Agyness Deyn for Uniqlo

Agyness Deyn has been hired to be the face of Jil Sander's line for Uniqlo, the photos above are previews that will be used in select magazines in the US and UK. I actually don't love the clothes but the pictures themselves are nice, and Deyn looks great. The campaign will feature Deyn alongside Halle Berry's boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry. I guess in this picture they figured that the clothes aren't that cute and they might as well take the "Abercrombie and Fitch" method of advertising and use nude, attractive, suggestive model. Is that seriously a pink terry cloth short sleeved zip up they are trying to sell? I think I owned that same item, but I was 11. And clearly had great taste. I also shopped at Abercrombie... Maybe they actually are trying to appeal to that audience?

Photoshop Workshop!

Are you interested in learning how to distort Jessica Alba from the pretty girl on the left to the demon on the right?
Just kidding- after this workshop you won't do such a terrible, obvious job.

Photoshop for Photographers Workshop
Wednesday, April 15th, 3:00-6:00 pm
Media Cloisters

Update:
Digital Photography Workshop
Wednesday, April 22nd, 3:00-6:00 pm
Rocky 104

led by Veteran Photographer and Journalist Dmitri Kasterine
To sign up, please email dmitri@kasterine.com

This is open to ALL students, not just Contrast members or Photographers. No prior experience using photoshop is necessary.

I am obsessed with Jourdan Dunn

The much anticipated May 09 issue of Vogue US is here. Shot by Steven Meisel it features models: Liya Kebede, Natalia Vodianova, Anna Jagodzinska, Isabeli Fontana, Lara Stone, Jourdan Dunn, Raquel Zimmermann, Caroline Trentini and Natasha Poly. Can we talk for a second about how unbelievably stunning Jourdan Dunn is? I mean, she is surrounded by all of these beautiful models and my eye goes directly to her. This is what Tyra is always talking about on ANTM, standing out in a crowd, smiling with your eyes. The english model has walked for Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Jean Paul Gaultier couture shows in Paris as well as appeared alongside Naomi Campbell and Iman in Vogue Italia's all black issue.

Creating Constructs

Fashion magazine's undeniably follow a pattern for their cover. Closeup of a pretty actress/model, hair blowing, face photoshopped to eerie perfection, typically blond (especially for teen magazines) and caucasian (although Vogue has actually had three african american women this year on the cover!). To exemplify this point, here is Vogue's January cover:
Anne Hathaway is beautiful, I want to become a redhead, and have a stylish New Year. This sounds great. Unfortunately though, this formula for a magazine cover has become so uninteresting that almost none of them are eyecatching anymore. The beautiful woment that they choose for the cover appear as unhuman clones of this vision for uniform, ideal beauty. The Moment, New York Times Style Blog, recently posted a picture of the cover of Vogue from January, 1950. In looking at this image, it seems like in the past 59 years, has the magazine industry has become less progressive and less artistic.

Erwin Blumenthal’s photograph on Vogue’s cover in January 1950.

This cover includes Jean Patchett’s beauty mark, mouth, eye, brow and nose. This reduction is artistic, alluring, and unique- something many covers today are missing.

Stars Sans Fards

The photos have leaked from the April issue of French Elle which features Model Herzigova, 36, and actresses Marceau, 42, and Bellucci, 44, all without makeup and, perhaps even more revealing, all entirely without Photoshopping or retouching of any kind. The mag's headline "Stars Sans Fards" translates to “without rouge/makeup,” but it's a French saying that also suggests a sense of “openness.” French Elle's pictorial seems to actually to celebrate the organic beauty of these famous faces (even though these women are all exceptionally beautiful to begin with).

Mild West

German Vogue's March 09 fashion spread was inspired by Southwestern Americana... Bondage? Regardless, these are beautiful photographs.

Mild West Shot
Photographer: Greg Kadel
Model: Toni Garrn
Stylist: Katie Mossman

lucky bitch

I'm not usually one for little dogs, but I'm in love with the life of Chichy Cappello, beloved pup of fashion photographer Kenneth Cappello. He's created a blog documenting her charmed life. Look, she's just chilling with James McAvoy. Never have I been more jealous of a dog.

Check out Chichy's blog here and Kenneth's blog here

Welcome back!

Oh HEY friends-- welcome back! Hope your spring break was epic in the best way possible, and that you're psyched to be back: only basically two more months left in the semester, crazzzy.

Over break I managed to get my hands on a copy of LOVE magazine (the one I kept on yabbing on about), and besides the fact it weighs a ton, it's quite a fun read. The first half of the issue is set up as an A to Z, filled with clothes, designers, models, artists, and actors, and the second half has more fleshed out articles about everyone from Iggy Pop, Lily Allen, Kelly Brook and Angelica Huston, to articles on Courtney Love, up and coming singers, and a photoshoot of Kate Moss' boobs (well, not quite, but basically. Katie Grand obviously loves the ta-tas, becuase there's a good amount of them throughout the mag). It's interesting in that a lot of the people featured aren't necessarily new "it" celebs, quite a few of them have been around for a while. It's obvious that everyone involved had a lot of fun putting the issue together, it comes through in the playful and upbeat content and layout. While I might not be head over heels in love with it, I'm definitely quite smitten.

Here are a couple of things I LOVEd:

- The use of Page Three girls for a photo entry on t-shirts

-The silver Hogan bag ... that I can only seem to find a photo of in gold:


-The photos: they're big, they're glossy, they're lush, and they just look so good. ex:




-Glenn Obrien (editorial director of Interview magazine): "If you love someone set them free. And if they don't come back, hunt them down and kill them."

-Kelly Brook: from pin-up model, to West End actress. She was considered too curvy to be a high-end fashion model, but she definitely rocks the voluptuous sexy:




-The fact that Marc Jacob's favourite love song is "You Are My Sunshine."


-Model Oluchi Onweagba, who I wasn't familiar with before-- she's gorgeous:



... and the list could go on... but this is starting to get a bit out of control.




images via www.thefashioncult.com, models.com,

See That Pretty Girl in the Mirror There

Let's not pretend for a second that there's not room in my little gay heart for fashion, celebrities AND musical revivals. Check out this great Vanity Fair spread, in honor of the recently incarnated West Side Story, with cameos by J.Lo, Camilla Belle, and others. There's been a slew of these photographic recreations of late, especially in VF, but until the cast of GG starts fight-dancing through the halls of Pencey Prep in their new musical revue, 'The Trust Fund Follies', I'll take a little retro glam where I can get it.

Famous Photos

Emma Roberts.... Audrey Hepburn?

Glamour featured remakes of famous photos in their current issue including Lindsey Lohan as Madonna, Camilla Belle as Mary Tyler Moore, Alexis Bledel as Rosie the Riveter, Alicia Keys as Michelle Obama, Elisha Cuthbert as Brandi Chastain, Chanel Iman as Althea Gibson and more!!!

From Pants to Portraits

Most of us know Hedi Slimane for his minimalist design sense, but lately he's also become quite the shutterbug, shooting several ad campaigns in New York, L.A., London and Paris. He also maintains a personal photoblog of black & white shots. Favorite subjects include: cigarettes, skinny punk boys, suburban sprawl and celebrities. Clearly, Hedi has been reading my FB profile.

A Magazine Minus Paper

If your subscriptions are stalled and blogs are boring you, check out Contributing Editor, an online magazine organized by Matthew Edelstein, former fashion director at Details. Since leaving the Conde Nast mag, Edelstein has (probably presciently) started investing a lot of time in online venues. The result is a great mix of fresh photography and smart writing with frequent updates. Check out Tyler Riggs trip into Graceland for starters.

Bar Rafaeli

This is a name you will probably be hearing a lot of in the future. The Israeli model was just featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The model is currently dating Leonardo DiCaprio and hopes to act in the future. In these pictures she seems more like a faion model than a SI model..

Recycled Jewelry

Christian Diehl is a German artist who makes all of her jewelry out of recycled materials. She was trained as an architect and on her website (linked above) she shows her photography.

LOOKBOOK

The web site, http://lookbook.nu/, is a Sartorialist-esque style site where you can send in pictures and other members can 'hype' them or otherwise comment on them. As another blogger put it "The premise of the site is that members can join and post a portfolio of their 'looks'--photographic compositions that range from the simple self-clicked portrait to the very artistic."

This site is seriously addictive, but also it's refreshing to see some member-driven styles there; people seem to be coming from all over the world and showing things they love with the rest of us.

We don't have a problem with that.

ps. Have a favourite look/accesory/fashion icon/worthy website? Send in it in! We accept any input/photos/anything/everything!

Photoshopped?

Kate Winslet has always prided herself on being comfortable in her untraditional Hollywood body type. She berated GQ for significantly editing her body for their cover several years ago, but denies that any editing happened in these photos.

What do you think?

Fashion Photography. Juergen Teller.

Juergen Teller is somewhat of a controversial figure in the fashion world. New York Magazine says that he "has little patience for most fashion photography. It’s done “by gay people finding women sexy.” he says".

Also, none (none) of his photographs are retouched or airbrushed; which definitely sets him apart form the rest.

Whether you like him or hate him, he has interesting stuff to say and interesting stuff to show; he has also influenced current fashion photography (think American Apparel) in a profound way.

Full article here http://nymag.com/fashion/08/fall/49257/