To celebrate the kick off of New York Fashion Week we've produced five teaser videos for the Spring 09 season. Last week, amid the inevitable chaos of designers and their pr offices, we snuck in and said hello to some of our favorite New York designers. That is Jerry Tam of Form, Ashleigh Verrier, Steinunn Sigurd of Steinunn, Chris Han, and Brandy Lunsford of Harlan Bel. In the teasers you'll discover a glimpse of the inspiration behind their collections and what each designer does to prepare for Fashion Week. When the time comes, we'll be posting their respective Spring 09 fashion shows (or presentations) and a little backstage action to boot.

It seems our photo shoot with Wayne Lui, Haunted, has caused a mid-week stir in the blogue community. Coutorture network partner, Platinum Blonde Life, made a collage of the images, while photography bound sites like Live Journal and Dream Attack republished the shoot and stirred up a few commenting frenzies.






Links:
Haunted by Wayne Liu
Interview With Wayne Liu
Chris Han Spring 2008 in Haunted


We also have impressive designer video interviews and original editorial spreads. May we cordially suggest perusing our selection? Enjoy New York Fashion Week Designer Video Interviews from Oscar De La Renta, Donna Karan for DKNY,Michael Kors, Isaac Mizrahi, Nicole Miller, Erin Fetherston, Ashleigh Verrier , Adam Lippes, James Coviello, John Varvatos , Monique Lhuillier, Joanna Mastroianni, Tory Burch, Neeam Khan

oscar

nostalgia

brace yourself

haunted

Wayne Liu is a photographer, born in Taiwan, who currently resides in New York. An exhibition of his work, entitled, "China, You Are A Luck Star" is currently showing at Chelsea Market. In his show, he captures the landscape of modern China, using black and white film. This week, on Coutorture, Liu shot garments from the Chris Han Spring/ Summer 2008 collection without any direction from us, save for the styling. Our interview with Liu, below.


Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you first became interested in photography?
I studied cinema for one year in Taiwan but dropped out because I didn’t feel right fitting in working with a crew. Shooting for me is solitary so I had less adjusting problems. But now that I’ve been more socially adaptive, I also enjoy collaborating with some friends.


How are these collaborations different now, what about the relationship has changed? Or have you changed?
Living the past 9 years in NYC, I’ve met many people along the way. After coming back from my one-month travel to China, I went through old negatives and found some snapshots of them that I had never printed. Alongside, I have been contacting others to come back to my life for a chat and photograph them as a document of whom I had befriended.


What are some of the main themes that you pursue in your photography? Why is this compelling to you?
When photographing in urban streets, the constant flow of people may either cause one to a scatterbrain existence and/or focus right into one’s obsessions, which in my case would be the city as my mis-en-scene and the individuals that navigate within, especially beautiful women in passing that I could not connect with due to the rules of the urban environment.


Is this scatterbrained existence, this anonymity resulting in idiosyncrasy, a natural human state? In other words, is it forced upon us or is it our most comfortable position?
I suppose it may relate to the complexities of our society and it’s distribution of information to each individual receiver. If each interprets without an authority (which happens to be the case even in dictatorial China), then where and what is our communication? Each person comes with their conditioning which speak forth as an obsession. I try photographing whatever I see (and not dwell in my desires ad infinitum) to show a range of objects that may strike a conversation of something other than myself. But the girls I shoot do open up a certain, dare I say, innate sadness I feel around.


The exhibit of your work currently at Chelsea Market, “China, You Are A Lucky Star”, was reviewed by one writer with the following reaction, Wayne is looking at a modernizing China. He identifies himself as a voyeur looking in. The visual texture of the images stands in contrast to the emotional tenor. The images repeatedly focus on individuals, singling them out of the crowd or catching them in isolation. They are content to glide between the gritty modernization of their country, and the aggressive photographic style. What is your reaction to this review? Would say it’s an accurate description of your exhibit?
Photographing is by definition an aggressive act and/of representing the world. It forces upon the viewer memories that may or may not be true, whilst I’m reminded when and how I print in the darkroom that everything from the negative is eventually my interpretation of what had happened.


In fashion, these interpretations have become paramount to the eventual messages we send. Does this power, of the photographer in the darkroom (or on his computer), ever become more powerful than his subject or his context? Or does the truth always come first?
Photography is a language guided by exposure to light and a rehashing of the world. The conquering power of tools have been with us for some time, but I feel regardless how I may print, the initial lure of what I shoot in the world haunts me still.


Link: Haunted by Wayne Liu

Maybe it's taken you a while to catch on, and hey, np. Coutorture, aside from the writing, the photo galleries, the videos, and the network, is producing it's own photo shoots, refreshed a few times each week, to give you our say on fashion (without you know, too much of the pedantic say). That's right we're shooting and shooting, and barely breaking for lunch (although Dumont burgers have been known to be ordered), and in the midst of this madness, we've enlisted some of our friends and heros to shoot for us as well. This week, we're featuring a Coutorture exclusive by Wayne Liu, a photographer whose subjects do not catwalk nor pose. Hell, that's one of the main reasons why we wanted to work with him. For a fashion website, we kind of like that sort of thing.


The shoot took place on one sunny Saturday in a former public school house (now studio space for artists), in the Lower East Side. Liu brought his ICP (no, that's not the Insane Clown Posse) friends/colleagues/assistants (who can tell these days) and we all drank a couple of pots of coffee and ran around the place. There were photographers, models, photographers who were models, artists who were wondering why these strange faces were drinking coffee in their doorways. Liu was not drinking coffee, but shooting in the crooks of the place. We swear, we only saw an elbow, bootlace, and wisp of hair from him all day (we caught up later).


For the shoot, we've dressed the models in some pieces from the Chris Han Spring/Summer 2008 collection. Han's ethereal inspiration, her ability to make clothes that are wearable but still beautiful, coincided nicely with Liu's ability to bring out a haunted rawness in his subjects.


Links:
Haunted by Wayne Liu
Chris Han Spring 2008 Collection
Chris Han Pre-Fashion Week Studio Visit
Chris Han Fall 2008 Collection & backstage interview
Chris Han Spring 2008 In Brace Yourself

We've become good buddies with the talented and gracious Chris Han. We visited Han for our pre-fashion week video series, attended her Fall 08 runway show after interview her backstage (see below!), and featured some of her S/S 08 garments in today's Coutorture photo shoot. We've actually one more (well, at least for now) Chris Han trick up our sleeve, but you'll have to wait a few days before we let you in on that secret. Han's 2008 collections were inspired by the ethereal, but for this shoot we chose the black basics Han is so skilled at creating. Even though her garments suit the conservative professional doesn't mean they can't be seized for the opportunity to stir up some Friday afternoon mischief.