ALI MAHDAVI

Glamour is what he does

One of the most representative contemporary artistic figures of his generation, Crazy Horse Paris naturally called on him to work with Philippe Decouflé on the production of the “Désirs” show. Mysterious and headstrong women with bob wigs, blood-red lips, dizzyingly high heels…Working hard with and for the Parisian cabaret, he deftly reasserts the stylistic codes set forth by the avant-garde artist and founder of the legendary venue, Alain Bernardin.

Inspired by women

Ali Mahdavi’s artistic mainline consists in glorifying the powerful, dominant, insubordinate female, women who like to run the show… Triumphant, moving and desirable, women are at the heart of his artistic and creative thought-process. He is driven by the permanent desire to have you be smitten by the charm of these incredible beauties. He sculpts, stages, analyses, takes pictures of them and in so doing, makes them irresistible.

“In my work, I’ve always been fascinated by the process that goes into subliming women and by their pursuit of perfection. Some of them have devoted themselves entirely to this quest with utter disregard for social conventions.”

His muse : Marlene Dietrich

“She is the very embodiment of glamour: through sheer will and with help from her Pygmalion, Josef Von Sternberg, whom she later surpassed, she transcended what nature had endowed her with (which was very nice, yet far from perfect) in order to correspond to her personal vision of beauty and thus transform herself into a bird of paradise.”

Photographer, designer and visual artist

Photographer to the greatest models, designer for the most famous fashion-designers, illustrator and visual artist, he was trained at the prominent Boulle school, the Royal College of London, the Beaux-Arts in Paris, the San Francisco Art Institute…

Born and raised in Teheran, Ali Mahdavi previously worked with the famous Parisian cabaret in 2007, in particular on the occasion of the Arielle Dombasle show, for which he made the official poster. He also collaborated in 2009 with Crazy Horse Paris and Dita Von Teese on the “Teese’ing” act, henceforth part of Crazy Horse Paris lore.

In 2010, he also created the numbers for Clotilde Coureau’s show and later the “Shooting” act for top model Noémie Lenoir in 2013.