washed up

felix branch & harry goodwins photographed by aitken jolly & styled by jason hughes for b magazine, issue 4, spring/summer 2011.

cold water

jenny sinkaberg photographed by lars botten & styled by pauline naerhom for personae magazine, spring/summer 2011.

araks autumn 2011 lookbook collaboration

polina aronova of dossier

michael nevin of the journal

susie lau of style bubble

polina aronova of dossier

richard chai, designer

peter elofsson, filmmaker

gia coppola, director

kim hastreiter of paper magazine

casey neistat, filmmaker

lisa spellman of 303 gallery

coco young, model

sebastien perrin, sound designer & dj

designer araks yeramyan worked with various industry creatives to collaborate on the autumn 2011 lookbook.

Look at those fucking hipsters

[Click to embiggen the skinnyjeanapolooza.]

So yesterday the paparazzi found Ellen Page and Clea DuVall walking together in Old Montreal. This isn’t an enormous deal. People walk together all the time. I walked in to work yesterday with a co-worker whose name I can’t remember even though we’ve worked together for years. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Except, of course, we to think it does. Are they friends? Are they friends who wear the exact same black high-top Chucks and skinny charcoal jeans? Are they “friends.” It’s so fun to speculate . I do it. All the time. Constantly. I wallow in it sometimes. It’s silly, really. But it’s also telling.

When a celebrity we perceive as gay is spotted with another celebrity we hope is gay, woo doggie, do we project. It’s the whole Gay by Association theory. If Star A is gay and Star B knows Star A, Star B must also be gay. Dude, if only it was that easy. Don’t you think I would have made the cute barista with the cool (and might I add complimentary) spoon thumb ring gay if we had that kind of power? If merely walking down the street, going to dinner, being seen in the presence of one of us could make a person queer, honey, every day would be a gay pride parade.

I guess what this all boils down to is human nature. We’re curious creatures, that’s for sure. Sometimes I think besides opposable thumbs, the ability to gossip is what really sets humankind apart from the rest of Earth’s animals. But we also have a desperate desire to feel a little less alone on this big ball of rock going around the sun. And so if seeing someone who hope might be like us give us even the tiniest hint that she might, in fact, really be like us – well we’ll take that tiny crumb and run with it. Sometimes it’s just a crumb, sometimes it’ll lead you to the whole cake. In this case, I don’t honestly know. I have no grand thesis here. But I am glad Ellen and Clea are friends. Because in my head, Graham from “But I’m a Cheerleader” and Juno from, well – you know, “Juno,” were already BFFs. Isn’t it great when reality finally catches up to the voices in your head.

here kitty, kitty

freja beha erichsen photographed by karl lagerfeld & styled by carine roitfeld for chanel, fall 2011.

landscapes with a corpse

matsuda jun wears marni, 2000

fukasawa elisa wears john galliano, 2001

tomita yaskuo wears prada, 1997

aure atika wears paul & joe, 2001

hasegawa kyoko wears yves saint laurent rive gauche, 2003

hosokawa fumie wears tiffany, 1995

itaya yuka wears comme des garçons, 2000

kuroki meisa wears gucci, 2006

tsuruta mayu wears dries van noten, 1998

koizumi kyoko wears sybilla, 1993

tanja de jager wears christian dior, 2002

UA wears toga, 2003

erin o'connor wears vivienne westwood, 2006

yuki nae wears jil sander, 2000

takahashi keiko wears yohji yamamoto, 1994

sato yasue wears john galliano, 2001

saeki hinako wears junya watanabe, 2000

natsuki mari wears luisa beccaria, 2003

hashimoto reika wears milk, 2006

igawa haruka wears dolce & gabbana, 2003

shinohara ryoko wears vivienne westwood, 1996

kojima hijiri wears yohji yamamoto, 1999

all photographs by izima kaoru.

since 1993, izima kaoru has been shooting celebrities & models in fantastical death scenes of sophisticated violence. "landscapes with a corpse" is the title of the project and asks the sitter to reveal to kaoru their fantasies about a perfect death & what they would wear. the idea came to kaoru while organizing shoots at a japanese fashion magazine. "it occurred to me that death can happen to anybody; it is a part of life & it is always there," he says. "i thought the depiction of a murder or accident would be a very powerful, provocative setting for a fashion shoot." the images he produces have a film-like structure: long shots with bodies that seem to melt into the setting alternate with others that show close-ups of the wide-open eyes of the victims. yet, we never get the real story.....only clues & allusions.