From Dead Photo Society

It’s good to be different. Happy Saturday Night!

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Geek of the Day: Alejandro Cartagena

U.S sure has many great things to offer. Not only in pop culture, but also in every sector we all care about. Like health, security, economy (huh, not sure about that!) In short, U.S is selling what they have as an ‘American Dream’, which is sweet at first to attract millions of new workers and intellects, but not really great after decades of newcomers that slowly become a burden. No, I mean it. Sometimes I read politics too instead of Balenciaga’s works (although I have to admit, fashion is never a burden!)

I am trying not to judge in this matter and to proof my words, I have been studying Monterrey, Mexico based photographer called Alejandro Cartagena. His best subjects are social, environmental and urban issues, which are truly present in his latest projects called ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Carpoolers.’ Both projects tell the same story. A life between the borders of USA and Mexico (he photographed them from the Mexican’s point of view, I think.)

The only difference is in ‘Born in the USA’ we get portraits of people who live between Mexico and U.S, right near the border, which is pretty much sad and filled with dark thoughts about the future, at least that’s what it looks like for me. The ‘Carpoolers’ on the other hand, gives an aerial view of cars and trucks carrying immigrants, probably illegal ones, on the back of the open trucks.

They surprisingly look normal curling and trying to sleep on the rough plastic surface of the trucks, maybe because they look almost similar with your gardeners, mechanics, and seamstresses? That’s true, they’re the sole reason why you have all that services right written down inside your yellow book (including your favorite Mexican restaurant drive-thru.)

I may not be the best immigrant specialist (is there anything such as an immigrant-specialist? Urban-specialist?) or sociologist here, but I wonder can we do something about ‘American Dream’ thing? Yes, U.S is debatably one of the most successful countries, but not everyone can gets it’s infamous luck. U.S is just the same jungle we all have in our own country. That’s a more appropriate message to put out there.

One thing though… don’t let the truth ruins your own dream.

Your own, not America’s.

Darn, I get too cheesy again, don’t I?

P.S: If you want to look the exhibitions with your own eyes, you better go here:

Alejandro Cartagena’s Carpoolers is on show at the Houston Fine Art Fair on September 19th-22nd 2013 and Paris Photo on November 14th-17th 2013. 

Images taken from Dazed Digital and Alejandro Cartagena (‘Born in the USA’ (in progress) and ‘Carpoolers’).

‘Born in the USA’

Carpoolers

STYLE Loves: Akong Fall 2013 Earrings

Look what I found in my cyber garage! Akong Fall 2013 earrings, which are just marvelous and beautiful like a shiny little candies! Versatile candies. These earrings look so flexible and easy to style with. Okay, I know that everything I ‘love’ is easy to style with, but you can’t deny this one.

I can imagine a sophisticated yet still funny and undeniably brave woman try these earrings for her first formal dinner at MET (good evening Charlize Theron! And Sophia! And, oh, hi Lawrence!) then wear it again for dinner with friends (Gisele Bundchen-look-alike-friends?) Or choosing this piece for super bizarre editorials for fashion magazine (Vogue is the best, but anything will do.)

And it makes me wonder a little bit…. maybe earrings are the most underrated accessories ever! Women talk about necklace every time they go shopping in high-street-store (like Zara) and don’t even make me talk about ‘diamooooo- rings.’ Beyonce sings about it every time. But earrings? Hmm…. probably once in a lifetime, when they were kids with super-loving parents and first birthday gift.

Time to lift the popularity of earrings!

Image taken from Style.com

A Haunting Style

I usually don’t talk about a photo or style right after I downloaded it. I need time to think and learn more about the ‘half-raw’ materials before serving the right recipe to you. Okay, maybe I forget where all those photos actually ended. I am sure it is somewhere in my hard drive, but this time I can only ask God for help and hopefully you will find my favorite summer trends… next year. That what makes me a unique blogger. Cool, huh?

Anyway, this habit didn’t interfere when I downloaded this haunting picture of a red haired girl in New York City, which is why this photo end up here, not in my personal cyber-junk. It is supposed to be a street-style shot, but somehow it reminds me of dark fantasy movie.

The one that is filled with young innocent girls that starts doing crimes and necromancy (with the fact that she has a magical red-hair) in order to live in dull slums area (government is a bunch of fraud like usual) and, finally, at one point she meets the man of her dream (cliche? No, nothing too cliche in Hollywood) and together they create a whole new life. But will they be able to escape from the dark past?

Maybe I will re-read all fantasy novel that I have this weekend. You know, just for fun. And, no, it won’t affect my brain.

Did I mention that this girl also half-goddess?

Hehehe…watch out Stephenie Meyer, I will definitely kick your ass someday!

Image taken from The Sartorialist

MTV VMA 2013

Don’t make me talk about VMA. Please, don’t. At first, I was ready to forget one of the biggest award shows of the year because VMA tends to be wilder than I can handle. The musics are louder, the performers are crazier, the drama are more outrageous (hi, Kanye and Taylor….) I don’t need to tell about VMA because you guys must’ve your own opinions, from good to bad ones. Well, eventually I lost to this sheer force of blogger’s ‘must blog’ list and… here we are, listening to what I think about MTV VMA 2013, which is only a few nights ago.

First, let’s talk about the dress. 

Lady Gaga made her fans wondering what kind of bizarre clothes she was going to wear and even tweeted that she would made us turn upside down with shock and will remember her dress. Yeah, we did… in different context. The Queen showed up surprisingly normal with black cocktail gown, which is red-carpet-appropriate, and less crazy makeups than usual. Her platinum blonde hair was a bit curly, but nothing really happened. It was a normal red carpet moment for a super star.

Phew, so the showstopper was finally going to settle down for a black, wrappy, leathery Prabal Gurung gown? Yes, in red carpet. No, no, no, on the stage… (but we will talk about it later.)

Okay, probably the best Lady Gaga’s appearance for me.

And speaking about the best, there will be the worst. And it seems Miley Cyrus failed to impress anyone in VMA 2013. I am not surprised because her outfit was, well, a bit underdressed. And strange. The whole combination just didn’t work on her body, hell, on everyone’s body. I don’t think even Karlie Kloss can pull off such an ugly outfit.

Even if it’s Dolce and Gabbana. Seriously, it’s Dolce and Gabbana. But forget about the clothes for awhile and hella look at her hair. Baby buns???? Just go short, rough hair cut like usual Miley.

Taylor Swift

Katy Perry

 

And there is always one celebrity who dressed quite good, but he/she can be better. Do you ever feel that moment? Well, I do all the time. And the not-really-quite-on-the-top-in-best-dressed-list celebrities this year are Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. Katy’s leopard dress with something hairy (is that embellishment?) wasn’t really speak well in front of the camera, maybe more fierce makeups. And Taylor!! Sexy, curly, and… yeah, that’s it. I really prefer her mature, simple look than a ‘normal’ sexy look.

But I believe she can do better in the future. I also believe in you Katy!

Second, the performances. 

What happened to Miley’s performance? I like We Can’t Stop, it’s a bit slow, strong, and perfect soundtrack for simple party. But why did she sing with teddy bear bustier with a bunch of giant teddies (then the teddies turned back and voila! They’re persons, everyone!) Just forget the teddies, the bustier, and everything. She did quite good actually, no lip-sync or miss-the-note-disaster or miss-the-lyrics. Well, the real problem started when she decided to tatter her clothes off and sang with only peach/creme underwear WITH Robin Thicke. WITH a bit too slutty butty-touchy dance. Everything turned from ‘bad’ to…

‘OMG, COVER YOUR EYES CHILDREEENNN AND STOP GRINNING TEEENSSS AND I KNOW WHAT YOU FEEL OLDIES, THE WORLD IS GOING TO EEEEENNNNDDDDDDDD.’ 

That’s my first reaction. But after seeing Lady Gaga, my reaction turned into:

‘Oh my god, is Miley trying to be a bad girl (again)? Please Miley, don’t be the second Gaga-with-less-clothes. Be yourself, honey!’ 

You can choose which one is the best.

Ah, Katy Perry’s performance was a bit lack of surprise. But, to be fair, it is truly hard to keep a surprise when your stage is under the Brooklyn Bridge and MTV had uploaded sneak peek of your stage. Damn it. And Bruno Mars’s? Emotional, but quite good. N’SYNC reunion? Awesomee…!!! Love JT!

How about Gaga?

The Queen started with opera-like prologue before performing her hit single ‘Applause’, then changed her costume into black bustier and then changed again, wearing blue jacket and blonde wig then changed into Venus-clamp-like bikinis and just stayed exactly like that till the end of the performance. And VMA.

If I sat next to Gaga, I would have a lot of awkward moments (hi Gaga, nice perform- uh, sorry for accidentally touched one of your clamps)(Um, I think your patch-of-flower-covering-your-private moved a little)(Do you wanna dan- OMIGOD, I touched your clamps again. Damn it, Gaga! Wear some clothes!!!)

But she is who she is (and she really liked to tear off her clothes, so..okay then.)

(But TOTALLY NOT OKAY to do the same Miley, you are just better than bikinis and almost-naked performance WITH Robin Thicke. AND butty-touchy-dancing.)

Finally, the drama o rama o rama o rama.

Did Taylor Swift say ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP’ when 1D boys are speaking? Was she refer to one specific boy?

Did Lady Gaga want to leave the show early because the audience just ‘boo-ed’ 1D, when they received their MoonMan?

Ah, and Miley tweeted that she ‘left early’ because she was sure she couldn’t beat 1D. She was right. But, hey, VMA is all about fuunnn… come on, Miley. Don’t leave ’till the morning light’ and dance with ‘sweaty bodies everywhere!’

And why, for heaven’s sake, the audience ‘boo-ed’ 1D? They did quite good on stage and they didn’t look inappropriate, so what happened? Come on guys, that ‘boo’ isn’t what makes you beautiful.

DONE! Those are all I can think of and please notice that this is a subjective opinion, if you agree or disagree, that’s totally cool. Be polite and comment below. No ‘beautiful words’ please (really have no energy left to reply on those ‘@!@@#$, Miley/Gaga/Mars/Timberlake/Swift is the bessstttt @#$$%%’ Yeah, yeah, yeah…)(That’s also one of the reasons why I don’t really like talking about these kind of events.)

Images taken from Billboard

 

STYLE Loves: Other Stories Bag

Truth to be told, I am not a big fan of small bag. I mean, that shoulder bag that has the size of a small bag. Oh please, how annoying is that? Yes, it has the versatility and easiness of shoulder bag and cuteness of a small bag, but I just can’t help but thinking it is such a waste of a shoulder to wear that kind of bag. Oh, well, at the end of the day my thought always changes by itself.

Same case this time.

So, I was googling for new blog’s material blah blah blah (right… I was googling while watching FRIENDS (funny funny sitcom!!!)(guilty pleasure!!!)(love Rachel, love Monica, love Joey, love Pheebsss…!!!), resulting in downloading random things that I don’t know what the hell they are!)(are you interested in talking about the lifecycle of panda AND sharks? Like we are turning from chic fashion blog into second-less-objective NatGeo. Ugh…) and between all random images (eh, and scenes from FRIENDS) I found out about this Other Stories small-shoulder-bag.

And suddenly the stigma and sarcastic thought just flew away from my head to dumpsters-for-negative-thoughts-and-fashion-stigmas. I quickly sold by the ethnicity of the bag, the unconventional cylindric shape and it kinda reminds me of old Mongolian artifacts I once saw in China’s National Heritage something Museum (snob snob).

Affordable fashion, culture, and new point of view? I am totally in.

P.S: By the way, talking about cultures and chicness, there is this cool project me and my classmates are working for. Of course, it will be held in Indonesia (Jakarta to be precise), but I just want you guys to know and probably share it, if you want (no, you have to!!)(okay, kidding. No pressure.)

And for those of you who happen to live near Jakarta, this is the right time to GRAB YOUR MASKS BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO PARTYYYYYYYY….!!!!!! 

I will tell you more about this exciting project soon!

Image taken from Alice Point

From Dead Photo Society

Let the arrow leads you!

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Best (Incoming) Fall Trend

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FALL! Yes! Goodbye summer dusts, wild pointless parties (or romance?), and bikinis! We are heading for fall again in just a few days and I can’t wait to talk about it. Yeah, even though I still have these tons of images about summer, spring, street style, trends from whatever season we used to talk about.

Blah, who cares?!

Fall is here, fashion weeks are here, new trends are here!!

And speaking about trends, there this intelligent slideshow about incoming best fall trends (I don’t know how they predict or score these clothes, but I have to agree with them) by Vanity Fair (see?!) Okay, I did copy most of the pictures because I am too lazy to flip through old fashion shows to know which is the worst and the best and I think it’s good to have some professional opinions in this blog.

Ah, what am I talking about?

Honestly, I don’t know how to shorten all those trends into one (short!) article and choose which one will be the trendiest and all those shits. There, I say it. Buuuttttt…. I do choose for my own favorite based on that Vanity Fair slide show, so you can call this as um… Gimme Good Style-Vanity Fair-Best-Fall-Trend-List. Is that weird? Is that cool? Okay, enough… here is the list starting from…

The Clothes

Marc Jacobs? Never fail in making my mouth wide open with awe and thinking how can this designer handles both Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs (with it’s secondary line) while keeping his designs energetic, a bit street-style inspired and extremely hip (ala New York)?! This time the quirky boy came back with a bit fur-tastic and short (very short) dresses and metallic tops. Oh, and who can miss that grunge hair-do?

A bit different with fur-tastic’s Jacobs, Victoria Beckham choose a sleek black theme up-to-toe and I think this is a perfect look for those career woman who has a lot of kids, husband to take care of, giant townhouse and a bunch of office works to do (sounds familiar?), but still care about her look and always trying to find an easy, stylish, sophisticated clothes. Well, she can definitely find it in Victoria Beckham stores.

If Victoria’s theme is black, Celine came with totally different approach. White. White is here, white is there, white is everywhere and it came with minimalistic fall show and playful shoulders dress. I love the mix of sensitivity, purity, and a bit plain look of the clothes and it kinda gives me this ‘virgin’ thing, you know. Like the clothes are trying to say: I am pure and I can make you look like an angel! And who doesn’t want to be an angel for Fall?

Let’s play peek-a-boo with Roland Mouret. The look is all black except one point where the black is suddenly gone and replaced with white. Yeah, talking about high contrast and tiny detail. The look completed nicely with symmetric geometry patterns and simple design, Roland can have some new customers lining up inside the stores trying to touch everything and anything this season. No doubt.

If summer has bikini as the main look, then Fall has coat. Tiny coat, big coats, super big coats, you name it. But I rather choose this Proenza Schouler white-cropped-coat as my new fall wish list because I just love the feeling of classicality and versatility it gives with any clothes. White is always the new black… of course, as long as you can keep the dirt away (I can’t, but that’s why God invented laundromat, right?)

Hermes is all about layering one item onto another and it still maintains the luxury of each item without turning the model into a luxury-madame with big ass. No no. Layering will contribute a lot this fall and you might want to learn a thing or two from Hermes. Before everything is said and done….

Marc Jacobs

Victoria Beckham

Celine

Roland Mouret

Proenza Schouler

Hermes

The Accessories

Manolo Blahnik crystal-studded stilettos? If I ever said I hate it, no matter what season I am in or what fashion show I am sitting in (considering the chance of getting into one of those shows), you can instantly kill me and delete my blog. Seriously, this shoe is to-die-for and I wonder what Carrie Bradshaw will say about this piece of beauty?

Roger Vivier comma heel reminds me of Vogue’s editorial about thinking and dressing up futuristically and all those stuffs. Maybe we can think about future too by start wearing unconventional heels. Ah, and Catching Fire Movie will land in no time! Comma heels are one of the best items to feel the ‘Effie Trinket moment.’

Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane bag is a piece of luxury, simplicity and chicness with no comments or critics. Man, this bag can go with almost everything. Everything!!

Balenciaga white calfskin T-strap heels is pretty much representing the house last fashion show with marble as inspiration. Marble is a very expensive materials used by extremely rich people. Feel the luxury of becoming one of those riches by wearing this amazing marble-printed heel… You are an expensive woman/man too, you know.

A few season ago, before white is even a trend, polka dot was in and I remember even Anna Wintour wore a polka dot dress (means the trend was huge. Very very huge.) It makes me wonder now, maybe we can live the old spirit with Proenza Schouler printed bag… can we?

Reed Krakoff is quite a rare name in fashion, but it is sure one of those brands you have to watch out for before falling in love too deep with their products and scream painfully after looking at the price tags (I already told you to watch out!) My latest see-love-scream crush is their Anarchy bag. I am sold because of the classic design of the bag, the color and the ‘life-friendly size.’ It feels like you can put anything in this bag from your phone to kids’ clothes (aka mother stuffs.)

Reed Krakoff Venetian sling back heel also steals the show with it’s furry decoration on the front of the heels. You know what? After buying Marc Jacobs’s fur-tastic dress, you might want to have these ‘furry-decorated’ heels. Fur is never enough (yeah, you can kill me later PETA.)

Images are taken from Vanity Fair

Manolo Blahnik

Roger Vivier

Saint Laurent

Balenciaga

Proenza Schouler

Reed Krakoff

Reed Krakoff

Let’s Play Inside The House!

Having the idea of owning our own slides inside our homes is like having the idea of owning an elephant. It’s not really impossible (Harrods once bought an elephant for a guy in less than 24 hours. I really think the guy is either crazy or super rich… or both), but it’s somehow seems extremely abstract and out of the world. Hell, even out of the space. Slides are usually identical with kids, playground, huge empty grassland and not what you really want inside the house. But let’s stop for awhile and think outside the box. Slide is not only used for child’s play (ugh, child’s play… I sound like Chucky now), it is also possible to be used as an easy transport device from one level to another.

Remember that childhood movie when the main actor (possibly Peter Pan) just slides from the highest level of some random tree houses straight to the bottom? The concept is similar with no use of songs and random, awkward dancing between each level (seriously, I can’t believe I used to DANCE TOGETHER awkwardly like that too. No no no…)(That’s one of Disney’s powers actually.)

Anyway, with this concept, there are already several famous houses and buildings that have real slides inside their buildings, either as a really cute-and-easy transport device from one floor to another (check out Red Bull HQ office in London, UK by Jump-Studios) or just as a mini (okay, gigantic) toy for the kids (Rainbow House by Ab Rogers Design (featured image above.)) Imagine when rain comes and there is nothing to do in the house except… oh, we can play with our private gigantic slides!

I envy those lucky bastards… A LOT.

Well, like usual, I praise the creativity, popping craziness and somehow childish (but cool) ideas of those architects and home decorators. I don’t know why, but this bizarre idea just never came up from my head! So do you, right? Huh, this reminds me of how competitive and creative the world out there is (or how uncreative I am….)(okay, that’s a depressing thought.) Oh, forget it! Let’s drop our paperworks and go play the slide… inside the house this time!!

Images taken from Architizer (click the image to see who built and what is the name of the amazing house/buildings.) 

Do You Remember: Alexander McQueen Fall 2012?

Alexander McQueen passed the spirit of dramatic fashion to his successor, Sarah Burton, and she didn’t disappoint the mournful fans last fall 2012 season. With giant bubbly chandelier as the focal point of the stage, the designer easily awed the audience with subtle elegance and classic McQueen highly-made, semi-haute-couture gowns. True masterpieces with same old spirit of the House.

I will never ever forget this show.

Taken from Style.com