Smoke and Mirrors

German photographer Erwin Blumenfeld’s Dada background is evident in his collage-like images and photographic manipulations. In 1943, Blumenfeld would place model Lisette behind a full-length panel of fluted glass, photographing her rippled, fragmented silhouette. In 2012, photographer duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott would employ a similar tactic in photographing Madonna’s MDMA

Read More

An Arm and A Leg

A year after Yves Saint Laurent debuted his Mondrian-inspired shift dresses, the designer continued his appropriation of art into fashion with his Fall/Winter 1966-67 “Pop Art” dresses. This crop of dresses featured fragmented silhouettes of the female figure printed atop columnar shaped gowns, perhaps suggesting the nude body beneath the

Read More

Lady Godiva

Society takes peculiar measures when burdened with high taxes: Some throw tea into the harbor while others take to touring the town on horseback in the nude. The latter, of course, being the method employed by Lady Godiva, the 11th-century noblewomen whose husband would only relinquish the oppressive taxes he

Read More

Showers and Flowers

For Numero’s June/July edition, photography duo Sofia Sanchez and Mauro Mongiello would dip model Coco Rocha into a bathtub, brightly colored flowers swirling around her, afloat in the bath water.  Appearing ethereal and weightless, Rocha resembles a Gustav Klimt mermaid. Nearly a year later, photographer Camilla Åkrans shot Mariacarla Boscono in a flower-filled tub, however,

Read More

With Open Arms

Showcasing the president’s popularity in the entertainment world, Esquire magazine’s June 1969 cover featured the newly elected President Nixon along with his celebrity backers including Art Linkletter, Billy Graham, Rudy Vallee & Lawrence Welk. The men pictured stand with welcoming arms, wide open with optimism as they praise their new leader.

Read More