Friday, August 26, 2011

Ballerina Style for Grown-Ups

[Considerably updated below]


Carla Sozzani, owner of the gallery 10 Corso Como (Italy). 
 From New York Magazine.

What intrigues me about this look?  Many elements, to be sure.

It reminds me of two dresses I used to wear frequently: one in thick gray jersey with an identical bodice , but a gently flowing, almost ankle-length skirt.  I wore it with a tall blonde topknot and flat Doc Martens unlaced black lace-up shoes.

But there's also the tank-bodice, saffron, thick jersey ballerina dress that invoked Azzedine Alaia.  A perfectly graceful dress for the summer.

And finally, my favourite sculpture as a lassie was Degas' dancer.  Cliche, no doubt, but when a show of Degas came to Ottawa's stunning national gallery of art, I looked at the tiny dancer until every square of tulle was etched into my mind.  Three different versions are below:




It's a case of Degas vue, if you ask me . . .

3 comments:

materfamilias said...

The dress is beautiful, the woman also, with her grave, dignified and studied gaze at the viewer. So I don't what it is I'm resisting. . . something about the silhouette, the hint of convent girlishness, perhaps? (I've done my time in Catholic school, can't help seeing an allusion to a rosary in the long necklace, the solemn tones). Obviously Sozzani herself is full of confident and mature presence, and yet . . . But perhaps that's what makes the whole so arresting, there's a tension. . . .
Usually confine my close reading to literary analysis, but this is quite compelling. Thanks!

Miss Cavendish said...

I get what you're saying, Mater. Indeed, the photo captivated me when I saw it I New York Magazine, alongside photos of other creative people. But then when I pulled it out on its own . . . I thought that it missed the company of friends. But I'll leave it up, for that tension to simmer a bit.

materfamilias said...

Yes, absolutely leave it up -- tension's always worthwhile. And I'm feeling tense, rereading my comment and seeing that I've missed out a whole word (erased, more likely, in revising, and then not proofread carefully) -- Of course, should say, "So I don't know what I'm resisting"