M.I.A. in Versace

What Government Shutdown? Fashion News for 9 October

Gentle reader,

I was just packing a bag for a quick trip to Baltimore where we are having a short conference to learn more about our amazing anti-aging skincare line.  It’s only a couple of days so that means a pair of Cuccinelli trousers, jeans for traveling, some button-downs and a pair of brown Oxfords that will go with everything and a sweater because it’s raining… but that’s not what’s important right now.  The fact that I detected a bump by my upper lip is what’s important.  It’s probably just a tiny ingrown hair from shaving this morning but it’s going to look like a pimple and that’s not what you want to have on your face when you’re hanging out with a few thousand people who are all examining your skin.

Other than that and this annoying government shutdown business, you’d think that not much groundbreaking stuff is happening at the moment but, au contraire!,

Jonah Bobo in Disconnect

REVIEW: ‘Disconnect’ Does Just That

Forgive the incidental pun on a cliché, but it’s a sign of the times that when The New York Times awards a film with a Critics’ Pick it tends to be a hallmark of mediocrity and safeness, so fuddy-duddy has the Grey Lady become.  Such is the case with Henry-Alex Rubin’s Disconnect, an ensemble piece about cross-connecting lives that is basically the sequel to Paul Haggis’ Best Picture-winner Crash with a far superior soundtrack.

The challenge with ensemble films that aren’t live-action superhero comic books like X-Men or The Avengers is there is no single protagonist,

Steve Meisel Vuitton

The Campaign Tale: Fashion Ads for Fall 2012

Gentle reader,

I’m sure that you’re as pleased as I am that, despite continuing economic woes in Greece and Spain and sluggish domestic employment figures, CBS managed to get Big Brother back on the air for season 14.  The show kicked off last week with the lovely, robotic Julie Chen reprising her role as host while trying to bring Halston back with her red halter jumpsuit.  If you’re married to the head of the network, I guess you can wear whatever you want.

And the famous Big Brother house has been again redecorated but this time by a blind person with a glue stick who was told to make it look like their idea of the Starship Enterprise.  That many colors should not be seen together outside a Mondrian exhibit or a Crayon box.  The producers might have intended the ugly surroundings as a “stress and duress” tactic to work like the isolation, overheating, and strategic food deprivation they use to disorient the contestants, but we’re the ones who have to fucking look at it.

When Getting Dressed Is A Drag

TUTTLE MODE

by James Tuttle

Gentle reader,

In deference to our non-gay readers, I shall attempt to tread rather lightly here.  Too much gay can be a frightening thing, especially in the wrong hands.  If you don’t believe me, just read Perez Hilton.

Here’s where I’m going with this.  We’re all fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, right?  I mean, what could be more stimulating than a weekly talent competition in which a six-foot-four vision of black cross-dressing glamour purrs “Con-drag-ulations, you are the winner of this week’s challenge” and “Now it is time for you to lip-sync for your LIFE!” before kicking a failed drag queen back into the gutter?  What’s not to love?

If you think getting dressed is a chore, imagine waking up a tall, bald, skinny man and turning yourself into this every day.

The producers really have kicked it up a notch this season with the quality of the contestants and the production itself.  After the mostly fat “performance art” queens got booted off in the early stages, the remaining queens are mostly quite beautiful, and they’re pretty damned skilled at padding those hips, tucking that junk, and making those racks look squeezable.

The guest judges are pretty sensational this season, as well.  This week, they included Sharon Osborne and comedienne Margaret Cho. The absence of my friend, fashion journalist Merle Ginsberg, does leave quite a gaping hole on this season’s panel, though.  There’s still a jar of Vaseline smeared on the lens every time RuPaul is in the shot but that’s part of the charm.  All divas need to manage their on-camera image.  A friend who worked with Faye Dunaway told me that she would put cans of Sterno beneath the lens so the fumes blur the shot.