fashion art: Vogue: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Monday, November 15, 2010

Vogue: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Catches thieves just like flies.

Editorial: "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark"
Photographer: Annie Leibovitz
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman
Hair: Kamo for Mod’s Hair
Makeup: Gucci Westman for Revlon
Photography Production Design: Mary Howard
Costumes: Eiko Ishioka
Masks: Julie Taymor

Oh so very many mixed emotions with this one, you guys. On the one hand, Annie Liebovitz tackling the Spider-Man story by way of a fashion editorial featuring appropriately over-the-top romanticism provided by Marchesa, Dior and Alexander McQueen? What a fun idea. What a perfect melding of talents and subject matter.

On the other hand, it's all to promote the upcoming Spider-Man musical on Broadway and for Tom (who is a life-long comics nerd), at least, the following paragraph:

On a fall afternoon shortly before the start of previews, the many thousand moving parts of the $60 million production—already infamous as the most expensive of all time—are still syncing up inside the newly renamed Foxwoods Theatre (no gambling jokes, please) on Forty-second Street. In one rehearsal room, the Edge is listening to vocal arrangements. In another, the choreographer Daniel Ezralow, a Momix founder and frequent Taymor collaborator, is working with a group of arachno–chorus girls, who, requiring eight stiletto heels each, could be described as unusually leggy. Onstage, Spider-Man (Reeve Carney) and the Green Goblin (Patrick Page) duke it out on the roof of set designer George Tsypin’s pop-up Roy Lichtenstein–meets–Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Chrysler Building as Mary Jane Watson (Jennifer Damiano), trussed in a harness courtesy of the aerial-rigging designer Jaque Paquin, dangles fetchingly from a stone gargoyle.

Has him practically recoiling in horror. "Arachno-chorus girls?" "Roy Lichtenstein–meets–Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?" Pop-up Chrysler building? "Arachno-chorus girls?!?" Oy. Still, the great thing about superhero stories is that they're eminently adaptable given their primal good vs. evil themes and general romantic tone. The musical doesn't sound like anything we'd pay to see, but what do we know about Broadway? Maybe it'll be a big hit.

But we bet you a dollar and a donut that it won't be.

Anyway, it can't dampen our enjoyment of this kind of lovably weird editorial. It's certainly not standard for the pages of Vogue. Liebovitz is a particularly good choice because she tells stories and because she has an innate sense of drama and romanticism in her imagery. The McQueen, Dior and Marchesa dresses also fit well for the exact same reasons. The whole thing feels like a myth viewed through the lens of a fairy tale. And it's just plain fun.

"Arachno-chorus girls." Pfft.

Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) falls into the clutches of the Green Goblin (Patrick Page).
Will Spider-Man save the day?

Alexander McQueen Resort 2011 Collection/Model: Alla Kostromichova (WOMEN)

Mary Jane fends off the multibladed Swiss Miss (Sean Samuels). “There are a lot of comic-book nerds out there who are in love with Mary Jane,” says Damiano. “I don’t want to let them down.”