Fashion Victims: Imagery that Got 'Killed'

 

From Falling to Pieces by Tim Walker. Vogue Nippon, Jan. 2002.
Originally commissioned by Vogue Italia and killed after the 9/11 attacks

In the mood for thinking about what editorial appears in your fashion bibles and what doesn't? And more importantly, why? If not, you can just look at the neat photos.

Showstudio is featuring an on-line exhibit called Killed, a selection of published and unpublished fashion imagery that was commissioned and produced prior to the 9/11 attacks. While some of the images did appear in magazines, others were 'killed' because they were deemed to be 'inappropriate' for the post 9/11 climate by the editors who commissioned them.

Killed includes two compelling essays, A War Against Aesthetics by Jo-Anne Furniss and The Worst Thing in the World by John Taylor. I highly suggest reading the first if you seek confirmation that fashion editorial does indeed have an agenda beyond showing us pretty things. And also the second for a fascinating analysis of how photographic images contribute to the collective experience of catastrophe.

The smarty pants over at Chasing Dragons (who I may or may not be married to) had this to say about Killed:

"As an exhibition, Killed reveals not only that aesthetics are an important element of politics but also that politics itself contributes to what we find aesthetically pleasing, arresting, or disturbing. Thus, claims that politics and aesthetics are not connected should themselves be seen as deeply political statements that attempt to hide a very powerful dynamic that shapes global social relations."

There's something for you to chew on over the weekend. 

Each of these photos is just one of a series that was commissioned before the 9/11attacks:

From McDonaldization by Richard Bush, styled by Jane How  

   Commissioned for the Oct. 2001 issue of i-D and killed after the 9/11 attacks   

 

Lookbook image from Hussein Chalayan's S/S 2002 Collection show, Sept. 2001

 

Image from Raf Simons' S/S 2002 Collection show

Crushed Car by Nick Knight, styled by Jonathan Kaye and Simon Foxton. W Magazine, Oct. 2001

 

From Sabotage by Terry Richardson and Camille Bidault-Waddington. The Face, 2001

 

From Christian Dior RTW A/W 2001 Advertising campaign by Nick Knight

And the other two images from Tim Walker's Falling to Pieces editorial:

Comments

[hanako66]

how interesting....

have a wonderful weekend!

[WendyB]

Very interesting!

[Lauren]

WOW! That is nuts. What an interesting find.

[Frankie - Swell Vintage]

I do love the grittiness.

Great post!

x

[Denise @ Swelle]

H, Wendy, Lauren and Frankie: Thanks for your comments. It IS interesting! Our fashion editors have much more sensitivity that we would have thought. Further, it's fascinating how dramatically the reaction to a photograph can change according to the political climate, despite the context being rather benign to begin with.

Denise ♥

[alexandra keller]

sometimes i wonder about why the photograph is taken in the first place - i saw a great exhibit at the Tucson art musuem about catastrophies. many of them were just observations, but others were staged models and then photographed.