Steven Klein's Futuristic Fashion Editorial For Vogue - 6 Stunning Spreads

A longtime fan of Steven Klein's photography, I'm always impressed by his unusual look of fashion editorials and ads without sacrificing the products he is featuring.

In his latest work for the 2013 September issue of Vogue, The Final Frontier, he incorporates the modern and somewhat steampunk / post-apocalyptic steel house of late architect/artist Robert Bruno as the backdrop for his vision of the future. Klein's work is so beautifully composed, there are images within the images, which is why I've included several enlarged and cropped details for you as well as the original photos.

Clothes and coats with modern lines in predominantly solid colors pop from his magenta-blue saturated images and even Google Glass makes an appearance as the eyewear of choice.

Below are the six beautiful fashion spreads (and close-ups), complete with Vogue's description and prices of the featured fashions.

Sight Lines:

detail:

above: Outfitted in Google Glass, model Raquel Zimmermann embodies a sleek chic stripped of both embellishment and gimmick. Oscar de la Renta teal cashgora coat, $4,490; Oscar de la Renta boutiques. Gucci black leather turtleneck, $2,300; select Gucci boutiques. Michael Kors patent leather gloves and belt.

Heavy Metal

details:


above: Spare planes of fabric are carved into organic shapes—an intersection of hypermodern and earthy, underscored by the setting: an experimental house of 110 tons of rusted steel, built by the late architect Robert Bruno near Lubbock, Texas. Bottega Veneta saffron wool-cashmere coat, $2,750; Bottega Veneta boutiques. Etro belt. On Toni Garrn (above): Dior wool coat; Dior boutiques. On Niklas Garrn (far right): Dior Homme suit throughout.

Forbidding Planet

details:


above: Cloaked against the autumn chill in monochrome coats or suits, the trio wanders Ransom Canyon like future humans returned to an abandoned Earth. On Raquel: Stella McCartney amethyst felted-bouclé coat, $3,855; Stella McCartney, NYC. Michael Kors leather gloves. On Toni: Calvin Klein Collection white coat, $2,795; Calvin Klein Collection, NYC. Reed Krakoff boots. Google Glass throughout.

Tripping The Light Fantastic

details:


above: Built for women who seem to be really, really going places: practical, everyday chic—no fidgety patterns or trims to muck up travel, intergalactic or otherwise. On Raquel: Narciso Rodriguez tangerine shift, $1,895; neimanmarcus.com. Céline necklace. Michael Kors heels. On Toni: Balenciaga wool-mohair sweater with plaster effect ($1,545), crepe pants ($1,235), and boots; clothing at Balenciaga, NYC. On Niklas: de Grisogono watch.

Command and Control

details:


above: Purified lines and simplified structures are a perfect fashion strategy for taking over the office (or the planet). Right: Gucci purple wool-and-silk deep V-neck coat ($3,200) and leather turtleneck ($2,300); select Gucci boutiques. Lara Bohinc ring. Below: Chanel black-and-white jersey dress; select Chanel boutiques.

Bang! Pow!

details:


above: When colors and cuts pack as much impact as this, the Space Age, it would seem, is not as austere as we may have feared. Tom Ford black and orange jersey dresses with comic-book beaded motifs; Tom Ford, Beverly Hills. Casadei ankle boots. Right: Giuseppe Zanotti Design platinum necklace.

Credits:
Photographer: Steven Klein
Publication: Vogue US
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman
hair by Garren for Garren New York Salon
makeup by Val Garland
Produced by Tracy Whiting for North Six.
eyewear, Google Glass

Add A Steampunk Edge To Your Lighting With Nostalgic Bulbs Like These Artists Did.

For those who love Nixie Clocks, Steampunk and Vintage lighting, Bulbrite's Nostalgic collection of Edison-like light bubs with creative filament designs is a great creative resource for personal projects or simply some retro home decor.



The Bulbs
Meticulously crafted to preserve the look of early 20th-century lighting, Bulbrite’s Nostalgic collection is the most extensive in the industry and is perfect for any vintage or contemporary décor. Consisting of four series and nine bulbs, they give off a warm amber glow in various wattages.

Loop:

Thread:

Hairpin:

Spiral:


Included in the Nostalgic line of products are the Spiral T14, Thread T14, ST18 and G30, Hairpin T9, ST18, as well as the Loop A19, A21 and A23. Each lamp has an E26 base, a life of 3,000 hours and gives off a warm, amber glow. The T14, Thread ST18 and G30 lamps are offered in 40-watts, the Hairpin T9 lamp is offered in 20-watt and the Loop A19, A21 and A23 are offered in 25- and 40-watt styles.

Recognized for their antique finish, defined steeple and intricate filament design, these lamps are ideal for any transparent light fixture, both indoor and outdoor. They are compatible with a 120-volt system and are most commonly used in chandeliers, portables, ceiling fixtures, signage/displays and outdoor/security lighting.

ReTech and Wolf Art Glass
Artists like glassblower Dean Wolf of Wolf Art Glass and ReTech have used the bulbs beautifully in their own unique pieces. Take a look at their work below.

ReTech:






ReTech lighting and objects made with reclaimed materials

Wolf Art Glass:





Wolf Art Glass & Pottery

A vintage-inspired suitcase counter display is offered from Bulbrite to showcase any four Nostalgic lamps from this cool collection. I'd love it just for display in my home!




Bulbrite Nostalgic Collection

Steampunk Snow Globes By Camryn Forrest. One Of A Kind Shakeable Art.

above: Steampunk Airship snow globe by Camryn Forrest designs

Two of my favorite things have been combined by artist Camryn Forrest. The Steampunk genre and the Snow Globe (or water globe or snowdome). Her intricate little shakeable sculptures combine elements associated with the Victorian age of machinery along with copper, silver or rich pewter glitter as the "snow". The bases upon which the glass encased sculptures sit vary in materials, from marble to woods, and are decorated with "Steampunk" styled embellishments.

The Stunning Opening Sequence For HBO's Game Of Thrones and How It Came To Be.

The second season of the HBO series Game Of Thrones has begun and each time I watch it, I am mesmerized by the opening title sequence. I wanted to share it with my readers and in doing so, came across two wonderful articles I'm cobbling together.

The first is an article on The Hollywood Reporter which features an interview with Angus Wall, who designed the sequence and titles (and long ago, in another lifetime, worked with me as the editor on one of my tv commercials). You may recognize his name from winning Oscars for editing both The Social Network (2010) and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011).

The other, an impressively comprehensive post from Art of The Title, features another interview with Angus Wall as well as wonderful concept sketches and renderings for the opening sequence that I've shown in this post.



The Hollywood Reporter sat down with the talented Wall last year to ask him how he came up with the idea, what it means and how it was executed. Below is a reprint of that interview with added interspersed images from the Art of The Title article: Angus Wall of the company Elastic got Emmy noms for Big Love's and Rome's title design and a win for Carnivale, plus a Social Network editing Oscar. But what's hotter now is his genius opening title sequence for HBO's critical smash Game of Thrones. HBO wanted something like the map that begins books like The Lord of the Rings. "We wanted to do something different from the standard tropes for fantasy maps," Wall tells THR. "So we came up with the idea of a world inside a sphere."

 

The sphere idea came from a '60s sci-fi space station with terrain inside -- yet it had to look nonfuturistic, to evoke the Middle Earth-ish setting of George R.R. Martin's book. "It had to look like it was made in that time, so we immediately referenced Leonardo da Vinci's machines," says Wall. "We wanted it to look like a real place photographed with a real camera."

 

The computer-illusion "camera" swoops from kingdom to kingdom, focusing on the family crest that sits atop each place -- the "sigil." "The sigil becomes the main cog that triggers the animation" -- the da Vinci device, full of interlocking cogs. "So the model of the place emerges out of the floor of the map and comes to life." Like the show itself, the title sequence strives for realism within a fantasy setting. "In the shadowed areas beneath the surface of the map, there are cogs in there. If you look carefully, you'll see they're all working with the cogs that are exposed above the surface of the map."

The six Sigils (or family crests):
 

 And is this cog-filled da Vinci war engine a metaphor for the many hidden, interlocking machinations of the show's families fighting for the throne -- the Houses of Lannister, Baratheon, and Stark? "Absolutely!" says Wall. "And the map reflects the attitude of each place. Winterfell is a lot more rustic." Kind of like the Shire in Tolkien? "Yes. And each place has its own climate. Southern Westeros is more temperate.To the East, Essos is almost Mediterranean. As you go north, Winterfell gets harsher, and further north, The Wall is a continent-wide wall of ice."  

The Wall:
 

Winterfell sketch and final rendering:
 

 Castleblack sketch and rendering:  

Gotswood sketches:
 

 Port city of Pentos:

 

 If you watch the title sequence attentively, you'll see the the feuding families' backstory told in pictures. "In the middle of the sphere there's the sun, and in the middle of the sun there are bands around it, relief sculptures on an astrolabe which tell the legend of the land," explains Wall. "We cut to those three times in the title sequence, so you actually see a history of Westeros and Essos. The third time we see all the animals [representing] the different houses bowing down to the Baratheon stag, which brings us to the present, where there's a Baratheon king [played by Mark Addy]."

 The Astrolabe rendering and final:
 

Got that? George R.R. Martin's 15 million readers are likelier to get it than casual viewers. Wall is bowing down to them, the way he bowed to scholars when he made the Rome opening titles, which were full of authentic graffiti from ancient Rome. "We wanted to be very, very faithful to the book because we knew there would be a large fan base that will be looking at this very carefully," says Wall. In The New Yorker, Laura Miller writes that angry Martin fans call themselves "GRRuMblers," and Martin tells her, "If I f--- it up...they'll come after me with pitchforks and torches."  

Dothrak sketches:
 

Even if you're a peaceable newcomer to Westeros carrying no torch for Martin, Wall thinks the title credits will help you get oriented. "It's not necessarily important that the audience explicitly understands every detail at first. But you always have a sense that there is an internal logic. Title sequences are a weird art -- to function, they have to have that logic -- their own clockwork, as it were."  

Eyrie sketches and rendering:

"It's a map that's constantly evolving," says Wall. "We have four different versions. Episode two has a different title sequence, and there are later episodes where we go to two new locations -- The Eyrie and The Twins." But Wall won't say what clockwork wonders await you there. "Those are treats to come." The two-year Thrones experience was a treat for him. "It's one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on." - Hollywood Reporter And for those interested in a more in depth interview and explanation, be sure to read this article on Art of the Title. In the process of writing this post I came across this hilarious take-off on the Game Of Thrones opening sequence for The Simpsons, which is definitely worth including.



HBO's Game of Thrones