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Artist Dario Calmese used to see Lana Turner walking into church every Sunday. She is a Harlem legend, someone who wears bright orange pantsuits and taffeta ball skirts to worship. Turner doesn’t have any particular connection to the fashion industry, but over the years, she’s amassed a vintage collection, including more than 500 hats, that has garnered the attention of editors, photographers, and style bloggers. Upon meeting Turner through a friend and visiting her at her Hamilton Heights home, Calmese became fascinated by her allure and her singular aesthetic. “While I was in grad school at SVA [School of Visual Arts], I was looking for a few hats for a fashion story I was putting together,” he explains. “When we met, I noticed her elegance, and I decided that she was actually my subject who should be photographed in the hats. She suggested I take a look at her closet, and I quickly realized that I had a documentary project on my hands.”
Today, photographs from that project will go on display at Projects+Gallery in St. Louis as part of a special exhibition titled “Amongst Friends.” Beyond Turner’s vintage archive, the show includes commentary by Vogue Contributing Editor André Leon Talley, Essence magazine fashion and beauty director Julee Wilson, and Tow Family associate professor of English and Africana Studies at Barnard College Monica Miller, focusing on the roles that African-American communities and the churches in those communities have had on American fashion “My father is a pastor,” Calmese says. “So growing up in the church, the ritual of getting dressed for Sunday morning is a heavy thread in the fabric of my childhood memories.” He adds, “More specifically, these images reflect memories of my mother, the first lady. The slip, the bag, the glove, the shoe.” Through the process of working together, Calmese and Turner have developed a strong bond: “She has become more than a mere subject but has evolved into a friend and mentor,” Calmese says. “We call her ‘the Pope’ and ‘the Oracle.’ She is a lesson in the art of living. One thing she said that I continue to carry with me is: ‘Life is too short not to be surrounded by beautiful things.’ ”
Turner’s collection embodies Sunday best at its very finest and includes original pieces by Vera Wang and Yves Saint Laurent. As Talley writes of Calmese’s work in the exhibition materials: “In their quiet beauty, his photographs capture every dissection of haute couture exhibited by every black woman who intersects her faith, her religion, and her personal style. She is reborn every single Sunday through the rituals and universal codes of deportment, carriage, and dress.”
Above, a first look at some of Calmese’s mesmerizing portraits of Harlem’s fashion “oracle.”