These are some of the promo pictures for the new Christian Louboutin collection by Khuong Nguyen. They all relate back to different fairy tales you might recognize from your childhood. I think the whole campaign is wonderfully creative and ties very well into the reiteration of fairy tales we've been seeing lately (thank you, Tim Burton). The concept of fantasy is far from unapparent in this series - I love the realistic elements used in correlation with (forgive my literary device-isms) strong symbolism and even phantasmagoria. I also think it all follows Christian Louboutin as a brand as well - the famous photo of him levitating the shoe between him palms certainly evokes similar fantastic elements.
Tim Burton knows how to make gruesome, vile and morbid visuals hilarious. His artistic style is fluid, detailed and colorful all at the same time and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the expo at the Moma last weekend. Wait. I should really say "waddling" instead of walking because I've never seen so many hipsters and children in my life. It was packed and I am thankful I bought tickets online beforehand because I certainly don't think I would've been able to get in without doing so. Either way, Tim Burton's twisted style was beautifully presented (black lights to make the neon pop out as 3D, some "making of" videos here and there, audio, story boards, sculptures (about 20 of Jack's (from the Nightmare Before Christmas) clay heads with different facial expressions), THE Edward Scissorhands costume, Batman masks, all sorts of things from Mars Attacks and so many more trinkets, doodahs and watchamacallits), even though he says that he had "never really considered [this stuff] to be art or artwork mainly because it was not meant to be seen really - it was mostly the thought process when [he] was working on movies".
Part of the advertising campaign (as seen next to the S train in Times Sq.) It reminds me a little bit of Edward Gorey's "The Ghastlycrumb Tinies". If you don't know about that little 26 page book, you MUST check it out here.
Ok, back to Señor Burton:
One of my favorites. Macabre yet mirthful.
"Loghead discusses with
his psychiatrist his
recurring nightmare
about a crazed lumberjack
and a fireplace" Evil cupid. I love the way he does the lines - if you look at it closely, the hands and feet are very bizarre yet somehow perfect for the overall wicked effect.
Some amazing photos of the exhibit by Kevin Colombu (as usual, beautiful pictures even though he had to be one zneaky photog to get them):
