an Ray’s first fashion shoot was a disaster. It was 1922, and the artist had just arrived in Paris from New York with one suitcase, $100 and the singular goal of becoming one of the bright young things of dadaism alongside Duchamp and André Breton.
Left: Olivier Theyskens, Spring-Summer 1999, © MoMu, photo: Julien Claessens & Thomas Deschamps. Right: Man Ray, La Chevelure, 1927, private collection, Courtesy Fondazione Marconi, Milan.Man Ray went on to take portraits of Parisian high society and shoot for fashion magazines and various cosmetic brands, while toying with different photographic methods such as solarisation and double exposures. There were, it seems, two Man Rays.
Of the 200 photographs, most are of his lovers, Lee Miller and Kiki de Montparnasse, which the exhibition convincingly links to the dresses beside them. According to Belgian fashion expert and MoMu guide, Katleen Derijcke, Margiela never made a direct link between his work and that of Man Ray.