Category Archives: Art

The most modern-looking hair color is any shade that is most flattering to your complexion. When your hair color is right, your skin should seem to have a natural glow. It should look more vibrant and beautiful.

BLONDS. The hair color that looks the most old fashioned is frosted blond hair. This is when the highlights are too light for the base color, and will make your hair look grayish and dull. Modern-looking blond hair is more of a sunny golden shade. This shade will light up your face. If your complexion is a bit sallow or rosy, pick a wheat shade of blond. Hottest blondes: Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, Blake Lively.

REDHEADS. Red hair is the “look at me” color. This is because there are fewer redheads than any other shade. Red hair can be brighter than natural, but it must always have copper undertones. Blue reds never look modern or believable and are rarely flattering. Red hair looks best on people with pale skin tones. People with olive skin should only consider dark auburn shades. Red-hot redheads: Susan Sarandon, Julianne Moore, Isla Fisher.

Brunettes. Brunette is the new hot color. This is the color that just a few years ago almost all women wanted to change. Now they want to embellish it and make it more pronounced and outstanding. Chocolate brown is the most fashion-forward color. Brown hair made too dark so that all the natural nuances of color are covered is the most harsh and old fashioned. Brunettes should never look solid or monochromatic. Most blistering brunettes: Kim Kardashian, Megan Fox, Selma Hayek.

The look of color changes as quickly as hemlines and clothing silhouettes. What looked fashion forward just a few years ago can look out of date today. Constant small changes are the solution to staying on trend.

Welcome to the Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn’t make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!

Read more: Slidepollajax, Style News

Flowy’s still the word at BCBG Max Azria, who showed in New York on Friday morning. Keeping with his usual billowing silhouette, Azria presented a series of Spring 2011 dresses in grays, mustard, rose and black, many involving a sheer overlay. Take a look at BCBG’s new designs and tell us which you’d wear and which you’d leave on the rack.

“CHARLES LEDRAY: workworkworkworkwork” brings together over 25 years of remarkable work by Mr. LeDray, an artist who makes meticulously detailed, handcrafted work presented at an unexpected, usually small scale, using materials including fabric, ceramics, and human bone. This comprehensive survey of Charles LeDray’s work was organized in close collaboration with the artist.

The exhibition at the ICA/Boston, which will travel to the Whitney Museum in New York in November, brings to audiences the artist’s significant and fascinating body of work, work that we felt was under-recognized by the art-going public. To accompany the exhibition, we wanted to create a book that would be beautifully designed and would contribute to critical thinking about Mr. LeDray’s oeuvre. We engaged Skira Rizzoli, and Stefan Sagmeister to design it, and invited three thoughtful and engaging authors, Adam D. Weinberg, Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, James Lingwood, co-director of Artangel in London and Jen Mergel, Beal Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to contribute essays.

— Randi Hopkins, Associate Curator
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

Charles LeDray was born in 1960 in Seattle, Washington, and currently lives and works in New York. “Charles LeDray: workworkworkworkwork,” a major exhibition surveying 25 years of the artist’s work can now be seen at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (July 16–Oct. 17, 2010). The exhibition will travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (Nov. 18, 2010–Feb. 13, 2011) and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June-September 2011). The artist’s previous exhibitions include a solo show organized by the ICA Philadelphia (2002-2003); and a number of significant group exhibitions including Sculpture, the Cartin Collection, Hartford, Connecticut (2005); Past Presence: Childhood and Memory, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2005); and the Lyon Biennale, France (2000). In 1993, LeDray received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and in 1997 he was the recipient of the Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome. The artist’s work can be found in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Read more: Slidepollajax, Art Gallery, Art, Artwork, Charles Ledray, Fashion Art, Art Showcase, Fashion, Ledray, Labor Day 2010, Work, Labor Day, Labor Day Work, Books News

As if my inspiration from MTV’s The City last week wasn’t highbrow enough, this post was inspired by the one and only well-oiled, tanning bed, hair gel-fueled Jersey Shore. I wonder how that gelato shop got stuck with the Jersey Shore cast. Nothing about that can be sanitary. Nothing.

On last week’s episode, a beautifully-crafted, anonymous letter was created by Snooki and JWoww for Sammi, alerting her about her boyfriend’s misbehavior. I love nothing more than watching orange reality show stars writing. That might have been my all-time Jersey Shore highlight. However, getting involved in someone else’s relationship, when it comes to cheating, is a tough call.

Cheating now has such a presence in modern love – Elin Nordegren‘s interview is making headlines and Al Gore did something weird with a masseuse (shudder. I hope it was in the name of saving polar ice caps or growing a really bushy beard.)

Not to mention, cheaters can be exposed on national billboards, (as we saw earlier this summer), on Twitter (or just busted for coke…nice one Paris), or on Facebook. Don’t go around “liking” too many photos of another girl or you’re going to get dumped before you can say “I just checked into another girl’s pants on foursquare.”

But as a third party, what’s your responsibility? What if you’re friends with both people involved? Or just one? Or neither party really has a strong relationship to you but you hate to see the girl or boy look like a total fool?

I once made the mistake of getting involved in a situation like this. I was friendly with a girl, and knew for a fact her boyfriend was cheating on her. I sort of hinted at it with one of her friends, which turned into a crazy shame-spiral. Of course, told her friend immediately, who told the boyfriend, who called me. And threatened me. Repeatedly. Yes, he screwed up, but I’m not sure I should have been the whistleblower. Because the messenger almost always gets shot. I inadvertently took on a lot of responsibility I shouldn’t have had. It was ugly.

What I learned from that was that you should never really get involved in someone else’s relationship. But that’s really not easy, especially if it’s a friend of yours, let alone a very close one.

What do you think?

Their ascent to the top tier of New York fashion represents an important demographic shift on Seventh Avenue. At the Fashion Week that begins here on Thursday, many of the most promising new designers are of Asian descent, a group that includes Mr. Wang and Mr. Wu; Thakoon Panichgul, one of the stars of the documentary “The September Issue,” about Vogue magazine; Prabal Gurung; Phillip Lim; and Derek Lam — names that are increasingly likely to represent the future of fashion.

Read more: Alexander Wang, Fashion, Jason Wu, Richard Chai, Thakoon, Style News

Their ascent to the top tier of New York fashion represents an important demographic shift on Seventh Avenue. At the Fashion Week that begins here on Thursday, many of the most promising new designers are of Asian descent, a group that includes Mr. Wang and Mr. Wu; Thakoon Panichgul, one of the stars of the documentary “The September Issue,” about Vogue magazine; Prabal Gurung; Phillip Lim; and Derek Lam — names that are increasingly likely to represent the future of fashion.

Steve Madden has taken over a $48.8 million loan to Betsey Johnson LLC that is currently in default. SEC documents filed Thursday show that if this loan is not paid by August 20, 2012, Madden will end up owning the brand and possibly the collateral that secured the loan in the first place – namely the designer and her business partner Chantal Bacon’s personal assets, as well as the company’s intellectual property, aka its brand name.

Read more: Betsey Johnson Steve Madden, Betsey Johnson, Fashion, Steve Madden, Style News

Fall is coming and I’m more than ready for it. I’ve already put my shorts away (albeit prematurely, at least here in NYC), I impulse purchased a few fall scarves, and my nimble fingers have lead me to some serious online shopping for my favorite fall accessories… boots. I already have about 4-5 solid pairs from last year’s rotation — but is that enough? No. Am I continually finding the need for new boot elements that I didn’t even know existed? Yes. I need a thicker wedge, a tougher combat, more laces, a deeper brown, a rounder toe, a different decade of vintage, a lower heel, a higher heel… the line between need and want has now become very thin. Where do I turn to indulge my addiction?

For the timeless, rugged, androgynous look, I’m all about Frye Boots. Spit on them, drag them through mud, trek through the city in them, get them caught in a tractor — these boots look just as fantastic (if not better) five years later as they do the day you buy them. Take a look at some of the classic and fall looks:

From upper left, clockwise: Harness, Heath Tall Riding, Veronica Combat, Melissa Tall Lace
Photos courtesy of Frye

Sometimes, I must admit, I’m not particularly classic. Sometimes I want my footwear to scream look at me now! I’m tall! I’m stunning! I’m uninhibited and sexy and I have really good balance! This is when I turn to Jeffrey Campbell. Let me take this opportunity to brag that I’ve always been a wedge/platform girl — I distinctly remember showing up to my eighth grade dance in five inch black platform sandals while my peers wore pastel kitten heels and strappy sandals. I wore those platforms pretty much until college when my bestie made me toss them. Well, not even a decade later — they’re back in style, Jeffrey Campbell is working the hell out of fall, and I’m ecstatic.

From upper left, clockwise: Lita, Pixie Fur, Denmark, Two Timer
Photos courtesy of Solestruck

Of course there’s a major middle ground between classic and daring. Some of my favorites include All Saints, Aldo (yes, Aldo), Dr. Martens, Acne, Cole Haan, Bass and of course, the store we all love to hate and hate to love, the brand selections at Urban Outfitters.

As we approach Labor Day Weekend, I’d like to officially welcome you to fall footwear. Lace them up, zip them closed, shimmy into them — grab your argyle socks and cardigans and blazers and denim — welcome to the best season of them all, relish in the beauty.

Happy Shopping.