Trailer for the documentary Bill Cunningham New York by Richard Press.
From Protein:
Cunningham’s candid photos have been documenting the New York fashion scene over the last 50 odd years for the Times Style section, and has no doubt influenced street-style snappers the world over. It took 10 of those years to make the film - 8 for Press to convince Cunningham to do it in the first place, and 2 to film and edit.
Source: vimeo.com
Swine Flu Style
Photo: Irina Blok
White surgical masks are so last week. Visual designer Irina Blok is proposing these decidedly unconventional alternatives.
Via blogs
Jewelry Designer Mana Bernardes
Mana Bernardes is a Brazilian designer whose mantra may as well be, “Reduce, Reuse, Rejewel”. Certainly, she is not the first person to incorporate banal objects into the world of fashion, but there is a level of simplicity and sophistication in her work that is surprising given her typical raw materials such as toothpicks, hair clips or PET bottles.
Although pricier elements like pearls are sometimes fused with humbler materials, there is little effort to mask the origins of the latter. In fact, it is by fully embracing the physical properties of the various bits of plastic, metal or glass that Mana creates original and striking designs which challenge our notions on the durability and intrinsic value of everyday objects usually destined to be discarded without hesitation.
From TOUCH:
Mana
Bernardes is a young jewelry designer, poet, and visual artist from Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil. Her interests and aptitudes in art and design
formed at an early age and continue to develop and transform. She
participated as “Design + Social,” organized by the Institute of PVC in
Rio de Janeiro, curated and produced the exhibition “Estampa de cada
Rosto” at Lurix Gallery in Rio and also exhibited “Fashion without
Frontiers” at Sao Paulo Fashion Week SPFW. In 2005, the Campana
brothers invited her to participate in the exhibition “J’en Rêve” at
the Cartier Foundation in France where she displayed an 8-meter mobile
and her video art piece, “Connecting through the Cord.” which was also
included in the commemorative exhibition of I.D. magazine.
Air Hostess Style
Photo: Wired.com
This might look like a poster for an Austin Powers movie but is actually an example of vintage Air Hostess Fashion.
From Wired:
From “sky girls” to “stews” to “flight attendants,” the story of the airline stewardess is an evolutionary tale. Originally established as an in-flight nursing corps, the earliest stewardesses also served as waitresses, baggage handlers and auxiliary ground crew. As commercial flying grew up, the role of the stewardess changed. Along the way, she reflected her time, evolving from novelty to workhorse to sex symbol, yet always serving with professional competence.
Kitty Cat Style
Want to sprinkle your favorite feline with a little Paris Hilton style? Now you can, courtesy of Kitty Wigs.
Via Gizmodo
Bag Borrow or Steal: Handbags Netflix Style
Bag Borrow or Steal is a cross between Netflix and a high fashion boutique. Just like Neflix, you setup your selection of items from the Bag Borrow or Steal web site, the first item on your list get shipped to you, and once you’re done with it you just mail it back to them. Once they receive the item, they automatically ship the next handbag on your list. Bag Borrow or Steal also gives you the option of purchasing a handbag if you wish. Monthly fees for members are $20 for the hip but lower priced items to a heart stopping $275 for their glitzy couture items.
The Perfect T-Shirt?
In this world of ever expanding blog fluff, of which I’m sure I contribute my fair share, it’s nice to see people aiming towards something positive and substantial, something which if taken far enough can bring about very significant social, economic and environmental changes. The Perfect T-Shirt is the brainchild of UK outfit Better Thinking, which strives to create, you guessed it, the world’s most perfect t-shirt. But creating the perfect t-shirt is not necessarily the end goal, rather, the t-shirt is used as a universal symbol of clothing that while seemingly innocuous in its simple nature, represents an enormous environmental and social cost which leaves vast room for improvement. Current methods of production for t-shirts involves large amounts of chemical processing, use of fossil fuels, expensive transport costs, non renewable cotton plantations and abusive labor practices to just name a few.
To this end The Perfect T-Shirt project examines every single element of the production chain, from choice of fabrics to methods of transport and distribution. It is a mind bending challenge, a mathematical equation of sorts, where modifying any part of the chain can result in dramatic changes further down the line. They note how cultivating organic cotton from West Africa can be an almost perfectly sustainable solution, as natural rainfall makes any kind of irrigation unnecessary. But what if a retailer in Japan wants to use that same cotton for its t-shirts? Will the heavy use of fossil fuels to transport that cotton offset the positive effect to West Africa’s environment and economy?
In a sense, The Perfect T-Shirt is aware that it may never find the answers to all the problems it is facing. But it does allow for a space where all types of questions can be raised, which hopefully will lead to concrete measures for better production techniques in the future.
