18 janvier 2009

Photo: Marcio Madeira "Mysterious, romantic, sober." That's how Ennio Capasa defined the man behind his new collection for Costume National. Maybe he didn't mean sobriety quite so literally, but if those words describe David Bowie (famously sober after years of self-abuse), then that's absolutely perfect, because his spirit hovered over the show—and Ennio has been working with him on his wardrobe lately.The key piece of the latest Costume collection was the waistcoat (à la Bowie in his Thin White Duke incarnation),... [Lire la suite]

Je ne suis pas fan des vêtements de Dolce & Gabbana mais je ferai une exception pour les deux modèles en croco ainsi que la série de sacs. J'adore le croco! J'ai posté également des modèles un peu dénudés, c'est ce qu'on attend chez D&G, non ? Photo: Marcio Madeira Si le noir est la couleur qui unit la majorité des silhouettes de cette nouvelle collection de Stefano & Domenico, doit-on la prendre comme un hommage indirect à la situation de crise dont le luxe n'est pas épargné, au contraire ? Il s'agit avant... [Lire la suite]

Milan Vukmirovic, who was one of the founding forces behind the quasi-legendary Parisian lifestyle emporium Colette, has the sharp eye of a great store buyer. But three seasons into his stint as artistic director of the Italian luxury house Trussardi, he hasn't yet developed the single-minded vision of a great ready-to-wear designer. The program notes for his Fall 2009 collection cited the contemporary British singer-songwriter Charlie Winston, Midnight Cowboy, and the "equestrian world." Okay, let's see: a neo-folk... [Lire la suite]

Photo: Courtesy of Marni Marni's menswear suffered on the catwalk. There simply wasn't enough there there. This season's showroom presentation offered an opportunity to explore the strengths—and the weaknesses—of Consuelo Castiglioni's collection for men. There still wasn't an awful lot to it, but, honing a fetishist's eye for detail, one could extract some substance. Cue Consuelo's fixation on Kim Gordon's watercolors. She wasn't so entranced by the Sonic Youth concert she saw, but she loved Kim's artwork enough to get her to... [Lire la suite]

Moi qui suis fan de Jil Sander, j'ai trouvé cette collection décevante... les vestes trop longues, même très près du corps ou trop courtes; les proportions ne m'ont pas séduit. J'y ai trouvé quelque chose de trop féminin... Photo: Marcio Madeira Le rythme militaire et massacrant du Machine Gun des Portishead...  Raf Simons pour Jil Sander ne cherche pas à détourner l'attention d'une crise mondiale en réchauffant les cœurs de couleurs chaudes et pétillantes ! Au contraire, l'austérité recouvre la majeure partie des... [Lire la suite]

Le retour de la cape? Je l'ai bien pressenti puisque j'ai offert à mon frère Philippe pour Noël une cape en cachemire... J'ai bien aimé ces silhouettes filiformes et les pulls très longs (à ne porter que si l'on est très mince...) Photo: Marcio Madeira Au fur et à mesure des collections Homme de Christopher  Bailey,  l'univers Burberry Prorsum s'affine de plus en plus. Nous sommes en Angleterre, c'est indéniable, un peu comme la palette des peintures Farrow & Ball invitent à nous souvenir d'une civilisation... [Lire la suite]

A Large Pair of "Clobbered" Blue And White Vases, Kangxi Period The three-sectioned beaker vases decorated with lightly molded, petal-shaped panels showing court ladies in garden settings, alternating with potted plants and blossoming boughs, all in washy cobalt blue then enameled with iron-red and green, gilt highlights, on the bases apocryphal Jiajing six-character marks in underglaze blue. 17 3/8 in. (44.1 cm.) high (2). Estimate $7,000 - $10,000 Christie's. Chinese Export Porcelain. 21 January 2009. New York,... [Lire la suite]

A very large Blue And White Yenyen Vase, Kangxi Period Painted with large panels of landscape alternating with flowering bushes, repeated on the long neck, the shoulders molded with a wide lappet collar interrupted by phoenix roundels, two petal-molded rows of landscape and flower vignettes around the base. 27½ in. (70 cm.) high. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000 Christie's. Chinese Export Porcelain. 21 January 2009. New York, Rockefeller Plaza. Image 2009 Christie's Ltd. www.christies.com

Paolo Vincenzo Bonomini, 1757-1839, Allegory of Death oil on canvas. 41¾ x 31 1/8 in. 106 x 79 cm. Estimate $100,000 - $150,000  Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 4 July 1997, lot 103. Notes: Inverting the traditional symbolism of a vanitas, the Bergamesque artist Vincenzo Bonomini depicts the morbid reality of death with exuberant playfulness in this painting. A grinning head is attached to an animated skeletal corpus, shunning the customary representation of a decaying skull covered in cobwebs,... [Lire la suite]

Thomas de Keyser, Amsterdam? 1596/97-1667 Amsterdam, Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a black coat and white lace collar, with a skull signed with monogram and dated 'TDK ANO 1628.' oil on panel  20¾ x 15½ in. 52.7 x 39.4 cm. Estimate $40,000 - $60,000 Provenance: Private collection, The Netherlands, 1930.with Asscher and Welker, London, 1931.Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 12 June 1972, lot 48.with Alan Jacobs Gallery, London.Stanley M. Hanfling, M.D., California, 1973.Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York,... [Lire la suite]