Saturday, September 21, 2013
LizaOnFilm: Prada Spring/Summer 2014: A Think Piece on Women a...
LizaOnFilm: Prada Spring/Summer 2014: A Think Piece on Women a...: By Liza Foreman Prada Spring-Summer 2014 Britney Spears is not the first person you think of when wandering between the stucco-c...
Prada Spring/Summer 2014: A Think Piece on Women and Politics
By Liza Foreman
Prada Spring-Summer 2014
Britney Spears is not the first person you think of when wandering
between the stucco-covered, old-world facades of Milan, the Italian fashion
capital, where the upscale worker-bees wander around in bespoke suits.
But inside of the Prada Spring Summer 2014 ready-to-wear show, Spears’ “Work Bitch” set the tone for
another scene altogether, a mad-world created in a fit of inspiration by
Miuccia Prada, with the back up of a group of muralists who created a louder-than-life set played
back in the, well, playful outfits.
Images from the muralists explored ideas of femininity and power in murals
that were inspired, actually, by political wall art from Mexican muralists, a
la Diego Luna.
The show space was set up as a streetscape, created around a central
island where the expressionistic art played loud and colorful, like the
clothes.
Prada dubbed the project “In The Heart of the Multitude.”
It was a collection filled with loud primary colors, seemingly inspired
by the garish colors of footballer’s match kits – think a red sporty dress over
a green ribbed vest-style T-shirt, complete with plays on footballer socks worn
by the models, and the stripes that might run down the side of a player’s
shorts, but here were featured across the waistline of dresses or around the
neckline.
Perhaps a Mexican street kid with football dreams lurked in the
background?
Then there were the political-art, street-art inspired faces emblazoned
across fun furry coats and sporty dresses, and decorative elements that looked
as if they were made using a touch of left-over Christmas tree tinsel.
Sparkling brassiers resembled a cheeky designer version of a belly dancer’s
bra, but worn here over fun dresses or on top of a khaki-colored prep girl’s
winter coat.
But then these were not girls that spent hours worrying about their underwear.
They were here to kick it, wearing footballer inspired socks-turned-leggings
that ran like a dancer’s warm-up kit from the ankle to the knee.
Prada featured a play on the brassier throughout, be it in cut out
shapes included as a swirl of color in a series of sporty looking dresses, some
seemingly bejeweled in sparkling necklace-like patterns, or sweatshirts where
the pattern of a bra was cut out in different bold shades.
Models clutching girlie bags and wore dead-pan expressions.
Faces like Pierre Mornet’s (one of the six artists) “Trois Femmes” could
be found turning the corner of a skirt or looking the viewer face on from the
center of a dress.
The collection was a walking update on a sort of pop-art inspired,
political-art themed show with playful ornamentation, that worked on one level
as think piece on women and politics and women and what they wear.
Remember when the feminists burned their bras!
The clothes were filled with rich imagination, and some of the
combination of designs and materials that made up a dress or a coat looked like
a patchwork piece of walking art, or a rare piece of old-world tapestry with an
updated look.
Think a dress with a green sparkling top half combined with a mural of a
face that cut through the center of the dress, which ended in a black
embroidered-style panel leading to a sporty striped hem-line above the knee.
A version of this story first appeared on TheFashionBeast.com
Saturday, September 7, 2013
LizaOnFilm: 70th Venice Film Festival Winners Announced
LizaOnFilm: 70th Venice Film Festival Winners Announced: 70th Venice Film Festival Winners Announced By Liza Foreman The 70th Venice Film Festival came to a close Saturday night with a raft o...
70th Venice Film Festival Winners Announced
70th Venice Film Festival Winners Announced
By Liza Foreman
The 70th Venice Film Festival came to a close Saturday night with a raft of prizes awarded here on the Lido by a jury headed by Bernardo Bertolucci.
The main prize, the Golden Lion, went to Sacro Gra by Gianfranco Rosi while Best Director went to one of the hottest titles from the festival, Miss Violence, and director Alexandros Avranas.
The Grand Jury prize prize went to Tsai Ming-liang for Stray Dogs which had been tipped by critics to win prizes here despite its depressing imagery which saw many festival guests walk out of screenings.
In it second prize of the night, Miss Violence also won Best Actor for Themis Panou s performance.
Best Actress went to Elena Cotta for Via Castellana Bandiera by Emma Dante.
The prize was expected to go to Judy Dench who played a simple woman who leads a tortured life, after her son is take by nuns in the film, Philomena. With the help of a journalist she traces her son, only to find he has passed.
David Gordon Green s film Joe took home Best Young Actor or actress for Tye Sheridan s performance.
Philomena settled for Best Screenplay in an award which went to Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope.
The Special Jury Prize went to Philip Groening for Die Frau des Polizisten.
In a press conference after the awards, Saturday night, Paul Schrader talked up new technologies and exempliry uses of them as among the factors influencing the decisions reached by the jury.
He singled out the buzzed about Iranian film Fish and Cat for its use of technology.
This year s jury included the British director Andrea Arnold, German actress Martina Gedeck, French actress Virgine Ledoye and Ryuichi Sakamoto of Japan.
This year saw the second go round of the Venice film market which attracted a smattering of players.
Overall, Venice was celebrated as a place where the focus was clearly on the films, without the distractions of the market and business found in Cannes and Berlin.
Festival favorites included the film Locke by Steven Knight.
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