BEAUTY: Illustration--"Architects and Chairs" by Jorge Arévalo

Regular readers may know that one of my day jobs (I have a few) is as an interior designer. I see a lot of furniture and furnishings in the course of my day, and some of the most iconic pieces are some of my favorites. Furniture designed by famous furniture designers (or architects who also designed the furniture that went into their architecture) are very special pieces.

I want to show you the delightful work of master illustrator Jorge Arévalo. He created a series called "Architects and Chairs" where he puts the architect on or near the celebrated chair they designed which defines their individual legacy. The precise, pointy style in which he renders people feels a little retro, perfect for the subject of Modernist furniture. All these images are available as prints at the shop on his website!

https://www.jorgearevalo.com/

"Dame Vivienne Westwood - the godmother of punk"

The BBC has published a lovely obit article about Dame Vivienne Westwood following her death yesterday.


Dame Vivienne Westwood - the godmother of punk

Photo by Francois Durand

She was the anarchic idealist who stormed the battlements of the status quo and transformed Britain.

She was a would-be revolutionary, fired by a hatred of corruption and global injustice, who despaired at the indolent passivity of youth.

Vivienne Westwood gave birth to punk, conquered high-fashion and built a global empire. She invented New Romantics, sent Naomi Campbell down the catwalk wearing a traffic cone and turned up to meet the Queen having left her underwear behind.

For Westwood, fashion was a weapon. Of course, she thought, clothes made people sexy. But the point was to shake things up, to destroy miserable conformity and make a better world.

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born on 8 April 1941 in the Derbyshire village of Tintwistle, the oldest of three children.

Her working class parents were good with their hands. They encouraged her to make things, which she did with enthusiasm. But they were deeply puzzled by their daughter's addiction to reading, once paying her to destroy her library card.

She had an enviable self-confidence, believing herself an exceptional craftswoman. At grammar school in Glossop, she saw herself as "a kind of champion". "Honestly", she later said, "at the age of five, I could have made a pair of shoes".

The family moved to North London in 1958. Vivienne dabbled in silversmithing at the local school of art but quit after a single term. Self-confident she may have been, but she failed to see how a working-class girl could make a living like that.

She qualified as a primary school teacher, then married Derek Westwood - handsome Hoover factory apprentice by day and flamboyant Mod by night. Westwood made her own wedding dress and jewellery. A year later, she gave birth to their son.

Then, a chance meeting changed everything. Her brother, Gordon, brought a 19-year-old, fellow art student round to her flat in Harrow. He had red hair and a face whitened with talcum powder. His name was Malcolm McLaren: self-declared genius and godfather of punk.

So began one of Britain's great creative partnerships. They moved into a tiny flat in Clapham, had a child and launched a cultural revolution that shook, and sometimes frightened, the world.

McLaren was impossible. His mother was a sex worker and he had been brought up by his eccentric grandmother, who lived by the motto "to be bad is to be good and to be good is just boring".

He was a peacock: intent on blinding small people with his brilliance, affronting an older generation he detested and belittling everyone but himself - especially Vivienne.

He took six days to visit her in hospital after the birth of their son, refused to be called 'Dad' and threatened to cart the child to Barnardo's when asked to pitch in. Westwood retreated to a caravan in Wales; hunting for wild vegetables while he ran riot in London and married another art student.

But attraction overcame everything. Her childhood had been happy, but a cultural desert. Creatively, McLaren was an awakening; introducing her to art, music and helping her transform "from dolly bird into a chic, confident dresser". Westwood rekindled the partnership, blossomed artistically and simply ignored the abuse.

Then came the Sex Pistols, snarling at the 1970s. McLaren embraced them as an angry pot-shot at the hippy movement he hated. Westwood opened a shop on the King's Road, conjuring the look the Pistols made famous. A bewildered world gasped and named it Punk.

She called the shop, 'Let It Rock', then changed the name to 'Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die'. Finally, it was re-branded simply as 'SEX' - the huge pink sign above the door meant only the brave went in.

Inside, the staff were intimidating. There was Chrissie Hyde, Toyah Wilcox and, most terrifying of all, 'Jordan': a woman who actually received an Arts Council grant to be her indomitable self.

The clothes, of course, were like nothing else. They were radical and individualistic, sticking two-fingers up at rival street-fashions like flower-power, Teddy Boy and Mod.

It was as much anthropology as style. Bondage trousers and swastika jackets were, she explained, "sex translated into fashion becoming fetish". It was, she declared, "the very embodiment of youth's assumption of immortality".

Westwood's parents hated Malcolm and were deeply shocked; but they gave her the money to get started and loyally offered practical help while "our Vivienne" filled the racks with studs, chains and nipple zips.

Westwood's rubber negligee, spiky hair, stilettos and pornographic T-shirt literally stopped traffic. She was having a ball, feeling like a "princess from another planet."

Later, McLaren would boast he was a "con man", a Svengali who twisted popular culture into nothing more than a convenient marketing gimmick. For Westwood, the movement was more profound; seeing it as as counter-cultural youth insurgency against the corruption of the old world order.

Punk, she earnestly believed, was more than fashion. The movement was political; the aim was revolution. When the young showed no inclination to stop spitting and build barricades, Westwood was bitterly disappointed.

She fell out with the Sex Pistols' lead singer Johnny Rotten: both claiming to have inspired the idea and title of Anarchy In The UK. But what frustrated her was that the spiky-haired musician had missed the message.

The clothes and music were supposed to channel rage and bring about change. But the young simply ignored global injustice, stuck safety-pins in their nose and moshed to the music. While Westwood and McLaren were full of revolution, it never happened. Westwood felt let-down, became disillusioned and, eventually, drifted on.

Instead, she took her subversive ideas and stormed the catwalks of London and Paris. Working alone on a little sewing-machine in her front room, Westwood put the pieces together using her own body as a template.

Intellectually inspired by a Canadian art historian, Gary Ness, she researched the history of fashion, reworked it with vengeance and dared the world of haute-couture to reject her. She put models in Harris Tweed, fine knitting, 'mini-crinis' and corsets that pushed their busts almost up to the chin.

The public sniggered. Westwood threatened to walk out of one BBC interview when the audience kept laughing. It didn't help that Russell Harty, a fellow guest, described one girl as a "walking chip shop." The Pistols sneered too, accusing her of abandoning punk and making "posh frocks for Ascot".

It wasn't easy; at times she came close to bankruptcy but the fashion world came to love her. Alongside McLaren, she put on legendary collections with names like Pirate, Savages and Nostalgia of Mud. And when he pushed off, she continued solo: kick-starting New Romanticism with designs that parodied the establishment. The establishment lapped it up.

In the end, she made a fortune. One show in Paris was over in the time it takes to hard boil an egg, but featured clothes worth more than one million pounds. When Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw wanted a wedding dress, she turned to Westwood. The woman who ran a shop on the King's Road had become a major global brand.

In 1989, the hugely influential Women's Wear Daily magazine rated her one of the six best designers of the twentieth century; the only woman, alongside Armani, Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent. "As far as I was concerned," she said, "it was a statement of fact." When Naomi Campbell fell off her nine-inch purple platforms on the catwalk, the shoes simply flew off the shelves.

Westwood's success did not mean she had given up on revolution. Deeply political, her art had a purpose. She dressed models as punked-up debutantes, thumbing her nose at the ruling classes. Her clothes subverted the fashions that had historically subjected woman. She made T-shirts emblazoned with profane political slogans, selling them at a price.

Westwood loathed Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher with a passion and threw herself into a life-long crusade to promote individual liberty, rid the world of nuclear weapons and combat the threat of climate change.

She supported Aids Research, PETA and Oxfam, gave hundreds of thousands to the Green Party and became a regular visitor to Julian Assange during his seven-year stint in the Ecuadorian embassy. She even parked a white tank outside David Cameron's house in a protest against fracking.

Given an OBE in 1992, Westwood turned up without any knickers on, giving photographers the shock of their lives as she gave a twirl. If Her Majesty was not amused, she didn't show it and Westwood was back at the Palace a few years later when the legendary rebel became a Dame.

In 1992, Westwood married again, this time to an Austrian fashion student half her age. Andreas Kronthaler was calm and supportive: indeed everything that McLaren was not. The pair formed a new creative partnership, for years still working from Westwood's Spartan, ex-council flat.

Westwood said her favourite quotation was from Aldous Huxley, although it has been attributed to Bertrand Russell. "Orthodoxy", he said, "is the grave of intelligence". The shop she opened on the King's Road still operates. It's now called World's End, selling archive designs and slogan T-shirts, in memory of an icon determined to wage war against conformity.

The godmother of punk, empress of global fashion and Dame of the British Empire certainly did that.


Link to original article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44683514

R.I.P. Dame Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood (previously here) has died today at the age of 81. It is reported that she died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family.

She was a genius who lived, worked, and protested on her own terms, always. In his 1989 book CHIC SAVAGES, Women's Wear Daily editor John Fairchild said Westwood was one of the six most influential designers of the 20th century, along with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix and Emanuel Ungaro.

In a 2017 post, here, about her FW '17-'18 collection, I noted "I'm so glad there is a Dame Vivienne Westwood in the world. She makes me happy and her creations brighten up the landscape quite a bit."

She, her talent, and creations will be greatly missed.

The house will continue with her husband and collaborator Andreas Kronthaler at the helm.

https://www.viviennewestwood.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--The Feast Day of Gay Icon St. Sebastian

In the Catholic church, today is the feast day of Saint Sebastian who has evolved into a gay icon and patron saint of gay men.

Sebastian was an early Christian martyr killed in 288 in Rome on orders from the Roman emperor Diocletian. He was at first tied to a tree and shot with arrows, but after surviving that attack, he was clubbed to death by Diocletian's soldiers.  Little is known about Sebastian’s love life, so his long-standing popularity with gay men is partly based on the sensuous presentation (near naked, writhing in ecstatic pain) of his arrow attack in the hundreds and hundreds of artistic portrayals over the centuries. Many gay men also identify with his suffering and his experience of being attacked. Sebastian is a known as protector against plague, which added to his appeal for the LGBTQ community during the AIDS pandemic.

Saint Sebastian and Matt Shepard Juxtaposed--JR Leveroni

St. Sebastian--Pierre et Gilles

St. Sebastian--Radek J. Husak

St. Sebastian--Rick Herold

St. Sebastian--Alfonso Del Moral

St. Sebastian--Anthony Gayton

St. Sebastian--Franco Zucchella

St. Sebastian--Glyn Philpot

St. Sebastian--Pierre et Gilles

St. Sebastian--Kitti

St. Sebastian--Radek J. Husak

The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian--Keith Vaughan

"Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist"

Seeing as fashion season just ended, and hot on the heels of the Alexander McQueen documentary, "Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist" is a documentary study of the life and extraordinary work of Dame Vivienne Westwood I'd love to see.

Directed by Lorna Tucker, the film's press release says:
"With exclusive, unprecedented access, Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist is the first film to encompass the remarkable story of Vivienne’s life, her fashion, her personality, her activism and her cultural importance.

Since igniting the punk movement with ex-partner and Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren, Dame Vivienne Westwood has been redefining British fashion for over 40 years, and is responsible for creating many of the most distinctive looks of our time. The film blends archive, beautifully crafted reconstruction, and insightful interviews with Vivienne’s fascinating network of collaborators, guiding us on her journey from a childhood in postwar Derbyshire to the runways of Paris and Milan. This is an intimate and poignant homage to one of the true cultural icons of our time, as she fights to maintain her brand’s integrity, her principles and her legacy in a business driven by consumerism, profit and global expansion."

The film is currently in limited release in theaters.

https://www.viviennewestwoodfilm.com/

R.I.P. Hubert de Givenchy

Fashion legend Hubert de Givenchy died today at the age of 91. He was the last remaining designer from the Golden Age of elegant fashion in the 40s and 50s. He worked alongside Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior. After a stint working for Elsa Schiaparelli, he started his own house in 1952. He dressed Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, Lauren Bacall, Jeanne Moreau, Babe Paley, and Marlene Dietrich among a list list of other top celebrities and beauties of the time, and he created the iconic "little black dress" for Audrey Hepburn to wear in "Breakfast At Tiffany's." In fact, Givenchy and Hepburn forged a very close friendship that lasted for 40 years until her death in 1993.

He sold the house to LVMH in 1988 and stepped down as head of the house in 1995. He was succeeded by John Galliano and then Alexander McQueen. Riccardo Tisci headed the house from 2005 until this month when Clare Waight Keller took over as creative director. The house of Givenchy tweeted today:

The House of Givenchy is sad to report the passing of its founder Hubert de Givenchy, a major personality of the world of French Haute Couture and a gentleman who symbolized Parisian chic and elegance for more than half a century. He will be greatly missed.

https://www.givenchy.com

i-Cons by i-D: Vivienne Westwood

In anticipation of this month's fashion events (which kick off today with the opening of London Collections: Men), here is a lovely interview with design genius, mother of punk, and fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood. Ten minutes but very entertaining and informative.

http://www.viviennewestwood.com/
http://i-d.vice.com/

Joni and Hedi

In case you missed the news, 71 year old music legend Joni Mitchell is the newest face of Saint Laurent via the house's Music Project. Creative Director Hedi Slimane himself photographed Mitchell just this month at her Bel Air home wearing a tunic, fedora, and leather cape created for her by Slimane.

http://jonimitchell.com/
http://www.ysl.com/