I guess all that’s missing is the celebrated cast of characters — The Log Lady, Agent Dale Cooper, Frank Booth — but the renowned director’s Parisian nightclub may be the next closest thing to hanging out in Lynch’s dreams, especially since it’s named and modeled after Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive. Warning: That’ll be 1000 francs, please. Read the full story
If you’re in Paris and need a morning break from the Right Bank’s pomp and glamour, you needn’t go all that far. Just cross the river Seine to the tamer, quainter, bohemian Left Bank and treat yourself to a walking expedition.
Sorrel Smith is one of the most glamorous creatures I’ve ever met. A painter and costumer working in Paris, Sorrel is a fixture at the Carnival in Venice, runs Dr. Sketchy’s in Paris, and never leaves the house without being fully decked out in vintage finery. Her art is equally awe inspiring- meticulously historical paintings of pinup beauties stripping their flesh off rather than their stockings. In our interview below, we talk about glamor, influence, and what to wear to a costume party in Constantinople.
Driving to the warehouse district of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night, I, along with half of the motorcyclists in Southern California, drove up a ramp and ended up on top of a parking garage. Walking past trashcan bonfires, taco trucks, and what appeared to at one time be someone’s living room furniture, I had arrived at Cretin’s Motorcycle Club, a sort of secret society biker’s club which happened to be the perfect setting for the Lords of Altamont CD Release/Anti-Valentine’s Day party.
Only the Lords would be capable of pulling off an evening full of stoning Valentine’s Day combined with celebrating the release of their newest album, “Midnight To 666.” The band has undergone several member changes but is confident to have its most solid line up yet, with Jake “The Preacher” Cavaliere on lead vocals and organ, John “Big Drag” Saletra on guitar, Shawn “Sonic” Medina on bass, and Harry Drumdini aka “Full Tilt” on drums. Any venue brave enough to host these rockers would have to have some serious balls.
After a photo shoot that required balancing on rooftop while grasping burning sparklers, The Lords of Altamont and their entourage of saucy go-go dancers divulged wacky tales from the road. From being electrocuted to running from the cops due to a certain ChinaShop photographer’s quest to snap the perfect photo, the Lords of Altamont know how to keep things interesting. They do, after all, have a reputation to uphold.
High-fashion thrusts tattoo art onto the runway and into the spotlight
First it was Ari Marcopoulos’s short film “No Way Back” for Yves Saint Laurent men’s spring/summer ‘11 collection, featuring famed tattoo artist Mark Mahoney in action. Then – or perhaps simultaneously – it was tattooist-to-the-fashion-elite Scott Campbell’s SS’11 collaboration with Louis Vuitton, and the accompanying “video diptych” part one and part two.
What do we know about big American comic cons? We know they are held in convention centers, deafening places filled with bright lights and berber carpeting. We know they are dominated by huge media companies. We know they are filled with socially awkward fanboys.
Well, Angouleme International Comics Festival, the largest comics con in the Western hemisphere and the crown jewel of the French bandes-dessines scene, is nothing like that at all.
Picture if you will a charming medevial town, filled with cheese, fine wines and sexy fire-eaters. In this town there are a number of comic-filled tents. And the comics they showcase are the most experimental, badass, lavishly printed, dirty, existentially questioning, silly and odd comics in the world. Except for one tent filled with superheros, which is tiny and sort of shoved into the corner. That’s what Angouleme is like.
Gale Parker has played quite an amazing role in the history of the fashion world. She was a muse to style gods Valentino and Yves St. Laurent, a contributing editor at Andy Warhol’s Interview, Design Director for Ralph Lauren’s Woman’s Collection, and the youngest Fashion Editor at Vogue. Her earliest memories consist of mingling with fashion designers on vacations in Paris and searching for second hand treasures in New York thrift stores. Gale’s latest endeavor is her eco-fashion line, Clothespin, which offers stylish and individually designed dresses, blouses, and skirts that cater to woman of all body types. Her pieces are constructed from never before worn 1940’s vintage fabrics that Gale acquires from all over the world, vintage buttons, and frilly lace, which she blends together with organic yarns. Clothespin also features jewelry, boots, leather belts, scarves, purses, and other accessories hand-picked from places like India, Morocco, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, and Paris. Gale takes custom dress orders from the vintage fabric of her customer’s choice at her Melrose Avenue shop.
Gale graciously took time out of her extremely busy schedule to share some tales of her fabulous past and to discuss her new green collection, Clothespin: