Alien Beauty Invades World of Fashion | Fast Forward - OZY |
- Alien Beauty Invades World of Fashion | Fast Forward - OZY
- Arthur McGee Dead: Fashion Designer Was 86 - Hollywood Reporter
- I'm A Fashion Writer Who Bikes To Work — & This Is What I Wear - Refinery29
- Amazon Prime Day 2019: Shop Remaining Fashion Deals From Apple, Alo Yoga, J.Crew & More! - Entertainment Tonight
| Alien Beauty Invades World of Fashion | Fast Forward - OZY Posted: 17 Jul 2019 09:03 PM PDT Growing up in rural Wales, Salvia (who was assigned male at birth), never had any exposure to fashion outside of music videos and movies. Everyone around her told her that expressing herself through fashion was "stupid, self-absorbed and unnecessary," she says. Teachers yelled at students if they wore makeup or nail polish or "if your skirt was too short," Salvia says, who remembers being verbally and physically attacked. On one occasion, a group of kids bullied her "just because I straightened my hair." At 14, Salvia — who goes by that name on Instagram and doesn't want to reveal her real name for privacy reasons — shaved off her eyebrows and then her hair. Now 18, Salvia, wears extreme makeup and often uses prosthetics to create an otherworldly look in the photos she posts on her feed. It's her way of subverting the idea of traditional beauty that she was once bullied for. She's not alone. Salvia is among an increasing number of fashion influencers and drag performers worldwide who are posing the latest challenge to the straight-jacketing prevalent in the beauty industry by popularizing a less human-looking aesthetic, bordering on typical Hollywood depictions of aliens. They're using Instagram, the industry's preferred social platform, to take its stereotypes head-on — and they're attracting fast-growing interest.  Fecal Matter (@matieresfecales on Instagram), an account started by Montreal-based couple Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran in 2016, has 536,000 followers. Makeup artist Aryuna Tardis (@aryunatardis) offers alien beauty tips on her account, followed by 104,000 people. Seoul-born rapper and visual artist MLMA has 1 million followers on Instagram (@melovemealot). London-based performance artist and DJ Lewis G. Burton (@lewisgburton) has 11,000 followers.
Drag artist Arran Shurvinton goes by the name of Nosferatu (@arranshurvinton), the vampire from the 1922 German expressionist classic, and has 20,000 followers on Instagram. Meanwhile, Salvia regularly offers her 316,000 Instagram followers new looks. In one recent post, she's dressed as a bug, with eyes like slits, and strutting the streets with aplomb. In another, she sports a tail and a face that has nothing "human" about it. "I think Instagram can create positive communities," she says. "Choosing to follow my instincts on how I should dress and how I should create — and becoming successful and happy doing it — is a big rebellion [against] the control and manipulation … and also the misogyny and transphobia I faced growing up." A key reason why interest in alien beauty is growing fast, experts say, is because it questions the idea of the gender binary at a time many in broader society are finally also beginning to do the same. "The overlaps with drag are particularly interesting," says Dr. Ruth Adams, senior lecturer at King's College London, who has studied the phenomenon. She cites the examples of two top drag performers: American Nina Bo'nina-Brown and German Johannes Jaruraak, who goes by the stage name Hungry. Like Shurvinton, they both adopt otherworldly appearances for many of their performances.  Sure, French surrealist photographer Claude Cahun had explored this crossover between gender fluid identities and nonhuman aesthetics of beauty as early as 1928. And more recently, music artists have adopted alien subculture too: Check out South African hip-hop group Die Antwoord and Frankfurt-based Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows. But it's only now, say industry insiders and experts, that isolated efforts have given way to what is a growing movement that is gaining traction. The artists, performers and influencers driving alien fashion are using a combination of makeup, prosthetics and surgery to get the look they want. For many of them, personal experiences often served as the initial spark. It was Salvia's gender dysphoria that pushed her to experiment and "distort my appearance." For Steven Raj Bhaskaran of Fecal Matter, it was a gruesome incident that shook their faith. Born in Montreal to Sri Lankan and Guyanese parents, Bhaskaran one time witnessed a man throwing acid on the face of a woman. That made them decide to challenge the importance — and notions — of beauty, especially for those who they thought would never fit in. Salvia echoes the sentiment. "I don't think we are taught to live in a way that is free or healthy." Burton, who identifies as nonbinary/gender-fluid and runs a queer techno and performance art club night in London, thinks the novelty and creativity behind alien beauty also has a broader appeal beyond just a social statement. "People are … bored of seeing mundane looks and want more and more extreme and creative things," they say. Growing up in a small village on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne in the U.K., Burton says they "spent a lot of my youth drawing." One of their favorite fictional characters was Ursula, the sea witch from The Little Mermaid. "I've always been fascinated with her since a kid," says the 27-year-old.  Practicing otherworldly fashion isn't easy. Salvia says it can take between 30 minutes and three hours to apply makeup and prosthetics, some of which are inspired by sci-fi. Gender nonbinary communities across the world continue to face discrimination and even violence, so while social acceptance is growing, it's unlikely that alien beauty will gain widespread mainstream acceptance anytime soon. Traditional norms of what constitutes beauty still remain entrenched.  For Burton, who grew up "large" and faced backlash for their size, alien culture is a rebellion against those mainstream notions. And the drag performers and influencers driving this trend are optimistic they will make a dent. "I hope that being exposed to my ideas and beliefs will make people question and challenge the way that we are taught to live," says Salvia.  |
| Arthur McGee Dead: Fashion Designer Was 86 - Hollywood Reporter Posted: 17 Jul 2019 07:07 PM PDT He became the first African-American designer hired to run a design room on Seventh Avenue in 1957.Arthur McGee, widely known as the grandfather of fashion designers of color, has died. He was 86. The designer died July 1 in New York after a prolonged illness. McGee became a pioneer in the black fashion community, inspiring and mentoring the likes of Willi Smith, Elena Braith, Scott Barrie and B Michael. Following McGee's death, B Michael said in a statement, "Standing on your shoulders, it was an honor to call you friend. Thank you for your invaluable contribution to the tapestry of American fashion." In the 1960s, McGee opened his own shop on St. Marks Place and became the go-to dresser for stars including Stevie Wonder, Cicely Tyson and Lena Horne. He was honored in 2009 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Tyson and B Michael attended the luncheon. Born in Detroit in 1933 to a dressmaker mother, McGee began to make hats for his mom at age 15. "My mother liked hats and I said, 'I'm going to make hats for her,'" he told the MET. McGee left for New York at age 18 after winning a scholarship contest for the Traphagen School of Design, and later attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, where he studied apparel design and millinery, in which he was placed due to his experience making hats growing up. During his six months at FIT, McGee worked for English-American designer Charles James, who was a "genius in the art of sculpting fabric," according to the MET. McGee said, "I quit [FIT] because they said to me, 'There's no jobs for a black designer.' So I left." He went on to create Broadway costumes and work on Seventh Avenue, making pieces for Sibyl Burton and Josephine Premice. But it was in 1957 that McGee made history as the first African-American designer to run a design studio — Bobbie Brooks — on Seventh Avenue in the garment district in New York. "When I'd go to look at lines of fabric, I'd go to the fabric company and they'd say, 'Well, where's the designer?' They'd walk right by me. I'd say, 'It's me,'" McGee said. "It was always like that. It was just ridiculous." McGee sold his line to stores Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman and Lord & Taylor, according to the New York Amsterdam News, which wrote, "Transcending racial barriers, his talent was remarkable." "In the '50s, I could make $8,000 designing two dresses for an ad where the clothes matched the car," McGee told Ebony in 1980. "Then I would walk into an office in a custom-made suit and they still assumed I was a messenger. Today there are probably 99 black designers instead of just one exception as I was, but the system will not allow talented people of dark skin to become owners of a business or millionaires like the white designers who often built careers copying the technique of someone like Stephen Burrows. But when you love fashion, you do it, no matter what. They try to keep us in a corner, but I know I'm good, and I'll be designing when I'm 95." McGee opened his store in the '60s on St. Marks Place, which was "becoming a street style runway," wrote author and local Ada Calhoun in the book St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street. "People paraded in their beads, bell-bottoms, flowing prints and Sergeant Pepper jackets." Calhoun wrote that St. Marks Place became "a gathering place for black power activists" and quotes McGee as adding, "There was always something nice happening there." McGee also spent a lot of time in Miami and sold thousands of kimono-sleeve shirts using African fabrics at a reasonable price point. "Now, you can't wear any of the stuff that you buy. It costs two arms and three legs, plus some more," he said. His inspirations included Charles James, Claire McCardell and Adrian for his plain suits. "That's the kind of clothes I wanted to make and that's what I did," McGee said of his mudcloth dresses and other apparel (adding that wedding dresses were his nemeses after making countless gowns). In cementing his legacy, McGee mentored many young designers who came behind him, said Braith after his death, including as a guest teacher to the many students she taught at schools such as Virginia Commonwealth University, College of Saint Elizabeth and FIT. "Arthur will be missed by his family, many friends, mentees, muse, clients & students. McGee was a kind & giving spirit with a great sense of humor. I pray that he is joyfully dancing with the ancestors," said Braith, his former assistant designer in the 1960s (also known as Aziza Braithwaite Bey). In 2010, FIT honored McGee with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is survived by his brother Gordon.  |
| I'm A Fashion Writer Who Bikes To Work — & This Is What I Wear - Refinery29 Posted: 17 Jul 2019 02:59 PM PDT  Disclaimer! I am not an expert biker. I don't know how to change a tire; I've never touched a "fixie"; I just learned about hand signals, and I am probably still doing them wrong. However, I should probably put my feelings of imposter syndrome aside (said every woman at some point in her life), because, despite these shortcomings, I do ride my bike every single day. Mostly because I am convinced it's the best way to get around. You burn calories without burning fuel, and if you're biking in a city, you're probably getting to your destination faster than anyone stuck on the subway or sitting in traffic. As the fashion market editor here on the Shopping team, I'm here to dispel any notion that you have to sacrifice style (if fashion is something you're passionate about too) if you want to live that cycling life. I wish I had a better reveal here, but the truth is that riding doesn't affect the way I dress very much. There are things I don't wear — billowing silk skirts, heels, polyester anything — but for the most part, I dress the way I want and have a few simple hacks and sworn-by pieces to optimize my outfits for safety and practicality.  |
| Posted: 17 Jul 2019 11:00 AM PDT   |
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