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by Marissa Gaines on
Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:15 PM
Some Gaga stuff happening outside Barneys.
It’s holiday shopping season and what better way to get into the giving buying spirit than with Lady Gaga-inspired tchotchkes? As if the pop superstar weren't already sufficiently ubiquitous, she has now taken over an entire floor of Barneys New York, all 5,500 square feet of it. The journey into Gaga’s Workshop begins outside Barneys’ doors (above) and continues throughout the ridiculous and exotic interior.
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by Mike Conklin on
Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 9:50 AM
While most of us were sitting around writing about books and records and movies and other primarily solitary pursuits, a bunch of our photographers, as well as dedicated writer Brianna Affen, were out there taking part in the craziness of Fashion Week. We even convinced Sydney Brownstone to film the Williamsburg Fashion Weekend thing at 285 Kent on Friday, and this is a person whose Twitter bio reveals that her primary interest is "play[ing] folk instruments in a windowless room." Now that we've finally seen all their coverage in one place, jeez, we're actually really proud of it. Check it out here.
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by Lauren Beck on
Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 2:39 PM
I have no idea why this exists, and I kinda wish it didn't, but I suppose you shouldn't second-guess Jay-Z. He apparently thought the world needed to see a who's who of supermodels lip-sync to "Empire State of Mind" in honor of Fashion Week, so he got a who's who of supermodels to lip-sync to "Empire State of Mind" and posted it on his website, Life + Times. The New York Observer took it a step further, creating a rolodex of nearly every model that appears in the clip and some of the recent campaigns you might recognize them from. I just clicked through all 22 slides and now feel great about my thighs. You try!
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by Jonny Diamond on
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 4:19 PM
We had the pleasure of interviewing Brooklyn hipster-hop phenomenon Theophilus London for our sister publication Brooklyn Magazine—he was smart and funny and he danced with our art director, Crystal Gwyn (somewhere there is video). Anyway, you should go read his great interview here...
In the meantime, he'll be releasing his very own shoe tonight (7pm, 128 Prince St.), in Soho, at the Cole Haan store, called the Theophilus Blue Suede Buck (which comes with a Theophilus 10", a cover of Nat King Cole's "Calypso Blues"). T.L. will also be DJ'ing! So that should be fun. SHOES!
Hipsters are roaming the campus, which is in DUMBO.
This viral video (embedded below) having something to do with "the NYU Reality Show" and this Kickstarter project for a short film about root beer purports to pertain to the prevalence of hipsters on college campuses, but was filmed here in DUMBO where there is not a single college campus.
More opportunities than ever to see these savage beauties.
In what may be a scheme to boost its numbers past Jeff Koons on the Roof to all-time attendance record-setting status, the Metropolitan Museum's retrospective of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty, has had its hours extended again—previously the closing date was pushed back one week to August 7, and Monday hours were added for a steep fee—during the show's final two or so weeks.
Since it opened nearly two months ago on May 4, the Metropolitan Museum's retrospective of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty, has attracted over 350,000 visitors, surpassing the scores who shuffled into a hugely popular 2005 exhibition of Van Gogh drawings, but putting the blockbuster fashion exhibition not quite on pace to beat Jeff Koons' 2008 rooftop sculpture show—at least not in terms of total attendance numbers.
BeardsFromBelow.org, the non-profit branch of the presumably bankruptcy-destined for-profit enterprise BeardsFromBelow.com, is not nearly so Brooklyn-dominated as you would expect a site of user-submitted photographs of shaggy facial hair shot from a low angle to be. That said, I'm fairly certain I found a photo of Brooklyn resident and L Mag editor-in-chief Jonny Diamond's beard on there—whoever figures out which one might be Mr. Diamond gets a free beard. (TheDailyWhat)
We first heard about it last December, and now it's time for the Brooklyn Flea to step out for the spring and summer: Sunday (not Saturday, as reported in the Brooklyn Paper) will mark the weekend shopping destination's debut on the Williamsburg waterfront. The Flea will take up the waterfront lot along the East River between North 6th and North 7th Streets every Saturday from April 3 through November 20.
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by Tom Sullivan on
Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Times fashion photographer cum cultural anthropologist Bill Cunningham, a sprite-like octogenarian, is arguably one of the most fascinating documentary subjects in recent years. And his New York, one of beautiful creatures and equally beautiful clothing, comes alive in Bill Cunningham New York, an appropriately intimate film about the elusive man himself. (It's currently held over on two screens at Film Forum.)
It’s impossible not to notice the film’s gaping lack of tension and conflict, largely consisting as it does of surveillance-esque footage of Cunningham doing his thing: shooting photos of Manhattan’s finest sidewalk fashionistas like a bubbly papparazo. But the spectacle of Cunningham doing everything from run into traffic to hiding behind flowerpots to get that perfect shot is sufficiently fascinating to behold.
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by Briana Affen on
Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Fashion designer and part-time chef Mina Stone might be perfect. She uses only natural fabrics for her collection, and she even finds a way to incorporate her cooking into her clothing: the silk pieces are dyed with lentils and rice, which give the pieces texture and depth while retaining their natural beauty. Mina is humble but hopeful, sweet but genuine—and ridiculously talented.
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by Lauren Beck on
Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 10:38 AM
I have been in search of the perfect backpack since 1998. A needle-in-a-haystack find that's not too big, not too small, durable, washable, in a color that that's neither boring nor too loud, with zippers that don't get stuck after a month's worth of use, that makes carrying a laptop not lead to back surgery, and that doesn't cost more than $50. This could be a very big day. For you too, if you've been on a similar mission to find a a scarf, a new graphic t-shirt, a geometrically patterned dress, or just aren't into paying full price for things. The socially responsible, presumably made-in-Brooklyn, Urban Outfitters-meets-J. Crew lifestyle brand Brooklyn Industries will be offering "rock bottom prices" today through Saturday at their sample sale in their as-yet-unopened storefront digs in the former Mikey's Hook-Up space on 70 Front Street in Dumbo. The early bird gets the worm with these types of things — doors open at 11am, close at 8pm — so may I suggest an extended lunch break today? Just lay off my backpack. RSVP to pr@brooklynindustries.com is suggested.
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by Briana Affen on
Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 4:32 PM
The Future: very bright.
Planet C & B has glow in the dark jewelry, gorgeous twins, mysterious pink drinks, funky sunglasses, and, oh yeah, free manicures. The creative vision of accessories designers Coco and Breezy has never disappointed in the past, and last night their record remained intact. Models resembling gorgeous aliens were decked out in blue lipstick, neon necklaces and bracelets, and the signature sunglasses that the two ladies made famous.
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by Briana Affen on
Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 1:53 PM
If you can somehow imagine Lydia from Beetlejuice heading to a party at Studio 54, then you can imagine the perfection that is Leila Shams’ Fall-Winter 2011 collection. At the Chelsea Room, Shelia E. and Michael Jackson tunes played while models stood in place wearing sequined minidresses, feather vests with showstopping gowns in rich colors, and every girl had black lipstick to complete the look.
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by Briana Affen on
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Any fashion insider can tell you that backstage before a show is when all the chaos happens. Between makeup, hair, late models and last minute wardrobe changes, there’s never a dull moment. But this isn’t Armani or Calvin Klein at Lincoln Center; it’s something much more groundbreaking. The twentyten is the brainchild of three Pratt graduates, Jeff Dodd, David J. Krause, and Nina Zilka. See our full slideshow of their fall/winter collection after the jump.
Yesterday the internet learned, with no small measure of delight, that multi-platinum recording artist and notorious ridiculousperson Kanye West had procured a custom-made, $180,000 gold watch, the face of which features, what else, Kanye's face in 8 karats of yellow, black, brown and white diamonds. It reportedly took New York-based custom watch-maker Tiret over five months to create the jewel-encrusted portrait. Absurd as Kanye's purchase may seem, following the rap logic by which one adorns oneself in platinum and diamond-encrusted effigies of the things one worships (money, cars, microphones, guns, etc.) then clearly any self-aggrandizing rapper worth his shine should be wearing his own bejeweled image. Here are a few who followed through.
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by Jonny Diamond on
Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Sometimes living in Brooklyn reminds me of living in Canada. We get just a little too excited when some perceived "mainstream" media source pays attention to us. Hence my excitement at watching this Style.com video of Alexa Chung willowing through Williamsburg. Yeah, sad, I know.
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by Jonny Diamond on
Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Housing Works rules. They may just be our favorite charity in the city (c'mon, you can buy supercheap books, clothes, furniture, all for a good cause: fighting AIDS and homelessness). So, every year they have a big ol' fashion bazaar bonanza in which over a million bucks worth of stuff goes on sale for 50-70 percent off. It's all about the deals, people. We sent videographer extraordinaire Emmanuel Cruz to check it out.
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by Mark Asch on
Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 1:29 PM
"Men were asking for shirts with slimmer cuts—even in the Midwest. 'You're telling me guys are asking for slimmer shirts,' Drexler said. 'Slimmer shirts: that's where the puck is going. Get ready to launch slim shirts. All a guy needs to hear is, Slim shirts are in. The New Slim. If we were in the doughnut business, it would be like selling glazed doughnuts." -"The Merchant," Nick Paumgarten's profile of J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, The New Yorker, 9/20/10
We've always looked to advertising for instructions in how to play the part of the person we want to be. This is especially true for something like shaving products: laden as they are with all sorts of father-son baggage, and walking a tricky line between man's-manliness and ladies'-manliness, their advertisements have ever tried to appeal to our sense of what, exactly, "manliness" is. And that seems to be changing, as it does every so often.