Most fashion is meant to be worn, but Thierry Mugler’s designs often look like they were engineered as stand-alone pieces of art. I photographed this spectacular look when I visited Thierry Mugler: Couturissime at the Brooklyn Museum in 2022, but it took me this long to take a deep dive into what this design is all about. Dressed entirely in black, this figure has an impossibly sculpted silhouette: exaggerated shoulders, a dramatically cinched waist, sharply defined hips, glossy pointed heels and a fantastical headpiece that makes the wearer look less like a woman getting dressed and more like a character from a futuristic graphic novel. This is all very much Mugler’s territory.
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Tag Archives: brooklyn museum
Modern Art Monday Presents: Jesse Krimes, Blackwater
To counter the dehumanizing isolation of incarceration, artist Jesse Krimes (b, 1982) works collaboratively with incarcerated individuals to create artworks from old clothing and textiles that evoke memories of home. Krimes developed his own practice while serving a six-year sentence. In Blackwater (2021), Krimes regards the tentacled animal as “a panoptic state of surveillance” and alludes to the eugenic and white supremacist ideas in America zoology. The title, Blackwater, refers to a prison in Florida.
Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum.
Modern Art Monday Presents: Mickalene Thomas, Portrait of Qusuquzah #6
Mickalene Thomas‘s glittering, maximalist paintings of Black women, such as this work from 2012, investigate how Black femininity, sexuality, and empowerment are represented in visual culture. She draws inspiration from popular culture, music, and Western art history, while embodying the aesthetic of the 1970s with embroidered rhinestones and bold patterns.
Portrait of Qusuquzah #6 depicts one of the artist’s frequent models embodying the glamour of Black women in the 1940s. The subject assumes a central, dynamic position, commanding undivided attention.
Photographed in The Brooklyn Museum as Part of the 2024 Exhibit Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys
Pink Thing of the Day: Pierre Cardin’s Silk Jersey Jumpsuit
When it comes to pushing fashion into the future, no one did it quite like Pierre Cardin. This week’s Pink Thing is a striking Pink Silk Jersey Jumpsuit from 2008, a perfect example of the late designer’s lifelong devotion to bold form, saturated color, and theatrical flair. With its sweeping batwing sleeves, tapered legs, and shimmering black fringe at the neckline and cuffs, this jumpsuit transforms the body into a living sculpture.
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Eye On Design: Lola Faturoti’s Barack Obama Commemorative Dress
Fashion has always been political, but sometimes it’s also pure celebration. Back in 2009, Nigerian-American designer Lola Faturoti found the perfect way to honor the historic election of President Barack Obama: she created a commemorative dress that was as vibrant and hopeful as the man himself.
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