Rafael Lazzini:International Male Model of the World

Full Name: Rafael Lazzini

Birth Date: June 3, 1983

Birth Place: Sao Paulo-Brazil

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Green/Brown

Height: 188 cm/6'2

 

 Rafael Lazzini (born on Jun 13, 1985 in Sao Paulo Brazil) is an Brazilian model best known for his work in Elite, Montage (Montreal), Success (Paris) and Ford Models (NYC).

 He is an international fashion model and has had the Terra The Boy treatment in June 2006, like so many gorgeous Brazilian guys before him.

Rafael has been featured in many magazines: TOP Jardin (Brazil) December 2006, Revista VIP (Brazil), Drops Magazine, Revista Higher (Brazil) November 2007, Vogue (Brazil), La Voix Magazine (Canada) March 2008, Eve Candy Magazine (Canada), Daslu Revista (Brazil) and has done many campaigns

Rafael is interested on arts and loves skateboarding

 

Rafael Lazzini by Photographer Ricco Vero

Rafael Lazzini: Rooftop by photographer Hendrik Nennecke

Rick Day: The World of Photography

RICK DAY,(born 30 July 1962) is an American fashion photographer.Born and raised in South Carolina, he moved to Atlanta at the age of 18 and worked different jobs before buying his first camera at the age of 28. As a self-taught photographer looking for more opportunities, Day moved to New York City in 1994 and has since become a noted name in Fashion Photography.

His fashion spreads and images have been published in numerous publications such as Elle, Details,  Italian Vogue, Manner, DNA and GQ.  He's shot advertising campaigns for Goody's, Gap,  Ritani and Rufskin.  Celebrity subjects have included performers such as Liza Minnelli and Taylor Swift, athletes such as Floyd Mayweather and others such as Michael Strahan, Nigel Barker, Fabien Cousteau.

Day published his first coffee table book, Players, in 2008, which is currently in its third edition. Rick Day's book Pioneers, released in 2010 debuted at number one on the Amazon best selling erotic book list. His recent book All Players was released in 2012 by the same publisher Bruno Gmünder Verlag. Living in New York with his 2 dogs, he continues to shoot ad campaigns, editorials and book projects.

  Rick Day is known for shaping portfolios of numerous agency represented male models, while his images dominate the blogosphere he also released an incredibly successful coffee table book Players.

Why are there so many gay men in the fashion industry?

First, the fashion industry has traditionally been more accepting of openly gay men as opposed to other trades.  Even today, it is more challenging for an openly gay man to reach the level of CEO or principal than their straight male collegues.  On the contrary, a gay man in fashion can be a respected and revered leader of his field and achieve a great deal of personal and monetary reward without encountering the prejudices that are often found in other vocations -- such as police, firefighter, military or sports. 

Some good examples of this would be Valentino Garavani, Yves Saint Laurent, Perry Ellis, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen and Gianni Versace -- to just name a few.  Times are changing and greater acceptance of "The Gays" has led the way for gay men to excel in traditionally straight male fields, but real-world examples remain few and far between - often only in cities or countries where gays and lesbians enjoy greater equality with their straight coworkers. 

The glass ceiling that exists for women also exists for gay men, who are typically underpaid for the same work their straight male coworkers perform.  It should also be said that because they were men, gay men in fashion and design were once privileged over women who attempted to break into the field.  Although she was an exceptional exception, Coco Chanel was one of the few women who was able to succeed in an industry once dominated by gay men like Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga.  So both homophobia (against gay men) and sexism (against women) in the culture at large were likely factors in gay men achieving and maintaining dominance in the early stages of the modern fashion industry.

Second, gay culture rewards creativity.  The heroes in the gay community are generally not the rugby players or the firefighters - although they do exist - but the drag queens, the musicians, the filmmakers, the writers, the actors, the artists, dancers, etc.  This is partly due to the fact that these were once the only careers gay men could excel in while still maintaining a sense of who they are and an exuberant pride in what they could accomplish. 

 This lean towards the creative arts is enhanced by a sense of uniqueness many gay men grow up with in a predominantly heterosexual world.  Perhaps this sense of uniqueness is no longer as pronounced as it once was, but I believe this outsider's perspective continues to be conducive to thinking "outside of the box" -- a trait one would prefer in a creative setting, such as fashion design.  Some would call this "bringing one's gay sensibility."

An important point: Gay men's admiration of beautiful, elegant and powerful women cannot be overstated.  Despite a sometimes undercurrent of misogyny within the gay male community, the elevation of beautiful women to mythic proportions is ingrained within the DNA of gay culture.  It has been said that a man who designs beautiful clothes for women either "wants to be with the woman or wants to be the woman".  From my basic understanding of the lives of various gay male designers, I find the evidence lacking in support of this statement. 

 There's nothing in the personal lives of Yves Saint Laurent or Valentino which suggests they are simply repressed transgender individuals.  On the contrary, Valentino has for decades designed spectacular clothes for women not because he wants to be one, but because he says "I know what women want.  They want to be beautiful."  It is this passion and eye for beauty, as well as sheer creativity and talent, that is at the core of what makes a successful designer, be they straight (like Oscar de la Renta or Ralph Lauren) or gay (like Alexander Wang or Giorgio Armani).

The Couture World of Balenciaga

A true fashion innovator, Cristobal Balenciaga radically altered the fashionable silhouette of women in the mid-twentieth century. With the methodical skill of an expert tailor, he created garments of fluidity and grace. Unlike many couturiers, Balenciaga was able to drape, cut, and fit his own muslin patterns, known as toiles. He was respected throughout the fashion world for both his knowledge of technique and construction, and his unflinching perfectionism.

Balenciaga was born in the small fishing village of Guetaria in the Basque region of Spain on January 21, 1895. From his early years, he spent many hours by his mother's side as she worked as a seamstress. In his teens, the most prominent woman of his town, the Marquesa de Casa Torres, became his patron and client, sending him to Madrid for formal training in tailoring and proudly wearing the results. Balenciaga found early success in his native country. He opened branches of his boutique Eisa in Madrid, Barcelona, and the fashionable seaside resort of San Sebastián.

His designs were favored by the Spanish royal family and fashionable members of the aristocracy. When the Spanish Civil War forced the closure of his boutiques, Balenciaga moved his operation to Paris, the acknowledged fashion capital of the world. There the talented designer joined the ranks of Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Mainbocher, among other established couturiers. In August 1937, Balenciaga staged his first runway show at his Avenue George V atelier, showing a collection that was heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance.

Balenciaga interpreted numerous historical styles throughout his career. His "Infanta" gown was inspired by the costumes of the young Spanish princesses from portraits by Diego Velázquez, while the short, heavily ornamented "jacket of light" traditionally worn by toreadors in the bullfighting ring inspired much of his evening wear.

By 1939, Balenciaga was being praised in the French press as a revolutionizing force in fashion, with buyers and customers fighting to gain access to his collection. During World War II, clients risked travel to Europe for Balenciaga's designs, especially his celebrated square coat—in which the sleeve was cut in one piece with the yoke—and anything shown in his unique color combination of black and brown or black lace over bright pink. In the postwar years, Balenciaga's designs became streamlined and linear. The clothing he created was different than the popular, curvy hourglass shape that Christian Dior promoted with his New Look.

Balenciaga favored fluid lines that allowed him to alter the way clothing related to a woman's body. Waistlines were dropped, then raised, independent of the wearer's natural waistline. In 1953, he introduced the balloon jacket, an elegant sphere that encased the upper body and provided a pedestal for the wearer's head. In 1957 came the creation of his high-waisted baby doll dress, the gracefully draped cocoon coat, and the balloon skirt, shown as a single pouf or doubled, one pouf on top of the other.

Neither the sack dress, introduced in 1957, nor the chemise of 1958 had a discernible waist, but both were considered universally flattering and were copied by a large number of ready-to-wear manufacturers at every price range. With these design innovations, Balenciaga achieved what is considered to be his most important contribution to the world of fashion: a new silhouette for women.

Throughout the 1960s, Balenciaga continued showing collections of unparalleled technique and beauty. His innovative use of fabric—he liked bold materials, heavy cloths, and ornate embroideries—led him to work with the Swiss fabric house of Abraham. Together they developed silk gazar, a stiffer version of the pliable fabric that Balenciaga used in suits, day dresses, and evening wear.

Loyal clients such as the Duchess of Windsor, Pauline de Rothschild, and Gloria Guinness continued to appreciate the discreet but important touches he provided in his clothing: collars that stood away from the collarbone to give a swanlike appearance and the shortened (seven-eighths-length) bracelet sleeve, so called because it enabled the wearer to better flaunt her jewelry. When the Balenciaga salon closed in 1968, the occasion marked the end of the career of a great artist whose influence is still being felt in the twenty-first century.

 The modern look that he created has been sustained by André Courrèges and Emanuel Ungaro, who both apprenticed at his atelier, and by Hubert de Givenchy, among others. Balenciaga died on March 24, 1972, at home in his beloved Spain. A longtime client offered a fitting epitaph: "Women did not have to be perfect or even beautiful to wear his clothes. His clothes made them beautiful."

Further Reading

Jouve, Marie-Andrée. Balenciaga. New York: Universe/Vendome, 1997.

The World of Balenciaga. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973.

Pochna, Marie-France. Dior. New York: Universe/Vendome, 1996.