Patrick Demarchelier
What I like about the work of Patrick is that even though his work is done in black and white, he focuses on other elements involved in the composition and makes the work more powerful. What I found interesting in this specific photograph done for ARTBOOK is the fact that a very strong contra between the two figures in the photo appears. I think that it’s interesting that a model is presented in a very feminine dress as well as the make up and hairstyle is being placed next to a bull which is standing without having any emotions present. What connects the two is the pose of the model that is quite aggressive and dynamic. Like that the photographer created a sense of a conflict between the two. What he also did is he switched the roles between the two characters since a bull is always considered to be the aggressive one, while here it’s the opposite.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier is one of the most important American street photographer, I already have some more or less understanding from the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier”, I was fascinated by her photos, but the reason makes me interested in her work was the story behind it. The image of the photographer in people's mind should be has really strong personality, professional skills and maybe some social skills, but it’s unbelievable if someone tells me those photos were taken by a person who worked for 40 years as a nanny. After I watched the documentary, I was wondering how come someone has such a mysterious life! the In the interview from her ex-employee, I found out she does has a strong personality, maybe too strong to get accepted. To be honest, I never think she’s a good nanny, but she is a excellent photographer, she was so crazy about taking pictures, she likes to camera to catch the movement and every single details from the city, I can feel those body language and when I look at some photos I still can feel the scenes at that moment.
Nick Knight
Nick Knight is known for being very experimental and even though producing work that was quite commercial, he managed to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. He often looked at matters that were considered controversial such as racism , disability, ageism and others. I think that something that attracted me in his work the most is the alien look that he often gives to his models. For example, this portrait is a very successful example of his work because the colours the colours of the face blend into the background as well as each other making it very smooth and surreal. At the same time, the image doesn’t constrain to the standards of beauty often required in this type of photography.
Rene Gruau
Rene Gruau was in his time one of the most influential fashion illustrators in the world, he did a lot of classic and famous illustrations for Christian Dior. In the mid-1930s, René met Christian Dior, and the two formed a deep friendship, so much so that he later became one of the most important figures in establishing Dior style. The reason I like his illustrations is because he has very simple but elegance style, a few simple line can define garment's shape perfectly. John Galliano was inspired by his illustrations for Dior, so in 2011, he made a collection to salute.
Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle was a French American artist, she also was one of the earliest feminisms artist In some ways, her paintings look like children’s work. I think this adds an interesting dimension into her works. She sometimes also like to add a few words in her paintings as these give context to the work and makes the view think. Unfortunately, she got rapped by her father when she was a child, this experience cost her mental problem in she later year, so she created a female sculpture named “Nana”. Niki de Saint Phalle also created a special way to made paintings. She used shoot-gun to shoot a bag of pigment on canvas. In 2018, the creative director of Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri added her work into spring collection.
Howard Tangye
Howard Tangye is an Australian illustrator who lives in London now. The reason I like his work is because he combine some live drawing with illustration. He used a lot of time to draw the details of humans face, but he just using a few very simple line to define the body and the garment on top. Most of time he used white to represent garment, against the beige background, it shows the texture and details very clearly.
Gieves & Hawkes
Gieves & Hawkes are very famous bespoken tailoring brand in the world, they supply garments for royal family. I was really curious about their bespoke service, so I went to their store at Savile Row to do some research. I kindly asked the staff in that store see if I can meet one of the tailor and talk to him, she refused me politely, but I do got some information, like what's the price, how long dose it took and what the process for bespoke. I like the way the really classic and delicate tailoring suit. This brand has really strong connection with my discipline in BA.
Library Research
During this library research, I found out an artist who has quite strong connection with the project I am doing now. The name of this artists is Marilyn Minter. She is an American photographer and artist. Marilyn's photography works have the illusion of painting but her paintings are realistic. She pays attention to the parts of the female body in a very unique way, she likes to use female's private part as expression of some object and photographs the female eyes, lips and shoes through the refraction of water marks. Exaggerated abstract effect. People can tell her personality and style from her photography works, it's a little bit extreme, but obviously she she is showing her feminism in this way. The reason I found her work can really attract attention from me is because she redefine the meaning of beauty, or we can say she broke the boundaries between pretty and dirty. Under her camera, one part of body could be pretty and dirty at the same time. Some of the affection she used in her work like blurry the background or enlarge the details of human body all makes me feel the story behind this phots or paintings.
Haas Brothers
In Haas Brothers's works, I feel the power of handmade. In some way, I found a lot of common between their works and my discipline. In this sculpture, I like the way they broke the boundary between smooth and rough area. I can feel the contrast between two different material, the texture of metal just like fluid liquid, for me this sculpture is a really good piece of decoration.
John Galliano
John Galliano is a British designer, he was creative director of Christian Dior. He also is one of my favourite designers. In some ways, I think John Galliano wanted to be an actor because he always plays a part in every single one of his catwalk shows. At the end of the show, he will dress up to become a character to match his design. He has made so many changes just to Dior’s New Look, he added a lot of drama and romance elements into Dior. I think he is very brave, because he is never afraid of using exaggerated design in his works, he created a new Dior lady elements: Daring and elegance can be exist at the same time.He also know as deconstruction master
David Lachapelle
As an American commercial photographer David Lachapelle like to added absurdity and sense of humour into his work. I felt there were attractive story behind each of his photos. his works inspired me a lot, I always like add some my personality into my work. His works makes me felt unrealistic and dreamy. He combined many elements which people hardly to find common. When I look at his work, I felt I was reading a comic book, it has really strong colour. Some people may find uncomfortable but I am extremely curious about the meaning of those photos.
Christian Dior
Christian Dior is a well known French brand which I’ve chosen to write about because I do love their style, history and the feeling the brand conveys. In this essay I will go through the evolution of Christian Dior in recent years. I found this very interesting and dramatic, because as a luxury fashion brand, they do change creative directors fairly often. However, the spirit of this brand hasn't changed at all. When Mr. Dior starting his business, he created lots of classic looks, like the New Look, the H-line, the Y-line etc. He set the standard for every single head designer after he passed away. They all followed Mr. Dior’s consistent pursuit of high quality.They added their own interpretation of the brand on the basis of the original and were constantly innovating and maintaining their position as trend leaders and visionaries amongst other luxury brands.
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani could be one of the most important brands for women and menswear, even couture, Mr.Armani using his own understanding to define elegance of female. In last century, Mr.Armani invented Power suit and it becomes his signature. I like his style, very clam and classic, he also known as one of the best tailor for mens suit. He doesn't like to make exaggerate to show his personality, the fabric he used for his design were very costly and comfortable, the combination of runway interior design and background music were perfectly matching with each other.
Francesco Merletti
Francesco Merletti is an Italian illustrator. I was really into this illustration, I found the contrast between the details of the woman's face and the general silhouette of garment is really interesting. in this illustration, he did very detail drawing of the skin part, like face and neck, he used beautiful and fluid lines to define the structure of face. however, in the the meantime, he didn't focus on the details of garment at all. he just using pink and red to tell us what she was wearing, a hat, a dress and gloves. he controlled the proportion very well. if he completely drawing the details of garment, it may make s me feel too much.
Yves Saint Laurent
The smocking suit could be Yves Saint Laurent’s signature style, I really like the shape and the pattern cutting of smocking suit, it can show women’s body figure really well. Under his design, those women who wearing suit become powerful but still classic and elegance. His designs gives me a lot of inspiration. As I know, he can do really good fashion illustration, just using a few simple lines, a piece of classic suit appears on the paper. I do like Hedi Slimane’s designs, he has very strong personal style and it suits well, he created so many popular looks, like skinny jeans, shredded jeans. He also change the label of Yves Saints Laurent, he removed “Yves”. His designs gives me a lot of inspiration