Yoko Ono & John Lennon by Annie Leibovitz

‘Instant Picasso’ fantasy light drawings 

Photographed by Gjon Mili; 1949 Vallauris, France

I hear that our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction

The sud-african collar that serves as an inspiration for McQueen, at Givenchy, back in 1997

Alla Nazimova, the avant-garde icon of the 20’s, an inspiration for our contemporary extravagant personage, Lady Gaga.

Yves Saint-Laurent by Andy Warhol

Katsushika Hokusai 

photo by Kourken Pakchanian, Vogue America 1971

photo by Guy Bourdin, Vogue France 1968

Designer: Andre Courreges 

Best known for contouring the moon girl, that groovy 60’s “Space-Age chic” look based on sculptural attires, streamlined shapes, dramatic shades of white, go-go boots and goggle sunglasses. Not to forget that due to his visionary approach (and Mary Quant’s also) the miniskirt was first introduced in fashion.

His style is being revived constantly in Prada’s collections, representing a major inspiration for Miuccia.

Margot Tenenbaum

Alla Nazimova: the avant-garde icon of the 20’s and of nowadays

‘I am crazy to appear before the machines myself. I want to perpetuate whatever art I have; I want to be known by generations yet to come , as well as to this. Just think what it will mean! What a thing to dream of!’ Nazimova, 1912

Born Adelaide Leventon, known as Alla Nazimova, was one of the greatest women of the silent era. She was an exotic, independent movie and theatre actress considered the supreme interpreter of Henrik Ibsen’s plays of her day. 

She has a repertoire of extraordinarily stylized films, most of them self-produced. Salome is considered nowadays one of the first american art movies, even though it was a major failure for its contemporary audience. It is based on a play by Oscar Wilde (you can read it online here) with avant-garde costumes designed by Natacha Rambova and inspired from the amazing illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley. 

I guess that after seeing the second picture above it’s useless to mention that she is one of the main inspirations for some of lady gaga’s looks and the revival of the short haired wigs with a geometrical cut in the top fashion editorials from the past few years.

(Happily the whole movie can be watched online right here. Enjoy!)

Mary Quant & Vidal Sassoon, 1964

‘And this is what growth is all about. Why do people stop developing, or, like they stop the way you can rate their, psychologically, their development? Where they stop, and just from being children to maybe stoping at a very adolescent age, and they stay there until they die. Physically die. I mean, they react adolescently. They don’t change. They don’t develop. They don’t  - it’s that continual read, that process which is the total threat for the ego’

Edie

Oh, Francoise!