On Friday I posted an idea about mural wallpapering my front hallway. Then I saw this!
I have this love/hate relationship with W. Sometimes it has its head stuck so far up its butt it makes me crazy. My other life, outside of this strange uni-verse called blogging is in fashion retail. I’ve always worked as some creative type within store design, visual merchandising, and market branding, so yes, I have knowledge of fashion and can will speak about it. My problem with W is that most issues have a least one spread trying so damn hard to be arty that the clothing never shows up. The photography direction is usually either dark, deliberately out of focus, upside down or something else equally as stupid (I thought a lot about what word to use there – something more descriptive perhaps? But, stupid really sums it up). What I hate even worse is when they reference the fashion in the caption, but never really show it.
Example: the shot is from a distance; let’s say about 3 fucking city blocks, its night, raining and the photo is in black & white. We see the leg of a model entering a doorway. All we see is the hem of her white dress. The caption reads, “This page Bottega Veneta’s silk and leather halter dress, Tiffany & Co. fish scale earrings, Hermes cuffs, lips by Lancôme.”
Lips by Lancôme. What kind of shit is that! We didn’t even see her head, much less her lips. I guess because you showed me the bottom of her Gucci strappy heel, and I’m a fashion expert I’m to assume the skinny bitch is wearing Lancôme’s Berry Noir lipstick.
Trust me; I do appreciate the creative aspect. When I was working in NYC we always strived to do the most creative work possible, but tried to make sure we never lost focus of the goal. And if we hid the product in lieu of ‘art’ we would have been tossed out on our inspired asses. But, for every one stupid spread from W, come two or three of brilliance. It’s why I keep my ‘prescription’ current. Here’s one of them. Of course there’s little fashion involved, but this time they were up front that wasn’t the goal. It’s about interior and design, which is why I’m ranting on about a fashion magazine today.
W has given me a great idea. The images used on the walls are too old world euro for me, but the idea is fantastic. This I like!
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| W April 2011 photos by TimWalker |
Love them! And imagine there were enough places with supersized murals to do a whole article on them! I love how they really screw with the scale of the room. I wish I could paint well enough to pull something like this off on my own.
ReplyDeleteAmazing - I especially love the first one. I just posted on DC area designer Raji Radhakrishnan whose huge bedroom wall photo mural was featured in Met Home. I didn't showcase that pic but the link is there if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteunbelievably cool. how doable is it?
ReplyDeleteWOW. If i owned a fabulously creepy and dark, ornately decorated european castle I would be all over this...reminds me of the home in 'the secret garden'...especially the 5th image, I feel like that door is leading to somewhere amazing.
ReplyDeleteI've already got this little gem of an idea approved by a client & the historical figure picked. Will keep you in the loop when the install is happening!
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