While city walking along Sloane st. in Knightsbridge recently I came across this scheme by Dior. Mannequins have been positioned on these American style fire escapes as if posing for a magazine photo shoot. Of course, it is well documented this style of fire escape were often used for activities other than their intended purposes, particularly in poorer areas of 20th Century USA, and therefore, at least for me, this adds to my interest. We can also, perhaps see links here to West Side Story or its original equivalent Romeo and Juliet or even perhaps a Hitchcock thriller such as the 1950's Rear Window. The use of the diagonal shadows across the structure, so popular in film noir maybe could have been included within this scheme to avoid the sterility and enhance the urban chic, although I am not privy to the process that this scheme went through to get to this stage and therefore perhaps I am trying to add too many layers. Anyway, as usual, this is a perfectly executed scheme with attention to such microscopic detail which makes this scheme simple yet so superbly produced.
