LONDON – Charlotte Taylor’s extraordinary and eccentric use of fabrics with silhouettes of penguins, bees, and fishermen, and her ability to utilize them to create such refined, chic and wearable pieces make her truly an artist of a designer. With the fourth collection of her eponymous label, and to start off London Fashion week, she commissioned UK creative agency HarrimanSteel to create a short fashion film that captures the spirit of her Spring/Summer 2012 collection – which draws inspiration from “Japanese art and culture, bee-keeping and fishing.”  See the video after the jump. [SEE MORE...]

Photo by Adarsha Benjamin

Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver presents an exhibition of vintage gelatin silver prints by photographer Larry Clark. The series of photographs on display graphically documents Clark’s exploration of the underworld of drug use, sex and violence in his hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1963 to 1971. Clark first gained notoriety when these images were compiled as a photo essay in his independently published 1971 book Tulsa. Now regarded as a classic photography project, Tulsa has been acclaimed as a powerful and highly personal social documentary, still emulated by art and fashion photographers alike—a reputation due in no small part to its enduring capacity to shock. The sleazy and poignant aspects of the lives portrayed draws the viewer into a prurient and compassionate relationship with the images. On view until October 30.

MADE FASHION WEEK Presents PAMELA LOVE SS12 Presentation at MILK STUDIOS. photos by SKYE PARROTT

AA Bronson

Devin Elijah is a 27 year old self taught photographer based in New York City.  Over the last couple of years its been old polaroid film that Devin’s been working with to document his life. His images are deeply personal and introspective and reveal an exploration of some of our most primitive, but complex human desires.  Devin’s new book, entitled  A Chronicle Of Love & Loss in Sickness & in Health, a beautiful collection of polaroids, is a “personal visual manifesto of New York City.” [READ MORE...]

Three intimate love letters from James Dean to his first ‘serious’ love Barbara Glenn will be sold at an auction this Novemeber in Christie’s popular culture category.  The letters, which were found in a drawer by Glenn’s son, reveal a smitten James Dean prior to his magnesium flash into celluloid iconography.  The auction will be held November 23.

Veruschka, Wrap by Giorgio di Sant’Angelo – photograph by Richard Avedon

Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo (1933-1989) rose to prominence during the late 1960s with his exuberant and colorful accessories and collections. With an eye for fantasy, Sant’ Angelo created expressive collections that merged his own Latin upbringing with gypsy, Aztec, American Indian and Asian influences among others. Eclectic mixes of vibrant fabrics with rich ornamentation were combined in free-body designs to reflect his ideas of modern sensuality. By reversing the role of stretch fabrics from innerwear to outerwear, he revealed the shape of the natural body as a modern fashion fundamental. “Silhouette as we’ve known it, as something imposed by fashion is finished. The only silhouette for 1971 is the body,” he proclaimed. An exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum presents the first ever Museum retrospective to highlight the extraordinary ingenuity of American designer Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo. Opening September 17 and closing February 12, 2012. 

British artist Richard Hamilton died yesterday London. His most well know artwork, a collage entitled Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?, is considered one of the earliest examples of pop art. The above work, entitled Swingeing London 67, was a response after his his art dealer Robert Fraser was arrested and imprisoned for the possession of heroin. On 12 February 1967 the police raided a party at the Sussex farmhouse of Keith Richards where they found evidence of the consumption of various drugs. On 27 June 1967, Fraser and Mick Jagger were found guilty of the possession of illegal drugs. The following day the two men were handcuffed to each other and driven to court in a police van, where they were sentenced to six months and three months respectively. After the defence lawyer’s appeal, Jagger’s sentence was reduced to a fine but Fraser’s appeal was rejected and he spent four months in jail. The painting is derived from a press clipping.  Richard Hamilton was preparing for a major traveling retrospective before he died.

Designer Bella Freud (daughter of the late painter Lucien Freud) collaborated with director Martina Amati to create of short fashion film for her 2011 Fall collection.  Starring  models Susie Bick and Abbey Lee Kershaw, and actresses Antonia Campbell Hughes, Phyllis Wang and Olympia Campbell, Submission takes place in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu “where you learn to use your opponent’s strength to vanquish them. The unlikely winner engages us in her internal dialogue, remembering the moment in her childhood when she discovered how she wanted clothes to serve her as a protective armor” Bella Freud premiered her short film last week in London, and if the film is a testament to a talent in filmmaking, the creative direction and sartorial aptitude of Bella Freud proves genius might just be hereditary. See film after the jump. [SEE MORE....]

Wallace Berman (1926-1976) was born in Staten Island, NY and came to Los Angeles with his parents when he was four years old. In 1955 he founded the small but influential mail art publication Semina – a brilliant, loose-leaf compilation of the most advanced artists and poets of his time, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jess (Collins) to name a few. Today, Berman is best known for his Verifax collages, softly sepia-colored works created with a forerunner of the photocopy machine. Influenced by surrealism, assemblage, and contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Andy Warhol, Berman produced multi-layered works that combined the picture of a hand-held transistor radio with images culled from newspapers and popular magazines. An exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California, entitled Speaking in Tongues: Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken, brings two seminal yet under-studied Los Angeles artists into close conversation with one another for the first time. This exhibition is concurrent with the Pacific Standard Time showing across Los Angeles in an en masse celebration of the Los Angeles art scene. Speaking in Tongues will on view October 2 to January 22, 2012.