A Suprise Reprise

Named after the Roman goddess Junon, who is associated with the feminine life, marriage, and childbirth, this Christian Dior gown is downright divine. A garment that epitomizes the overt feminity championed by Monsieur Dior during the golden age of couture, this dress was part of his fall/winter 1949 haute couture

Read More

Seeing Spots

In 2006, Marc Jacobs (then creative director of Louis Vuitton) trekked to Tokyo to meet Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at her studio; a mutual appreciation connected the two creatives. “I still have a photo of that visit hanging on the wall of my studio. We are standing with one of

Read More

Swing Time

In the August 4, 1952 issue of Life, the magazine featured Eartha Kitt’s celebrated arrival on the scene. “She branched onto Broadway,” read the opening spread, which was illustrated with a Gordon Parks photo (one of several taken) of Kitt balletically swinging from a maple tree in Central Park. “The

Read More

Peekaboo

Most remembered for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, Phil Stern’s subjects ranged from soldiers on the warfront to starlets of Hollywood. The year of the Dean’s premature death, Stern photographed the actor peeking out of his sweater, perhaps suggesting Dean’s enigmatic persona. Harper’s Bazaar’s November 2015 cover,

Read More

Shadow Play

German photographer Erwin Blumenfeld’s Dada background is evident in his collage-like images and photographic manipulations. Shadows were often used to Blumenfeld’s advantage as illustrated in his c. 1945 image of an unknown model whose presence is sliced through the vertical shades cast upon her. Norwegian-born photographer Sølve Sundsbø would employ a similar lighting

Read More