tilda swinton

UK Vogue August 2013

Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel designer and photographer, captures the light in Tilda Swinton's eyes iluminescently in the Chanel advertisements that are leading in to the fall season. She is bewitching.

Once I was able to pull  away from the the white queen, I see that the backdrop of  the shoot are tapestries. And that brought to mind the Tapisserie de Bayeux (11th Century) that I had the opportunity to view on a trip to France a few years back. The tapestry is actually not quite that as it is, according the official web site, a linen canvas that is embroidered. It celebrates the conquest by England by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings. Though housed in France, the work is thought to have been done in England.

UK Vogue August 2013

What I remember most of the visit to the tapestries are the rooms that it is housed in. Dark, cool, and quiet, they were a respite from a busy touring day. And the notion of all of the work that was needed to complete the 230 foot long story board, is something to meditate on in the quiet of the room. Obviously, having been made ten centuries ago, the work has been on a odyssey of its own from hand to hand. It's really rather remarkable that so much of it is still in tact today and on display.

Tilda Swinton is not posing in front of the Tapisserie de Bayeux, but the notion that the contemporary needle work is posed in front of the ancient is wonderful to imagine. Lagerfeld's early fall collection is Scottish inspired. And in he cold, drafty Laird's castles in Scotland, I have seen many tapestries there. The fabrics used in the collection are hearty and luxe and will withstand the test of time I would wager. And so it would seem, Tilda comes into the light and is strong enough to stand the range of time, not unlike her character in the film Orlando, based on the novel by Virginia Woolfe. First man, then woman, Orlando lives through centuries of life before she tires of it. The novel is written as a magical realism, and I think that Lagerfeld is doing the same here with this beautiful collection of clothing, history, and photographs.