Last weekend at Pacific Media Expo, we were blown away by the overwhelming representation of cuteness. From tea parties to purikura booths, the convention was brimming with all things adorable. Check out what we saw below.
Shannon Cottrell
9 comment(s) / Post a Comment
Shannon Cottrell Donna Ricci wearing the "Time Traveler's Corset" at Labyrinth of Jareth
Last summer, we bumped into neo-Victorian fashionista Donna Ricci at Labyrinth of Jareth and were taken by her corset. Known as the "Time Traveler's Corset," it's covered in newspaper print bearing headlines from the Victorian age to the mid-twentieth century. The unusual piece mixes with steampunk, dieselpunk and even modern outfits.
Liz Ohanesian
Last night's opening of Royal/T's Three Apples exhibition in celebration of Hello Kitty's thirty-fifth anniversary was a feast for the eyes. Filled with artwork, a Hello Kitty apartment display, an Airstream decorated Kitty-style by Cynthia Rowley and a pop-up shop, there would have been more than enough sugary visuals had LA's fashionistas not arrived in themed outfits. But, they did and we felt a bit inspired by the amount of creativity that went into their outfits. Take a look for yourself.
Reid Peppard makes accessories out of taxidermy. Like this, uh, guinea pig (?) hair comb. Peppard also makes rat bowties ("black leather bowtie with medium white rat head" and blue Swarovski crystal eyes) and rat medallions and rat coin purses and pigeon wing head pieces. The mouse cufflinks are so subtle they are almost wearable. Almost. Imagine shaking hands with the guy and seeing the little furry heads. And screaming.
Would you put this guy on your head?
What mouse?
The expression on this model says it all. I have two rats on my head...what?
The expression on the model says it all.
Tom Lenham, 39, is the man behind the blog GothsInHotWeather. He lives in London, but his subject matter is particularly relevant for those of us who live in Los Angeles, the city where goths go to burn in Hell.
All photos via GothsInHotWeather
Are you a goth?
As a youth, I dabbled in Goth. It was a more innocent time, a time when you could wear black clothes and makeup and not be mistaken for an Emo, or worse a Juggalo. I was very content as a Goth. I was different from the rest of the crowd. It didn't take long to realise that being content and being Goth were diametrically opposed...Ah, the irony!
All photos via GothsInHotWeather
When you see a goth in hot weather, do you laugh? Or do you cry for them?
All photos via GothsInHotWeather
Ten thousand dollar sunglasses. Seriously? Screw the real diamonds on his ultra "exclusive" $6,800 Jonny Vavas purple sunglasses. The best thing about these glasses is the douchetastic-ness of the guy in the photo wearing them--his pink lipstick, the twitchy half-smile. More from Mr. Lover-Lover here.
These are the ones that cost $10,500:
with yellow and pink sapphires
You often hear it said that in fires people die more from smoke inhalation than from actual fire. Consequently, a whole aftermarket of emergency fire escape smoke hoods has sprung up. The wildfires burning here in Los Angeles are making me wonder what's available in the realm of safety accessories. Specifically, smoke hoods. Have any of you tried any of these?
1. The ASE30A Fire Escape Smoke Hood
The family that wears smoke hoods together does not burn in hell together.
Who smells popcorn?
This one costs $69 bucks and looks like it was made by Jiffy Pop. Protects against carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, and anthrax. According to the company's website, and I kid you not, it "slips on like a Halloween mask." Furthermore, it is "designed for children 2 years old up to 120." Meaning, if you are an infant or the world's oldest lady, you are screwed.
View more photos in the "Vampire Con" slideshow.
These are things you should know when going to Vampire Con, or the convention dedicated to vampires. It happened this weekend at the Music Box Theatre along with Vampirella's Ball. It was the first event of its kind.
1. Wear black.
Duh. For women, this means long black gowns and gloves. For men, this means black top hats, Edwardian or Victorian suits, or anything you would see in a Mad Max movie.
2. Don't ask the bartender for blood.
I did. She offered me merlot instead. Then she offered me her neck.
There are two schools of thought in fashion consumption:
Five Los Angeles designers are featured: Annie Costello Brown, Gregory Parkinson, Jesse Kamm, Wren, and Clare Vivier. The work is amazing. I know "amazing" is an over-used word, but seriously. It's apropos in this case. The vintage lighting is from Empiric, the reclaimed wood shelves and tables are by local artist Tony Brown. Check out this nifty shelf, upon which Vivier's bags sit:
photography by Stefanie Keenan, courtesy Taylor De Cordoba Nice bags. Neat shelf.
The prices are reasonable for the exquisite workmanship. Plus, a portion of all proceeds go to P.S. Arts, a local non-profit dedicated to restoring the arts in public schools. Does that mean we can write off any purchases as a charitable donation? Now that would be amazing.
Happy Bastille Day! Are we back to shopping yet? If you're into stimulating the economy--and the Dauphine could have used that excuse had it been available to her at the time--here are some Antoinette-inspired items (from Etsy and other internet environs) for your consideration. The storming of the Bastille happened several years before she lost her head. It was the prelude to the end. She should have gotten the hell out of France. Oh well. Hindsight.
1. Hat with Gilded Ship
Okay, how crazy is this hat by TopsyTurvyDesign? It has a freaking ship on it. The woman who makes these hats, Kim Brown-Dye from Oakland, was featured on MTV. I don't know where you'd wear this hat. To church? To brunch? To the guillotine?
2. Let Them Eat Cake Poster
Supposedly, she never even said it. And if she did say it, she meant "brioche" not "cake." And if it was brioche, she only said it because she was ignorant. Apparently not a good trait to have if you, you know, rule a country. The quote came to be known as a symbol of the callous monarchy, who were oblivious of the starving masses. And on that note, this poster would look super cute in a kitchen.
Seriously, that's a lot of Barbie. I didn't know this existed until recently. It's the Barbie Worldwide Flagship Store. It's in Shanghai. There's a Barbie Spa, where you can get massages and facials. There's a Barbie runway. A Barbie Cafe on the top floor, where you can order Barbie-tinis, Barbie gelato, and who knows what else. The escalator is pink. You can buy Vera Wang wedding gowns and Patricia Field accessories and tiaras. The elevator looks like a big, pink, glowing vulva.
It's a little scary. And very, very pink.
You may have already seen this. Hell, you may have already done this. This girl has vowed to wear one dress for 365 days. (Actually, seven identical dresses for each day of the week.) There's a worthy fundraising component to "The Uniform Project," which you can read about here.
You can also donate your old accessories to her. She started last month. She's got a ways to go. Send her some socks?
Tim Burton's film adaptation of Alice In Wonderland isn't out until next year, but if the promo photos are any indication, it's going to be the most visually arresting, luxurious Alice yet. Here's a look at how new Alice stacks up against older Alices from a fashion perspective.
1. Alice
The new Alice is played by 19 year old Mia Wasikowska. From the looks of her outfit--a slightly-longer than tea-length gown, white booties, fingerless gloves--in this photo, the film will be returning to Alice In Wonderland's Victorian roots. Her dress resembles cartoon Disney Alice's frock, but owes more in feel and attitude to Arthur Rackham's haunting, Earthy vision of Alice. Also, I just noticed this, but look how chubby cartoon Alice's calves are compared to her arms.
Also glad that Wasikowska-Alice isn't a super-blonde blonde.
2. The Mad Hatter
Johnny Depp was all but born to play this role. Or rather, it's a role he's been playing for film after film after film now. Looks like he's a redhead in Tim Burton's flick. He's also way more psychedelic and frightening than either Sir John Tenniel's imagining of the Mad Hatter or Disney's portly, nebbishy Mad Hatter (who by comparison looks like he is on his way to a congressional hearing instead of a tea party). The pink sash around the hat and pink shirt peeping out from behind the wacky cravat are a nice touch. Why does pink on guys always connote crazy? I expect we'll be seeing a lot of this on Halloween and at cosplay conventions.
You'd think that in a recession, clothing stores would be ass out of luck. You'd be right. Unless you were talking about H&M. The new H&M opened at the fuddy-duddy Westside Pavilion this past weekend. Some 250 people waited in line for the store to open. The first 100 were rewarded with tee shirts and gift certificates (ranging from ten bucks to $100) for their patience. Then, all day, everyone who bought something got to pick out a free goodie from a range of items: a free umbrella, a calculator, a deck of cards, a pen, an organizer.
The Swedes know how to do cheap and popular. The line was out the door, past the mall entrance itself.
The new store is a shiny mega-boutique cutting through two levels of mall. People shopped steadily throughout the day, buying, I'm told, "everything." Whether that trend continues into the future remains to be seen.
She was thinking about this denim dress. Cute! To buy, or not to buy?
Oh. My. God. Look at these teeny tiny little fake food sculpture/jewelry thingies. Look at them. I cannot stop looking at them.
They are made by Stephanie Kilgast and are sold on her Etsy site here. "You will find very much miniature food jewelry on Etsy," she says, "but I guarantee the highest quality for mine and a realistic look! Due to my experience in miniature food for dollhouses, my items are better mastered than many others!"
The shrimp have eyes.
Would you wear these bizarre jewelry items made by Brooklyn artist Margaux Lange? They are made of chopped up pieces of Barbie dolls. They are plasticky, strange, cheerful, and just a bit creepy in a budding serial killer kind of way. I particularly enjoy the earrings made of ears. And the little dangling feet earrings. They are Dahmer-esque, in the sweetest possible way. (Dahmer, by the way, was the one who kept parts of his victims in the refrigerator. Ironically--after he was beaten to death by a fellow prison inmate--his brain is now being kept in a jar by scientists, for future study.)
A small pin costs around $70, a simple pendant necklace around $160, and a complicated multi-arm necklace around $495. Buy them on Etsy here.
Here we are, Day 14 of the Three Wolf Moon Shirt News Cycle and, yes, the dorkiest most magical-est white-trashiest tee shirt ever to go viral is still the unlikeliest number one-selling shirt on Amazon with over 800 reviews and counting.
For the backstory, go here to the Associated Press or here to the BBC. Or here, straight to the horse's mouth, to CollegeHumor.com, who brought the shirt (and wolves) to the planet's attention. So far, some 9,000 people have found random reviewer Brian Govern's original cheeky review to be "helpful." Many more have found it to be elitist and snarky. Still more have attempted to recapture lightning in a bottle with other shirts like this one, also by wolf-shirt-manufacturer The Mountain (who continues to rake in the cash at a rate of $15 times a hundred per hour), this time with kittens:
"Only ten kittens???" writes Danaful of North Branford, Connecticut. "When I wear clothes with kittens, I require a much higher kitten-per-inch-of-shirt count that you've offered here. Cannot recommend."
Other people have gone a step further (around the bend) and uploaded their own photos of the wolf shirt. Here are a few of the best ones.
In college, I knew a guy who only liked girls with glasses. Every gal to him looked better in spectacles. It didn't matter if she was pretty, ugly, old, young, short, tall, big or small--if she had prescription lenses, she became instantly 10 points hotter. Eventually, this guy became my boyfriend. When we first started going out, I had 20-20 vision. I worried that he wasn't attracted to me. "But I don't wear eyeglasses," I said.
"Not yet," he said.
Anyway, this latest offering in the world of sexy librarian chic fetishes, The Pretty Girls With Nerdy Glasses Appreciation Society, is sort of the fashion model version of that aesthetic. The girls are indeed pretty. Do the glasses make them more so? I'm not sure.
A random girl from The Pretty Girls WIth Nerdy Glasses Appreciation Society
The Moz's birthday is coming up in 2 days, you know. Perhaps you have a newborn who could use a new onesie. It's never too early to start your child on the right path.
Remember Judith Lieber? Her thousand-dollar Swarovski crystal-encrusted clutch purses were all the rage a decade ago or so. Her aesthetic is still raging hard in Las Vegas, mostly among the cougar set. Pictured here above (before the sales lady at the Bellagio, herself a cougar, politely stopped me from shooting any more photos) is the famous "world's most expensive cupcake" made popular by Sex and the City. One of the girls received said cupcake purse as a present.
While I was in Vegas this weekend covering the World Tea Expo (read the dispatches on Style Council's sister blog, Squid Ink), I saw plenty of this action above. Hand sanitizers dangling from little neon-colored rubber holders on peoples' purses and backpacks and belts. Who knew there was an aftermarket in swine-flu hand sanitizer products?
I suppose that if you carry a Louis Vuitton bag, it is not enough to carry a plain old bottle of Purell antibacterial gel. You must trick it out in some way.
In Obama fashion news, specifically first daughter Malia Obama fashion news, if you've been wondering what the presidential children wear while lounging around the White House, here's a sample. Malia was recently spotted in this "Argyle Plaid" turquoise and brown burn-out checkerboard hoodie from tween clothier ERGE. It's available for $65 here.
Girl in the hood: Malia Obama in ERGE hoodie
For all you people who thought Uggs were nuts, I see your fuzzy, oversized sheepskin moon boots and raise you a crazy, hilarious, decorated swine-flu surgical face mask. Graphic designer Irina Blok is doing a "limited edition" series of swine timely surgical masks, available for $10, plus shipping and handling. "This would make a good Mother's Day gift if they are ready in time... if your mother has a sense of humor about the situation," she writes. Proceeds go to charity to help fight the swine flu epidemic in Mexico. These are the options:
People in Mexico are clearly making lemonade from lemons. This photo (from AP) below, is making the rounds on the web. Click here to get to the Telegraph UK's full slideshow of the masks. It's good stuff.
AP via Telegraph UK
What do you do if you are edgy, avant garde, theatrical and in need of a nice, dark, gothy, neo-Victorian outfit? You're a bride, maybe, who wants a blood red gown, or a frothy black wedding dress. Options were few and far between until today. Now you go to Skingraft's couture atelier. The design trio known as Skingraft had the grand opening of their first retail store this Wednesday night. (They had one of my favorite shows at BoxEight's Fashion Week this year, too.)
Here they are: Katie Kay, Jonny Cota, and Cassidy Haley.
For those who saw our recent "Cobrasnake: Star Trek Dance Party" slideshow, you know that nightlife photographer Mark "Cobrasnake" Hunter -- a longtime Star Trek and JJ Abrams fan -- recently stormed the club circuit with a series of Trek-themed parties that featured photo booths, artist-designed limited edition T-shirts produced by RVCA, DJ sets by Steve Aoki and AM, A-Trak and Murs, and also saw people like Mr. Brainwash, Robert Rodriguez, André and H5 paint three-foot Enterprise models. Cobrasake's Trek parties went off worldwide in cities like Paris, Tokyo, London, Berlin, New York and, of course, Los Angeles. 
Mark "Cobrasnake" Hunter
If you missed the event in your city, you should be bummed, but you can still get your hands on 100 of those limited edition Star Trek T-shirts. Cobrasnake will be giving away the goods tomorrow (that's April 15, people) on his site thecobrasnake.com. So get on it before your hipster roommate takes the last one.
View more photos in the Cirque Du So Lame slideshow.
That's Mandy Ma in the photo above. This past Friday, she hosted another Zippercut event at Royal/T cafe called "Cirque Du So Lame." It was very well attended by clowns, harlequins, jesters, Gothic Lolitas, plain old Lolitas, tightrope walkers, ringmasters, knife throwers, carnies, people in tophats, people in fuzzy bear costumes, one bearded lady, and the actual Bob Baker and his marionettes. 
I didn't stay long enough to find out who won the costume contest, but this one worn by Michelle Nguyen was probably a serious contender. There is a carousel in her skirt, and it has little plastic animals, and it lights up, and how often can anyone say that about their outfit?
Back when I had discretionary income, I used to collect these Japanese dolls called Momoko dolls. Momoko dolls are the smaller-headed, more anatomically symmetrical cousins of the now well-known Blythe dolls (you may have seen Blythe in Target's recent Alexander McQueen ad poster campaign?).
Momokos are pretty and delicate and have the bodies of seventeen year old aspiring fashion models. They're like the indie, non-slutty versions of Barbie--smaller boobs, innocent unsmiling expressions, a greater variety of haircolors. They're also ten times more expensive.
1. A Word on Bathrooms: If you ever get a chance to pee in the Los Angeles Theater in historic downtown LA, I urge you to visit the Ladies' restroom. There, you will see this. It's way more impressive than I've managed to capture in the photo.
2. The Guests: Can you imagine these guys at Paris Fashion Week? If Vogue ever ran an issue of the magazine where this guy (in a kind of gimp outfit) was featured, I would buy a subscription. The lovely couple below attended the Skingraft show.
Sjobeck's dresses, Inspired by the designer's grandfather. For real.
Day 3. The final day of Boxeight shows. It's nice to see the two bohemian Taiwanese sisters who design The Battalion line are back and bohemian as ever. They showed at GenArt last year. This season, their theme is "The New World" (appropriately enough), and they're dressing women in French military coats, Lewis and Clark inspired cargo vests, sliced-up Pocahontas tunics and tricorner hats.
Everything is impeccably tailored. I mean, can those girls sew a bamboo jersey jodhpur-type stretch legging or what? Not a ripple or bumpy seam in sight. The materials are eco-friendly--the leather and fur is "veggie" leather and fur. Not killing animals for beauty is always a plus!
Some conversations about beauty are hilarious. "Do you see any little hairs on my face in this light?" the girl sitting behind me at the Sahaja show asked her friend. The Sahaja show, by the way, employed the hottest male models. Dark, beefy guys with bulging biceps, huge afros and eyeglasses. The rumply plaid shirts and cardigan sweaters remind me of items you'd pick up at the Gap--not necessarily a bad thing, where menswear is concerned--but then later on two guests raved about them. Raved. So, it just goes to show how subjective this stuff is.
 |
| Young model from the martinMARTIN show: She is 18 years old. |
Ah, Boxeight. It's messy in the best, most flattering sense of the word. As one reporter sitting next to me said, "Isn't it totally like the kids have taken over?" Yes, for sure.
This fashion event is rough around the edges and has a sense of humor about itself. That last bit alone puts it leaps and bounds ahead of most other fashion events I've been to. For instance, the DJ at the COA show is playing Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" ("36-24-36? Only if she's 5'3...my anaconda don't want none unless she's got buns hon"). I was waiting for the skinny girls to come out to fully appreciate the irony, but alas: COA is a mens' line.
