What I Wore

Blood Ball 2017

In honor of Mary Blood

and Vampires everywhere.

Winner of best dressed.

What I Wore

Dark and romantic glamor. 

MAC Cosmetics "Deep With Envy" lipstick.

What I Wore

This spring, I really want to experiment with color. While I usually only wear black or deep shades of olive, royal blues, or blood reds, I have started to invest in garments that are bright, to contrast with all the darkness. Shocking oranges, hot pinks, fuchsias, electric blues, and healthy greens are colors I'm attempting for spring. These bright hues mixed in with my usual oversized jewelry and slick blacks will create a 1980's inspired style. The 1980's are back in fashion, there's no denying it. And I for one, am the most excited. Look at Louis Vuitton's eye makeup, Céline's bright car coats, Valentino's vibrant frocks, and Balenciaga's saturated offerings for Spring 2017 inspiration.

Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2017 Ready-to-Wear Review

     Demna Gvasalia's been at Balenciaga for more than a year now, and this latest collection for Fall/Winter 2017 combined codes of the house and modern twists into something relevant.  Because fashion is certainly a reflection of our times, rather than something that is just decorative, it must be understood that this Balenciaga show in context provides us with a way at looking at fashion and dressing that is relevant to today and next season, integrated with the world. Luxury and glamour must serve a purpose in the world we live in. Today, that world is technology obsessed, thus the fashion should integrate technological advancements to benefit the wearer. Gvasalia took that idea and made it more abstract: warping technical fabrics with couture fabrics for the modern woman. There were motifs of the automobile industry, with car interior mats as skirts and belts, broken rear-view mirrors as clutches, and flags wrapped around the "knife" heels models strutted down in. High fashion today is definitely made the same way cars are manufactured. Mass production and lack of laboratory experimentation dominate both industries.  Tweed, high shoulder skirt suits, and men's shirting played the major role. Then came the brilliant twisting of coat fastenings, skirt constructions, and thick belting. Suiting gave into hyper floral fabric dresses in velvet, and variations of street-ready pieces mixed with couture like fabrics and embroideries. In fact, back when Cristóbal Balenciaga was designing, he was celebrated for creating haute couture that wasn't stuffy, but absolutely incredible and modern, using the highest quality fabrics he could get his hands on. For this show, Gvasalia put his viewers in a massive industrial space, several times larger than needed for a runway. For the last nine looks, actual haute couture pieces reinterpreted by the current team paired with modern bags, sunglasses, and nylon boots paid tribute to the brand's 100 year anniversary. Those "Bazar Shopper" bags came in coordination with the evening wear in an ironic and modern twist. The idea was that because the Balenciaga woman is so busy being modern, she has to carry her life in a bag that weighs twice as she does around with her to galas and ceremonies. Though it would be fabulous to see these bags on the red carpet, the daring combination of gown and tote may only present itself in the editorial pages of a fashion magazine.

Comme Des Garçons Fall/Winter 2017 Ready-to-Wear Review

     Rei Kawakubo's iconic work for her line, Comme Des Garçons, is going to have the highest honor a fashion designer can have: an entire exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In fact, it is so important that Kawakubo is only the second living designer to have this happen to. The first was Yves Saint Laurent back in 1983, when Diana Vreeland was the one making the decisions at the Costume Institute at the Met. If you have followed any of Kawakubo's hard work over the last forty years, you would understand why the Met made such a statement with this forthcoming showcase. It is because Comme Des Garçons itself continues to create statements with every breathtaking collection. Every garment is soaked with art and history references, and abstract exploration of physics, the human body, and the human will. This fashion show collection in particular looked back at the evolution of Comme Des Garçons as well as what the brand means today. Starting off with a retelling of "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body", the memorable collection of Spring/Summer 1997 in stark white, rather than the brand's usual black, shows the boldness right off the bat. Evolving from pristine, sculptural shapes, the materials began to develop and whirl around the body into the essence of a floating mannequin form made from industrial fabrics. The mannequin form took off on its own to evolve into hard faux leather, paper, metal, and blood collages that engulfed the body. This is clothing as armor, as insulation, and as a part of human DNA. In fact, it was the blend of the natural world, the industrialized world, and the world within our human bodies that Kawakubo was playing with, mostly. Rather than looking back and self-referencing through a vast archive to celebrate this milestone,  Comme Des Garçons instead chose to keep pushing new ideas as if nothing has really changed. This collection thus solidifies Kawakubo as a powerhouse and one of the greatest designers of our time. Which is reason enough to put her work into the sphere of a Met exhibit, opening this May.

Undercover Fall/Winter 2017 Ready-to-Wear Review

     Undercover by Jun Takahashi was the best fashion show of the Fall 2017 season, hands down. Viewers cried, cheered, and raved at this spectacular display of fashion theatricality. It transcended all other shows this time around based solely on its ability to create a fantastical world in reaction to the world that is currently crumbling around us. Takahashi envisioned a "Utopie", a future where society developes into 10 archetypes, living in harmony, like bees in a colony. There were the aristocrats, the wardens, the soldiers, the young rebels, the nomads, the clergy, the agitators, the choir, a "new species", and the monarchy. Each division, or "acts", as they should be referred to as, were statements of silhouette, fabric mixture, draping, and color theory. Oversized ruffs, cornettes, horns, billowing military jackets and puffers, knee high stomping boots, fabricated wings, and headgear galore blended the collection's reoccurring themes of history, futurism, and nature together in perfect synchronization. And that just what Takahashi wants in the future. In this world of uncertainty and increasing nationalism, perfect synchronization of the world should be a concern for all national leaders. This Undercover performance should remind everyone that we are all human; though we differ in life goals, strengths, and weaknesses, we all can live in harmony and put our differences to good use, where equality reigns as the monarch, rather than a system of government based on fame, wealth, backstabbing, and fear. Takahashi certainly saw inspiration from insects, which all live and depend on each other for survival. Bee and ant colonies cannot thrive without organized equality. A queen mother bee is just as important as the worker bees going out to pollinate. 

What I Wore

     Here's a few full shots of the original look I wore for my Chronicle interview. I went out of my way to capture the look in a different setting a little while after the article was published. Currently, I've been trying more makeup looks to go alongside my outfits. These photos were taken in Boystown, a neighborhood in Chicago boasting many great shops, cafes, and clubs. The neighborhood is home to a LGBTQ+ community bursting forth with creativity. I love going to Beatnix, a store specializing in costume and drag clothing, jewelry, and shoes, Taboo Tabou, an upscale boutique specializing in sensuality, and Ann Sather Restaurant, a great place to have brunch where the staff is friendly and the food is as incredible as the ambiance. If you are ever in Chicago, you ought to take the Red Line to Belmont, and explore the neighborhood. You won't be disappointed by what you find!

Men Who Wear Makeup Article

     The Columbia Chronicle is a multi-award winning publication based at Columbia College Chicago. It is a newspaper I have been obsessed with since I found out about Columbia College Chicago, circa 2012, about a year before I started my own website. Don't let the fact that the Chronicle is a college newspaper sway your opinion. Every single issue of the Chronicle pushes to expose the facts about Chicago, Columbia College, and national issues. It is a progressive newspaper that conveys raw stories, humorous and intellectual opinion pieces, and riveting photojournalism throughout its pages. That is why it was such an honor for me to be interviewed by Zoë Eitel, the Chronicle's Managing Editor. The discussion: the emerging men's beauty industry. Zoë asked me about what it's like being a man who wears makeup and who my inspirations are. I implore everyone to check out the article, as it asks founders of men's beauty brands as well as other Columbia students what they think about men who wear makeup. Simply click on the image of the article above and read on!

Urban Outcry

     Nearly four weeks ago, a friend of mine named Emma Siewieski offered to photograph me around Chicago. Emma's website Urban Outcry catalogs her photography work as well as invites Chicago artists to collaborate with her. I enjoyed the shoot and she captured high quality pictures that show my style. I encourage you to follow Emma's work on her Instagram and to contact her on her website if you are a Chicago-based creative.