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 Giles 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 Augusta 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’. Read the rest of this entry »
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.” Read the rest of this entry »
Update: the ‘PLIE CHASSE’ totes have sold out! BALLERINA totes are still available.
Melbourne label chip chop! and The Australian Ballet have collaborated on two cheeky limited-edition tote bags. Francophile Hannah Chipkin from chip chop! found ballet to be the perfect foil for her iconic designs. The ‘PLIÉ CHASSÉ’ bag was influenced by the stark black and white type of old tram signs; ‘BALLERINA’ by her own dashed dreams to dance en pointe. We caught up with Hannah to talk leg warmers and Centre Stage.
Do you dance?
I grew up dancing from an early age doing almost everything BUT ballet; I think the perfection intimidated me. I did folk dancing (at age five), tap dancing (which I loved!), funk and jazz for many years. Now I don’t dance so much – just the odd boogie when I go out and some moves in the living room when no one is watching.
Your three favourite things about ballet?
Ah, so many. But three?
The toned bodies
The incredible talent and discipline
Pointe shoes (I always WISHED I could wear these!)
Recurring obsessions in your work?
All things French, wordplay, typography, bold colour, simple shapes, and always a sense of humour.
What should people put in their Ballet V chip chop! tote?
Pointe shoes
A DVD of Centre Stage (is it cool to like that movie?)
Leg warmers
I could go on, because the bag can fit much more than three things!
What was it about French film stars that made them such perfect models for ballerina-inspired fashion? In the ‘50s and ‘60s the vogue manifested itself in Brigitte Bardot, whose inimitable French style never failed to deliver elegance and carefree chic. Bardot was the first foreign-language-speaking star to attain major international success and her films were pivotal in establishing a global market for foreign cinema.
When Bardot moves through film space, her classical ballet training is evident in her regal carriage and dance style. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and the classic dancer’s wardrobe of leotards, Alice bands, ballerina skirts, and ballet flats often appeared throughout her films and daily ensembles. What began as an anti-establishment look early in her career progressed into a glamorous, tailored flair that remains influential today. The pale make-up and bouffant hairstyle was the perfect counterpart to her mixture of passion and drifting insouciance.
Bardot provided the first celebrity endorsement of the luxury shoe brand Repetto when she asked Rose Repetto to make her a dance slipper she could wear on the unpredictable streets of everyday life. The ravishing results can be seen in the photo of her draped over a Simca at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. That same festival was the backdrop to the iconic image of her creating a spectacle as she swirled her ballerina skirt for photographers. For a woman who reportedly once said, “I absolutely loathe luxury. It is the one thing I cannot stand,” she had some pretty high-end taste in ballet flats, and the delicious ‘BB’ style was named in her honour. Read the rest of this entry »
Melbourne-based film duo The Apiary have been busy producing The Australian Ballet’s latest mini doco. Featuring dancers Vivienne Wong and Calvin Hannaford, the doco follows Bodytorquechoreographer Alice Topp, and designers Georgia Lazzaro and Crystal Dunn, as they come together to create a steamy pas de deux. Trace focuses on the elasticity and malleability of everyday undergarments; the dancers carve the air with their limbs and shed the fabric as if it were an extension of their very flesh.
Watch the video, then take a peek at the photo gallery capturing the doco in the making.
The tutu motif is often difficult to avoid, especially in fashion, and the spring/summer 2011 collections at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week were no exception. As ballet muscled its way onto the runway in the form of whimsical dresses and show-stopping creations, the traditional garment got a facelift as designers experimented with textures and themes. Ellery, a fashion week favourite, for instance, did Bowie ballet, giving the tutu skirt a hard, rock’n’roll edge with leather and feather boas.
Likewise, Gail Sorronda re-imagined the tutu with her signature ethnic flourishes. Referencing Eastern cultures, the tutu silhouette appeared several times throughout the Gail Sorronda range, including a longer tiered dress with tulle peeking from underneath the hem softening it for easy-to-wear practicality. Konstantina Mittas reimagined the tutu through with vibrant eccentricity. From a sashaying yellow dress with a short projecting skirt, to an equally voluminous patterned skirt with daring front split, Konstantina Mittas’s creations gave ballet-inspired fashion a daredevil spin.
Alex Perry’s dancer was softer, graceful and supple in lace, sporting a sheer décolletage and delicately rounded skirt. The veteran designer incorporated all the whimsy of that other ubiquitous ballet motif – the swan – in floaty, feathered dresses. Aurelio Costarella also invoked the grace of the swan with the movement of petallike layers in nude shades and, like Ellery, took the tutu for a dark turn with black tulle.
Costarella found inspiration off the ballet stage as well – in the rows of avid audience goers – with a sparkling gown and fur stole perfect for nights taking in the theatre. But a cut above them all was Romance Was Born’s vibrant dinosaur ballerina, a glitter spangled stegosaurus creature complete with horned back and hot pink tutu.
Bodytorquechoreographer Damien Welch set out to create a ballet about the relationship between personality and clothing choice. “I have my own love-hate relationship with fashion”, Damien says. “Birthday Suit comes from my belief that we would be happier (and colder) if we all just stayed naked.” For fashion designer Georgia Clark, Birthday Suit gave her the perfect opportunity to observe the various ways in which people express their identities in their day-to-day existence. We caught up with Georgia to talk about her interest in industrial workwear, and the everyday things that inspire her.
Tell us about your first meeting with Damien; did you find you were on the same page in terms of creative concepts?
Damien had a clear idea of the costumes at our first meeting, I liked his ideas and we went from there.
Your designs for Bodytorque are inspired by the way everyday people express their identities through clothing. Did you conduct stealth research on Melbourne’s streets?
I wanted to know what people were wearing under their clothes. So I conducted some of my research through conversations with retail sales staff in high street stores. Department store staff members are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the current tastes and trends of all types of people. Read the rest of this entry »
In Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn turns to a cynical Fred Astaire in a dimly lit, bohemian café and says: “Isn’t it time you realised that dancing is nothing more than a form of expression or release?” She then bounds into the centre of the room and scorches herself into cinematic history with an impromptu, expressive dance routine electrifyingly choreographed by Eugene Loring.
Hepburn’s approach to fashion reflected her Funny Face character’s views about dance; it, too, was an expression and a release. And, fittingly, Hepburn’s style in turn relied on dance for inspiration. By popularising the cigarette pants and ballet flats she had simply felt comfortable in all her life, she influenced generations of women and made an indelible mark on the fashion world.
Hepburn started her career as a dancer, training in London with Marie Rambert after World War II. She went on, of course, to find fame as an actress and a humanitarian, but she retained a dancer’s poise, posture and grace her whole life. Read the rest of this entry »
Georgia Lazzaro is currently in New York on an internship with Narciso Rodriguez and Calvin Klein and Crystal Dunn works for Melbourne-based label MATERIALBYPRODUCT. Early in the year Georgia and Crystal came together to design costumes for Alice Topp’s Trace, an intimate pas de deux performed by Vivienne Wong and Calvin Hannaford for Bodytorque.à la mode. We spoke to Georgia and Crystal about how they transformed basic hosiery into costumes fit for the ballet stage.
What has it been like working as the only design duo in Bodytorque?
We’ve really enjoyed working together, and have found that our thinking has been in sync the whole way through. It has been so great to have another person to bounce ideas off and get ideas from.
Do you find your ideas complement one another?
The Trace costumes are almost a perfect intersection of our ideas and ways of thinking. We are both fascinated by gesture; the motions of garments; the actions of bodies; the way the two relate to each other. We are both very interested in the language of fashion, and in the way fashion, objects, images and events relate to the living body.
Have you worked as a partnership before?
Not really, although at uni we spent time critiquing each others’ work. We will definitely work together in the future, though!
How did you respond to Alice’s choreographic concept during the initial stages?
When we read Alice’s outline of her concept for the piece – an intimate pas de deux exploring the traces of moments and memories – we were very excited as we felt it fit so perfectly with ideas that we had already been exploring for the Bodytorque promotional images, which we styled. Read the rest of this entry »
Considered the first female dandy, the Marchesa Luisa Casati was muse to a list of painters, photographers, fashion designers, writers and European thinkers. She was photographed by Man Ray, dressed by Paul Poiret, and directly inspired Cartier’s ‘Panthere’ jewellery series. In the streets of Paris at midnight the Marchesa, with wildly teased hair and kohl-blackened eyes, could be seen taking her pet panthers for a stroll. The Marchesa Casati was – in her prime – the most scandalous and daring woman of her day. Bodytorque choreographer Timothy Brown is the latest artist to to draw inspiration from the Marchesa for his new ballet Nocturnal Phantasm. Bridie O’Leary, the costume designer for Timothy’s work, chatted to us about how she recreated the Marchesa for the ballet stage. The sketch above is from Bridie’s last millinery collection.
Tell us about the design brief that Tim gave you …
The brief was very extensive. It not only included his design brief, but a biography on fashion muse Marchesa Luisa Casati, a detailed description of the music, and notes on his style of choreography. The general idea was to explore the eccentric, macabre and dramatic traits of the Marchesa. The broader themes were based on the antiquity of the fashions and social high-life of the early 20th century art scene, including the artwork of Erté. The suggested colour palette included the use of monochrome greys and silvers – inspired by the silver screen – with particular attention to the textures and shine of the fabrics. Most of all, Tim wanted to create a sense of drama and tragedy.
And how have you interpreted his ideas?
Firstly, I got a hold of as much as I could on Marchesa Casati and Erté; in particular, paintings of the Marchesa and Erté’s illustrations. The idea was to represent the dramatic glamour and grotesque beauty of the Marchesa’s character that was represented in famous paintings and illustrations, and photos taken of her during her wealthy years, through to her downfall and ultimate poverty. I decided that it was imperative to emphasise the creation of the silver screen. The grey, black and silvery hues and textures would help to capture this. The dancers surrounding the Marchesa loosely reference the Belle Époque style of the period while exaggerating a kind of eeriness and keeping that neo-Gothic edge. I decided red was an excellent colour to use as a highlight not only for its striking appearance on stage but also as an ode to Marchesa’s flame-red hair. The trick was to balance the decorative and excessive qualities in the designs with a modern and minimal style … so as not to hinder the dancers, or overpower the choreography. Read the rest of this entry »
Behind Ballet is the blog of The Australian
Ballet. Looking at dance through the prism of
fashion, music, art and literature, we unravel
the stories behind our productions and mine
ballet’s juicy past to find the new in the old and
the old in the new.
