Category: Arts

Franca, Fashionista of the Spectacle

Franca Sozzani in 2010

If you’ve been wondering how it happened that fashion spreads have turned into neo-modern tableaux vivants, the answer is probably Franca Sozzani, the late editor of Vogue Italia. Starting the 1980s, Franca took the fashion spread to new frontiers of weirdness and, oddly enough, social relevance.  Formerly the province of fashion mavens and Italians, a recent documentary on Netflix, entitled “Franca: Chaos and Creation” makes it possible for all of us to appreciate her subversive genius for art and fashion. Read More

Losing Notre Dame

Painting of Notre Dame de Paris by Maximillian Luce

When the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned yesterday, it was more than a religious icon that was lost. For workers, women, artists, tourists, the city of Paris and all of France, Notre Dame was both monument and living symbol of human aspiration and French spirit.

Notre Dame has always been remembered for the prodigious labors of the generations of workmen and artisans who created it. It was ordinary people who built it and, in large part, it is their legacy that went up in flames. Read More

Fashionable Revolution

Student Protest Paris 1968-web

Although the times are unsettled and revolutionary jargon is in the air, one doesn’t expect a women’s fashion magazine to employ it as a motif, or at least, not one as haute as W.   In a recent issue, I discovered a highly entertaining profile of Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, subtitled “the quiet revolutionary,” and illustrated with slogan-y artwork reminiscent of early 20th century art manifestos.  How ironic, I thought, coming from the mag I read to spy on the wealthy. Read More

Why We Need To Practice Creative Expression

4/30/2011

For decades now, it’s been impressed on us moderns that art is a frill, unnecessary and usually unaffordable.  This view has always struck me as patently wrong, but I’ve never had a ready answer for it until now.  You can try to explain why art is not a frill, or you can simply answer the question “What would life be like without art?”

If you’re really strict with yourself and strip out every form of art there is, you may start to see what a gift art can be — a gift of joy, beauty, inspiration, and pleasure. Read More