Customer Reviews

Olivier Theyskens: The Other Side of the Picture

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Normally I run into this kind of books. Fashion books can be as strange as the brand represented, Margiela's sometimes have unusual -to say the least- editorial decisions; in other cases the genre is always about how to make dresses and clothing into a publication where: 1. you understand the garment 2. you get the idea about the brand -in time, in process, etc 3. you have an aesthetic experience through the amazing editorials, the styling, the editing.
In this case, the career of still young Olivier Theyskens does not get the justice it deserves. We get black and white pictures -always blurry, never in focus (sorry but I was photo curator for 20 years, I know when I see a pretentious image-, almost all of this image are in backstage. We never have real information about the collections, the design inspiration. When one of the last image are the infamous shoes in the Nina Ricci range where we have a high shoe with a 'negative' heel, but this we only pretend to see it, the image is impossible as a way to depict the actual fashion piece, then we know this book totally miss the point.

I never get ride of one of my beloved fashion books, but in this case I have to, is well printed, but repetitive and boring. Is just plain pretentious, not even artsy or clever, and believe me for the price is not worth it.

I fell in love with this book!
The photographs are incredible, with such strong lights and contrasts that they remind me of a Caravaggio painting... the figures are lonely, dark, ethereal, the dresses are obviously beautiful -but it's not them the protagonists here: do not expect the usual backstage photography. this is much, much better.