A Magic World

Magazine: Vogue Italia
Issue: January 2008
Editorial: A Magic World
Photographer: Tim Walker
Models: Olga Sherer, Alice Gibb

Oct 16

Stamped Lips

Stamped Lips, Andy Warhol, 1959

Yves Saint Laurent Spring Summer 1971

Lips print dress from Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Harpers & Queen, early April 1971. Model: Viviane Fauny. Photo: Helmut Newton

Dresses Yves Saint Laurent, Vogue Italia, February 1971, Photo By Chris Von Wagenheim

YSL 1973

Zooey Deschanel for ELLE in Saint Laurent by Slimane Lip Print dress, Spring 2014

Rihanna wearing the sequined one shoulder top, also by Slimane. Vogue, March 2014. Photo: David Sims

Kristen Stewart on the cover of Marie Claire UK, May 2014

Marc Jacobs cosmetic bag

Lulu Guiness lips clutch

Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, 2014

Peter Jensen SS 2014

Giles Deacon SS 2014

Alice and Olivia, Resort Collection 2014

Prada Spring Summer 2000 ad campaign

Michelle Williams on the cover of ELLE, December 2011 wearing a Prada dress

Prada Resort Collection 2012 ad campaign

May 24

The Elegant Portraiture of Timothy Greenfield Sanders

“For many photographers, fashion is the ultimate. But I’m not a fashion photographer. I’m a portrait artist who shoots fashion”

Timothy Greenfield Sanders

Yves Saint Laurent

Pauline Trigère

Sonia Rykiel

Rei Kawakubo

Todd Oldham

Jean Muir

Elsa Peretti

Paloma Picasso

Carolina Herrera

Carmen Dell’Orefice

Oscar De la Renta

Jil Sander

Vera Wang

Donna Karan

Naomi Campbell

Christy Turlington

Andre Leon Talley

Liz Tilberis

Anna Wintour

Simon Doonan

Iké Udé

Hamish Bowles

Betsey Johnson

Miguel Adrover

Patrick Robinson

Zac Posen

Michael Kors

Narciso Rodríguez

Calvin Klein

Tommy Hilfiger

Isaac Mizrahi

Mar 30

V.I.P.’s (Very Important Portraits) by Roxanne Lowit

Roxanne Lowit is one of the pioneers of behind-the-scenes fashion photography as we know it today. “For the first 10 to 15 years I was the only one shooting backstage at all the shows. I had no credentials to begin with but quickly realised that that was my métier, that’s what I found most fascinating.”

The revelation came when she was gifted an Instamatic camera while still attending the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York studying Textile Design. At the time Lowit was a keen painter, but with this new tool discovered a more efficient way of capturing the spirit of her subjects. “I wanted to paint the people I admired but nobody had the time, so I thought I’d take a photograph of them and work from the photograph,” she says. “However, once I took the photograph I realised that I didn’t need to capture the whole soul in a painting. So I traded in my paintbrushes for a camera.”

Her background in textile design became her backstage pass when she was invited by the designers who worked from her patterns to photograph the completed garments before their shows. Eventually word got out that Lowit’s images were something worth publishing, and in 1978 she was contacted by Annie Flanders from the SoHo News. “She heard that I was going to Paris so she said ‘if you get a real camera I’ll use your pictures when you get back’. I learnt how to put film in a real camera on the plane on the way over. Next thing I was on the top of the Eiffel Tower shooting with Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol. It was all downhill from there because how could it get any better?”

But things did get better, much better. After that first trip to Paris doors flung open for Lowit and her career as a backstage fashion photographer gained swift momentum. As industry insiders came to know and love her, the invitations to the parties flooded in, which was where much of the magic happened in front of Lowit’s lens. The 80s were heady times for fashion and she was always there, stationed in the fray, ready to catch the fanfare, frivolities and outright excess as it happened. “It was phenomenal,” she recalls. “We had the Supermodels and all those designers who loved the Supermodels. There were great parties – Elton John was always there and all sorts of celebrities started coming to the shows and parties.”

These days Lowit finds the more homogenised collections produced by contemporary designers as a result of an increasingly commercialised fashion industry much less inspiring, but revels in rising to the challenge all the same. “I usually play a game with myself, how good can I make this look?” she laughs. “But really it’s just about taking a great picture and finding a great moment. It’s always exciting to think, where am I going to go and what am I going to shoot next?”For the fashion designers themselves, as Lowit recalls, it was a time of tremendous creative freedom, where their unique artistic vision was nurtured by the industry and experimentation was encouraged. The shows, it seems, were less about selling clothes and more about the artistry, theatre and spectacle of it all. “It was so much more creative back then. You didn’t need a name at the end of the runway to know who it was you were watching,” she tells me. “When you saw long red nails with vampish clothes and great big hair you knew it was Thierry Mugler. When you saw flower dresses and a girl on a horse you knew you were at Kenzo. Stripes and knits, you were at Sonia Rykiel.”

Lowit gets a kick out of shooting just about anyone who gets a kick out of being shot. “All the pictures I’ve taken are important to me. They’re all like my children. It’s always the next image I look forward to. But looking back I think my favourites are the ones where the people just enjoyed having their picture taken – they were just having a good time. That’s really when I can capture something great.”

Roxanne Lowit, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline and Julian Schnabel, Kenny Scharf, Jean Michel Basquiat

Andy Warhol

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld

Helena Christensen, Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour

Diana Vreeland

Ralph Lauren and Diana Vreeland

Salvador Dalí, Janet Daly and the recipient of a kiss

Helmut Newton

Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton

Peter Lindbergh, Arthur Elgort and Patrick Demarchelier

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino

Patrick Kelly, Iman, Grace Jones and Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista

>Manolo Blahnik and Anna Piaggi

Lauren Hutton and a chauffeur

Elton John in concert wearing the Donald Duck costume, Central Park, New York

Shalom Harlow

Amanda Lepore

Halston

John Galliano

Annabelle Neilson Rothschild and John Galliano

Backstage from Dior Show, Paris

Kate Moss and John Galliano

Kate Moss

Ellen Von Unwerth and Mario Testino

Herb Ritts, Christy Turlington and Steven Meisel

May 12

Some Stylish Mothers

Portrait of Carolina Herrera’s daughters and granchildren by Annie Leibovitz.

Carolina Herrera surrounded by her daughters. From Left to right: Patricia, Carolina Jr., Ana Luisa and Mercedes

Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi and Sofía

Donna Karan and Gaby Karan de Felice

Elsa Schiaparelli and her daughter Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor (Gogo) in St. Moritz, 1934. Gogo Schiaparelli, married shipping executive Robert L. Berenson. Their children were model Marisa Berenson and photographer Berry Berenson.

Sonia and Nathalie Rykiel in a photo editorial by Jason Schmidt featured in Harper’s Bazaar. The photograph is inspired by the movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)