The enduring influence of Andy Warhol's 'Screen Tests' and the sheer luxury of Yves Saint Laurent
Cultural stories you can't miss this week.
First things first: Issue 7 is nearly here! A celebration of the ‘Spirit of the West,’ contributors include Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, Gus Van Sant, Emily Blunt, Willem Dafoe, Alice Rohrwacher, Luna Carmoon, Richard Prince, Ramy Youssef and Viggo Mortensen. Now on our website, read as Editor-in-Chief Charles Finch introduces the magazine’s latest instalment: “Perhaps more than anything, the spirit of the American West resonates up from the very ground. The awe-inspiring natural beauty of the western states of North America is, after all, unique.” Pre-order your copy and if you’re in London, be sure to come down to our pop-up launch this weekend at Foreign Exchange News.
In town for the Oscars? Be sure to stopover at Christies Los Angeles, where you’ll have a rare chance to watch a selection of Andy Warhol’s iconic ‘Screen Tests’. Among the Warhol portraits include Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Edie Sedgwick. “The 1960s were a moment of such experimentation and promise, and these people, these faces, are kind of nostalgic for a great moment in American history,” says Patrick Moore, The Andy Warhol Museum Director. “I challenge anyone who doesn’t still want to look like Dennis Hopper. And I mean, Lou Reed is just the epitome of cool forever.”
And as anyone with even half an eye on fashion week will have noticed, sheer clothing is trending in a big way, most notably at YSL. As Lucy Davies explores in a new article, transparent and diaphanous clothing have long been integral to the house and is now the subject of an exhibition by the brand: “Saint Laurent debuted his first sheer creations—a black organza blouse and a chiffon dress with zig zag sequins in all the right places—in 1966,” writes Davies. “[He was] drawn to these feather-light materials, along with lace, tulle, because they encouraged movement and expression, and because of their inherent contradiction to the function of clothing itself: to cover, conceal and protect.”
