2009
10.08
10.08
A Man Named Sun
just a kid trying to warhol the world .
2009
10.08
10.08
Text Via NY Times:
Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.
His death was announced by Peter MacGill, his friend and representative.
Mr. Penn’s talent for picturing his subjects with compositional clarity and economy earned him the widespread admiration of readers of Vogue during his long association with the magazine, beginning in 1943. It also brought him recognition in the art world; his photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries and are prized by collectors.
His long career at Vogue spanned a number of radical transformations in fashion and its depiction, but his style remained remarkably constant. Imbued with calm and decorum, his photographs often seemed intent on defying fashion. His models and portrait subjects were never seen leaping or running or turning themselves into blurs. Even the rough-and-ready members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, photographed in San Francisco in 1967, were transformed within the quieting frame of his studio camera into the graphic equivalent of a Greek frieze.
Instead of spontaneity, Mr. Penn provided the illusion of a seance, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan jalaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer. Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it. Except for a series of close-up portraits that cut his subjects’ heads off at the forehead, and another, stranger suite of overripe nudes, his subjects were usually shown whole, apparently enjoying a splendid isolation from the real world.
He was probably most famous for photographing Parisian fashion models and the world’s great cultural figures, but he seemed equally at home photographing Peruvian peasants or bunion pads. Merry Foresta, co-organizer of a 1990 retrospective of his work at the National Museum of American Art, wrote that his pictures exhibited “the control of an art director fused with the process of an artist.”
A courtly man whose gentle demeanor masked an intense perfectionism, Mr. Penn adopted the pose of a humble craftsman while helping to shape a field known for putting on airs. Although schooled in painting and design, he chose to define himself as a photographer, scraping his early canvases of paint so that they might serve a more useful life as backdrops to his pictures.
He was also a refined conversationalist and a devoted husband and friend. His marriage to Lisa Fonssagrives, a beautiful model, artist and his sometime collaborator, lasted 42 years, ending with her death at the age of 80 in 1992. Mr. Penn’s photographs of Ms. Fonssagrives not only captured a slim woman of lofty sophistication and radiant good health; they also set the esthetic standard for the elegant fashion photography of the 1940s and ’50s.
Ms. Fonssagrives became a sculptor after her modeling career ended. In 1994, Mr. Penn and their son, Tom, a metal designer, arranged the printing of a book that reproduced his wife’s sculpture, prints and drawings. In addition to his son, Mr. Penn is survived by his stepdaughter, Mia Fonssagrives Solow, a sculptor and jewelry designer; his younger brother, Arthur, the well-known director of such films as “Bonnie and Clyde,” and eight grandchildren.
Mr. Penn had the good fortune of working for and collaborating with two of the 20th century’s most inventive and influential magazine art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman. He studied with Mr. Brodovitch in Philadelphia as a young man and came to New York in 1937 as his unpaid design assistant at Harper’s Bazaar, the most provocative fashion magazine of the day. But it was under Mr. Liberman, at Vogue, that Mr. Penn forged his career as a photographer.
(via NY Times)
2009
10.01
10.01
Like a good pair of dress shoes, everyone should own a pair of high-quality jeans in their wardrobe. But as you delve deeper into the world of denim, you’ll find that—like everything else—as quality goes up, so does the price tag. Seeing that we want you to get the most out of a purchase that should be treated as an investment, we hollered at our friend Kiya Babzani, co-founder of San Francisco’s denim utopia Self Edge, to find out exactly what you’re paying for when you drop dough on designer jeans. Read on for his denim tips, as well as which brands won’t break the bank and the truth about washing raw denim…
Complex: What really separates the $75 tier of denim from the $200 tier?
Kiya Babzani: I’d like to think that you’re paying for better quality, but unfortunately with 99% of brands available you’re paying for the designer’s name. Often the consumer doesn’t fully see the difference until after a few months of daily wear when the denim has aged naturally.
Complex: What do you see as the next big trend in denim washes?
Kiya Babzani: We hope that raw denim continues as it is denim in its original true form. Just like you wouldn’t purchase a T-shirt with rips and holes or a watch with a cracked bezel, we see no point in buying a pair of jeans that looks like it’s already been worn for two years.
Complex: Give us three brands you recommend that won’t kill our budgets.
Kiya Babzani: Real Japan Blues, Iron Heart, and Flat Head are doing amazing things. These brands put so much work into the denim itself that the way their jeans look after a few months of wear is so dope you’d have to see in person to believe.
Complex: Some denim nerds say that the only to way to wash your jeans is in the ocean. What is really the best to wash your denim without messing it up? And is the “never wash your jeans” thing good advice, or all hype?
Kiya Babzani: We recommend washing jeans inside-out in cold water while using a gentle detergent. As opposed to using a dryer, line-drying works best. Ocean washes are great, but can leave a terrible smell that can only be removed by doing a hot wash. The “never wash your jeans” or “don’t wash for six months” is all hype and another way to make something extremely accessible seem more exotic to those just starting to learn about denim. At the end of the day they’re still jeans and probably the most resilient article of clothing most people will ever own.
Complex: What’s denim weight indicate and is that something that you should really care about?
Kiya Babzani: Denim weight is measured by square yard of loomstate denim; 14.5oz denim weighs 14.5oz per square cut yard of denim in its raw state. Denim weight is important in that it effects the way the denim will fade and age over time, but it’s just one of the many factors that goes into what makes up a certain denim. Twill-weave pattern, post-weave processes, indigo type, indigo dipping style, and the weave-cross pressure combined all determine what the denim will end up feeling and looking like after repeated wears.
Complex: Is taking denim to the tailors something only a soccer dad should do?
Kiya Babzani: We recommend only hemming jeans. We think there are so many different styles of jeans available from most manufacturers that there should be no reason to spend $300 on jeans that you’d have to take to the tailor to have modified beyond a simple inseam shortening.
Complex: What dress or casual options are still appropriate with denim? How can you rock a blazer with denim without looking like a tool?
Kiya Babzani: In the 1980s, Calvin Klein really helped pave the way for jeans to truly become a mainstream fashion staple and since then it’s been re-appropriated in every way imaginable. I’m more of a purist when it comes to jeans, I’m not a huge fan of seeing it done very dressed up with a blazer, but then again some might not like looking like they’re straight out of a 1950s’ motorcycle rebel film.
Complex: What denim fit do you recommend for sneakers?
Kiya Babzani: A great classic straight fit jean or something slightly on the slim side is great for wearing with sneakers. It makes the outfit if the jeans are right.
(via complex)