Rick Owens was just waking up from a nap an hour and a half ahead of showtime. You can do that when your show is on the beach across the street from your house. Fall 2021 is season three on the Venice Lido for Owens and his small Italian team, four if you include the men’s video he made last July. “Doing these shows without an audience is becoming a kind of private ceremony because we’re sort of doing it for ourselves,” he said on a FaceTime call. “There’s a sweetness to it.”

Sweetness is not the word that came to mind watching the livestream of the show on his website. Cinematic, otherworldly, and superheroic are more like it. Owens’s models looked like a fabulous troop of aliens whose spaceship wrecked in the fog of the Lido, and rather than send up a distress signal they decided to make the best of it by throwing a disco couture rave.

As at his men’s show in January, staged the day after the U.S. inauguration, today he was talking about the fear, anxiety, and rage triggered by the “the forces that almost won the American election.” He said, “The menace of that is still there, and that disturbs me and it’s something to be really vigilant about.” He won’t hear any arguments on that subject from this writer. But to focus on his politics and his pronouncements risks eliding the obvious: that Owens is a designer of cinematic, otherworldly, and yes, superheroic vision. When Chloé Zhao gets her second Marvel movie, she should hire him.

Owens has channeled his disturbance into a collection that synthesizes the comfortwear of the pandemic—bodysuits, knits, the ubiquitous puffer—with the grandeur of haute couture. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more glamorous gown this season than this show’s closing look, a fully sequined ivory hourglass stunner with a sculptural, asymmetric neckline and a single sleeve that was worn with a black gauntlet and matching mask.

Equally cool were the couture-ish things he did with the more would-be-plebeian attire: the puffer capes that looked like protective carapaces, the coats with power shoulders that, as he so poetically put it in his notes, “turned the body into an architectural bulldozer,” the shredded denim twisted and draped into a sinuous platform-scraping dress. Every rave needs sequins. Owens’s sequins came via over-the-shoulder thongs worn with cashmere bodysuits.

On the subject of underthings, the pentagram briefs from the January men’s show reappeared here wrapped around evening clutches, the implication being that these alien females had handled the “unhinged male aggression” that those briefs signified. Is that reading too much into things? Probably, but that’s absolutely part of the thrill of a Rick show. Here’s what Owens had to say about it: “During times of strife, you gotta step up.”

As at his men’s show in January, staged the day after the U.S. inauguration, today he was talking about the fear, anxiety, and rage triggered by the “the forces that almost won the American election.” He said, “The menace of that is still there, and that disturbs me and it’s something to be really vigilant about.”

Rick Owens is on the side of the angels. To stay there he remains highly sensitive to the dark. Striding down the seafront past a parked 1965 Ford Mustang towards a temple-like ossuary and church, Rick Owens’s cast today resembled disciples of some sexily sepulchral masculine order stepping out to face their demons. Leather bodysuits—the latest chapter in his onesie narrative—sometimes enveloped, and sometimes hung half-worn as if flayed. Hooded habits came in recycled cashmere, waste plastic, or quilted material. You couldn’t make it out on the video, but the star on his newly Rick-ified Converse Chuck Taylors had been reworked into a pentagram, as had the traditionally Y-fronted fly on the organic cotton tighty-whities worn above cowskin thigh-highs. The oversized shoulders on slashed-arm overcoats and crop-top bomber jackets were meant to “mock male conservatism” in a collection Owens noted was an exploration of “male suppressed rage on every side of the moral divide.”

Down the phone, Owens confessed that he’d thought twice about facing rage in a collection presented just as four years of American carnage seemed to be over. “I thought this morning, does it feel a little tone deaf because now all of a sudden everything has shifted? Now that it’s all about optimism? But that dark element has not disappeared. And the fact that it came so close, this moral war, is horrifying.”

Owens’s clothes are fundamentally playful provocations to conservatism and complacency. As well as a determination to remain uncomplacent about male aggression more broadly, Owens is sensitive to his own capacity for it. He said: “I’m always conscious of my own aggression. And the older that I get, I feel like I should have reached a level of serenity that I just haven’t; I get impatient, I get itchy, I snap at people sometimes… Aggression is something that I’m fascinated with because I’m constantly conscious of wrestling with it, personally. And I think that that’s true of every man.”

Jackets with inbuilt gloves and masks were equipped for care of both the self and others through distance-dressing. And alongside those satyr-appropriate thigh-highs and knowingly titillating bodysuits were garments designed for a broader constituency; examples included supple hooded shearlings, specially woven Japanese selvedge denim jeans, the Converse, and meandering olive cashmere knitwear. Owens said: “There’s a lot of regular-guy clothes in this collection, more than I have had in the past maybe… I like that mix because it suggests more tolerance… I’m trying not to alienate or exclude.”

This second show staged near Owens’s summer home on the Lido near Venice showcased a convincing interaction with the regular-guy world as passing locals watched the collection unfold. Showing here, said Owens, has become “like a private ritual” for him and his team because of that lack of a formal physical audience. The result was a film simultaneously intimate and grandiose. Owens observed: “I always kind of comfort myself that the world has always existed with darkness and light. And for some reason, there always seems to be enough goodness in humanity to just balance it out, and just to keep everything going. It’s close… but hope springs eternal.” By remaining sensitive to that human chiaroscuro through the creation of garments that subvert its darker shades, Owens contributes to the light.

In other news, Versace Spring 2021 ad campaign. Review of Versace Spring 2021 Ad Campaign by Donatella Versace and Creative Director Ferdinando Verderi with Photographers Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott.

“I’m always conscious of my own aggression. And the older that I get, I feel like I should have reached a level of serenity that I just haven’t; I get impatient, I get itchy, I snap at people sometimes… Aggression is something that I’m fascinated with because I’m constantly conscious of wrestling with it, personally. And I think that that’s true of every man.”

Performa is a non-profit arts organization widely recognized for its groundbreaking live performances by visual artists and the Performa Biennial — a festival of performance art that happens in various venues and institutions in New York City every other year.

The organization recently launched its first-ever 8-hour global Performa Telethon fundraiser, broadcasted live from Pace Gallery, featuring a star-studded line-up of newly-commissioned performances and limited edition “home goods” from a selection of the world’s leading artists. Performers include Derrick Adams & Dave Guy, Laurie Anderson, Jérôme Bel, Torkwase Dyson, David Hallberg, Glenn Kaino, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Marching Cobras, among many others.

The editions for sale include original designs by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Barbara Kruger, Kia LaBeija, Michèle Lamy and Katerina Jebb, Laurie Simmons and David Bers Architects and Cindy Sherman. Highlighted editions include Kruger’s porcelain vase imprinted with the texts “CULTURE” and “NATURE” in black and blue, Michèle Lamy and Katerina Jebb’s functional serving tray made of a scenographic portrait of Lamy imagined by Jebb, and Korakrit Arunondachai’s Mother Pillow which is an extension of the artist’s practice of creating body pillows that are part of his painting and video installations which audiences can recline and sit on.

Commemorating the organization’s 8-hour global Telethon fundraiser.

PERFORMA LAUNCHES LIMITED EDITION "HOME GOODS" BY MICHÈLE LAMY, BARBARA KRUGER AND MORE

Bras and Bandeaus were all over the Spring 2021 runways. Lingerie continues to be a staple in wardrobes as long as they are done elegantly, minimal, or kitschy cool. “Breathing” new life into this market was the bandeau replacing the popular corset from last year. The bandeau dates back to Ancient Greece, where they were called apodesmos and were typically made from wool or linen.

Designer brands such as Hermès, Boss, Rick Owens, and Emilio Pucci did the bandeau offering minimal chic. Dior worked beautifully into the design of evening wear. And why not wear the bra on the outside such as Simone Rocha, Sacai, Drome, Koche, and Simonetta Ravizza.

The bandeau dates back to Ancient Greece, where they were called apodesmos and were typically made from wool or linen.

BRAS AND BANDEAUS SPRING 2021 FASHION TREND

Rick Owens picks up where he left off in 2019’s LARRY collection with a new Fall/Winter 2020 PERFORMA denim collection.

This workwear-centric collection is entirely made in Japan and features staple denim pieces in the form of; the Duke, a slim-tapered overdyed pant; the Detroit, a straight-leg pair of jeans; the Worker Jacket, a modified 13.75oz Type III denim jacket; and finally, the Outershirt, a heavy-duty overshirt that doubles as a light denim jacket.

The collection sees details like black-wax coating, DARK DUST construction, squared pockets, and thick cowhide patches. The collection ranges from $780 – $1,125 USD.

"Introducing the Rick Owens Made in Japan Denim Collection from the PERFORMA FW20 season. Here we have the overdyed slim tapered Duke model. This starts off as a 13.75oz indigo warp and natural weft Japanese selvedge denim which is then overdyed black. You can still see the DARK DUST constructional thread peaking through the overdye in most areas giving the jean a unique look. These will fade from black to a dark grayish indigo eventually with regular wear and washing. All Rick Owens Made in Japan jeans come with Japanese made YKK hardware, 100% cotton twill pocket bags, super thick black dyed cowhide patches, a full selvedge waistband, belt loops which are sewn into the waistband, hidden rivets, and a second elongated coin pocket behind the left front pocket."

Made with overdyed, black-wax Japanese denim.

RICK OWENS DROPS PERFORMA FW20 COLLECTION

This season Owens showed outside of Paris for the first time in forever. It was a presentation that was “reductive,” as he put it, in at least two senses. His “skeleton” crew of around 20 colleagues and 20-ish models showed a livestreamed collection in part as pragmatic negotiation with life in the times of coronavirus: “It feels like we are able to orchestrate something with fewer instruments.”

As he said in an outtake of the filmed interview: “There is a reclusiveness, an isolation that I’ve found here that appeals to me. The beach never becomes crowded. I’ve had the same cabana for the past 10 years…and I go every morning with my coffee and I have my computer and I just work there all day. I jump in the sea and then I work and then I jump the sea.… And that’s my summer. And in recent circumstances I’ve stayed here even more: Paris has been a little bit difficult. And I decided to really buckle down and stay in Italy and kind of focus and be with the factory more…the minute the factory was able to reopen, I came right away.”That factory is in Concordia, Modena, around a three-hour drive from here—and where Owens also has an apartment (plus an Owenscorp cafeteria) to base himself in during periods of sustained focus on production. For this show, though, Owens had his team make the short hop back to the Lido to present his collection against the rationalist architecture of its Palazzo del Casinò. Aesthetically, this building’s facade is a Venetian cousin of the Palais de Tokyo, Owens’s usual Parisian venue (which was this season snapped up in his absence by Chloé). Unlike the Palais de Tokyo, the Casinò, a little like Owens himself, is a structure whose monumentally imposing exterior—“graphic severity,” as he puts it—belies an interior marked by humor and abundance: “I didn’t realize it was going to be so extravagant. There’s murals and there’s crazy Murano chandeliers, and the proportions are extreme…”

All of the fittings and last-minute prep work took place about 100 meters down the road, in the Hotel Excelsior. This is where Owens first stayed when he became a regular here. Even now, settled as he is in his nearby apartment, he maintains that Excelsior-operated cabana (which is one among hundreds being dismantled along the beach to mark the very end of summer). Built in 1908, the Excelsior is a Moorish fantasy whose starting point was the true Venetian articulations of that Arabian style, including most famously of all the Doge’s Palace: This more-ish update was built as a Disney-fied pleasure palace for the sybarites of the early 20th century. “Its legend has always captivated me,” said Owens, who cited Nijinsky dancing on the beach here as one favorite point of reference. Today both the Lido and the Excelsior are famed for playing host to the Venice Film Festival, but outside of season and festival time the hotel and its surroundings are quiet. The beachside restaurant where Owens flexes his Italian is the only one open, and only remains so because he asked its owners to keep his team in victuals during the run-up to the show.

Reference-wise, the Lido is probably best known for its key role in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. “It always struck a chord with me,” said Owens, who added that the book (and film) “is one of the reasons that I moved to the Lido.” Owens added: “Here’s this ascetic creator who retreats to the Lido because he’s got writer’s block. He sees a youth and he is inspired and euphoric. And then gradually, that turns into some kind of obsession…. But I think the part that resonates with me is the part about aging, and that’s a big part of the storyline. [He’s] recognizing a moment in this youth that he misses, that he misses deeply and profoundly, and maybe which he never even experienced. And he’s seeing that this golden moment is out of reach, and that he’ll never ever experience or capture it, and it turns into a degrading experience. So you have this full arc of euphoria and inspiration and stimulation that gradually corrupts until it becomes this torture.”

Parts of the beach—the beach where Mann’s Aschenbach fulfills the novel’s title—seem to be constituted entirely of dead shells. They crunch underfoot. The water is flat and limpid, and there is no visible line of horizon where it meets the sky. The air is salty, even a little dank, and seagulls bicker as diggers trundle up and down dismantling cabanas. In Death in Venice Mann describes “the limbo between creation and decay,” and his description of why Aschenbach is so drawn to this place could as easily be projected onto Owens. As Mann puts it: “His love of the sea had profound roots: the hardworking artist’s desire to rest, his longing to get away from the demanding diversity of phenomena and take shelter in the bosom of simplicity and immensity; a forbidden penchant that was entirely antithetical to his mission and, for that very reason, seductive—a proclivity for the unorganized, the immeasurable, the eternal: for nothingness.”

Of nothingness, Owens observed: “I’m not one of the pessimists who thinks that we’re going to destroy the planet. I feel like it’s going to evolve into something else, and I think it would be arrogant of us to think that we have that power…I think death is part of all of our lives and everything needs to evolve into something else. Anyway, that’s my fatalistic attitude.”

The show started five minutes after its advertised start time. The models each had two changes, which saw them becoming gradually more clothed: There is no way that Owens’s “wader” boots, platformed thigh-highs presented as a coping mechanism for the Phlegethon (river to hell) after which the collection is named, can be changed mid-livestream. Michèle Lamy watched on as Tyrone Dylan Susman and the rest of this pared-down team worked through the rack, replenishing the looks as the models returned from their fierce circuits of the piazza. Behind the rope, that straggle of spectators included an elderly couple in pastel puffa jackets, with a poodle: Owens later said they are his downstairs neighbors. Lights pulsed from inside the palace. A drone moaned above. Judd’s mix built and built to the crescendo it would never reach.

“During quarantine,” said Owens: “I noticed that speaking to a lot of friends, a lot of relationships had evolved. Our relationships with loved ones deepened, and relationships that were inessential kind of fell away. Everybody was able to have a minute to define what was most important to them, which was maybe a silver lining to that cloud.”

“Italy Is Where I Create, and Paris Is Where I Am Judged”

Rick Owens chose to be close to his other home – not the Paris home near the Assemblée Nationale but his second home in Venice to stage a live-stream fashion show with no audience in an area known locally as Lido di Venezia, which is a barrier island in the Venetian lagoon in the piazza in front of the Lido Casino, a rationalist palazzo built in the 1930s where, as the designer said, he “walked by and worshipped everyday on my way to the beach.” Lido di Venezia as Owens reminded us is also the site of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice about a writer’s obsession with a youth, and about death during the cholera epidemic.  

Located about two hours from the Italian factory that has produced Owens’ collections since the very beginning, this majestic Venetian piazza allowed him to assemble his team from the factory to make a live streaming show that he characterized as “cozy, truthful and spectacular all at once.”  

The smoke machines were still there although much smaller in scale on both sides of the Lido casino, spurning out white smoke like a giant incense burner at the entrance of a Buddhist temple, whose marble frontage and piazza gave a familiar air to the outside of the Palais de Tokyo where all the recent Owens show took place. At first glance at the live stream, it felt like coming back home in a strange way where distance and closeness were just relative, not physical descriptions. 

From a far-off camera angle from above giving the audience a panoramic perspective of the entire spacious area of this piazza, empty of people, the small shadows of the models walking and wearing a black one-shoulder micro dress and black thigh-high boots, a pink strapless chiffon dress, and high blood-red boots, or the lean long black sleeveless jacket and of course high-heeled boots gave the comfort of continuity and the sense of command at this exceptional Owens show, not only for actually staging the show in his own way by not relegating the sense of giving the clothes a backdrop of a citadel but also by the uniqueness of the clothes. Owens’ stage ‘construction’ now barren is always central to his fashion vocabulary that filters into every product under his brand name whether they are men’s and women’s apparel, footwear, or his large range of furniture designs.  

One remembers a Rick Owens signature shape or garment or that a certain image of an Owens boot that sticks around in our mind simply because of this educational process that is his fashion shows. Here in Venice, the new conversation for spring started where the last sentence ended last February.

Unfortunately, the dialogue was interrupted by one season. This past July the men’s show could not have taken place due to the lockdown and pandemic; in lieu, the audience saw a black and white ‘video-film’ made like a surveillance taping with several camera angles showing the same actions from different sides where the professor-designer performed a series of fittings at his studio with one model. It was like an instructional manual on how to assemble a complete look. But this women’s show shared the same title ‘Phlegethon’ which is the name of the fire river in Greek mythology, or in Owens’ own words: “one of the rivers in the inferno described in Dante’s Divine Comedy, not quite the center of hell but on the way there.”

“My last fall runway shoulder freak-out wasn’t about power, it was about defiance – defiance in the face of threat. Black grain de Poudre tailoring is oversize with sleeves ripped off of hulking shoulders … straps allow the wearer to strip jackets off and cinch around waists as a beach bustle … satin rib waist bombers that have that are an exaggerated middle finger to doom,” Owens explained regarding how the new sleeveless jackets in this show came about. These sleeveless silhouettes came in the form of a white two-button narrow lapel single-breasted long coat with the shoulder pads hanging out of one side of the sleeve holes, a black long coat with satin bow waist tie, or as a white leather biker where the shoulders have been replaced with giant protruding shoulders wrapped in white cable knits. A black sheer organza over-the-head vest worn over a white cotton tank or the sheer black chiffon zippered coat both seemed to be just mere shadows of those bulky Fall 2020 heavy pagoda-shoulder-shaped jackets. Perhaps these shadows may completely disappear next season and reemerge several years from now. 

The tailoring works performed on these jackets and coats are extremely detailed in their sophisticated maneuvers. Here are two examples of expert tailoring – the structure of the black cropped one-button midriff sleeveless jacket was so rigidly secured, and the curvatures of the black gabardine wool falling from the top of the shoulder blades.

The soft chiffon in pink and long black wool cape with a front shape that curved around the side of the body to the back and the cape ended just slightly above the cement floor so that it seemed like it was floating. The thigh-high platform boots should be considered more as a garment here than an accessory. 

Look closely and there are plenty of great clothes to wear as well like those short knit dresses in light grey and pink, or even those hot shorts with huge white cotton outsized pockets or the long pink cotton side-slit dress, or a red/orange cutout caped shirt. Just don’t let the thigh-high platform boots intimidate you. Furthermore, these dresses are both sexy and a bit, well, maybe romantic, not really adjectives to describe Owens’ clothes. Those fishnets tank dresses were reincarnations of similar versions from the fall 2012 collection. And Owens does leather like no one else – here in a white all-around front-zipper coat, white ‘dashboard’ front cape or red sleeveless blouson vest. Some of the paillettes on the black denim shorts are made from recycled plastic. The clothes shown here in Venice are both consistent signatures and they are also new.

Those who caught the live stream show today were treated to a special remix by Jeff Judd of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ which would be different if they were to catch a replay on YouTube afterwards. “This song has always been a reassuring and stabilizing anthem for me but here it gets as dark and delirious as falling into a K-Hole, fitting this moment perfectly. Copyright restrictions did not allow me to post it on YouTube so I had to post a substitute version, but Donna went hard for the live show at the Lido,” as Owens explained the different sound between the two moments. I never thought I could quote any designer using the word K-Hole but hey, it really is the right word to use for this moment of multiple and seemingly unending crises. 

At Rick Owens, fashion is a continuous dialogue – one season flows into the next, one experiment perhaps repeats again in a new way, one garment from the past remade anew, or one mistake in a previous year’s show now corrected.

REVIEW OF RICK OWENS SPRING 2021 FASHION SHOW

High Risk editorial for Glassbook Magazine Styled by              Barbara Constantin 

ΥΨΗΛΟΥ ΚΙΝΔΥΝΟΥ:    HIGH-RISK ❌ GLASSBOOK MAGAZINE 

Throughout the course of this year, Brunello Cucinelli evolved gradually into the world of absolutely insane lifestyle products. The company – best known for its classically conservative menswear made from the most rarefied fabrics – launched a walnut-wood globe earlier this summer for $2,195 USD. 

And look no further for those looking for something with more practicality on a day-to-day basis: the brand has just launched its own version of a reusable water bottle – but, of course, it's a little more elevated than a Nalgene. Listed as "a double-walled glass bottle carafe", it's yours for $995 USD. 

For fairness, the bottle is crafted in Solomeo, a small medieval Italian village that has become the site of Cucinelli's factories. And its double-layered structure — made of mouth-blown glass — is designed to keep its contents from hitting room temperature too quickly. 

In 1979, Brunello Cucinelli launched his couture house with a focus for women's cashmere garments. Every year, Cucinelli travels personally in the Mongolian mountains to buy cashmere directly from the farmers. 

The products of the company are all handmade in Italy. The family trust of Mr. Cucinelli holds 57 percent of the company's stock, which went public at €7.75 per share in 2012. The business has its headquarters in a castle dating from the 14th century on the top of a hill in the center of Umbria, a region known as Italy's green heart.

The company claims to be profoundly rooted in moral ideals, such as being a "humanistic enterprise" and using craftsmanship to lend moral integrity to the artisan as well as to the owner.

In other news, Rick Owens returns with a new footwear release in the form of the black Bozo Chelsea boot, after dropping the colorful Maximal Runner sneaker in an eye-catching burgundy and blue colorway.

Handcrafted with rubber strips, layered to mimic tape strappings, this boot is said to draw on the designer's passion for creative textural play. The Bozo is a reworking of the traditional Chelsea boot shape with elasticated side-gussets, a heel pull, and black leather lining.

Walnut wood and double-walled glass bottle carafe.

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

Helmut Newton, the Germano-Australian photographer, is being honored in the first posthumous documentary on his subject while we celebrate the centenary of his birth. This film, already released in Germany, entitled "The Bad and the Beautiful," offers previously unseen accounts - all from women - about the work of this great master of the nude and smoothing voyeurism. 

"Every photographer who claims not to be a voyeur is either an idiot or a liar" - a perfect example of Helmut Newton's outspoken attitude to life. He died in 2004 and is and will always be one of the world's most famous fashion and nude photographers. Imitated but never equaled, his photographs are all at once shocking, sensual and incredibly elegant and forged an international reputation for him. Starting in the 1970s, the Berlin photographer began to do nudes for major publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. From the "Naked and Dressed" series where an army of models struck similar poses completely clothed and then wearing only socks, to the famously provocative portrait of Catherine Deneuve in 1976, the monochromatic oeuvre of Helmut Newton is filled with dominant and victorious women, all endowed with an assertive and overt sensuality. This photographer has long split opinions, often showered with compliments, often viewed as a misogynist objectivizing the female body. Yet what was the true ambition for Helmut Newton? 

That is the question raised by Helmut Newton's first posthumous documentary, called "The Bad and the Beautiful." Written and directed by the artist's close friend Gero Von Boehm, the film looks back on the life of a revolutionary who was far ahead of his time and exposed a previously unknown dimension of his personality: on his photo shoots we uncover a man overflowing with humor, as those close to him expose moments of laughter and unforeseen controversy. The documentary brings together the important women – and only the women – in his life and work to discuss him. A conscious decision by Gero Von Boehm whose specific intention was to place their voices at the core of the matter and the viewer's attention. So we see the wife of the photographer June Newton, the models Claudia Schiffer and Anna Wintour sharing their experiences alongside this great artist, among many others.

In other news, following his recent Spring/Summer 2021 showcase, Rick Owens unveiled a pair of white bondage-wrapped hi-tops. 

Recently, Sotheby's London auctioned off a Banksy 2017 triptych, entitled Mediterranean Sea View. The three paintings, after a bidding war between two unidentified investors, have been sold for £2.2 m GBP (about $2.8 million USD). The final cost was almost twice the initial pre-sale valuation of £1.2 m GBP (about $1.5 million) — marking the second-highest price ever for an obscure British artist's work. All proceeds will go to buy new children's rehabilitation facilities at the Bethlehem BASR hospital, and to build a new acute stroke unit at the clinic. 

The drawings were first made for the Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. They have been hang in the hotel lobby since 2017. The works consist of three oil paintings on canvas portraying 19th-century style seascapes alongside discarded lifejackets and buoys to shed light on the tragic deaths of thousands of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in the midst of the global migrant crisis. 

"This work juxtaposes a classic form of fine art with grim contemporaneity," Sotheby's described in a statement. "While posing as the as the Natural Sublime paintings of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, the present work undermines and subverts the perceptions of the spectator to tackle a difficult contemporary problem." 

The Sotheby sale also included paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Bridget Riley amongst others. Rembrandt's 1632 self-portrait has been sold for £14.5 m GBP (about $19 m USD). There was a total of 70 lots on sale at the live-streamed auction.

The Rembrandt to Richter auction was unique in that it spanned five centuries of Old Masters art into contemporary work. Helena Newman, the president of Sotheby's Europe, said the wide range catered for "a new generation of collectors who have less concern with the past conventional divisions of the art market." 

She added: "With the world art calendar changing, we, too, have taken the chance to do things differently."

In other news, "I'm not the type to make gowns for the ball or do hand-beading," says Rick Owens, the native of California from his Paris office. "It's my couture and my furniture. I use rare materials and specialist skills craftsmen to create unique, uncommon objects."

All proceeds will go to the BASR hospital in Bethlehem.

BANKSY’S MEDITERRANEAN SEA VIEW TRIPTYCH SOLD FOR £2.2M GBP

Sergio Purtell purchased a flight from New York to London each summer in the late 70s and early 80s, and then traveled across Europe on a cheap rail pass. He went to France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, making friends and staying in seedy hotels along the way. "Wandering made me feel smart," the photographer writes on the book's back cover. "At the age of 18, I left Chile for the US and fled an unfolding dictatorship. I studied architecture but then I fell in love with photography and my courses in art history convinced me that I needed to see Europe. Once I got there, I was immediately reminded of my life in Santiago: the mannerisms, the traditions, the architecture, the relaxed attitude towards life, the mornings in cafes drinking a cup for as long as one liked, the afternoons passed by the cool of a fountain, ending at a local bar with a glass of wine." 

Purtell captured strangers and casual encounters with a paradoxical intimacy: even though he had just arrived, their lives felt familiar to him. 40 Years on, Purtell's first book puts together a collection of photos from those roaming summers. Titled Love's Labour, the book captures the summer movements, the long-held poses, the endless hours. It's a window into seasonal pleasures, at a time when few of us have access to them. 

Purtell's pictures of statues reflect this tension in a romantic way. Young men and women are captured in poses reminiscent of statues standing in parks with fountains beside them – or is it the pose of the statue that resembles the youth in denim shorts? Purtell brings the granular focus to sensual movements and enigmatic relations that can be traced back to his MFA days at Yale, where he was taught by Tod Papageorge, who inspired a generation of artists like Mark Steinmetz, An-My Lê and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. As Barker said, "Tod is known for his work's elegance and you can see that elegance in all the photographers with whom he worked." Love's Labour oozes such leisurely ease, even pictures of people relaxing in the center of Paris look like they've been taken on the French Riviera.

In other news, under the Maison/Objects line Rick Owens has created a flurry of diverse homewares. The designer is known for his sleek, brutalism-inspired furniture; with similar design aesthetics, he is now adding wares to his namesake.

The sensual photographs of Sergio Purtell capture long summer days and endless evenings spent travelling across Europe.

SERGIO PURTELL: EUROPEAN SUMMERS OF THE 70S AND 80S

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.

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. 

Channels E-Boys and Skaters in Confinement.

Jenny Holzer and Avant Arte joined forces on new work, entitled URGE AND URGE AND URGE, consisting of condoms in a hand-blown recycled-glass pharmacy tank. The project has been created in conjunction with the New York City AIDS Memorial as part of a campaign raising awareness of the ongoing AIDS fight. Every gold, red, black and white condom wrapper features some of Holzer's iconic phrases such as "EXPIRING FOR LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL BUT STUPID," "PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT," and "MEN DON'T PROTECT YOU ANYMORE." Others are printed with excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.

A lot of the proceeds from the sale of URGE AND URGE AND URGE will support the New York City AIDS Museum, which offers shelter for those lost to AIDS to reflect and remember. The proceeds will fund educational and cultural activities, as well as continued memorial maintenance. A truck outfitted with LED screens will display animated texts by Holzer and Walt Whitman as it travels through historically significant sites in New York City today to mark the start of the research and to remember those lost to AIDS. 

"When I first met Jenny she had a Paul Thek book on the table and we spoke about his work," said Christian Luiten, Avant Arte's co-founder and creative director. "I hadn't known he was lost to AIDS like so many other artists. So when Jenny mentioned we're partnering with the New York City AIDS Memorial on this edition, it felt like a good chance to share some of those stories and also raise awareness to our community about the ongoing battle against HIV and AIDS.

Holzer is part of a generation of artists' feminist branch that emerged around 1980, searching for new ways to make narrative or criticism an implicit part of visual objects. During this time she had been an involved member of Colab. Other famous female contemporaries include Barbara Kruger, Sarah Charlesworth, Cindy Sherman and Louise Lawler.

In other news, Under the Maison/Objects line Rick Owens has created a flurry of diverse homewares. The designer is known for his sleek, brutalism-inspired furniture; with similar design aesthetics, he is now adding wares to his namesake.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the New York City AIDS Memorial.

JENNY HOLZER RAISES AWARENESS OF FIGHT AGAINST AIDS

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