Vanity Fair pay tribute to the past 103 years of distinctive female pop star style in a two minute time-lapse starting with the full-body fashion of Nora Bayes in the early 20th century to the contemporary style of Rihanna today. Wow, how times have changed.
What kind of man reads Playboy? Well, if you believe the vintage ads for the magazine published between 1958 and 1974, the readers of Playboy are all young men, most caucasian, handsome, rich, talented, adventurous, athletic, intelligent, and always surrounded by beautiful women. In reality, it seems this advertising series was primarily intended to market the magazine to advertisers and convince them that readers were not just interested in photos of naked women. Ummm…ok sure 😉
Stephen Vuillemin: We love the work of American illustrator Stephen Vuillemin, who specialises in funny editorial illustrations and has turned them into awesome animated GIFs. Usually creating illustrations for publications like the New York Times, Bloomberg, and GQ, Stephen Vuillemin brings an extra dimension to his work with this fun batch of animations. Great stuff! 🙂
CNN: Transporting us back to the golden age of aviation, CNN have compiled a selection of vintage photographs from a time when airlines were selling globetrotting dreams and high-end luxury. The exact opposite of today’s low cost carriers, these photographs from the 50s and 60s remind us that air travel was once synonymous with fashion, cocktails, luxury, glamour, gastronomy, and social status although it did come at a price – a Sydney to London round trip cost the equivalent of thirty weeks wages! Happy Flashback Friday 🙂
The Daily Splice: Loving the clever creations of British artist Adam Hale, aka The Daily Splice, who uses free newspapers and magazines around London to create a new collage every day, cutting up assorted photographs and assembling them by hand. Awesome stuff! 🙂
Coco de Mer: Under The Skin writer Walter Campbell and legendary photographer Rankin have paired up for X, a short film about sex that’s something of a sensory overload, made in partnership with underwear and sex toy brand Coco De Mer. Using a combination of found footage, seductive acting and an at times brutal soundtrack, X invites you into an otherworldly erotic realm; mixing danger, violence and sex. “The film embraces the sense of the ambient mind and what it might be inspired by, the transgression from banality into wonder”, says Campbell. “More and more I feel we enter the hinterlands of that dream state simply because the mind seeks something wilder, that unpredictable thing, the surprise moment. The film speaks about the morphing of these possibilities, and evokes Coco de Mer’s evolution of erotic thought. Coco de Mer embodies those wonderful flights of imagination that steer the mind to more extraordinary, more vital energies, and this campaign is an exciting platform for the brand to open up the erotic conversation even further.” It’s contemporary, erotic and a lil bit naughty, check it out – LOVE! For the official Coco de Mer website, click here
Alexia Sinclair: We love the outstanding creations of photographer and artist Alexia Sinclair, including her latest series ‘Rococo’, which depicts a dreamlike world bathed by the influences of the 18th century and the court of Marie Antoinette. Alexia Sinclair notes that “Rococo is a series of theatrical artworks inspired by the lives, fashions, gardens and motifs of 18th century high society. Following the design aesthetic of this period, the series is sensual, playful and flamboyant. During this period, powerful women of the French court became fashion icons and their tastes swept across Europe. Their excessive, luxurious and exotic creations have inspired many aspects of the costuming within this series; from Madame de Pompadour’s porcelain flowers, to Madame du Barry diamond necklace, Marie Antoinette’s muslin chemise and the Duchess of Devonshire’s towering plumes. The floral backdrops within the series pay homage to the dreamlike landscapes of the Rococo period. Known as the pleasure playgrounds, their hidden gardens, mazes and wild flower meadows formed the backdrop of decadent garden parties and mischievous encounters.” Alexia Sinclair is an award winning Australian Artist and Photographer whose distinct style is easily recognisable and highly original. Using a visual narrative, Alexia Sinclair’s art is both dark and seductive, baroque and symbolic yet her multilayered photographs present contemporary notions of fashion and beauty through innovative digital media, whilst restoring antique notions of classicism, elegance and luxury. Sinclair is an artist who skilfully balances the worlds of Fine Art and Commercial Art. Whilst her evocative Fine Art imagery adorns the walls of museums and is held in important art collections, she often translates these skills and signature style into highly polished campaigns in the commercial arena for clients such as Harpers Bazaar and Canon Australia. Completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons I) and Master of Fine Arts, Alexia Sinclair is the recipient of a travelling arts scholarship, and two postgraduate scholarships. She has worked in New York as a digital artist and exhibited in numerous exhibitions including at the Australian Centre for Photography and the Art Gallery of NSW with her latest series ‘Rococo’ most recently on display at the Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia. Below is a selection of Alexia Sinclair’s amazing work but for a more detailed look, we suggest a visit to her website.
Alex de Mora: So you think that “old people” dress like old people? But have you ever thought about what our generation will look like when we get older? ‘Leisurewear’ is a series of fashion photographs created for Vice Magazine by photographer Alex de Mora, who likes to imagine the elderly of a not too distant future. Alex de Mora notes ‘I was inspired by the character I saw when taking personal photos of my Grandmother, and I thought why not transform this into an fashion editorial, so I pitched the idea to Vice Magazine. I had been wanting to shoot a “leisurewear” series for a while, and wanted to give a hip hop angle to the idea. I thought of Snoop Dogg going shopping in his velour tracksuit. The shoot itself took place in my studio in London and we decided to colour match the background, clothes and set for each shot, to give it a surreal, stylised tone. My amazing team of Kylie Griffiths (stylist), Penny Mills (set design), Sami Knight (hair) and Lydia Warhurst (make up) helped me to make this idea the reality.’ Alex de Mora is a highly regarded photographer based in London, UK who specialises in fashion, commercial and portrait photography. Over the years, De Mora has created some amazing images and his editorial clients have included VICE, i-D, Oyster, Dazed & Confused, and Crack while his commercial work has been for brands such as Nike, Red Bull, Atlantic Records, Liberty, ATP Records, Converse, and Johnnie Walker. This fantastic shoot took place in Alex de Mora’s London studio, and features streetwear icons ranging from Champion and adidas Originals to Le Coq Sportif and Moschino, all worn by old-aged pensioners. To see more of Alex de Mora’s amazing work, be sure to visit his website.
Cosmopolitan: Of course, everyone knows of the cheesy romance novel – the novelettish and sentimental literature made to tickle the senses, covers emblazoned with virile young men and young ladies in search of fierce love that are clearly marketed to woman with ‘healthy and active’ imaginations. Well, world renown and bestselling women’s magazine, Cosmopolitan, has recreated these covers using real, everyday people in an clever and amusing series that will definitely make you see their funny side. The ‘romance novel’ or ‘romantic novel’ is a literary genre. Novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Some scholars see precursors to the romance novel in literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson’s sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) and the novels of Jane Austen. British company Mills and Boon began releasing escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. Their books were sold in North America by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, which began direct marketing to readers and allowing mass-market merchandisers to carry the books. In North America, romance novels are the most popular literary genre, comprising almost 55% of all paperback books sold in 2004. The genre is also popular in Europe and Australia, and romance novels appear in 90 languages. Most of the books, however, are written by authors from English-speaking countries, leading to what is deemed an Anglo-Saxon perspective in the fiction. Despite the popularity and widespread sales of romance novels, the genre has attracted significant derision, skepticism and criticism. Erotica is a term used to describe scenes in the novel that are risqué but not pornographic and ‘Romance erotica’ seems to be on the rise as more women explore this new sub-genre – You only have to look at the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey...enough said. Enjoy!
The unique creations of photographer Cheuk Lun Lo, who transforms hair and shampooed heads into abstract photographs in a series imagined for Chinese beauty and fashion publication NUMERO, are somewhat gross yet engaging all at the same time. Lo is a professional photographer who established his STUFF STUDIO in 2009. STUFF is a fast growing photographic studio working primarily with world leading luxury brands, magazines and advertising agencies. Under his art direction, the studio continues to create mesmerising shots of fashion related products which are used for numerous key visual and magazine features. They believe every creative opportunity is unique and enjoy collaborating with like-minded partners to create interesting and thought-provoking shots that capture the soul of each product – giving each image a sense of personality and a memorable story. It is almost impossible, at first glance, to know the source of the swirling spherical masses pictured in the following series – are they photographs of liquid, bizarre floating orbs, or something else unidentifiable? Perspective and light offer a strange and surreal take on an ordinary human characteristic – hair. Cheuk Lun Lo shoots the heads from above, allowing for an alternative view of an otherwise standard, hair-washing routine which suddenly begins to transform into something more fascinating. Shampoo saturates the locks in a foamy white lather, letting it be easily moulded and manipulated into a varied array of shapes, sizes and compositions. Photographed on a pitch black background, the series – realised as a beauty editorial for Numero magazine in China – sees Cheuk Lun Lo’s “hair-scapes” seemingly hover in mid-air, providing an abstract yet beautiful look at the human body and all its artistic possibilities.
