Be the Death of Her

Like a horseshoe crab coming to shore to find its mate, Anita felt the need to trawl the shore of Venice Beach every 6 months. She would leave a planned dinner, walk out of an art-house film, jump out of a moving vehicle, whenever she felt the calling to get her heels covered in the salty-fresh spray in the Pacific Ocean.

Today, Anita had attended the opening party for the new Vogue Los Angeles magazine. Mingling with all the usual suspects, Karl, Anna, Anna, Giorgio, Lady and the sorts, when the tingle in her heels began again. She brushed the feeling away as she smiled at Gandy's come-on: "your face looks absolutely radiant today...". She smiled and nodded staggering to the bar asking for a Martini with extra salt edging. Her Prada pumps were driving her crazy, she knew buying a size smaller would be the death of her.

The pulsing electro-hip-hop beats were driving her crazy, it all sounded like noise to her. She wondered the dance-floor in a daze, party blacked out, spinning around dizzily, the tabloids marked her as the soul of the party as her layered tissue-dress fluttered about the room.

Thirty minutes later, without any recollection of how she had gotten there, she was wondering wading in the sea shore with her wet Pradas, feeling the refreshingly cool water on her burning heels. She wondered about, dazed, until the burning sensation and primal instinct faded away. On her way back to find a taxi, she took a shortcut through the skate-park, that due to recession cutbacks hadn't had its lighting repaired since January 2010. 

Her bright red pump got caught in a grind-rail, she lurched, the sharp red stiletto heel snapped violently, she lost her balance, her perfectly manicured hands swung out, the tissue-dress fluttered beautifully (just as the shopping assistant had said), the dress fluttered beautifully to the concrete floor... billowing lightly around her recently... alive... body.

Images by Sonny Vandevelde - Autumn/Winter 2011

Left to right, top to bottom [Martin Grant, Foaming Waters of the Errol Dam by the US National Archives, Victor & Rolf, Victor & Rolf, Moonlight by the State Library of New South Wales)

Foxtale

Ivanov Asen is a Bulgarian dandy. He is known for his refined language and love of leisurely hobbies. His favorite hobby, fox hunting, had ket him interested for many years, that is until he caught the-big-one. Around four years ago on a casual fox hunt, between sartorial blog surfing, Ivanov came across the biggest fox he had ever seen. Its was a majestic thing, larger than a wolf, with a tail that must have taken considerable shampooing and conditioning to keep its lustrous sheen. He cocked his gun, aimed with precision, shot, and brought it down.

Ivanov commissioned a collaboration between the the town's best hat maker and taxidermist. The result (as pictured) is a hat/sculpture that defies gravity. Talk of this hat soon spread through the town, not for its towering majesty,  or gleaming sheen, but rather for the occult affect on its owner. Ivanov could be found walking about at the most ungodly hours. That autumn Ivanov set many trends: blood splattered tote bags, live rodent charm bracelets (customizable), teeth-torn boxer-briefs, piglet espadrilles. In the end he took the trend search too far. Chanel dazzling red lipgloss was no longer red enough for him, so he went to his closest cosmetic store and bit of the proprietors head in order to get the perfect glossy red lip that only fresh blood can achieve.

Images by Sonny Vandevelde - Autumn/Winter 2011

Left to right [Cerruti, A street in Torshavn - Cornell University Library, Galliano, 

Galliano, Kris Van Assche]

Image close-up

Part of the Fake Sartorialist-Sonny Vandevelde collaboration

Westwood - Backstage with S.Vandevelde

I was lucky enough to meet up with backstage photographer Sonny Vandevelde last Sunday in Milan. He had an extra backstage pass to the Vivienne Westwood show, could I say no? OF COURSE NOT!

The show was fantastic from backstage, I practically got to touch each piece and see the incredible detail in each one, something that is sorely missing in a catwalk flash walk-by. Plus standing right next to Queen V was just ... yes well.

It's no wonder Sonny gets such dynamic photos out of the models. He has a really good connection with them and seems to put them at ease or into manic excitement with a mere expression.

Preen

The most fascinating thing about the whole backstage experience was the very 'hands-on' treatment of all the models. They truly become walking-talking-living dolls that are dressed, made up, repositioned, re-applied, tucked in, zipped up, patted down, fluffed up.

4 Images, 1 Hour - Leg Brace

I have been taking a lot of time creating highly detailed images of late. I really miss those early days of the Fake Sartorialist and the speed creation, on the fly, decisions that I made in images. So in an attempt to stimulate the same kind of response I've created a small challenge for myself.

I give over my library of images that Sonny Vandevelde took during the A/W 2011 shows to a friend. They can then select any four images from the 33646 available. I am then tasked with spending an hour to create a final image.

So I have created the first of the edition. You might need to do a bit of hunting with the source images below to see where I've inserted everything. The video shows the entire 1hr process in 1min.

Images by Sonny Vandevelde - Autumn/Winter 2011

Left to right [Lanvin, Proenza, Isabel Marant, Isabel Marant]

On Future Projects

Updates have been rather slow over the last couple of months. So I've finally set down some time to clarify what I'll be doing over the next few months, and what you can expect from my work.

Firstly, I have received a UNESCO Grant to work on a project (Space Shift) at the Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistolleto so I'll be flying off to Italy mid-June. It's a pretty intense 4 months, so posts will likely stop completely from June-October. But there is something else to look forward to:

Secondly, I have teamed up with the uber-talented backstage fashion photographer Sonny Vandervelde to create work for a possible exhibition later this year. For the next month I will be working exclusively with Sonny's 300Gb of Autumn/Winter 2011 photos. Thanks to Sonny's incredible images, these collages are very high-resolution, incredibly detailed and exploding with colour. So these images really will have to be seen in person to get the full effect.

(Click image for larger view)

Images by Sonny Vandevelde - Autumn/Winter 2011

Left to right [Thierry Mugler, Ermenegildo Zenga, Burberry, Jean Paul Gaultier, Givenchy, Wooyoungmi Location Shot, McQueen Location Shot, Dries Van Noten Location Shot]

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