DesignTrends Bedrock: Sauvage, Goddess Beauty

The intersection of feminine naturals, a Smart Sensuality goddess beauty splashes its influences all over today’s design world. Is Goddess Power gaining momentum anywhere but on the runway? We wait now, as we’ve waited for centuries. 

Goddess Beauty Then: February 2009

London’s restaurant The Modern PantryWe begin with this gorgeous food shot from The Modern Pantry in London. 

Chef Anna Hansen’s East London restaurant serves up small plates like chorizo, date and feta fritters, more substantial plates like steak with cassava (yucca root) fries, and sublime dishes for vegetarians.

Sauvage Beauty

Yesterday, in a sad moment, I mourned my loss with the photography of Katinka Matson,  choosing two the bear an organic, sauvage beauty … and not young ones either. I find the photographs deeply sensual, even though there is no dew on the roses, so to speak.

Both photos communicate a mature, natural eroticism. These are not lacey boudoir shots, yet for me the Katinka Matson photos communicate sexuality as deeply as a naked woman. (Yes, yes, I know that no man would agree with me.) Nevertheless, these are femme fatale photographs.

Michelle Style

Lastly, looking through the NYTimes “Michelle picks” from the New York Fall 2009 fashion shows, I chose this Oscar de la Renta gown to feature. The First Lady would look like a total Goddess in this gown. Michelle still hasn’t worn Oscar de la Renta and he definitely has gotten the message. 

Goddesses aren’t critiqued by fashion designers, but not every man gets the message. 

Oscar de la Renta, Fall 2009 Michelle-Style

Each of these photos is sexy without glitz or artfice. They reflect a raw, erotic sensuality found in touch, taste, smell and visual effects.

We are attracted to these photos because they are fundamental, primal, global, eco … bedrock, as I wrote in the title.  The images are authentic and it’s their very essence of composition … the drape of the fabric across the bodice, the chocolate melting in our fingers, the unyielding, yet beautiful nature of wood that captivates us, saying “I am real.”

The enticement isn’t convoluted, but is easy to understand.  These photos are the essence of sensuality … of womanly, not male, design.

Goddess Beauty Now June 2010

The July 2010 issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK features Hilary Rhoda by photographer Paola Kudacki in “Goddess Complex”. Photos at Fashion Gone Rogue.

The editorial calls up Aphrodite. We honor her, too, but the world desperately needs Athenas.  Katinka Matson doesn’t update her website very much, but the artists is alive and participating in a thoughtful debate at the Edge, 

There is a sobriety to debate at the Edge:  To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves. 

172 essayists contributed to The World Question Center 2010: “How Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?” What is Katinka Matson saying to you about its affect on her?

Katinka Matson’s “The World Question Center 2010”Looking at Matson’s visual image communicates to me that the Internet on the one hand blows our minds open, allowing us to learn many new ideas but also tempting us to become easily confused, unfocused and unproductive in pursuit of digital pleasures.  

Once we discipline our minds and attention spans, enabling us to harness the intellectual treasures of the Internet in pursuit of our own learning, we have an awesome power at hand. As in Katinka Matson’s flower, we focus deeper under the layers of history and discovery. 

Last year I remarked about the beauty of Katinka Matson’s flowers that weren’t fresh and young.

This 2010 flower is being born; her green center is embryonic and still forming. We’re waiting for this flower to burst into full bloom from its holistic center. She is a goddess of nature waiting for birth, to be unleashed from her tight center, a synthesis of feminine and masculine — but the feminine leads. 

Her green foam, unformed center petals are hiding mystery and surprises, but her structure is of a rational, empirical nature. Katinka Matson’s flower is verdant but orderly, an Athena goddess flower when we need her.

Sustainable Food Movement

Representing her restaurant The Modern Pantry, Anne Hansen has been awarded: UK New Zealander of the year 2010. 

In a challenging economy, The Modern Panty is a well known destination on the London restaurant scene. 

The Modern Pantry has earned 2 AA rosettes and a “Bib Gourmand” from Michelin. Anne Hansen is working on a cookbook, due out in 2011 covering modern pantry staples for the home cook, and multiple ways of using them in everyday cooking.

On the subject of everyday pantries, we only ask: will we be making Anne Hansen’s hokey pokey icecream? Remember, the title of this trend is sauvage, goddess beauty.  Many a kitchen goddess has been born in the pantry. 

Every Kiwi knows what hokey pokey is – it’s like the honeycomb in the middle of a well known chocolate bar. We guess that’s a New Zealand chocolate bar. 

 More goddess article from Anne:

 Real Life Pure White PINK Power

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