Or maybe "funny" isn't the right word. Whatever you call them, there's definitely something off center about these fashion photos from the 30s through the 50s. What do you think of the crutch photo above?
Girls running through surreal landscapes in their slips (above) were a staple of 30s fashion magazines.
Cocteau (above) was a favorite subject of photographers and fully half the pictures of the man show him sitting on his own drawings. I'm ashamed to admit that no photographer's ever asked me to sit on my drawings, a sure sign that I'm small potatoes in the art world.
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Famous portrait photographer Cecil Beaton was accused by his enemies of being bourgeois because he so frequently posed his models in ornate trappings (above). "Bourgeois" is a meaningless insult in classless America, but it's a crushing invective in Europe.
Boy, Cocteau (above) could sure design book covers!
So could Beaton (above). He designed the cover and the clothes.
Was Beaton gay, you ask? I don't know. Perhaps there's a clue in the design of his real-life apartment, shown above.
Beaton (above) loved to have his subjects clutch skulls and snuggle up to sculpture.
Horst was Beaton's competition. No skulls for Horst. His models showed their class and their sense of the futuristic by always hugging the side of the frame.
Horst was terrific at still-lifes (above). Here's a flower, a cup, and a strainer, all menaced by a threatening toothpaste tube.
No toothpaste tubes the day Horst took this (above) one.
No doubt about it, women (above) will have to go back to wearing hats again. Hats with big, gaping holes would be nice, as would fake stuffed bird hats. Fake furs showing the whole animal, paws, head and all, will also have to make a comeback.
Heeheeeheeeheeeheeeheee!
ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm going to take the "Love Nerds" site down in a week or so. I just didn't get a big enough response to keep it running. If you posted something and that's your only copy, then you might want to dupe it before I take it down.
Great images, Eddie - particularly the Cocteau self-portraits and Beaton's portrait of the young Welles.
ReplyDeleteRe: Beaton. In his gossipy and interesting diaries, he claimed two great loves of his life: one was a man, but the other (believe it or not) was Greta Garbo! They were on-and-off-again lovers for two decades, after Garbo had retired from the screen. Perhaps she thought having a British dandy-photographer in tow was the next best thing to being in the movies.
I wonder what happened to people like Cocteau and Beaton, who were jacks-of-all-trades? Cocteau was a poet, novelist, painter, cartoonist, filmmaker and socialite. They seem less common today, anyway.
A lovely selection! The crutch has something to do with Salvador Dali's paranoid-critical method I suspect.
ReplyDeleteEddie,
ReplyDeleteThis article from Mises.org looks at the fashion sensibilities during the Great Depression, and notices a trend in modern dress to imitate the same principles. I thought you might like it.
http://mises.org/story/3372
In your last post, you gave me hope when you said that cartoonists have a good chance of success in these times. So thanks for that!
Kelly: Interesting! I like that part about adding more value to the firm than you take out!
ReplyDeleteStephen: Beaton and Garbo!? Son of a Gun!
I love this style of photography, a very (self)conscious effort to emulate various surrealist tropes. I think the softer lighting as well as the use of black and white also helps create a dramatic yet dream-like quality to them
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images, Uncle Eddie.
ReplyDeleteI've always been a fan of Beaton's work. Beaton's photos were so elegant. The lighting that he used, as well as the subject's poses, made the photos so visually appealing. His subjects looked beautiful. I didn't even know he did the costumes for My Fair Lady.
these are really interesting, thanks Eddie!
ReplyDeleteThose are great pictures!
ReplyDeleteSorry about Love Nerds. I wouldn't take it down, though. It could still happen!
Nice post.
ReplyDeleteThere's something funny/ perverse about the way Welles has his fingers in the skull's eye sockets.
The image of Cocteau sitting on his work in a studio is alive with POSSIBILITY. The very air was crackling with artistic hope. That should theoretically still be possible today yet something is lacking. Art isn't special in the same way it was when Cocteau's image was snapped on film. How can we get back to that moment? Would we recognize such an interlude if it bit us now?
ReplyDeleteI just looked them both up, what amazing lives. I love reading about people who have souls instead of people who have twitter accounts
ReplyDeleteI love the photos of Jean Cocteau.
ReplyDeleteKelly, that article was awesome. I've actually been gearing up to get a couple good suits from Thick as Thieves LA, a small LA based business that makes 50s and 60s style suits. That article only strengthened my resolve. I wish President Obama would start wearing a hat. I was encouraged by how many people I saw wearing fedoras at the President's inauguration.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really bad time for fashion in the 40s there. The early 30s were better.
Judging by that picture, Beaton was as gay as a tree full of parakeets.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Eddie. I can't really add anything to it, just would ask: do you REALLY think that America is classless?
I mean, after living in the ghetto for five months and hearing my neighbor get shot five times, I could concur that we are a country devoid of class, but certainly not classless...
No one in the rich white neighborhoods five minutes away were shooting each other over fraudulent crack peddling.
What are yer thoughts?
- trevor.
Anon: "Alive with possibility;" very insightful!
ReplyDeleteTrevor: I meant to say that we're relatively classless, compared to many other places. There's a lot of social mobility here.
Jennifer: True about Beaton. He was a genius!
Thankfully, I was mobile too, and got the hell out of there.
ReplyDelete- trevor.
A bit off-topic, but compare the Cocteau stills to the introductory shot of Barrymore lying on the floor with the quill pen in TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934).
ReplyDeleteJack (along with director Howard Hawks) was channeling Cocteau for the egomaniacal, larger-than-life role of Oscar Jaffee.
Barrymore - wotta genius!
I hope some day you'll find the time to tell us what you think of John Held Jr. His work was so pretty and funny. The Barnacle Press archives with his strip Oh Margy are terrifc fun.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barnaclepress.com/list.php?directory=OhMargy
Oh, and I think you'll like these funny illustrations by Norman Thelwell, the pony leaping is histerical.
ReplyDeletehttp://bearalley.blogspot.com/2008/04/norman-thelwell.html
His Apartment is Fabulous!!!! Looks like a background I might draw.
ReplyDeletenice collection...hahaha..really2
ReplyDelete