A pair of worn pointe shoes, wide satin ribbons neatly wrapped around the lithe legs of a ballerina, are a rare sight to be seen on New York City’s industrial wharfs. Photographer Dane Shitagi follows the routine of a ballet company in the Big Apple, photographing ballerinas dancing amidst iconic New York haunts. The New York City Ballerina Project juxtaposes the elusive behind-the-scenes life of a working ballerina with a stark and busy New York backdrop. Dane’s project includes a ballerina performing a graceful arabesque in the Meat Market, en pointe in Washington Square and donning a full tutu in an apartment in Queens. Taking ballet from the stage to the streets, each of Dane’s portraits explores the collaborative relationship between ballet, fashion and photography.
Fashion
To find extraordinary wigs and hair pieces that will put you at the top of the list in the glam rock hall of fame, find Charlie le Mindu. Le Mindu creates ’look at me’ wacky and eccentric hairpieces that are fascinating and hairy masterpieces. Charlie le Mindu, a name often murmured with the words artistic genius, invents groundbreaking millinery from his decadent pop up art salon in East London. First testing his quaffing skills on unsuspecting Barbie’s, le Mindu’s hairdressing attracts a rather colourful clientele, who come to the French man with the magical scissors. Illustrating that some hairdressers really do dream in technicolour tresses, le Mindu has created yeti like pieces, hiding faces under thousands of woolly strands. The outrageous hair costume extends a person’s hair to encompass the entire body, turning models into Cousin Its. It is one of the many imaginative costumes featured in Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour, where fans watched the singer bob on the dance floor like a blonde spider. The latest display of le Mindu’s talents saw models balance down the runway, teetering giant fawn lips on their heads, once again made of luxurious locks. Ensembles that are worthy of the Addams Family’s wardrobe, le Mindu proves that wigs can be a true extension of personal style. At only 22, le Mindu has many more furry visions to unveil.
Something in the chromosome of the majority of women pulls us towards shoes. It’s indescribable to the opposite sex, just as their fixation with cars is to us. This shoe desire really has a yo-yo effect on women though. If she finds the right pair she’s found a new heaven, if she’s bought a cheap pair she’s in blister, sweaty and smelly, hell. Shoes of Prey is the anecdote. The relatively new Australian company, (launched in October last year), offers women the chance to design their own shoes online. Your shoes are completely bespoke from colour to design – and when they’re ready they’re delivered to your door. The company offers a few different styles of high heels and the style-honoured ballet flat. Under the “Start Designing” section of the website, there’s a plethora of choices. It’s a fail-proof way of creating your next new favourite pair of shoes, and for a fairly affordable price (pimped up flats are around $195).
It seems that anything branded with a designer name can instantly become a chic fashion creation that avid fashion followers don shortly after the piece is released, proudly displaying their faithfulness to brands. But some items are up for question, even with their designer tag. Think traditional style clogs, which are attempting a resurgence. Fake transfer tattoos are most likely reserved for fancy dress occasions or for 12 year old rebels. Despite tattoo transfer’s absence from the fashion world, Chanel has released a line of faux tattoos as part of their Spring 2010 line. Already in high demand, the debate still remains on whether Chanel has been able to transform the cheap to the chic. Body art and accessories is not a new concept in fashion, and elaborate make-up and embellishments feature in runway shows and international campaigns. However, how does this translate to the real world? For those obsessed with fashion’s elite, branding your body with luxury labels is not unheard of, in fact, some have permanent versions. Really. One voguer commented that she ‘is so consumed by Chanel, she would shamelessly glue the tattoo on her forehead.’ While the tattoos may look best on more appropriate body parts, it does seem a little funny thinking about ladies of luxury sticking on tattoo transfers. But for those who flirt with the idea of getting a tattoo, perhaps this is a painless choice, safe guarded from regret. It is Chanel after all.
When it comes to silver-haired style, the fashions of New York’s most stylish young at heart are cheerfully captured by Ari Seth Cohen’s shrewd lens on his blog Advanced Style. Ari and his contributors snap New York’s older fashionable folk in their everyday outfits, and their natural beauty, confidence and innate sense of style beam through in every shot. The blog visually documents the fashions of wise-looking gentlemen in the sharpest of tweed coats, cheekily peering from behind tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles, elegant ladies sporting bold haircuts complemented by the most exquisite textured jackets. Ari’s blog will be an educative investment to add to any browser’s bookmark tab, especially as the weather warms up in the Big Apple and the photos reveal the outfits beneath the fashionable winter coats.
A fragrance, once registered on the senses, can linger forever in the memory. It might evoke the warmth
of a grandmother’s affection, a yearning for a lost or unrequited love, or a fondness for an old friend. For every bottle of perfume made, a million memories are thus created – moments shared, hearts broken and adventures had. For Nick Smart, co-director of boutique fragrance emporium Libertine Parfumerie, herein lies the magic. For the shelves of his boutiques in West End and New Farm are not simply lined with bottles of perfume. They contain distinct moments in history – be it Grace Kelly’s wedding or Napoleon’s fervour for violets (and Josephine) – captured in liquid form as divine fragrances that allow such moments to remain eternal. (more…)
In the eyes of world-renowned milliner Stephen Jones, hats are the punctuation of fashion. Like a shrewdly positioned comma, a hat can bring a whole new meaning to a couture ensemble that never before existed. In a career spanning almost three decades, Stephen has provided the punctuation for fashion’s elite (including John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo) with his millinery creations gracing the world’s most coveted catwalks, and he has also created hats for personalities such as Boy George and Kylie Minogue. Most recently, the talented milliner has channelled his talents and passion for hats into an exhibition for London’s V&A Museum, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones, which will take up residence at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art from March 27. (more…)
She can pair a long black Wayne Cooper gown with Converse Shoes for a formal event. She carries off a pom-pom on her head, as though it’s normal. Her clothes may even strain your retina at times, with the intensely bright colours and patterns fused together.
If you swim in the ‘fashion’ circles of Brisbane, the name “Suzi Vaughan” would be familiar to you. If not, let me introduce you to the eccentric, yet exceedingly polite 6ft-1 tall fashion designer and academic. In the 80’s she was stopped on the streets in London because people thought she was Boy George. That was when she was a fashion student at Central Saint Martins, with Hamish Bowles (now the European Editor at large for American Vogue) as a friend, and with John Galliano in the year above her. She has worked in London, Hong Kong, and is now in Brisbane, educating up and coming great designers; including Gail Reid from Gail Sorronda who was a recent graduate. (more…)
There’s only so much fashion designers can do for one head, two arms and two legs. We’re used to seeing ‘new’ trends emerge and remembering the last era they came from. So, it’s not often you come across a piece where your eyes sparkle with the sensation of seeing something fresh. This shoe may look more like the foot of a predator, than that of a fashion-forward female. Check out Alexander McQueen’s latest collection for some creative design inspiration.
It’s been six years, but Brisbane duo Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, better known as fashion cool-kid sass & bide, have made their return to London Fashion Week in spectacular style. Embellishment was the look du jour with much of the collection revolving around heavily studded, sequined and beaded dresses, leggings and tunics. Bad news for those wishing for an end to the unforgiving harem pant, they will be back over the summer, this time in a shorter, looser style. The Spring/Summer 2010 collection has been well received, even touted as their “best”, an amazing result for the girls flying the flag for Australian style.
Scott Schuman, no doubt one of the original street style bloggers, has turned his fashion blog The Sartorialist into book-form. The book, also titled The Sartorialist, is a collection of Schuman’s best and favourite photographs from his blog, which documents his encounters with the style-savvy around the world. While Schuman’s style preference has been poked fun at, his ability to find elegance and cool in everyday people (regardless of age, sex or race) and capture people’s confidence in their own style (no matter how unconventional their look is) is really what sets The Sartorialist apart from the many street style blogs out there. Due for an Australian release in late September, The Sartorialist is sure to be the most eclectic and inspiring book on your coffee table. Schuman was also recently in Australia to shoot a campaign for Saba denim with models hand-picked off the streets of Melbourne by the man himself. Image via The Sartorialist.
Photographer Todd Selby, who has made an art of capturing the work and living spaces of some of the world’s most intriguing and creative people, has most recently set his sights on the studio of French fashion house Lanvin. With Lavin Homme head designer Lucas Ossendrijver as his primary subject, Todd’s latest collection of photos provides an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse into the iconic fashion brand and its talented animateur.
Delicately toeing the line between pure trash and pure genius, comes Rollasole – the saviour to every girl’s party-weary feet. Available in select nightclubs in the UK, Rollasole vending machines dole out sparkly ballet flats for girls who have spent the evening dancing and can’t bear to walk another step in their high heels. But could you bring yourself to purchase your footwear from a vending machine?
Proving that beauty can be found and created with the most mundane of materials, 28-year-old Ali Forbes has taken out the eighth annual International Talent Support (ITS) award for interactive design with her collection of eclectic and chaotic jewellery made from layers of metal. The winning pieces – described as unisex, modular and mechanical with a touch of rock and roll – have catapulted Forbes onto the international design scene. With a utilitarian approach to materials (favouring industrial products such as steel), the final products are whimsical and striking with a regal quality.
Knowing what you want to do with your life is hard. Finding your dream job is even harder. If your dream career involves fashion and New York, then achieving your goals has been made that wee bit easier. A foundation has been set up, aptly titled The Australians in New York Fashion Foundation, which is designed to connect young Australians with their dream jobs in New York through scholarships and work experience. Set up by successful fashion ex-pats, such as Laura Brown, Malcolm Carfrae, Rob Newbould and Antony Todd, the AiNYFF is sure to open many doors for aspiring fashionistas.
Times, they are a changing. Pictured above is a message to models about to strut their stuff for the Givenchy Fall/Winter 2009-10 Haute Couture show in Paris. So while nourished models might be making a comeback, the customary over-the-top extravagance of the haute couture collections seems to be out of fashion. Over the past few weeks, the world has seen a much more reserved and subdued showing from the top designers, so much so that the Christian Dior collection did away with pants and skirts!
Via Treehugger: Do Uranus jokes ever get old? With a tagline ‘Help save planet earth, starting with Uranus’, Uranus Apparel instinctively appeals to our inner 12 year-old as well our mature and environmentally concerned activist side. Uranas Apparel is made from the byproducts of soy foods, which would otherwise be thrown away. The soy panties come in beige, black and moss green and are packaged in a biodegradable burlap drawstring sack.
G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) is a lifestyle company on a quest to identify Hong Kong culture and promote and preserve it’s uniqueness. GOD is the phonetic sound of the Cantonese “to live better”, and the stores are filled with books, furniture, clothing and housewares. It creates and sells products that have a modern twist on traditional Chinese items, and some of their best products give the sense that the designers are sharing local “inside jokes” with you.
If there’s something to be said for ‘normalising’ ideas the more we talk about them, then Brisbane curator and publisher Monique Van Dijk wants to chat in lengths about depression in women. She’s just announced the call-out campaign for her Blue Like You e-book project and is calling for 100 brave women aged 15 to 35 and living with depression to tell their stories in a candid way and match their words with real names and photos. It sounds pretty daunting but Monique will be part of the project too because she’s dealt with depression for more than five years, and she’s not alone – depression is now the third most common cause of illness in women. She’s ready to talk about it now but for a long time she pretended everything was fine, even to her closest friends and her family. ““I finally got to the point where I realised that dealing with it by myself just wasn’t working,” Monique points out in her Blue Like You call-out. “For me, seeking professional help was hideously confronting but it definitely worth it. It was such a relief to talk about my depression and actually discover how common it is. I used to think that I was abnormal, weak and lazy but I have learnt that acknowledging mental illness doesn’t mean there is something wrong with me, in fact it has allowed me to feel OK about myself for the first time in years.” The more Monique talks about it, the more she finds other women sharing their stories and feeling a huge burden lifted by just being honest about their experiences. If you’re ready to help lead the way to making depression as commonly discussed as gluten allergies and knee reconstructions, then now might be the time to tell your story. The website will be up and running soon so stay tuned for more details but in the meantime you can get in touch by emailing monique.vandijk@mac.com
With each opening of a new door, fresh and exciting opportunities appear. For Honia Lipinski, she may have just crashed through the door that contains her dreams. Recently winning the talent discovery, The Bubble presented by General Pants Co., Honia will now be commissioned to have her work published in well known magazines, displayed in the highly recognised clothing store, General Pants and have her very own exhibition supported by mentors of The Bubble. Having competed against hundreds of photographers, writers, artists in all mediums, filmmakers, musicians, designers and graphic designers, it is clear that Honia has the support of the artistic community to take her photography to the next level. (more…)
