Majority of pictures found here.
Fashion Inspiration: Early 1990s – Velvet Dresses, Dark Colours, Hippie Revival
18 Feb- Comments 4 Comments
- Categories Fashion icons
Egon Schiele’s Heroin Chic Look – Lipgloss and Cigarettes
17 MarThe distinctive trashy glamour of Egon Schiele’s nudes is unsettling and alluring at the same time, provocative and eye-catching. His drawings and watercolours of skinny, fragile, starved nymphets who look like they live on lipgloss and cigarettes, made from 1910 to about 1914/15, before the war and before his marriage, encapsulate the heroin chic aesthetic decades before was defined and popularised by models such as Kate Moss. Things that connect these drawings and watercolours are the same mood and aesthetic and the same reaction from the public. Schiele’s portrayal of female form was shocking to the early twentieth century Vienna, and photographs of Kate Moss’s skinny body received the same reaction.
In the beginning of this year I watched a new documentary about Egon Schiele called “Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires (2018)” made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death. It which was super cool and I loved it to death, it was hard not to like it: the soundtrack was rock music and the first lines were spoken by Iggy Pop, who clearly appreciates Egon Schiele’s art. One woman says something really interesting in the first two minutes: “If someone were to show you a Schiele watercolour and ask you: ‘when do you think this was done’, I think the answer would be: yesterday.” I partly agree; as a nostalgic person who romanticises the past, I would never believe that something as great could have been painted yesterday, but I agree in that his drawings, great majority of his art, appears not modern but timeless.
I can’t really say “modern” because Schiele wouldn’t agree. In one of his watercolours from prison he wrote: “Kunst kann nicht modern sein; Kunst ist urewig.” or “Art can not be modern, art is primordially eternal.” I don’t think this can be said about all art, but Schiele truly succeeded in creating art that is eternal. When you look at it now, it doesn’t seem out of place, kitschy, or strange, on the contrary, those colours and lines on papers that he held in his hand sometime in 1912 still have so much to say – or scream. And Schiele’s art goes so well with modern music as well, rock music particularly; in his self-portraits of the tormented artist staring right at us from the canvas, you can imagine a streetwise yet vulnerable heroin addict from the song “I’m waiting for the man” by The Velvet Underground, or the raw and trashy sound of The Stooges’s “Raw Power” or the sleek sound of urban alienation from David Bowie’s Berlin-era albums.
Egon Schiele, Nude against coloured background, 1911
I like Schiele’s paintings, and I also enjoy looking at pictures of Kate Moss, particularly those from the 1990s, it’s just an aesthetic thing, I don’t care for her personality or her life choices, although her love life is interesting. I look at a picture only to get a shot of beauty in my veins and possibly a seed to inspire my future reveries. I am certain that Kate Moss would be a perfect model for Schiele. His ideal was a thin, fragile, bony body with that elegantly wasted look; protruding spine and collar bones, under eye circles, ribs peeking under thin layer of skin, strange complexion with patches of unnatural colour…. The heroin chic look that Schiele clearly painted decades before, has become synonymous with Kate Moss whose appearance at the beginning of her career was in stark difference to the perfect and unattainable looks of the supermodels of the previous decade. Calvin Klein spoke in her defense back in the day: “For them, what is real is beautiful—looking plain is beautiful. What is less than perfect is sexy.” Schiele liked strangeness and imperfections and never resorted to idealization.
Kate Moss by Bettina Rheims, 1989
Egon Schiele, Girl with black hair, 1910
Schiele’s models were often girls from the streets, pretty prepubescent street urchins hungry for attention and amusement. He was young and poor and probably couldn’t even afford a proper model, and why would he when these little things were around, looked and behaved unpretentiously and were a good thing to draw. In his book about Egon Schiele, F. Whitford wrote: “Physically immature, thin, wide-eyed, full-mouthed, innocent and lascivious at the same time, these Lolitas from the proletarian districts of Vienna arouse the kind of thoughts best not admitted before a judge and jury.” The same words could be used to described the teenage Kate Moss; thin, wide-eyed, with full lips and gorgeous high cheek bones, on the pictures taken by Corinne Day for The Face magazine in 1990 she looks innocent and vulnerable, a bit shy, hiding herself behind a straw hat. In 1990 this working class nymphet from Croydon, a drab suburb of London, had already left school, and despite being a rich and famous model today, back then the prospects were bleak and she was in a similar position as the street urchins who posed for Schiele. Her beauty wasn’t yet recognised, but she did attract the attention of some designers very early on such as John Galliano who chose her for his spring/summer collection 1990 and saw her as his “Lolita”; the half-child and half-woman appeal made her stand out.
Kate Moss for Calvin Klein
Kate Moss by Corinne Day, 1993
Egon Schiele, Sitting girl with ponytail (Sitzendes Mädchen mit Pferdeschwanz), 1910
Schiele’s drawings were outrageous and provocative in his day and age just as they are now still. Viennese public had perhaps grown accustomed to Klimt’s nudes, but the vision of the female form that Schiele had presented was a tad too much. Likewise, pictures of Kate shot in the early nineties by a young and ambitious autodidact photographer Corinne Day were considered equally outrageous and accused of perplexing ideas that neither Kate nor Corinne had dreamt of; in the pictures she looked skinny and childlike, but her clothes and poses weren’t childlike at all, mingling sexuality with innocence. Kate Moss’s appearance represented the nihilistic spirit of the decade and a culture that believe in nothing. Hippies had hope, acid and belief in a better world, punks had their anger and outrageous clothes, and nineties seemingly had nothing, to quote Manic Street Preachers: “I know I believe in nothing, but it’s my nothing”.
Pictures above by Corinne Day for The Face magazine, July 1990
Over the ocean, grunge bands expressed their dissatisfaction and in Manchester the youth tuned out in the reviving sounds of psychedelia of bands such as The Stone Roses, The Charlatans and The Happy Mondays. Kate’s “elegantly waisted” look was perfect for Corinne Day’s aims in photography, for her love of realism. A new philosophy required a new look, and strong, over the top and glamorous models of the 1980s were passé. Just like Egon Schiele in his nudes and self-portraits, Corinne Day’s photographs penetrate to the bare essence and expose the truth, and what lies within. Schiele freed the women from Klimt’s suffocating gold and poisonous flowers, and focused on the psychology of their faces. In a similar way, Day freed the model from the excessiveness of shoulder pads and too much blush. Calvin Klein said “For me, Kate’s body represented closing the door on the excessiveness of the ’80s”.
Here is an expert from Maureen Callahan’s book “Champagne Supernovas“: “The culture at large didn’t see Kate that way. Up against the skyscraper supermodels of the ’80s, their very perfection a comment on American supremacy, a small-boned, flat-chested model like Kate Moss was heresy. Someone her size hadn’t been seen since Twiggy in the ’60s; suddenly, Kate and Calvin Klein were accused of promoting anorexia, heroin use, child pornography, and the downfall of Western civilization. She was on the sides of buses, kiosks, and pay phones, naked and draped across a velvet sofa in a ramshackle room, “FEED ME” often scrawled across the ad by protesters.”
Under Exposure, Kate Moss by Corinne Day for Vogue UK, June 1993
Here is another interesting passage from Callahan’s book “Champagne Supernovas” about Corinne Day’s photo shoot with Kate Moss: “When British Vogue commissioned Corinne for a lingerie shoot with Kate, Corinne insisted on creative control. She shot in Kate’s London apartment and staged it to look like her own flat: modest and cold, with white walls and gray carpet, exposed wiring, a mattress on the floor. Kate had been crying after a fight with her boyfriend, and Corinne exploited the juxtaposition of distress and seduction, putting Kate in tiny cotton tanks and silk underwear, some of it from a sex shop on Brewer Street. In the finished editorial, Kate, silhouetted by a string of multicolored Christmas lights, looked frail and lost.”
Egon Schiele, Nude With Blue Stockings Bending Forward, 1912
To end, here are some lyrics from the song which inspired me to write this post in the first place: “Lipgloss” by Pulp:
No wonder you’re looking thin,
When all that you live on is lipgloss and cigarettes.
And scraps at the end of the day when he’s given the rest,
To someone with long black hair.
All those nights up making such a mess of the bed.
Oh you never ever want to go home.
Egon Schiele, Sitting Female Nude with Yellow Blanket, 1910
Egon Schiele, Lovemaking, 1915
Kate Moss and Johnny Depp by Annie Leibovitz, 1994
Egon Schiele, Lovers – Self-Portrait With Wally, c. 1914-1915, gouache and pencil on paper
Tags: 1910s, 1990s, art, Austrian art, body ideal, Corinne Day, drawings, Egon Schiele, eleganty wasted, fashion, fashion photography, grunge, heroin chic, Kate Moss, lipgloss and cigarettes, London, model, nihilism, Nude, Photography, Pulp, skinny, Vienna
- Comments 13 Comments
- Categories Art, Fashion icons, Rock Music, Zeitgeist
Fashion Icons: Kate Moss
26 AugI have such a girl-crush on Kate Moss. I like her sense of fashion, her lifestyle and what she represents; in a posh world of models and celebrities filled with ‘perfect’ Instagram pictures, healthy food and fitness obsessiveness, Kate is the last of the 1990s party generation – she smokes, drinks and parties at nightclubs like there’s no tomorrow, while keeping an aura of mystery with her ‘never complain, never explain’ motto.
That kind of lifestyle certainly isn’t for me, but I like it because it’s different. Today, everyone seems obsessed with living healthy, having a beauty sleep, drinking enough water, jogging in the morning to stay in shape – that’s a life of boredom in my opinion. I believe in a quote by Sarah Bernhardt – “Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.”(*)
Style-wise, Kate is influenced by late sixties Brigitte Bardot, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg rock chic look with long scarves, skinny jeans, black sequin dresses, leopard print coats, fur coats, opaque tights, messy bed hair and smokey eyes. She has that trashy-glamorous, just-got-out-of-bed appeal that I quite like. I’ve read somewhere that Kate likes wearing black and that her style rule is simply – never mix silver and gold jewellery.
You can read ’42 style tips to take from Kate Moss’ here.
And now the collages, the thing you’ll all waiting for!
Tags: 1990s, Croydon, fashion, fashion icon series, fashion icons, heroin chic, Kate Moss, model, rock chic
- Comments 5 Comments
- Categories Fashion icons, History of fashion
My Inspirations for August
31 AugIn terms of fashion, this month has been full of contradictions; how do you even out two, three or four different sides, I’ve really been into Kate Moss’ rock chic look but at the same time Biba fashion really inspired me, and so did the movie Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, Dark Shadows (I’ve finally watched it) and Pre-Raphaelites. And in August I’ve finally listened to Babyshambles’ album Albion (song A rebours is my favourite); Pete Doherty’s story really interested me and I found myself liking him as a poet, musician and an artist, not as a reckless, bohemian drug addict.
Tags: Babyshambles, Biba fashion, Dark Shadows (2012), Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, The Libertines, Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
- Comments Leave a Comment
- Categories My Inspiration
My Inspirations for June
30 JunThings that have inspired me this month were paintings by Boris Kustodiev, Echo and the Bunnymen, 1960s psychedelic fashion, Brigitte Bardot, Kate Moss and the amazing movie Une Femme est Une Femme; not to mention that I’ve been quite inspired by Anna Karina’s lovely outfits. I’ve also watched the movie The Libertine and I quite liked it.
I’m having my Swinging London summer of love this summer, I’m listening to Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Yardbirds, llittle bit of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles’ album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Jimi Hendrix Experience all the time while gazing longingly at the beautiful dresses worn by Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull and Twiggy. I’ve relished in movies such as A Hard Day’s Night and Tonight Let’s All Make Love in London. If you love the ’60s you must see them! For me, right now it’s 1967. and I’m enjoying.
Tags: Anna Karina, Boris Kustodiev, Echo and the bunnymen, Ian Mcculloch, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Kate Moss, Syd Barrett, The Charlatans, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Rolling Stones, Tonight Let's All Make Love in London, Une Femme est Une Femme
- Comments Leave a Comment
- Categories My Inspiration
Meet me.
"My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes." (Anne of Green Gables)
"I would rather die of passion than of boredom." (Vincent van Gogh)
M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Archives
- May 2023
- Apr 2023
- Mar 2023
- Feb 2023
- Jan 2023
- Dec 2022
- Nov 2022
- Oct 2022
- Sep 2022
- Aug 2022
- Jul 2022
- Jun 2022
- May 2022
- Apr 2022
- Mar 2022
- Feb 2022
- Jan 2022
- Dec 2021
- Nov 2021
- Oct 2021
- Sep 2021
- Aug 2021
- Jul 2021
- Jun 2021
- May 2021
- Apr 2021
- Mar 2021
- Feb 2021
- Jan 2021
- Dec 2020
- Nov 2020
- Oct 2020
- Sep 2020
- Aug 2020
- Jul 2020
- Jun 2020
- May 2020
- Apr 2020
- Mar 2020
- Feb 2020
- Jan 2020
- Dec 2019
- Nov 2019
- Oct 2019
- Sep 2019
- Aug 2019
- Jul 2019
- Jun 2019
- May 2019
- Apr 2019
- Mar 2019
- Feb 2019
- Jan 2019
- Dec 2018
- Nov 2018
- Oct 2018
- Sep 2018
- Aug 2018
- Jul 2018
- Jun 2018
- May 2018
- Apr 2018
- Mar 2018
- Feb 2018
- Jan 2018
- Dec 2017
- Nov 2017
- Oct 2017
- Sep 2017
- Aug 2017
- Jul 2017
- Jun 2017
- May 2017
- Apr 2017
- Mar 2017
- Feb 2017
- Jan 2017
- Dec 2016
- Nov 2016
- Oct 2016
- Sep 2016
- Aug 2016
- Jul 2016
- Jun 2016
- May 2016
- Apr 2016
- Mar 2016
- Feb 2016
- Jan 2016
- Dec 2015
- Nov 2015
- Oct 2015
- Sep 2015
- Aug 2015
- Jul 2015
- Jun 2015
- May 2015
- Apr 2015
- Mar 2015
- Feb 2015
- Jan 2015
- Dec 2014
- Nov 2014
- Oct 2014
- Sep 2014
- Aug 2014
- Jul 2014
- Jun 2014
- May 2014
- Apr 2014
- Mar 2014
- Feb 2014
- Jan 2014
- Dec 2013
- Nov 2013
- Oct 2013
Recent Posts
- My Inspiration for May 2023
- J.J. Grandville: Flowers Personified (Les fleurs animées)
- Carl Krenek – Sleeping Beauty: I’d Sleep Another Hundred Years, O love, for Such Another kiss!
- Elaine the Lily Maid of Astolat Guarded the Sacred Shield of Lancelot
- Nick Cave – Are You the One That I’ve Been Waiting For? – Carl Krenek – The Lovers
Interesting quotes…
"The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain." (Lord Byron)
"Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it." (Van Gogh)
"I am doomed to overflowing, both in living and in imagination." (Anais Nin)
Blogroll
Categories
Tags
19th century 19th century art 1910s 1960s aesthetic art art blog artist Autumn Beauty Death Dreamy fashion flowers France French Art girl Impressionism Inspiration Japan Literature love Melancholy My Inspiration Nature Painting Paris pictures Poem Poetry portrait Post-Impressionism Pre-Raphaelites pretty pictures Romantic Romanticism Sadness Spring Victorian era watercolourDisclaimer

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. © Byron's Muse, 2013-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Byron's Muse with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.