Lon Chaney Sr

Lon Chaney Sr

"The man of a Thousand Faces".

Lon Chaney was a iconic silent film actor often referred to as "The man of a Thousand Faces", physically and mentally Lon Chaney Sr transformed his body and face in order to become different identities and characters on stage. Using make-up, clothing and props Chaney was able to transform himself into different characters in silent films, he was a very talented actor and took his craft seriously taking on different roles as much as he could. His late parents were deaf mutes which explains his incredible ability to communicate without sound and project different characters so well on stage. 

"Chaney referred to his expertise in both make-up and contorting his body to portray his subjects as "extraordinary characterization." Chaney's talents extended beyond the horror genre and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney

I admire Lon Chaney a lot especially his advanced skill in make-up artistry and adapting himself fully into different characters, he truly was beyond his time. The following link is to a youtube video where Lon Chaney Sr is acting in "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", is this short clip you can see the detailing and skill Lon Chaney held in make-up artistry and stage make-up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWgEvxZUFU

Jack Pierce

Jack Pierce was a Hollywood make-up artist who created the iconic make-up in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1931), Pierce also continued to work in Universal Studios creating makeup for classic monster movies such as Dracula (1931) and White Zombie. When creating characters Jack Pierce preferred using 'Out of the box techniques' which allowed him to build facial structure and features with products such as cotton wool and collodian instead of Latex appliances. It is said that Pierce spent up to 4 hours each day applying and creating make-up looks on actors, it's crazy to think that these special effects techniques are now being overtaken  and replaced by CGI instead of being hand made.

Frankenstein (1931)

The Wolf Man (1941)

In 1946 it was said that Jack Pierce was fired from Universal studios due to him refusing to use the 'Foam Latex' technique. This new technique became very popular in special effects make-up and was very beneficial for film production companies as it was cheaper and quicker to create make-up looks with. As Jack Pierce wanted to honour the traditional techniques, Universal studios were taken under new management who wanted to upgrade their movie to productions to a more prestige quality. Jack Pierce was one of the first special effects make-up artists to create credible and unique works that inspired and continue to inspire other successful make-up artists today.

Undressed: A brief History of Underwear.

Undressed.

"This exhibition explores the intimate relationship between underwear and fashion and its role in moulding the body to a fashionable ideal, with cut, fit,fabric and decoration revealing issues of gender, sex and morality." 

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition and have since developed a more in depth and meaningful understanding towards lingerie and underwear and what social impacts it has created throughout history for women.  This exhibition gave a more intimate, in depth explanation of underwear and lingerie and how and why it was created at certain points in past history. I've always looked at 'underwear' as just boring everyday garments worn to cover your intimate areas under clothing and 'Lingerie' as special, naughty and daring, mainly because of different factors etc, media and retail advertisement, mainstream and iconic models, sexism, social and unrealistic influences such as pornography and subliminal messages. This exhibition explored the history and development of both underwear & Lingerie, discussing how it was once worn by women to create structure and provide protection or a soft familiar warmth for newborns to then simply being used as high fashion statement pieces in the future. 

A brief walk through the history of Underwear...

Due to the V&A's new rules and regulations I couldn't take photographs or sketch.
The link below takes you to the Stylist blog which discusses the history of women's Underwear and Lingerie throughout history.
http://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/a-brief-history-of-underwear#gallery-19

Barbados 2016

In August I had an amazing time in Barbados for a short 10 days. The small island was beautiful, the locals were so friendly and lovely and the food was out of this world. Whilst in Barbados I was part of 'Crop Over', Crop Over is a colourful and popular festival that originates from the 1780's when Barbados was the world's largest producer of sugar. Each year Barbadian's would celebrate another successful year of sugar cane harvesting by taking part in the Crop Over festival which celebrated the Barbadian culture. 

Being part of the Crop Over festival was an incredible and priceless experience and I'm dying to be part of the colourful festival again. I danced with the band 'Baje' which is one of the most popular and largest bands that dance in Crop Over, everyone wore beautiful, vibrant costumes and really embraced the celebratory mood everyone was in, with the help of rum of course. Unfortunately to my disappointment I didn't see the beautiful Rihanna, but I still wore her Fenty Puma's just incase I needed the catch her attention. Although, Chanel Iman a beautiful model who I also admire was part of the Crop Over festival and looked amazing!

As well as being part of Crop Over I also went to Bridgetown which is a popular shopping strip full of markets and shops, a Mount Gay rum tour which was one of my favourite activities and don't think it lasted long enough! The Fish market that was a hotspot for locals and tourists full of the best fresh seafood restaurants, music and trinket shops and lastly my favourite I went snorkelling and sailing on a catamaran and got to watch the beautiful sunset whilst drinking rum punch. 

Chanel Iman.