Saturday, January 30, 2010

La Belle Epoque

The Italian Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was one of the and most successful portraitist of the Belle Epoque and one of his best known paintings is the "Marchesa Luisa Casati, with a Greyhound" (1908).

And because John Galliano is a great admirer of Boldini and especially of this painting he ordered that the campaign for his new perfume should be a reference to the Marchesa Casati and the spirit of the Belle Epoque.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Oriental Dreams

In the Vogue Italy appeared in May 2009 this great editorial by Steven Meisel. The Russian model Sasha Pivovarova presented John Galliano’s Spring/Summer collection.


With his photos Meisel refers not only to oriental fashion but rather to oriental paintings of the 19th and early 20th century and above all the famous odalisques by Henri Matisse (1869- 1954).

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Pocahontas

Annie Leibovitz is well known for her "Disney Dream Portrait Series" where different stars are posing as Disney fantasy heroines. Here it’s Jessica Biel as Pocahontas with the title "Where Dreams Run Free".

To me it’s not only a simple quotation of the Disney movie, it matches much more the pretension of Leibovitz to tell stories, to be narrative. There’s not only a model running trough the woods, it’s a whole legend, which is told.