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Who’s That Man? A Review of London SS15

Astridpics

Astrid Andersen: Post-Gym-Chic Sumo Wrestler Extravaganza
The quintessential Astrid Andersen man recently returned from Japan, where he finished a two-week intensive training course in the ancient art of Sumo wrestling. Moving East and beyond from America’s basketball courts, AA has maintained his athletic idiosyncrasy (nylon textures and practical sweat pants are still at the core of his wardrobe), but integrated quite a bit of delicate floral prints for a gender-flexible summer vibe. Nonetheless, AA starts his day with 50 push-ups in his sunrise-brocade kimono, while listening to a slow-downed version of TLC’s “Creep.” For obvious reasons, his favorite artist is Fatima Al Qadiri, who he plays repeatedly on his iPad Mini. AA has come to terms with the fact that ‘sport’ is an aesthetic activity as much as it is a physical one; rather than posing for the NBA trials, he is subverting notions of masculinity by wearing crop tops to the gym.

JWpics

J.W. Anderson: Sleepy Art School Third Base Realness
The JW character is forcefully understated, sexy, super-aware je ne sais quoi. His eroticism lies in his inherent drowsiness; he strolls into university lectures a bit too late to steal the show with his ‘woke-up-like-this’ hair and effortless elegance. At an early age, the eager Belle and Sebastian fan understood to use his awkward body as an aesthetic tool. Never scared of showing a bit of shoulder, he effectively achieves a kind of deconstructed masculinity. He has a good understanding of form, texture and color, and often spends his day transforming basic t-shirts into beautiful one-shoulder tops when he decides to go offline for 2-4 days just to stay real. The JW boy detests sneakers (‘a misunderstanding of modern street wear’), but takes pride in refiguring and taking the traditional male suit in a new, genderless direction.

XZ

Xander Zhou: Adolescent Chinese Star Wars Beach Party
Xander Zhou is the first Chinese designer given the license to use Star Wars imagery in his design, so why not take Darth Vader to the beach? School’s out for XZ, a juvenile European expatriate residing in a coastal city of southern China. He’s spending the summer at the beach, wake boarding in his custom-made one-piece that shows just enough chest to be culturally inappropriate. When he’s not studying mechanical engineering, he’s on the Internet studying European nautical life and late ’90s raver culture. XZ loves his intergalactic drama, and likes to think that a ‘dark force’ runs through his wardrobe (underlined by his occasional smeared-lipstick Joker look). Naturally, this ties in with his fascination for technological futurism; PVC is his favorite material, and on the weekend you’ll find XZ browsing for mesh polo shirts and glittery blazers at mall while texting his eBae.

Fine Felons of Former Times

Now that enough time has passed since #FineFelon Jeremy Meeks went viral, reality has (hopefully) settled in and you can calmly admit to yourself that you don’t have a chance with him. Don’t worry though, this isn’t the first instance where being ‘out of one’s league’ coincides with being locked up. We present to you a fine list of criminal poets that will serve as both consolation and cultural enrichment in one fell swoop.  … [read more »]

69 this weekend

69 will be opening its studio to the public for a grand opening event in Downtown LA tomorrow, June 21. Fans of the anonymous denim brand can sip on high-end cocktails or have a light workout while they shop exclusive 69 styles. With a showroom featuring a giant denim bean bag and a matching punching bag and yoga ball (set to be sold through DISown), this is actually what retail therapy looks like! There’s also a spin bike, scale model of… [read more »]

You’ll Never Believe How We Reacted to Facebook’s Game-Changing New Policy

Social media tycoons HATE us! To celebrate Facebook’s recent dictatorial move to control what we can and can not share (again), we are publishing a finely curated selection of irresistible screenshots of clickbait links. Because culture must be defended. At the end of the day, the real thing is always better than headline generators for amateurs. via venirhere

This post was originally published May 16, 2011 when we also made a review of the coconut oil for thinning hair. We have bumped it in the spirit of the 2014 World Cup and Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s new bangin’ blonde fauxhawk. Cheers!

Deanna Havas on Cynicism, Ideology and the Golden Age of the Advertorial

By now, many have seen artist Richard Prince’s attempt to integrate the #regram into his repertoire of sex, art and appropriation. In a bizarre series of Instagram portraits, Prince reappropriated, printed out, then photographed screenshots of Instagram photos featuring subjects ranging from Pamela Anderson to Junglepussy, often adding strange and sexually ambiguous commentary. All but five of the Instagrams have recently been taken offline by Prince. As an expansion of her initial tweet, DIS Skyped-in… [read more »]

The Ranked Artists of ArtRank

  The apparently disruptive art valuation site devoted to the “emerging art market,” ArtRank, has received a good amount of attention for its short yet promising lifespan. Established on February 8th as Sell You Later (their corporate sponsors since demanded a name change), it set itself on an ambitious mission, toward a goal at once idealistic and ruthlessly pragmatic, straddling the social and cybernetic extremities of commerce and art in today’s art=brand landscape. We reached… [read more »]

POWRPLNT: Technology for the Next Generation of Artists

In New York City, contemporary artists are establishing innovative ways to share knowledge about the potentials of ever-evolving technology in art. POWRPLNT is a fresh contributor and resourceful two month-long digital art “collaboratory” and indoor garden located at Stream Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Its purpose is to promote the use of the intermix of technology, where the digital arts community can interact with the next generation of creators. Open daily from 12pm to 6pm, the space is equipped with five Mac… [read more »]

Who did it first: The artist or the corporation?

Cara Delevingne and BFF Jourdan Dunn got matching tattoos and it’s all over the Internet. Major newspapers, blogs and other media around the world are now republishing the Instagram photo showing off their freshly-inked hips, presumably representing their last names which both start with the letter D. Coincidentally, the tattooed image is the same as the very first logo I created in 2009 when I changed the name for the distribution of my work to Debora… [read more »]

Common Spaces at The Kitchen

Whose space is it anyway? Is there a difference between a public space and a common space? Ongoing at The Kitchen until June 14, Common Spaces seeks to address questions surrounding space and commonality through diverse artistic practices, multimedia projects and workshops. From Occupy’s relationship with Zucotti Park to the privatization of public spaces across the globe, the necessity to reclaim a notion of the commons over that of the public has become increasingly pressing… [read more »]