An inherent necessity of my job is reading through magazines, look books, and blogs scanning picture after picture of clothes and people wearing clothes. Things start to look similar even when the clothes are relatively different or vice versa. Being cool is so trend-reliant, especially in fashion imagery. Yes, there are many iconic styles and people pushing the envelope. And, inevitably, sacrifices are made when art and commerciality wrangle for their relative positions of power. Basically I sometimes get bored.
So when something pops, it is a relatively unexpected occurrence. Scanning a few blogs for quick time lunch view-tainment, shots from the Agi&Sam look book photographed by Luke Stephenson caught my eye at the Fashionisto. A newly launched brand for Spring 2011, the inital offering takes its inspiration from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West. The simple background of primary yellow floor and blue sky wall creates a striking context and unity when presenting the boldly colored ensembles. I am not sure if it was the inspiration for the photo shoot, but a quick google image search for screenshots of the film yielded something strikingly familiar.
Do I want to wear the clothes myself? Not sure. But I have to like their sense of taste. While I could think about it more and come up with some technical and “expert” reasons for why this works, I will leave it up to you all. Take a look, tell me what you think.