BigShinyThing

Back in the 80s, HBO wanted an ident. A big, bold ident. A fly through of a city, no less. So they built one. Out of stuff, not bits. Lovingly. Then they filmed it.

What with all the ruckus over ‘fat’ models and terrorism-chic shoots, we thought we’d celebrate New York fashion week with another fashion silliness: models falling over. In our arse-over-tit gallery, some poor girl for Proenza Schouler this week and an iconic collapse, mobile phone warrior Naomi Campbell for Vivienne Westwood ten years earlier.

And — as we mentioned earlier — the bloggers have certainly earnt their keep at New York fashion week. Whilst the Proenza Schouler tumble has been airbrushed out of American Vogue online, blogger gloat has given the label a nice little spike on Technorati: see below for a graph which shows the number of blog posts that contain "proenza Schouler" per day for the last 30 days.

With apologies to Einsturzende Neubauten.

Via Bldgblog. More images elsewhere online.

Prada’s diffusion line Miu Miu has traditionally used young starlets in its campaigns (such as Maggie Gyllenhaal and Chloe Sevigny) but Miuccia Prada, ever the fashion barometer, has identified a new maturity for the brand this season. And she’s not the only one cashing in on the allure of the older model: Marc Jacobs is currently featuring 1980s supermodel Kristen McMenamy whilst Demi Moore and Madonna for Versace are both pushing a well-botoxed 50.

Thanks to my dad for the cutting.

Under Construction by designers Us and Us, invites viewers to:

…have your say about what kind of buildings and amenties would improve city life, as well as sharing your thoughts on favourite buildings, haunts, spaces and places - and your least favourite. The designers will be on hand to help you make your mark with a kit of cardboard, pipe cleaners, plasticine, stickers and wire - in the best Blue Peter tradition - as well as brewing you the requisite cup of tea. Be as ambitious or a simple as you like, just so long as you get your point across. Will the public’s view of architecture in our city be the same as the people who are mapping out the future of our city? Will an alternative secret London appear? The final map of London will be photographed and sent to all who participate.

BST visited this week and took the photo above as well as installing our own Big Shiny Thing roughly in the location of Stratford — see our Flickr photostream. This Friday, the entire map will be destroyed as vistors are invited to jump up and down on it.

Under Construction is at The Architecture Foundation’s Yard Gallery, 49 Old Street, London EC1 until 30th September 2005. Tonite’s event starts at 7pm.

Frances Glessner Lee was a wealthy grandmother with a passion for forensic science. She founded the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936 and was later appointed captain in the New Hampshire Police. In the 1940s and 1950s she built dollhouse crime scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Lee called these tools the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, after a well-known police saying: “Convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.”

The models are still used in forensic training to this day and a book featuring photographs of the 18 dioramas was published last year. The dustsheet reads:

Corinne May Botz’s lush color photographs lure viewers into every crevice of Lee’s models, breathing life into the deadly miniatures, exposing the dark side of the domestic realm, and unveiling tales of prostitution, alcoholism, and adultery.

James Zwakman’s backyards also tell a story but one that is created in the mind of the viewer. His photographs of the models are huge — 220 x 146cm — forcing the viewer to appreciate the intricacy of the models. Zwakman has provided doormats, gravel, and in one case a clothes-drying apparatus with miniature white sheets and t-shirts. This intention is made clear in the title of the show: Fake but Accurate.

Just as Lee’s miniatures train the police to study the minutiae of crime scenes, Zwakman’s photographs bring a magnifying glass to the mundanity of the ‘burbs.