
How many times have you watched Madonna’s Vogue, one of the most influential music videos of the 1990s directed by David Fincher? Personally I have lost count. When it was first released in March 1990, it was captivating with its impressive use of black and white and the imagery heavily paying homage to the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and Hollywood portrait photographers like Clarence Sinclair Bull and Horst P. Horst.
In particular, the final shot of the video [1] basically reproduces one of the most famous photographs by Horst – Mainbocher Corset, taken in 1939.

The German master of light and shadow shot one of his models, Madame Bernon. She was wearing a tightly-laced corset made by the corsetière Detolle to be worn under one of the creations of Mainbocher, the fashion house founded in 1929 by the American designer Main Rousseau Bocher.


If you are a fan of this music video, I bet you’ve never realised that the round bottle sitting on a shelf (left side of the screen) is a real product. It’s a beautiful glossy black Lanvin talcum powder duster. Possibly the fragrance of this perfumed talc was Arpège, the white floral creation by Paul Vacher and Andre Fraysse launched in 1927.
[1] The photo shot on the set of the music video was taken by Lorraine Day.
Thanks to Carolina for submitting this post.
































