Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Patrick Ian Hartley's Face Corsets




British artist-designer Patrick Ian Hartley makes what he calls "face corsets," an apt descriptor for what's essentially custom neck art in carefully molded leather, silk, and PVC — a lot of PVC. And you thought 17th-century ruffs were the height of neck art.



Naturally, Lady Gaga is a client, as well as heaps of other musicians looking for something a little exotic to wear in their music videos. Haute magazines, too, are stampeding to Hartley's studio, hunting for that certain something to help their editorials stand out — literally stand out, like the partial exoskeletons you see here. They may look uncomfortable, but stiletto heels probably also looked uncomfortable, before they were everywhere.

Finally, a Trailer for the Unauthorized Yves Saint Laurent Biopic



Saint Laurent, the biopic we've been breathlessly posting about, has finally popped out a trailer. (This is separate from a concurrent film, Yves Saint Laurent, which seems to be a more anodyne look at his early years at Dior.) And judging from fleeting glimpses of Gaspard Ulliel as the young to middle-aged designer and Louis Garrel as his forbidden boytoy Jacques de Bascher, the final feature film, when it hits French theaters in September, is going to be full of all le smoking hot sex scenes you could ask for — nay, demand.

The trailer has been a long time coming, as the film already premiered at Cannes (competing for the Palme d'Or prize). And it isn't subtitled, but you don't need to know French to recognize on-screen sizzle, even if it is a little melodramatic. Willem Dafoe (as Andy Warhol) and Léa Seydoux (as Saint Laurent's muse, Loulou de la Falaise) will no doubt balance out the histrionics. Indeed, the fact that it isn't authorized — by the brand in its current state — suggests that a fair amount artistic license has been utilized. All the sexier!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W441yvk2xj0