my carrie bradshaw | adr via @prettybirds

anna dello russo is my carrie bradshaw. love love love these shots by tamu mcpherson from all the pretty birds. it's like sartorial porn.

window shopping

We live in a consumer society, thus, even visual culture can't escape the consumption function. Check out the Manolos Sarah Jessica Parker donned in Sex and the City, the movie. Nothing like window shopping in Safari. The Manolo Blahnik Hangisi pumps can be purchased from barneys.com for $945.00, roughly $400 more than priced in the film.

spotted: michelle o

1. Where was I when the news broke that the New Museum exhibited Elizabeth Peyton's painting of Michelle Obama?

And 2. Why can't American Vogue (vis-a-vis Annie Leibowitz) get on board with Peyton and choose a more flattering/visually intriguing portrait of the First Lady for its March issue?

'black' is the new black

Given the dearth of black representation in the American fashion industry, models of African descent featured in magazine spreads or editorial photo shoots are generally accompanied with a moderate amount of buzz. American Vogue's January issue is no different, featuring models Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman. Under the theme "magical realism," the models are sporting the most sartorial trends of spring fashion. However, reading the captions, I got a sense that the editorial board thought it would be "cool" or "clever" to play off of the 'blackness' of the models by using phrases like "wrap star" or "a tribe called dress." Might I mention that the spread had nothing to do with "hip-hop" style, a link that was forcibly made with text. If this month's spread featured white models, would the editors utilize the same captions to frame the clothes? Or is reading and addressing the corporeal blackness of the models a necessary act to frame the insertion of color in a magazine for a mostly white base of readers? A few months ago, Vogue posited the self-critical question, "Is fashion racist?". Maybe not racist, but certainly racializing. Comments are most certainly welcome.