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DVF is Fashion+Art
Just like the brushstroke florals and safari-chic looks paraded down therunways this season, duets are the hottest trend in the fashion world. Solo acts are passé. This year, the concept of the designer collaboration is going one step further. In an unprecedented marriage between fashion and art, iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg has teamed up with Gallic writer, painter and photographer François-Marie Banier to create an ad campaign for her fall 2008 collection.
With her famous and longstanding ties to the art world—her Warhol portrait is among the most recognized of the artist’s screen printed likenesses—it is no surprise that von Furstenberg has selected a visionary artist such as Banier to help showcase her designs. Friends since the early seventies, the designer modestly claims that her only part in this collaborative project was making the introductions between Banier and her creative partner, David Lipman. The result? More than fifty stunning, intimate snapshots taken in both Manhattan and Paris of the captivating Natalia Vodianova, layered with dreamlike faces, writing (in his native French), drips, splatters and broad brushstrokes, conscientiously smeared and blended. Banier’s finished creations are imbued with bold reds and yellows juxtaposed with moody shades of green, mirroring the coloration of von Furstenberg’s fall 2008 collection sumptuously entitled “Foreign Affair.” Inspired by a nameless muse,
traveling through Berlin, Shanghai and New York in only the most mysterious and glamorous ways possible, “with a secret in her heart and diamonds sewn to the hem of her dress.”
Each piece effortlessly combines body-conscious and full shapes with silhouettes that are equally masculine and feminine. Think immaculately tailored jackets casually belted over slinky printed dresses, which are utterly chic and wearable, even if your hems are diamond-free. Watch the behind-the-scenes video featuring the artist Banier and his muse Natalia as they share intimate moments of this collaboration of fashion and art at www.dvf.com.
-Alice York
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