Avant-Garde Art Lives in Walls of Disruption Steven Meisel’ “Haute Mess” Vogue Italia

Steven Meisel has taken his creative eccentricity to the “urban-edge” with his editorial “Haute Mess,” that’s inspired some passionate debate within the fashion industry.  I hold sacred, the right of the artist to be free to express his/her vision without boundaries, just as I honor the right of anyone to voice an educated opinion against such work.  I believe that true art is born out of healthy controversy and passionate debate.  For me, it isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about the potential for deeper understanding, the promise of clarity, and the understanding that (true) Avant-Garde works live withing the walls of disruption – it isn’t meant to be a smooth trip.  In the March Issue of Vogue Italia, I truly believe the only message Steven Meisel sought to impart was that of creative-innovation, by serving only that which is authentic & fashion-forward.  His mastery of color/texture allows for an experience that goes beyond the “glossy-appeal” of typical editorials, and reaches for a deeper level of sensory-synthesis.  His raw-edginess comes from his innate ability to juxtapose the defiantly opposite, and somehow Force them into Fashion-Submission.  That undiluded vision is what we’re witnessing in this multi-dimensional pictorial.  With a fashion-story that includes, Joan Smalls, Jessica Stam, Lindsey Wixson, Coco Rocha, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Karen Elson, Daphne Groeneveld and Guinevere van Seenus – Meisel has truly ventured on the fashion-edge.  In this layout, he has managed to do what he does best – mix real-world cool with avant-garde extreme.