Among my favourite fashion images there is a picture taken by Gene Fenn in 1944.
Entitled “Noguchi sculpture and model”, the photograph, used for a cover of Junior Bazaar magazine, portrayed a young girl wearing an oversized blue, white and orange star-shaped pinwheel-like headdress.
The dynamic headgear she is wearing is actually a sculpture made by Japanese artist Noguchi for an airport.
What I love about this image is the fact that it is rather joyous – after all it was aimed at young fashion readers – but it also looks a little bit like a perfect painting.
Fenn had actually studied photography and painting at Cooper Union in New York, and, in 1930, he assisted fashion photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe who at the time worked for Harper's Bazaar. In the late 40s, Fenn went to Paris where he studied painting and met many important artists.
I love the way the dark grey background in Fenn’s picture contrasts with the colours of the metallic pinwheel and how the girl is happily smiling.
The picture looks like a sort of three dimensional (yes, you can't touch it, but the pinwheel sculpture gives depth to the image), futuristic and joyous version of Piero della Francesca’s portrait of Battista Sforza.
While leafing through some notes I took about the recent Copenhagen Fashion Week and going through the catwalk images relating to Stine Goya’s show, Fenn’s picture came back to my mind.
Goya’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection took place at the Øbro-Hallen swimming pool, with models walking around the edge of the pool, rather than strolling down the runway. The collection featured also dresses, tops and drop crotch trousers in a palette of yellow yolk and white that pleasantly contrasted with the pale blue of the pool behind the models.
I must admit I found the rest of the collection – apart from some dresses with dark prints of dusky, almost nuclear skies – slightly dull and repetitive compared with the first white/orangey outfits.
Yet it was interesting to see the designer has been experimenting with a wider and softer colour palette compared to her Autumn/Winter 09 collection, while playing with fading yellow-orange-nude tones, developing more prints and adding a bit of glamour by sprinkling sequins on cropped jackets with sharp shoulders and a sculpted ruffled peplum hem, long romantic dresses and vest tops. I don't think I will easily manage to get out of my mind the orange, white and blue colour combination: it looks lively, upbeat and conveys a feeling of boldness and strength.
To see further images of Stine Goya’s S/S 2010 collection, check out the Copenhagen Fashion Week site.
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