555
Revisiting The Fashion Archive of Francisco Costa
Published on 31. October 2023
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-8478-7312-8 (ISBN)
Description
An evocative photographic homage shot by renowned image-makers that celebrates the iconic archival fashion designs of Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein. From 2003 to 2016, Francisco Costa was the creative director and women s collections designer for the American fashion house Calvin Klein. It was a time of creative abundance, one that simultaneously supported both fashion design experimentation and its traditional crafts. In 2020, Costa revisited his fashion collections archive and invited twenty-one photographers to receive a box containing hand-selected prototype and runway clothing from Costa s Calvin Klein women s collections that could be used either as inspiration or directly as props and costumes within photographs. 555 is a collaborative project that celebrates the iconic collection s reanimation and visual transformation by an extraordinary congregation of participating artists and image-makers. Moody, contemplative, and provocative images featured range from observational and documentary photography to self-portraiture, evocative nude editorials, fashion photography, and visual records of artistic performances. Housed in a beautifully crafted, limited edition clamshell box, twenty-one unbound booklets, printed on various tactile paper stocks, feature photographic stories by Diego Villarreal, Marcelo Gomes, Nick Waplington, Jamie Hawkesworth, Hugh Lippe, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Joel Meyerowitz, Lea Colombo, and Collier Schorr.
Reviews / Votes
"The culminating product, "555," which takes its name from the numerological symbol for transition and change, is a box set of 21 booklets in various formats and sizes, each one by a different photographer. Working amid the constraints of the pandemic, photographers such as Diego Villarreal used themselves and close friends or family members - in his case, his sister Ines - as subjects, while Collier Schorr's portraits of the siblings June and Violet Getty reveal an affectionate intimacy. Costa considers the project a way to give the clothes a second life, however temporarily." - NY TIMES"Revisit Francisco Costa's time as the creative director and women's collections designer for Calvin Klein through the lens of 21 photographers in this innovative new publication. Costa selected pieces from his Calvin Klein women's collections to inspire or be worn in each of their photographs, and the result, 555: Revisiting the Fashion Archive of Francisco Costa (Rizzoli), is presented as 21 unbound booklets in a limited-edition, sleek clamshell case." - Dujour
"The beautifully crafted, limited edition clamshell box with twenty-one unbound booklets, this truly original book offers a reanimation and visual transformation by an extraordinary group of participating artists and image-makers such as Diego Villarreal, Marcelo Gomes, Nick Waplington, Jamie Hawkesworth, Hugh Lippe, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Joel Meyerowitz, Lea Colombo, and Collier Schorr, to name a few." - Curated Texan
"Francisco Costa is a renaissance man for all seasons, a fashion designer turned beauty entrepreneur whose impeccable visual eye informs everything he touches. That includes a new monograph chronicling his 2003-2016 tenure as creative director of Calvin Klein women's, only the second designer at the helm after the founder retired. Costa invited 21 photographers, including Collier Schorr, Jamie Hawkesworth and Diego Villareal, into his archives to re-interpret the treasures inside. The result is a beautiful tribute to Costa's innovation, and a time capsule that lovingly cradles 13 beautiful years of great fashion." - TOWN AND COUNTRY
"The high-concept endeavor breaks new ground in both fashion and image making. It features the work of 21 top photographers, who were asked to shoot some of Costa's past work in artful, inventive ways." -1ST DIBS
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
250 Color Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 216 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8478-7312-8 (9780847873128)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Francisco Costa is a Brazilian designer, founder of the beauty line Costa Brazil, and former Women s Creative Director for Calvin Klein. Charlotte Cotton is an English author, visiting scholar, and curator of photography.