Vogue: Late Bloomers

Ugh, seriously. This is straight up “sexually threatening working-class black man”. There are definitely people out there who will like the editorial for that – but that’s not a GOOD thing. Yuck.

Plants vs Zombies.

“You managed to make flowers seem depressing and threatening.”  Which is why I completely love this shoot.  Agreed on the racism of the gardener being black though.  Absurd.

I don’t think we should feign surprise and shock at the racism pervasive in the fashion world though.  The whole industry is built on the profits of what is equivalent to slave labor in equatorial countries. 

It’s racist because the gardener is black? uhm….. okay..

I definitely got the “something is going on, or they WANT something to be going on” feel from this. With him being the gardener, the flowers are so bleak because, for whatever reason, they can’t be together. It’s not my favorite editorial in the world, but it, at least for me, tells a very distinct story.

Since the gardener is always in the shadow, I didn’t even notice his race. I’m fairly sure he’s meant to be winter, though.

You know what makes this seem all the more unnatural? The “look-at-me-I’m-wearing-a-wig” wig. Whenever I see a model wearing an obvious wig, I am immediately turned off, unless the styling more than justifies its use. 

I’m not sure how I feel about the editorial itself, but I have suspicious about why it was made up as ‘stalker.’ Popular culture fetishizes stalking in a similar way people have rape fantasies. The idea of attraction pulling a person over the accepted limits of human interaction is powerful. In general we edit out the debasing aspects of it, how all concept of respect, of dignity or compassion have to be eroded.

I like it

I’m with the people who didn’t get a stalker vibe. I thought it was all about Todd Haynes’ tribute to Douglas Sirk Far From Heaven.

Eye of the beholder I guess. I got more that she can’t look him in the eyes because he is so attractive, powerful and forbidden. With her pale skin and red hair, I, too got more Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven than Lucille Ball. I think the shoot is pretty interesting and the clothes pretty darned gorgeous. I can see Cathy Cambridge in the black and white Marc Jacobs.

The clothes are really cool. Love the fabrics and the peplums (peplums are NOT at all like the weird poking out bits like the last few RC views we’ve been discussing). Peplums are historical and brilliant. 
The model is just strange looking so I didn’t look at her, but then again I rarely do, being more interested in the clothing. 
I can’t tell “what” the guy is. We could assume that’s her guy, but since Anna Wintour etc don’t know any men who water their own gardens (except when drunk and not with a garden hose) we have to assume that they would assume we would assume it’s a male of color. In the Hamptons 99% of people standing around watering are Latin American. 
I agree completely that IF we saw more people of color in high fashion editorial we could allow a male of color as a gardener, but in this case he’s playing the role of, as Scotty said, Mandingo to Miss Anne. 
Oh PUH Leeze. 

i thought it looked like johnny depp’s mad hatter…

Doesn’t the creepy stalking gardner look like some random guy who just accidentally wandered into the shot?  Weird spread, yeah.

Reminds me a bit of Degas’ paintings of the Paris Opera House, where the ballerinas are in the spotlight and the wealthy patrons lurk in the wings. If you look at most of Degas’ dancer paintings, there is a man in a tuxedo or a suit somewhere in the frame. 

This is one of the very few editorials where I think the clothes look better on the runway.

“Congratulations, Vogue. You managed to make flowers seem depressing and threatening.”

Maybe they thought it’d be avant garde.

The clothes kind of disappear into the bizarro backgrounds. If I were Red, I’d be so worried about the sinister yard guy, I wouldn’t care what I was wearing.

The model reminds me of Kristen Schaal… which makes the photoshoot that much better!

First glance, I didn’t really like this editorial – the colors are overly saturated, and the makeup/hair on the model almost gives my a clown-like impression. They really should have just let the clothes speak for themselves. 

I didn’t notice the gardener’s race either, I thought that he was shrouded in shadow. But I think the whole concept is just distasteful. :/

The model is more Lotte Lenya than Lucille Ball…

Oh dear.  The second one with the gardner in the back is something straight out of a scary movie.  And its like she is looking in a mirror in front of her and seeing him…me no likey!

my take on the story line:  the lonely lady of the house, looking like a demented porcelain doll, notices that her hot gardener is looking at her.  she changes her clothes to another ornate outfit, perhaps applying yet more makeup, and parades by him hoping to provoke a response.  she keeps her eyes downcast, perhaps glancing his direction surreptitiously.  she returns to the house, slips into something more comfortable (?) and contemplates her next move.  i set the story in england a la lady chatterly, perhaps because the gardener is black, and all the gardeners are latino or asian where i live.  are there black gardeners in england?  i didn’t perceive the story as racist, perhaps because i didn’t see the gardener as menacing.  but i ddid see him as a sexual object, so that may be my unconscious racism.  consciously, i just thought he was hot. 

Remember the film “Far From Heaven?” Red-haired 50′s suburban housewife (Julianne Moore). African-American gardener Dennis Haysbert? I think they were trying to make a connection. It came out creepy.

I’m probably in the minority here, I actually like the editorial. I do hate the hair color and the creepy gardener is a little…bizarre, but overall I love the clothes, the location and for some reason the muted color. I like how dark and sinister the flowers are.