Michael Roberts obituary

Fashion journalist and illustrator who helped transform Tatler magazine into a leading glossy

The preferred medium of the fashion journalist Michael Roberts was Canson art paper, which he scissored freehand into crisp-cut collages, or snipped into minute dots to reassemble into mosaics, for magazine covers or book illustrations. His art, bit by bit putting it together, reflected his life in fashion. He wrote about it, commissioned unexpected others to do so, photographed for media and ads, and charmed cranky legendary lensmen into snapping for him. He could source the clothes, choose the crazy locale, stage the shoot’s story, and write a witty critique of the enterprise. He was also always the most elegant person involved, effortlessly cool.

Roberts, who has died aged 75, never bothered with a résumé, since every new role or venture seemed to just develop, but they totted up to a serious career. He was a writer on the Sunday Times in the 1970s, when new couture catwalk drama and heightened designer celebrity demanded a fashion voice that was both theatre critic and gossip columnist. Then from 1979 he was art and style director of Tatler magazine, when the editor, Tina Brown, transformed it from a country house title into the shiniest glossy – he and she both believed that fashion in print was a money-based transaction, here today and gone tomorrow, where style was an attitude, a behaviour, yet permanent. They were mickey-takers, out for mischief. Roberts could persuade even an institution like Eton college to cooperate in its own mockery, though his best joke, for a cover, was to dress, style and photograph – complete to a flash of doubt in her eyes – Vivienne Westwood impersonating Margaret Thatcher in 1989, towards the end of her reign. An inspired caricaturist, he could similarly make over the designer Rifat Ozbek into the dragon empress editor Diana Vreeland, and a drag queen into Dusty Springfield. The fake could transmute to the real through style.

Continue reading...

source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Nhận xét

Đăng nhận xét

Bài đăng phổ biến từ blog này

Half-witted, reckless Librium Liz may be even worse than May and Johnson | John Crace

Robotic PM displayed zero awareness in radio interviews of the damage she has done First, an apology. I should never have christened Theresa May “the Maybot”. With hindsight, she appears positively emotionally present. Touchy-feely. Almost functional. If not entirely competent. Certainly not the 1980s piece of Amstrad junk she always seemed when she was running the country. If you can call it that. But the Tories are just playing with us. It’s as if the members said: “So you think David Cameron is useless? Just wait until we give you Theresa.” And once we’d all had about enough of May, they gave us a narcissistic, sociopathic liar instead. Continue reading... source https://oto.oto-login.com/
Đọc thêm

The White Lotus season two review – this immaculate show’s writing is utterly unrivalled

The glorious, layered comedy-drama is back – with sex on its mind. Set in Sicily, impeccable turns come from Jennifer Coolidge and new faces including Aubrey Plaza It is a measure of just how good the first series of The White Lotus was – the writing, the blending of murder mystery and sharp satire, the performances, the direction, the gorgeous photography even under lockdown conditions – that although people do vividly remember the turd being curled out into a guest’s suitcase by a man driven to the edge of tolerance, they remember it as only part of a flawlessly executed whole. Now the show’s creator, Mike White, is back with another carefully curated batch of overprivileged guests at his mercy. This time they are being cared for by the staff – and sex workers – at the White Lotus hotel in Sicily instead of Hawaii, and White’s beady moral eye is on sexual rather than racial politics. The writing is as dense and layered as ever, the plotting is immaculate and the viewers’ sympathie
Đọc thêm

Chris Ashton reaches try milestone in Leicester’s thrashing of Exeter

Leicester 62-19 Exeter Ashton scores hat-trick for 101st Premiership try Try-scoring 101 for Chris Ashton. English rugby’s most prolific finisher cemented his status as the Premiership’s greatest ever try-scorer by becoming the first player in the history of the competition to reach 100 tries, running in a hat-trick in Leicester’s dominant win over Exeter. Ashton, who last week announced he is retiring at the end of the season, began the match on 98 but the 36-year-old wasted little time in racing to three figures before adding his third on the day and his 101st in total. His cause was helped by three yellow cards to Exeter – two for Olly Woodburn which meant a red for the Chiefs wing – but here was a reminder of just how deadly Ashton remains. His were three of nine tries for Leicester, who have now all but confirmed their place in the playoffs. They were caused problems by Exeter in the first half but the champions are timing their end-of-season run formidably. Ashton deserves t
Đọc thêm