BEAUTY: Clothing--Di Petsa

London Fashion Week started this past week and I have been swamped with other things, but found time today to sit down and ogle the offerings so far.

I could have sworn I previously posted something about Dimitra Petsa and her eponymous line Di Petsa but I can't find anything in the archive. So here we go:

Dimitra Petsa is a Greek designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins (the storied London instiution with alums like, oh, Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton, Stella McCartney, John Galliano, Gareth Pugh, Riccardo Tisci, Grace Wales Bonner, Kim Jones, Simone Rocha, Craig Green, and Richard Quinn to name a few). Ostensibly a womenswear designer, she pioneered the "wet-look" dress worn by loads of celebs...but she inserts a handful of men's looks into her collections as well. Much like how Dolce and Gabbana use the culture and long history of their native Italy as a touchstone and endless source of inspiration, Petsa's hyper-sexy, sometimes breast-bearing shows always refer somehow to Greece and the mythology of that ancient land.

The brand's logo is a cross that resembles Poseidon’s trident and this Spring Summer '26 collection at London Fashion Week referenced the god directly on a tee shirt. The precious few male looks featured pieces evoking ancient Greek warrior-wear, and even one of her signature wet-look dresses for men!

https://dipetsa.com/

Just watched...

...the tense psychological thriller/supernatural horror film "The Lighthouse."

I must say I was a little apprehensive going in to this film. It was directed by Robert Eggers who directed the amazing horror film "The VVitch" (which I loved and reviewed here) but it was distributed by film company A24 who also released Ari Aster's film "Hereditary"--which was unsettling and puzzling--but also Aster's film "Midsommar," one of the most disturbing films, if not the most disturbing film I have ever seen in my entire life. And I was a film major, I have seen a s**t ton of films in my life, so for me to say that should carry some weight. I felt damaged and psychically attacked after witnessing "Midsommar," a film whose meaning, at a core level, expresses a type of mind boggling evil I think most humans never imagine and might not be able to fathom. So I wondered about "The Lighthouse" because it is billed as a horror film from the same company.

But I was actually engaged, pleasantly fascinated, and appropriately creeped out...and thankfully, Eggers' imagination does not feel the need to show an audience a world that is literally nauseating. Instead, he uses, much like his first film "The VVitch," mythology as a spring board to tell a story.

Essentially a two man play, a grizzled Willem Dafoe and a thoroughly gaunt Robert Pattinson play two men in the late 1890s who are dropped off on an island off the New England coast in order to tend to a lighthouse. They replaced the last two men, and their shift is supposed to last for a few weeks until a storm strands them on the island with the next ship unable to reach them. Dafoe, the senior of the pair, orders Pattinson around, making him do all of the menial chores while denying him the opportunity to tend to the actual light. The relationship between the men grows more complicated over time--more contentious, more intimate, more mistrustful, more friendly, even oddly sexual--while the isolation and storm tests their grips on reality itself. Pattinson begins having nightmares and visions while Dafoe seems to be jealously guarding the light and communing with mysterious sea creatures.

In fact, a creature plays an important part in this hallucinatory tale...Dafoe warns his helper never to kill a seagull because in seafaring lore, it is extremely bad luck. But every time he goes outside, Pattinson is continually harassed and attacked by a one-eyed seagull which he ends up killing. Bring on the bad luck. The presence of a kind of sentient, magical creature with supernatural powers is certainly reminiscent of the "The VVitch"'s Black William, a goat with evil connections.

But I think the most striking part of this story--and the  most satisfying--is the idea that this is a modern retelling of the Prometheus myth. In ancient Greek mythology, the only beings who held the power of fire were the Olympian Gods but Prometheus, a Titan, stole fire from the Gods and gave it to Mankind in an act of charity. For his crime, Zeus, king of the Olympian Gods, punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock; each day an eagle (symbol of Zeus) came to eat out his liver which grew back every night only for said eagle to return and feast again the next day. The light in the lighthouse is the obvious stand-in for fire itself, with Dafoe acting the role of Zeus and Pattinson as a wanna-be Prometheus. There are a few marvelous moments in the film that obliquely (and one moment not so obliquely) support this narrative.

All this is played out against an atmosphere that is claustrophobic and effectively fraught with tension and dread.

Recommend? Yes. Dafoe and Pattinson both give literally perfect performances. The black and white art direction is stunning, and the direction and editing are brilliant. Oh, as is the incredibly twisted and appropriate soundtrack.

https://a24films.com/films/the-lighthouse

Gemini, The Twins

To look at Gemini is to look away from the Milky Way...

Gemini is dominated by Castor and Pollux, two bright stars that appear relatively very closely together forming an o shape, encouraging the mythological link between the constellation and twinship.

Today is my birthday. I often wonder if I had a twin in the womb that somehow never happened...and I have a deep, subconscious feeling that I still miss him...not that I miss a "sibling" but that there is another me that should be here.

BEAUTY: Digital Photography--Bjørg-Elise Tuppen

Photographer Bjørg-Elise Tuppen has created a series of compelling images based on the mythology and folklore of her native Norway. These portraits of creatures from Norse legends are fascinating.

Top to bottom:

1. Nøkken--Nøkken is an eerie male creature that dwells in rivers, ponds and lakes. He has been common in Norwegian folklore since Norse time and is a manifestation of the dangers associated to water. He can shift shape and is known to lure people to him and drown them.The only way to protect yourself against Nøkken is to call him by his name. He is especially powerful after sunset.

2. Vidofnir--According to Norse Mythology the eagle Vidofnir sits at the top of the world tree Yggdrasil.

3. Alver--The earliest description of Alver (Elves) appears in Norse Mythology. Here they are described as demigod creatures of nature and fertility. They can both cause and heal illnesses in humans. The Scandinavian elves were of human size and associated with fertility.

4. Dauing--In Norse folklore a Dauing is a dead person who has come back to haunt the living.

5. Huldra--In Norwegian folklore Huldra is a seductive forest creature who lure men into the forest with her singing. From the front she is beautiful, but she has a cow’s tail and her back is hollow. If she is betrayed, she will punish her victims severely.

6. Draugen--In Norwegian folklore Draugen is a walking dead, the ghost of a fisherman who died at sea, and was not buried in holy ground. He brought death to those who saw him and would also sometimes try to pull his victims down into the dark sea.

7. Light Elf--In Norse mythology Light Elves were minor gods of nature. They were the opposite of Dark Elves, who are evil and caused nightmares.

http://bjorgelise.com/

Comfort and Joy...Merry and Bright...

Just RE-watched...

..."Yeelen", a 1987 film from Mali.

I first saw this film when it was released in 1987 and it has stayed with me all these years. It is a strange, magical tale written, directed, and produced by Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé based on an ancient tale told by the Bambara people of west Africa (who live primarily in Mali, but also in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal). We are not exactly sure in what time period the film takes place, but we know it was long before the appearance of any Europeans, but after the development of metal working in Africa, which places the story anywhere from 300 BCE to the 13th century.

Part mythology, part folk tale, we journey with a young man named Niankoro who is running from his father. Magical powers apparently run in this family, as both father and son can make things burst into flames. There is also a magic scepter and a log that works as a divining rod.

According to father, son has stolen some very important spiritual objects that are of value to the tribe. If father finds said son, he intends to kill him.

Son, on the run from murderous father, travels through foreign territory in an effort to escape the relentless hunt. Along the way, he accidentally picks up a wife, and comes into his own as a man.

In the final confrontation between father and son, magical powers fly, and in the resulting yeelen (which means “brightness” in the Bambara tongue), the landscape is changed both figuratively and literally.

Recommend? Yes. It is a special, enchanting film that is worth seeing as a glimpse into cultures and beliefs other than our own.

Life Ball

The annual Life Ball held in Vienna is not only the largest AIDS charity event in Europe but one of the largest charity events of any kind in the entire world. Each year, celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Elton John and Neil Tennant join politicians such as Bill Clinton and a plethora of party-goers for concerts by performers such as Katy Perry and Nina Hagen, fashion shows by internationally famous designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Calvin Klein--and dancing. Lots of dancing.

This year's Life Ball takes place on May 21st. And to promote that, photographers Susanne Stemmer and Markus Morianz collaborated on a series of images based on this year's theme: "Spread the Wings of Tolerance," based on figures from Greek, Roman and Christian mythology. I see Zeus disguised as an eagle whisking Ganymede away, Icarus falling, Nike, Mercury, and Archangels Michael and Gabriel. These sumptuous images are a feast...

http://www.lifeball.org/

BEAUTY: Ceramics--Christyl Boger

Christyl Boger is a remarkable ceramicist, creating fascinating figures that combine classical sensibilities with a modern art edge. Her hand-painted and gilt figurative works, which seem to be mostly about two feet high, speak to mythological creatures with wings or who live in the sea.


http://www.chrisbogerart.com/index.html

Winter People

Visually apropos of the last post (Active Child's lovely snowy-floury video), and of the winter season upon us, here are gorgeous portraits of Swedish celebrities posing as magical, mystical Snow Queens, Snow Kings, Snow Angels, and Winter Folk, captured by the talented photographer Caroline Roosmark.


Top to bottom: Retired Swedish hockey player Jorgen Jonsson, singer Martin Rolinski, actress Eva Röse, actor and author Erland Josephson, alpine skier and gold medalist Anja Pärson, actress Josephine Bornebusch, actor Per Graffman, and actor Mikael Persbrandt.

http://www.roosmark.com/