Tatler Singapore, Singapore

The Spirit of High Society
September 2014
506
pages
our biggest
issue ever!
Show & Tell
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GAllery
Fashion in Frame
A selection of haunting haute couture images, shot by
renowned fashion photographer Cathleen Naundorf over
six years and compiled in a book, are on display this month
at Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. Grace Tay reports
A
s the fashion cognoscente
would aver, there’s magic
in true haute couture—
the creations of yore that
entail thousands of hours
of handwork, crafting,
embellishment, finishing.
It’s what sartorial dreams are made of.
For six years, from 2005 to 2011,
Cathleen Naundorf handcrafted her own
Dream of Fashion, Un Rêve de Mode, working
with couture houses Chanel, Dior, Gaultier,
Lacroix, Elie Saab and Valentino.
Delving into their physical archives to
handpick gowns and following intensive
discussions with the designers and research,
she mapped out her vision in storyboards
with sketches, archive photos and texts.
Sets, locations (Paris’ Grand Palais, among
skeletons in an anatomy museum), props
(lobsters, a raven, swords), models, hair
and make-up, hats and hairpieces from
Philip Treacy and Odile Gilbert, were
meticulously planned and selected.
The result: ethereal, cinematic images that
captured the exquisiteness of the ensembles
and the intangible magical allure of haute
couture. Artworks of artworks.
In a digital world and fast fashion,
Naundorf ’s use of large-format cameras
(Deardorff or Plaubel) and Polaroid or
negative film parallels the anachronism
of haute couture. These photos were
compiled into Haute Couture: The Polaroids
of Cathleen Naundorf, published in 2012.
In it, a good number of images pay tribute
to the late fashion photographer Horst
P. Horst, whom Naundorf counts as her
mentor and inspiration for getting into
fashion photography. In Homage to Horst P.
Horst, shot in Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment
in Rue Cambon, a model in a Chanel gown
is draped over the very same white satin
armchair on which Mademoiselle Chanel
posed for a portrait by Horst in 1937.
The story goes that in the 1990s, the
gutsy 20‑something Naundorf looked up
Horst’s number in a New York City phone
book, called the elderly gent—one of the
20th century’s top fashion photographers
—and told him she was from his hometown.
He told her to get herself to New York and she
did, and although they never worked together,
he would dish advice—“It’s the lighting, the
drama”—when they spoke on the phone,
nearly daily.
Naundorf moved to France and began
photographing backstage at Paris fashion
shows for Condé Nast in 1997. Horst died in
1999 at the age of 93.
This month, Naundorf will be in
Los Angeles to attend the September 11
reception of Haute Couture: The Polaroids
of Cathleen Naundorf—La Exhibition at
Fahey/Klein Gallery. A selection of her works
from her Un Rêve de Mode series will be
displayed from September 4 to October 11.
cathleennaundorf.com, faheykleingallery.com
La fille en plâtre (2009)
Dior Haute Couture Summer 2007
Les ateliers du style, Paris
472
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singapor e tatler . september 2014 4 73
GAllery
IMAGE: Tristan Siegmann
La fille en plâtre XI (2009, left)
Dior Haute Couture Summer 2007
Les ateliers du style, Paris
Artist behind the lens
Cathleen Naundorf on a photo shoot in
the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
(top). She works in film and has a unique
technique of processing her prints to give
them a painterly effect
La fille en plâtre VIII (2009, above)
Dior Haute Couture Summer 2007
Les ateliers du style, Paris
4 74 singapor e tatler . september 2014
singapor e tatler . september 2014 4 75
GAllery
Madame au Châtelet
(2007, right)
Dior Haute Couture Winter 2007
The studio of the artist,
Rue Caulaincourt, Paris
My paradisebird I
(2008, above)
Chanel Haute Couture Winter 2006
Theatre du Trianon, Paris
In Print
The images in Haute Couture: The
Polaroids of Cathleen Naundorf were
shot using large-format cameras and
Polaroid or negative film
476
The last sitting III (2011)
Elie Saab Haute Couture Winter 2011
Grand Palais, Paris
singapor e tatler . september 2014
singapor e tatler . september 2014 47 7
Homage to Horst
P. Horst (2008, left)
Chanel Haute Couture
Summer 2006
Coco Chanel’s apartment,
Rue Cambon, Paris
GAllery
La libellule (2008)
Jean-Paul Gaultier Haute
Couture Winter 2008
Home of Jean-Paul Gaultier,
Paris
4pm in London (2009)
Hat by Philip Treacy,
lingerie by Cadolle
Kensington, London
478
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singapor e tatler . september 2014 479