Debbie Harry, 1978. Photograph, Robert Mapplethorpe
If you’re a regular WOW Report reader, you may know by now that World of Wonder founders, Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato have made a new, critically acclaimed documentary about the late photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures which premieres on HBO tonight. Of course, myself and everyone at WOW has his work on the brain, but Vogue is noticing that today’s designers are picking up on the vibe too. An excerpt from Vogue‘s take;
From the backroom of Max’s Kansas City—replete with Fran Lebowitz in her trademark men’s suits and Debbie Harry in her braless T-shirts—to the basement of the gay nightclub Mineshaft and its leather accoutrements, he chronicled the hedonistic sartorial evolution of New York City. His album cover for muse (and roommate) Patti Smith’s 1975 Horses is as arresting now as it was then—and an androgynous bellwether for someone like Hedi Slimane, who pulls off a similar genderless rock-waif air so well at Saint Laurent. And when Mapplethorpe befriended the permanently elegant Carolina Herrera on a private plane en route to Mustique, they stayed friends until he passed away, with Mapplethorpe often shooting the designer.
On the kinkier side, modern-era collections ranging from Shayne Oliver’s Hood By Air to Alexander Wang’s chains for Spring or David Koma’s Pre-Fall body-modification nods all owe something to Mapplethorpe’s pioneering and uncompromising spirit.
“Anything goes” seemed to be his guiding credo. “Once I’ve taken a photograph, I’m not shocked anymore,” he once said. “I’d been through the experience.”
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures premieres on HBO tonight at 9PM.
Mugler Pre-Fall 2016, Alexander Wang Spring 2016, Hood By Air Spring 2016 ready-to-wear
Patti Smith, 1975
Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979. Photo, Robert Mapplethorpe
(via Vogue)
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