Culture

Stay for the Party

Ariella Gogol  10/28/2009 05:12 PM

Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley, and Iman at Indochine, courtesy of Rizzoli


"You don't know how you got there, but you know that you've arrived," Jay McInerney says of the legendary Vietnamese restaurant in Indochine: Stories, Shaken and Stirred (out next week on Rizzoli).  "There is a certain amount of table-hopping that goes on, especially on boozy late nights . . . it's like they form pockets and Indochine is where all the worlds converge," Padma Lakshmi notes. The commemorative photo album combines reproductions of artwork inspired by the restaurant– such as Julian Schnabel's 1985 pen drawing on his stained Indochine table cloth and Narciso Rodriguez's 2008 fabric collage of the bistro's fabled banana leaves–with first-hand stories from the likes of Mario Testino, Diane von Furstenberg, Moby, and the wait staff who saw it all go down.

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Tags: iman, Ariella Gogol, calvin klein, brian mcnally, Glenn Close, indochine, Moby, Jay McInerney, Rizzoli, billy joel, Mario Testino, christie brinkley, Huy Chi Le, Diane Von Furstenberg

Culture

She's Got Legs, She Knows How to Use Them

Ariella Gogol  05/14/2009 12:08 PM

Dian Hanson's third addition to her erotic body part series, The Big Book of Legs (TASCHEN), traverses the look and implications of female gams through the ages. Following on the heels, as it were, of The Big Book of Breasts (2006) and The Big Penis Book (2008), the collection takes readers from the prim garters of the 30s to the fishnets of the 50s, and the spread-eagle spirit of the 60s. In 400 photographs, Hanson summarizes the human fascination with women's legs—and tries to explain it. After all, men have them too.

With over thirty years in erotic editorial (she's previously served as Editor-in-Chief of fetish magazines Juggs and Leg Show), Hanson knows how to pick a shot.  The images are not merely eye-grabbing—they spur narrative, and fantasy. One black-and-white photograph depicts two lingerie-clad women sharing a bicycle.  The focus is soft and fuzzy, like a naughty grandfather's, and it incites a nostalgia for childhood (maybe your first bicycle-induced tingle). Hanson sits down to discuss how she picks the perfect photo, what it means to be sexy, and the allure of the door-to-door salesman.


ARIELLA GOGOL: Were you inspired to write this book from your time at Leg Show?

DIAN HANSON: I moved it ahead in the body part queue because of the Leg Show brand. I felt that I should get along to it. But I love photos of the legs because they're more active: The poses are dynamic, and you're always including the entire body.
 
AG: How do you pick which photos to include in the book?

DH: When I look at an archive, the photos that are right for the book just kind of glow. The body part has to be central—it has to draw the eye more immediately.

AG: Is there a reason that more contemporary legs aren't featured?  Do you think there is more allure to photos from the 30s and 40s than the present day?

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Tags: Ariella Logos, Taschen, Book of Legs, Leggs

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