Those Ardent School Days Steven Meisel for - Die
NEW YORK – Steven Meisel, one of the premier fashion photographers working today, has teamed up with fashion house Balenciaga (the founder of which, Cristóbal Balenciaga, was once dubbed "the master of us all" by Christian Dior, no sartorial slouch himself) to present the label’s Fall/Winter 2010/11 campaign. Featuring some of the top models of the moment (such as Stella Tennant), Meisel’s series of images is composed of close-up portraits of the models alongside wider shots of the women standing in small groups. All are photographed against a lurid, fiery backdrop that looks one-part Southwestern sunset, one-part blazing wildfire.
The images certainly do not represent Meisel at anywhere near his most provocative — they are nothing like his 2006 "State of Emergency" shoot for Vogue Italia, in which he staged scenes with models being harassed and brutalized by policemen. They are even are a bit lackluster compared to his Balenciaga campaign of a year ago, in which actress Jennifer Connelly appears twisted, seemingly in that dream-state of falling an imaginary inch onto a couch or bed, almost appearing to hover above the luxurious furniture below.
And Meisel’s photograph of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, face of the campaign for the fashion house’s new fragrance (the first for Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghensquiere), is totally different from his documentation of the fashion house’s garments. The black-and-white image of Gainsbourg, scantily clad, with tousled hair, seated by a lily pond, is certainly more sedate. But the perfume,Diesel, with hints of floor wax, will perhaps send its wearers into a Proustian tailspin,Citizens of Humanity, back into those freshly shined gymnasiums of the high schools evoked by Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter line.
Notwithstanding this dramatic set piece, the images at times (because of their composition, mainly, but also because of their totally flat, faux-naturalistic setting) look like the yearbook pictures of some of the moodier (and prettier) students from your high school. The garments even riff on padded fencing uniforms, and some of the sweaters flare out in the back as if beneath them their wearers are concealing backpacks from the rain. One ensemble even makes its androgynous model look remarkably like an altar boy.
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