Each event has a different theme, revolving around a past era. Previously, Steam Garden did a Meiji-themed party — a fascinating time when Japan was opening its doors to the West, and fusing Victorian fashion with traditional kimonos and obis. This time, the code word was Celtic Fantasy. Luke describes it as “a blend of industry, fantasy, and epic adventure set to a soundtrack of exciting tribal and Celtic music.” -
Japanese Steampunk, complete with bagpipes, medieval food, fire dancers and wood elves.
posted by Artw
on May 18, 2013 -
7 comments
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong “The Flapper awoke from her lethargy of sub-deb-ism, bobbed her hair, put on her choicest pair of earrings and a great deal of audacity and rouge and went into the battle. She flirted because it was fun to flirt and wore a one-piece bathing suit because she had a good figure, she covered her face with powder and paint because she didn’t need it and she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring. She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do. Mothers disapproved of their sons taking the Flapper to dances, to teas, to swim and most of all to heart. She had mostly masculine friends, but youth does not need friends—it needs only crowds.”
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants
on May 5, 2013 -
83 comments
The Vivienne Files. "Timeless, Elegant, Classic, Simple, Unique, Beautiful. Working toward carefully curated and deliberately distilled wardrobes that reflect our personal styles and our distinctive contributions to the world."
[more inside]
posted by drlith
on Apr 27, 2013 -
21 comments
"My name is Buzz Bissinger. I am 58 years old, the best-selling author of 'Friday Night Lights,' father of three, husband. And I am a shopaholic." Link to
single page printer format.
I began to buy, as silly an understatement as somebody drinking a quart of vodka a day and insisting that he or she is not an alcoholic. Clothing became my shot glass, another round, Net-a-Porter. But too often hits wear off, and the laws of supply and demand for an addict are pretty simple: You replenish. And replenish. And replenish. You fool yourself at certain times into thinking that's it and you have quenched the beast. But the beast is never conquered, and you don't really want to conquer the beast anyway, until there is disaster.
posted by gladly
on Mar 26, 2013 -
132 comments
In 2003, Abercrombie and Fitch approached Slovene philosopher and culture critic Slavoj Žižek to write ad copy.
The results were odd. (And NSFW.)
posted by Rinku
on Mar 17, 2013 -
66 comments
A Family Affair by celebrated Dutch makeup artist Ellis Faas. Her brother is the model and her daughter created the music. Faas says, "As a late teenager, I visited the Tate Gallery in London and was blown away by a Francis Bacon triptych. It made a great impression on me because of the use of colour - it was unnerving and stunningly beautiful at the same time.
Bacon inspired many experiments I did over the years."
(via The FaceCulturalist)
posted by madamjujujive
on Jan 15, 2013 -
7 comments
The folks at
International Pleating have been
pleating stuff for
four generations:
silk,
organza,
Spandex,
eco-fabrics,
striped fabric,
leather,
metallic leather,
retired kite-surfing kites, and more, in a variety of
methods and techniques including
Fortuny and mushroom pleating and
that's-more-textured-than-pleated-really effects. When they're not pleating stuff, they
blog about pleating — including good info about
how to recognize a badly-pleated skirt,
how to test your yardage for shrinkage, and a
mindblowing level of
detail about pleated
bias circle skirts — and write free ebooks on topics like
how to use machine pleating and
cutting and calculating for pleated bias-cut skirts.
And when they get bored, they pleat
Doritos and
potato-chip bags.
posted by Lexica
on Dec 29, 2012 -
32 comments
...the story said that they were trying to get me here to become a model, that I was a goat herder… I mean, I’d seen goats, but really? And that I didn’t speak a word of English. I spoke five languages! Totally mythology. I had no clue about that… I arrived, and the next day, I had 64 members of the press. An interview with Iman. Part
I and
II.
(Via The Beheld.) [more inside]
posted by latkes
on Dec 2, 2012 -
18 comments
Casey Legler is 6'2" has a neck tattoo, dark partially shaved hair, and a successful career as a male model. Which makes her fairly unique.
posted by bitdamaged
on Nov 21, 2012 -
32 comments
On Kate Moss, and Taking One for the Team: "So, earlier this week Vanity Fair published a rare interview with Moss, in which the model, who is well-known for her circumspection, is unusually frank about the early years of her career. Moss was still a skinny, gangly teenager when she was plucked from mediocrity in Croydon and catapulted to superstardom. She was barely an adult, almost still a child, when she did her first topless photo shoot, with Corinne Day for The Face. In the interview, she talks about how uncomfortable this made her... This isn't the only the only revelation Moss made during the interview. It also turns out that the famous Calvin Klein campaign she did in 1992 with Mark Wahlberg gave her a nervous breakdown... Conveniently ignoring the fact that when the pictures were taken, Moss wasn't 'the face of the '90s', but a skinny teenage girl who cried because she was made to take her clothes off, Needham continues by saying that Moss' skinny frame 'seemed to encapsulate the euphoria of those long-distant times.'"
[more inside]
posted by flex
on Nov 5, 2012 -
92 comments
The New Dressmaker;
With complete and fully illustrated instructions on every point connected with sewing, dressmaking and tailoring, from the actual stitches to the cutting, making, altering, mending, and cleaning of clothes for ladies, misses, girls, children, infants, men and boys; The Butterick Publishing Co., 1921; 168 p. illus. [more inside]
posted by applemeat
on Sep 16, 2012 -
12 comments
Right now Baltimore, MD plays host to
FemmeCon, a biannual gathering for those who "seek to explore, discuss, dissect, and support
Queer Femme as a transgressive, gender-queer, stand-alone, and empowered identity and provide a space for organizing and activism within Queer communities". Some of the issues faced by queer femme culture include
femme invisibility in larger queer culture, the
lack of non-stereotypical role models,
being classed 'femme' by default, dismissal as
"too much", as well as intersectional issues of femme with
race,
gender, and
disability. In the meantime, femme subcultures such as
tomboy femme,
hard femme, and
FEMME SHARKS as well as
femmes in specific regions come together for
inspiration,
expression,
power,
creativity and support from each other - as well as from
appreciative butches.
posted by divabat
on Aug 18, 2012 -
111 comments
A recent trend in the ultra-fashion-conscious world of Tokyo teen girls:
B-Style, or "black lifestyle", that is, emulating the black women in rap videos. In the video you will see Japanese girls with weaves and incredibly dark tans to mimic black skin.
Rebellious rejection of convention, or weird sideways racism (one girl says: "when we do it it looks vulgar, but not on the black women")?
posted by DecemberBoy
on Aug 1, 2012 -
132 comments
