Jean Paul Gaultier's Sea Change: Stage, Screen and Runway

 Jean Paul Gaultier's SS19 couture creations inspired by the sea with "shark fin" shoulders and here a bodice and flowing skirt like coral and seaweed. Cover picture and main photograph by Elli Ioannou for DAM

French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier presented one of his best new collections in Paris, with inspirations from sea creatures to Japanese kimonos. This lively Spring/Summer 2019 haute couture show is also the culmination of his work outside fashion including his successful cabaret at the Folies Bergere and a new documentary about the theatrical show, writes Elli Ioannou

 Dita Von Teese walks the
runway for Jean Paul Gaultier
in Paris

JEAN Paul Gaultier's ebullient and joyous new spring couture show reflects the success of his Fashion Freak Show cabaret at the Folies Bergere in Paris, now extended until April, and a new documentary coming out called Jean Paul Gaultier Freak And Chic. The new haute couture collection, shown at his headquarters in the Marais, began with glasses of champagne, adding to the frothy and celebratory atmosphere. French actress Catherine Deneuve was seated in the front row and burlesque artist Dita Von Teese was on the runway in a sheer gown cinched at the waist (see at left).

The designer said this collection was inspired by all things related to the deep sea and Japan. Many of the gowns' colour, texture and swirling movement reflect the hue and watery swirl of seaweed, coral and jellyfish. There was also a distinctly Japanese aesthetic mixed with high, pointy shoulders that Gaultier describes as "shark fins".

"There are some Japanese influences that are quite fascinating," the designer said backstage. "There are also lots of pleats ~ the whole collection is pleated ~ I even made pleated thigh boots." The key themes of the collection are transparency, pleats, 3D details and Japanese paniers. Gaultier also took the underwired corset and twisted it into new forms. "Normally the structure of crinolines is well behaved but I turned them around and spread them out," he explains. "We worked with three dimensions, especially with the embroidery. Inspired by Japan, the Japanese obi becomes a piece of clothing with reliefs that are in three dimensions with layers of bubbles. We play with transparency while using really light fabrics."

"There are some Japanese influences that are quite fascinating. It’s also full of pleats ~ the whole collection is pleated and I even made pleated thigh boots"

Deep sea blue gown with diaphanous

pleating from shoulder to ankle

Mr. Gaultier is well known for his signature French sailor look, the Breton top, and he created a new iteration of this for the opening look of the couture show with a diaphanous, striped blouse and a long, filmy gown in deep blue, pleated from the peaked shoulders down to the swirling skirt (see at right). Other motifs included beautiful pinstriped suits and shell-like dresses with the corset structure seen beneath transparent fabrics.

The clever mix of fan pleats, high shoulders and stripes gave depth and three dimensionality to the whole collection. A black-and-white dress had stripes running up from the ankle to curving around one shoulder, that was deceptively simple but showed Gaultier's superb skill as a couturier (see below in the gallery). 

The designer's muse Anna Cleveland, who is also featured in the cabaret show, wore an organza, pleated gown with full sleeves and long, dark lapels (see below). Like the other models, she had vividly coloured, crimped hair that added to the sense of magical, sea creatures covered in sparkling jewels.

Overall the collection ranged from sailor shirts to corsets with hand-made details created in Mr. Gaultier's ateliers. Most of the suit jackets had the pointed "shark fin" shoulders and pleats were fanned across belts and ruffled along the top of tall boots. The sculptural corset dresses were overlaid with floating, opalescent fabrics and the brightly coloured striped pantsuits were mixed with long, draped gowns. The punk geisha girls wore gleaming, bright fabrics with high waists and big bow ties.

Anna Cleveland wears the
signature quirky Gaultier
wedding dress

Coco Rocha wore a pale, sea blue hooped turquoise organza dress that seemed to move like a sea creature in water (see in gallery below). Dita Von Teese, who also made a cameo in Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show, was one of the highlights of the runway show with her seductive swaying walk. Anna Cleveland closed the show in a jaunty white wedding dress shaped like an upturned Japanese lantern (see at left).

Mr. Gaultier has found that his iconoclastic aesthetic, that shocked audiences as a young designer, is now part of the zeitgeist. His early collections worn by men and women featured models of different shapes, ages and ethnicity.
He broke down stereotypes ~ but it has taken decades for the rest of the fashion world to catch up.

The designer originally trained with Pierre Cardin and later at the Jean Patou fashion house. By the time he started out on his own in 1976, he already had a taste for runway shows that showed a wide range of different models who exuberantly wore his avant-garde designs. By the early 1980s, Mr. Gaultier had become well known for playing with traditional gender roles and his work inspired by streetwear and popular culture plus his use of models who were androgynous and tattooed and often didn't fit the rake thin frame considered the ideal in fashion.

Jean Paul Gaultier's iconoclastic androgynous aesthetic as a young designer is now part of the zeitgeist

Japanese inspired creations were one of
 the designer's key motifs for the
new SS19 collection

The new documentary Jean Paul Gaultier Freak And Chic, tells the story of Gaultier’s cabaret show at the Folies Bergères. Directed by Yann L’Hénoret, the film follows Mr. Gaultier for six months as he creates the Fashion Freak Show cabaret showing his life and career with clips from Madonna, Rossy de Palma and Catherine Deneuve.

The cabaret show is produced by music producer Thierry Suc for the Folies Bergères and has had a full house every night since it opened to the public last October, now to be extended until late April 2019. Mr. Suc, who has worked with some of France’s best known musicians and artists, has said the show will be taken around the world, and depending on the country, will be adapted to appeal to local audiences.

Mr. Gaultier approached Thierry Suc with the idea of the show and the pair worked together to create a cinematic experience combining cabaret with fashion shows and film.

Cesar-winning Tonie Marshall co-directed the show and worked with Marion Motin, a dancer and choreographer who’s previously worked on Madonna concerts. Nile Rodgers, who has worked with Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and Daft Punk, created the soundtrack for the Fashion Freak Show. The designer says the music from disco to funk and from pop to rock and new wave is a playlist that has inspired him throughout his life.

By the early Eighties, he was playing with traditional gender roles and drawing inspiration from streetwear and popular culture

Black and white elegance is
is given an avant-garde edge with
leather and fine pleating 

Mr. Gaultier had always been enthralled by the Folies Bergere and the dramatic, glimmering costumes of sparkling sequins and feathers. The cabaret is Gaultier's own revue about his life seen through music and dance. Where the show is held is suitably historic, an Art Deco theatre that was remodelled in 1926, but founded even earlier in 1869. It is the right background for Mr. Gaultier's show and costumes, that includes the conical bra design that was created for Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition tour.

Some of the cabaret's scenes show the designer's early fashion shows that were more like theatrical events, given even more of an edge by his punk aesthetic and use of recycled materials. Mr. Gaultier believes it is a new form of theatre that combines both a revue and a fashion show and includes actors, dancers and circus performers with dozens of specially designed new outfits.

He wants to take the audience on a journey from his childhood and early career to his most flamboyant fashion shows and nights spent at Le Palace and London.Video is part of the show and includes Catherine Deneuve plus Anna Cleveland, one of the show's ensemble cast, who makes striking, styled poses.

Like Mr. Gaultier's haute couture show in Paris, the cabaret at the Folies Bergere is suffused with the couturier's joie de vivre and creative energy that seems to reach out and embrace everyone both on stage and the runway and also those in the audience standing up in the aisles dancing and clapping to the pop anthems.

Tap on the gallery of photographs to see more highlights from the collection

A classic pinstripe suit completely reimagined into a charming folly with a pleated belt, curving poplin jacket lined in bright pink with matching tights

 

Turning Japanese, Jean Paul Gaultier's inspirations from Japan with the obi and strongly patterned, bright fabrics

Pleated, high boots in sea greens and a crinkled, colourful hair were standouts in the collection 

Fine pleats were even used to create 3D belts, here on leather trousers worn with a short white jacket and filmy, striped blouse

"Shark fin" shoulders were a leitmotif of the entire collection adding zest and drama to jackets and dresses



Sea creatures were the inspiration for many of the gowns including these fluid concoctions in Coral Pink and swirling
Seaweed Green

 A tuxedo jacket is given a quirky edge with it's pointy, one shouldered design and its mix with a pleated short skirt and long boots

Coral hues and the colours of the deep sea gave the collection both depth and cohesion

Anna Cleveland wears a white, finely pleated gown with long lapels like a haute couture martial arts outfit

The brilliant simplicity of stripes from the ankle curving up over the shoulder, a tour de force of couture skill

The use of superbly fine pleating on this blouse's shoulders and cuffs creates an elegant yet striking look 

Coco Rocha wears a pale, sea blue hooped turquoise organza dress that seemed to move like a sea creature in water

Who knew sharply pointed shoulders and finely pleated, high boots would make such an engaging combination?  

Jean Paul Gaultier took is signature run down the catwalk before stopping to smile at this guests

 

Japanese Luxury Label Issey Miyake's New Directions

Issey Miyake's Creative Director Yoshiyuki Miyamae's innovative Sping/Summer 2019 collection in Paris. Main picture and Cover shot for DAM by Elli Ioannou

 

Ise Takahiko has been appointed the new president of Japanese luxury label Issey Miyake. The fashion brand's latest collection was one of the highlights of the SS19 Paris Fashion Week. The artistic and experimental show by creative director Yoshiyuki Miyamae demonstrated he is taking the fashion house in new directions but keeping the eponymous designer's innovative ethos, writes Grania Connors. Additional reporting from Paris and photographs by Elli Ioannou

New malleable textiles
 at Issey Miyake

SIGNALLING a shift in focus for Issey Miyake, Takahiko Ise’s promotion to president of the company comes at the same time as the appointment of new managing directors Koji Usui and Keisuke Harukiya. Mr Ise replaces Masakatsu Nagatani and was formerly the fashion brand’s head of production.

Based in Tokyo, the Issey Miyake label is well known for experimentation with fabrics and different materials and techniques.  The company is still focused on technology today and the new president is keen to promote even more innovation. The technical virtuosity behind Issey Miyake’s designs and the avant-garde pleating and cutting techniques are the signature of the label.

Mr. Ise began to work with Issey Miyake at the beginning of the 1980s, overseeing planning and production at the company. During that time, he has also worked across different iterations of the Issey Miyake label such as Pleats Please Issey Miyake, Me Issey Miyake, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake and Bao Bao Issey Miyake. Today, Issey Miyake has stores around the world including Paris, London, New York, Milan and Zurich. In Japan, there are three in Tokyo ~ Shibuya, Chuo and Minato ~ plus emporiums in Osaka and Hyogo.

There is a technical virtuosity behind Issey Miyake’s designs and the label is renowned for its avant-garde pleating and cutting techniques

While the label was originally founded by Issey Miyake in 1971,the company’s overall creative direction has been led by designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae and his team since 2012. At Paris fashion week, Japanese style is unusual enough to always stand out from current global clothing trends. The Japanese aesthetic is made singular by its fluidity and draping and the constant experimentation with creating new textiles and ways of colouring materials.

The Dough Dough fabric
that can be shaped
by hand

Yoshiyuki Miyamae’s new collection for Spring/Summer 2019 was inspired by the human hand. The designer says that the "history of mankind is all made by hand". He goes back to an earthy, artisanal view of living life, examining the importance of gathering food, making tools and growing crops and how this relates to our clothes.

"Hands have been weaving sewing, and giving new shape to cloth. Yet what if we could play with the shape more freely as if kneading dough or moulding clay?" asks Mr. Miyamae. This exploration of ideas lead to the development of this season's new malleable fabric for the Issey Miyake collection. "A free and flexible cloth that invites the hands to play," explains the designer. "You can twist, roll, crumple, fold and stretch it. A fabric that you can freely play with and enjoy, changing it into any shape like dough."

Called “Dough Dough”, the new material is woven with a urethane mesh that allows it to be moulded into any shape. The designer wants to celebrate the handmade in our digital world and the clothes to have a greater sense of freedom of movement. It is an engaging concept to have clothes that you can shape yourself and wear in a new way every day. It gives fashion a sense of play where the wearer can use the clothes to create their own individual, unique look.

What if we could play with the shape of fabrics more freely as if kneading dough or moulding clay?

Brilliant splashes of colour added to
 the painterly ethos of the show

On the runway in Paris during the SS19 Issey Miyake show, models unfolded the materials to create hats as they walked along and shaped the Dough Dough fabric of their clothes with their hands. Each dress and hat can be transformed in a myriad of ways. The pieces also showed a great attention to cut as well as to the form, with the dresses and skirts seemingly both pliable and supple but with a ripple of stiff underpinning.

The voluminous shapes of the collection were also enhanced by pieces that looked like a painter's canvas, covered in an impasto of vivid splashes of blue, green, turquoise and pink. These were painted with traditional Japanese brooms and the patterns became prints while others were woven into Jacquards. The collection featured fluid and draped silhouettes combined with capacious coats, commodious tunics and vests and architecturally draped blouses.

Hats were also formed into twisted headpieces or made of straw. The rural-looking straw hats at the start, plus the Dough Dough versions moulded by models on the runway, once more suggested the artisan nature of Yoshiyuki Miyamae’s concept for the new collection. It will be interesting to see what the new team at the top of the fashion label will develop for the next season at Issey Miyake.

Highlights from the new Issey Miyake collection in Paris for Sping/Summer 2019

Covered in a thick impasto of colour, the dresses worn with and-made straw hats in quirky shapes added to the sense of artisanal creativity in the SS19 collection.

Tall, malleable hats were part of the concept of being able to create your own shapes and forms with the clothes. 

The voluminous shapes of the collection were also enhanced by pieces that looked like a painter's canvas, covered in vivid splashes of blue, green, turquoise and pink.

Called “Dough Dough”, the new material is woven with a urethane mesh that allows it to be moulded into any shape.

The designer wants to celebrate the handmade in our digital world and the clothes to have a greater sense of freedom of movement.

Based in Tokyo, the Issey Miyake label is well known for experimentation with fabrics and different materials and techniques.

The technical virtuosity behind Issey Miyake’s designs and the avant-garde pleating and cutting techniques are the signature of the label.

While the label was originally founded by Issey Miyake in 1971,the company’s overall creative direction has been led by designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae and his team since 2012.

At Paris fashion week, Japanese style is unusual enough to always stand out from current global clothing trends.

The Japanese aesthetic is made singular by its fluidity and draping and the constant experimentation with creating new textiles and ways of colouring materials. 

Yoshiyuki Miyamae’s new collection for Spring/Summer 2019 was inspired by the human hand.

The designer says that the "history of mankind is all made by hand".

 "Hands have been weaving sewing, and giving new shape to cloth. Yet what if we could play with the shape more freely as if kneading dough or moulding clay?" asks Mr. Miyamae.

 

Groundbreaking Exhibition in New York: 18th Century Roman Designer Luigi Valadier

Luigi Valadier, Herm of Bacchus (detail), 1773. Bronze, alabastro a rosa, bianco e nero antico, and africano verde; lacquered and golden patina. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Photograph: Mauro Magliani. Cover picture: Luigi Valadier, Madrid (Second Breteuil) Deser (detail) ca.1778. Pictured at the Frick Collection exhibition.

Now on at the Frick Collection in New York is a groundbreaking exhibition of the work of Roman designer Luigi Valadier, one of the greatest gold and silversmiths in 18th Century Italy. The show exhibits works made for Popes, royalty and aristocrats, from Rome to Russia. Never before has an American museum shown so many of Valadier's creations, with loans coming from public institutions and private collections across Europe and the United States, Antonio Visconti reports

Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator of The Frick Collection,

Xavier F. Salomon, with the Luigi Valadier exhibition

curator and author Alvaz Gonzalez-Palacios 

THIS beautifully mounted show is the first monographic exhibition devoted to Luigi Valadier, one of the most important artists in eighteenth-century Italy working in the decorative arts. The exhibition is curated by Alvar González-Palacios, who has dedicated his life to scholarship on the artist. Called Luigi Valadier: Splendour in Eighteenth-Century Rome, the exhibition highlights Valadier’s oeuvre, presenting more than fifty objects as well as drawings that represent the breadth of his work.

Valadier’s career spans most of the second half of the eighteenth century, the period when Rome was one of the main cities visited by foreigners on the Grand Tour and many were clients of the artist. Archaeological finds were bringing antiquity back to the fore, inspiring a stylistic shift to Neoclassicism. The book about Luigi Valadier accompanying the show, is the first substantial monograph published on him, and with the exhibition, provides a vivid and unprecedented account of the artist's work.

Luigi and his eighty assistants produced a staggering number of objects for the pope and noble families of Rome, among them the Borghese, Colonna, Chigi, Odescalchi, Sforza Cesarini, and Giustiniani

Lugi Valaldier and his family
Valadier’s father, André, moved from Avignon, in the south of France, to Rome in 1720, where he established a silversmith workshop that became one of the best known in the city. While both of Luigi’s parents were French, he was born in Rome and lived in the city all of his life. It is mot known if he ever visited France, and even though his background was French, he remained firmly established within the social circles of Rome. Luigi inherited his father’s business in 1759, and his unsurpassed technical expertise combined with his aesthetic taste led to designs and creations that are outstanding for their complexity and use of early Roman Classical motifs and combination of precious stones, jewels and metals.


Luigi Valadier, Bacchus and Ariadne,1780–85.

Alabastro d’Orta, bronze and gilt bronze,

ancient intaglios and cameos, crystal, ancient

glass paste, sculpted fragments

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Luigi had a lively shop and home, visited for more than twenty years by popes, aristocrats, and foreign sovereigns. A key document recently purchased by the Frick Art Reference Library, has provided help in understanding his production methods. Leafing through the almost four hundred pages of the Registro Generale, compiled in 1810 by his son Giuseppe, we can begin to visualize the large list of tools that Luigi and his eighty assistants and collaborators used to produce the staggering number of objects for the pope and major noble families of Rome, among them the Borghese, Colonna, Chigi, Odescalchi, Sforza Cesarini, and Giustiniani.

The Valadier studio also worked for foreign clients who took the creations back to France, England, Spain, Portugal and Russia as tokens of their visits to the Eternal City. Despite this documentation, very little survives about Valadier the man, his character, his personal taste or interests. Even though he was such an in-demand artist, he was financially burdened as a result of commissions for which he was never paid and running his large workshop, which employed nearly one hundred people all together was very costly. We do know that Valadier was a discerning observer; he had an great eye for detail, focusing on the architecture surrounding him, especially the vestiges of Roman antiquity.

Even though Valadier was much in demand, he was financially burdened by the many commissions left unpaid and running his large workshop which was very costly

Luigi Valadier, The Triumph of Bacchus, 1780.

Agate, alabaster, ancient hardstones, ancient glass

paste, gold, gilt metal and gilt bronze

Musée du Louvre, Paris

© RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY.

Photo: Les frères Chuzeville

He managed to translate these ancient Roman details into vivid designs, bringing miniature ruins to the courts of Europe. Interested in archaeology, Luigi would take artifacts from the past as inspiration, playing with forms and materials to produce innovative and imaginative works.
In 1780, Valadier mounted for Pope Pius VI a series of precious cameos that had belonged to the late Cardinal Carpegna. These had been acquired by the papacy for the Vatican Museums, and Valadier was asked to set them in precious frames. The Triumph of Bacchus (see image at left) and its companion Bacchus and Ariadne (see image above) are now at the Louvre and are both on show in the exhibition.

Valadier set the large rectangular cameo in a frame decorated with other precious objects - cameos and engraved gems - and set them on two gilt-bronze Egyptian-style lions.

Below them he created a what looks like a pool of water, carved in stone, which includes small cameo representations of fish. This is one of the artist’s most whimsical objects and one that uses ancient objects in a particularly imaginative manner.

While Valadier’s early designs were inspired by French Rococo, later he became interested in antiquity and his work became more severe and classical


Luigi Valadier, Vase, ca. 1775–80

Rosso Appennino marble and gilt silver

The Frick Collection

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

Although many of Valadier’s early designs were created under the influence of his father’s work and are close in style to contemporary French examples that are loosely described as rococo, Valadier became interested in antiquity. His work became more severe and classical over time. Among the objects featured in the exhibition that show his embrace of this aesthetic is a vase recently purchased by the Frick (see image at right). Valadier’s only known marble object with gilt-silver decorations, it was possibly made for the Chigi family of Rome in the second half of the 1770s.

More than 230 years after Valadier lived in Rome, it can still be very difficult for both Italians and foreigners to be paid for their work, no matter what field it is. And this is particularly true for artists in Italy, from Ancient Rome through the Renaissance to the present, that were regularly bankrupted by clients that refused to pay for commissions.

Unfortunately for Valadier who was also working with precious metals and stones and had to maintain a large studio, he could not sustain his business when his aristocratic clients would not pay for his creations. In 1785, the designer committed suicide by drowning himself in the Tiber. Valadier’s career spanned just twenty-five years from his father’s death in 1759, until his own. However, in this time he worked with an extraordinary number of architects, sculptors, stone cutters, and furniture designers.

Luigi Valadier, Madrid (Second Breteuil) Deser (detail) ca.1778.

Pictured at the Frick Collection exhibition.

Lapis lazuli, amethyst, porphyry, red garnets, gilt silver.

Royal Palace and the Archaeological Museum in Madrid

Works of art for the dining table
Valadier and his workshop were particularly well known for the creation of substantial centrepieces for dining tables, known in Rome as desers. These ensembles were decorated with miniature temples, obelisks, and triumphal arches. Valadier would scale down monuments from antiquity and reproduce them in precious materials: marbles, stones, and metal.

Three desers by Valadier survive at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, in two institutions in Madrid, and at the Louvre. The first two were for Jacques-Laure Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, the ambassador of the Knights of Malta to the Holy See from 1758, and to the royal court in Paris (after 1778). They were subsequently acquired by Catherine the Great and the prince who would later become Charles IV of Spain.

Known in Rome as desers, table centrepieces were decorated with miniature temples, obelisks and triumphal arches. Valadier scaled down monuments from antiquity, recreating them in precious marbles, stones and metals

Luigi Valadier, Madrid (Second Breteuil) Deser (detail) ca.1778
Pictured at the Frick Collection exhibition.

Lapis lazuli, amethyst, porphyry, red garnets, gilt silver.

Royal Palace & the Archaeological Museum in Madrid 

The third deser was created for Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti, the nephew of Pope Pius VI. Each is composed of a flat base, on which the various architectural objects rest. In the case of the first deser for Breteuil, the various elements survive, but the base is lost. The Braschi deser which was looted by Napoleon survives in an incomplete state.

The most complete of Valadier’s three desers was the second one he made for Breteuil, around 1778 (see at left and above). It is now divided between the Royal Palace and the Archaeological Museum in Madrid but is reunited at this exhibition, providing a unique opportunity to see this masterpiece in its entirety. The small temples that complement it are executed in materials including lapis lazuli, amethyst, porphyry, and red garnets. Eight preparatory drawings for the Breteuil deser will be shown along with these objects.

Designs for Italian aristocratic families
In the field of secular silverwork, most of Valadier’s production is lost. For the aristocratic families of Italy and for foreign patrons, he made large numbers of plates and soup tureens, coffee pots and cutlery and lamps. Valadier created very detailed drawings of objects he designed, such as, an elegant trembleuse of the early 1760s (see image below).

Luigi Valadier. Drawing of a Trembleuse,

signed, 1763. Pen, brown ink, ochre

wash on paper. Private Collection

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

These small metal trays, often in silver or gilt silver, were created to hold two cups: one usually in porcelain for coffee or chocolate, and another in glass for water. The accompanying tray would have held biscuits and sweets. In this specific case, the entire object is designed in a highly decorative style with vegetal motifs. The tray is shaped as a large leaf; the water cup is surrounded by reeds, and the coffee or chocolate cup evokes small beans, which may have been meant to describe both drinks.

The drawing deonstrates the sophistication of domestic objects designed and produced by Valadier for his Roman audience. Inventories and payments of aristocratic families list many objects like these, most of which, unfortunately, do not survive. The exhibition shows some of these rare survivals, including two soup tureens, one of which was made for the Chigi family, and a spoon that was originally part of a large service for the Borghese.

A monumental coffee pot engraved with the Chigi family’s coat of arms is another rare extant example of Valadier’s secular silver. The central body is covered in leaves and geometrical patterns, while the beak of it is supported by a dazzling mask of a woman and develops into the neck and head of a fantastic bird.

For the aristocratic families of Italy and for foreign patrons, Valadier made large numbers of plates and soup tureens, coffee pots and cutlery and lamps, using very detailed drawings

Luigi Valadier, Cruets for Wine & Water

from the Orsini Mass Service, ca. 1768

Gilt silver. Cathedral of San Nicola, Muro Lucano

Photo: Mauro Magliani

Ecclesiastical Commissions
A large number of Valadier's commissions came from ecclesiastical institutions, and one of the galleries at the Frick exhibition is devoted to a selection of these objects mostly in silver and gold. Highlights include two groups of objects from the south of Italy.
One is a splendid gilt silver service, made in 1768 for Cardinal Domenico Orsini d’Aragona for his palace’s private chapel (see two pieces at left) in Rome, and now in the Cathedral of Muro Lucano, in Basilicata.

Between the late 1760s and the early 1770s, Valadier designed the silver high altar for the Cathedral of Monreale in Sicily, which was commissioned by Archbishop Francesco Testa.

The altar, still in situ, is decorated with a number of reliefs showing scenes from the life of the Virgin, to whom the church was dedicated.

The altar is placed directly in front of the celebrated Norman mosaics from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which decorate the apse of the Cathedral. On top of the altar, Valadier placed six large statues of saints connected to the Cathedral: Louis, Castrense, Peter, Paul, Benedict, and Rosalia. All six sculptures have been lent for the first time, providing an extraordinary opportunity to study them closely, (see image below).  Each statue is executed in silver, highlighted with gold.

A large number of Valadier's commissions came from ecclesiastical institutions, mostly in silver and gold, including a splendid gilt service

Luigi Valadier, Saints in gilt bronze and silver, ca.1760s

Pictured at the Frick Collection exhibition.

From the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Nuova,

Monreale, Sicily, Italy

At the Frick, they are displayed on an altar-like pedestal, in the order in which they are shown in the Cathedral. Many objects like these statues were melted down during times of necessity, some quite soon after Valadier’s death and most particularly during the Napoleonic invasion. Works such as the Orsini service and the Monreale altar survived because they were located in more provincial areas, away from the main cities.

Both represent rare artefacts in the field of precious metalwork in Italy. Many more objects like this were created by Valadier than survive today and are documented because of invoices, records of payments, and inventories. Only occasionally are we able to know what they would have looked like when drawings exist.


Luigi Valadier, Table with Dodecagonal Porphyry Top, 1773

Giallo antico, portasanta, bianco e nero antico, gilt wood,

gilt bronze, and porphyry

Galleria Borghese, Rome

Pictured at the Frick Collection exhibition.

New Monograph on Luigi Valadier
The only comprehensive monograph on Valadier is published in conjunction with the exhibition, an important resource for understanding the artist and his work. Luigi Valadier is writted by Alvar González-Palacios, curator of the exhibition and considered the foremost expert on the artist. The book is produced by The Frick Collection in association with D Giles Limited. González-Palacios’s lively account, including a trove of archival documents he has unearthed, shows his long and dedicated research on Valadier and his family.

The artist and designer's surviving works are to be found in churches, palaces, public museums, and private collections, often still in situ. While some pieces have already been photographed, many of the objects designed by Valadier have been newly photographed for this new publication that includes more than 368 illustrations. The book Luigi Valadier is available at the Frick's Museum Shop or can be ordered through the Frick’s website.

Luigi Valadier: Splendour in Eighteenth Century Rome runs until January 20th 2019 at The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, near Fifth Avenue, New York, USA.

Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Perseus and Andromeda, 1730–31, oil on canvas, The Frick Collection, New York; photo Michael Bodycomb. Cover picture The New World, 1791-97 by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista's son.

A new exhibition at the Frick Collection, Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto, will reunite preparatory paintings and drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for the first time. As the Frick does not loan works purchased by the institution’s founder, the New York City museum is the only place where these paintings and drawings can be seen together next April, Isabelle James reports

NEW YORK'S Frick Collection will bring together a series of important preparatory paintings and drawings by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, created in 1730 for his first significant project outside of Venice, the ceiling frescoes for Palazzo Archinto in Milan. The paintings were commissioned by Count Carlo Archinto, whose family distinguished itself in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries under both the Spanish and imperial rulers of Milan.

The family, considered to be one of the most prominent in the northern Italian capital, was celebrated for its intellectual pursuits. Carlo, in particular, was known for his interest in the arts and sciences, specifically mathematics and philosophy, and had collected the most important private library in the city. The decoration of his palace and Tiepolo’s frescoes were very much part of the Archinto family’s intellectual aspirations and interests.

The ceilings painted for the commission include five mythological and allegorical scenes that decorated several of the grandest rooms of the palace and were produced to celebrate the wedding of Carlo’s son Filippo and Giulia Borromeo, which took place in April 1731. The frescoes were praised after they were painted at the time by Serviliano Latuada, who remarked on their beauty in his 1737 guidebook to Milan, Descrizione di Milano.

Calamitously, the Palazzo was bombed during World War II, and its interior was completely destroyed. The only record of the finished frescoes in situ is a series of black and white photographs taken between 1897 and the late 1930s. The exhibition will present fifty objects from collections in the United States and Europe to tell the story of Tiepolo's important commission. It will feature six surviving preparatory paintings and drawings by the artist, among them the Frick’s oil sketch Perseus and Andromeda.

“Tiepolo in Milan is the latest in a series of exhibitions at the Frick to focus on outstanding Italian artists," says Xavier F. Salomo, the Frick’s Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator.  "It follows in the footsteps of Canova’s George Washington, which brought to life Canova’s lost eighteenth-century masterpiece, his only American commission. By bringing together the preparatory works for these great masterpieces, we are able to tell incredible stories that are in danger of being forgotten."

As the Frick does not loan works that were purchased by the institution’s founder, the New York City museum is the only place where these paintings and drawings can be seen together. Other complementary drawings and prints by Tiepolo will be on view, as well as several books of illustrations by the artist that were commissioned by Filippo Argelati, the Archinto family librarian and a noted intellectual of the day.

Of the preparatory works that survive from the Archinto commission, three painted sketches on canvas provide the most important evidence about the lost frescoes: Triumph of Arts and Sciences from the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, Apollo and Phaëton  from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Frick’s Perseus and Andromeda. These works will be joined by the only known drawings by Tiepolo related to the frescoes in Milan: one from London's British Museum, a second from the Civico Museo Sartorio in Trieste and a third from the Finnish National Gallery, Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki.

The show, that will open on April 16th and run until July 14th 2018, will also feature two Tiepolo oil sketches ~ from the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in England ~  that represent the myth of Phaëton and have been connected by scholars to the Archinto cycle.

An exhibition catalogue published by The Frick Collection in association with Paul Holberton Publishing will accompany the show. Included will be essays about Tiepolo’s work in Palazzo Archinto by Xavier F. Salomon, the architectural history of the palace by Alessandra Kluzer, the role of the Archinto frescoes in Tiepolo’s career by Andrea Tomezzoli, and the intellectual world of the Archinto family by Denis Ton.

Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto from April 16th 2018 until July 14th 2018. at The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, near Fifth Avenue, New York. www.frick.org

Fairytales and Fables at Shiatzy Chen's SS19 Show in Paris

Fine grained, beautifully tailored coat-dress worn with new mesh booties at Shiatzy Chen's SS19 ready-to-wear show in Paris

Fables and fairy tales were at the heart of Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia's new Spring/Summer 2018 show for Shiatzy Chen in Paris. Frothy confections of black and white lace were mixed with sporty, stream-lined looks and finely embroidered tops and jackets making an engaging and wearable collection, writes Antonio Visconti. Edited by Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Pink trees, pomegranates, cranes, rabbits
and Pekingese people Shiatzy Chen's
new collection

THE fairy-tale graphic designs of pink trees, pomegranates, hedgehogs, a white rabbit, a red-crowned crane, a Pekingese,  and mahjong for Shiatzy Chen's new show in Paris gave a hint of what was to come. Founder and creative director Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia based the new collection on an imaginary, magical world of beauty and transformation where mahjong tiles turn into butterflies and beetles, the East wind blows and time stops and the pomegranate trees are laden with fruit. The set design of the show with a bright blue door, path of mahjong tiles and Chinese symbols also gave the whole collection a fable-like atmosphere.

These ideas form the basis for the prints and designs of the new season's collection with its light, frothy confections of lace mixed with sporty and stream-lined looks and delicately embroidered tops and jackets. Cranes, ducks, rabbits and landscapes with bridges and storks are printed or embroidered on coat dresses, silk bomber jackets and long, column dresses with a Mandarin collar. Many skirts and dresses were quite short mixed with longer mid-calf looks. But it is the beautifully worked Chinese embroidery with a modern ethos is at the heart of Shiatzy Chen's collections.

Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia based the new collection on an imaginary, magical world of beauty and transformation

Delicate embroidery is part of
Shiatzy Chen's signature idiom

Eighteen years ago, Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia started collaborating with Xiang and Suzhou embroiderers in China to apply spun-yarn embroidery, counting stitch, french knot, appliqué, drawn-thread and cut work to her designs. All of the new collections feature different themes that highlight exquisite embroideries. The designer's contemporary tailoring is combined with traditional embroidery to create something new and fresh. 

This season the collection included a variety of stitching, with delicate flower motifs in brilliant colour against a black background (see at right) plaid designs and new fabrics including a specially developed jacquard plus lace, satin and cotton. The palette was dominated by black and white leavened with vivid pink, deep purple and blue, gold and carmine. There were some new standout lace-up, mesh booties that looked both stylish and comfortable and will no doubt be highly desirable plus sporty sandals and Mary Jane shoes. Other accessories included travel bags, jade bracelets and purses with leather stitching and colourful patterns.

Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia originally founded Shiatzy Chen in 1978 when she was 27 years old and her aim was to create a new Chinese aesthetic that mixed traditional craftsmanship with a Western idiom. Today, the luxury fashion house is often called the Chanel of Taiwan. Growing up in a family of seven children where she was the eldest, in Taiwanese Changhua, a city with a rich cultural history, Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia needed to develop skills to help the family and decided to design clothes. Although she was not formally trained in fashion she learnt by working at her uncle's factory.

Shiatzy Chen was founded on a new Chinese aesthetic that mixed traditional craftsmanship with a Western idiom

Diaphanous stripes and polka dots
cinched with a Shiatzy Chen
belt

By the 1970s, she and her husband, Wang Yuan-hong, a businessman in  textiles, founded the Shiatzy International Company Limited. The designer worked for more than 30 years to establish her name in the local market as one of the few homegrown designer labels in Taiwan with a clientele including politicians and celebrities as well as international clients such as Elizabeth Hurley and Victoria Beckham. In 1990, Shiatzy Chen set up a studio in Paris to stay on top of fashion trends and to learn more about Western dressmaking techniques. The studio is also used as a place to train Taiwanese dressmakers and designers.

Shiatzy Chen opened a flagship store in Paris in 2001 and has continued expanding with emporiums around the world including Beijing and Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur.  More than ten years ago, the company opened a second large factory of 6000 square meters, in Shanghai alongside the existing one in Taipei. The new factory was designed by German architect Johannes Hartfuss to accommodate a workforce of more than 1,000 employees, including dressmakers and embroiderers.

Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia is proud of her Chinese roots and uses this influence in her work with subtlety and imagination

As light and frothy as whipped cream,
this lacy SS19 creation

Ten years ago, Shiatzy Chen debuted at Paris Fashion Week, making it just the second Taiwanese design house to have shown on the official schedule. By the next year, in November 2009, the company became a member of the Chambre syndicale du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode (FHCM).

It was Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia's insistence on high-quality craftsmanship and her team's dedication and focus that allowed the designer to enter the hallowed halls of the Paris fashion world. The whole family is involved in the Shiatzy Chen business. Didier Grumbach, former president of the FHCM, has said that while Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia is proud of her Chinese roots she uses this influence in her work with "subtlety and imagination" combined with a high level of quality and design.

He went on to say that this makes Shiatzy Chen close in spirit to French luxury brands and was another reason it was elected as a member of the French Federation.

See more highlights from Shiatzy Chen's SS19 Paris show below

Founder and creative director Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia based the new collection on an imaginary, magical world of beauty and transformation.

Cranes, Mandarin ducks, rabbits and landscapes with bridges and storks are printed or embroidered on coat dresses like this one above.

Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia originally founded Shiatzy Chen in 1978 when she was 27 years old and her aim was to create a new Chinese aesthetic that mixed traditional craftsmanship with a Western idiom.

Ten years ago, Shiatzy Chen debuted at Paris Fashion Week, making it just the second Taiwanese design house to have shown on the official schedule.

It was Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia's insistence on high-quality craftsmanship and her team's dedication and focus allowed the designer to enter the hallowed halls of the Paris fashion world.

Today, Shiatzy Chen as a luxury fashion house is often called the Chanel of Taiwan,

The designer's contemporary tailoring is combined with traditional embroidery to create something new and fresh. 

Beautifully worked Chinese embroidery with a modern ethos ~ here subtly tone on tone ~ is at the heart of Shiatzy Chen's collections.

  

From Arte Povera and Contemporary Grunge to New Realism and the Gilded Age: Kristina Fidelskaya

A long, diaphanous black blouse is combined with gleaming, celestial blue trousers and Pre-Raphaelite grunge hair. Photographs and cover picture by Elli Ioannou for DAM

Kristina Fidelskaya founded her luxury ready-to-wear brand in 2014 after completing a fashion design degree at the École supérieure des arts et techniques de la mode (Esmod) in Dubai. She launches her new Spring/Summer 2019 collection in Paris this season combining arte povera, contemporary grunge and a new realism. Report by Antonio Visconti and Elli Ioannou for DAM

UKRAINIAN designer Kistina Fidelskaya's new Spring/Summer 2019 collection was shown in Paris last night. The designer says that luxury is not shouting wealth out loud but showing it in "small gestures that speak of care, of attention, of love." This is translated into designs that mix the rough with the smooth, matt with the shiny and light, floating fabrics ~  that don't need lining ~ with heavier fabrics. She wanted this season to be about subtlety and details

The designer says she finds inspiration in the New Realism movement and explores shapes, volumes and finishes defined more by their differences than their similarities. The designs are mostly free of decoration and are made up of textured layers that she says are "essential" but not minimalist.

The palette is summery and includes blush-hued nudes mixed with creamy whites and blacks. Dashes of yellow and metallic touches are like brushstrokes on a canvas. The designer refers to Arte Povera and is drawn to materials that evoke the natural world and she mixes this aesthetic with techno-taffeta, metallic viscose gazar, laminated silk poplin and a Vichy check.

The silhouettes play with ideas of gender and are partly inspired by David Bowie. The designer stretches this to influences as far afield as Deauville and looking back to the Edwardian Gilded Age. She says the collection has an edge of contemporary grunge that expresses the freedom of what she terms a "post-consumerist" society. Ideas and clothes merge to embody a new aesthetic that is both austere and clean-cut yet still filled with sudden clashes of texture, colour and proportion.

See highlights from the show below. Tap on photographs for full-screen slideshow

 A fine cotton, Nehru-collared shirt with interesting caped sleeves is tucked into and partly drawn through the waistband of check trousers in dark navy and white.  

Metallic viscose in that shimmering sky blue adds a brilliant sheen to a light, caped jacket and shorts with an elasticated waist.

Floating, semi-transparent blouses in white have long sleeves and string-like ties that fall below the knee and are combined with black shorts.

The silhouettes play with ideas of gender and are partly inspired by David Bowie. 

The designer says the collection has an edge of contemporary grunge that expresses the freedom of what she terms a "post-consumerist" society.