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
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