Mortality and Design

It is my pleasure to share with you these photos. While they are not a direct collaboration with myself and the Creative Director; Miss Elfi Seidel, I feel that our conversations about design, styling and philosophy towards creating has been such a beneficial process for our works. Looking at the notion of mortality in design was the starting point for this editorial shoot (and the article in the last post). It was wonderful to have this dialogue during the creative process and it was so exciting to see the final products together.
I particularly like the use of shadow and links to Surrealist motifs.
I hope you enjoy it too.  

Memento Mori Now

This shoot addresses beauty and mortality and looks at their links. Baroque inspired, beauty and death are being personified as allegorical figures.

Reinterpreting vanitas symbols such as flowers and violins, the images put fashion’s ephemeral nature in a modern context. The photos were taken at the gallery W139 in Amsterdam, a hyper clean environment contrasting the Baroque and mythological references with abstract pieces of contemporary art. Shadows cast by a semi-present character add to a certain whimsical feel. Inspired by the close bonds between fashion, death and decay, the protagonists blend their contrasting characteristics. The compositions allude to the relation of the opposed characters without being very explicit. Combining a visual language of symbolic overload with a theatrical and staged feel, the series comes off as a moody narrative about the beauty of fashion haunted by its ghost of death.

- Miss Elfi Seidel

Production & Styling: Elfi Seidel & Merel van der Toorn

Photography: TC

Models: Katja Verheul & Daniel Liddiard

Make Up: Wouter van Schaaijk

Hair: Michelle van Coeverden

Thanks to: GAlLERY W139

Elfi Seidel -  www.elfiseidel.com

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." (Tancredi-The Leopard)

Inspired by the works of Luchino Visconti: the great Italian director (1906-1976), 

this collaboration blends the seduction of opulence and luxury with 

distant worlds and fantasy.

LOVEhelen

Photographer: Anthony Tosello

Stylist &: Designer: Helen Pappas

Make Up Artist: Eve Dimitrakadis

Model: Amy Pollock @ London MGT Group

Collages by: Helen Pappas

Reminiscing

Today I was sitting at my computer, not really doing anything productive (...to what I was doing about an hour ago), and remembered about some photos a wonderful friend had styled. 

Claire had asked to use my Fluffy Jacket which I created in 2010. It was initially designed as a menswear piece, aiming to be completely ornate and a 'little' over the top. 

I feel that its lavishly fluffy texture is just so exciting and it is wonderful to hear that others feel the same.

I love Claire's interpretation of this piece. I feel that she not only has a wonderful vision of her own, but an incredible ability to adapt to others. this shoot really captured serene yet slightly haunting mood of all the 

designers' works. 

For a glimps at the whole shoot: Click here!

Photographer: Sheree Porter

MUA: Pollyanna Bernhardt

Styling: The Wonderful Miss Claire Mueller

Model: Amy Skipper

Graduate Collection: The Modern Tradition

This is the third and last shoot I have done for Uni. I am so happy with this shoot and how it has turned out like 1940s Hollywood Studio shots. 

Thankyou:

Kim Mennen: Photographer

Jake Lowe: Asst. Photographer

Greg Dennis: Stylist

Alicia Poxrucker: Make-up & Hair

Thomas @ Chadwick Models: Model

xoxoxoLOVEhelen

Graduate Collection: The Sartorial Image

Photoshoot for my Graduate Collection with:

Photographer: Will Lukaitis

Designer&Stylist: Helen Pappas

Hair&Make-up: Pheobe Goulding

Model: Hayden @ Scene

Dress in the Afternoon

Photo Shoot Collaboration from September 2011. 

Photographer: Jonathan Butler

Collagist & Designer/Stylist: Helen Pappas

Model: Cassius @ Darley Management 

All Photos remain property of the Photographer and Designer, Butler&Pappas, 2011

Credit Appropriately

LOVEhelen

Zeit Magazin - Deutsche Mode 2011

And here is the Second Fashion Editorial series. There is a stark contrast between the two, one being highly ornamented, the other clean, sharp and tailored.

But I do feel that the is a few strong links between the men's tailoring and the lavish women's costume, and for me that is the notion of tradition and beautiful detail.

Both these sets allude to beautiful lavish style and visual effect, that also holds strong traditions both present and cultural.

I feel that showing these two shoots together is so strong, as it highlights the modernity of the traditional costume in todays fashion, while also subtly suggesting that men too can dress with great impact and playfulness.

Enjoy!

LOVEhelen

Zeit Magazin - Deutsche Mode 1811

I'm so so excited to share this on my blog, mainly because a great friend of mine was the one to share this with me.

A few weeks ago it was my birthday, and I was so lucky to receive some parcels in the mail from friends. One being from Bonn in Germany.

It contained the Zeit Magazin from a German Newspapers, and was a special edition on German fashion. What is interesting about it, is that they drew parallels between Men's and Women's fashion, but also cultural, traditional and modern dress.

There were two major fashion shoots, one on the Modes of German style in 1811 Womenswear, and the other being 200 years later on Modern German Menswear, 2011.

This is the Editorial Photoshoot for the Womenswear fashions of 1811.

Images: http://www.zeit.de/kultur/2011-07/fs-trachten

LOVEhelen