There Will Be Blood,
which is the title of an Oscar nominated best picture movie starring Daniel Day Lewis whose plotline, according to the IMBd website is “A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.” It could also be a plotline for a lot happening in today’s business environment. And, it, the subject title of this blog entry, was also a standout color seen during New York’s Fall 2008 Fashion Week ending this past Friday.
“The pair of crimson dresses at the start of Keren Craig’s and Georgina Chapman’s presentation for Marchesa was in such a deep and precise shade of red that it could have been mixed by a lipstick chemist,” wrote Cathy Horyn in last Friday’s NY Times article covering Fashion Week.
But it was the Rodarte collection that really made it come home to me that indeed those that are often the reflectors of our times, movies and fashion, are currently making frequent, albeit poetic, references to that stuff that curses through our veins carrying with it both the promise of hope and the threat of violence. Blood: does it speak to the times and how passionate many of us have become about what we believe in? Does it speak to the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, the bloodbath the home and therefore stock markets and thus retail industry have taken lately? Probably. Probably all that, and, I shudder to think, more. Like the movie, There Will Be Blood, it calls to mind, bloodlines…blood is thicker than water and all that stuff. Rodarte claims the two Muleavy sisters as its designers, for instance. Well, its a thought.
It also occured to me that the 1960’s era film, “Across the Universe,” which sang (literally) of another turbulent time in our history called on imagery that induced not just the color but also the spilling of blood.
Top Marchesa image by Jennifer Altman for the NY Times. Rodarte Images, Fall 2008, Courtesy Style.com. Click on There Will Be Blood, a Paramount Vantage and Mirimax production to see the haunting movie trailer. Across the Universe, Sony Pictures. Both Movies Rated R. Click on above image to see a film clip of Across the Universe and hear the legendary music of the Beatles.
Yeah, red is a very particular color and it can quickly come across as old or unmodern. Strange. Jil Sander, back in the day, rarely used red - it’s either totally saturated colors, techno colors, or tonalities, combinations.
I love the Diana Vreeland red though. And red must be lacquered.
Anyway, huge rumour: Galliano is supposedly doen with Dior?! Whaaa… I refuse to believe this.
Say it isn’t so…where did you hear that, about Galliano?
I will search for the Diana Vreeland red and post it; that’s a good idea.
Actually I am trying to decide myself about the color red….hoping to gain some perspective on this blog: so far from you, brothel, lacquer, and Diana Vreeland. That makes it somewhat limited, although the Marchesa dresses do look fabulous. Otherwise in home decor, it would have to be used in conjunction with something else otherwise you are right, too much like a brothel; although mixed with a lot of brown it might work. Or it’s just too finicky of a color to have broad applications, unless its an orangey red, or a very deep one with black in it, like the Rodarte dresses.
Read it on fashionista.com! I hope it’s a lie.