THE UNIFORM PROJECT

i'm not sure i've i've made a post concerning this fabulous subject before, so if so i'm fucking doing it again anyways. i have been checking this blog regularly since it started. THE UNIFORM PROJECT: an amazing blog conceived by sheena matheiken where every day for 365 days, she will turn the same simple black dress into a different outfit for each day. not only is she exercising "sustainable fashion", but she's raising money for the Akanksha Foundation who sends money to slum schools in india to go towards supplies, uniforms and other needs. not only is she doing this for a great cause, but it's fucking awesome to see how one little black dress can create a different look for every day of the year. check it out!






http://www.theuniformproject.com

PARIS FASHION WEEK W. JCDC

a snapshot from the JCDC (jean charles de castelbajac) runway show as part of paris fashion week. anyone got a couple extra grand so i can please buy this?

FALL DOWN GO BOOM

can't believe i had to go out and buy an autumn jacket today! holy fuck! it's getting cooler, and windy as fuck. but thanks to h&m, i scored myself a cute little jacket for $60. and holy fuck, my hair is getting long too. TIMES ARE A CHANGIN'.

BOO!

alex brown, a fellow dead-sexy'er, took this photo of me the night of our ghost tour. look for the story in the brand new october issue of dead sexy magazine. if you look at the door, you will see axe chops in the wood. some guy tried to desperatly get into this u of t campus building to go after a guy for stealing his girlfriend. the other guy ended up stabbing him instead, hiding his body in the unfinished walls of the building, and he still haunts this place today. you can clearly see that i do believe in spooks, i do believe in spooks, i do i do i do i DO.




www.deadsexymag.com

FEATURED PEICE: VIETNAM'S BUDDING FASHION SCENE

my beautiful and talented friend who happens to be an incredible writer, artist and person in general, recently came back from a long stint in vietnam. i asked her, while she was there, to write me up a little somethin somethin about the fashion scene there. and here you have it.



What comes to mind when you hear “Vietnamese fashion”? Maybe you think of small girls with straight black hair wearing detailed outfits fished out from the markets. Or maybe you think about bold buttons, big flowers, kawaii prints, sparkles and plastic accessories. Or what about Chinese-influenced traditional textiles?

With a rapidly growing economy, Vietnam – a country of 86 million people – is experiencing an immense transformation. The middle class is growing in lieu of India and China. Vietnam is the thirteenth most populous nation in the world. It only makes sense that Vietnam’s fashion industry grows along with its economy.

Vietnamese fashion designers – such as Valenciani, Mai Lam, Dang Thi Minh Hanh, Nguyen Quoc Binh, and Thuy Diep are making names for themselves in Asian and international markets. Expect a high number of boutiques in the Dong Khoi area of Ho Chi Minh City. Textiles are one of Vietnam’s largest industries where you can find everything from cheap, synthetic fabrics to luxurious silks. Why should you care about Vietnamese fashion? Because you might be surprised by what you can find.

The fashion capital of Vietnam?
Despite Ho Chi Minh City being the biggest city in Vietnam, the town of Hoi An in Central Vietnam is where you’ll find the most clothing per square kilometre. The streets are lined with tailors, designers and dressmakers that cater to tourists.

Dresses can be custom-made for you for upwards of $25 US in Hoi An. Expect to pay more for silks and high-quality fabrics. Men’s suits go for $60 US and up. In general, the more expensive, the better.

When scouring the tiny ancient city of Hoi An, pay attention to the high-end stores such as AoBaBa, Yaly Couture and A Dong Silk for higher quality and sometimes higher prices. Hoi An town carries bargains for tourists where you can steal an $80 ready-made perfectly fitted dress, as opposed to $100-$300+ in European and North American cities.

Another side of textiles: The Hmong hill tribes
Vietnam fortunately has a variety of ethnic groups with very distinct textile production all made by hand. The most famous are the Flower Hmong and Black Hmong people of Northern Vietnam. Sa Pa town is the tourist capital where ethnic minorities sell their hand-made goods in the markets.

With its very unique textile production and indigo dying, northern Vietnam remains one of the most detail-specific and colourful regions of the country. Little girls walk around in their villages hand-stitching pieces of cloth that will soon be attached to jackets, purses, hats, scarves, and belts. Basically, this type of detail doesn’t look like anything else and is very unique to Vietnam.

If you feel the 9-hour train ride from capital city Hanoi to Sa Pa is too much, check out CraftLink which is founded by Oxfam Quebec. CraftLink promotes fair trade, community development and business skills within the minority groups of Vietnam and is located right across the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi.

The dark side of Vietnamese style
Because Vietnam is still developing economically, don’t expect everyone to be fashionable because poverty ain’t “hot”. But it is one of the few countries where girls will wear high heels in rural villages, and glittery, studded, labelled pants amongst the fading t-shirts of farmers and impoverished people.

Despite the growing rich-poor gap, Vietnam remains stylish in its own special way. Tourist-heavy areas and large cities include Vietnamese girls who incorporate glitz, glam and Asianness all in one. Vietnamese fashion tends to copy styles from South Korea and Japan. Head to a Japanese shopping mall such as Zen Plaza in Ho Chi Minh City and you will be surprised by how much quirky, avant-garde clothing you may find.

Many of the things I tried on in Vietnamese markets were too small, too flashy, or too cheesy. I guess I’ll never be Asian enough for Vietnamese fashion, but at least in Hoi An I can have a personal tailor. Peace out, shopping malls! Never again!

--


Erin Pea is the creator of Too Rude e-magazine. She lived in Vietnam for 3 months in summer 2009 doing a communications and design internship for an education company. TOORUDEMAG.BLOGSPOT.COM

KARAMEL SNEEK PEEK

here's the official sneak-peek video for dead sexy magazine's music feature, KARAMEL. check it out!

song of the day

in my life by the beatles

HOLT RENFREW TIFF PARTY

if you recall me recalling my experience at the holt renfew tiff party a few weekends ago, here's video evidence. hit the 1:50 mark for a look at my pudgy face.

CRAZY IN LOVE?

my friend brought to my attention this ridiculous article on this site DIVINE CAROLINE, titled "Nine Romantic Comedy Stars Who Need Restraining Orders". read it, or at least give it a good scan. i can see what she's trying to do here, but it's just fucking goddamn stupid.

i guess i have an opinion on everything, sure, but if there's one thing i'm really passionate about it's romance. sadly, being a single woman in her almost mid-twenties, i've seen with my own eyes since i began dating that romance has clearly died. love is different from romance, yes, but i'm talking good ol' gentlemanly chivalry. judging by this ridiculous article, it's shown me that these days to have any passion towards anyone anymore makes you nuts, or my god even worse... desperate! GASP.

what happened to the john cusack's who stand outside of your window with a boom box? what happened to our duckies who would do anything for the woman they love, even if that means giving them away? people always watch romantic comedies and sigh, whining to their guy friends or girl friends that they wish someone would do that for them. but when it comes to the dating game, it really IS a game. you never want that special person know that you care too much, because we're afraid of looking rediculous. we don't want to show that we care too much, because that would be just pointless. we'd never do anything "out there" to prove to that boy or girl just how much we love them because, well, what if they don't feel the same way? oh the humiliation.

fuck that.

does anyone else realize that they only live once? who the fuck cares if someone shuts you down, it's part of life. it's part of growing up. you can only ever get what you want if you try, or at least ask. pining away for someone, but you're too scared to tell them? tell them. say what you need to say.

being in love, being a passionate person and just plain feeling the way you feel should never be something to tuck away because you're scared of looking lame. i prefer a man who's forward, passionate and straight up. if you ask me, men who avoid those things are a waste of time.

people, stop playing games with your hearts. stop the mind games. ladies be ladies, and gentlemen be gentleman. bring back the beautiful days of courting and romance. fuck, bring back hand holding. i haven't held a boys hand in years. the beatles wrote a goddamn song about it. we went from boys pinning to hold a girls hand, to guys like FLO RIDA wanting to dry fuck a girl in a club. hand-holding to blow-jobs. chivalry shouldn't have to die. romance shouldn't have to die.

gentleman, where are you?

ICELANDISH

reminiscing back to 2007 when christopher huggett and myself, when we were called MODELE, recorded our first full-length together at green house studios in reykjavik, iceland. greenhouse is owned by valgeir sigurdsson, who for many years has produced nearly all of bjork's albums. she frequently records there, and i'm pretty sure sigur ros, mum and radiohead have as well. i hung out with valgeir a lot while there, and the studio was absolutely beautiful to be inside every day for two solid weeks. valgeirs' younger brother mio was actually the lad who produced us, and it turned out great. we made good friends, had good times, and even being away from our families for easter, valgeir invited us to stay for a delicious lamb chop dinner. antony hegarty, from antony and the johnsons, came over one day to hang out too. he's really awesome. nico muhly was around a lot as well, and he was a barrel of laughs; a new york composer who often works with bjork. they seemed to all be at the studio the week that we arrived due to bjork was playing her first concert in five years in reykjavik. i went to that concert. it was insane.

to look at the gorgeous studio i recorded in, check it out here: http://greenhouse.is/

get up off of that thang.

i finally like my hair a lot again.

IN CROWD

haven't been to an in crowd event for two weeks! i'm loosing my shit! find me there this thursday.
in the meantime, i'm not sure if i posted this. this is from week 2 of the in crowd parties; i don't show up until about 1:35, but i'm wearing all black, got my straight bangs and dancing with a beer. and apparently the only mom-like loser who dances with a purse. it appears as if i'm suffering from body spasms, but my friends, that's my dancing. enjoy.

The In Crowd @ Tattoo Rock Parlour [27Aug09] - 02
by alapino

OOH MAMA

probably one of the most beautiful women i've ever seen in my life.



more amazing photography at http://www.yvanrodic.blogspot.com/

CLOTHING FUCK

my bank account is going to hate me. i bought a lot of stuff today! made an early trip to value village with my pops this morning. found myself a cute little dress and a pair of faux beatle boots for ten bucks. at work, there's some promotional shit going on so i got a new skirt and dark green tshirt body suit for super cheap.

new shit!

NEW OBSESSION

Poladriod is the answer to all of you sobbing, Polaroid missing photo nuts like me. It's obviously not quite the same, due to the real beauty of Polaroid film is holding your picture in your hand immediately after taking it, but this way you can get the look and feel and share it with your friends online. Poladriod is a program you can download for free HERE and once downloaded, pops up on your desktop as a mini Polaroid camera. Simply chose any of your favorite photos already saved onto your computer, and drag it on top of the camera icon. Within a few minutes, you watch your picture develop as a Polaroid! I've got a little collection going on that I'll be adding more and more to every once and a while at shirk magazine's official FLICKR page. Fuck, I love Polaroids.




visit shirk magazine's flickr here

HOT OR SANE

jokingly, i made my facebook status "hot dudes aren't straight" both as a joke and... okay, with a little hint of truth. it grew into a debate as my guy friends protested. the conversation changed as someone added "or sane" to the end of my status statement. as my fellow facebooker's added their two cents to it, my friend lana made a good point that i agree with:

"It's like the formula when you're creating something for someone: they can pick two of three choices -- good, cheap, fast. Same goes for men, only it's hot, straight, sane.
If they're straight and hot, they're crazy
If they're straight and sane, they're rarely hot,
and if they're hot and sane? Gay as a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide."

so then i thought, ain't it the truth. you've gotta pick one; HOT OR SANE. another friend made another good point; it really depends on your personal definition of both. so here i am, right now, about to give you the pros and cons to dating a hot or a sane man, and why it seems virtuously impossible to find a man who's both.

clearly the definition of "hot" starts with physical beauty. i like a good looking man. but i'm not into your typical movie star looks; no no. i like strange features on boys, without crossing the lines of extra toes, unibrows and missing teeth. nerdy haircuts, boney legs and freckles are nice. all i'm saying is, you don't have to be drop dead gorgeous (in the terms of how society defines it), just give me a sweet and sincere smile, a nice hair cut and the ability to maintain cleanliness and i'm happy. i also define "hot" with the things that come along with the physical attractiveness; what he does for a living, his hobbies, interests etc. more often than not, if you find a guy with something in common with you, you can completely forget about what he even looks like, am i correct? it no longer matters. the connection... dare i say, bond, is what's important. but let's not remember a lot of women are just as interested as men are in having a good piece of arm candy; a hot boyfriend that you want to stare at, kiss and love long times. a lot of people allow themselves to look past the bad parts of a relationship based on how hot their other is, and how good the sex is. we are all guilty of this. then comes smarts and sense of humor. these things are a must. most hot guys either have these things, or are really good at pretending that they do. then there's the confidence! and that, my friend, is the big killer. nothing is sexier than a confident man. sometimes even cockiness can be hot, to a degree. i think hot guys are a lot smarter than we take them for; most of them are completely aware that they're good looking and thus can pretty much get away with anything. so that leads to:

CON assholes. most of the hot boys are assholes. i would know, because i've dated all of them in existence, and they were the worst of the bunch. a lot of them are used to getting what they want, getting the attention they want, and they crave it. they will do anything for that constant stroke of ego, and this is why hot boys fuck around. sometimes it feels good to feel like you scored a guy who probably wouldn't have any problems getting any other girl, but once you're with them... it's hard to trust them. strangely, even though we want to think otherwise, hot guys have insane insecurity problems. thus the need for attention. going to a lot of parties, posing in a lot of photos, hanging around a lot of girls. this is what they love, crave, and need. just your typical spoiled brat syndrome turned into an adult issue.


so then we turn to the sane man. but is it really any better?


my definition of "sane" isn't just about having a normal chemical balance in the brain, it goes way deeper than that. to be a sane guy is to be normal. a guy without insane ego issues, anger management or dick-head tendencies. the worst case scenario is the "man-baby"; the guy in his late 20's who still acts as if he's 14. he completely lacks communication skills, runs and hides from having to deal with mature issues and refuses to tell the truth; in most cases this is the "hot" man. the normal, sane man has to be unafraid. kind. thankful. respectable. all of these things are lessons we learn throughout our life that we either put into use, or don't. i've learned, from being raised by a loving family and having wonderful friends, that it really pays off in others lives and your own to treat everyone the way you would want to be treated. this is a key thing to remember. treating a woman with respect isn't just a major turn on for us chicks, but it's a given; every man should learn to put this into practice if they aren't already. to be sane is to, and i repeat, love, respect, cherish, understand, thank people who love, respect, cherish, understand and thank you. men, or should i say "boys", tend to learn this lesson late. but a lot of good dudes just understand this. lets face it ladies; most of the sane, normal guys are men we have as friends. they treat us well, are super awesome gentleman to us and everyone else, and are always there when we need someone to talk to, goof off with or have a few beers with. most of all, we trust them. thus:

CON these trust worthy guys tend to get walked all over on by women. it makes me sad, because i'm pretty sure i'm guilty of that. all women are! women go through phases too; they want the bad-ass, or the guy who makes them work for something and gives them a challenge. sadly, for that, i am maaajorly guilty. remember the whole confidence thing? a lot of nice guys don't have it, or have trouble with it. can they step up to the plate? get what they want? we want a guy that will argue back, but to a degree... and sometimes that fine line is what matters most. but a lot of nice guys don't even want to try pushing that line! well, what is it then? it's the allure, the sexiness that a lot of good guys don't have. every woman wants a hint of cockiness, a hurdle to get over, or a challenge. sometimes when a man doesn't call, sure it drives us nuts, but it's sort of thrilling. we don't want it to be too easy. sometimes they look like super nerds, too. let's remember that.


so, in conclusion? i thought men were difficult to understand. women really are hard to get; I'M FUCKING HARD TO GET AND I'M ME.

we want a man who we can trust, but we want something to fight for.

we want a man who treats us well, but isn't afraid to tell us when we're being stupid.

we want a man who's cute as a button, but for some reason doesn't know it.

why are we so fucking difficult?

clearly, you can think what you want, but these are my incoherent ramblings. after piecing together experiences from my past and present, are the only ways to classify men into two simple groups. i'm not saying all hot boys are assholes, and i'm not saying all nice guys are pussies. but how come that's what it's been for me my whole life? all i can say is if there's such thing as an in-between group... prove me wrong.

KANYE WERST

FEATURED

yours truly was featured on SHE DOES THE CITY! check it out...
here!

HARD DAYS BRITTNEY

what happens when you combine a boring sunday night, beer and adobe illustrator.

500 DAYS OF ZOOEY

having seen the lovely 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, i was quite taken by lead actress zooey deschanel (she's the one who inspired me to hack off my bangs after seeing it). she's so mother fucking sweet in real life, but through out the film she had some of the cutest little outfits i've ever seen. here are my four favorite outfits that she wore in the movie, and i've taken my own little twist on some of the pieces so to create my own outfit versions. stay cute, zooey!

500 Days Of Zooey by british featuring Forever21

SHIRK MAGAZINE PRESENTS

SHIRK'S GOTTA TIFF WITH

saturday night, my lovely and talented friends adamo ruggiero and lauren collins offered me their extra pass to attend the exclusive holt renfrew toronto film festival party. so i went. it was fun to drink lots of free beer and eat a lot of tasty treats that made my mouth explode with saliva. sweet sweet saliva. being famous must suck sometimes. aside from the free stuff, cool parties and cool people, there are a lot of lame people. i feel bad about the whole kiss kiss bullshit, and there was a fuckload of that at this party. but there i was! a nobody, just enjoying the free beer and cigarettes on the rooftop patio. i kid, i kid. i was glad to have been invited. adamo and i head up to the rooftop patio for cigarettes and the only people aside from us were coco rocha and her bf having an iphone light saber fight. priceless. hung out with dan levy for a bit, ate more food, watched the stills play. the personal highlight of the evening of mine would be when alexa chung took to the stage to dj. all i can say is she played love cats by the cure and about three beatles songs. i think i love her even more now, which seems impossible considering how much i loved her to begin with. good times.

TRUTH

i'm wearing this. right now.

it's true

SHIRK MAGAZINE PRESENTS

shirk magazine's guide to being young and going to


DAY ONE
jen (you all know her) and myself ventured to the famous niagara on the lake for a three day vacation celebrating jen's 24th birthday, the end of the summer, and plain old doing something random for the hell of it. we had stayed at the king george inn, right along the harbor, which included a free ride on the whirlpool jet boat tours. i'll get more into that later. our first day there, we hopped on our bikes and road up-hill to where the majority of the wineries are located. jens family are members of the pellar estate winery and because of that we had free tastings and wine tours (pictured to the left). we basically stood around the bar drinking as much of everything as we could get, plain and simple. we even had a quick hour long course on pairing wines with foods. it was fun, but jen had to pee the whole time.


after buying a $13 dollar grilled cheese sandwich, and barely peddling back home considering jens brand new fold out bike was completely fucked, we finally made it, went back to the motel (which looks like the ghost of the mom from leave it to beaver decorated) and drank some more! you'll see that this is an on-going theme throughout this article. we dressed up and head out to dinner at a little place i think called the niagara grill. there we met a really cute waiter who seemed relatively nervous to be serving us, it was endearing. it was one of the best dinners either of us have had in ages. before the bill came, jen was betting me to ask him out for a few drinks. i pussed out, never got his name, but i decided that his name was steve. we head down the street for a few beers at the niagara harp irish pub hoping there would be some younger people there. no. the youngest person was our bartender, who was a delicious little ginger, and whom i ended up terrifying when he overheard me say "my grandfathers penis inverted itself back into his body". i don't even remember why i said that. we got really drunk, yadda yadda, ran through a grave yard. was a good night!






DAY TWO

hung over, i cracked open another beer and watched TYRA as jen got over her super killer headache. we finally got our shit together, walked into town, had a great cheap breakfast in this little cafe (which is good, considering food is not cheap at all in niagara) and walked about afterwards. when it comes to the shopping, let's be honest, it's pretty bleak. most people who live there or stay there are older, and most of the time senior citizens. lots of old lady shops. but we found a random little shop that sold random trinkets and i got myself a niagara snow globe to add to my globe collection. we walked back home, drank some more (!!!) then ran down for our whirlpool jet tour. here's what jen looked like (pictured left) afterwards. it was pretty much like being dunked into the lake for the boat goes over rapids and absolutely soaks everyone on board. it was totally amazing.

once we got back the motel, hot showers were key. we changed, and went to this place for dinner. it was absolute shit. it started with an e. overpriced, bad food. we then head over to the ANGEL INN; a bar that our ginger bar tender told us to go if we wanted to find a younger crowd. this was not the case at all. as a matter of fact, we ended up leaving the bar with two old men over 60. i'm not kidding. one of them only had one arm, and one of them looked like vincent price. it was the one armed man, mark, who said he knew definitely the place where all of the younger kids go. it was called "the sports bar", hidden away in the middle of a random residential block north of the main strip, and as soon as we walked in: YOUNGSTERS.





from there, we walked into the bar. who was there? STEVE. our waiter from the night before! funny how things work out. also there was a dude i saw the night prior who i dubbed matthew mcconaughey. jen walks through the front door of the place, sees steve and goes "STEVE!" he turns around and goes, "um, it's sean actually..." within an hour, everyone in the bar knew who we were and were partying with us. at the stroke of midnight, everyone yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!" and copious amounts of beers and shots were thrown in her direction. it was a scene from a fucking movie. one armed man offered to take us back to our motel, so we got back safely. as i'm saying bye to mark, jen runs off down the street in glee. i later found her on a picnic table. took her upstairs, and she hit the bed like a ton of bricks. SHE HAD A GOOD NIGHT.






DAY THREE

more hungover than i think i've ever been. wanting to die, but thank god we found that sports bar. it might not have been the same. and to bring this trip to possibly the best ending that could have ever happened, jen and myself finally pull ourselves out of bed and hit the road. we're wearing sunglasses, in pain, and ready to be home. as we're driving down the main strip, i go "oh look, we're coming up to that restaurant where we had that excellent meal... oh... oh, wait a second..." and we both notice that STEVE AKA SEAN is working on the patio, it's completely full and the majority are rich old white people. i roll down the window, his back to us, and yell out "BYE SEEEAAAAN!" he whips around, all eyes on him and before he could react to jen and i waving to him with huge smiles on our face, we peeled out. we were laughing so hard, jen had to pull to the side of the road. we grabbed some mcdonalds fries to congratulate ourselves on being awesome, and head home. we were both fucked for the rest of the day.




so what did we learn here? you can have fun in niagara. a shit load of fun. you just need some spending cash if you want to eat well, but find a cheap place to stay. you're not going to spend too much time in it anyways unless you're drinking, on the patio (where jen and i usually were) or hungover in bed. also, get friendly with the locals. ask questions, and don't be afraid to investigate! fuck, if we had never met the one armed man we would've been at the boring old angel inn, still talking about road head with our female bartender. it's a good escape; close to home, but still far away. relaxing and chills. the perfect end to summer, and one of the most hilarious (and drunken) trips i've ever been on. woo!