Guillermo Del Toro: At Home With Monsters

I am giving you a dose of stylish spookiness today with Guillermo Del Toro’s At Home With Monsters exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This was the perfect art show for October, with the film director’s personal collection of monster, art, and film memorabilia.

The auteur behind movies like Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone has been obsessed with Frankenstein, insects and creepy art from a young age. He loves comic books and empathizes with the outsider and freaks. The exhibit was a beautifully curated cabinet of curiosities, inspired by the mansion/museum that he keeps this amazing collection in. There are antique pieces of mourning photographs and jewelry. There are contemporary comic and storyboard art from his work and others that inspire him.

For fashion, there was a vignette of the stunning costumes from his Gothic style masterpiece Crimson Peak. It let you examine all the delicate details that helped tell the story’s characters. Antiqued applique leaves down the front of the teal velvet jacket. The exaggerated lacing down the back of the vivid red dress worn by Jessica Chastain to emulate the spinal column and herald death. My favorite piece (costume? Sculpture?) was the Angel of Death from Hellboy 2 (top). There was something elegant about this horrifying character. Del Toro explains one of his signature tricks is to relocate eyes to unexpected areas of the character because it instantly disturbs and makes people uncomfortable. This method was used very effectively with the Pale Man of Pan’s Labyrinth. The director describes how this beast now represents the toxicity of white male superiority to him.

There is a bit of Steampunk style in Del Toro’s work. Look no further than the character of Johann Krauss in Hellboy 2. Check out all the gears and gadget that go into just one arm. Lots of mechanically inclined creatures make their way into his films and art.

Unlike some artistic directors, Guillermo Del Toro has a great sense of humor. The art, the characters, the monsters are not to be taken too seriously (just take a look at the musical number of Hellboy 2). The creepiest of monsters have a charm to them that makes you smile. He even has a rain room in his house where his special effects expertise has rigged an office to be lit and sound like a rainstorm whenever he wants to work.

How much fun was this? Guillermo Del Toro’s At Home With Monsters was the perfect dose of high/low culture for your Halloween inspiration.

Photos by Mariana Leung

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How to Rock Cosplay at New York Comic-Con

After the runways NYC, Milan, Paris, comes the big promenade of New York Comic-Con.  Way over on the West Side of Manhattan, fans of not just comic books, the big "fashion" show had nothing to do with trends.  Cosplay, the art of dressing up in costume in tribute to your favorite pop culture character has become a huge movement.  

Once considered a bunch of super-geeks, cosplay has become an art form in its own right.  SYFY Network's "Heroes of Cosplay" starring competitive costume makers and professional cosplay celebrity Yaya Han have elevated the hobby into a lifestyle that prizes originality and craftsmanship.  Many of the best examples take a well known character and put their own spin on it, like a Steampunk Iron Man, gender reversed versions of comic book heroes and villains, mash-ups of time periods and fashion styles.  

The most popular character by far among women was Batman's Harley Quinn.  At one point, I ended up in a corner and four completely different versions of this character had randomly surrounded me.  One chose a fetish route, one chose a cute cartoonish one.  There was a punk version with tattoos, a child version, a sexy corseted one, etc. 

I saw some beautiful makeup jobs (see the Two-Face rendition above) and costumes with mechanized parts.  

However, with popularity, inevitably comes the mass commercialization racing to capitalize.  Almost every attractive female character with a well crafted costume seems to travel with an entourage (often a grateful male submissive type) who eagerly handed out her card and made sure you got her name right.  Big corporations that had nothing to do with the entertainment, comic or video game world had big booths there, but hired model brand ambassadors in costume to draw the male geeks in.  

With Halloween on its way, there is no shortage of costume inspiration for the holiday.  What comic book character do YOU most relate to?

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30 Years of Magic - Beaujolais Nouveau Style

It was a night of magic at the Highline Ballroom.  Event designer extraordinaire, Adam Aleksander put together a night of decadence with stylish burlesque ladies on stilts, elegant contortionists, magicians both witty and wondrous.

Guests heeded the dark and sexy theme and came in dramatic attire of their own.  The event was in honor of the annual unveiling of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau.  It was the 30th anniversary of the wine.  Traditionally, the unveiling happens every the third Thursday of every November.

You could have your fortune read by the fabulously outfitted psychics on the second floor.  Visual artists sketched the scene while you could pose for a spooky/glam photo the old fashioned way.  More macabre decorative elements like skulls, bell jars and clocks gave the night a more mysterious air.  

Photos by Mariana Leung and Rebecca Smayne

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