December 2009 Numero Korea Cover & Editorial: Snejana Onopka, ph: Mariano Vivanco

Mariano Vivanco photographed Snejana Onopka for the December 2009 Numero Korea cover and editorial.

December 2009 Numero Korea cover and editorial
Model: Snejana OnopkaPhotographer: Mariano Vivanco

her time is running out, and we all know when

December 2009 Russian Vogue: Alexa Yudina, Photo: Terry Tsiolis

Terry Tsiolis photographed Alexa Yudina for the December 2009 Russian Vogue on May 19, 2009 with stylist Simon Robins.

December 2009 Russian Vogue editorial
Model: Alexa Yudina
Photographer: Terry Tsiolis
Stylist: Simon Robins
Hair: Esther Langham
Makeup: Petros Petrohilos

Planet Awesome Kid on Style.com

From style.com:
Suri. Shiloh. Violet. Apple. Don’t be embarrassed—I love ‘em, too. I may not be ready for a kid of my own, but today’s baby craze—crazy as it is—has me totally enthralled. We see pictures of these kids all the time on blogs and in magazines; I get press releases about the designers they’re wearing; heck, even in the recession, the billion-dollar baby industry is reported to be thriving. So it was only a matter of time before the little bambinos got their own Sartorialist-esque site, Planet Awesome Kid, devoted to the chicest of the chic.

Wait a sec. Do kids really need their own Sartorialist? Well, maybe not. But when the site’s founders, casting director Julia Samersova Adler and Women Model Management booker Christiana Tran, saw the hip threads the prepubescent set rocks these days, they decided to pay their tribute. “The idea for the site came to me one afternoon while chilling in the park with my baby daughter. I noticed all the fierce, cool, awesome kids all around,” Samersova Adler explains. She and Tran take most of the pictures themselves, but they do accept submissions as well. Their only rule: “We do not discriminate. Every child is a star—if they’re in the right outfit!” (To wit, many photos are accompanied by fashion credits.) And before the frivolity brigade charges in, let’s note that PAK helps to raise awareness for a very good cause: Global Action for Children. Its U.S. chairwoman? Shiloh’s mom.
—Derek Blasberg

Opium fragrance by Yves Saint Laurent: Karen Elson, Photo: Mert Alas + Marcus Piggott

Mert Alas + Marcus Piggott photographed Karen Elson for the Yves Saint Laurent Opium fragrance campaign on July 11, 2009 in London with Art Director Fabien Baron.

Yves Saint Laurent Opium fragrance campaign
Model: Karen Elson
Photographer: Mert Alas + Marcus Piggott
Art Director: Fabien Baron

girl you're so young and pretty

"We Gotta Get out of This Place", occasionally written "We've Gotta Get out of This Place", is a rock song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and recorded as a 1965 hit single by The Animals. It has become an iconic song of its type and was immensely popular among United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War.

In The Animals' rendition, the lyrics were slightly reordered and reworded from the demo, and opened with what seemed to be a reference to their industrial, working class Northern England origins:

In this dirty old heart of the city
Where the sun refused to shine
People tell me, there ain't no use in tryin'

Next comes a verse about the singer's father at the end of his life with little to show for it, followed by one of The Animals' call-and-response buildups, finally leading through delayed tension to the well-known chorus:

We gotta get out of this place!
If it's the last thing we ever do ...
We gotta get out of this place,
'cause girl, there's a better life ... for me and you

At the time, the title and simple emotional appeal of "We Gotta Get out of This Place" lent itself to some obvious self-identifications. More notably, the song was very popular with United States Armed Forces members stationed in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was frequently requested of, and played by, American Forces Vietnam Network disc jockeys. During 2006 two University of Wisconsin–Madison employees, one a Vietnam veteran, began an in-depth survey of hundreds of Vietnam veterans, and found that "We Gotta Get out of This Place" had resonated the strongest among all the music popular then: "We had absolute unanimity is this song being the touchstone. This was the Vietnam anthem. Every bad band that ever played in an armed forces club had to play this song." In America it was used as the title credits song in some episodes of the Vietnam-war-set television series China Beach.

"We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"

In this dirty old part of the city
Where the sun refused to shine
People tell me there ain't no use in tryin'

Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know

Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
Oh yes I know it

He's been workin' so hard, yeah
I've been workin' too, baby, yeah
Every night and day, yeah

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Cause girl, there's a better life for me and you

Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true, yeah
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know it

Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey, yeah
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away
I know he's been workin' so hard

I've been workin' too, baby, yeah
Every day baby, yeah
Wow, yeah...

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you
Somewhere baby, somehow I know it

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you

Believe me baby, I know it baby
You know it too

Sheila Marquez in the New York Times

From The New York Times:


Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
From left, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Christian Brylle and Sheila Marquez model a style that may have a robust future.

It’s All a Blur to Them

By RUTH LA FERLA
“I’VE heard that in Australia, men are wearing tights,” Chuong Pham said. Tights for men, he acknowledged, may be extreme. But Mr. Pham, 28, an engineer in Manhattan, thought nothing of combining stalk-slim jeans with a sweatshirt pinched from his mom and sexily sheared à la “Flashdance.” Raking his fingers through a sheaf of hair that tumbled in waves past his collarbone, Mr. Pham said: “There is a whole transition of men getting into women’s wear. It used to be that the people who did it were just the edgier ones. Now it’s much more common.”

Common enough that Mr. Pham and his forward-thinking cohort — urban Americans, mostly in their 20s — are revising standard notions of gender-appropriate dressing, tweaking codes, upending conventions and making hash of ancient norms.

“My generation is more outside the box than the generation before me,” said Brandon Dailey, 26, a hairstylist in Manhattan. “Our minds are more open to different things, and that sometimes means mixing it up in what we wear.” He may never put on a skirt, he allowed, but sees nothing amiss in working “a long drapey shirt with really tight pants.”

Audrey Reynolds, an acquaintance, was engaging in a bit of gender play herself. Ms. Reynolds, 25, who wore a slouchy biker jacket and beat-up clog boots, insisted: “Every line should be unisex. A good piece of clothing is a good piece of clothing no matter who was meant to wear it in the first place.”

At one time, such artfully calibrated ambiguity might have been the expression of a renegade mind. Today it seems scarcely more subversive than wearing black, just the latest countercultural gesture to be tugged into the mainstream. The look is androgynous, for sure — but with a difference.

During the 1970s, arguably the last time sartorial gender blending was as pervasive in the culture, it grew in part from the kind of feminist thinking that suggested girls play with Lego sets and boys play with dolls. “Now we have something new,” said Diane Ehrensaft, a psychologist in Oakland, who writes about gender. That something is not necessarily about one’s politics or sexual orientation or, she added pointedly, “about one’s core identity as a male or female.”

What Dr. Ehrensaft has dubbed “gender fluidity” remains in her view a form of rebellion. It suggests, she said, that “younger people no longer accept the standard boxes. They won’t be bound by boys having to wear this or girls wearing that. I think there is a peer culture in which that kind of gender blurring is not only acceptable but cool.”

Women have been incorporating trousers, biker jackets and combat boots into their wardrobes since Amelia Earhart swapped her pearls for a flight suit. But increasingly, it is men who are making unabashed forays into mom’s closet, some for fashion’s sake, others for fit. A few may be taking their style cues from Pete Wentz, the emo rocker who demonstrates on YouTube how to slick on eyeliner; or Adam Lambert, the “American Idol” runner-up, who has made sooty eyes and blue-black nails his fashion insignia. Others fall back on Johnny Depp.

“I came here with an idea,” Dyllan White said as he inspected his reflection at Mudhoney, a unisex hair salon in the East Village. Mr. White, 22, who is studying art therapy, wanted “something up and back, something ‘Cry-Baby,’ ” he said. He settled on a modified pompadour that recalled Mr. Depp in the 1990 John Waters movie of that name. “I feel fine about it, like a guy,” he said of his haircut. “It’s universal. It’s awesome.”

To Sharon Graubard, a senior executive with Stylesight, a trend forecasting firm in New York, Mr. White’s thinking points to a sea change. “In the streets I see young couples dressing almost alike, wearing slicked hair, peacoats, straight jeans or those longer T-shirts that are almost like a dress,” she said. Such a willful melding of men’s and women’s garb represents, she said, “a kind of evening of the playing field.”

Mingling men’s and women’s clothing, others argue, is like waving a flag of neutrality. “It’s a way of breaking down sexualized relationships, of getting people to relax,” said Piper Marshall, 24, who is an assistant art curator at the Swiss Institute in Manhattan. “I work with lots of male artists,” she added. “It’s important to find a common ground.”

Humberto Leon, an owner of Opening Ceremony, the vanguard boutique in Lower Manhattan, is one of a growing number of merchants catering to that mind-set. Lately Mr. Leon has been mingling men’s and women’s clothing with marked success. Even angora cat-print cardigans, part of a unisex line designed by Chloë Sevigny, “flew out of the store,” he said, snapped up by men and women alike.

So entrenched are the latest forms of gender blending that mainstream purveyors of hip, including Urban Outfitters and American Apparel, are offering clothing and jewelry meant to be worn by either sex. American Apparel has no fewer than 724 unisex items — hoodies, cardigans, blazers and bow ties, among them — on its Web site, simply because, as Marsha Brady, the company’s creative director, put it, “that’s the way people wear clothes.”

At a jazz club in downtown Manhattan last week, Bettina Chin and Michelle Wang drove home the point, wearing severely tailored evening ensembles that perfectly echoed each other. “I like a mannish look at night,” Ms. Chin explained as she flicked back her cuffs.

Some marketers have been quick to interpret that sort of ambiguity. Fall advertisements for Burberry show a succession of lanky, pallid men and women wearing what seem to be interchangeable coats. A model for Rolex is tricked out in an Earhart-inspired leather jacket, aviator cap and goggles.

Gender neutrality has gained traction on the runways as well. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto jettisoned gender codes long ago. More recently, designers as influential as Rick Owens and Alexander Wang have made their mark with draped T-shirts and, in Mr. Owens’s case, dresses and high-heeled shoes for men. In London, Christopher Kane lent his spring 2010 collection some swagger by inviting the model Jenny Shimizu, a standard-bearer of female androgyny, to saunter down his runway wearing a man-tailored suit.

“Today the more successful designers are the ones that try to bridge the gap between the sexes rather than drive a wedge between them,” said Karlo Steel, a partner in Atelier, a progressive men’s store in downtown Manhattan that also draws a female clientele. “Right now fashion’s pendulum seems to be swinging in that direction.”

Skeptics argue nonetheless that gender blending is bound to remain a marginal trend.
“It’s something you need to be young to do well,” said Harold Koda, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “To carry it off, you need the physique of an adolescent boy. As long as the young are the primary audience, it’s not going be economically sustained.”

Still, gender-neutral dressing has made sufficiently formidable inroads that some suggest it has a robust future.

“Obviously androgyny may not play in Peoria,” said Dr. Ehrensaft, the psychologist. “But norms are shifting.” In her clinical practice, working mostly with teenagers and elementary school children, Dr. Ehrensaft said she routinely witnesses “a kind of gender fashion parade.”

“Kids, even little kids, are experimenting across gender lines. Boys are wearing My Little Pony T-shirts, just because they like them. Sometimes they like to dress in the girls’ section because the shirts are cooler.”

Adults have long dictated the way young people dress, Dr. Ehrensaft said. “But now the young are giving us a different dictation.”

December 2009 Numero Korea cover preview - Snejana Onopka

Mirte Maas on Altamira, photo: Craig Arend

Mirte Maas, photographed by Craig Arend on Altamira:

New Olga Sherer Polaroids

December 2009 American Vogue: Ana Mihajlovic, Photo: Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson photographed Ana Mihajlovic for an American Vogue December 2009 editorial on October 6, 2009 with stylist Kathryn Neale Shaffer.

American Vogue December 2009 editorial
Model: Ana Mihajlovic
Photographer: Daniel Jackson
Stylist: Kathryn Neale Shaffer
Hair: Kevin Ryan
Makeup: Lisa Houghton

Carmen and Christophe Decarnin of Balmain

New Louise Pedersen Polaroids

November 2009 Italian Vogue: Alexa Yudina, Photo: Emma Summerton

Emma Summerton photographed Alexa Yudina for a Italian Vogue November 2009 editorial on April 26-27, 2009 with stylist Patti Wilson.

Italian Vogue November 2009 editorial
Model: Alexa Yudina
Photographer: Emma Summerton
Stylist: Patti Wilson
Hair: Diego da Silva
Makeup: Mathias van Hooff

Francois Nars

Tonight Daphne Guinness & Marc Jacobs will host a party at Industria celebrating 15 years of Francois Nars cosmetics.

My HG (holy grail) lip balm is NARS Rain - its what I talk about when I talk about smooth, moist lips.

Christina Kruse , ph: Francois Nars:


Christina Kruse , ph: Francois Nars:

Veterans Day

In the USA, today is Veterans Day. My father is a veteran of the Vietnam War and my brother is a veteran of the Iraq War. They served our country and deserve respect all year long. Because of their sacrifice and hard work I have the freedom to pursue my dreams. Their service inspires me to be a better man every day.

Veterans Day History, from wikipedia:
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978 it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11 (with the exceptions described above). Since this change, there has been a trend against being closed on the holiday. It began with businesses (excluding banks) and in recent years some schools and local governments have also chosen to remain open.

Anne V for Achilles International

Anne & Alexander Dmitriev at the NYC marathon on November 1:



Anne Vyalitsyna ran the NYC marathon on November 1 on behalf on "Achilles International" which is a worldwide organization that encourages people with disabilities like paralysis, visual impairment, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, amputations, and traumatic brain injuries to participate in running with the general public.

Anne guided Alexander Dmitriev from Russia for the entire length of the marathon. He participated in a wheelchair.

Achilles International's story:
In 1976, Dick Traum, an above the knee amputee, found himself approaching middle age and out of shape. After joining a local YMCA, Dick began running – small distances at first and then, eventually several miles. Within a year, Dick became the first amputee to run the New York City Marathon. The experience was life changing, bringing a powerful sense of achievement and self-esteem. In 1983, seeking to provide that same opportunity to other people with disabilities, Dick created the Achilles Track Club, now called Achilles International.

Today, this non-profit organization has chapters and members in over 70 countries. Every day, in parks, gyms, and tracks all over the world, Achilles provides athletes with disabilities with a community of support. Able-bodied volunteers and disabled runners come together to train in an environment of support and community. Within this community, runners gain measurable physical strength and build confidence through their sense of accomplishment, which often transfers to other parts of their life.

Over the years, Achilles has also developed specialized programs for children and war veterans. Achilles Kids provides training, racing opportunities, and an in-school program for children with disabilities, while our Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans program brings running programs and marathon opportunities to disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

While their programs focus on athletics, the truth is, sports are simply the tool for accomplishing their main objective: to bring hope, inspiration and the joys of achievement to people with disabilities. Nothing illustrates this more than their signature event, the Hope and Possibility Five-Miler. In this race, able-bodied and disabled athletes participate side-by-side and, with several disabled award categories, it puts a first place win within the grasp of all runners.

Anne has a well deserved reputation for being the nicest model in this business. Her kindness has touched me in a personal way. My uncle James, my fathers brother, died of multiple sclerosis before I was born. I was named after him. My uncle Tommy, my mothers brother, died of ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gherig's Disease last year. Also, both my father and brother are war veterans. I admire Anne for generously donating her time and energy to Achilles International, a charity that helps people with MS, ALS as well as war veterans gain strength, hope and dignity.

Anne is a real beauty - on the inside and on the outside.

Sølve Sundsbø photographed Anne Vyalitsyna for the Sonia Rykiel for H&M Holiday 2009 campaign on Sep 2, 2009 in London.

Sonia Rykiel for H&M Holiday 2009 campaign
Model: Anne Vyalitsyna
Photographer: Sølve Sundsbø
Location: Big Sky Studio, Studio #2, 29-31 Brewery Road, London N7 9QH

Women now represents Jessica Hart

Rianne ten Haken by Justin Teodoro

Rianne ten Haken, illustrated by Justin Teodoro:

Italian Vogue November 2009 video - Rianne ten Haken, Photo: Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel photographed Rianne ten Haken for the Italian Vogue November 2009 cover + editorial on July 16-17, 2009 with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Italian Vogue November 2009 cover + editorial
Model: Rianne ten Haken
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Hair Color: Laurie Foley of L’Atelier de Laurie

Diva Emanuel Ungaro fragrance campaign: Katarina Ivanovska, ph: Azim Haidaryan

Azim Haidaryan photographed Katarina Ivanovska for the Emanuel Ungaro Diva fragrance campaign on March 23, 2009 in Paris.

Model: Katarina Ivanovska
Photographer: Azim Haidaryan

Rosie Huntington Whitely - new Victoria's Secret Miraculous Push-Up Bra Commercial

November 2009 Italian Vogue cover + editorial - Rianne ten Haken, Photo: Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel photographed Rianne ten Haken for the Italian Vogue November 2009 cover + editorial on July 16-17, 2009 with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Italian Vogue November 2009 cover + editorial
Model: Rianne ten Haken
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Hair Color: Laurie Foley of L’Atelier de Laurie

music from safe

Safe (sometimes written as [safe] or [SAFE]) is a 1995 drama/thriller film written and directed by Todd Haynes, and produced by Christine Vachon.

Set in an affluent neighbourhood of the San Fernando Valley in 1987, the film recounts the life of a seemingly unremarkable homemaker, Carol White (Julianne Moore) who develops multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS, also known as "Twentieth-Century Disease"). MCS is a medically controversial diagnosis in which a person develops allergic reactions to the visible and invisible toxins found in everyday household and industrial chemicals.

Carol passes her days with activities such as gardening, taking clothes to the dry cleaners, and attending aerobics classes. Her marriage is stable but devoid of emotional intimacy, and her son is actually a stepson from her husband's previous marriage. Similarly, her friendships are polite but distant.

As she goes about her routine, she slowly begins to develop unpredictable and strange bodily reactions, such as persistent exhaustion, uncontrollable coughing (when surrounded by truck exhaust while driving), asthma-like symptoms (at a baby shower), nose bleeds (when getting a perm at a hair salon), vomiting, and eventually convulsions (at the dry cleaners).

Doctors are able to isolate only one chemical she reacts to after she undergoes an allergen test; milk, which she drinks frequently in the movie without incident. Doctors are at a loss of how to help her cope or cure her. She attends some psychotherapy sessions but does not gain any insight into her condition.

After seeing an ad at her community centre, she eventually resorts to moving to the New Age/religious retreat in the desert called Wrenwood, which is designed to help people suffering from MCS recover.

"Lucky Star"
Performed by Madonna
Written by Madonna (as Madonna Ciccone)


"Turn Your Love Around"
Performed by George Benson
Written by Jay Graydon, Steve Lukather and Bill Champlin


"Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car"
Performed by Billy Ocean
Written by Billy Ocean and Robert John Lange


"Heaven Is a Place On Earth"
Performed by Belinda Carlisle
Written by Ellen Shipley and Rick Nowels


"Whenever I Call You Friend"
Performed by Kenny Loggins
Written by Kenny Loggins and Melissa Manchester

more...more positive, like seeing the pluses

come on, don't be polite

no, no, there's time, actually

November 2009 Italian Vogue cover preview: Rianne ten Haken, Photo: Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel photographed Rianne ten Haken for the Italian Vogue November 2009 cover on July 16-17, 2009 with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Italian Vogue November 2009 cover
Model: Rianne ten Haken
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath