Horst: Photographer Of Style - the V&A exhibition

One of the advantages of being in a metropolis is getting to see amazing exhibitions about almost every subject. Fashion, style and design being my favourites, the Horst: Photographer Of Style exhibition mounted by the V&A museum in London, from September 2014 to January 2015, was perfectly in synch with my trip there to see Kate Bush performing live in Before The Dawn. So I visited V&A again (second time this year) for what is a fantastic exhibition about one of the best photographers that ever lived, Horst P. Horst.

The V&A main entrance poster for the exhibition © 2014 Stratos Bacalis

Born as Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann on the 14th of August 1906, in Weissenfels, Germany, the youngest son of a hardware business owner, he studied design and carpentry at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg, under the tuition of Walter Gropius. In 1930 he travelled to Paris to work as an apprentice to Le Corbusier. It as there that he met Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, a famous photographer at French Vogue. Huene became Horst’s mentor and partner, teaching him about photography and inviting him into the creative world of 1930s Paris. He then started to work for French Vogue himself, and later on for the American edition and Vanity Fair magazine, where his first portrait of a Hollywood star, Bette Davis, appeared in 1932.

Bette Davis for Vanity Fair, 1932. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

The rest is history. Horst had a long and wildly creative career, establishing a style completely his own, shooting portraits, fashion, landscapes and even branching into less well known areas of photography, working well into his mid 80s, stopping only when his eyesight failed him. He influenced many photographers and artists, while his images still stand as paragons of lighting, composition and style.

Hat and coat-dress by Bergdorf Goodman, modelled by Estrella Boissevain, 1938. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

The exhibition is designed as a timeline but also separated into sections of his work: beginning with Haute Couture, it showcases first his fashion work in France and the United States, with the brilliant black&white photohraphs that made him famous and established his personal style.

The entrance of the show. Installation image of Horst – Photographer of Style. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Horst was photographing with a collaborative process: that involved of course photographer and model but also the art director, fashion editor, studio assistants and set technicians. Modelling was still in its infancy in the 1930s, if existing at all, so many of those who posed for Horst were stylish friends of the magazine’s staff, often actresses or aristocrats. By the middle of the decade, Horst had succeded his mentor George Hoyningen-Huene as Paris Vogue’s primary photographer. His images frequently appeared in the French, British and American editions of the magazine. Many of the photographs on display in the exhibition are vintage prints from the company’s archive.

Horst photographic prints from the 1930s © Vogue UK

At the end of this long gallery of photographs, there is a podium with couture dresses from the era, from designers whose clothes Horst shot for Vogue. Meticulously restored and displayed, the outfits recall the glamour and style of the decade while bringing the elusive subjects of his art a bit closer to reality and the visitor.

Custom-made mannequins dressed in original pieces from designers including Mainbocher, Lanvin, Molyneux, Maggy Rouff and Vionnet © Vogue UK

The exhibition then moves on to the second section: Surrealism. Surprisingly for me, one of the main images in this section is what has probably become his most iconic photograph ever: Mainbocher corset.

Mainbocher Corset (pink satin corset by Detolle), Paris, 1939. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

The Mainbocher Corset is one of the Twentieth Century's most prized portraits. The widely published copy of it is retouched (below) - the corset made to look more snug to the body while the background and other details are refined and enhanced as well. The untouched original (above), depicts the model Madame Bernon wearing a pink satin corset. It was the last photograph that Horst took before leaving Paris and his style developed. It has inspired lots of photographers since then, while Horst himself revisited the styling for a lingerie campaign in the 1980s. 

Retouched version of the Mainbocher Corset © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Most famously, it became the opening sequence for Madonna's Vogue video clip. It was not the only image of Horst referenced in the clip. "Lisa with Turban" (1940), and "Carmen Face Massage" (1946) were made into sequences too. Horst was reportedly "displeased" with Madonna's video because he never gave permission for his photographs to be used and received no acknowledgement from Madonna for doing so. 

Frame from Madonna's Vogue video-clip, directed by David Fincher in 1990

Horst’s photographs of his surrealist period feature mysterious, whimsical and surreal elements combined with his classical aesthetic. His trompe l’oeil still lives stand side by side with photographs of the surreal-infused dresses of the designer Elsa Schiaparelli, a close friend of Horst. He also collaborated closely with Salvador Dalí, photographing him as well as his wife, while his work in turn inspired the famous painter too. His fascination with the representation of the female form, fragmenting and turning the human body into an erotic object, was a common thread with the surrealism movement.

Salvador Dalí’s costumes for Leonid Massine's ballet Bacchanale, 1939. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

The next section of the exhibition is named Stage and Screen: obviously it was filled with portraits of famous Hollywood stars of the era. Some of them have become iconic representations of them and defined their image and career. Even Marlene Dietrich, who infamously accused him of not being able to light her properly, was brilliantly captured by his lens. When she saw the finished photographs, she was so thrilled with them, she used one as her publicity photo Of course he did not limit himself to actors: he shot writers, politicians and royalty, soon to be replaced in the public imagination by stars of the silver screen.

Marlene Dietrich, New York, 1942. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

The next section features his landscapes from travels in the Middle East and also some photography from his years in the army during WW II and personal objects from that era. After the war. during the summer of 1949, Horst and his partner Valentine Lawford, then political counsellor at the British Embassy in Tehran, travelled by road from Beirut to Persepolis, where Horst was able to photograph parts of the ancient Persian city that had only recently been uncovered. Horst also visited the newly established State of Israel on a photographic assignment for Vogue. He returned the next year. spending a week at the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, afterwards documenting the annual migration of the Qashqa’i clan. Horst and Lawford were invited by Malik Mansur Khan Qashqa’i to spend ten days with his tribe as they travelled by camel and horse, in search of vegetation for their flocks. Of course he photographed every moment of it.

Persepolis Bull, 1949 © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

At the end of this section are two sub-sections, very different from each other, but both showcasing sides of the artist: the first is his photographs of textures found in nature. Partly inspired by photographs of plants by Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932). Horst was struck by ‘their revelation of the similarity of vegetable forms to art forms like wrought iron and Gothic architecture.’ His interest was also linked to the technical purity of ‘photographic seeing’, a philosophy associated with the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s and ’30s. Horst’s second book, Patterns from Nature (1946), featured close-up, black and white images of plants, shells and minerals taken in New York’s Botanical Gardens, in the forests of New England, in Mexico, and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Cut up and pasted together to form patterns to be used in fabric printing and design, they are a world away from his glamorous fashion and Hollywood photography.

Patterns from Nature Photographic Collage, about 1945. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Then the visitor comes near a huge glass showcase, with a set up to resemble the studio Horst used in the 1940s, accompanied by a short film projection opposite, showing him at work (see below). He worked primarily in the Condé Nast studio on the 19th floor of the Graybar Building, an Art Deco skyscraper on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue. The studio was equipped with a variety of lights and props. In 1951 Horst found a studio of his own, the former penthouse apartment of artist Pavel Tchelitchew, with high ceilings and a spectacular view over the river. He then developed a new approach to photography in response to the abundance of daylight and for a time his famous atmospheric shadows disappeared.

Horst directing fashion shoot with Lisa Fonssagrives, 1949. Photo by Roy Stevens/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The camera and equipment case that Horst used. © Vogue UK

Video: Behind the scenes at American Vogue, 1946 © HBO Archives/The March of Time. Provided by Condé Nast Archive.

Then came a big surprise (at least for me): Horst's work in colour! I was not familiar with his coloured photography, even though many of the iconic images, mainly the numerous Vogue covers, were etched in my mind. I just never thought they were his and only associated him with black & white photography. The first of his many Vogue cover pictures was from 1935, a photograph of the Russian Princess Nadejda Sherbatow in a red velveteen jacket. Horst’s colour photographs are rarely exhibited because few vintage prints exist. Colour capture took place on a transparency which could be reproduced on the magazine page without the need to create a photographic print. The size of the new prints displayed in this room of the exhibition echoes the large scale of a group of Horst images printed in 1938 at the Condé Nast press. "The images are of such high quality and such high resolution that we didn't need to do anything to them at all - we could have actually gone even bigger!" said curator Susanna Brown.

Portrait of model Muriel Maxwell putting on lipstick 1939, © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Dinner suit and headdress by Schiaparelli, 1947. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

"Summer Fashions" shoot for American Vogue in 1941, © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Carmen Dell' Orefice in 1947, wearing a dress by Hattie Carnegie. The original chrome was faded and painstakingly restored for printing © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Over 90 covers of French, British and American Vogue magazines are on display. © Vogue UK

After this dazzling display comes his work for US Vogue under Diana Vreeland: instead of fashion, she enlisted him and his partner to work on Vogue’s ‘Fashions in Living’ pages. Horst would shoot the photohraphs and Lawford would write the article. The homes of everyone from Jackie Onassis to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld featured in their articles. it reflected his own settling down in a fabulous house with landscaped garden, which he built, in Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island, where he entertained friends like Greta Garbo and Noel Coward. There was a terrific interactive display where you would pick images on a touch screen and have them displayed in front of you along three walls. making them almost three-dimensional.

Interactive display. Installation image of Horst – Photographer of Style. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

To relax the eyes, having been bombarded with brilliant colours and designs, the following section is about Horst's black & white nudes  He produced a set of distinctive photographs in the 1950s unlike much of his previous oeuvre. These male figure studies were exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1953 and reprinted using the platinum-palladium process in the 1980s, which is how they are displayed in the museum. The bodies resemble classical sculptures, as they are partially shown, lit with characteristic style by the photographer.

Male Nude, 1952. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Finally, the last section and epilogue of the exhibition gives us a selection of  his work from the 1980s but also from every decade of his career, reprinted in platinum-palladium. A complex and expensive technique, it employed metals more expensive than gold. Failing eyesight finally forced him to stop working in 1992.New books, exhibitions and television documentaries about Horst kept on appearing. He was, is and will always be an inspiration to many aspiring photographers and artists throughout the world. This magnificent exhibition showcases his whole body of work in a brilliant way and I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed it. It runs until the 4th of January 2015, so if you happen to be in London by that day, do not miss it.

Round the Clock, New York, 1987. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

From Club to Catwalk: 80s Fashion

Another exhibition I was very lucky to see in London this past January was one in V&A (it ended in February), dedicated to 80s Fashion. From Club To Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s explored the creative explosion of London fashion in that decade. Through more than 85 outfits, the exhibition showcased the bold and exciting new looks by the most experimental (and then young) designers of the decade, including Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett, Wendy Dagworthy and John Galliano. The exhibition traced the emerging theatricality in British fashion as the capital’s vibrant and eclectic club scene influenced a new generation of designers. Also celebrating iconic styles such as New Romantic and High Camp, and featuring outfits worn by Adam Ant and Leigh Bowery, the exhibition explored how the creative relationship between catwalk and club wear helped reinvent fashion, as reflected in magazines such as i-D and Blitz and venues including Heaven and Taboo.

For me it was like travelling back in time, re-living my teens, remembering things I had completely forgotten, identifying stuff I used to pore over in 80s magazines, seeing amazing clothes and remembering songs and events that marked my adolescence. Then it suddenly dawned on me: my teen years were encapsulated in a museum exhibition! I felt really old and odd at the same time. Luckily that feeling passed by quickly as I thoroughly enjoyed the outfits and photos, the texts and layout of the exhibition, which was minimal but thoroughly into the spirit of the decade with the bold graphics and colours. One of the best parts was a dark room with small screens all over, playing a slide show of photos from the clubs of that era, accompanied by the appropriate soundtrack. One could recognise all the famous (and not so famous) people of 80s London, even seeing together people one would not imagine had met. Below you can read about the concept of the exhibition.

The ’80s saw the explosion of the London club scene. Specialist club ‘nights’ offered opportunities for dressing up in the company of a like-minded crowd. Stevie Stewart of Body Map explained that ‘each group of people, whether they were fashion designers, musicians or dancers, filmmakers, living together and going out together had a passion for creating something new that was almost infectious’. Early clubs such as Billy’s, Blitz and the Club for Heroes were small and attracted a selective crowd. As the decade progressed, venues such as the Camden Palace and one-off warehouse parties began to attract much larger audiences. Although less intimate, they perpetuated the creative link between music, club and catwalk. This symbiotic relationship remained the defining characteristic of 1980s style.

In the early ’80s, London fashion began to create a stir internationally. Fashion shows took place in New York and Japan. One breakthrough event, titled ‘London Goes to Tokyo’, included many of the designers featured here and in the upstairs gallery. The inventiveness of London design owed much to the excellence of the city’s arts education. Colleges such as St Martin’s, the Royal College of Art and Hornsey College of Art offered advanced training in the fundamentals of fashion design, while also encouraging individuality. At night, young designers’ imaginations were sparked by a vibrant London club scene. John Galliano recalled, ‘Thursday and Friday at St Martin’s, the college was almost deserted. Everybody was at home working on their costumes for the weekend’. Designer Georgina Godley remembers, 'Young London was all about taking risks and creating something out of nothing through passion and ambition'.

Amidst the colourful extravagance of 1980s fashion, one label in particular stood out thanks to their pioneering approach to making and showing their creations: Body Map. The exhibition looked back at the DIY origins of the label with its two founders, Stevie Stewart and David Holah, and of collaborations with a young Mario Testino, Michael Clark and David LaChapelle, among others.

In July 1986, era-defining style magazine BLITZ published an issue featuring images of 22 Levi’s denim jackets that had been customised by some of the world’s most lauded designers – Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano and Katherine Hamnett among them. The jackets went on to be worn during a special evening of performance, and were displayed at the V&A. Apart from some of the outfits, there was a video of the show presenting the fashions, with each ensemble presented by a model and a group/singer. Patsy Kensit was one of the models! Below is Leigh Bowery's entry.

The variety of styles exhibited are credit to the diverse background and aesthetic of the designers back then and it also chronicles the transformation of British fashion from small, local and self-centred to large, international and global.

I am sorry for the quality of my photos but they were taken with my iPhone without flash and in a hurry until a kind lady from the museum stopped me! The catalogue accompanying the exhibition is a must for every fashion enthusiast and designer, with rare material inside.

Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore: a very emotional exhibition

Last January I had the immense pleasure of seeing the Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore exhibition at Somerset House in London. Since the moment my trip to England's capital was finalized, I set my eyes upon seeing this unique show, to have the chance to be intimate with the scores of her amazing clothes by famous designers such as Alexander McQueen or Housseing Chalayan or Prada. But that was not the only reason. Blow was a unique creature, a woman who had managed to infuse the fashion world with her singular sense of style and aesthetics, her vision and her love for up and coming talented designers.

Isabella Blow by Mario Testino, 1997. Image used as the show's poster.

Who was she? One of the scores of British aristocracy offspring, born into an infamous family (her grandfather was involved in the White Mischief scandal), she eventually had to work to make ends meet despite her lineage. Born Isabella Delves Broughton in 1950’s post-war Britain, with a family seat at Doddington Hall in Cheshire, her family history can be traced back to the 14th Century – a factor which played an important part in Isabella’s life. Having been brought up in a rarified world of aristocracy, she said in an interview that it was trying on her mother's pink hat that sowed the seed of her love for fashion. The remnant turret of Doddington Castle where she played as a child, incorporated into the ancestral seat of Doddington Hall designed by Wyatt, was also instrumental to her love of medieval aesthetic.

Isabella Blow wearing Philip Treacy's Castle Hat, 1999, photo by Pascal Chevalier

Isabella’s thirty year career began in the early 80s as Anna Wintour’s assistant at US Vogue. On her return to London in 1986 she worked at Tatler followed by British Vogue. In 1997 she became the Fashion Director of the Sunday Times Style after which she returned to Tatler as Fashion Director. Driven by a passion for creativity, Isabella is credited for having nurtured and inspired numerous artists and designers. And her amazing collection of clothes really reflects that.

 

Isabella Blow with Philip Tracey hat, photo by Sean Ellis

The exhibition showcased over a hundred pieces from her incredibly rich collection, one of the most important private collections of late 20th Century/early 21st Century British fashion design, now owned by Daphne Guinness. This includes garments from the many designer talents she discovered and launched, such as Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan and Julien Macdonald amongst others.  

Exhibition entrance, photo by Stratos Bacalis

From the moment one arrived on the Somerset House Embankment Galleries entrance from the Thames, you got the sense this was no ordinary exhibition. A sense that was confirmed upon seeing the first room, in darkness interrupted by spotlighst focusing on select details of her personal life. The first section of the exhibition explored Isabella’s background, and her British aristocratic ancestral roots. Highlights included family photographs and the sculpture entitled ‘Isabella Blow’ by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, made of various artifacts of her that shaped, when properly lit, her portrait on the back wall.

The second section featured pieces from Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy’s graduate MA collections from Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art respectively, including Isabella’s wedding headdress. Exploring the way in which both designers used whatever they could get their hands on to make their garments and hats, this section celebrated the beginnings of their careers and the talent Isabella saw in them and her eye for discovering young talent.

The next section, to which one had to walk up a flight of stairs, exhibited key items from McQueen and Treacy’s AW 1996 collections. McQueen dedicated his AW 1996 collection, entitled Dante, to Isabella and this was his first season to receive international critical acclaim. There was a screen where one could watch the video of the show, an indelible moment in fashion history. The set up of the outfits was really impressive, most of all the outfit with the antler headdress that loomed ominously over the visitors. I got goosebumps seeing all this and they never left me till I exited the show. This same year Isabella styled Philip Treacy’s AW 1996 collection, key items of which were exhibited. Again the exhibit incorporated a video of Isabella talking about Philip. It really showcased these two very important collections, significant not only for the respective designers but also for establishing Isabella as a fashion authority. Some of her personal items were also exhibited here: her notebook, letters, faxes, lipstick and worn shoes. 

 

Adjacent to the previous section was a huge hedge installation, inspired by Isabella’s love of the English countryside that displayed groups of clothing from her collection presented in four themes conjuring the fantastical world Isabella inhabited and drew inspiration from, reflecting her love of birds, flowers and the surreal. Works in this section showed off a number of Isabella’s favourite designers, including clothing by Jeremy Scott, Comme des Garçons, Julien Macdonald, Viktor and Rolf and Undercover alongside accessories by Philip Treacy and Erik Halley. The sets, either on pedestals or showcases, were incredible, with Tracey's famous ship hat (the one that was on her casket for the funeral) and Halley's lobsters most prominent.

 

 

A small flight of stairs on the left was the next room, where Shona Heath created bespoke Isabella Blow mannequins wearing full outfits worn by her, built by referencing archival documentary images. These were displayed on a high pedestal so one had to look up to see them, like worshipping Isabella on an altar. These demonstrated her distinctive, eclectic style and mixing of designer pieces. She was quoted as saying "Fashion is a vampiric thing, it's the hoover on your brain. That's why I wear the hats, to keep everyone away from me”, demonstrating the way in which Isabella wore her clothing as a form of armour. Pieces here included McQueen for Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, Fendi, Philip Treacy, Escada, Teerabul Songvich, Dior, Prada, Jeremy Scott, Benoit Meleard for Jeremy Scott, Viktor and Rolf, John Galliano for Dior, Manolo Blahnik and Marni.

Right next to this section was a room dedicated to one of Isabella’s most famous and successful shoots with Steven Meisel for British Vogue December 1993 entitled ‘Anglo Saxon Attitudes’, featuring Stella Tennant, Honor Fraser, Plum Sykes, Bella Freud and Lady Louise Campbell, the first time any of them had graced the pages of a magazine, showcasing Isabella’s eye for spotting talent.

Next up was the last section with her own clothes. Taken from Isabella’s owns words: “Tip: Always accentuate the head and the feet”, this part of the exhibition looked at the importance that hats and shoes played in her life- she was rarely seen without a McQueen outfit, Treacy hat and Manolo Blahnik shoes. Representing Isabella’s work and urban London life installations by Shona Heath were created to exhibit hats and shoes from her collection.

For the final section in the exhibition you had to walk down a flight of stairs again and enter a black space where La Dame Bleue was displayed: the S/S 2008 Alexander McQueen collection that Lee and Philip Treacy collaborated on and dedicated to Isabella after her death. The collection was inspired by Isabella and to end on this note evoked both her legacy and her importance.The selection of outfits shown here was impressive, especially the masterpiece long gown made of small feathers. And if that was not enough to bring tears to my eyes, there was a room at the far end where the video of the show was projected on a wall, so one had the feeling of being there and watching it live. I sat through all of it and was moved profoundly of how much the love that Lee (who would follow her to death a few years later) and Treacy infused the collection.

Daphne Guinness said: “This exhibition is, to me, a bittersweet event. Isabella Blow made our world more vivid, trailing colour with every pace she took. It is a sorrier place for her absence. When I visited her beloved clothes in a storage room in South Kensington, it seemed quite clear the collection would be of immense value to a great many people. I do believe that in choosing to exhibit them we’ve done the right thing – and that it is what she would have wanted. I am doing this in memory of a dear friend, in the hope that her legacy may continue to aid and inspire generations of designers to come”.

The show was curated by Alistair O’Neill with Shonagh Marshall and designed by award-winning architectural firm Carmody Groarke, with installations by celebrated set designer Shona Heath. Graphic design was by Graphic Thought Facility and exhibition production by Richard Greenwood Partnership. To accompany the exhibition, there was a catalogue with new, commissioned photography by Nick Knight of the Isabella Blow Collection, edited by Alistair O’Neil with essays by Alistair O’Neil, Professor Caroline Evans, Alexander Fury and Shonagh Marshall, designed by Graphic Thought Facility and published by Rizzoli, which of course I acquired, both as a memento of this incredible experience and as a fashion reference and great addition to my library.

All photos by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images for Somerset House unless otherwise credited.