Venus

Awhile back, I had the awesome experience of being shot by my friend Clayton Cubitt. This is what you look like after breast cancer treatment. Thanks so much to the incomparable Katie Wedlund for styling me.

Of Maggots and Madonnas

The concept is quintessential Knight/McQueen. Create the face of an angel and place it, pride of place, in a church in the southern French town of Avignon. Nothing much new about that, you might think, except that instead of using stained glass or any other such obvious and/or widely deemed appropriate materials, the pair constructed the piece entirely out of dyed maggots – 80 gallons of dyed maggots, to be precise. It’s a frankly horrifying thought, which is, of course, the point. -- "Of Maggots and Madonnas," c/o Clayton Cubitt

Sin stock report

I had a fun time yesterday interviewing the creator of Sin Stock Report.

Created by Aaron Hoos, a stock broker turned business and finance writer in Winnipeg, Canada, the outlet bills itself as “the only internet magazine focused exclusively on those stocks you DON’T want your mother to know about!”

[READ]

Bang

I had fun interviewing Lisa Looper about the super popular bra holster she created.

At this year’s NRA convention, men were interested, too. “There’ll be a big crowd of men standing around watching us demo,” she recounts. “I think at one point they think there’s going to be a flash, and it never comes. If you take boobs and guns and combine ‘em, there’s some sex appeal, whether you mean there to be or not.”

[READ]

One-armed mannequin

One-Armed Mannequin, Shanghai, China

Fashion blogger paparazzi

TAKE MY PICTURE from GARAGE Magazine on Vimeo.
I knew this scene had grown, but I had no idea it was like this. Staged. Peacocks. Preening.

[VIA]

Five days

   American Apparel, Chicago, Illinois
I'm doing a five-part series on my Forbes blog this week about how to get a freelance job in five days. Join me, won't you?

[READ]

Boxing

These pink boxing gloves look like the perfect gift for the stylish postfeminist.

Everlast Pink 12-oz. Protex2 Training Gloves, $44.99

Found here.

Bride of Frankenstein's monster

I found this crazy fashion photo on my favorite fashion blog, Fashion Copious.

The players: Harper's Bazaar China, Daphne Guinness, David LaChapelle. 

[MORE]

Chanel mannequin

Chanel Mannequin, Shanghai, China

Writing conference

Writing Conference, Macon, Georgia

Chihuahua

Chihuahua, Norfolk, Virginia

Fashion

I'll take twelve, please.

Winter

Snow Boots, Chicago, Illinois

Put a ring on it

I've been wanting to buy this ring for a year. It's Alexander McQueen's smoky crystal knuckle duster. In other words, it's couture brass knuckles with skulls and Swarovski crystals.

I almost bought it the day McQueen killed himself earlier this year, but didn't. When I was in the McQueen store in New York City last year, I tried it on, and loved it. The weight is phenomenal. But they only had it in gold, and I wanted the silver.

Also, it costs $550. I keep waiting to feel like I've done something good enough that I deserve it. Someday.

The boy who wore his heart on his sleeve

"Is it too late? she said. The boy’s face dropped. Late? he said. Too late to put it back? She nodded her head at the heart. Oh, the boy said, looking down at it. Slowly, the blood was seeping into his napkin. Soon, it would spill off the table and pool on the floor, making a mess. I don’t know, he said."

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Daniel Wakahisa, asking if I was interested in writing a piece of fiction for A Shaded View on Fashion Fiction. The project is an offshoot of A Shaded View on Fashion, which is helmed by Diane Pernet, who is something of a fashion icon. He said I could do whatever I wanted, only it should relate to fashion in some way.

Last week, I wrote the story, "The Boy Who Wore His Heart on His Sleeve." It took me about an hour. I had an idea of what I wanted to do. It was merely a matter of banging it out, polishing it, and sending it off.

I can't remember the last time I wrote a short story. It was a good refresher. It's something of a love story, but demented, as ever.

["The Boy Who Wore His Heart on His Sleeve"]

2010: A space odyssey

This weekend, I leave you with a 2010 space odyssey. It was created by Nowness, which is doing some really amazing things online and seems to be part of a web 3.0 movement in which luxe is everything, another example being the lovely Luxirare.

"Aanteni" stars supermodel Guinevere, takes place on "the deserted grounds of Paypal founder Elon Musk’s Space X jet lab in Hawthorne, California," and was shot by Todd Cole. The beauty wears Rodarte. It's about the promise of space, body as machine, and escapable wastelands.

"The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in." -- Heinlein

Your daily shoe porn

I may have quit Twitter, but I've resurrected a popular tidbit I used to do on it over at The Frisky, "Your Daily Shoe Porn." Basically, it's one hot/sexy/weird shoe of the day. Not a lot of text. Just you and the shoe. In case you're wondering, women like shoes because they will never make us ask you, "Do these make me look fat?"

Pictured here, Pleaser's bordello polkadots for $60, courtesy of Gala Darling.

If you're a girl who loves shoes, or a guy who loves girls in shoes, a few other of my shoe favorites:

Jak & Jil
The Shoe Girl
Sea of Shoes

I'm the style editor of my dreams (updated)

This week, the style editor at my job is on vacation, and so I have been asked to fill in for her, turning me into the fashion editor of my dreams, albeit but for a fleeting moment. To watch what I'm up to, check out the style section at The Frisky. I'll be the one in Rodarte.

Update: Fashion porn.

Update 2: ADR tells you how to pack.

Hey, it's fashion week

Did you know it's fashion week in New York City? True story. Photographer Lauren Greenfield made this odd video after visiting various fashion weeks around the world. You may recognize Greenfield for her Girl Culture series, which has become pretty iconic, or her HBO documentary on eating disorders, "Thin," or Fast Forward, which is about growing up Hollywood, and the cover of which always reminds me of Spencer Platt's World Press Photo of the Year 2006.

In any case, I don't quite get why Greenfield chose to edit the video the way that she did, breaking her shots into squares that blink on and off; mostly, it simply serves to fragment their beautiful cohesion. And that soundtrack is awful mopey; although, the grind has a strange appeal after a while. But if you keep watching, you do see her take on the strange bird that is the fashion industry. She really gets at the peacocking of it, that it is simply surreal to have girls that look like weeping willows parade around in 21st century bedazzled armor, while everyone looks on, fussing over how important it all is, what it all means.

At my day job, the style editor is going to be on vacation for a week, so I'll be the de facto style editor while she's gone. I'm really looking forward to it. Fashion is my pornography, my vehicle to escape, what makes everything else fade. Those glow-in-the-dark heels. Those blow-up doll lips. Those crystal ball effects.