glances and tentacles. His aesthetic simultaneously repulses and compells me, with the tension it holds between the prim costuming and the subjects’ sexuality and creepiness. It’s a depraved little world, toeing the line between fantasy and realism, but I find it fascinating. I’m desperate to know more about all these characters, and what is going on in each scene. Might have to make up the stories all by myself.
More pictures below:
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