Between Art and Functionality : Corso Como

I was charmed by this collaged wall in the exhibit of Kris Rhus' work at the Galleria Carla Sozzani, situated as part of her famous shop 10 Corso Como. It displays working sketches along with black and white photos of the work in progress.





Galleria Carla Sozzani

Illustrated book of the week - The Street Markets of London

It will come as a surprise to absolutely no-one who reads this blog that we at The Curious Eye are big fans of street markets.  There's nothing we like better than digging around a brocante, a souk or an all-American flea. Local colour, potential bargains, weird objets...What's not to love?

So we were very excited to come across Mary Benedetta's accounts of London street markets of yore. Interestingly, it is illustrated with photographs by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy,  clearly taking time off his day job as hardcore member of the Bauhaus to take a few snaps to make ends meet. (Fun fact: Moholy-Nagy had such a tough time financially throughout the thirties that he even resorted to working on window displays of mens underwear to keep the wolf from the door).

Benedetta's descriptions of the 1936 markets seem both familiar and completely dated - it's interesting to discover how much has changed in the course of a single generation. Back then, Portobello was a small fruit and veg market, Brick Lane was so insignificant it barely gets a mention and the jewel in London's market crown was Caledonian Market - a massive bi-weekly event that Benedetta describes as "famous for silver, antiques, curios, junk-stalls, amusing characters, and every phase of market life".  If only I had a time machine.

Indeed, a lot of the market fare sounds very interesting - even if she doesn't quite appreciate it.

Sounds like the interior design schemes of every design-savvy hipster in Williamsburg and London's East End.

Some of the characters mentioned are certainly amusing, take this for example:

Details may change, but the spirit of the markets stays the same - I can imagine a scene like this still happening in London on any day of the week (factoring in decimalisation, of course)

Too true!

Backstreet Art - Shacklewell Lane

Like most of East London, Dalston is a study in contrasts. The roughest urban grit meets the most daring creative spirits. Overdressed fashion students share cafés with Turkish construction workers. Clubs filled with Yardies exist side by side with 'alternative art spaces' - catering to retro hungry bisexual trendies. It's dizzying and dirty and fascinating.

Nothing sums this up to me like this art piece. Hidden down a side street in Shacklewell, an ancient advertising hoarding has been hi-jacked. The frame is almost as fascinating as its contents - dirty, forgotten and falling apart - not much of a temptation to any modern advertiser - it's transformed by the work of an anonymous artist.

Fittingly, the image seems to make a comment about urban blight. A Victorian lovely enjoys her verdant surroundings, while an industrial plant in the background pours waste into the river. 

An image that shows us the origins of industrial ugliness becomes something that now beautifies an ugly industrial area - how appropriate.

Illustrated Book of the Week - The Circus

Up 'til now, we haven’t  included ‘mainstream’ publications in our illustrated book of the week section, but this tome published by Taschen in unmissable! Firstly it is the largest book I’ve ever bought, a veritable coffee table in itself. I am in the process of looking for design inspiration for Chickensheds’ Christmas production of Pinocchio, and wanted to use the circus as a starting point. Several of the Charing Cross dealers told me of this volume published by Taschen, and when I came across it in Libertys I saw immediately that it had all the design inspiration I would be needing. The book is simply sumptuous, the photos and illustrations are amazing, the layout is gorgeous. It comes in its own cardboard carry box, which is a necessity considering the size and weight of it. It was hard to pick out pages but I think you will see from the images below what I mean.

The Picture Show

'The Picture Show' is another great find from the ever-amazing Norman.

A huge scrapbook, dated 1925, filled to the brim with images of the stars of the era. This was the height of Hollywood's silent movie age - a time where cinema became enormously popular, and the public became fascinated with movie stars for the very first time. 

There's no trace of the identity of the original owner - but whoever he or she was, they were clearly obsessed with the beauty and glamour of the silver screen. The book is packed with incredible images - and many of them have been 'enhanced' by the owner. Photographs have been cut out of magazines, decorative borders have been glued or painted around them, and many of them have been 'colorized' with watercolour paints. There's even some crazy decoupage, taking original shots and adding scraps and painting to make new scenarios.

The book is clearly a labour of love, as hours of work has gone into it - and the movies featured span at lease five years - it must have been a major undertaking.

I find the combination of the slightly naive handpainted work and the high glamour of the photos incredibly interesting. It adds a human touch to the images, and gives you the real feeling of one person's absolute passion for their movie idols.

I'm loving Clara Bow in these last two shots - there's something very fresh and modern about her that makes her jump off the page to me. The pictures could almost be used in a fashion editorial today with no adjustments. It's interesting that she was the very first celebrity to be dubbed an 'It Girl" - a phrase now that has been horribly degraded and overused. Looking at these photographs - you can totally see that she had 'it' in abundance.

An Elegant Punk

Now, it’s time for some shameless self-promotion,  This is my latest project, a beauty story called ‘An Elegant Punk’. It’s a collaboration with the brilliant make-up artist Lisa Eldridge, and  our attempt to take a classic piece of subculture and make it modern, relevant and beautiful.

The process of getting to these images was interesting.  Over the last couple of years, I’ve been aware that the sartorial tides have been turning. It’s no longer cool to look like you rolled out of bed, threw on a military parka and didn’t have time to wash your hair. Now, there’s a whole generation of twenty-somethings who are rejecting the anonymous, ‘undone’ styles that have been surrounding us for the last ten years, and who are making extreme style statements. For them it’s far more interesting to make an effort, dress up and take pride in your appearance, than to look like you’re too cool for school.

It’s not only fashion that is being affected by this trend. Hair and make-up styles are becoming more stylized and exaggerated too. The Amy Winehouse beehive/eyeliner combo is a great example of a beauty trend that sprang from the streets of Camden, and has had a global impact. I’ve seen kids on the streets of East London wearing head scarves and curlers during the day. Extreme make-up is filtering through too – as ornamentation and experimentation become more and more acceptable.

Lisa and I wanted to reflect this change in spirit – but we didn’t want to slavishly recreate the forties and fifties styles that seem to be most popular at the moment. We were talking about shooting something with dramatic, saturated colour – when  the idea of punk came up. It seemed like a perfect fit. Not only does it relate to the current Rockabilly trend (which had a huge influence on early punk, particularly with the Westwood/Maclaren shorp, ‘Let It Rock) – it also has historical roots in recession, and is the perfect example of a subculture that thrived on extreme sartorial self-expression. If kids are wearing beehives today, they’re just one step away from wearing Mohicans tomorrow.

We started looking at classic punk images. The Bromley Contingent and the staff of ‘Sex’ in World’s End, particularly Jordan, gave us masses of material. Early images of pre-goth Siouxsie, with blonde, cropped hair. Adam Ant (because ridicule is nothing to be scared of) and the seminal punk movie ‘The Fabulous Stains’ – all went in the mix.

Finally, with the help of Keiichiro Hirano’s inspired hairdressing, the beautiful Jana from Models1, and some styling backup from Romaine Lillie, we had our team, and our theme.

Ermenonville by Elisabeth Toll

It's fair to say that we at The Curious Eye are magazine junkies. 

There isn't a room in our place that isn't filled with magazines - they have overflowed from our shelves, down our staircase, through our bathroom - some stacks are so large, they're almost makeshift furniture. One year we created a six foot christmas tree out of piles of them. Suffice to say, if it's glossy and full of photographs and text - we're buying it.

Which is why, amongst the surfeit of images that get thrown at us every day, it takes something very special for us to sit up and take notice.

This fashion story in 'Bon' Magazine completely captivated us. It's photographed by Elisabeth Toll and styled by Yoko Miyake. In it, the light, the scenery, the model and the clothing all work together to make something magical. 

Truly one of the best fashion stories that we've seen for a very long time - and a reminder to all of us that fashion magazines can be more than just a way of selling products. Once in a while they can show us great photography, beautiful imagery and something really inspiring.

See more of Elisabeth Toll's beautiful work at www.elisabethtoll.com