The creative director Anthony Vaccarello has hired the prolific German photographer to capture his Fall 2020 collection. Although studio photography is very rare for Teller — his style tends to be more reportage, capturing his subjects candidly in the middle of life — this campaign is an exception. Through basic studio portraiture, he captures Hartzel, using both black-and-white and color. Relying on the single set piece of a massive, sculptural lighting fixture, he sees similarities between the manner in which light plays across the multifaceted metal and the shimmering textures of Vaccarello's design. How much graphical unity and scope Teller can draw from just a few visual elements is remarkable. 

The campaign sets a clear objective: to show the power of Vaccarello's designs. Eschewing conceptual frills, compositions of Teller make subtle and clever use of pattern to accomplish this aim beautifully. 

Grace Kathleen Hartzel, of Zionsville, Indiana, is an American fashion model. At the age of only fifteen, she has been discovered while eating with her father at a St. Louis Cheesecake Factory. She "walked in almost every big show during the fall/winter 2015 and the spring/summer 2016 seasons," after being recognized in the fall/winter 2014 show as a muse of the then-YSL fashion designer Hedi Slimane. Slimane's spring 2014 show, when Grace Kathleen Hartzel has been an unknown, was "entirely made in Hartzel's image." 

Grace Kathleen Hartzel has been featured in a 2016 Salvatore Ferragamo short film, My Life is a Game, directed by Sebastien Grousset and filmed by Pawel Edelman.

Saint Laurent Creative Director | Anthony Vaccarello

In other news, Rick Owens isn't into doing anything halfway. The Paris-based California-born designer is known for some of the most controversial and envelope-pushing concepts in the fashion industry, with runway shows to suit. Yet Spring/Summer 2021 "PHLEGETHON" is another matter. The line, closely lensed by Owens himself, is a selection of repurposed pieces from the previous collections of Owens, accompanied by new designs and concepts.

Juergen Teller lenses Grace Hartzel in a new campaign from Saint Laurent.

SAINT LAURENT: #YSL33 FALL 2020 AD CAMPAIGN

Celine Homme Spring/Summer 2021 is a mixture of the diverse inspirations of Hedi Slimane, from the classical western film Johnny Guitar to TikTok. Its name, "The Dancing Kid," indicates the space between, drawing influence for its vibrant clothes from the youthful app, without departing entirely from the rocker codes of Slimane. 

Although Fall/Winter 2020 delivered sophisticated tailoring with a touch of masculine subversion, SS21 delves completely into playfully bold patterns, prints and appliqués. The sparkling LED-studded jackets, oversized flannel shirts and leopard-patterned pants seem to be tailor-made for TikTok stars — indeed, the luxury house has already posted TikTok stars' Instagram Stories like @lilhuddy and @noeneubanks — already a Celine muse — styling the next season looks on their native platform. 

Soundtracked by Tiagz's TikTok smash "They Call Me Tiago" — edited exclusively for the 12-minute presentation by Celine Homme — "The Dancing Kid" extracts inspiration from Slimane's reaction to months of isolation, imagining a wardrobe appropriate for circumstance-stifled young creatives. The brand specifically cites "e-boys and current skate culture" as central to "The Dancing Kid" as both a movie and a collection, as well as the "reclaiming the night" theme. 

Such conceits are mirrored in the collared shirts worn under the sweaters of Celine, the hanging lock-laden necklaces and the ripped or "lacerated" Slimane's signature skinny jeans, seen stacked on top of the latest Z Trainers of Celine Homme. Tie-dyed layering pieces and knit beanies give the tiger stripe ponchos texture and sleeveless leather jackets that are reminiscent of the nightlife staples of yesteryear, while plaid tops, trendy eyewear and branded bags are a perfect fit for consumers of genre-fluid Gen Z. 

See "THE DANCING KID" in detail below and on the website of Celine.

Channels E-Boys and Skaters in Confinement.

Photographed in St. Tropez on the southern coast of France by artistic director Hedi Slimane, the campaign highlights the Celine house's latest Plein Soleil collection. The young model offers an effortlessly cool energy coupled with a natural beauty that fits perfectly with the last days of summer feeling. Slimane captures her in his black-and-white signature style, seeking a sense of soft harmony between his subject and the surrounding wildflowers and trees. 

Though understated and softly stunning, the campaign forms a significant moment for Celine. Recently, Hedi Slimane faced criticism and accusations of racism, and his personal instagram account – which consists of his creative work and does not feature a single non-white person – was pointed out as clear evidence. Celine's account is faring a little better. Especially in the reign of the Black Lives Matter movement, concerns were raised about whether there was no deep tension between what Celine values as a brand, and who its creative director is as an individual and artist. 

This campaign is only a beginning to rectifying those issues, but it is a beautiful one. The presence of black models and other people of color should be a norm, not something that needs to be celebrated, so it's awesome to see these Mombot images so naturally and beautifully integrated into Celine's existing aesthetics. She's a young model and a fresh face – this is her first big campaign, and it appears to be one of her best ever ads – and Celine has helped her make a beautiful first impression. We are superexcited to see where her career is heading, and hoping to see more progress from Celine.

Essoye Mombot stars in a new campaign from Celine.

CELINE FALL 2020 AD CAMPAIGN WITH ESSOYE MOMBOT

Celine has collaborated with the foundation for a limited-edition series of necklaces that recalls the French sculpture César Baldaccini. 

Baldaccini has been at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement and is known for his art of compression, frequently turning scrap metal from vehicles or ordinary garbage into geometric sculptures. In 1959, the artist began exploring his art of Directed Compressions when he first saw how a heavyweight hydraulic crushing machine worked. 

Hedi Slimane at Celine has gained inspiration from the artist by producing two fine jewelry pieces for the French house — one necklace made of sterling silver and leather, and the other of gold vermeil and leather. There are only 100 of each necklace, and all are numbered and packed individually in special pinewood cases. 

The collaboration is organic, as Baldaccini used to make jewelry too. The artist would gather fragments, heirlooms, and antiques from his family and would remold them into new totemic necklaces — which these new Celine necklaces so clearly relate to. All necklaces are rectangular, and have compact metal carvings all over them. 

Take a look at the necklaces of the Celine César Compression Project. Both are now available to buy at select Celine boutiques. The sterling silver piece is retailing at $4,100 USD while the gold vermeil piece is at $5,400. 

César Baldaccini was once commissioned to paint a McLaren F1 GTR in 1995, which took part in Le Mans' famous 24 Hours. The Chassis GTR5 car is still in the livery that César created, and represents the only 'Art Car' based on the iconic Mclaren. 

Examples of César Baldaccini's work can be seen at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (Facel Véga) and in the permanent collection of the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou (Bas relief, Tortue, le Diable). Baldaccini also designed his own grave at the Montparnasse Cemetery, on the esplanade de La Défense (Le Pouce), in Marseille on Hamburg Avenue between the MAC and the Bonneveine Centre (Le Pouce Géant). One of Baldaccini's most iconic pieces, Conserve expansion - Martial Raysse (1970-1972), is at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte in Lugano. In the early 1990s the Frenchman Flying was mounted in Hong Kong.

Designer Rick Owens has been referencing César Baldaccini in his interviews mentioning that he's been inspired by his work while creating his own earlier collections.

Made from sterling silver or gold vermeil.

CELINE X CÉSAR BALDACCINI: THE LIMITED-EDITION COMPRESSION PROJECT NECKLACES

Olympus today announced it sells its camera business to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP). Olympus — once one of the biggest camera brands in the world — will now focus on supplying industrial and medical imaging equipment. Although the company said it had improved cost structure, worked on high-profit cameras and took steps to "cope with the extremely complicated digital camera market," it reported three consecutive fiscal years of operating losses. 

In 1936, Olympus made its first camera, the Semi-Olympus I. The costly accordion-line camera started off Olympus' camera business. In 1996, it launched the first digital camera, and established the interchangeable lens system Micro Four Thirds trademark. Smartphones have therefore eroded the need for mirrorless cameras. In 2011, Olympus, while being one of the largest companies by market share at the time, has also been involved in a $1.7 billion accounting scandal. 

"We're asking for your patience: we believe this is the right step to preserve the legacy of our brand, the products and the value of our technology," explained the company on Facebook. "Olympus sees this potential transfer as an opportunity to enable our imagery business to grow and delight both long-term and new photography enthusiasts." Meanwhile, JIP has revealed plans to streamline the business, as it has done with Sony's VAIO PC. This will make cameras "more lightweight, more powerful and more agile." 

The Olympus scandal has precipitated on 14 October 2011 when British-born Michael Woodford was suddenly ousted as Chief Executive Officer of Olympus Corporation. He had been president of the company for six months, and two weeks before he had been promoted to chief executive when, according to The Wall Street Journal, he exposed "one of the largest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in Japanese corporate history". The chairman of the board, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who appointed Woodford to these positions, again assumed the title of CEO and president. The incident raised questions about the tobashi schemes' resilience, and the quality of Japanese corporate governance. 

Apparently irregular acquisition payments had resulted in very significant asset impairment charges in the company's accounts, and this was exposed in an article in the Japanese financial magazine FACTA and came to the attention of Woodford. Japanese press speculated on Yakuza (Japanese organized crime syndicates) connection. Olympus defended themselves against charges of corruption.

*Fashion designers Thierry Mugler and Hedi Slimane, both also talented photographers, have been using Olympus equipment throughout their careers.

In 2011, Olympus attracted worldwide media scrutiny when it fired its CEO and the matter snowballed into a corporate corruption investigation with multiple arrests. It paid $646 million in kickback fines in 2016.

OLYMPUS SELLS ITS CAMERA BUSINESS AFTER 84 YEARS

"Black has a spectral nature — on the one hand it's very dominant, powerful, and intimidating, while on the other it's kind of vulnerable, melancholic, and sensitive." For London-based photographer Marcus Schaefer, the color black has a compelling power — it can articulate the complexity of emotions and translate them into avenues of personal escape. 

Hailing from southern Germany, Schaefer took up photography as a creative venture to explore the world around him during his student years at the Academy of Fashion and Design in Munich. He slowly matured his photography style after improving his skills and understanding the industry through an internship at a photographer's studio, one that embraces the emotional dimension of black and white aesthetics. 

With competition on the market steadily increasing, and amateur content threatening the value of photography, Schaefer addresses how uphill battles are attempts at individual communication and unique storytelling. "Although photography offers a variety of freedoms, in a digital world flooded with images and other artists trying to do the same, it is still very hard to find your individual voice," he says. The photographer's driving force is counteracting these emotions with a sense of excitement and a growing desire to capture his current state of mind. "Being a freelance photographer can often come with a lot of downtime between jobs and also the accumulation of creative energy and ideas that urge release," he adds. 

Schaefer is finding avenues of escape and communication through the visual aesthetics of black and white photography in a world overwhelmingly dominated by color images. His photographs are questioning the false preconception that black and white photography is obsolete and less expressive by exploring intimacy, openness and abstraction. The photographer places the black color at the core of his work, using it as a central component of his visual messaging. Black is newly interpreted in creative ways, as the absence of color and the absorption of light. To create a complex network of new meanings in the images, Schaefer overturns the paradigm of black and white — black acquires weakness and softness, becoming the object of a modern embroidery of representation. 

His work is never merely conventional, as shown by the selection of images in this feature: philosophical pictures, traversing between figuration and abstraction, offering delight in the imperfection. There are also still lives and images of the scenery, which establish a picture of seductive allure. Schaefer's compelling commitment to monochrome and the emotional tenor casts a unifying net over the disparate genres of photography. The heterogeneous images, grouped together, extend the creative potential of the medium, conveying both the arenas in which Schaefer participates and the spaces he deliberately creates for his art. 

Schaefer's artistic work reflects tranquility that is sensual and haunting. "The photography has a spectral nature," he says. "It may have a dark dimension that consumes it — something between life and the afterlife. I'm very intrigued by that and it's very much in line with my obsession with the 'black' non-color." Schaefer explores this 'between' experience; his surreal images torment us with their eerie reverberation of the unseen. This spectrality is accentuated through image manipulation. With poses, arrangements, mirrors, distortions, altered light levels and minimal retouching, he adds a surreal twist, creating an interplay between fiction and reality. 

Schaefer does not care about technical perfection; instead, he is intrigued by spontaneity and imprecision. "My approach to photography and the techniques that I use are often meant to encourage the error in a picture in order to obtain unplanned and unintended results." The element of error in all his creative endeavors is fundamental. "Working on my drawings helped honor this particular 'error' in photography, as these mistakes occur a lot when I draw," he explains. Schaefer is also a painter and a drawer, beyond photography, he uses his holistic understanding of art to inform his photographic choices and evocative storytelling. "Drawing helps me to understand my photographic path, and to guide it." "Over time, charcoal drawings have become my visual compass and I now consider them to be some kind of umbilical cord connecting those two worlds of me." 

Photography and drawing merge seamlessly into his work, creating new concepts within his work while arresting all feelings and capturing his individual truth perception. "I want to allow one form to merge into another and to create a certain otherworldliness by blurring outlines and modulating tones," he continues. This results in images that are almost a hybrid type of painting, containing complex, whimsical, and abstracted compositions that unleash his intuitive style and energize it further. "The very notion of a managed chaos, the harmonious arrangement of objects and the interplay of lights and shadows have become firm components in both mediums of my artistic vision," he continues. 

"I prefer not to film the exact image of something, but to capture my own perception of what's in front of my eyes. It's more about creating a particular atmosphere or feeling than static reality reproduction." His pictures extend the reality of their subjects while telling us something about how the photographer relates to the world. He gives the viewers the ability to own fragments of his own reality in this. "I love to take the viewer on a journey through my mind and the visual world; to produce images that channel my energies of visions and thoughts, rather than capturing the exact likeness of life as we know it and live it every day," he continues. 

What distinguishes the work of Schaefer is not only the virtuosity with which he presents comparisons, but the fact that he creates imagery in direct dialog with one's own emotional domain. Not only does he imprint on the photos his creative personality but he wants his pictures to reflect the emotions that created them. "My drawings and photographs both depict an emotional communication with the audience — the perception of individuals is never really identical and that's what I love about them," he concludes.

Oftentimes, fashion designers find themselves in photography creating beautiful visual range coherent with their collections. Hedi Slimane, Thierry Mugler are amongst them. You should definitely check out Hedi Slimane's photo diary. What do you think about his art?

Schaefer is being intrigued by how we experience imagery in today's digital world; one that is characterized by the multiplicity and ease of capturing, circulating, sharing and disposing images.

MARCUS SCHAEFER: EMBODYING EMOTIONS VIA PHOTOGRAPHY

Perhaps the most famous thing about Shelley Duvall is the fact that the Hollywood starlet of the 70s was an entirely unintended household name. Growing up in Texas, she wanted to become a scientist before director Robert Altman plucked her from a Houston party and put her in his Brewster McCloud comedy film. The two would go on together to make other movies, including "3 Women", for which Duvall won the Cannes Best Actress Award. Duvall's quirky personality and charm helped her perform a number of roles throughout her career, lovingly known as "The Texas Twiggy" for her doe-eyed similarity to the famed 60s model. "She looks and sounds like almost no other," wrote film critic Roger Ebert, who interviewed her shortly after the 1980 release of The Shining. "There is an openness about her in all her parts, as if something had happened between her open face and our eyes – no camera, voice, make-up, acting system – and she's just being the character naturally." As Stanley Kubrick's classic horror movie turns 40, we look back on some of the iconic roles and similarly iconic looks that made Duvall an unexpected style icon of the 1970s. 

The first film role for Duvall was that of Suzanne Davis, a part-time race car driver and loner Brewster's love interest in Altman's experimental comedy, Brewster McCloud. Her looks vary from a complete tangerine-haired clown to a classic red striped T-shirt, most suitably worn as a top, all overlapped with the long Twiggy-esque under eyelashes that received her nickname. As the story goes, Altman met her at her own party as the stunning 20-year-old college student, and asked her to be on the spot in his upcoming film. "I said, 'Oh, no, a porn movie," because when I was 17 in a drugstore, I'd been approached for that," she told Andy Warhol. But Duvall signed a 5-year acting contract while filming Brewster McCloud, and never looked back. 

The budding young actress was photographed by Bert Stern to promote Duvall's film debut in Brewster McCloud, and made her much more glamorous debut on Vogue's pages. The shoot was influenced by the brightly colored, quirky looks of the film, not unlike the regular fits of Duvall's own (after all, she wore a bright pink flared dress, green linen boots and a pink and green silk shawl to meet Warhol). She would wear a cream knitted coat-dress, orange patterned tights and lace-up, capped purple tow boots. And the hair!

Filming The Shining, which is probably Duvall's most well-known role, was far from a fun experience for the actress with her trademark layered overalls and striking jet black makeup. Getting into character as Wendy Torrance, who's husband (Jack Nicholson) turns into a terrorizing killer, was "nearly unbearable," as Stanley Kubrick is said to have been on the set almost as terrorizing her — wanting her to feel isolated and disintegrated as Wendy herself was. "I was always in and out of ill health because the role was so overwhelming," she says in "The Complete Kubrick." "Stanley pushed me and prodded me harder than I've ever been pushed before. It's the hardest role I've ever had to play." After the film, she went back to Altman to play Olive Oyl alongside Robin Williams' Popeye.

Designers Yohji Yamamoto, Andre Courreges, Rick Owens, Thierry Mugler, Hedi Slimane, Gareth Pugh have created costumes for cinema, theatrical play and opera. Involvement into costume design is being indeed an important landmark on every designer's service record.

As Stanley Kubrick's classic horror movie turns 40, we look back on some of the iconic roles and similarly iconic looks that made Duvall an unexpected style icon of the 1970s. 

Today's economy requires ingenuity from all its citizens. But, as art and entrepreneurship continue to coagulate into a single industry, what creativity exactly is has become increasingly unclear. The manager's figure used to be an antithesis to the artist. Agents were seen as powerful delegation champions, the artist was supposed to be volatile, bohemian and divinely influenced. It now appears that success in the age of convergence needs a counterintuitive function between the two positions. As artists struggle to meet demands that resemble those placed on global businesses, said companies face the pitfalls of their archaic organizational models. The solution to this crisis is much more complex than those studios that resemble garage-like factories and offices. 

Wolfgang Ullrich is a German cultural theorist and art historian. In addition to consumer theories and socio-iconography, his work is concerned with the history, development and critique of our concept of art. His latest publication Der kreative Mensch explores how the idea of creativity in Western culture has developed from a divine gift into a commonly anticipated power. 

Ullrich shared his views about people who use smartphones and consider themselves creative. (Apple launched a worldwide award competition for the most beautiful iPhone photograph. Similarly, their current billboard campaign does not advertise telephony, but a built-in camera on the phone.) 

Ullrich explained that the smartphone had not yet been invented, when this dogma of creativity asserted itself. Back then, traditional forms of the creative drive were still concerned, mostly that of expression. Originally, creativity meant the expressive – letting down one's hair, painting some watercolors, perhaps doing handicrafts. We've reached phase two with the smartphone, which involves social milieus that were not previously encouraged to be innovative. Now they're photographing, doing craft snaps, working on their posts. Ullrich is not sure whether they are inclined to call themselves creative. Since this first period of expressiveness, something that has gained much more importance is that now you have to always factor in a sort of feedback. Caution. You count your followers, their likes and comments, their retweets and their shares. Its focus is less on personal issues than it was in phase one. This is a clear contrast from that of the seventies or eighties, which saw the idea of imagination closely related to self-discovery. An Instagram account does not incentivise self-discovery. But what these apps offer is a technology that flatters all. The software flatters. A contemporary style is represented here. Just as historical art styles used to exist, we now have styles within photo apps. Surely, in 100 years people will be creating entirely different images and amused by those of our time.

If you haven't yet, check the work of the two iconic French designers André Courrèges and Thierry Mugler - yet more proof that a talented person is talented at everything. Daniel Arsham and Hedi Slimane are the contemporary example to this statement.

Originally, creativity meant the expressive – letting down one's hair, painting some watercolors, perhaps doing handicrafts. We've reached phase two with the smartphone, which involves social milieus that were not previously encouraged to be innovative.

WOLFGANG ULLRICH: CREATIVITY IN THE INTERSECTION POINT

Hedi Slimane, creative director of Celine, is releasing a bunch of short films through Instagram, showcasing visual artists and musicians that Slimane himself has personally curated. The series acts as a follow-up to the partnership between Celine and the subscription-based streaming service MUBI, which allowed free access to 10 classic feature films also curated by Slimane. These initiatives trigger a compelling dialog about the role of art directors at the helm of huge maisons like Celine, and the multi-faceted approach needed. Brand production is only a portion of the thought leadership needed to successfully direct these gigantic fashion houses, and Celine beautifully extends beyond the insular world of fashion the proactive approach of Slimane to artisanal curating of all things. 

To completely occupy a high-profile leadership position at a large design house, creatives like Slimane need to think about themselves in a wider context. Slimane does this in an innovative manner by confidently curating artwork and events by other influencers, who inspired him as an influencer at the top. The resulting short films are unique collaborations which function in their own right as self-promotions, as well as small works of video art. Not only does Slimane curate these artists and musicians; he catches them in repeatable moments of time, doing what they do best: producing sounds and images in which they can personally communicate with audiences, in the same way that these artists interact with Slimane himself. This meta-process creates a subconscious feeling of triangulation in a way that is visceral, escapist and at times emotionally moving between Slimane, his followers and the highlighted artists. In addition, these easily digestible delights arrive at a time characterized by self-isolation, which is precisely when Slimane's audience is probably most in need of diversion. 

It would be wise to take note of other house creatives and fashion marketers: this is how to lead a big-name brand with impact, and check all the boxes in a unique and satisfying way. Creating Content? Leadership of Thought? Partnership? Pleasant without a hitch? Check. Also the important fantasy wish-fulfillment category is implicitly but explicitly checked off the list, for what Celine Instagram follower did not (at some point) harbor a hidden fantasy of becoming a rock star or a popular artist? 

Taking a moment and remembering the artists and musicians who are the real stars behind this digital campaign seems significant. Those are James Bagshaw, Josh Homme, Joan Jett, Shawn Kuruneru, Lucia and the Best Children, Carlos Valencia, plus Alexandra Savoir and the Oracle Sisters in alphabetical order. Without being captured so sensitively by their insecure artistic moments, this multimedia initiative would not exist or rather may have taken a completely different shape. 

Ironically, Slimane's selected artists and performers are a combination of proven icons such as Joan Jett, mixed with relative newcomers such as Lucia and the Best Boys. Slimane's curations include moments of pure imagination and inspiration, whether revisiting a legendary artist or discovering someone new. So take a few moments to let it all sink in, and then maybe think about the best ways to share those things that offer personal inspiration in your own life. When you can find out how to express them in a personal and common way, then you will be praised and admired by your followers. 

This game is crucial to survival in fashion business when the big players such as Hedi Slimane or Rick Owens curate and support younger up-and-coming artist. Michele Lamy, the muse and partner of Rick Owens, shares responsibility for the growth of the Owens brand and that of their protege Gareth Pugh. She also designs jewelry with Loree Rodkin and has appeared in music videos for FKA twigs and Black Asteroid. Lamy and her daughter Scarlett Rouge formed the band Lavascar with the artist Nico Vascellari.

CURATED BY HEDI SLIMANE

FILMED AT THE BAND’S HOMES IN FLORIDA, NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
APRIL 1st 2020

@JOANJETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS PERFORM THEIR CLASSIC SINGLE "CRIMSON AND CLOVER”. JOAN JETT IS AN ORIGINATOR, AN INNOVATOR AND A VISIONARY. SHE IS THE LEADER OF ICONIC ROCK BAND JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS AND FOUNDER OF ONE OF THE LONGEST RUNNING INDIE RECORD LABELS, BLACKHEART RECORDS.

ALONGSIDE GOING DOWN IN HISTORY IN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, JETT HAS ACTED IN MOVIES, TELEVISION AND MUSICALS AND HAS PRODUCED ALBUMS FOR A VARIETY OF INFLUENTIAL BANDS.
HER MUSIC HAS BECOME A PERMANENT FORCE IN MAINSTREAM CULTURE.

HEDI SLIMANE DESIGNED THE STAGEWEAR FOR JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEART'S MOST RECENT TOUR.

PROJECT COURTESY OF HEDI SLIMANE

#JOANJETT
#CURATEDBYHEDISLIMANE
#CELINEBYHEDISLIMANE

CURATED BY HEDI SLIMANE

CAP FERRET
MARCH 27th 2020

@ORACLESISTERS, BASED IN PARIS, WAS FORMED BY LONG TIME FRIENDS LEWIS LAZAR AND CHRISTOPHER WILLATT AND RECENTLY JOINED BY DRUMMER AND SONGWRITER JULIA JOHANSEN.

THE BAND HAS BEEN PART OF CELINE’S PORTRAIT OF A PERFORMER SERIES SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2019.

THEIR LATEST RELEASE “MOST OF ALL” IS A BLEND OF ASTRO POP, COUNTRY MUSIC AND LILTING MELODIES. THEIR DEBUT EP “PARIS I” IS DUE FOR RELEASE IN JUNE 2020.

PROJECT COURTESY OF HEDI SLIMANE

#ORACLESISTERS
#CURATEDBYHEDISLIMANE
#CELINEBYHEDISLIMANE

CURATED BY HEDI SLIMANE

SHAWN’S BROOKLYN STUDIO 
MARCH 27th 2020

@SHAWNKURUNERU, BASED IN BROOKLYN NEW YORK, MAKES PAINTINGS THAT ARE INSPIRED BY TRADITIONAL CHINESE LANDSCAPE ARTISTS WHO VALUED SPONTANEITY IN THEIR APPROACH TO PAINTING.

SHAWN KURUNERU’S SERIES OF INK PAINTINGS UNTITLED (5 PANEL), 2018 CAN BE FOUND AT CELINE’S PARIS GRENELLE STORE AND PARIS MONTAIGNE STORE. THE INK PAINTINGS PRESENTED AT CELINE BRING TOGETHER MODERNIST GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION AND CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY.

PROJECT COURTESY OF HEDI SLIMANE

#SHAWNKURUNERU
#CURATEDBYHEDISLIMANE
#CELINEBYHEDISLIMANE

To completely occupy a high-profile leadership position at a large design house, creatives like Slimane need to think about themselves in a wider context.

PORTRAIT: HEDI SLIMANE'S DIGITAL SERIES FOR CELINE

Slimane’s crossover success was clearly explained by the potential transferability of his designs to mass retail and by the fact that many of his key design pieces looked neither new nor luxurious to the naked eye, but rather “authentically” vintage.

In her ethnographic research on vintage styling among members of the Sixties scene in Germany, Heike Jenss has described the specific performance of authenticity involved in restaging mod styles. Rather than reproducing the sartorial codes perfectly, members combine past with present, tending towards the iconic looks associated with the period. As a result, the prevailing looks in the Sixties scene are the “stereotypical” styles commonly associated with the decade in question, which are influenced by the media images of rock stars, fashion models, and actors. 

The most commonly remembered styles, like space-age and op-art looks, often reconstructed in detail, recur at Sixties events in dense concentration, presenting a hyper-version of the decade past . The menswear pastiche of the mid-2000s operated in a similarly selective manner, picking and mixing from post-1960s rock heritage to hone a contemporary classic ideal or “hyper-version” of the past.

Paradoxically, Slimane rejects the prefixed predictability of postmodernism (recycling, re-appropriation, revisiting), preferring to emphasize fashion’s “perpetual mutation,” accelerated through the last decade’s fast forward movement from analogue to digital culture, from consequential logic to parallel multiplicity.

Whilst it is true that the technologies of consumption and distribution have been transformed radically through changes in digital media platforms the 2000s, the content (of both pop and fashion cultures) is locked into a permanent mashup of the styles of recent decades. Elizabeth Wilson pointed this out early on as the checkmate position of contemporary fashion within postmodernity: “our culture of global mass media feeds us so much information that a massive cultural eclecticism is the only possible response”

Rick Owens's penchant for all rock'n'roll stuff places the leather jacket at the top of every shopping list inspired by Saint Laurent Paris. Subcultural patterns like grungy tattered knitwear and glam rock-inspired embellishments come and go, but a true style staple is the rockabilly biker jacket. While an investment in this classic Saint Laurent design needs no reason in our opinion, an oversized leather in a different shape won't take you too far from the vibe you're looking for in 2020.

SLIMANE REJECTS THE PREFIXED PREDICTABILITY OF POSTMODERNISM

Elegant gender intermarriage has infected womenswear industry, where social norms and vision of female beauty, women's body shape and identity are on fire expressed in over-sized silhouettes of Comme des Garcons or Celine's ex-art director Phoebe Philo.

Both Stella McCartney and Dries Van Noten have taken inspiration for their womenswear lines from men’s clothing. Stella McCartney was adding curves to traditional male tailoring while Dries Van Noten has been decorating masculine white shirts and grey flannel trousers with ostrich feathers, deliberately channeling the combined spirit of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Then the reverse of Hedi Slimane’s menswear campaign. Prada’s Maneula Pavesi involving Matthijs Meel in her womenswear show. The mop-haired, chisel-boned appeared in a three-quarter length women’s houndstooth coats wearing nothing beneath but a pair of nude pants made of thick fabric producing unambiguous shadows, however looking entirely feminine and delicate.

Mirroring unisex aesthetic of the nineties grunge to this current incarnation of androgyny does not refer to the reverse polarities of men wearing dresses and women with suits on, as all this is about free-flowing, inter-gender fluidity that combines male and female features into a genderless aesthetics.

Some of Hedi Slimane’s A/W womenswear looks for Saint Laurent were exactly the same as those which had previously appeared on the catwalk for his menswear collection. The grunge theme chosen for his womenswear show completed the circle. Thus, the frill motif from his menswear runway reappeared in JW Anderson’s womenswear line, monastic gathered necklines, both of which do not subvert too much and wilfully ignore traditional ideas about what is beautiful or attractive, either on a woman or man.

Elegant gender intermarriage has infected womenswear industry, where social norms and vision of female beauty.

HEDI SLIMANE'S ELEGANT GENDER INTERMARRIAGE

Slimane’s menswear campaign can be understood not in the way when it is challenging what the woman can be (as Patti Smith in Robert Mapplethorpe’s clothes) but, on the contrary, what the man must be: alluring, dark and emotional. As Slimane – who grew up idolizing Bowie - has previously said in Vogue's interview, “Men are not supposed to be mysterious. That’s what you say about women. But I think men have a little bit of it, too.” 

Taken together, this current yin/yang fluidity could be viewed as evidence of fashion’s braver provocateurs entering a new phase of maturity in which, just like Tao, menswear and womenswear belong to a single integrated, to the whole. Imagine how revolutionary this could be!

Away from the luxury brands of Paris and Milan and back to the street. Casey Legler – now famously being the first female model to be signed by a men’s agency following a modeling debut for her friend, the L.A. photographer Cass Bird – appeared in both menswear and womenswear A/W campaigns for All Saints. Whether All Saints has entered a similar phase of "maturity" and will continue shooting only one model for both collections in the future seasons is up for debate.

What is interesting, Legler and also de Brauw are not only models but also artists. As such, it seems that we are not merely being presented with blank canvases upon which the visions of others have been projected, but the two women are actively participating in an ongoing visual dialogue that ultimately transcends fashion about what identity means in 2013. Legler, in particular, has been very vocal and articulate on this subject. For her, it is not an issue of androgyny at all. Dressing either as a man or a woman or an indeterminate third sex inbetween, she has said, is ultimately about being free. She told Time magazine: “A woman modelling as male speaks to this notion of freedom. There is something really bold about that. Look! There is another way.”

FASHION’S PROVOCATEURS ENTERING INTO THE NEW PHASE OF MATURITY

Let's discuss a visual trajectory for Hedi Slimane’s career at the interface of fashion design, photography, and moving image. Indeed, one of my leading arguments is that Slimane’s photographic and video output, which had taken the backseat during his tenure at the houses of Yves Saint Laurent and Dior from 1997–2007, can now be seen to focus his design work by accentuating its tonal qualities and distinct visual identity. 

Slimane began in the 1990s as an assistant to designer José Lévy, before being hired by Pierre Bergé as menswear designer for Yves Saint Laurent in 1997 until its takeover by the Gucci group. Slimane moved to Dior in 2000, becoming creative director of the inventory Dior Homme line in 2001 until his voluntary departure in 2007, when he was replaced by his assistant Kris Van Assche.

In March 2012, the Yves Saint Laurent house announced that Slimane would replace Stefano Pilati as designer for both women’s and menswear, marking his much anticipated return to Paris fashion. Slimane’s early reinterpretation of the iconic Yves Saint Laurent design heritage of tailored androgyny (encapsulated in the iconic women’s tuxedo) culminated in a seminal black tie collection (Fall/Winter 2000) situating the cross-gender dynamic at the heart of his critical project.

He did this by self-consciously referencing the mythical genderbending imagery of “le smoking” created for Saint Laurent by photographer Helmut Newton in 1975.

A visual trajectory for Hedi Slimane’s career at the interface of fashion design, photography, and moving image. 

The advertising campaign for the Spring/Summer 2006 collection worked in collaboration with a set of drawings by artist Paul P., known for basing his imagery of masculinity on the notably slimmer body types of 1970s gay culture. The collection’s key commercial pieces also included staples of rock fashion: braces, porkpie hats, skinny jeans, and tight leather jackets, an enduring vintage rock look that has remained a mainstay of men’s high-street fashion ever since.

Slimane rebooted many of the earlier “mod” styles of late 1970s/early 1980s, channeled through English post-punk rock bands like The Jam, themselves influenced by The Who’s own classic concept album and film, Quadrophenia (1973 and 1979), which had revived interest in the iconic English mod style introduced from the late 1950s onwards.

Jenny Lister explains the original import to British street culture of the Italian style by 1958, “with short jackets and narrow trousers, a look that was appropriated by a small group of teenage dandies who became to be known as ‘modernists’ because of their taste for modern jazz”.

This Italian style, Caroline Evans concurs, was considered “effete and unmanly,” the popular dissemination of subcultural youth style through the 1960s ensuring the widespread adoption of the classic mod suit with its round-collared white shirts, pointed shoes and narrow 17-inch trouser bottoms.

The collection’s key commercial pieces also included staples of rock fashion: braces, porkpie hats, skinny jeans, and tight leather jackets, an enduring vintage rock look that has remained a mainstay of men’s high-street fashion ever since.

THE INFLUENCE OF HEDI SLIMANE ON GAY CULTURE

Farid Chenoune has established the creative dialogue between the English mod style and the “Continental Look” immortalized on screen by the postwar matinee idols of European art cinema such as Alain Delon and Marcello Mastroianni, elaborating the subsequent French take on Italian menswear, in which the frame was narrowed but less radically than in the English mod style.

The local minet look (a term used to denote a pretty boy) involved a more conservative appropriation of Italian style — a suit with narrow shoulders, high armholes and nipped waists, but retaining longer jackets, mixed with the French importation of the American campus-style, the so-called “Kennedy look.” This traffic points to the complex cross-fertilization of trends in formal menswear across the key postwar European fashion capitals (Paris, London, and Rome) and between Europe and the USA (the later Armani unstructured suit is also said to have been influenced by 1950s Ivy League sack-jackets), and to what Richard Martin described as the limited number of “repeated templates” of menswear with its “essential conservatism in tailoring, haberdashery and conventions”. 

However, the parallel “potential for change” animating men’s fashion helps to explain the more recent fundamental shift in morphology, ideal, and content, seeing the return of elements of formal dress (such as the streamlined, structured suit jacket) to the men’s catwalk after the domination of sportswear through the 1990s. The retro looks espoused by Slimane in his Dior Homme collections in the mid-2000s were embedded in a much broader contemporaneous trend for retro culture across music, fashion, and the visual arts.

The local minet look involved a more conservative appropriation of Italian style — a suit with narrow shoulders, high armholes and nipped waists.

HEDI SLIMANE'S CONSERVATIVE APPROPRIATION OF ITALIAN STYLE

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