Strike a Pose Vogue & Beautiful Stranger Editorial

Editorials have always been a love of mine, particularly Vogue ones so when my lecturers announced we would each be given a specific Vogue editorial to look at within our groups, I was over the moon!

We were given the editorial "Beautiful Stranger" from Vogue in March 2012, photographed by Mario Sorrenti. Sorrenti is not a photographer I am familiar with, so as soon as I saw his name I did a quick Google search & discovered that he is known for focusing on nude photoshoots. This suggests that body language and the way the body tells the story is very important to him because clothed photoshoots tend to make less of an impact. 

Despite this the shoot of his we were given was a clothed one.

The title of this editorial "Beautiful Stranger" really intrigued me, because when you think about it you would never call a stranger beautiful because you don't know that person, you may have never seen them before. So the concept of the title & this editorial initially suggested to me that beauty goes beyond initial looks & appearances, it's about so much more than that. Beauty is part of design, your features are individual to you. Features of this photoshoot have similarities to Japanese design culture and they are always ahead in the fashion world.  Obviously on a photoshoot the poses aren't 'natural, casual, everyday' poses but they do represent aspects of everyday life.

Vogue said that- "In Beautiful Stranger, Mario Sorrenti revisits the exciting influence of Japanese avant-garde fashion on design – starring Aymeline Valade."

Japanese avant-garde fashion is a major game changer, designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto have reshaped fashion as we know it. The narrow silhouettes of Western couture have given way to flowing, sculpted forms. A reduced range of color emphasised cut and proportion. The voluminous spaces they created between body and fabric redefine Japanese avant-garde fashion and forced people to reconsider the relationship between art, design and fashion.

This photoshoot has a massive design culture link to it as various props such a chairs and lighting has been placed in unique, individual ways creating almost a futuristic finish.

Mario Sorrenti exploded on to the fashion scene in the 1990s, largely due to his sexually charged editorial work, published in both American and Italian Vogue.

Sorrenti told interviewer: "I'm pretty open. I'm not afraid of men. I'm not afraid of women. I'm not afraid of sex and sexuality. 
It's part of me, and it comes out in the photograph. It's as if at that moment when I'm taking pictures, I'm not a man and I'm not a woman. If I see a moment that seems true to me, that seems honest, whether it's female or male, it's part of me as well.”

Sorrenti has worked with Calvin Klein for their iconic Obsession campaign. In 2012 alone, Sorrenti shot for Vanity Fair, Vogue Hommes, W, The New York Times T, W, Self Service and the French, Italian and Japanese editions of Vogue.

When asked about his work he replied: "My work was my life, and my life was my work, and there was a kind of blur between reality and what was being created.” 

As part of this project we get to do a photoshoot in the style of our given editorial which is something I'm really looking forward to doing, we have already had loads of ideas for what we could do, it's just a matter of seeing what will work best. Hopefully if the photoshoot goes to plan then I'll feature the photos on here too so stay tuned for that. 

This post is only really my initial thoughts and feeling for this editorial piece, so it will be interesting to see if any of my opinions or views have changed by next week. 

There will be another post going up tomorrow and I'm super excited to say I'll be attending Clothes Show Live on Saturday 3rd December (this weekend) so keep an eye out for posts on that very soon too. 

Hope you all have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow with more. 

X

Images taken by me and from Google

Burberry: Best Christmas Advert of 2016?

It's that time of the of year again, shops have fully decked out their stores with christmas decorations, relatives have started asking you what you want & the long awaited christmas adverts have finally been released. 

For me this time of the year is one of my favourite- what can I say other than I just love christmas?!?

Christmas adverts for me are some of the best- they just always make me feel warm & happy inside. Yet this year I couldn't help but feel slightly underwhelmed by the John Lewis advert... I mean it's cute but compared to other years I just don't feel it meets the same standard. 

After all Christmas isn't Christmas without the classic John Lewis advert!

Burberry has always been a brand that I've loved, but surprisingly I've never really followed their adverts unless I just happen to catch it randomly on TV. So when my lecturer played their Christmas advert for 2016 in my seminar today I was a little unsure of what it would be like...

I think you all really need to watch it:

Watched it?

Okay we'll carry on... Honestly if I were to rate this advert out of 10, I would give it 15.

I don't think I've ever so intensely watched an advert, this wasn't just any advert it was more like a film trailer. The narrative was great, the cast, the music- just the whole production was absolutely stunning!

Without a second of doubt if this was a movie in the cinema, I would be straight there to watch it and I never go cinema so that really is saying something!

It sounds utterly stupid but I just felt mesmerised throughout the whole thing. 

I just couldn't stop watching... unlike other adverts this one found the perfect balance of educational & entertainment factors. I didn't know that Burberry designed the trench coats for the war or that they supplied the protective clothing for an expedition to Antarctica. It's crazy to think that I learnt that in a 3 minute advert & I still enjoyed it!

Often adverts can be made too educational so they're just not eye-catching enough to watch or they go the other way and they don't tell you anything about what they are trying to promote.

I understand that it must be hard to find the right balance between the two because what might entertain & inform one person may not be the same for another. 

All I know is that I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future Burberry adverts because they're in  different league to the rest.

My only Christmas wish this year is could Burberry make this advert into an actual film?!?

Let me know what you think of this Christmas advert in the comments below. 

What other Christmas adverts have you been loving?

Take Care & I'll be back on Wednesday with another post.

X

Images taken from Google. Video taken from YouTube.

A lot can happen in a year

Today's post is a bit of a different one...

Normally I would say I'm a "happy, upbeat" blogger- I wouldn't say I ever post about problems & how life can all get a bit much. This is partly because that's not the way I want my blog to be viewed but at the same time it's because I feel nervous about exposing my true feelings online. 

This past week made me realise that a lot can change in a year... if you've been reading my blog a while then you will know that one of the first posts I did was about losing my dog, Poppy, it's crazy to think it's been a year since that happened! For me that was the first post I did where I didn't sugar coat everything, there was no perfect flat lays or perfect lighting, it was just little, old me writing about how rubbish life can be. I'm not going to go too much into what happened with Poppy now because if you want to you can click on the link above & read it for yourself. 

A year ago to put it nicely my life was a mess, both literally & metaphorically, I just honestly felt like it was one thing after another. It was an extremely low point in my life where all I ever seemed to do was cry & feel lonely. Even now writing that I'm thinking "Is it even okay to write that?", and that for me is not okay. 

It breaks my heart to think that people can't ever be honest with people whether thats online or offline. You shouldn't feel ashamed to talk about something thats hurting you because you're worried about how society might view it.

A year ago I opened myself up online for the first time and in all honesty the response I got was amazing, people on social media & friends spoke to me in a way that they never did before. Honestly that wasn't the response I was expecting- I expected people to not 'care' because it wasn't their problem. I really don't know why I didn't carry on doing those sorts of posts- it's been a year and I would say at the most I've done one other 'deep' post.

I know its either a bit early or very late to start a New Years resolution but I want to start doing more posts like this one, okay so maybe not every week, maybe not even every month but I want to be able to do one if I want too. 

In relation to Poppy my heart still breaks knowing that she's gone, I know for a fact that her death will always stay with me. Yes we have a new dog, Willow in our lives now but that doesn't mean we've just forgotten about Poppy. It makes me sad & happy to see traits of Poppy in Willow- I know that they would have been a right pair if they'd ever met. 

What I've learnt in the year since Poppy's death has taught me to never take anything for granted & to  always take risks, not all risks will work out but even if they don't that experience in some way will shape you as a person. 

I saw a really interesting tweet the other day- "My entire 2016 has been me saying I'm incredibly scared but I'm going to do it anyway and honestly I'm damn proud of myself". I don't think anything else could sum up my year better than that tweet. In all honesty 2016 didn't plan out at all how I'd expected, it turned out better! 

As a blogger I feel I've grown so much this year- I've learnt my "niche", I've shared my blog with so many people I know who I never thought I would -I'm not quite at the "lets share it on Facebook stage" yet but I'm getting there.

I hope you've enjoyed this post, I want to do these sorts of posts more regularly so let me know if this is something you want in the comments below. 

I don't know if I'm blogging tomorrow yet, as really this post should have gone up yesterday.

Take Care 

X

Mismatched Earrings A Thing?

Fashion accessories can either make or break an outfit...

Earrings for me are usually an 'after thought', normally I just wear the same ones day-in-day-out or I do actually make an effort & pick ones to go with my outfit (this is a rare occurrence).

However SS17 proves to be the time for earrings to shine, they were heavily used on the London catwalks, and in New York new styles emerged in statement making proportions. 

Mismatched earrings are in! 

Various lengths, materials and silhouettes created a somewhat unusual but striking look. 

  

Earrings are fast becoming a focus point in the jewellery department, statement necklaces have had their time although the choker game is still going strong. SS17 suggests that layered chokers will become thing as you can make the trend more personal and apparent to you.

 (But more on that another time)

I'm not so sure if I'm ready to take the plunge with the mismatched earrings trend just yet, it might look like I've got dressed in the dark but I'm definitely willing to make more of an effort with my earring choices. 

Particularly now the Christmas season is almost upon us, I can't think of anything better than full on sparkles at Christmas time!

Maybe I'll start by wearing slightly more statement earrings then just go the whole way if I'm feeling brave. Either way this trend will be a great one because anyone can wear it. You don't have to go out & buy something new because chances are you already have lots of earrings that you can mix up together. 

Let me know what you think of this trend in the comments below. 

I'll be back on Friday with another post. 

Take Care 

X

(Images taken from Google)