Irving Penn

Irving Penn, ‘Girl Behind Bottle’

For my chosen iconic fashion image to deconstruct I am going to look at Irving Penn’s ‘Girl Behind Bottle’.

This photograph was taken in 1949 for Vogue Magazine, this being one of his earliest prints for them. Irving Penn started in a background of fine art, however, he thought of himself as a mediocre painter at best and saw little success from it. Shortly after his venture into painting he found himself in New York where he started his first prints for Vogue.

The magazine, being a global success, focused on the highest and most innovative forms of fashion. It lead the way in the upper classes setting standards and being a major, if not THE major, influence on the fashion industry. The magazine however strives further still from mere upper class expensive fashion, it also draws on political and social issues, and on surrounding art forms that it reflects within its articles and the fashion featured. In short it was the Avant Garde of the fashion world.

The themes of this magazine are completely embodied within this particular piece Irving Penn created. The Model is Jean Patchett, who was the leading super model for Vogue, and was the highest class envy of women and fashion lovers.

The camera however does not hold her in focus, she was the icon of Vogue for decades, and was already their most used model in the 1940’s, so she is an identifiable factor in this image, whether she is in clear focus or not.

The use of Penn’s subtleties in his symbolism is quite intricate in this photograph, as he draws on several individual symbols, and interlaces them together.

Looking at individual items and the mise en scene here, we have the women, dressed very formal, and fashionable, with her jet black long gloves, and the black shoulder padded dress, whether or not we identify her as Jean Patchett, we still instantly identify this woman as sophisticated, fashionable and in the high circles of the upper class. This is identified predominantly by her clothing, and then by her cigarette, she is smoking through a long, fine, cigarette holder, as particularly in the 1940’s smoking was seen as desirable and sophistication in a woman, particularly through the dainty, feminine cigarette holder, as she has elegance dedicated to even the way in which she draws upon a cigarette. The next part of this cigarette that identifies her as the high class desirable woman, in that it is being lit for her by a man, she does not waste time lighting her own cigarette, men leap at the chance to do it for her. The man (identified as male by his sleeve), is not within shot however, merely the arm extending to light the cigarette, which means that he is meaningless in comparison to her, he is a mere extension to serve her, completely de-personified.

Both the wine glass, and the bottle next reinforce this element of class, red wine being a long standing signifier of wealth, culture and sophistication. The positioning of the bottle however is what interlaces all these symbols, as Penn has focused his camera on this bottle, which as stated is a strong symbol of wealth and glamour, and Penn utilizes the reflections in this bottle, to show a distorted form of the model within, but the distortion is just right to make her seem like an Art Deco portrait within this bottle. This idea of the reflection personifies her the model, as a work of art, and a work in keeping with the Avante Garde styling of Vogue. The model however is still present as a real person, in a real scene behind this art. Irving Penn has placed his camera at angle just perfect, to see what we overlook in everyday, he has put the viewer in the sweet spot, where if you look at a regular scene just right, you see everything it represents. With the model out of focus as well, be her an icon, this lack of focus gives her ambiguity, it takes away her identity from her body, so that she becomes simply a symbol of ‘The Vogue Woman’ and not, model Jean Patchett. In doing this Penn has effectively interlaced everything Vogue Magazine stands for, into this one photograph. It is the Avante Garde, it’s readers are catching a glimpse of this perfect ‘Glamour World’.