lauren greenfield

while looking through some images on lens today (http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/showcase-85/?hp), i came across some photos documenting the effects the economic downturn has had on dubai. i knew the photographer's name rang a bell; a while back i was flipping through an ancient issue of people magazine (you take what you can get here in korea) and was fascinated by the images of girls suffering from eating disorders. the dubai photos are something of a departure for greenfield as she tends to focus on issues pertaining to females, specifically girls and teens, and how they're affected by our culture. definitely looking forward to watching her documentaries examining these issues.

a thirteen year old tanning

donning some clothes from a children's store

a teen anorexic

a teen pre and post nosejob

marc turlan

next time i need cheap home decor or grow weary of an old magazine (though this happens rarely. seventeen circa 1994 anyone?) i shall follow suit and do as marc turlan does. hours and hours of my endless time can be put to use. perfect.

the september issue

just watched the september issue chronicling the making of vogue's yearly superissue. have reazlised that anna wintour is obsessed with people making a mockery of the fashion world. she brings it up a couple of times in the film and appears very fragile, unlike her usual tough-as-nails demeanor. i find it interesting that anna's daughter is not keen on following her mother's trail, not does she think fashion is the be-all-end-all of life. bee is far more easy going and down to earth that i had envisioned - i took quite a liking to her actually. grace coddington is an absolute delight. no surprise there - anyone that maintains a mammoth red mane has to have some spunk in them. i was aware that she was one of the top vogue staffers, but didn't know that it was quite to the extent that it is. i presumed that andre leon talley was more involved, perhaps just due to his overwhelming (and marvelous) presence. i also did not realize that anna possesses such enormous sway in the fashion industry, influencing collections, collaborations, etc. stefano pilati lost all confidence in her presence, turning into a babbling schoolgirl, something that thakoon confirmed when he mentioned his hand visibly shaking! altogether, a great behind-the-scenes look at vogue and the fashion industry.

chuck klosterman

i might be in love. it wasn't immediate. there was an initial fondness with sex drugs and cocoa puffs, however we couldn't relate on all levels. but downtown owl was all encompassing. the 80s, north dakota, the cultural references, rock'n'roll, and my understanding of julia, the young schoolteacher who becomes quite the bar denizen, gossiping about the locals, envisioning herself placed in various scenarios, adding a sense of mystere to unknowing crushes, and drifting through school. i get it. hilarious.

the new.

methinks this tavi is destined to be the next anna piaggi, or iris apfel, or diana vreeland or...

this reminds me of...

...rachel feinstein's armpit tattoo. i mean, your duodenum. or lava? amanda levete architects and anish kapoor actually designed it after being inspired by a series of unfinished tunnels. construction just started in naples. personally, i would much prefer it in a more...uplifting?...colour, however it definitely puts your average subway entrance to shame.

wunderbar

this man is a walking phenomenon. always love the sartorialist. he really captures the essence of a person (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/)

yacht

yacht, a band i knew and know little-to-nothing about, somehow wandered their way over to busan, korea, for god-knows what reason. (they must have heard about the plethora of english teachers chomping at the bit for something, anything, anything at all...) anyways, the main reason i was looking forward to their concert was to drive away the monotony of everyday life. listened to them on myspace and meh. and yet i was more than thrilled during their concert. exuberant even, as i leapt towards the heavens while securing myself to a stripper pole with my left hand. i don't see myself revisiting their music - it was definitely an in-the-moment type thing - however i am looking forward to seeing more of their photographic collaborations. am obsessed with the sand/glitter photos.

style rookie

this tiny little snippet of a girl is a fashion maverick. how have i not come across her blog before? (http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/) she's incredibly well-versed in fashion and the arts, has a daring sense of style, is an artist, and has even produced her own zine. not to mention has been graced by the presence of carine roitfeld, the mulleavy sisters etc. etc. etc. or they have been graced by her presence. oh, and did i mention she's 13? how precocious!

daul kim

how sad.

the galaxy dress

i'll always remember being in awe of my friend sophia's hypercolor t-shirt back in grade school. now i'm smitten with cutecircuit's galaxy dress, made from silk, chiffon and over 24,000 flat LEDs, allowing the dress to flow naturally. sigh. if only i were a rockstar. perhaps the hypercolor tiles are a little more within my grasp...

rachel feinstein

yesterday i was perusing the web and came across an interview with rachel feinstein (from interview: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/rachel-feinstein/5/), the new york artist/muse/fashionista/mother whose armpit has a tattoo of a vagina with ants marching out of it. oh, i do like her art, but the tattoo kills me. my favourite part of the interview recounts how she met her husband...

"...I built a big, Sleeping Beauty’s gingerbread house that I slept in. I would sleep there during the day, because I was working at night, and you could watch me getting humped by this motorized castle while I was sleeping. It was really crazy. I would wear a fresh cherry on my neck every night, and I had platinum hair, and I wore big glossy red lipstick, and I would wake up, and the lipstick would be smeared all over my face, and the cherry would be smashed up, and people would look in at me through this frosted glass window . . . The night of the opening, this man came up to me and said, “You look like a woman in John Currin’s paintings.” At this point, John wasn’t super-well-known, and I didn’t know who he was, so I said, “I don’t know who that is.” He said, “It’s so strange that you have to meet him.” I said, “I’m not interested.” And the guy was a little bit weird. He was wearing a leather vest, leather jacket, leather pants, leather boots—he was almost like my leather fairy or something. I thought he was trying to hit on me, but I couldn’t figure it out. And then he started to call me at the gallery all the time. He started really harassing me, and I just said, “Leave me alone.” So then he decided to call up John. He looked up John’s number and called and said, “I saw one of your paintings in some show in Boston a year or two ago, and you’ve got to see this girl.” And John, being a man, I guess, instead of telling this guy no, walked over that minute and into the gallery. I was standing there wearing this big kind of frilly pink underwear that Patricia Field used to sell and a shirt that said I’m a satisfier on it. I was just waking up, so I was all messy . . .

O’BRIEN: You’d just been humped by the castle?

FEINSTEIN: Yes, I’d just been humped by the castle. And he walked in, and it was crowded—there were probably 50 or so people there, and for whatever reason I walked straight up to him, and I kissed him on the lips. And he said, “Are you Rachel?” And I said, “Yeah.” And that was it."

rachel typically works in the medium of sculpture, however more recently has been working with palette knives on mirrors, building up images of elderly baroque women...

rachel in fur by her husband, john currin

bejeweled mini trees

tacky like faberge eggs and judith leiber purses, little bejeweled trees are equally as indulgent and...embarassing. they remind me of this one restaurant my family and i used to eat at in vienna; each table had a different version and we would select our spot based on the tree. while i was about 8 years old at the time, i still can't resist their charms. perhaps i should start collecting them in preparation for old age...along with the purses.

tracey emin

there's something about trainwrecks that i find very captivating. courtney love, amy winehouse and tracey emin - i cannot help but be fascinated. much of emin's work speaks directly to women, both through its shameless use of textiles and needlework, and its journal-like abrasiveness. her tent everyone i have ever slept with 1963-1995 reads like the lists so many of us keep, detailing lovers and the like in order to preserve our memories, our lives. (hers is actually a literal recount of everyone she'd slept next to up to that point, including her grandmother and two aborted fetuses.) emin does not keep secrets, laying everything out on the line for us to digest. her love of the crass, her drunken antics (is she now sober?) and her prominantly displayed tits all keep the image going. i remember seeing her installation piece bed in london and being simultaneously attracted and repulsed by the stained sheets, empty bottles, cigarettes, condoms and blood-stained underwear. what's not to love?!

superhero

at present, two of my most favoured garments are my black lycra catsuit from forever 21, and my american apparel lame minidress. superheroes had the right idea: life is just more exiting this way!

check out peaches' serpentine for a how-to....

florence + the machine

recently i've become quite smitten with florence + the machine, especially 'you've got the love.' the glittering suspended moon recalls mozart's 'die zauberflote,' when the queen of the night performs her solo...

hel looks

one of my favourite style sites is hel looks (http://www.hel-looks.com/), hailing from helsinki. after living in copenhagen for a brief stint, i really took to scandinavian fashion. they are both more outrageous and yet more understated than your average north american. the men are not afraid to take an interest in fashion, while the women maintain their feminity in a striking manner. the finnish in particular seems to have a curious obsession with the japanese, with those in their teens having quite the affinity for gothic lolita and other japan-inspired looks. while one might assume the finns have more spending power than most of us, they are avid vintage shoppers and d.i.y.ers (although if i am to go by danish standards, the average vintage t-shirt will set you back about $30!)

the diana

a few months ago i purchased a diana f+ camera, that oh-so-hipster plastic camera that originated in hong kong in the 1960s. i've grown so weary of being overly inundated with digital images; each night on the town, each holiday, each moment results in hundreds if not thousands of images which are immediately posted online, briefly viewed, and then forgotten. i wanted tangible images. i wanted a book with pages filled with photo through which i could flip - a photo album! i wanted the excitement of having to wait for the outcome, rather than the immediate gratification we have all become so accustomed to. so i bought my diana. immediately thrilled with the purchase, i went around town to photograph the mundane. how would she treat these objects? after dropping off my film, waiting, and returning, i was met with....mostly black images, some blurred, and perhaps one or two decent shots. infuriating! diana has since continued in this vein - she is quite the fickle beast. each time the thrill is followed by disappointment. and yet i refuse to be defeated. i will master her, just give me time. (lots and lots and lots.)

ryan mcginley

there's something about ryan mcginley's photographs that really appeals to me. you can't help but be drawn into that captured moment in time and held there. a certain tranquility is exuded, despite the fact that so many are action shots, be they prompted or not. they depict the exuberance of youth, of passion, and do so without judgement. like with nan goldin, the viewer's taken into the photographer's world, rife with sex and drugs and a carefree existance. unlike goldin's images, there are no consequences. and the dream continues.

rabbit ears

whenceforth came this trend? yes, marc jacobs did it up for the fall/winter 09-10 louis vuitton collection, but what was his inspiration? was it the ever-present lady gaga who dons hairbows fabricated out of cheap extensions (and disks, and fishnets, and crowns, and masks and numerous other head accessories)? is marc ever-smitten with jeff koons and his ubiquitous rabbit? did mr. jacobs give a nod to amy winehouse (a la karl lagerfeld) and her 1950s headscarves? is he an avid donnie darko fan, thrilled by the talk of a sequel (the louis vuitton ears do mimic frank's eerily crinkled pair)? or does marc just have a soft spot for bunnies?