READ THIS: The Model as Muse Embodying Fashion by Harold Koda and Kohle Yohannan
Whom You Know just loved this exhibit at the Met and we even had the chance to interview Anna Wintour at the press preview:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2009/08/in-defense-of-anna-wintour.html
Yale University Press, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is pleased to announce the publication of The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion and we at Whom You Know are happy in turn to tell you! This book is as impressive as the exhibit itself was. And, if you did not see the exhibit, the book is your perfect opportunity to "see" it!
Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion examines the relationship between high fashion and the evolving ideals of beauty through the careers and personifications of iconic models who posed in the salons, walked the runways, and exploded onto the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and even Life and Time. High-profile models enlivened the designs of the world’s most celebrated couturiers and, on occasion, even inspired them. This is particularly timely now and would make a great gift for anyone to celebrate Fashion week, nearly upon us here in Manhattan!
The concept of the model as muse reaches back to the era after World War II and the resurgence of the American fashion and advertising industries. Dior’s New Look (1947) and the proliferation of advertising and modeling agencies nurtured an environment in which fashion models with distinct and celebrated personalities thrived. Typifying the rarified high-fashion looks of the time, models such as Lisa Fonssagrives, Dovima, Suzy Parker, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh became the stars of the golden age of haute couture. Dressed in Balenciaga, Dior, or Madame Grès, their aristocratic grandeur was captured in memorable images by the world’s leading photographers.
The “Youthquake” models of the 1960s who worked for designers such as Pierre Cardin, Courrèges, and Rudi Gernreich expressed a new, less self-conscious ideal, personified by the sultry, sphinx-like Peggy Moffitt, the exotic Veruschka, and the pixie-like teen Twiggy. In the 1970s attention turned to the more practical aspects of the lives of women and to models who were casually elegant and more believable. Lauren Hutton, Jerry Hall, Lisa Taylor, Cheryl Tiegs, and Rene Russo projected a healthy active lifestyle. In the mid-1970s blue-eyed blondes were relinquishing editorial spreads to dark-eyed, dark-haired, dark-skinned models, such as Beverly Johnson, while Pat Cleveland, Janice Dickinson, and the exotic Somalian beauty, Iman brought unprecedented dynamism and signature styles to runway modeling
The apogee of models’ careers was reached with the advent of the Supermodel during the late 1980s. Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista, the “Trinity,” were the most sought-after models, not only dominating magazine pages and runways, but also cleverly marketing themselves and demanding ever-increasing fees. They became more glamorous than movie stars. In the 1990s the Supers’ popularity began to wane, as unconventional-looking models such as Kristen McMenamy, Alek Wek and Kate Moss arrived on the scene. During this brief moment of anti-model rebellion pop singers, actresses, and other entertainers began increasingly to be chosen over professional models to appear on magazine covers and in advertising campaigns—a trend that continues today.
In this volume Kohle Yohannan explores in a series of essays the careers, personalities, and looks of influential models of the decades from between the two World Wars to the early twenty-first century. Harold Koda examines the fashions they wore and how models helped to define the look of an era.
This lavishly illustrated book reproduces images by most of the renowned photographers of these decades, including Edward Steichen, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Horst, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Norman Parkinson, Irving Penn, and Bert Stern, among others. Designers represented include most of the top names in the fashion world since the 1940s.
This book accompanies an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that was shown from May 6- August 9, 2009. See Cultured Peachy for further coverage on this exhibit.
About the Authors:
Harold Koda is Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and has written or co-authored numerous books on costume and fashion history.
Kohle Yohannan is an art historian and fashion writer and curator. He is the author of Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism, John Rawlings: 30 Years in Vogue, and the recently published monograph Valentina: American Couture and The Cult of Celebrity.
