Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless
These are promo images for makeup brand Illamasqua‘s new collection Theatre of the Nameless, which was inspired by the notoriously voluptuous 1920s Berlin nightlife. I’m a sucker for any modern, dark interpretation of ’20s makeup.
Related post >> John Galliano’s theatrical runway makeup
Tags: 1920s, flapper, flappers, historically inspired, makeup
Portrait of a Criminal
Check out this amazing series of “photographs of commitment” from the archive of the Sydney Justice & Police Museum, posted over on the art blog La boite verte. Beautiful, timeless, and peculiarly expressive, these vintage “mug shots” are just brimming with the individuality and personalities of a motley array of people who passed through Australia’s criminal justice system back in the early part of the 20th century – creating unintentional art – offering up to these fringe subjects a sliver of immortality. I am in love with these.
{via the ever-brilliant Coilhouse blog}
Tags: 1920s, artifacts of the past, expressive, hauntingly beautiful, portraits, quizzical, retro, sepia, vintage
Short Film: “Monarch”
A lovely experimental short film, titled Monarch, with styling and modeling by one of my favorite alternative models and greatest creative/style inspirations, Anna Swiczeniuk, also known as Aiko273, and filmed by Markabre Charade.
Tags: 1920s, aiko273, colorful, emotive, hauntingly beautiful, homage to silent film, makeup, short films
Irina Ionesco
Irina Ionesco is a French-Romanian photographer who began exhibiting her work in the mid-1970s. Her photography is dark, dramatic, erotic, and strongly evocative of a vintage aesthetic. I see lots and lots of influence from the 1920s – from the lavishly ornamental tendency in portraits from that period, where female subjects are arranged in feathers, furs, headdresses, high heels, and assorted paraphernalia, along with the era’s makeup, and the overall “sexy/macabre” vibe and vampish aesthetic of the ’20s.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding Ionesco’s nudes with her young daughter as the model. More on that below.
Tags: 1920s, 1970s, black-and-white portraits, controversy, erotic, fetish, lolitaism, vintage, vintage undergarments
Mmm…Galliano
I love, love, love John Galliano’s runway makeup. Often 1920s-inspired, it is dominated by bow lips, rosy contoured cheeks, just the thinnest of brows whimsically penciled in, and heavy shading in eccentric and interesting colors around the eyes that literally creates shadows, hollows, and a “bleeding,” “bruised” look. The effect is simultaneously macabre and playful, a pastiche of makeup for young widows in the silent era. I love the interesting mix of colors, the heaviness, the drama of it. No matter whether you find yourself really liking Galliano’s couture or not, the makeup is always innovative, elaborate, and striking, and that is part of the couture, creating a magic and mystery about it.
Tags: 1920s, amazing makeup, haute couture, john galliano, pierrot, runway fashion, vintage
Viviane Orth by Fabio Bartelt: the ’20s Restyled
I love this ’20s-inspired shoot for Elle Brazil. It’s so fun, and not nearly as harsh/alien-looking as the vibe most fashion editorials give off. I also love that it takes place outside, among these sort of stunted, yellow grasses.
Tags: 1920s, fashion editorial, flappers
A Geometrical Sort of Beauty: Tamara de Lempicka
Chances are, you’ve probably seen the Art Deco paintings of Tamara de Lempicka around somewhere before. With a sort of Cubist and Futurist influence, they depict, in a precise, boldly defined, and tightly controlled style, the “New Woman” that had emerged by the ’20s.
Tags: 1920s, art deco, cubist, flappers, tamara de lempicka
Asta Nielsen: Fleur du Mal
Asta Nielsen is another one of those piquant silent film actors who intrigue me. A sort of dark flower, she has a very striking, iconic image, with a bone-white face, heavily contrasting huge dark eyes, and whimsical, rather mercurial expressions. Her features and the positioning of her body in stills (her look in 1921′s Hamlet!) I think give her almost a spooky appearance, and also a somehow modern look, as though she belongs more walking down the street around where I live than on the long-dead, silent screen. Now largely unknown, she was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and one of the first stars of the silver screen.
Born in 1881, she was a Danish actress who played in over 70 films, almost all of which were made in Germany. She was known for portraying passionate women caught in tragedy, and for the erotic quality of her performances. She brought a more subtle, naturalistic, and minimalistic acting style to cinema, in contrast to many silent actors who used theatricality – much like my beloved Louise Brooks did later on in the late ’20s. She also played Lulu in the 1923 adaptation of the Wedekind play, Erdgeist (“Earth Spirit”), which role Louise Brooks was to play in 1928 in Pabst’s Die Büchse der Pandora.
“‘Asta Nielsen’ means the power to speak of pathos, to see pain, and to find the middle path between Baudelaire’s flower of evil and the sick rose of which Blake sang.”
- M. S. FonsecaHere are a few pictures of Asta below:
Tags: 1910s, 1920s, asta nielsen, flappers, silent films, vintage
“Metropolis”-Inspired Fashion Editorial
I love the 1928 silent science fiction/German Expressionist film Metropolis. Check out this Metropolis-themed shoot from Vogue Germany that was posted over on Haute Macabre:
Tags: 1920s, fashion editorial, german expressionism, metropolis, robots, sci-fi, silent films, vintage
Vintage Beauties
A couple of beautiful portraits of Ziegfeld girls (via Liebemarlene):
Tags: 1920s, vintage, ziegfeld follies
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