Michel Style appears to be a Russian fashion outlet or at least google translate would lead me to believe so. While a lot of the fashion items on there are not to my taste, the image above and the small gallery below took my fancy because the model has both stunning hair and legs and the photographer has not only captured her as a whole very well but also lit and composed the shot in such a way as to evoke a plethora of meaning within each frame.

As a side note I also really like both those shoes and that chair, I really like antique looking simple chairs and I can just imagine one like that depicted within the above and below photos being sat in my office and while hard it would be a pleasure to sit in

“The collection for H&M is the essence of Versace. For the collaboration we’ve brought back from the archives, as well as from more recent collections, some of the icons of Versace, such as the bright prints, the Greek key and daring cuts. I can’t wait to see how H&M’s wide audience will make these pieces their own.” – Donatella Versace.

“Versace’s collection for H&M is a moment in fashion. It is full of strong pieces that stand out, with colours, prints and cuts that are clean and precise. The women’s collection is flattering and full of dresses, while the men’s collection is very sophisticated. When I think about Versace I think of iconic items. With this collection for H&M we’ve got the essence of Versace.” – Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M.

And without further ado, the entire collection both male and female.

The above photo is of Christina Shapran at St. Petersburg’s Vaganova Ballet Academy and was taken by esteemed and critically acclaimed Fashion photographer Arthur Elgort.

Arthur Elgort was born June 8th 1940 in New York City where he currently resides in his professional capacity as a Photographer / Director. An acclaimed photographer, Arthur has been published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, American Photo, New Yorker, Dance, Aperture, London Times Magazine, Telegraph and the Economist amongst others as well as his own exhibitions, film work and book publications.

With backgrounds that are interesting enough to add to the experience of the photo while not too busy that they detract from the subject in hand – the lingerie. With the body language that Jani is screaming through the frame, the message is clearly two part, one aimed at the men enticing them to purchase these clothes for their ladies to make their sex lives better and the other aimed at the ladies stating buy these and you will look as good as me.

Age old visual marketing is visible within all these shots however when did a little photography theory stop one enjoying the aesthetics of a good photo?

Gallery

Unfortunately freepeople have sold out of these otherwise I might have got hold of a couple for a future photoshoot, it is odd that because it is out of stock their online shop shows its price as $0.00 and as I am sure such complex stitching must have a price I did a little bit of googling to find one blog quote $24.

In any case, if you find these anywhere else on the internet then leave a comment and let me know.

Gallery

I believe the model in the above photo is one Petite Mirochka however I am not too sure about the photographer. I believe the photographer is a man calling him self the Sartorialist online at his blog viewable here, he has a very interesting selection of photos shot of ordinary people wearing beautiful clothes whom he has met up with during his travels around the world. The idea of shooting fashion photos of real people wearing “real clothes” is an amazingly simple one and one which I believe works really, really well. The photos you can see on his blog are well composed and professionally shot and something I believe anyone whom considers themselves interested in photography should see.

Initially this was going to be a short article on how content is syndicated to such an extent on the Internet that you can come across the same image or article copied multiple times within one days worth of browsing. Especially if you look on weheartit.com which is regularly assaulted with pornographic photos, tumblr which is the mother of all noisy, feedback, blog collectives and websites such a ffffound.

The above un-titled photo by the photographer Michal Podobycko can be found on one of the obvious sources of the aforementioned blog noise: 2photo.ru. I have for simplicity purposes titled it here as Gold Shoes as it is a very good example of how very simple wardrobe choices can make a selection of very good photos with out much change. Within the above photo the shoes, normally just an accessory to an outfit become an outfit in their own right much in the same way as correct use of technique within long sock photos make the socks more than what they are. Within photos such as these the power of male gaze is very important and should be accounted for, this is an element of such photos I have until now largely ignored as it is too easy to white wash a photo by saying its only beautiful to men, a statement which can quite often be false. The male gaze can be seen within the photo above because the photo is predominantly attractive to men. However objectifying the female form through the use of golden shoes does not mean that females wont see the beauty within the image, beauty that the photographer has attempted to the best of his abilities to capture within the constrains of film.

Those with an overly masculine mentality would be likely to stereotype this view by stating the image of the female form wearing the golden shoes is beautiful to men because its a female form and females just think: “ooh, those are pretty shoes.” This is a way of thinking that still stands to some extent today embodied within the heated subject of sexism, so lets not poke that bee-hive today. In any case this simplistic view is largely wrong because it jumps to the conclusion that females cant understand female beauty, which is obviously incorrect if you have seen any woman’s magazines lately.

Back to the subject in hand: the Golden Shoes and my theory that photography can make an every day normal object special when placed within the male gaze. I have explained this a little within my sexy long sock posts, however it is only recently that the theory has taken form. Within the above photo Golden Shoes the shoes themselves have become more than what they are because they have been placed within the context of the female form falling within the male gaze, the same process that I believe is behind fetishism.

In the second photo above by the same photographer the context within which the Golden Shoes is placed has changed, the scene is still the same, the legs are from the same female form but the camera has stepped back to let more into the frame. The question here is where is the focal point of the frame? This time it is not the shoes themselves, they are just playing their part within the frame, the focus here is the orange/gold puffy skirt that the female form is wearing. With that said it is true that the eyes are led down the legs and towards the shoes which questions if they are the true focal point of this photograph. If they are then it would prove true that the shoes themselves have become something more than just an accessory, much in the same way that stockings have become fetishized within most parts of the world.

It has to be taken for granted that nothing within a photograph is by accident, every detail right down to the shoes have been picked out to provide meaning within the frame and it is up to us the audience to understand that meaning in their own way. Quite often the message the author is transmitting within their work is wildly different to that which the audience receive due to to the arbitrary use of signs and symbols within human language and culture. This means that while what I have said above is true to me, although I admit it is most definitely not polished; a hundred different people will have a hundred different ideas each slightly different to the other. Thus, to wrap this short article up: this could be a contributing factor to why there is so much feedback noise on the Internet as everyone feels the need to include their own view into the debate. This is not a bad thing either, another word for it could be progress as eventually the dominant idea will filter through to popular culture and become part of the arbitrary signifiers and identifiers of every day life, much in the same way that men see female form in stockings and think “sexy”.

Finally I have included another photo by the same artist mentioned above, this time the change in context is more than just a repositioning of the frame. I leave it to you to answer wether the same theory applies to this frame as the one I applied to the previous two photos.

I believe the above photo I found here is by a photographer called Jay Mawson however I could be mistaken for I can’t find another copy on his website. Anyway, although the girl in this picture is wearing tights rather than long socks, the overall photograph is sexy by nature. The depth of field and lighting make for an interesting scene with the model slightly off centre catching your eye. Also it would appear that Mawson has used the models legs as a symbol of female beauty to draw the eye either away from the body and towards the shoes or from them and towards the body. I may in future write an entire article on this artist as from viewing his gallery I can see that he has produced an incredible portfolio of photographic work that is sometimes quite surprising and random in its nature.

I stumbled upon this photograph while trawling through the billions of Japanese and Chinese blogs out there, as I had this post in mind I decided to save it and note down that it came from here. This photo shares a similar theme to the one above it however the photo has some noticeable flaws. In comparison this image has a far more cluttered backdrop looked upon by a disappointing depth of field and the lighting further detracts from the image by bleaching out the models leg and parts of the scenery. However this doesn’t matter all too much in the overall picture as unlike with Mawsons photograph you can see the focus intending to lead the eye upon the delicate patterning of the sexy thigh high stockings that the model is wearing. Although these are most likely a cheap pair of nylons bought from a local superstore this image has managed to some degree, elevate their status beyond simple a simple commodity item. Indeed several decades of similar photography has illuminated stockings within western society at least as being a sex symbol, and a lot of females I know wear them to feel “sexy”. Getting back on track discussing the photographic merits of each photo, it can’t escape your notice that both models are looking directly into the cameras lens with surprisingly similar facial expressions and while the upper body’s limbs are arranged differently the legs positioning within both is almost the same with the females legs laid out almost in an inviting way.

It took a while for me to track down the source of this photograph and it is in-fact a Paul outfit collection by Paul Smith. The design of the socks is the one thing that drew me to this picture to begin with, as I could just see my girlfriend wearing them and wondered initially where I might purchase them from, then upon discovering that they are Paul Smith brand I decided that I am in enough debt already and to just comment on the photo. The background of this photo is similar to most used within the retail world in that it is simple and non distracting, providing the model with just enough interaction to integrate it within the image. This is because this as with the majority of retail images want your eye to focus on the product at hand and in this case that product is a style, a Paul Smith style. The photo has more in common with the first posted in this article however through that is has similar themes to the above more “smutty” photograph in that the legs have been positioned in a way which would appear to be welcoming, indeed the position of one foot forward on another is slightly similar to the poses shown above (although I could be reading too much into it). The outfit, even the style seems to be, being sold simply by the legs as they appear to take up the majority of the frame and my eyes are drawn in by their presence before wandering over the entire image.

I came across this photo via weheartit.com and it stuck me as being quite interesting not only because of the interesting colour play but because of the composure of the subjects within the frame. The photo itself has a nice aesthetic too it as though it it is telling a story of wanting to kiss you, or possibly just wanting to be closer that body language of going on tip toes while next to your partner is captured here very well. The choice of colour is second to this “story telling” symbolism with the browns and creams contrasting well with each other and the feet of the female model. Out of all the photos I have shown here this photo is the only one to use long socks in the context of connoting femininity rather than simply bowing to the male gaze unfortunately I couldn’t source the author nor any further details other than the image itself as those who posted it before me had not correctly referenced their sources.

I know I have only included only a couple of photos within this article, however while researching for photos with the common theme of long socks I came across a lot of very nice photographs however most I would feel happy about publishing here and the rest would have been off subject; maybe something to talk about next time? Finally I give you below the only photograph I could find of thigh high socks, not stockings or tights but thigh highs that are just elongated socks, the giraffe of the sock world if you will.

Just found this on one of my many Internet tours. The forum in particular (4chan) is more of an image board really, but they have a good point asking wether yahoo news actually proof read their news items. The news story if that is what you could call it, didn’t refer to the flash of a breast at all and rather just stated the facts of what she was wearing, where it was worn and when. I’m not saying anything about this is wrong but if the model was famous then the news would be all over it and people would be complaining in droves. However its a model at a fashion, show so that makes it acceptable? The only thing I see wrong is the complete absence from the news report about any nipple slip, which would indicate to me that they didn’t proof read it at all. But then what do I know, I’m just a media student. What does make me giggle though is that the photo in question is in Yahoo’s most emailed list, and I am sure it would have received a great deal more excellent votes if they didn’t require you to sign up!

Source: Yahoo Fashion News