even gummier

u can knock Gummo all you want, but it's a good movie. and Chloe Sevigny did the wardrobe, making it great.

words like "disturbing", "unwatchable" and "new horror" are often used to describe it. well, there's something even worse: Trash Humpers, Korine's new film. if you don't want to see some real dirty birds losing their minds i don't suggest going to the NY film festival tomorrow. if you do, get me a ticket.

happy almost sorta halloween

dazed (and confused) digital is better than the paper version because there is SO MUCH STUFF uploaded everyday -- and its free. this "scrapheap" (discarded objects recycled into snazzy photo ops) challenge is also part of the new "Franken-fashion" print edition.

i don't like Chanel, but maybe i like Coco

Olive Oatman

was a Mormon teen captured by Yavapais, traded to Mohaves, and retraded back to Whites (arguably not of her own desire). existing in the mid-to-late 1800's as a tribally tattooed lady, she lived in Detroit for a few years! The Blue Tattoo, a new book by Margot Mifflin (author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo) is an engaging read of her life and legend.

yes, Pink

i like Pink. always have. really do. she's a thick white girl who has kept her oversized nose ring and femipop consistent. in the name of trying to drink less, i applaud her song and style.

put on your bedazzled quilted piecework asymmetrical tunic vest

and head on over to the annual American Sewing Expo in Novi (the Detroit suburb of suburbs of suburbs)

along with vendors selling multiple versions of the same mom patterns and tired DIYers showing you how to put 2 rectangles togethers to make a skirt (or tote bag!) there are also some cool things:

-Kenneth D. King
-Koos van den Akker
-Burdastyle
-Material Girls (one of few independent Detroit-area sewing stores, great vintage kimono and new africana fabric, and vintage repro patterns)
-a lingerie fitting workshop
-Threadbanger's Re-construction Zone

-The Baby Lock Passion for Fashion Sewing Challenge (Project Runway inspired, always a few great winning pieces on display)
...and last year there was an amazing fiber arts group exhibit, not sure if it's there this time around...

Shonibare's last Sunday

tomorrow at the Brooklyn Museum

Alhamdulillahi

Leon Bonnat, An Egyptian Peasant Woman and Her Child, 1869; aka, the most beautiful painting in the MET

her markings and dress look Bedouin (an ancient nomadic sect), much like this striking lady:



female chin tattoos are found all over the world in tribal communities. markings generally signify family line and social status, an instant visual between peoples who don't call one place home.

the perpetual influence of such "primitivism" is found in this week's debut of Rodarte's SS10:

Basquiat's New York

three great things about this film:
it's a "watch instantly" on Netflix
1981 was a great crossover year for art punk style
the Lower East Side in the 80s looks like Cass Corridor now


this post-mortem dramatization is nice too -- and you have to love Ms. World as she was when she was.

a black renaissance

the new kehinde wiley exhibit in new york

not to be confused with the old alexander melamid exhibit in detroit

SOA is SOL

Sons of Anarchy premiered its second season this week on FX (yes, i forgot it was a channel too).


it's nice seeing a classic heart-throb (Charlie Hunnam) with unstylishly unstyled long locks and a thick neck (no skinny jeans and colorful coy-fish forearms here, nope!)


Ron Perlman (Hellboy) is formidably sized enough to sorta pull off club president, but Katy Segal (Peg Bundy) really shines as his wifey. her clothes are always a little perfectly too tight, too low, too sheer; her novelty accessories from Hot Topic meets JC Penney; her skunky post-punk dye-job 5 years behind the time (unless you hang in certain east Detroit burbs) -- and she wears it all really well on a killer 50+ year old bod.


and HENRY ROLLINS debuts as a competitive white separatist, dapper in minimalist skinhead workwear.


despite the wardrobe department attempt to rough these guys up, they look pretty clean for the most part: shampooed hair, strategically placed tattoos, newish leather, good teeth, good skin. although a couple of the older dudes do appear to be real alcoholics. the youngish women who show up as extras in the rowdy "clubhouse" scenes actually look most authentic, with imperfect bodies, tackier attempts at trash glamour and glazed expressions. too bad you only see them for brief flickers between getting mock cunnilingus and just plain drunk with the boys. ah well.

Chelsea girl?

riding the L this weekend i noticed a lot of very pretty girls with very pretty half-shaved heads. then i opened Self-Service and saw model Alice Dellas:



i like the dramatic asymmetry, especially with long hair. and i like it because it's punky,


singer Cassie


singer Rihanna

sported by kinda cool popettes,



and has tougher roots



co-opted from Native Americans.

felt! felt! felt!

i found out about the fashioning felt exhibit at cooper-hewitt at the last minute and luckily got in to see it at the last minute.

felt goes back eight thousand! years and is a truly sustainable material. from start to finish felting is a relatively simple, low impact, and democratic process, still traditionally popular among the nomadic peoples of central asia -- who use it for rugs to booties to saddle bag flair. the exhibited contemporary artists use felt as a form for creatively utilitarian objects and a lot of wearables, to simply pretty ephemera.

an inspiring show of raw material and talent.

some of my favorite pieces, of course, were the dresses.


francoise hoffman: her shapes happen organically (nope, no sewing here), through fusing, often with fabrics like silk.

ps: a nice high felt blog

free headshots

The Walk-In Portrait Studio by Femke Lutgerink (interviews) & Corine Vermeulen-Smith (photography)

From Tuesday April 14th until Saturday April 18th, 2009 the Walk-in Portrait Studio on 13106 Klinger Street, Detroit, MI opened its doors from 11 AM - 5 PM. Inspired by the famous Walker Evens photograph of the License Photo Studio in New York we set out to create a studio on Klinger Street. The studio was set up in a formerly foreclosed house that is currently being renovated. Over the course of 5 days around 85 people came in to have their portraits taken. The next week the portraits could be picked up at the same location.


aida

jamal

rema

kawaun

renee

tina

willy

zana

good morning androgyny

lonely abundance, a puce moment indeed

if you've never seen this Kenneth Anger short

read
watch
go