We mentioned a couple of days ago, spurred by the above excellent neon skyline tattoo above (done by Chad Knight at Boulevard Tattoo in Collingsdale), that we were gonna try to round up the boldest and beautiful-est Philly-love tattoos. We found a lot of LOVE Parks, a lot of sports team logos and a lot of Liberty Bells, but we’ve sorted through them all and come up with the neatest ones, starting with a rather less abstract skyline than the one above:

Damn.

it was composed from 3 different photos found on the google image. design was re-drawn based on those photos. it was rearranged so that all main buildings can be shown in narrow space. i had hard time finding the “perfect photo” and unfortunately could not find one thus end up just making it up (based on the real thing).

This tattoo, still in progress, is being worked on by Masami Inagaki, a PAFA graduate with skills. She works out of Gemini Tattoo up in the Northeast, you can contact her there if you want some work done starting in 2010. But not koi:

i will be taking a break from koi tattoo til next summer. (9 koi designs just this year alone. sorry i’m bit tired of them. thank you for understanding!

These three are by Benjamin Harris, who works at Sink the Ink in Willow Grove. He got his degree in illustration from MICA and then did animation in video games, and boy are these some good-looking, original tattoos.

This one, of the giant clothespin sculpture at 15th and Market, was done by Clay at Body Graphics, at 4th and Bainbridge. It was emailed in by Kristen (whose leg that is), who said:

I got it because I wanted a Philly tattoo and I also wanted to make fun of the massive amount of people who have the Love Park sculpture tattoo. Hey people, there are other things that represent our city other than Love Park and the Liberty bell!

Indeed! It’s tough to strike the right balance between “instantly recognizable symbol of a city” and “touristy cliche in real life,” but the red clothespin does it pretty well in our opinion. Or you could just go across the street…

…to City Hall. I said goddamn! This was done by Shane O’Neill, who works out of Wilmington, Delaware and who obviously does some pretty fucking amazing black-and-white photorealistic stuff. O’Neill is an illustration graduate of U of Arts, so probably saw this south view of City Hall pretty frequently back in the day.

And as long as you’re gonna do the LOVE Park thing, you may as well get done it beautifully. From John Howie of Moo Tattoo on South Street near 5th.

Joey Vento? Can’t imagine anyone else would get this; although it looks very nice, we can’t imagine there’s more than one person willing to act as a billboard for Geno’s. It does, however, very much recreate the atmosphere of that one gaudy, neon-ass block, so we’ve included it regardless of opinion of Joey Vento. This one was done by Philly Ink Tattoo, near the Allegheny El stop.

What more can you say? There is no place like home, especially when home is a Keystone Ben Franklin surrounded by Mountain Laurels and fireflies (those would be our state flower and insect, btw). Not entirely sure about the lilies and the Canada Goose (as our state bird is in fact the ruffled grouse), but I did find out while looking those up that our state toy is the Slinky and that is totally sweet.

Like the clothespin above, this one was done at Body Graphics, but by Carla Hopkins, who has a portfolio that’s heavy on the interesting before-and-after coverup work. We suggest you click through the link, because tattoo coverups are inherently pretty tragicomic.

By Braden Kendall of Eddie’s Chinatown Tattoo (in, uh, Chinatown). We like the pairing of these two little demonic birds with Philly imagery (PA may be the ruffled grouse, but Philly is the HELLBIRD WITH EYES OF FIRE. Or probably the Eagle, on second thought. Never mind).

Lastly, I was positive that if I went looking I’d find at least one person with a tattoo of Will Smith, and, as it turns out, I was triply correct. One person has this insane Will-Smith-as-Hancock on his leg, by L.A.’s Cecil Porter:

And it is alleged that not one but TWO people have this same tattoo of Will Smith eating Rap Snacks, and that the tattoo copycat is Creighton Barrett of Band of Horses.

OK, seriously, as an unconfirmable rumor that’s way too good to be true, “The drummer from Band of Horses ripped off a tattoo of Will Smith eating Rap Snacks” of  of this ranks up there with “Nicolas Cage was once arrested for stealing a chihuahua” and “A-Rod has two paintings of himself as a centaur over his bed.”

If it exists, Rap Snacks Willie is always hiding under a lot of plaid stuff in photos. Anybody got a picture of Creighton Barrett with his shirt off?

So I’ve been cleaning up the (blessedly minimal) effects of having my identity stolen for the last couple of years, and as I ran around town for the last couple of days printing things, faxing things, collecting other things, getting things notarized, etc. to deal with the latest thing that’s turned up, I tried to burn off some of my frustration by thinking of my situation as one of those LucasArts adventure games I loved when I was a kid. They also tend to involve one large goal, which is accomplished by doing hours and hours of smaller, seemingly unrelated tasks until you stumble backasswardly upon the princess or the secret of Monkey Island or whatnot. This was just like that! Except how I can’t stop playing and it’s frustrating and expensive.

Anyway, I came home with the idea of my life as Sisyphean, no-fun video game still a bit on my mind, and happened across this pair of polygonal shoes by United Nude, which seemed sort of perfect for the moment. The style probably looks pretty familiar to anybody who played video games during the rather quick evolution of computer graphics in the late ’90s:

The United Nude Lo Res is part of an new semi-automatic design method by United Nude. An object is digitially scanned into a 3-D computer model and re-generated into various resolutions. The Lo Res shoe is part of an automated design revolution.

So in celebration of having hopefully faxed my last document and rescued the princess (if she’s not in another goddamn castle), here’s a bunch of stuff based on 8-bit nostalgia that doesn’t cross over into literal video-game territory, like so:

Even though I do find that shirt funny. Anyway, here they are!

Floral rose prints don’t look quite so grandmotherly when they’re pixelated.  Digital-print scarf and dress, from Matthew Williamson’s fall 2008 collection.

Stolen Jewels, by Mike & Maaike. They used google to ’steal’ lo-res images of some of the most famous and ornate jewelry in the world (such as Imelda Marcos’ ruby necklace and this image of the Great Chrysanthemum, on which I believe the above is based:)

and then converted them to tiny leather pixels as a statement necklace.

8-bit dress from Modcloth, vaguely evoking some mod-as-hell Space Invaders.

The Icon wristwatch; numbers would have ruined the effect.

OK, yeah, this one’s literal, but it’s just too cute. From Erin at A Dress A Day.

]]> http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/11/05/lifes-a-game/feed/ 0 http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/10/27/halloween-roundup-4-art-school-costumes/ http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/10/27/halloween-roundup-4-art-school-costumes/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:45:23 +0000 emily g http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/?p=8688

Halloween is getting closer! It’s, like, this weekend. I’m so excited! So here’s another roundup of potential costumes, this time inspired by that Art History 100 class you took freshman year. But nothing where you’re going to have to carry a giant picture frame around all night, we’re aware that bulky costumes get real old real fast. Here’s some figures from art who are still recognizable when they step out of the frame:

ARTIST: Roy Lichtenstein

WORK: Any of his comic-inspired paintings (although the example we used is “Girl With Hair Ribbon”)

DIFFICULTY: 10

GOOD FOR: Women (or men) who have a lot of patience and don’t touch their face habitually

OK, MAC has posted a bunch of Halloween tutorials and ideas on their facebook page, and while they’re all pretty neat, this one is amazing. I have no doubt that if I were to attempt this it would be smudged within ten minutes, and the costume/hair parts look like a pain a half to procure, but still. That’s great.

Kahlo, Magritte and more, after the jump…

ARTIST: Frida Kahlo

WORK: The Two Fridas

DIFFICULTY: 3

GOOD FOR: Women with long, dark hair who were into Sienna Miller a couple of years ago

OK, I picked the costume example, taken at the LACMA costume ball (god I wish I could go to that), because it corresponded a specific painting. The heart/dress would take that one up to a higher difficulty level, but a less-specific Frida costume is super easy.

Just put your hair up, stick some flowers or wildlife in it and put on a bunch of flowy, organic-type stuff you have left over from that whole boho thing along with some big, long necklaces; the really recognizable part is the makeup, though, so strong unibrow and LOTS of blush and red lips.

Bonus points if you have a pet you can train to ride around on your shoulder (no hamsters) or coerce a friend into being the right-hand Frida.

ARTIST: Magritte

WORK: Son of Man

DIFFICULTY: 2

GOOD FOR: Men who already own a black (or dark blue or gray, really, who’s going to notice) suit

Just find yourself a bowler hat, a red tie and a green apple to hang in front of your face and you’re golden! Doesn’t matter what you look like, everyone looks the same with an apple in front of his face.

ARTIST: Picasso

WORK: Harlequins

DIFFICULTY: 9; I’m going to assume that because I can’t find a single costume picture on the whole internet that it’s a tough one

GOOD FOR: People who won’t be sad when 99% of people just think you’re a weird clown

If picking out and befriending the one art history major in the room is your goal, this is the one to do it with. Easily mistaken for your standard jester, the costume might be slightly more recognizable if you stick to the mustard/olive/red color scheme in the right-most paintings and make sure you get the hat right.

Actually, we’re gonna upgrade this one to a difficulty of 10, this sounds like such a pain. Here’s an easier one:

ARTIST: Andy Warhol

WORK: Andy Warhol

DIFFICULTY: 1

GOOD FOR: Skinny people who own black clothes

Whatever, Andy Warhol was a pioneer of living life as performance art. I feel OK  using him as artist, work AND costume wearer.

This one is totally easy, just wear something along the lines of black pants, black turtleneck, black leather jacket, big glasses or sunglasses and white shock wig and walk around acting affected. Maybe wear a scarf. Just don’t let anyone see your neck.

ARTIST: Edward Gorey

WORK: Gashlycrumb Tinies

DIFFICULTY: 4

GOOD FOR: A group of 3-26 people who always secretly (or openly) thought that goths looked pretty cool

I’d stop short of calling Gorey’s illustrations High Art with a capital HA or whatever, but they’re definitely recognizable and not super hard to do. Dress like you’re in a really dark Dickens novel and hang a tombstone off your back with your designated letter. The hard part is convincing other people to be the rest of the alphabet with you.

OK, that’s all I got for today! If you missed the previous Halloween roundups and you still need costume ideas, they are:

1: Nerd reference costumes

2. Unnecessarily sexy costumes

3. Childhood nostalgia costumes

THIS WILL NOT GET YOU LAID.

The Frisky isn’t usually one for fashion front page posts, but I feel they made some important points about Halloween for our male readers. I mean, we have a little more faith in those dudes if they’re reading PWstyle (high five!), and pretty high hopes that they have creative Halloween costumes in the works…

….but, just in case there was a temporary lapse of judgment that was induced by a) male bonding b) alcohol c) costume store hysteria d) all of the above, let’s have a refresher.

Ready, boys? Here is the link to The Frisky’s post, “21 Costumes that will not get you laid.” Read and absorb!

The Ground Report discusses why it might be good to have oily skin after all. This article reminded me of my grandmother, who says that she doesn’t have wrinkles because her skin is so oily, and the wrinkles just slipped off.

There’s a blog that illustrates the New York edition of ‘missed connections’ as featured on Craig’s List. It’s pretty interesting. The New York Times is a fan too.

The Frisky highlights celebs with tattoos, Glamour helps a girl pick out a handbag that costs a small fortune, the New York Times gives a review of Milan’s fashion week, which isn’t as flashy as it once was, and NBC10 asks whether backless dresses are trashy or not.

I realized, though, that all my apps were either Sudoku or completely utilitarian, and that I hadn’t even searched through the fashion/style genre. And so, I give you six style-related iPhone applications I tried out, which ranged from the stupid to the seriously useful, so you don’t have to:

APP: iStylist Makeover

COST: $.99

THE GIST: You either take a photo of yourself or use one already on your iPhone, crop your head into a neck-and-body silhouette, and then plop various celebrity hairstyles, hats, glasses and blush colors onto yourself to see how you’d look as Bai Ling or a mourner at the Michael Jackson funeral.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: Oh god, this is really terrible. They don’t even make sure the hairstyles they supply fit the weird face shape you have to try to cram yourself into; a bunch of them are clearly from photos in which the celebrity was turned slightly to the side. It appears you can download even more hairstyles in upgrade packs, but good god, I’m already pretty done with this.

ACTUALLY USEFUL?: No, maybe if you’re at a bar

OVERALL: Why is the worst one the only one that’s not free?

Apps that were actually useful, after the jump…

APP: Stylish Girl

COST: Free

THE GIST: Catalog all your clothes so you know what you have and what will match what when you go shopping for new additions to your wardrobe. This very much appeals to the insane part of me that loves obsessing over lists, but let me be clear: that is not healthy.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: You can’t recrop photos, you have to just take a new one, which is annoying. If you forget to hit “To My Closet” after you’re done classifying , the photo you took is gone forever once you take another one. Coats, shirts and dresses shouldn’t all be one category, and if you’re only giving three “Style” options to classify things into, “Yoga” sure as hell better not be taking up valuable space.I’d be more pleased if you could add custom categories.

ACTUALLY USEFUL?: For people who have so many clothes they can’t remember what-all is in their closet, people who like to be really organized about lending/borrowing clothes, the obsessive-compulsive.

OVERALL: I was already bored with taking pictures of my clothes after doing the twelve things I chose so I wouldn’t have blank spots in the screenshot on the right.

APP: Benjamin Moore ColorCapture

COST: Free

THE GIST: You take a picture with your iPhone’s camera, and then can find out the Benjamin Moore paint color that corresponds to any point on the picture by touching that point with your finger.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: The iPhone camera’s not all that great, so the match between the color you see with your eyes and the paint chip the app comes up with is probably not going to be that close a match.

ACTUALLY USEFUL: If you need to paint your walls the exact color of your boyfriend’s hand, Joey Vento’s minivan or the Broad Street Line. Otherwise maybe it’s just fun to find the color in a picture that’s the perfect one for the situation (like the middle one above).

OVERALL: ¡Si, es muy caliente!

APP: Style.com

COST: Free

THE GIST: This one is really pretty great if you like to just look at fashion. They have every look from just about every major designer runway show going back to 2000, with links to reviews of the collections. There’s also a section of videos that load very quickly indeed if you’re hooked up to wireless.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: Not too much, honestly.

ACTUALLY USEFUL: If you like runway fashion, this is a pretty awesome timewaster

OVERALL: I’m keeping it!

APP: ShopStyle mobile

COST: Free

THE GIST: A very visual mobile interface for ShopStyle, which I’ve always thought as fashion fantasy football. You can scroll by a lot of things quickly and mark favorites to remember. You can also search which things are on sale or a specific price range, and the large-size image has the price floating right on it. It has its own little built-in browser that takes you to the store’s site when you click “Buy” instead of taking you to Safari, which is nice.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: The curation of the stuff that shows up is great, but it’s a little less intuitive to search for specific colors, seasons or fits. The small size of the thumbnails also can make details hard to see.

ACTUALLY USEFUL?: If you like to look at what’s actually for sale rather than what’s on the runway.

OVERALL: Meh, but ShopStyle wasn’t really my thing to begin with. If you’re near wireless and like window shopping, this is right up your alley.

APP: Thread

COST: Free

THE GIST: Extremely simple and extremely fast way to browse the most recent Threadless desgins. You scroll left and right with the arrows, the $ takes you to the t-shirt’s page in Safari and the camera icon merely informs you how to take an iPhone screenshot.

WHAT COULD USE A 2.0: It certainly does what it does, no pretensions, but I could see the extremely simplicity getting boring after the first time or so.

ACTUALLY USEFUL?: If you get bored and are still on the slow-ass Edge network like me

OVERALL: Nice the first time, don’t see it being something I use a lot.

]]> http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/09/29/test-drive-style-iphone-apps/feed/ 5 http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/09/15/halloween-roundup-2-unnecessarily-sexy/ http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/style/2009/09/15/halloween-roundup-2-unnecessarily-sexy/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:39:19 +0000 emily g http://style.pwblogs.com/?p=7485

Now there’s a lot of costumes for women out there, as I’m sure you’re aware, that take just anything in the world, add “sexy” to the beginning of that anything, cut out most of the parts that aren’t preventing you from getting arrested for public indecency, and voila! Halloween costume!

Obviously the sexy maid, sexy nurse, sexy kitty-cat, sexy pirate etc. have a cultural heft that’s pretty well dug in, as they recur, boringly, year after year.

But the funniest costumes are the ones that try to be sexy against all odds and common sense; my Halloween party last year was themed Sexy Unsexy Things, and there was a Sexy Karl Marx, Sexy J. Edgar Hoover, Sexy Lyndon Johnson (or El BJ, Masturbator of the Senate), Sexy Abe Lincoln… but here’s a selection of what appear to be serious Sexy Costumes actually for sale ripped off somewhat odd source material:

Sexy Harry Potter

BECAUSE: You know, I initially was just calling this Sexy Gryffindor, but the round glasses kind of weird me out. Weeeeeeeeird!

Sexy Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger

BECAUSE: Women who exude sexuality in horror movies definitely come out OK in the end. These costumes are like contradictions in terms.

Sexy SpongeBob

BECAUSE: Goddamn, people, that is SPONGEBOB.

Sexy Girl Scout

BECAUSE: That’s not creepy at all.

Sexy Ghostbuster

BECAUSE: Actually, I imagine if the Ghostbusters were to hire a woman, they’d probably make her wear this.

Sexy mental patient

BECAUSE: Taking advantage of totally hot chicks who are also way psycho is easier when they’re in a straitjacket? Even more endearing, it’s called Anita Valium.

Sexy Wednesday Addams

BECAUSE: WEDNESDAY ADDAMS DOES NOT FUCKING APPROVE OF THIS NONSENSE.

Courtesy of the New York Times

PW Style Blog hearts Glamour magazine.  They’ve always got great links to beauty tips, nail polish giveaways, and information on how to design your own Chanel bag. However, we’re not so sure how we feel about how Glamour feels about it’s readers. Apparently Glamour readers are supposed to be cheerful and bright – like cupcakes?

Marie Claire, which we suppose is Glamour’s direct competitor doesn’t just discuss cupcakes. They explain party myths and how common misconceptions might get you in trouble. Read up before you drink up.

Fashion week in NYC means random events throughout the city as usual with a fashionista twist.  Check out this list — the Olsen twins are working as DJ’s?

Philly.com features Fall Trends and women in Philadelphia workin’ Market Street like it’s a runway.  Philly.com also pointed the way to this inspiring article from Elle magazine. A homeless girl still found a way to blog and keep herself relevant, as well as catch the eye of an editor at the fashion bible. The story is better in the words of the one that lived it. Luckily, you can read the writings of this young woman who has already overcome so much. She’s currently being featured as a blogger on Elle’s website.

In honor of the wacky date today (which seems boring because it’s happened for the past eight years and will happen again for the next three, but won’t happen again after that in your lifetime), Threadless is offering every single one of their T-shirts for $9, which is, on average, about half off. And it’s not just the ones that they want to get rid of. It’s all of them.

Let’s start it off with a local, Emily Glaubinger, who did the pink and yellow shirt from last year’s April Fool’s Fun Ride. I guess it’s just not happening this year, but checking out her blog, she apparently had the commission to do the shirt for what would have been the Maypril Fools Ride, and seeing the shirt design just makes me sadder that the stupid economy foiled it. Here they are:

Ah, well. But anyway, Glaubinger is doing well enough for herself, with one of those select T-shirts on Threadless and all:

Aw, thanks! And it would be $25 normally, but it is $9 today. More shirts we like after the jump…

Dandy Lions

Vines

YES

When Pandas Attack

Photo and pumpkin by the lovely Alli Katz

When I was but a wee Emily G, I’d throw on whatever leopard suit or fairy dress my poor thankless mother had sewed for me to wear, impatient to get down to the business end of Halloween: ungodly amounts of candy. I mean, I could be a Ninja Turtle anytime, I only was given nigh-unlimited free chocolate for doing so one day a year.

But now that I’m an adult and a wading pool of bite-sized Milky Ways is just a walk to K-Mart away, I just want to dress up. As an adult, I spend inordinate amounts of time coming up with costume ideas, starting about a month ago, but the obsession really begins today, the day after Labor Day.

I am not talking about sexy witch or sexy kitty-cat or Michael Jackson costumes, the latter about to surpass the Heath Ledger Joker as the most overdone costume in America and the formers being eternally boring, and I’m not talking about something that comes in a plastic bag from one of those Brigadoon-ass mall Halloween stores. I love to come up with things that nobody else is gonna  be wearing, but can be done without spending a ton of cash or energy.

So seeing as how it’s no longer appropriate to wear white and I wore a jacket out of the house today, I’d like to kick off the season with the category of The Nerd Reference Costume.

Dressing as something that’s really geeky is made simultaneously easier and more difficult by the presence of conventions and cosplay and the like; it means that while you may be able to find perfect replicas of Leeloo’s orange Gaultier suspenders from the Fifth Element for sale like fifteen years after the movie came out, they’re also priced for people who will be wearing them to the next 20 conventions they go to, rather than just the once. But here’s a few ideas that don’t require too much more than some thrift-store digging and maybe a trip to the Rite-Aid:

COSTUME: Herbert West

FROM: Re-Animator

GENDER: Male

PERFECT FOR: Guys who are or know someone in med school or are in science from whom they can get an old lab coat

BECAUSE: Re-Animator is a 1985 horror movie that probably did more damage to my psyche than 18 years of Catholicism; let’s just say that the phrase “getting head” will never be quite the same after this movie. Herbert West is a mad med student who discovers the secret of reanimating dead tissue (by injecting it with what appears to be glow-stick fluid). This one may be on the obscure side, but if you are lucky enough to run into someone of your sexual preference who recognizes you as Herbert West, you are officially on the fast track to getting laid.

PROPS: Green glowstick mocked up as huge syringe, big ’80s glasses, white lab coat, white dress shirt, black slacks, plain black tie, fake blood with which to spatter self

DIFFICULTY: 3/10

COSTUME: Colonial soldier

FROM: Battlestar Galactica

GENDER: Either

PERFECT FOR: People who have nice muscles

BECAUSE: The casual outfit for soldiers is both easy to throw together from stuff you already have and very distinctive. Plus, if you’re a lady who vaguely resembles Starbuck, you can keep a cigar clamped in your teeth all night, drink your whiskey straight out of the bottle and look like the biggest badass in the room.

PROPS: Gray high-necked tank top, black racer-back tank top worn backwards, dark-ish cargo-ish pants, hexagonal painted-silver cardboard dog tag, combat boots

DIFFICULTY: 1/10

COSTUME: Pris

FROM: Blade Runner

GENDER: Female

PERFECT FOR: Women who went through a goth phase in high school or know someone about their size who did

BECAUSE: Most of the identifiable cues are in the hair and facepaint, thus leaving you to string together the clothes with whatever ratty black stuff is left over from 8th grade. It will also help if you’re very tall, bendy and able to do cartwheels.

PROPS: White and black facepaint, black studded collar, black tube top, sheer black long-sleeved shirt, black shorts, those tights with the weird built-in garters they sometimes sell at K-Mart (ripped up), big black boots, tall black leg warmers, either a poofy Bowie wig or an entire can of hairspray

DIFFICULTY: 5/10 (for the makeup/hair/cartwheels)