Up, Up and Away

I adore hot air balloons. As a graphic motif they are absolutely delightful. The multitude of colours and shape they come in are only limited by manufacturers’ – and artists’ – imaginations.

Obviously much of their charm lies in the romance they evoke as an oldey-worldey form of transport.

I travelled in one once, sailing serenely over the desert in Dubai, watching the sun rise behind the purple mountains. Such an exciting experience, and what a noise the gas flame makes as it roars into the balloon! We crash-landed, and the basket was dragged for twenty metres or so across the dunes. I think I was the only one who was laughing crazily during this experience. I lived to tell the tale though.

Enjoy this gallery of vintage and modern balloons.

A Collector’s Trail

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonWith my revived interest in collecting ephemera with which to make collages, I was prompted on the weekend to pull an old book from the shelf. Written by Barbara Hodgson, Trading in Memories – Travels Through a Scavenger’s Favourite Places is a wonderful account of a collector’s trail through Europe, the Middle-East, the Orient and back home again to Vancouver in British Columbia.

The short chapters are written as essays, and they are easy to read and full of fascinating titbits and a wealth of detail. Hodgson’s writing style is evocative – her words draw an enticing picture in the mind’s eye that would surely be best expressed in the form of a magic lantern show, or flickering film reel from 1910.

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonIf the words aren’t enough to help you step back in time, the images will. What an astonishing assortment of ephemera she has collected or photographed, presented in collages or displayed in cases reminiscent of the Victorian mania for collecting curios.

Her words will truly whisk you off on a whirlwind tour while you are still comfortably curled up in your armchair, a cup of Turkish coffee at your elbow.

Scroll through some sample pages here, and make sure to click on the images to see larger versions. Included are the four pages of the last chapter, with her ‘few words to scavengers’.

Read a review at Good Reads or The Sydney Morning Herald.

Spread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonTwo pages from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara HodgsonSpread from Trading in Memories, by Barbara Hodgson

Spun Sugar

From Christian Louboutin’s Fall 2011 look bookMarie Antoinette, Wendy PaulaRococo is an artistic movement of the eighteenth-century that grew out of Baroque. Extremely decorative and pretty, it was a reaction against the grandeur of the heavy Baroque style, and is characterised by pastel colours, asymmetrical designs, sinuous curves, voluptuous shapes and plenty of gold. It was applied to all forms of art: sculpture, painting, architecture, interior design, décor, and the performing arts. Lush, witty and playful, it first made its graceful appearance in Paris. Just think of Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Here is a little collection of mine in lavish pinks, greens and golds.

Watteau II, by Stephanie PeekFrom Such Foulness of Root Does Sweetness Grow, Ray Caesar, 2009Inside of the ladies garden at Vauxhall, Joseph Highmore (1692‑1780), 1778

Print Upon Pattern

The Costume of the Ballets Russes

Bakst’s costume design for The Firebird, 1910Famed as the greatest ballet company of the last century, the Ballets Russes captured the public’s imagination and changed the concept of ballet globally, through its new and groundbreaking dance, art and music with Avant-Garde, Expressionist and Oriental influences. With Sergei Diaghilev at its head, and a company of dancers originating from St Petersburg, it performed itinerantly between 1909 and 1929 causing a sensation wherever it travelled.

Diaghilev commissioned many significant visual artists and designers of the early twentieth century, such as Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Dalí and Chanel to name just a few. Often these artists were responsible for both set and costume.

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Bakst’s Odalisque costume and Nijinsky, from Shéhérazade, 1910Bakst’s costume and design for Shah Zeman in Shéhérazade, 1910-1930sBakst’s Columbine costume design for Carnaval in 1942 (left) and Columbine and Harlequin in 1911 (right)One of the lasting legacies of the Ballets Russes are the costumes, not least because they survive from an era when documentary film was only in its infancy. Intricately designed and multi-layered costumes feature multiple textiles, with print piled upon pattern in surprising combinations. Bold in design and colour, they shocked audiences used to a very different and traditional style of costume. Compare these to ballerinas in tutus (think Degas’ ballerina paintings), and you can easily imagine how jaws must have dropped in astonishment.

Madame Fedorova as Cléopatra in 1913, ph E.O. HoppéCompare the execution with the drawing: a Syrian Dancer’s costume for Cléopatra, by Bakst, 1909

[Bakst] became famous for his exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes …

Goncharova’s design for a female costume in Le Coq d'Or, 1914Leon Bakst is a particular favourite of mine. One of the most important designers for the Ballets Russes, Bakst took on the role of artistic director at the ballet’s formation. He became famous for his exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes, particularly for Scheherazade, Firebird and Le Spectre de la Rose. Another Russian designer, Natalia Goncharova, was inspired by Russian folk art, fauvism and cubism, and along with a vivid sense of colour, these influences are visible in her work. (Read a previous post on her here.)

Back then Coco Chanel and Paul Poiret were two fashion designers both inspired by the Ballets Russes, whose impact has scarcely lessened today.

Bakst’s costume design for a Nymph in L'Après-midi d'un Faune, 1912Bakst’s costume design for a Nymph in L'Après-midi d'un Faune, 1912; you could easily wear this as a light summer dress todayBakst’s costume design for an attendant (1910), and Monsieur Adolph Bolm (1913), both for L'Oiseau de Feu; ph E.O. Hoppé

Madame Thamar Karsavina in Bakst’s costume for L'Oiseau de Feu, 1913; ph E.O. HoppéBakst’s costume design for La Sultan, The Firebird, 1910Bakst’s costume design for The Firebird, 1910

Unless otherwise indicated, images from National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Ballets Russes, The Art of Costume.

Erté, Eternally Elegant

Did you know Erté – the incredibly talented Russian-born fashion and stage designer of the early twentieth century –  made up his own name? His full name was Romain de Tirtoff (or Roman Petrovich Tyrtov in Russian), and he took ‘Erté’ from the French pronunciation of his initials. Clever, huh? Very post-post-post modern of him, when you think of today’s celebrity acronyms like JLo and the heinous TomKat. (Any serious journalist who employs that term should be immediately sent to Coventry. But then, look at me, writing alliterative headlines!)

He was his own best publicist too, often wearing his own designs with theatrical flair. Most famously he donned a toreador outfit of gold lamé for an opera ball in Paris in 1926. He told Time magazine in 1982: “That night, the huge cape I designed was completely lined with fresh red roses which I tossed, one by one, at my audience as I descended the grand staircase.” [fashionising.com]

Erté (1892–1990) was born in St Petersburg, and designed his first costume at the age of five. He moved to Paris in 1912, and went on to fulfil his dream of becoming a fashion illustrator, contracting with Harper’s Bazaar, contributing to it for 22 years. Probably best-known for the elegant, sinuous flappers of his Art Deco drawings, Erté also designed gloriously extravagant costumes and sets for the Foliès-Bergere in Paris and White’s Scandals in New York. 

In fact, it was exactly the predominantly black drawing (top) that came to my mind last Tuesday in Sydney, when I happened upon just such a fan hat as this lady is wearing. I’ll leave the entertaining story of how I got it through airport security for another time, but suffice it to say mine is at least two-and-a-half times bigger – literally a metre wide and dancing with ostrich plumes. I can now have all the private Erté moments at home I want, whenever I feel like it.

Read more or peruse the galleries of Erté’s beautiful work at the official website.
Images from fashionising.com