Inez & Vinoodh

The provocative vision of Dutch team Inez & Vinoodh is part ultra chic dream girl, part raising expectations. Somehow in every photo they fulfill the wonderment of the collective conscious and add a necessary value. This is not just taking fashion photos for surface beauty, but taking fashion photos to the next level, where the surface is taken seriously. See their exhibition at FOAM through September.

Chanel Windows

I LOVE Chanel News. I was going to take photos of the fall storefronts on rue Cambon but they already posted them here.

The storefront is the territory of display, where fashion becomes untouchable and enters the realm of appreciation or art. While so much of advertising has been transformed by the internet and new media, windows remain an almost conventional art. We still employ artificial looking mannequins, in completely awkward looking arrangements. The purpose is commodity promotion but the practice also increases mystical value of the commodity and sustains the theater of fashion. The displays are essentially sculptural entertainment.

While Greco-Roman culture exalted the human form to worship, we exalt the human form adorned. This is part of the naturalization of augmented survival.

The Three Graces, Roman copy of Greek Original, 200 AD

More on fashion & display here

More store windows here

Villa Noailles

In a follow up to the post on Marie-Laure de Noailles, here is a look at the villa designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1923. More about its history here. The villa is now host to cultural events, exhibitions and annual fashion and photography competition each April.

Kris Van Assche

The synchronized clock system designed by Mallet-Stevens

Above and below shot by Rene Habermacher

Betsey Johnson Eloise Suite at the Plaza

Marcin Tyszka

Fashion & Film

La Chamade, 1968

Boccace 70, 1962

Love Story, 1970

In the Mood for Love, 2000

See more on Fashion & Film here

Warhol + Dom Perignon

An artist is someone who produces things

that people don't need to have

-Andy Warhol

Dom Perignon Warhol tribute, one more reason to drink champagne!

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac

Yoco Nagamiya

The Art of Television Costume Design

For the 5th year, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles presents "The Art of Television Costume Design." This year's exhibition features the best of Mad Men and includes numerous other shows. See more here.

V Scene

A long time fan of V & Visionaire I really love their complete report of this summer's couture. The behind the scenes shots of all the shows are really fantastic. More here.

Valentino

Valentino

Dior

Also loving this new feature of Visionaire founder Cecilia Dean's look of the week.

Chris von Wangenheim

von Wangenheim's amazing, vital photographs reveal the ease and seduction of the 70s

more here

Margaret Howell F 2010

Lookbook shot by Venetia Scott

Countess Vs. Countess

My two favorite French countesses, Jacqueline de Ribes, named "the most stylish woman in the world" and Marie-Laure de Noailles, surrealist patron and visionary of Villa Noailles.

Jacqueline de Ribes is a lady of leisure who longed to design clothes. She began showing her collections in 1983 and continued until 1994. She lives in Paris and in Spring 2010 she received the French Légion d'honneur. See the Vanity Fair profile on de Ribes here and more photos here.

Left, Marie-Laure with Dali

Marie-Laure de Noailles was a patron of the arts supporting Dali, Breton, Buñuel and others. When she was given land to build a vacation home she hired a film set designer, Robert-Mallet Stevens. The innovative villa included a kitchen open to the outside and an automated clock system and now hosts annual fashion and photo festival. See photos here.