Archive Category: Fashion

How to Put Your Jeans On

(YouTube link)
This beats laying on the bed to get them zipped up anytime! -via Arbroath

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Skittles Wrapper Prom Dress

Craftster user Theperilouspopsicle decided to make her own prom dress out of … Skittles candy wrappers!

stats:
15 hours
101 skittle wrappers.

a very cool thing about this project is that i posted ads on craigs list for wrappers and people actually sent me quite a few!

oh and yeah, turns out i dont actually like skittles..only the red ones. and after this project i dont think i’ll ever want skittles again (i had my friends eating most of them…hey! it was like a recycling AND a feed the hungry project)

And apparently, being the Skittles girl made her into the Belle of the Ball:

Prom went really well, my dress was a total hit and tons of people stopped to talk to me and take photos. Even during afterparty when i disguised myself in a tshirt and jeans there were still people running up to talk to me/ ‘omg thats the skittles girl!’. So all in all it was a great night, and the dress was definitely a success…now i wonder what i’ll make next seeing as i want to do more unconventional material work.

Link - Thanks Candy Addict!

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Shy Child plays Musical Chairs live

New York-based band Shy Child plays a game of musical chairs on-stage live with fashion models at the Fashion Rocks 2007 exhibition. Cool band, cool tune, cool video. YouTube.

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The Hannah Montana Photo Controversy

A controversy had erupted over the photo of the 15-year-old teen superstar Miley Cyrus (better known as Hannah Montana):

One photo shows Cyrus topless but clutching a sheet to her chest, her bare back exposed, looking toward the camera over one shoulder.

A caption alongside the photo reads: "Um, was Cyrus — or Disney — at all anxious about this shot?" It then quotes Cyrus as saying: "No, I mean I had a blanket on. And I thought, ‘This looks pretty, and really natural.’ I think it’s really artsy."

The photos were taken by Annie Leibovitz, a renowned photographer known for her portraits of celebrities.

The magazine refers to the "topless but demure portrait" as Leibovitz’s idea and quotes Cyrus as saying, "It wasn’t in a skanky way … And you can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy dog look and you’re like, ‘O.K.’"

A Disney Channel spokesman, Patti McTeague, said in a statement on Sunday that the photos were meant to sell magazines.

"Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines," her statement said.

My respect for Annie Leibovitz, an accomplished photographer known for her portraits of celebrities, had just gone to zero. I’ve never had any respect for Vanity Fair. Ugh.

Link | DListed has the controversial pic (I think it was yanked off the Vanity Fair website) - Thanks Geekazoid!

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Chastity Belts Making a Comeback in Indonesia

[Live Leak video]

To combat prostitution, many massage parlors in Indonesia are requiring masseuses to wear … chastity belts!

Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times wrote this interesting report:

Chastity belts, which went out of fashion with knights in shining armor and damsels in distress, are making a comeback in the massage parlors of East Java.

In a bid to prevent any hanky-panky between masseuses and their clients, several massage parlors in the hill resort town of Batu are insisting that the women wear padlocks across the zippers of their work pants.

Franky Setiawan, owner of Doghado Massage Parlor, says he came up with the idea when men "bombarded" his staff with demands for sex after local authorities shut down the town’s brothels. In recent years, conservative Islamic values have gained influence in a society that has long enjoyed liberal freedoms, such as easy access to alcohol, gambling and the sex trade.

"We had a hard time rejecting this kind of client because they try over and over and over again, persuading our workers with their dangerously sweet words," Setiawan said by phone this month from Batu, explaining that he wanted his 14 masseuses to feel safe and morally upstanding, while protecting the massage industry’s image.

Not everyone’s happy about it, though:

But Meutia Fardia Hatta Swasono, minister for women’s empowerment in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, calls the return of the chastity belt an affront to all women.

"It is not the right way to prevent promiscuity. It insults women as if they are the ones in the wrong," she told reporters this month. "It is not that we oppose the administration’s effort to uphold morality, but the problem is their way of treating masseuses as if they’re all committing prostitution."

Link

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$300,000 Watch That Doesn’t Tell The Time

Clever: Designing a luxury timepiece
Very Clever: Incorporating pieces of the sunken Titanic - what a gimmick!
Genius: It doesn’t even tell the time … and sells out within 48 hours of its launch at $300K a piece!

Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome’s newest watch, "Day & Night," made from oxidized steel salvaged from the Titanic, doesn’t tell the time. Oh, it has two complex tourbillons (devices that counteract gravity and other perturbing fource that affects the accuracy of the watch) all right, but the watch can only tell whether it’s day or night:

The company’s chief executive, Yvan Arpa, cited statistical studies to explain how the watch better reflects the time-philosophy of today’s wealthy.

“When you ask people what is the ultimate luxury, 80 percent answer ‘time’. Then when you look at other studies, 67 percent don’t look at their watch to tell what time it is,” he told Reuters.

He added that anyone can buy a watch that tells time — only a truly discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.

And here’s the best part: The watch sold out within 48 hours of its launch.

Link - via digg

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Kid’s Pimp Halloween Costume and Other Bizarre Toys

This. Is. Just. Wrong…. Behold the Pimp Suit Halloween costume and, of course, the accompanying costume for mom.

For more bizarre toys and products for kids, check out the list at Cole’s Toys blog: Link - Thanks John Hobby!

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Shoes are Ruining Our Feet

Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa compared the feet of people from different cultures plus 2,000 year old skeletons. The skeletons had the healthiest feet (at least when they were alive), followed by the modern population that normally goes barefoot.

“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.

Walking barefoot may be best, but it’s difficult to do in the modern world. Designers are working on shoes that have less padding, fewer features, and simulate the act of walking barefoot. New York magazine looks at this and other ways we can learn to walk healthier. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Tom Schierlitz)

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CNN Headline Shirts

CNN is now selling t-shirts with their headlines on them. As of right now, it’s pretty simple to make up your own headline. They’ll probably get that fixed pretty soon. Link to CNN store. Link to this shirt. Link to another great one. -via YesButNoButYes

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Trivia: Origin of the Class Ring

The tradition of the class ring began in 1835 at West Point.

Members of the United States Military Academy at West Point class of 1835 designed their own rings, which were purchased privately and made to order for the individuals. (Source)

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Top Secret Military Black Programs Have Spiffy Patches!

Many military programs are "black" or so top secret that they appear only as a single line item in the Department of Defense’s expense report.

But just because they’re secret, it doesn’t mean that they are without style or a sense of humor. Photographer Trevon Paglen has stumbled upon a strange way of documenting these black ops: each and every one of them has wonderfully strange military patches, the kind worn on uniforms:

“It’s a fresh approach to secret government,” Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said in an interview. “It shows that these secret programs have their own culture, vocabulary and even sense of humor.”

One patch shows a space alien with huge eyes holding a stealth bomber near its mouth. “To Serve Man” reads the text above, a reference to a classic “Twilight Zone” episode in which man is the entree, not the customer. “Gustatus Similis Pullus” reads the caption below, dog Latin for “Tastes Like Chicken.”

Military officials and experts said the patches are real if often unofficial efforts at building team spirit. [...]

Trevor Paglen, an artist and photographer finishing his Ph.D. in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, has managed to document some of this hidden world. The 75 patches he has assembled reveal a bizarre mix of high and low culture where Latin and Greek mottos frame images of spooky demons and sexy warriors, of dragons dropping bombs and skunks firing laser beams.

“Oderint Dum Metuant,” reads a patch for an Air Force program that mines spy satellite images for battlefield intelligence, according to Mr. Paglen, who identifies the saying as from Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor famed for his depravity. It translates “Let them hate so long as they fear.”

Wizards appear on several patches. The one hurling lightning bolts comes from a secret Air Force base at Groom Lake, northwest of Las Vegas in a secluded valley. Mr. Paglen identifies its five clustered stars and one separate star as a veiled reference to Area 51, where the government tests advanced aircraft and, U.F.O. buffs say, captured alien spaceships.

And now, Trevor has published photographs of these military black ops patches in a book, aptly titled "I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me," which itself is a translation of a patch for a Navy black project.

Link: NY Times Article by William J. Broad | Trevor’s website - via Kuro5hin

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More Catwalk Mishaps

You probably think I find these clips funny as per my previous post, the fact of the matter is, I don’t. I just feel sorry for these models. I cringe every time I see them trip or fall. Set designers ought to work on the stages and make them safer for the models. And it’s not just the runways that are problematic, just look at some of those ridiculous shoes.

Link: YouTube

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Real Men Wear Kilts

Real Men Wear Kilts is a website with information on how to wear a kilt, news about kilts, links to vendors, and a member registry with pictures.

I have long felt that there was a desperate need for a website devoted to the WEARING of the kilt, not merely the sales of highland wear, kilts, sporrans, etc. To be certain, there are definitely sites detailing the history of the kilt, how to wear the kilt, etc., but not one that celebrated the wearing of this simple but somewhat controversial fashion.

I love to see a man wearing a kilt! Link -via the Presurfer

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Excessory Baggage: The Dog Bag by Meryl Smith

Carrying a little dog in your bag is so 2007. This year, the haute couture is combining the two directly!! Behold the Excessory Baggage, a wry commentary/art by Meryl Smith:

The Honey Space, a usually unattended "no-profit" gallery in a Chelsea warehouse, asked 5 curators to select artists to create works that meet the size and weight requirements of international carry-on luggage. Perhaps inspired by Vuitton’s nineteenth-century origins as a maker of upscale traveling cases, Meryl Smith combined leather, papier-mache, gold paint, and a (fake?) LV zipper to create Excessory Baggage. Yes, models and actresses are still accessorizing with little dogs, but why try to smuggle your barking purse pup through security when you could settle for convenient faux taxidermy instead?

Link - via Animal

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“Clockpunk” Ring

Acanthusleaf Design Studio created this ring based on a Diana Scarisbrick’s book Historic Rings. In a closed position, it looks just like any other ring, but then you can "open" it up to look like a celestial globe:

This should probably be described as clockpunk because the original is early 17thC, but it has that totally industrial 19thC look, especially when closed. The original was gold, of course, but I’ve made this prototype in brass, riveted with silver, because that’s what I had in convenient sizes of sheet and wire. We cannot wait around for sheet metal when obsessed, now can we?

Link - via Brass Goggles

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Catwalk Mishap

At the end of a fashion show, a fashion promoter falls through the catwalk and obviously hurt herself. But watch the second guy who runs to the rescue.

Link: YouTube

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The Dimple Machine

Ladies! Want some beautiful dimples that nature has forgotten to give you? Fret not: check out this invention by one Isabella Gilbert:

The device consists of a face-fitting stpring carrying two tiny knobs which press into the cheeks.

From the Oct 1936 issue of Modern Mechanix

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Phony Shirt to be Manufactured

Think Geek displayed an April Fools Day ad for a product that didn’t exist. The Personal Soundtrack Shirt has a built-in speaker and can play various mood themes to make your real life as dramatic as a movie. The item proved to be so popular that they are now scrambling to produce a real shirt!

Looks like we’re the fools here. The Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt was originally an April Fool’s Prank… but due to overwhelming positive response and hundreds of e-mails screaming to “make the damn shirt already” we’re putting this item in to production ASAP. Keep in mind our army of robotic factory monkeys are a bit slow, and it might take them some time to make the real version of this nifty product. Also although we’ll try to keep the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt as close as possible to what you see here, the final version might deviate slightly in appearance, features or price. Capiche?

No word as to when it will be available, but you can sign up for an email notification. Link -via Geek Like Me

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Placenta Beauty Products

People will do anything to look younger and more attractive, including eating, drinking, and applying placenta, also known as afterbirth. Japanese company Nihon Sofuken sells placenta products for the anti-aging market. Inventor Spot takes a look. As strange as the products themselves are, the attempts at translating from Japanese by machine are even stranger! Link -via Dump Trumpet

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Picturesque Review of the Costume of the Portuguese

A Franciscan friar and a lay brother, as seen before the abolition of their Order.

BibliOdyssey blog has a neat post about a charming set of gouache sketches from a 1836 book titled "Picturesque Review of the Costume of the Portuguese." Though the identity of the artist is not known, it’s surmised that the sketches are mementos or gifts for tourists visiting Portugal way back when!

The sketches are sympathetic and most I would describe as quaint portraits. Even the true caricatures are gently humorous without any hint of malevolence. The language in the title and in some of the captions is just a little skewed or unusual, more likely associated with a non-native speaker, to my mind. I may of course be completely wrong. It’s a sweet little series in any event.

Link

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Clothing Library Loans Out Business Attires to the Unemployed for Job Interviews

Treehugger has a short and sweet article about the Belmont Clothes Library in Australia, which loans out business apparel to the unemployed so they can look smart for job interviews!

Just avoid the underwear section! Link - Thanks Chris!

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Kathleen Dustin’s Art Purses

Math major turned artist Kathleen Dustin makes purses - but not just any purses, her creations are nothing short of stunning. I love the "pod" series (above), where the purses are shaped like fruits and flowers, and the stone series (you guessed it - shaped like rocks).

Link

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Couple’s Beloved Dogs Made Into Sweaters

After they lost their beloved dogs, Beth and Brian Willis of Newcastle, England, found a unique way to keep their beloved pets close to their hearts: by turning their fur into sweaters!

After seeing a picture of Princess Diana wearing a dog fur stole at Crufts, they collected thousands of dog hairs from brushes and carpets.

The pair said the his and hers dog memorials were "warm and waterproof".

Mr Willis, who worked for Pickfords Removals for 27 years, wears his doggy jumper into town every Saturday to do the weekly shop.

The 73-year-old said: "They are extremely warm and pretty much waterproof. I’ve always got a sweat on by the time I get from the bus to the shops."

Link

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Black Facial Tissue from Japan (Where Else?)

Attention hipsters: you wear black t-shirt, black jeans, black shoes … but still use white tissues to blow your nose? You need this: a box of Japanese black facial tissue.

Spiddlement blog has more pics: Link - Thanks Jeff Jones!

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Chuck Norris Action Jeans.

As seen on MC Gilles.

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USB Engagement Ring

The geekiest engagement ring ever! Jennifer Flume designed this USB Flash Drive Swarovski Crystal Engagement Ring. The idea is that two people can exchange information by connecting the rings (photos, messages, or other data). You can then transfer data to a PC with the aid of a USB necklace that accompanies the set. It’s a design concept not yet on the market. Link to story. Link to Flume’s flash site. -via Geek Like Me

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Beauty Contest Winner: Not a Man, Not Yet a Woman

Xie Xiaoxing won "Best Camera Image" in the Fujian regional heat for Miss China contest. The contest organizers thought that Xie was a woman - but it turned out that he was a man … on his way to become a woman!

The organisers assumed he was female - but he had only had the first phase of surgery to turn him into a woman.

Mr Xie says the Fashion Beauty Plastic Surgery Hospital in Fuzhou city had offered him a full sex change in exchange for him advertising its services.

"After the first phase of surgery, I stopped for a while to deal with some personal issues, and when I came back last autumn they’d gone bankrupt," he said.

Mr Xie says he isn’t sure now whether he’s a man or a woman and can’t even get a job because he can’t confirm his gender.

Link

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Slipper Genie

Why use a dustmop when you can just clean the floor by walking on it? Microfiber fingers on the soles of these slippers grab dust, dirt, and hair as you walk around. The sole is detachable for cleaning. The drawback is that they only come in a size to fit women’s sizes 6-9, so children, most men, and women with larger feet are exempt from using them. Link -via the Presurfer

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Paper Bag Costumes

Sometimes, too much creativity is really, really bad. Take, for example, this scan from an old issue of McCall magazine telling parents to decorate paper bag costumes for their kids:

Decorated paper bag costumes are easy to create. Children can design their own bright creature costumes for dress-up and party time. Paper bags become colorful creatures from another planet when children let their imaginations go free to maek their own fun faces or those shown here. Use large paper bags (approximately 24" x 32") from the cleaners - do not use plastic bag. Paint, then decorate each bag with scraps of yarn, bright paints, colored paper, and glitter to make the fun-face costume. Cut small holes in top of bag for vision; vary face by creating animal creature with holes at sides so arms can extend in hornlike fashion.

On second thought, if you don’t have stairs in your house, these costumes are genious!

Link - Thanks Rian Fike!

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Vikings Were Stylish!

Photo: Annika Larsson

Psst, remember all those somber Vikings in the movies? Well, Hollywood was wrong, according to textile researcher Annika Larsson of Uppsala University. She said that evidence from the Viking Age revealed that the Vikings were very stylish:

Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors - the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but with the advent of Christianity, fashions changed, according to Swedish archeologist Annika Larsson.

"They combined oriental features with Nordic styles. Their clothing was designed to be shown off indoors around the fire," says textile researcher Annika Larsson, whose research at Uppsala University presents a new picture of the Viking Age.

Link - via Scribal Terror

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