Fashion Book Friday: Men in Black by John Harvey

This is my archive of fashion related books. Most of them are in English, but many are not. Some are new, but many are real finds. Depends on the topic, really...

    Here is another find from Brazil, so, while it was originally written in English, my edition is in Portuguese.
     Menswear usually takes a backseat in fashion studies, and rarely makes it out of the general introductory type of book. Which makes this little gem all the more special.
     It is almost entirely dedicated to menswear, to the preponderance of black in male clothing, to be

 precise.

   John Harvey looks at how the nineteenth-century gentleman dresses himself almost entirely in black, at a time whe women prefer strong or bright  colours (such as in this scene by Renoir) and follows the "biography" of Black since the Middle Ages (when it meant  renouncing rather than following fashion)  into the Renaissance, when it went mainstream for the first time in different, rather contradictory contexts: at the (very Catholic) Spanish court, where it came to symbolise serenity and sobriety, and among the members of the new Protestant creed, where it came to mean virtue and renouncing of vanity. Both dressed black from head to toe, if from different motivations. Both intellectuals and the new, rising merchant class favour black, to distinguish themselves form courtiers and peasants (below Thomas Cromwell, his fur collar and gold ring hint not-so-subtly that black does not have to be humble at all).

     Richly and extensively sourced and illustrated, Men in Black is actually a cultural history of the colour black in Europe in the last 600 years or so. John Harvey looks at Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ruskin and quite extensively at Dickens, and illustrates his findings with a beautiful collection of images, mostly portraits, but also genre scenes and book illustrations. Othello and Dickens´s Victorian gentleman are followed by twentieth-century wearers of black, who are at least as contradictory as their Renaissance counterparts: Fascist organisations (called Blackshirts for a reason) prefer black (or similar dark colours), but also do countercultures, where the lack of colour, symbolised by black, becomes the essence of rebellion (Marlon Brando in the photo below, illustrates this very well).

   Superbly written, with a great sense of humour, an unique perspective on a little written-about topic, especially outside of academia, it is actually one of my favourites. Only if the pictures where a little clearer. I don´t know if it is a problem of this particular edition, but the otherwise excellent illustrations are relatively small, black and white and slightly blurry... A pity, really.

                    Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012)

Birthday. 1942

    Dorothea Tanning´s birthday was, in fact, this past Saturday, August 25. She produced some of my favourite paintings and it´s a pity she isn´t better known. (Also, since The Guardian claimed rather bizarrly in a recent article that Lee Miller was the "lone woman within the surrealist scene" I guess I`ll be posting about some of them here. Lee Miller is amazing, her photography hypnotising and moving, but there were literally dozens of women involved in some degree with the "surrealist scene". Rant over.)

Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 1943

       The paintings above are from the mid-40s, her first splash of popularity when she lived and worked in New York (she was born in Galesburg, Illinois, which according to Wikipedia had about 22.000 inhabitants at the time). Both are typical of the mood in her art at the time, dreamy, suggestive, an illusion of soft, undulating movement about to leave the frame.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1945

It was also there that she met her future husband, Max Ernst,  who introduced her "officially" into the surrealist group. The pair later moved to Arizona and then to France. They remained married until Ernst`s death. The painting on the left was her contribution to a Hollywood artistic competition for the otherwise unremarkable The Private Affairs of Bel Ami. Many contemporary artists took part, among them Ernst, Dali, Paul Delvaux or Leonora Carrington (Ernst won).
    In later decades, her paintings became increasingly abstract, although she always maintained the same aura of sensuality and an elegant, almost suggestive palette.

Below are two of her paintings on the same topics, motherhood, that show her evolution quite well: Maternity from 1946 on the left and Blue Mum from 1994 on the right

Fashion Book Friday: O espiritu das roupas. A moda no século dezenove. (The Spirit of Clothes. Fashion in the Nineteenth Century) by Gilda de Mello e Souza

 

This is my archive of fashion related books. Most of them are in English, but many are not. Some are new, but many are real finds. Depends on the topic, really...

I bought this little book on a whim on a holiday in Brazil, and I´m very glad I did. While there are no great names, no celebrities or famous designers on its pages, the concept of fashion it offers is both unique and insightful. The author, a philosophy and literature professor from Brazil, treats fashion as a minor art (one chapter is actually called "Fashion as Art") that reflects and takes part in architectural, social, economical developments of the society it exists in (picture below)

       She looks at how fashion defines divisions of gender and class, always following the newest

technological developments, how fashion effectively becomes an expression of a "female culture" - at the same time as women are expulsed from the public and working spaces, defined by then as exclusively male, and men claim to lose all interest in "fashion" (the slower pace of change in male clothing, loss of all colour from male dress etc - at the same time as technical progress made more and new colours available for the textile industry).  Fashion, or the indulgence in it, functions here also as a signifier of social and economic inequality between the sexes (see illustration on the left). Quotations from contemporary literature, mainly Machado de Assis,  support her theory. 

The book´s focus is mostly on international fashion, but as an uniquely Brazilian example, she looks at rich provincial landowners, and how their attitude to clothes changed: throughout most of the century, wealth was never shown through clothes or furniture (the couple on the left, ca. 1870), even if the fortune, consisting of land, cattle and (until 1888) slaves. The latter couple, ca 1900, belong to a generation that begins to flaunt their wealth through clothing and generally consumption, a general change in attitudes.
Mind you, this by no means a coffee table books. Although there is a whole gallery of pictures at the back, they are all black and white, sometimes even grainy, as if gone through too many photocopiers (first edition was in 1987). In fact, my only peeve are the pictures: while there is an extensive and excellent annotations corpus in the book, I didn´t find a list of illustration, and the captions themselves are unhelpful, especially in the case of painting.
Still, if you like to read an analysis of fashion on the crossroads between aesthetics and social issues, this is the book.  Pity it hasn´t been translated apparently.
The ISBN is 85-85095-24-5

Fashion Book Friday: Schulze-Varell. Architekt der Mode (Schulze-Varell. Architect of Fashion)

This is my archive of fashion related books. Most of them are in English, but many are not. Some are new, but many are real finds. Depends on the topic, really...

Fashion is a curious business. We all participate in it to some extent, as we all need to dress, there are constantly new things in the shops, but this same activity and hectic often implies the memory span of a fruit fly. As soon as something is out of the shops, it might as well as not exist, and former prodigies are completely forgotten. This week´s book is about such a forgotten prodigy, the German Heinz Schulze-Varell.
Mode ist ein kurioses Ding. Wir sind alle zu einem gewissen Grad daran beteiligt, wir brauchen ja alle Kleidung, es gibt ständig neue Dinge in den Läden, aber die gleiche Aktivität und Hektik hat oft das Erinnerungsvermögen einer Fruchtfliege zufolge. Sobald etwas aus den Läden verschwindet, ist es, als ob es nie existiert hätte, und ehemalige Wunderkinder sind völlig in Vergessenheit geraten. Dieses Buch handelt von einem so vergessenen Wunderkind, dem Deutschen Heinz Schulze-Varell.
       Born in Berlin, he started his career at Hermann Gerson, easily the poshest, most exclusive fashion house in Berlin (more books on Berlin in the Twenties to come!), where he also met, and later

the glamourous couple

 married, Margarethe Kickler, called Kiki, granddaughter of architect Ernst Bandel (best known for this ). She was a fashion illustrator, a much more glamorous profession at the time than a model, and became her husbands muse/model/dressform.

       Geboren in Berlin, begann er seine Karriere bei Hermann Gerson, dem wohl vornehmsten und exklusivsten Modehaus in Berlin (weitere Bücher über Berlin in den zwanziger Jahren kommen noch!), wo er auch Margarethe Kickler, genannt Kiki, kennenlernte, die er später heiratete. Enkelin des Architekten Ernst Bandel (am besten bekannt für das Hermannsdenkmal). Sie war eine Modeillustratorin, damals ein viel glamouröserer Beruf als Modeln, und später wurde sie für ihren Mann Muse / Model / Schneiderbüste.

       Later, he worked for Gerson´s competitor, but after the Nazis came to power, his Jewish boss was forced to give up his business, and Schulze-Varell opened his own salon in Berlin (he had apparently been offered to buy his former employer out for cheap, as the so-called Aryanization, but refused. He said it felt like grave robbing.) He quickly became established as an elegant, does-not-just-copy-Paris address in Berlin, but this in itself brought problems: he was not a Nazi sympathiser, but neither was he prepared to leave everything behind and go in exile. A difficult balance was needed, avoiding demostrations of party loyalty or dressing the

Art Deco chic, 1934

wives of the new Nazi elite, but at the same time not doing anything that might seem provokative. It didn´t always work, he very narrowly avoided being sent off to Stalingrad as a punishment for insubordination, but protection from film stars (who, in turn, were key to the Nazi propaganda machine) helped him stay in Berlin until the end of the war.
       Später arbeitete er für Gersons Konkurrenz, aber nach der Machtergreifung durch die Nazis musste sein jüdischer Chef sein Geschäft aufgeben, und Schulze-Varell eröffnete seinen eigenen Salon in Berlin (anscheinend war ihm das Geschäft seines früheren Arbeitgebers im Rahmen von "Arisierungsmaßnahmen" billig angeboten worden, aber lehnte ab. Er sagte, es käme ihm wie Leichenfledderei vor). Er etablierte sich schnell als eine elegante, Kopiert-nicht-bloß-Paris-Adresse in Berlin, aber das brachte wiederum Probleme: Er war kein Nazisympathisant, aber er war auch nicht bereit, alles hinzuschmeißsen und ins Exil zu gehen. Das erforderte eine schwierige Balance, einerseits, um die Loyalitätsbekundungen zu vermeiden oder den Frauen der neuen Nazi-Elite auszuweichen, aber gleichzeitig nichts zu tun, was die Machthaber zu sehr reizen könnte. Es funktionierte nicht immer, um ein Haar wäre er als Strafe für Ungehorsam nach Stalingrad eingezogen worden, und nur die Protektion von Filmstars (die wiederum eine Schlüsselrolle in der Nazi-Propagandamaschine hatten) half ihm, bis zum Ende des Krieges in Berlin zu bleiben.

  After the war, he re-opened in Munich. The picture on the left is an example of the first post-war collections: warm, and made out of whatever was at hand, in this case, uniforms (uniforms were actually banned by the allies, but seeing the general shortage of clothing and fabrics, they ignored civilian clothing made out of uniforms (or even flags), as long as all Nazi insignia had been removed). He remained in Munich until his death in 1985.

 Nach dem Krieg öffnete er sein Salon in München wieder. Das Bild links ist ein Beispiel für die ersten Nachkriegskollektionen: warm und aus dem gemacht, was gerade zur Hand war, in diesem Fall Uniformen (Uniformen wurden eigentlich von den Alliierten verboten, aber wegen des allgemeinen Mangels an Kleidung und Stoffen  ignorierten sie  aus Uniformen (oder sogar Fahnen) gefertigte Zivilkleidung, solange alle Nazisymbolen entfernt worden waren). Er blieb bis zu seinem Tod 1985 in München.


The book, however, in not particularly heavy on text, it is rather a catalogue of his work from the earliest designs under his own name, such as the dress above, to the sketches for his last collection 1985, the year of his death. Some examples are below. 
 Das Buch  ist  jedoch nicht gerade textlastig, es ist vielmehr ein Katalog seines Werkes, von den frühesten Entwürfen unter seinem eigenen Namen, wie das Kleid oben, bis zu den Skizzen für seine letzte Kollektion 1985, seinem Todesjahr. Ein paar Beispiele unten.

Experimental 50s design: wool fringe cape.

 

evening gown, 1962

 

sketch from his last collection, 1985

flower child, 1972 (the flowers are red plastic)

It is very much out of print (edited in 1991) but if you want to try your luck, the ISBN is 3-925835-86-5.  
Es ist natürlich vergriffen (herausgegeben 1991), aber wer sein Glück versuchen möchte, die ist ISBN 3-925835-86-5.

Fashion Book Friday: Chanel. The Couturiere at Work by Amy De La Haye

This is my archive of fashion related books. Most of them are in English, but many are not. Some are new, but many are real finds. Depends on the topic, really...

       When I was looking for a book about Chanel, I wanted one that would concentrate specifically on Coco´s work (rather than on the entire House of Chanel) and this book, first published in 1995, turned out to be just it. 

  It begins by tracing whatever little is known about her childhood and her beginnings in the fashion business. While today she is mainly associated with the roaring twenties, she in fact open her first shop (with financial help from her lover) around 1908 and quicky became known as the purveyor of excentrically, even radically simple hats and later clothes. The cartoon on the left is from 1914 and gives an idea about her popularity (and reputation) before the Great War. 
    She went main stream around 1917, when her simply cut, made with simple materials, jersey suits, sold in boutiques in sea side resorts, first Deauville, later Biarritz, hit the nerve of the times and her designs began appearing in fashionable magazines in Europe and America.  
       

     In the following decades, Coco became one of the biggest designers in France and her clothes, while still simple in their overall style, began using luxurious materials, such as furs, silks, laces or hand embroidery, that often covered the entire surface of the dress. She also launched her first (and still most popular) perfume, Nr 5, in collaboration with the incredibly talented Russian-French perfumer Ernest Beaux. An exclusive line of fake jewellery followed (she is wearing several pieces in the photo on the right), it was the first time that a designer managed to give fake jewels the same prestige real ones would have. In those busy years, she also began collaborating with theatre (in the picture below are her wonderfully archaic looking costumes for Jean Cocteau´s version of Antigone) and Hollywood, although she only made costumes for three movies, as she reportedly felt too

constrained by the working conditions she encountered (such as actresses refusing to be told by her how exactly to dress, and she herself refusing to follow the actresses´ lead).
    The simple lines of twenties´ fashion meant it was easy to mass produce copies (something the Chanel herself encourages rather than blocked), so that she quickly became a household name to people who would never be able to afford a Chanel original, but gladly bought a copy.
   All was not well, however. Apart from her style or glamour, Chanel was also (in)famous for low pay and bad working conditions - she even was reported to say that her "girls" could always get themselves lovers if they wanted more money. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, her house was rocked by a massive strike in 1936. She intially refused to accept the demands, but finally relented after it became clear that otherwise she might not be able to produce and present the next collection.

  Technically, Chanel was not "at work" between 1940 and 1953, so this books deals with this entire period in a few sentences - so, if you are interested in the often discussed question of her assumed collaboration with the Nazis in occupied Paris, you won´t find anything here. 
      Her return in 1953 produced her probably most famous piece, the "Chanel suit" (on the right), that has since been produced in hundreds of variations, thousands if you count the copies. The revolutionary character of this relaxed yet luxurious outfit becomes clear if you compare it to the hyper-feminine creations presented at the time by her (male) colleagues like Christian Dior or Marcel Rochas (Rochas is already on this blog, Dior is coming up). She mantained an iron grip on her house until her death in 1971 and became probably the most famous name in fashion in her century, even when her creations were becoming rather something for the "mature set" - Chanel famously rejected both the miniskirt and pants for women. It remained a task for her successor, Karl Lagerfeld, to integrate pants into the Chanel look.   

 The final chapter looks at how Lagerfeld kept her signature style always up to date through the 80´s and 90´s, using new materials, like jeans or leather, or cuts - trousers, shorts, tops. It always remained very much Chanel (on the left, Nadja Auermann models a "versacefied" early 90´s version).


So, if you are interested in Mademoiselle herself and can accept a rather cursory look at Karl the Great´s work, this is definitely worth it.

 

                                                 Ilya

   
       Sorry for the long silence, things got in the way. Anyway, yesterday was the birthday of Ilya Repin (1844-1930), so why not write a post about him. After all, even if you are not terribly interested in Russian art (especially if you are not), his paintings are probably the ones you might have seen anyway (all sources: Wikimedia).

This for example

   And although his paintings made him famous almost immediately, they also almost inevitably caused a scandal. Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-73) caused a sensation for depicting a "vulgar" a "low" subject matter in a monumental, "epic" setting, although it did strike a nerve and became the foundation of his career as a painter.

or this.

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16th, 1581 (1885) on the other hand, is easily the most scandalous painting in Russian history. Developed and painted under the impression left by the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, it shows the moment after Ivan the Terrible killed his own son in a fit of rage, the tsar cradling the dead body of his eldest child (while we have no actual documental proof of how exactly the prince died, there are many contemporary records, both Russian and by foreign diplomats, that show that there was in fact a rumour in Moscow that the Tsar had killed his own son with a blow on the head). The bloodied image of the dead prince and the scared, crazed expression on the tsar´s face caused such a shock with contemporary audiences that it was immediately officially prohibited by tsar Alexander III, even if only for a few years. It has since become the favourite hate object of different conservative groups - who believe that it demeans royal, and therefore state, authority, and it has repeatedly been vandalised - the last time just this year.

   Although Repin is best known for his historical and genre paintings, he also excelled at portraits that captured the sitter´s grace, individuality and emotional state, such as this portrait of  the composer Modest Mussorgsky, painted just a few days before his death in 1881. His glance, attentive and intelligent in spite of the visibly grave illness, somehow shows his unique sensibility more than any photography ever could.

I have to admit though that my favourite painting is this: Sadko (1874). Painted as a reaction to the impressionists, whom he found technically interesting but lacking substance, it shows a scene from the legends about Sadko, a Sindbad-like character. Sadko, a sea merchant, winds up at the Sea Kings´s court, and observes a procession of the court ladies. Funnily enough, some critics found that Sadko, too, was lacking substance, narrative or artistic, but for me, this painting is pure magic. Seen "live", it does indeed give the impression of being under water, a sensation completely lost in reproduction, and standing in front of it, you do feel transported for a moment into this magic dimension, that feels so real and at the same time so phantastic. Art not even trying to imitate life, rather inventing its own dimensions of meaning.