Stylin' 941
NEWS
Citing hard financial times as their inspiration, a British online beauty retailer has decided to advertise in a new and vaguely terrifying way – on people’s eyelids. The concept is called pay-per-wink. People are paid up to £100 to have the website’s url temporarily tattooed onto their lids, they are then expected to advertise by winking, furiously we hope. The site’s name is feelunique.com, which works well, because their living billboards will certainly look that way. The strangest thing of all is that the eye-advertisements, when shown on the demonstration model at least, look sort of pretty.
Kira Plastinina, the sixteen year-old Russian fashion designer who inspires jealousy in even the most noble of hearts, is pulling the bulk of her business out of the US retail market. Closing almost all of her twelve stores, Plastinina, who’s $80 million dollar business was funded by her father’s food company, is reported to be disappointed with the decision, but understands that America is no longer a financially viable place to sell her designs. Along with the daughters and sons of other newly made Russian billionaires, Plastinina is known as a Bratski - an apt nickname for a girl who’s biggest design influence is Paris Hilton. We know it’s bad, but we can’t help but feel a touch of the schadenfreude.
In old but cool news, we recently discovered what the Sartorialist has referred to as “one of Japan’s best menswear magazines.” The rag’s title is Oily Boy, and its target audience is the over fifty crowd. Rather than depicting young men in expensive suits, the magazine, aimed at the normally tight-pursed retiree crowd, shows everything from slacks to sneakers. The models in the mag are older too, and the gorgeous girls they hang with are daughters, not lovers. Japan’s aging population has been a national issue for years now, so the government is extremely thankful for publications like Oily Boy, whose aim is to get the senior citizens spending again.
According to The Australian tobacco company Peter Stuyvesant is trying out a new retail model in Adelaide. Apparently supermarkets don’t cut it anymore when it comes to the sale of cigarettes, because the brand has been offering high-end fashion retailers and hair salons cash to stock their smokes. The campaign has been dismissed as cynical and sleazy, but we have to admit we can sort of see it working. Despite the best efforts of governments and health groups, nicotine remains a popular accessory, so selling it in clothes shops makes some sense. That being said, like everything else that is fun (drinking, tanning, living really close to nuclear waste dumps), it does cause cancer.
FEATURE
Re:Gifted
The festive season can be such a drag. You open all those packages, aquiver with anticipation and discover… not what you wanted. But, as my grandmother used to tell me, Boxing Day is for when you pack up crappy gifts in boxes and take them back to the store. In the spirit of making cash from product returns, we’ve written a guide to some of the gifts you really ought to give yourself this holiday period.
Raffaello
God, could we be any more sick of chocolate right now- Every one gives us chocolate, significant others, co-workers, lazy family members. Any more of the brown stuff and we’ll turn into a Cadburys commercial. Wouldn’t that be nice- Despite this coco OD, we still haven’t lost our sweet tooth, and that’s where Raffaellos come in. They’re still sugary, gooey and covered with coconut, but they aren’t chocolate. We could scoff these babies all day, but they’re so rich and creamy you only really need a couple to satisfy your sugar lust. Buy these to recover from Aunt Bethel’s pharmacy mixed sweets.
Diesel Shorts
Thanks, but no thanks on the sweater from Uncle Edward, for one thing it’s summer time, and for seconds who wears baby puke green- We’d much rather have these instead, they’re the perfect length, not too short but they’ll still keep you cool, and the fade out on the front makes our thighs look thin. They’re made by Diesel, so you know the denim is good quality, and they’ll look really nice with our strappy top from the night before when we crawl over to a New Year’s Day party.
Puma Ring-Hi Shoes
Our feet are killing us! The party season requires weeks’ worth of heels, and after the last platform related injury, we just can’t take the pain anymore. Good thing Puma made these – they’re still shiny and gold, but they feel like heaven on our worn-down feet. Honestly, it’s like walking on fluffy clouds. As an added bonus, they were originally designed for boxers, so they’re perfect for socking it to anyone who got too frisky under the mistletoe.
Miller Chill
Grape juice is all very well and good, but no one’s ever dreaming of a dry Christmas. Spend the simoleons you scored returning Lara from HR’s fancy cordials on a six-pack of Miller Chills. They’re made in Mexico – so the creators are used to beating the heat, and know how to party. And if the police tell you to stop drinking them on Bondi Beach at ten in the morning well… ok, they’re probably right, but still, this beer is delicious.
Benefit Primpcess Pack
Benefit cosmetics understand that the best gifts are the ones you give yourself – but they still make sure to wrap them up pretty for you. The Primpcess eye pack is portable and flexible, acting as a utility kit for prettying up the windows to your soul. With brushes, concealer, shadows, mascara and more, throwing a Primpcess eye primping pack in your handbag means work never has to know you didn’t go home last night… well, ok it won’t hide the smell of whisky, but it will totally destroy the bags under your eyes. The Primpcess pack even comes with an instructional guide.
TAKE A LOOK BOOK
“I do this because every day is different and with every challenge there is a reward… there is something sickeningly satisfying when it all comes together at the end of a collection. It is inspiring, much like watching a cake rise in the oven… As the heat and pressure morphs the ingredients, things begin to take form and that’s where the fun begins. Bon appétit!” Says Kat Grace of her role at Illionaire.
Asking Ben Woodcock and Kat Grace from Illionaire to sum up their inspiration for their Winter 09 collection ‘The Stranger’ resulted in song:
As Billy Joel so classically put in his 1977 song The Stranger: “We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone.”
The collection represents an alias of the designer’s real life. A piece of themselves hidden to the public eye until now. A face they have longed to try on.
Expressed in rich earthy silks, neon pop and with a deep ‘70s influence of psychedelic print and “stranger eyes” it can only be described in one way - ornamental vintage party girl come neoclassicalfuturisticonceptualisman.
Illionaire candidly presents... ‘The Stranger.’