#if anyone is interested in fashion from the 20s and 30s vionnet is THE designer along with poiret

[sanstropfremir]

what do you think of taeyeon's invu? (whether it's the album, song, etc.)

i laughed when people said that sm was copying fx and min hee jin's 4 walls. as if blue and orange are not two very common color palettes used, in general. i heard taeyeon did an exhibition (similar to how min hee jin promoted 4 walls) but i'm not sure if it was a direct rip off? but it was funny. i liked the initial teasers that came out but with the new sm creative director, it falls off very fast. the last teasers felt like a whole different concept. and then the music video... feels very borderline cultural appropriation with the styling and makeup. i remember when min hee jin said in an early interview that it was important for all things to connect in kpop, from the styling, music, video, etc. sad how that standard fell off.

i really like invu! mostly as a song but i like the mv and the album as a whole. i don't really think i would classify anything about the promotional campaign as a rip off of 4 walls, but more as something inspired by? personally i think holding an exhibition for the concept photography is a fantastic idea and should be much more common because photographers are the UNSUNG heroes of the kpop industry and they deserve so much more credit. also i disagree; i don't think the standard fell off in this case. taeyeon and her creative director approached invu not just as an album/typical comeback but as an entirely holostic piece of art and in order to see that you have to experience all the parts of it, including the exhibition:

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all the concept photos are taken/shot from the concept trailers that they did, of which there is one for every song on the album: no love again, some nights, set myself on fire, siren, you better not, timeless, cold as hell, toddler, heart, and ending credits (no teasers for the tt, can't control myself, or weekend bc they all have mvs).

to me the mv is at the same time the weakest and also the strongest thematic tie? the intent for the work as a whole is to be drawing from popular film genre imagery with an emphasis on old hollywood, which makes sense as to why there's a lot of 'vintage' references in the styling:

- the headpieces are floating somewhere in the realm of the 1910-20s:

the dolly sisters c. 1915-20, george barbier's le jugement de paris from 1923, a page from picture play magazine from 1925

- this look is pretty much identical to girdles from the same period:

corsets from a 1916 w&h walker catalogue, a girdle c. 1920s

- and the gowns all use shapes and techniques pioneered by madeleine vionnet, who was a very prominent designer from 1912-1940 and heavily inspired by grecian lines:

vionnet evening dress c. 1927

vionnet evening dress c. 1937

vionnet evening dress c. 1937

vionnet evening dress c. 1936 and wedding ensemble c. 1929

which is all very fitting because the mv is styling taeyeon as artemis, the greek goddess of the hunt. artemis lives in a forest accompanied only by dryads (tree spirits), and is often depicted with them or with a stag; so depending on your fancy the brown of the backup dancers' dresses is either fawn or tree-bark. in myth artemis is noted for taking a vow of chastity and rejecting all men's advances, with the exception of orion, a fellow hunter of whom the constellation is named and that she falls in love with. there are a lot of variants of this particular myth, but they all end in orion's death, including one iteration where artemis is tricked by her brother apollo to shoot him in the head while he is swimming. the main theme of invu is "i can't love you, even though i do," and this tragic myth fits pretty squarely into that.

the other references in the mv are a little more abstract but still run tangentially to the film theme:

the 'elf' look jewelry is pretty heavily art nouveau inspired, which was prominent in the 1890s-1910s, and was the primary aesthetic inspiration for the elves in the lord of the rings movies

the floating spheres and many planetary references (other than the moon, which is also associated with artemis), as well as the sand landscape looks very much like depictions of mars, are all reminiscent of high concept fantasy blend space operas like the fifth element, valerian, and jupiter ascending, and i'm hazarding a guess that the plaid/half skirt outfit is meant as a 'sci-fi' interpretation of artemis, as the plaid sleeves are similar to modern archery chest protectors and the boots are evocative of an astronaut suit (there's also like a utility belt pack on her waist?).

now do i think all of this is totally successful? no. personally i think some of the thematic connections could have been a bit stronger and aesthetically streamlined, but i can see where all the intent comes from. there's several ways where i think there were smarter and more interesting ways to approach the theme (and the theme itself could have been more interesting), because to me the installation reads very undergrad sculpture major, but i also have a masters degree in contemporary art and installation so. bit biased. but i do think they did a good job working within the established sm framework to create something with a lot of artistic intent and integrity as a whole work.