TI loves Super-Clever Dance Music

I've enjoyed living inside the ongoing Jackie Collins novel that is the BHH over the past few days but now my brain is starting to rewire itself into a NY state of mind. And the new soundtrack? In Flagranti's "What Are You Doing After The Orgy". The title is a lot more arch than it seems. Those very words were the title of an infamous essay by Jean Baudrillard. Smart-ass semoitic referencing NY dance music...how could we resist. Also hot from In Flagranti is "We Make Love In A House Made Of Glass" and "Nonplusultra" from the "Wronger Than Anyone Else" LP. The rest is more of the same, if not quite as witty.

Noemie Lenoir getting prepped for her VS debut!

Here's a fresh tip for all the VS groupies out there, drafting and redrafting the suspected line-up. Noemie Lenoir's hair is glossed and ready and this French belle is totally set to make her VS debut this season. Noemie is impossibly sexy in person . Trust! Plus as an extra-tip, the VS after-party is set to be at the infamous Green Door later this week in LA. It would be a very good night to drop by.

Martin Bell: Streetwise: PH: Mary Ellen Mark

I've been hunting for this documentary forever and finally tracked it down at a vintage music store on Sunset. Streetwise was directed by Martin Bell in 1983 and was inspired by a shoot in Life magazine by his eventual wife, Mary Ellen Mark and Sheryl McCall (who went to to produce the doc). Streetwise follows the lives of a company of homeless and abandoned street kids in Seattle's Tenderloin district . The grimness of the material is unrelenting, yet in the midst of the drugging and hustling and suffering , the visual elegance of the 80's era environment and style actually ends up being instructive and inspiring. It is a must add to your reference library.

"Python" trainers: Emma Hope: London

I went out to Il Sole the other night with a well traveled friend . His itenarary ranges from Brazil to Rio to London to Turkey and Paris. His sneakers caught my eye and I thought they were some limited edition version of Converse Chucks. But when I asked he told me they were actually Emma Hopes. "Who's Emma Hope?" I said. His look read "For shame!" Emma Hope is one of those ultra-cool but nonchalant little operations that you find in London (Westbourne Grove, Amwell Street, Sloan Square). Her gear ranges include bags and shoes for men and women who like that understated, private label "where'd you get that" vibe in their accessories. I'd like to brag its a discovery but Emma Hope already has a boutique in Tokyo (Rappongi Hills of course). Which means she's a major "urban nomad signifier brand." Rock on Emma!

Richard Prince:Debutante Nurse: 2003

When I get back to NY I'm heading straight to The Guggenheim for the current Richard Prince exhibit "Spiritual America" which is going to make a lot of sense after my California adventure. Who would have thought those pulp kitsch "Nurse Paintings" from the 2003 Barbara Gladstone show would have become so iconic this year. From the opening reference at the SS 08 Louis Vuitton, to the Phillips de Pury & Company November auction ads as well as the front imagery for the Guggenheim exhibit, Prince's nurses are having a major Zeitgeist moment. My favorite nurse is "Debutante Nurse". She reminds me very much of someone iconic in her own way.

LA Models Austin: The Epitome Of the LA ideal PS Austin is NOT The Saint

Back in NY TI barely pays attention to the comings and the goings of male models. Betty Sze at the day job has that beat covered, but Thursday night, on the way back from the big Motorola extravanganza, I heard the most telling tale of the strange variations you get on male models. My chaperone for the night (for I am not allowed to roam LA unsupervised) is also an eagle-eyed young model scout specializing in the male market. For obvious reasons, there is a constant influx of beautiful kids into this city . He described the story of driving down this very strip of Sunset when he spotted this face on a young man that was straight out of a Pre-Raphaelite canvas. Car lurches to a stop. He goes up to the Pre-Raphaelite saint stuck in the form of a LA rocker/panhandler. The radiant beauty is huddled on the sidewalk with another friend, so unwashed, their clothes almost seem to slow-drip an oily black substance and you can almost see the flies spinning around their heads like a halo of sorts. They have a small dog. Its ribs are showing.
"Hello," says the scout. "I think you really should model.
" Do you have a buck so my dog could get some food," said The Saint.
"You think HE can be a model?" demands the Saint's grimy companion.
"Yes I do," says the scout. "I don't have a dollar on me right now but funny enough I'm on my way to the pet store so if you stay here I can bring back some food for your dog."

The Inspiration For The Well Titled "Green Door" club in LA

Well that was a lesson in the uselessness of preconceived notions. Last night at Green Door that is. The buzz had washed up on the shores of NY in broken bits and pieces..."Johnny Zander's Friday night...jammed w celebs"... "the front room draws upon images of Parisian coffee shops" "Heidi Klum's Halloween party".When that certain LA Overlord (one of those stealth forces who quietly controls a lot of wires behind the scene) said "C'mon on down", I did just that. After the programming I got from last season's hot spot, Hyde, I expected that behind the little green door would be the typical narrow little cave of a room with sagging thrift store furniture hiding its tawdriness in the dim night club light. Scattered around the room would be the full species of 'movie industry people"... and the hanger-ons who service them. Here is where the preconceived notions flew out the door. The Green Door is not a cave. Its a damn warehouse, redone in a mish-mosh of vintage styles that completely contradicts the scale of the place. The strangeness of that is perverse. A cosy and traditional design vocabulary installed in a massive and rambling space. Very odd. Velvet everywhere.. green velvet curtains, velvet couches, brocades, striped tenting "antiqued" paint treatments on the wall. Think The Gramercy's Rose Bar meets suburban kitsch.

The Vuitton store at the MOCA Murakami exhibit: NY Times

Now that fashion endorsements by Hollywood stars are as common as ragweed, progressive fashion makers are moving on. “To be perceived as cutting edge, they must make use of a different kind of celebrity,” said Ms. Currid, the author of the Warhol book. “They need an art star.”
Ruth La Ferla in The NY Times

Interesting (and inevitable) article in the NY Times Style Section today about the Louis Vuitton Store at the MOCA/Murakami exhibit. It makes the larger point that art, like celebrity is being spliced frantically into fashion's gene pool to keep the whole thing ticking. 1000 thoughts are unspooling . What if the art booms ends abruptly? What does the fashion world wants from art apart from pretty pictures and easy cachet? Just how big is the overlap between an art audience and a fashion audience ANYWAY? It is like one gallery owner in Paris hissed "Art today is for the very rich and fashion is for the middle class who want to fool each other into thinking they are rich" . ...Just coming back to after a loooooong night of nightcrawling and will post more + a POV on LA nightlife as soon as the word machine kicks in.

I would kill your cat for this KAWS/Comme des Garcons collaboration wallet!

Major's Major New Boy Promo Poster

Jason Kanner made it a must-have in all the modeling corridors of Manhattan this morning. It's all over the blog-sphere right now, starting at MDC. Click on "original" to get your extra-large version of Major Men's super-cool "new boys" poster photographed by Joe Lally. Or as Betty Sze put it so wittly this morning, your "Majordomo Promo". True that!