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If you’d like to see fashion through an intellectual lens, you might want to stop by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 6th to August 9th to view: Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion .   The exhibit’s gala opened May 4th with appearances by Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, Anna Wintour and Justin Timberlake.  Anyone who has whined about whether or not Kate Moss has any authority to design clothes for Top Shop might be enlightened.  The show examines how and why certain models embodied the spirit of designers when they did and how particular personalities reflected our cultural zeitgeist by era.

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Models featured in the exhibit are Nadja Auermann, Naomi Campbell, Janice Dickinson, Dovima, Linda Evangelista, Lisa Fonssagrives, Jerry Hall, Shalom Harlow, Sunny Harnett, Lauren Hutton, Iman, Dorian Leigh, Donyale Luna, Peggy Moffitt, Kate Moss, Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Christy Turlington, Twiggy, Amber Valletta, and Veruschka, amongst others.

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Photographers included are Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Gilles Bensimon, William Claxton, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, Hiro, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Norman Parkinson, Irving Penn, Gösta Peterson, Franco Rubartelli, Francesco Scavullo, Melvin Sokolsky, Bert Stern, Juergen Teller, Deborah Turbeville, Ellen von Unwerth, and Chris Von Wangenheim.

See shots of the Iconic models featured in the exhibit and the general gala hubub here.

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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Victoria’s Secret models put the “A&T” in Chas(s)tity….

Sexy or Secret Keeper?

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Dave M. Benett/Getty Images – Rose Hartman/WireImage/Getty Images

Kristen McMenemy attended the pre-launch party at the Double Club in Angel, created by Fondazione Prada, in London on November 21st in all of her grey glory.  The former 80’s/90’s supermodel was known for her androgynous aesthetic and unconventional beauty.  Juergen Teller photographed her under unflattering conditions in 1996 wearing only the name Versace scrawled across her chest in lipstick for a project commenting on the oppressive standards upheld by the fashion industry.  Today she embraces what many consider to be a stigma; grey hair and wears it long and natural.  Other famous women who have opted to embrace stigma are Emmylou Harris, Jamie Lee Curtis and Helen Mirren.  Where do you stand?  To dye or not to dye?

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When do you use models, and when don’t you use models? It’s a difficult question. Authenticity can be tricky to capture when you are staging a scene…especially if the subject matter is trend setting musicians and hipster youth culture, ala Santogold and Spank Rock. The shoot can easily go awry because of variables, such as, casting, styling, or art direction. Here are some images from a recent shoot gone right by The Smith Collection. The success of the shoot had much to do with the fact that the models cast are in a real band and already had their own personal style. To add a little more flavor, the photographer additionally hired a graffiti artist to create some original backgrounds for the group. The shoot also hits the mark because the subjects are performers and look natural and comfortable in what they are being asked to do.

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Smith Collection/Getty Images

Smith Collection/Getty Images

Smith Collection/Getty Images

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Kelly Osbourne,  strikingly graphic as usual, waits patiently with her always behatted boyfriend Luke Worrall for the Patrik Rzepski Spring 2009 show at The Caledonia for New Yorks MBFW.  Below is Alice Burdeu from Australia’s Next Top Model getting finishing touches for her walk down the Patrik Rzepski runway.  She made it to MBFW NYC!  Here is a lightbox of shows she walked.  She is also writing a blog about it on papermag.com

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Bill Henson, from Luminous series 

Bill Henson is the latest photographer to be forcibly censored by state authorities (although he appears to have been exonerated). Police in Sydney raided the gallery where the Australian artist had just opened his latest exhibition of photographs and literally took the photos off the wall, also confiscating copies of some magazines that had reproduced his offending images (only 1000’s of more of those to round-up…). I’m a big fan of Henson’s work, the impossibly dark, sweltering atmospheres are intensely psychological, and seem to have something unsettling, ancient, and universal about them.

Censorship in photography is certainly nothing new, and accusations of pornography (or worse, as in the Henson case, child pornography) tend to play a leading role in that history. Nan Goldin is another recent target that comes to mind, and I just stumbled on the press release for an interesting-looking exhibition titled Controversies that just ended at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland which focused on the legal and ethical history of photography.

What gets me is these cases is the latent psychology at work in the accusers and authorities that censor the artwork. What seems to offend them is not that the work was made (after all, the mother of one of the models in the Henson case came out in his defense), but their own reaction to the work. Their outrage betrays their having felt a taboo desire they’d thus far repressed to the point of thinking no longer existed, hence the overly vehement histrionics that ensue as they launch their witch-hunt. The Omnipresent Sociopath is invoked to project these forbidden feelings onto and create an ostensible justification for confiscating and destroying the work (casting out the demons), the sight of which would presumably send the O.S. into an immediate and uncontrollable rampage of sociopath-ing. I don’t mean to make light of truly heinous behavior such as child molestation, it’s just that the wrong-headed self-righteous crusades against art that censors repeatedly go on always seem completely misinformed and come off as botched attempts to play the moral hero.

On a related note, there seems to be a (dare I say the word) trend in photography recently (or maybe since the invention of the camera?) for what I call cute-young-naked-things. The leading figure at the moment in this hip-young-naked-ism seems to be Ryan McGinley, aka Ryan-the-youngest-photographer-to-ever-have-a-solo-show-at-the-Whitney McGinley. Here is his most recent photo project, which it looks like he adapted for use in a new music video for Icelandic band Sigur Ros (hint: just click one of the play buttons on the bottom left, you don’t have to sign up on the right. hint #2: possibly NSFW). The latest project looks heavily influence by Bill Henson, albeit it in broad daylight and minus the more grand connotations and subtleties. Other obvious influences on McGinley, and recent predecessors in the history of young-naked-ism, would be Larry Clark, Richard Kern, and Terry Richardson.

I like the work of Marlene Marino, who seems to fit in with this as well, see some of her pictures here.

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images – Shawn Ehlers/WireImage/Getty Images

What’s cooler than being an A-list actor or supermodel? I don’t know… maybe being a rock star to boot? A number of famous faces have been releasing records or playing in bands this year. Golden girl, Scarlett Johansson’s tribute to Tom Waits; Anywhere I Lay My Head has been met with mixed reviews and a lot of skepticism. British model Agyness Deyn debuted in Five O’Clock Hero’s music video and is said to have written a handful of songs for her new band Gene Jacket. Actress Zooey Deschanel paired up with M. Ward for their project She & Him . Who knew so many actors and pretty faces had pipes to match?

Juliette Lewis has all but made the switch from thumb-sucked actress to sweaty rock goddess. Though we know actress Minnie Driver from the big screen, she actually started her career as a singer, releasing her second album in 2007. Jada Pinkett Smith played the role of the angry tough girl in Wicked Wisdom, performing at Ozzfest in 2006. The thespian to songstress switch is not a new phenomenon. Jane Birken is easily recognized as a singer though she started in acting. Jared Leto, Keanu Reeves, Paris Hilton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Crow and Val Kilmer have also graced our ears with their musical efforts, though with the exception of Leto and Reeves, this dabbling in music feel more like a casual pastime.

Somehow the transition from musician to actor is accepted with greater ease by the public, except perhaps in the case of Madonna. Mark Wahlberg, Will Smith, Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand have successfully turned the corner. Even Bjork. Lyle Lovett and Deborah Harry have done some respectable dramatic work. What do you think? Are these forays into music genuine expressions of the inner songbird or an extension of an actor/model’s inflated ego?

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images – Larry Marano/Getty Images Entertainment/ Getty Images

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