living and fashion

8/9/2019 Living and Fashion

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EvolvingWArtandDeinan

ran

Om


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features

DanseuReflecting on the Opera Ballet of Paris

Clive Barnes

Design PhInternationally acclaimed designer, Phillipe Starck

shares his ideas on design

Claire Difazio

Living FasKatrin Thomas discusses her work, and the growing

significance of fashion photography

Evan Walker

design watchUnexpected SurprisesThis month features a history of cigarette package design

in pictures

Margaret Richardson

Brand & RebrandSprite goes Sublymonal, Baltimore steps up their tourism

& Payless drops Cooper

Tatianan Natske

art updateLocal ArtNew Zone Artist Collective in Eugene, OR prepares for

their 15thyear and counting

Liz Franczak

fashionFall Shoes

Michael Zimmerman

Versitility in Four DressesLaura Gibson

foodCulinary Infusions

Sarah Albers

Food for ThoughtRaul Gold


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The Photography w


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Getting Katrin Thomas to explain her

own photographs is a daunting task,

nonetheless, everything that she needs to

say about her work is deftly woven and

crisply realized. Asked how she would

describe her photography to the average

person, she answers, I would have to saythat it is related to movies Im creating at

that particular moment. Ive always been

inspired by the films of Godard, Anto-

nioni and Truffaut. They are very real, yet

they are not. Like the way all t

tors use simple but profound la

an abstract, humorous, romant

my photography, I try to explor

lar way. Thomas photograph

slices of everyday life and trend

a poetics of glamour, misery, amattitude, ennui, etc.

Ive always been inspired by the

films of Godard, Antonioni and

Truffaut. They are very real, yet

they are not. Like the way all these

directors use simple but profound

language in an abstract, humor-

ous, romantic way.


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A 1997 photograph that she shot in Los Angeles shows

two young girls each barely twenty years old exqui-

sitely decked out in fetching single-brea-sted, Chanel-

insipred plaid suits. Their bodies are criss-crossed with

lemon-yellow and ochre chalk-bands beside a gleaming

blue swimming pool, accentuated by the girls pale nudelegs partially immersed in the pool. The alluring satura-

tion characteristic of the California sun is evident, with

its attendant aura of leisure, but the ironic subtext of chic

boredom underscored in this picture, and not least punc-

tuated by one of the girls yawning, exemplifies the care

that Thomas took in elucidating and, in effect, demysti-

fying the everyday life of privileged Beverly Hills girls.

Fantasy and desire have a clear purpose in fashion: people

want to look through and not at, fashion photographs.

They want to be entertained, amused, comforted and,

hopefully, live vicariously through glossy photographsof beautifully posed, manicured models. But in celebrat-

ing these iconic, spoiled girls, Thomas also betrays the

limitations of luxury that under-privileged girls un-

aware long for.

48


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The edginess of Thomass photography

is derived not from its casualness, butfrom its cinematic urgency, which stirs

the viewer while retaining a photo-

graphic stillness that invites contem-

plation. The urgency of the cinematic

style captures fleeting moments. Look-

ing at (not through) Thomas sepia-

toned portraits of impressionable

young boys and girls one by one, we

find that, a touch cruel, she catalogues

all the pretenses of cutting-edge fin-

de-siecle: from punk grimace, home-

boy-wannabe, Rastafarian anti-coif,

to Soho pseudo-downtown art scene.

Gone are the days when bohemia,

underground, cutting-edge or rude-

boys meant something. Nowadays

faking it succeeds more than being it.

A pose, a look, an attitude or a style

can be bought or sold in a second. In

a five-minute makeover, a suburbanite

can be transformed from a pale young

thing into the rr girl of the moment.

Escape from reality is no longer nec-

essary; reality has become an escape,

and perception the only reality. Our

life has become as real as cloning, test-

tube babies, breast implants, nose jobs,

face-lifts, sex-changes, race-changes,

spin doctors, clever lawyers or sexgate.

What are we left with but our true pic-

ture, a silhouette whose true color is

greenback? Hardcore capitalism com-modifies everything and anything. In

Puff Daddys words, Its all about the

Benjamins.

As the popularity of fashion as a wor-

thy cultural phenomenon grows in

learned circles, so the role of fashion

photography will progress from a

mere decorative medium to a demand-

ing one with critical framework that

can enable us to see beyond our glam-

orized decorum. Fashion is not only

contagious, it is also worth catching,

regardless of cultural, religious or gen-

der homogeneity. Perhaps playing, for

instance, with the homogeneous trope

and stereotype of what it means to

be Asian, female, and probably Bud-

dhist, Thomas photographed a young

Asian girl in two frames. In one frame,

dressed in a Maoesque revolutionary

white suit against a background hori-

zontally banded in green, white and

black, this young girl sits leaning on

a white table, her back slightly bent

with anxiety, peering in enigmatic con-

templation at her white plate of food.

Clearly Kate Moss, not the Buddha, is

the icon of faith and salvation in the

picture: faith and self-starvation, salva-

tion in thinness. The charged symbolic

analogies of sanitation and purity,

anorexia and thinness, bulimia and

ambivalence, fashion and body, cul-

ture and nature bear witness to the

collective psychological damage we

are suffering from. As if to drive her

point home, Thomas second frame

freezes her subjects evident expres-

sion of mea culpa.

Those who glibly dismiss fashion

as harmless and irrelevant should

think again. The pervasive tyranny

imposed by waif-chic, epitomized

by Kate Moss well-orchestrated

fashion campaigns, is omni-pres-ent, day and night, throughout the

world; whether Buddhist, Christian

or Mohammedan, none can escape

the contagion of fashion. The

dilemma between feeding ones self

and possibly getting fat on the one

hand, or starving herself to desirable

thinness on the other. This tragic


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discovered one day in a Manhattan cross-

town bus. Iman, the enduring Somalian

beauty, was discovered as a fashion model

while attending college in the United

States. Likewise, Katrin Thomas was

discovered a thorny term as a photog-

rapher by Thomas N. Stemmle, Presi-dent and Publisher of Edition Stemmle,

in Photo News, a German photography

magazine, when one of her photographs

adorned the cover. His curiosity aroused,

Stemmle determined to meet Thomas and

see more of her work; impressed by what

she showed him, he offered to publish

her photographs a decision based on the

strength of her work rather than on her

apparent lack of celebrity. But of course,

Thomas had been working for at least the

past ten years; and like all discovered

heroines and heroes, her discovery owed as

much to the eye of the discoverer as to her

untapped talent.

Where Thomas delves squarely into fashion

photography, the obviousness with which

she does so suggest deliberate parody. She

portrays girls in black wigs, seated back to

back against a burgundy wall; they are sep-

arated by two shoulder-high co

with fake-looking bouquet

attempt at flower arrangemen

exactly into the center, where

arms of the two couches j

embrace. At first glance, the a

of this lounge suggest sheer aband luxury, but the underlying

of glamour that Thomas captu

photography betrays the escap

ity epitomized in the cult of su

and their wannabes. Trapped in

tions, these girls also mirror the

fashion-victimhood, suffered b

of girls the worlds over. I do n

or need beautiful models, or a

dio, in order to create a strong

fact, although Im not against

beautiful models, Im confiden

vision and artistry can always s

more interested in taking an i

picture from a seemingly uni

situation. Its always important

not only realize beauty but als

dant consequences.

For most leading fashion

phers, Gallagher Paper a N


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City Zspecializing in second-hand

and sought-after out-of-print fash-

ion magazines has become a sort

of Harvard. Boasting an inexhaust-

ible collection of magazines Vogue,

Harpers Bazaar, Vu, Look, and some

dating as far back as the 1900s Gal-

lagher Paper inspires fresh ideas inas many fashion photographers, who

only have to look at and copy the past

work of Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumen-

feld and others. Take Cecil Beaton and

Horst, for instance: there can be no

doubt as to their exceptional mastery

of lighting effects, costumes, props,

and celebrity subjects, a synergy that

yielded superbly lasting photographs.

But there is an undeniable coldness in

their work. Edge and surprise in pho-

tography today can only be realized

with a certain spontaneity, or at least

a smartly wrought casualness. The

cold, august aura of erstwhile masterslike Beaton or Horst is today, when

anything goes generally irrelevant

and too quaint. Yet, ironically there

is a great insight embodied in the

ancient Chinese belief that the ama-

teur is the true artist; un burdened by

the weight of reputation, he is open

to chance, willing to take risks with

nothing to lose, and hence free toconstantly explore and chart new ter-

ritory. True to post-modernism, with

its attendant parody, irony, metafic-

tion, ambiguity, open-ended or not-

yet future, Thomas confidently seeks

to imbue her photographs with an

ineffable freshness that is immediate,

and deceptively unrehearsed.

Katrin Thomas debt to motion pic-

tures is manifest in a picture of six

young women, scantily-clad in swim-

suits with their backs to the camera,

walking away from the viewer in sin-

gle file towards what appears to be a

freight elevator or loading dock. Thegirl in the foreground has her arms


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wrapped around her in an apparent attempt to

ward off an uncomfortable draft; the second girl,

a considerable distance behind, is walking with a

defiant poise, while the remaining four girls seem

to be in varying stages of psychological prepara-

tion for their exit.Poll after poll has shown that the average young

womans dream job is to be a fashion model. With

religion in rapid decline, faith lost with one

hand is regained by the other. Today, the fashion

magazine is the young womans bible, the fash-

ion designer, her god, and the fashion model, her

supreme goddess. Using the fleeting nature of

fashion as a trope, Katrin Thomas has summarily

articulated the vernacular and pernicious ideals of

beauty of todays young girl.

Throughout Katrin Tomas work, there abound

the aura and fetching beauty epitomized by the

breeziness of Francoise Hardys voice, the disarm-

ing dissonance of Billy Holidays phrasing, the

Dionysian wantonness of Prince or Madonna, or

the savory melancholy of Tricky, say, infused with

the pop irreverence of Bjork. Thomas grasp of

her photographic composition always manages to

delineate the complex and quotidian with such

rare musical breadth, such artistic restraint and

poetic immediacy that it is able to surprise the

jaded retina of even the most hardened cogno-

scenti. Whilst any definition of what constitutes a

masterpiece is relative, work like Thomas, which

unfailingly engenders a sensation of passion, holds

eternal sway. The fuel of passion that fires and

lovingly stirs Katrin Thomas photography will

always reward us with its warmth.


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TheOpera BalletofParis written byClive Barnes


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No, the repertoire is not a

York City Ballets, or even

Royal Ballets for one th

Ballet has for centuries no

ographer to call its own. It

securely preserved as the R

its male dancers as strong

Ballet Theatre or its wom

Kirovs. But the Paris Oper

company. It was not alway

I first encountered the com

to Paris, in 1949. I was alre

not that young. And I wacated dance aficionado (a

ticated) and emerging da

armed with industrial-str

was still paying for my ow

thest, cheapest reaches of

pany did not impress me o

infinitely less interesting

independent troupes of Ro

Kochno. In fact, apart fro

Symphony in C (with th

minus Tamara Toumanov

nom de guerre of Le Palais

those fancy Leonor Fini d

underwhelmed. I stubbor

many later occasions.


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66

Even a two-week immersion season

Covent Garden in 1954 (my diaries

teen ballets, mostly by Serge Lifar,

performances) did nothing to make

presence of both the wondrous Yvet

lustrous Nina Vyroubova, two of m

lerinas of the twentieth century. Su

Paris I would go to the company as a

ation. Journalistically I at least mad

John Crankos 1955 La Belle Helen

way) or Gene Kellys 1960 Gershwi

(Claude Bessy was divine, but Jerry L

better choreography) or Pierre Laco

reconstruction of La Sylphide (not a

Victor Gsovskys earlier attempt for

of the company among the majors w

lowest of the low.


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68

By now the troupe was involved in a

succession of directors. There were fine

dancers, but no company. I caught the

occasional event Helgi Tomassons

guest debut as Albrecht in Giselle, for

example, or the revival of Yuri Grigoro-vichs Ivan the Terrible, with the mar-

velous Jean Guizerix (a great Robbins

interpreter, by the way), Dominique

Khalfouni and, also a favorite at ABT,

Michael Denard. Yet

Pariss dancers as ser

ing until I had an aw

ber 1977.

Every year the Paris

motion examinatioers apart from the

senior soloists with

of the Paris Opera

delegation of dance


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70

eign outsiders, who in 1977 consisted

of Kenneth MacMillan, Asaf Messerer,

and myself. I realized that since Bessy

had taken control of the ballet school

some five years earlier, the standard of

the younger dancers had risen. But see-

ing them en masse was an extraordi-

nary experience. Bessy and her teachers

had formed a troupe to reckon with an

instrument for dance.

It is Rudolf Nureyev who, rightly so, is

given the credit for pushi

into the first rank. His insp

his prescient promotions a

cation ora sense of style bu

aspiration, was vital. But

were there before Nureyev

mand of the company in

they remained after his re

1989. And they are there

though the school, to jud

appearance in New York

not currently producing d

quality of Bessys earlier yNo real matter the st

improve again. And the

I saw in Paris at the begin

year, catching two perfo

Lacottes pallid restaging

at the Palais Gamier, and

Bastille a strike-struck, vi


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72

ery-less, revival of John Neumeiers imaginative

Sylvia (but bring back the Ashton and give it to the

French!), is still that same marvelous instrument.

Ive never been much enamored of Agnes Letestu

and Jose Martinez, but their alternates in the lead-

ing roles in Paquita, the glistening Clairemarie

Osta and the elegant Jean-Guillaume Bart, were

superb. In Sylvia, Eleonora Abbagnato, Delphine

Moussin, Nicolas Le Riche, and Manuel Legrisshowed just that style, spirit, and sheer technique

that has made todays Paris Opera Ballet one of

the wonders of the dance world. I miss Paris and

nowadays the dancers as much as the city.

Senior Consulting Editor Clive Barnes, who covers dance

and theater for the New York Post, has contributed to Dance

Magazine since 1956.


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Design Phenom

Claire Difazio


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76

S recalls spending his childhood underneath his fathers draw-

ing boards; hours spent sawing, cutting, gluing, sanding, dismantling

bikes, motor cycles and other objects. Endless hours, a whole lifetime

spent taking apart and putting back together whatever comes to hand,

remaking the world around him.

Several years and several prototypes later, the Italians have made him

responsible for their furniture, President Mitterand asked him to change

life at the Elyses Palace, the Caf Costes has become Le Caf, he has

turned the Royalton and Paramount in New York into the new classics

of the hotel world and scattered Japan with architectural tours de force

that have made him the leading exponent of expressionist architecture.His respect for the environment and for humankind has also been rec-

ognized in France, where he was commissioned to design the Ecole

Nationale Suprieure des Arts Dcoratifs in Pa ris, the control tower at

Bordeaux airport, and a waste recycling plan

P i t lit


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Paris metropolitan area.

Abroad, he continues to shake up both the

ditions and cultures of the major cities aro

the world, with the decoration of the Penin

Hotel restaurant in Hong Kong, the Teatron

Mexico, the Hotel Delano in Miami, the M

drian in Los Angeles, the Asia de Cuba rest

rant in New York, and a whole clutch of proj

under way in London and elsewhere. His gi

to turn the object of his commission instan

into a place of charm, pleasure and encounte

An honest and enthusiastic citizen of tod

world, he considers it his duty to share withhis subversive vision of a better world wh

is his alone and yet which fits up like a glo

He is tireless in changing the realities of

daily life, sublimating our roots and the deep

wellsprings of our being into his changes.

captures the essential spirit of the sea for B

teau, turns the toothbrush into a noble obj

squeezes lemons but the wrong way, and e

makes our TV sets more fun to be with w

he brings his emotional style into Thoms

electronic world.

He also takes time out to change our pasta,

ash-trays, lamps, toothbrushes, door hand

cutlery, candlesticks, kettles, knives, va

clocks, scooters, motorcycles, desks, beds, ta

baths, toiletsin short, our whole life. A

that he finds increasingly fascinating, wh

has brought him now closer to the human b

with clothes, underwear, shoes, glasses, watch

food, toiletries et al., still determined that

designs shall, as ever, respect the nature and

future of mankind.


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80

what is the best moment of the day?

when you make love to the person that you love.

what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?

everything is good.

do you listen to the radio?

bollywood radio.

what books do you have on your bedside table?

so many... I read 12 books at a time...

europeana by patrik ourednik (a brief history of the twentieth

century). it is very important to read.

where do you get news from?

I live like a monk, so there is no news. I read only the scientific

magazines.

do you have any preferences on how women dress?

ehh... yes. I like the dress that is like a double skin.

what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?

cannot say.

do you have any pets?

no.


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when you were a child, what did you want to be?

nothing.

where do you work on your projects?

anywhere in front of the sea.

who would you like to design something for?

nobody. there are already thousands of really, really

good chairs. there are thousands of good lamps. there

are thousands of everything.

do you discuss your work with other designers?

never. I am not interested in designers.

describe your style, like a good friend of yours

would describe it.

freedom.

which of your works has given you the most satis-

faction?

the next.

among the most recent work is collection guns lamps for flos.

the guns collection is nothing but a sign of the times. we get the symbols

we deserve.

P.S.: light, functional, affordable and elegant, with over 100 million cop-

ies officially produced to date, the kalachnikov is one of the industrial

design success-stories of our age. mr kalachnikov has never received any

royalties for this design. he often complains about it. thus, I intend to payhim a commission for the sales of the model that replicates his invention.

poor guy. the remainder will be donated to medicins sans frontieres,...

can you describe an e volution in your work from your first projects

to the present day?

more honest.

do you design for the masses?

I have been trying for 20 years now. how I make life better for my tribe.

you once said that it is your dream to make the world a better

place...is it beauty you are looking for?

no, not for beauty. we have to re place beauty, which is a cultural concept,

with goodness, which is a humanist c oncept.the beauty of intelligence?

yes. of intelligence. the elegance of intelligence and the beauty of hap-

piness.

you design shoes, eyeglasses,...is your approach to fashion design

different to that of industrial design?

I have no reason with fashion but am interested to make clothes for my

friends.

and you have designed hotels, clubs and restaurants...again, a dif-

ferent approach?

it is the same thing. just the scale is different.

is there any architect or designer from past you appreciate a lot?

I am not interested in architects or designers. I no longer wish to talk

about design.

any advice for the young?

advice? make a job useful.

what are you afraid of regarding the future?

the loss of civilisation.


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84

The worlds museums are unerring. Paris,

New York, Munich, London, Chicago,

Kyoto, Barcelona all exhibit his work

as that of a master. Prizes and awards are

showered on him: des-igner of the year,Grand Prix for Industrial Design, the

Oscar for Design, Officier des Arts et des

Lettres, and many more.

Always and everywhere, he seems to

understand better than any other our

dreams, our desires, our needs, and our

responsibility to the future, as well the

overriding need to respect his fellow

citizens by making his work a political

and a civic act. Crazy, warm yet terribly

lucid, he draws without respite, out of

necessity, driven by a sense of urgency,

for himself and for others. He touches

us through his work, which is fine

and intelligent indeed, but most of all

touches us because he puts his heart into

that work, creating objects that are good

even before they are beautiful.

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