a woman after my own heart

Alice T. Friendman's American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture.

Read The New York Times Q&A.

"My goal was to link a group of disparate architectural works and explain why they looked the way they did, and in the process reveal the complexity in the definition of modern architecture. It’s not just rational problem-solving and engineering-based. It’s much more about stories, pleasure and mystery."

movies and architecture

This is an old project (4A!) that was an experiential map of personal perception and exploration along the Via del Mandrione towards Rome.

A building can only be experienced when walked through, when inhabited.
The unfolding of spaces is comparable to the unreeling of scenes in a film.

In this way, mass media dominates daily life, and we see in visual staccatos and hear in sound-bytes. Film aids architecture by inspiring the average filmgoer to take an interest in the built environment and to experience within the realms of cinema what they may never experience in real life. Film also returns to architecture a mass medium where both the trained and untrained can become the critique.

However, architecture will remain when film is gone, as architecture affords film its temporal structure.

(Source: Thomsen, Christian W. & Krewani, Angela. Hollywood: Recent Developments. Stuttgart: Axel Menges, 2005.)


Team: M Karimi / J Lee / D McNinch / R Micacchi / S Neault / A Ng / K Schwartzkopf / M Tataryn

Ways of Not Seeing

I must quote parts of this article of Mark Kingwell:

"John Kenneth Galbraith noted that “no one has really read very much social science if he hasn’t read The Theory of the Leisure Class at least once,” adding, “The book yields its meaning, and therewith its full enjoyment, only to those who also have leisure.” Veblen himself, in the last sections of the book, indicts the tenured ease of academic life as one of the clearest examples of conspicuous waste, and Pierre Bourdieu’s great work on social distinction concludes its survey of taste as a class-based exercise with a keen sense of how intellectual and cultural capital underwrite each other."

"We are fetched by a beautiful thing, as we are by beauty in general, because of the “promise of happiness” it holds out. Sudjic’s desirable things go on repeating that promise, day after day; although the promise may be bogus, the seeking itself is not, and that’s why it is never just about position—Veblen’s reductionism is too extreme. But that’s also why we go on believing the promises even though we know they’re empty, even when we realize that consumer goods reliably generate the unhappiness of restless aspiration. It’s the language of the soul we should be parsing, not the language of things, our shared entrapment in the caverns of human desire. This project of psychic spelunking is as old as Plato and as fresh as last week’s clearance sale."

"There is of course no guarantee that introspection, any more than strolling the mall, will prompt political change. For that we would need luxury taxes, limits to cheap borrowing, and other structural curbs on competitive consumption. Nor will consideration of our own place in the consumer economy necessarily lead to changes in what we value: this is theory, not therapy. Meanwhile, various inventive cultural escape hatches—hi-lo cultural slumming, the dandyism
of camp—seem jejune if not flatly contradictory. There is nothing outside the system, and attempts at escape are always just higher-order versions of distinction. You can’t win, and you can’t stop playing."

"Here’s some advice: stop worrying about it. The point of analyzing desire is neither victory nor freedom; it is, instead, to indicate an alternative scale of value, according to which idleness and play—the everyday gift of cultural détournement—are cherished as the most divine, because least encumbered, dimensions of human life. If we could see that, maybe the closed promises of consumption would give way to the open invitation of thought itself."

The Golden Age of Hollywood

A slightly newer direction has emerged for my thesis, which will take me on delightful movie binge for the next couple of days where I will watch all of the following:

Darling (1965)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Topkapi (1964)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Details to follow.

Torre Agbar, is that you?

L'Homme Yves Saint Laurent, Design by Jean Nouvel, Eau de Toilette, 90ml, £57.50, from Harrods

"Once an architect achieves the sort of global acclaim that Jean Nouvel has, it's not just requests for iconic urban landmarks that land on the desk - the starchitect's touch is also called on to change the topography of our dressing tables.

Jean Nouvel has made his first contribution to the cosmetics world this month with a limited edition bottle design for Yves Saint Laurent's most recently launched men's fragrance, L'Homme.

'I wanted to give it a clear-cut shape, so it would easily fit a man's hand while still stimulating different aspects of his imagination,' says Nouvel of the erect tube that sits into a bolt-shaped stand, that doubles as the lid. 'I wanted it to express the scent's inherent contrasts of virility and fragility. Through its design, the bottle symbolises a fully assumed virility, while the fine glass creates a contrast implying a kind of fragility and softness.'

Indeed. Nouvel has also introduced a playful new design detail - the float which carries the YSL logo and swims around in the fragrance, 'placing the brand at the heart of the fragrance'.

Introducing architects and product designers to cosmetics and fragrance packaging design is proving to be a sure way to shake up firmly entrenched convention in the area, and this is no exception. With his limited edition L'Homme Yves Saint Laurent, Nouvel is turning perfume bottle design on its head." [wallpaper.com]

In this amalgamation of luxury and industrial design, the architect imposes his ideas about the significance of form on a much smaller scale. While the symbolism is undeniable, the effect is mixed.

13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London

[archINFORM]

Sir John Soane's Residence (and now museum). Gorgeous sections, detailed ornamentation inspired by the pieces he collected, attention to light, shadow, and texture.

Street Cred

An inherent dichotomy of the fashion world is at the source of its inspiration.

The dominating historical model is via top-down, from the inception at the courts of royalty filtered outward to the rest of society. But in contemporary times, the more immediate stimulus of the streets has caused quite the stir. The irony of the exclusive but disseminated against the colloquial but edited does not cause as much friction as we might think.

Several pioneers come to mind:

Scott Schuman of “The Satorialist” – Sept 2005 (NYC)
Garance Doré of the self-titled blog – June 2006 (Paris)
Jean-Phillipe Delhomme of “The Unknown Hipster” – April 2009 (NYC)
Yvan Rodic of “Facehunter” – January 2006 (London)
Liisa Jokinen & Sampo Karjalainen of “Hel Looks” – July 2005 (Helsinki)


The Satorialist
With Scott Schuman, he claims his source of inspiration in a photograph of a man on an empty street taken by German photographer August Sander. He also notes the influence of the Seeberger brothers who were responsible for the Parisian postcard photographs of the early 20th century, recording the upper echelons of society. Not to mention Amy Arbus who documented New York life and i-D magazine of the 80’s with their “straight up” photography of club kids and street styles. His main philosophy, he claims, is to echo in his own photography how fashion designers hunt for inspiration. It is selective but inclusive. He prefers the stylish over the trendy, and that is why he is so successful. He tends to photograph those who will define the future terrain rather than tread on the current topography. But none of this indigenous hunting hinders prospects of collaboration with international heavy-hitters. Due to his exposure with his blog (3 million hits per month), he now works with publications like Condé Nast and was named by Time Magazine as a Top 100 Design Influencer. He also has a compilation book of the blog to be published September 2009, by Penguin.



Garance Doré
“Une fille comme moi”
Doré started as an illustrator and was frustrated with the lack of contact with her readers. She also wanted a more spontaneous outlet for her work. So her posts of filled with portraits, scans and photographs of her notebook sketches (with a hint of Japan anime in the eyes), and short musings on stylish people.


The Unknown Hipster
“Information without the invitation”
Delhomme created an anonymous persona for this blog and satirizes the self-important world of fashion in a teasing manner. A great excerpt: “She ignored me in the same way art ignores people in a museum”. His lively illustrations in pencil crayon and paint add an idiosyncratic touch to the otherwise overdone endeavor of crashing fêtes. He also has a book published called “The Cultivated Life”. And his artwork has been employed in Barney’s advertising campaigns.


In these examples, it is clear that the catalyst of fashion isn’t exclusively behind closed doors but of individual and collective identities and behaviours. The creative potential captured on the streets and channelled through these blogs begins to define the social capacity to invent, absorb, and celebrate the endeavor of fashion and coveted objects.

the lipstick index

"The idea is that, during a recession, women substitute small, feel-good items like lipstick for more expensive items like clothing and jewelry."
—Norm Scheiber, "Replacement Killers," The New Republic, January 7, 2002

Estée Lauder Chairman Leonard Lauder reportedly coined the phrase “lipstick index” after observing sales surges during 9/11 downturns. Why? People reach for affordable luxuries to feel better. The New York Times notes that in the last few months, lipstick sales have shot up 40% . Even in Indian markets, lipstick sales are growing steadily at 20% & in the case of luxury brands that have a smaller base, the numbers extend even into the triple digits. “Women always want to look beautiful, and what’s the easiest thing to buy? Lipstick. A tube of lipstick for $14.50 as compared to a shirt for $70,” says Jennifer Barnett of Origins. [trendspotting.com]

[Google Trends]

But I guess the boost in lipstick sales came just a bit too late for Max Factor. The makeup pioneer will begin its fade out of U.S. stores starting early 2010, and according to the New Yorker:

"Max Faktor (he changed the spelling later) was a five-foot tall Polish Jewish fugitive who left Russia in 1904 and arrived in California, breaking into Hollywood via manufacturing cosmetics for the film industry. When film changed — from black and white to Technicolor — Factor changed the chemistry and formula of his makeup, and actresses who wouldn't appear under harsh lights — Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Claudette Colbert — had new products, which were more flattering. When the company started selling to the public, it often used actresses in its advertising....Unlike some other make-up artists, he was never painted as an effeminate type. Photographs of Factor show him simultaneously as makeup artist, chemist, and father figure."

As with any cosmetics, you're not just purchasing a new shade, you're purchasing a new image of you.

Inferno & Paradiso

Marco Brambilla is an artist of video murals.

His latest in seen in the elevator of the newly opened Standard Hotel in New York.


"Civilization depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell."

The mural scrolls in synch with the movement of the 18-storey hotel’s elevators. A glimpse of heaven as you ascend to your room, a glimpse of hell on your way back down.

The full 2:40 min. video can be seen here.


He also made Cathedral, a 9:32 min video on loop at the Toronto Eaton Centre in 2008.


"Filmed during the Christmas season at the Toronto Eaton Centre shopping mall, consumers circulate within the multi-level environment interpreted as a kaleidoscopic and disorienting landscape. Cathedral is influenced by studies in time and motion by Frederick Winslow Taylor and Frank Gilbreth."

Personally, I find it is an entirely ironic piece because although it is a festive and joy-filled time of the year, shopping during Christmas time there is anything but serene.

Loub Change

Still Life with ham, lemon, a roll, a glass of wine, and others on table. Pieter Claesz. 1643.

Dillian (in metallic leather). Christian Louboutin. 2009 ad campaign.

Still Life of Fruit & Dead Fowl. Harmen Steenwijck. 1650.

Robot 120 Ankle Boots (in gold patent). Christian Louboutin. 2009 ad campaign.

Vanitas Still with Skull. N.Le Peschier. 1661.

Tina (in nude suede). Christian Louboutin. 2009 ad campaign.

More on how fashion and creative design recycle random homages to masters of the past:

Christian Louboutin's latest ad campaign is by photographer Peter Lippmann. Nicolas Menu did the creative direction and Amandine Moine was in charge of the styling. [ViewOnFashion.com]

The mirroring of 17th century Dutch still life speaks to the "vanitas" that inspired Northern European painters like Claesz in the first place. Vanitas itself comes from Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translates to the meaningless of corporeal life and the transient nature of vanity, futility of pleasure, and certainty of death. That is why the common symbols of vanitas are skulls (fatality), rotten fruit & animals (decay/age), smoke (brevity), and music (ephemeral nature).

In this sense, Louboutin is right on the money.

chanel on vacation

Chanel's Resort 2010 Ad Campaign featuring Karen Elson & Baptiste Giabiconi. Photographed by Karl Lagerfeld.

Keeps in line with its runway themes. The smoldering hues of red accented with gold, old money cues and nautical bits. Textured and dark, the hotel room looks romantic yet daunting.

Lady Noire

Marion Cotillard as Lady Dior in new ad campaign

A still from the Dior internet mini movie
Four part series
(First clip released May 20, 2009)

The ads:
Marion Cotillard, photographed by Peter Lindbergh, on top of the Eiffel Tower.

The film:
Directed by Olivier Dahan, of La Vie En Rose, in style of Hitchcock-esque thriller.

Cotillard, a natural choice. French and fresh from her Academy Award win.
The Eiffel Tower, one of the most iconic and romantic (albeit cliched) landmarks in the world.
The Lady Dior handbag, echoing its own intricate pattern and design with that of the wrought-iron tower.
The piece tries to imitate the golden age of film noir, with its enigmatic characters, dramatic mood lighting, intriguing plot, and gripping score.
Over the top and pricey, the finished film matches the handbag it's trying to sell.

Breaking down the ensemble of elements: 6 minutes of footage, exotic locale, rising young star, distinguished director, lackluster plot, major product placement, heavy homages to eras past, it is reminiscent of the Chanel commercial released earlier this month. It is a formula that seems to work. Somehow, the public identifies with this Lady Noire. Her luxury goods holds the key to her life.

See the full clip here.

channeling chanel

Chanel Resort Collection 2010
(Unveiled May 14, 2009)

"A cruise show on a boardwalk snaking along the Venice Lido with the sun about to set, gentle waves rolling in, and a whisper of a breeze to make sinuous shapes flutter in movement…it couldn't have been a more poetic or, given the times, more uniquely audacious Chanel moment. "I wanted to reinvent the mystique," said Karl Lagerfeld, talking about locating the collection in one of Coco Chanel's favorite summer haunts—she visited Venice for almost ten years beginning in 1919 and met Diaghilev here. But Lagerfeld might also have been speaking about reinstating the long-lost leisurely sensation of a fashion show as an exceptional one-off experience. The 350 guests reclining on sun beds in the famous white tented cabanas certainly felt privileged to be witnessing the extreme glamour of the designer's learned-but-light invocation of an important part of Coco Chanel's biography, one that was overlaid with passing allusions to Visconti, Fellini, the Venice carnival, and the city's art treasures.

"Coco on the Lido," as Lagerfeld called it, started with a tableau of figures in tricorne hats and cloaks—cover-ups for a play on girdles and bras as bathing suits. Next came Tatjana Patitz promenading in creamy lace as the picture-hatted Edwardian mother in Death in Venice, her sailor-suited son Tadzio and his two sisters in ingenue fan-pleated dresses trailing behind. From there, the sequence took off into matelot- and gondolier-inspired stripes, interpreted in long-line fine-knit cardigans and playful beachwear with funny red and white striped wedge booties. The references kept streaming out—a halterneck dress fashioned in plissé knit to suggest Fortuny, the deep Doge red and the golden lion motif of the city flag, shimmery sequins and glass embroidery made to imitate the light of Venice glancing off water.

But for all that, not to mention the silent-movie hair and makeup that strung it together, the show avoided too slavish a narrative. There were moments of silliness as well: The Chanel sunglasses recast as Venetian masquerade lorgnettes and the flashes of eroticism in the exposed corsetry spelled fun for the novelty-seeker. But the star pieces here were pure Chanel, un-themed save for their classic elegance: a long black column with a sexily tied narrow trailing scarf, a cream sequin-edged matching jacket and dress, and the unmistakable frothy silk blouses of the rue Cambon. In spite of all his extensive erudition on the art, culture, and personalities of the Venetian past, Lagerfeld concluded, "I don't use it to make costume. I was actually more interested in the café society of the thirties and the life Chanel lived here, which is gone now." [Style.com]

In this very literal sense, the boardwalk is the runway. All the signals of luxury allude to a time and place that has long been mythologized in cultural memory. The transformation of self through these non-verbal cues fit all the criteria of packaging a hypothetical and stereotypical kit of opulence. But kudos to Karl Lagerfeld, who has always excelled at this.

il faut que je leche les vitrines

tuNeues' shiny new book "Luxury Stores"
Part of their "Top of the World" Series

"Since the first hunter-gatherers, humans have sought out things of beauty and excellence—a quest epitomized by the elegant stores displayed in this sumptuous 396-page volume which is packed with hundreds of stunning photographs, as well as informative texts. Each can be considered a pinnacle of the shopping experience. With a carefully chosen selection of goods and services located all over the world, these shops do indeed cater to every whim. Combining the aesthetics of high art with service worthy of royalty, every one is an experience to treasure." [teNeue]

What is the architecture of luxury?
The structure of its image, packaging, psychologies?
Materiality transcends the individual, as fulfillment is acquired just by merely ogling...
and at a picture book only, much less the window displays themselves.
Mythologies hard at work - iconography of our times and of others.

power puff

Cigarettes as status symbol.
In China, the brand of smokes one carries/offers to others reveals a lot about their social class and situation. The marketing, the size and shape of box, the iconography, the colours, and the style of character calligraphy all contribute to build a story for each.

Hongmei, 5 RMB ($0.70) and Baisha 4 RMB ($0.60) are among the cheapest cigarettes sold in China. Very popular with the migrant worker population. No nonsense.

Popular among the working middle class is Hongtashan, 7 RMB ($1). The majority of which are manual workers. Often brands are favoured within the local region they are produced. Double Happiness, also 7 RMB ($1), is recognized as a good business brand, indicating the alliance is also a personal one.

Panda, 120 RMB ($18) was a favourite of Deng Xiaoping, as the panda symbolizes positive diplomatic relations (though China recently stopped the tradition of gifting live pandas to allied nations). Zhong Hua 45 RMB ($7) is also up there with its lavish yet solid look.

[Wallpaper* June 2009 issue]

Model as Muse

"Exploring the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion focuses on iconic models of the twentieth century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras. The exhibition, organized by historical period from 1947 to 1997, features haute couture and ready-to-wear masterworks accompanied by fashion photography and video footage of models who epitomized their epochs." (The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art)


In a nutshell:

Designers
1950s - Madame Grès, Christian Dior, and Balenciaga
1960s - Rudi Gernreich, Yves Saint Laurent, and Cardin
1970s - Giorgio di Sant’Angelo and Halston
1980s - Christian Lacroix, Versace, Comme des Garcons, and Calvin Klein
1990s - Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen

Models
1950s - Dorian Leigh, Lisa Fonssagrives, Dovima, Sunny Harnett, and Suzy Parker
1960s - Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy
1970s - Jerry Hall and Lauren Hutton
1980s - Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista
1990s - Kate Moss & Gisele Bundchen

Looks
1950s - femme fatale, utmost elegance
1960s - swinging sexiness
1970s - the athletic look
1980s - idealized glamour, dissolving boundaries between runway, editorial, and advertising
1990s - minimalist, edgy, street-inflected

It comes at an opportune time. Celebrity culture is tired. Campaigns fronted by actors are “not selling” as effectively as they did back in the late Nineties (when Hollywood became the focal point of fashion). And furthermore, it occurs at a time when it seems there is no defining designer, model, or look for this decade that is now coming to a close. Almost everything is in the form of recycling, "homages" as a euphemism...

If we don't buy shoes, the terrorists have won.

Corporations always try their hardest to predict what you will buy next.
Market segmentation & data analysis is nothing new.
But PRIZM (Potential Rating Index for ZIP Markets) makes it much more accessible & fun (despite its horridly ugly website).

There are 62 clusters based on census data, demographic surveys, and public information.
Just enter the zip code you live in (yeah...USA only for now) and the most prevalent groups are sorted and explained further.

I did a co-op work term in New York City back in 2007. I lived in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, so that makes my zip 11205.

What PRIZM said about my neighbourhood makeup:

16 - Bohemian Mix
66 - Low Rise Living
31 - Urban Achiever
39 - Urban Elder
04 - Young Digerati

"Young Digerati are tech-savvy and live in fashionable neighborhoods on the urban fringe. Affluent, highly educated, and ethnically mixed, Young Digerati communities are typically filled with trendy apartments and condos, fitness clubs and clothing boutiques, casual restaurants and all types of bars--from juice to coffee to microbrew."

I would say that summed it up pretty well.

The Scent of a Woman

A good, if not too kitschy, example of a brand’s promises manifested through film and architecture is the new commercial by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet for Chanel No. 5 featuring actress Audrey Tautou and model Travis Davenport (released today).

The story manages to allude to the universe and era of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel through the narrative of the Orient-Express and its Art Deco aesthetics. The intimate spaces of each passenger-car, the refined old-time elegance, and the bold scenery all contribute to the myth of the brand. There is also a scene of Tautou walking through the Istanbul grand bazaar, evoking the Eurasian mystique through its architecture and streetsacpes. As for the clothes, Tautou was dressed in an atemporal manner, in tune with Chanel's casual style and liking for sailors trousers. Imagery of 5 is sprinkled throughout, and ends in the famous intertwined C’s through mosaic tiles on the central train station floor, as Billie Holiday croons "I'm a Fool to Want You".

And judging from the actual scent of it, perhaps we are fools to want you, Chanel No. 5.

what i saw today

Richard Haines, designer and illustrator, observes and records on whatever he has at the time. The streets of New York is his "endless runway."

(http://designerman-whatisawtoday.blogspot.com/)

Neo-Neoclassical

Napoleon visiting the Plague House of Jaffa. Antoine-Jean Gros.

Dolce & Gabbana Fall Winter 2007. Photographed by Steven Meisel.

Ad campaigns rampage and rip a random assortment of time periods with no remorse.