Posts by Lucy Brook

It was 9 September, 1954 when Marilyn Monroe, in New York to film The Seven Year Itch, arrived at fashion photographer Milton H. Greene’s studio to sit for a series of portraits that would juxtapose the starlet with an unadorned wicker chair. Greene’s pictures had appeared in Vogue, Life and Harpers Bazaar and he eventually became Monroe’s business partner. His sensitivity and boyish charm were the ideal antidote to Monroe’s insecurity and neediness and, in front of his lens, she was candid and relaxed.

He’d ordered a white dress from designer Anne Klein for the shoot, but the tutu’s bodice was too tight. Instead of scrapping it Monroe held herself in the tutu, creating the famous ‘ballerina’ portraits that conjure up a sense of bittersweet fragility, sensual innocence and a whiff of Hollywood heartbreak.

Unlike Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, Monroe never studied ballet (she admitted to struggling with choreography, particularly in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) but the transformative power of the tutu rendered the photographs emblematic of ballet and dance. In Milton’s Marilyn: The Photographs of Milton H. Greene, author James Kotsilibas-Davis says the poignant images “became more generic portraits of a dancer to challenge even the sketches of Degas”. (more…)

When Sylvie Guillem was approached by French Vogue to pose for the magazine’s iconic pages, the renegade ballerina – who acquired the epithet ‘Mademoiselle Non’ during her fiery spell at The Royal Ballet – took the reins. Early in her career, Guillem appeared in Vogue in a series of polished fashion shots by her partner, photographer Gilles Tapie, but felt they portrayed her as “a model, something I am not”. In 2001, she refuted the proverbial ‘diva’ tag by refusing make-up and airbrushing, posing instead for a series of stark self-portraits. The images – dramatic and incandescent – show Guillem dancing naked in a studio, her lithe, disciplined physique suspended in the air.

Ballet’s indelible influence on fashion – line, ethereal beauty and the tutu – extends to high-fashion glossies, where spreads have been devoted to dancers and, in turn, dance has inspired magazine content.

With their strong, willowy physiques, dancers make enviable clothes horses. British ballerina Darcey Bussell modeled regularly for Vogue throughout her career, effortlessly melding beauty and finesse, while The Royal Ballet Principal Artist Tamara Rojo appeared with fellow dancer Carlos Acosta in French Vogue’s May 2010 issue. Photographed by David Burton, the star duo appears in striking black and white under the headline ‘Les Amants Terribles’. (more…)

Fluid silhouettes, subtle femininity and an ethereal sensuality are the hallmarks of  Valentino Garavani’s style. The celebrated haute couture designer’s striking, sophisticated forms and lean, graphic contours intersect beautifully with the world of dance, where Valentino, who retired in 2008, re-emerged last year to create costumes for the Vienna State Ballet. Melding couture with classic costume design, the garments for Vienna’s traditional New Year’s Concert demonstrated Valentino’s innate understanding of the dancers’ physique and his devotion to elegance, modernity and motion.

For the ballerinas, Valentino designed eight-layered dresses in blue, pink and his signature poppy-red, adorned with delicate fabric flowers – a perennial feature in his design repertoire. For the male dancers, he created a sleek black tailcoat paired with a white shirt. “It was really difficult to combine couture and the dancers’ need for movement,” he said of the project. “But I am very happy about the outcome.” (more…)