5 Things to Read Instead of Paying Attention in Class

Alexander McQueen, fashion advice for kids, and 11 really weird beauty tips

By: Isabel Slone

Words for Kids who Love Fashion on Final Fashion
While much of this amazing advice is targeted at children, it’s never too late to take note. Danielle Meder offers atypical suggestions like ‘develop cultural literacy,’ when the most prevalent advice being given to kids who want to start a career in fashion is to start a blog.

How to Be Handsome: 11 Really Terrible 19th Century Beauty Tips
Prime yourself for history class with some of the head-scratchingly bizarre beauty routines of our ancestors. If you thought heated eyelash curlers were weird, you’ve only just hit the tip of the iceberg.

FATshion on XOJane.com
I am just finishing up my personal summer reading list with Two Whole Cakes by Lesley Kinzel, who also happens to write FATshion, the most on-point and hilarious fashion commentary to be found anywhere on the web.

Ryerson appoints first Designer-in Residence
Fashion and academia are relatively recent bedfellows, and Ryerson University in Toronto is blazing the trail by appointing the first ever Designer-in-Residence. What else could you expect from the only University in Canada that offers a Fashion Communications program?

The Nature of Alexander McQueen: the aesthetics of fashion design as a site of environmental change
If the title sounds really wordy and academic, that’s probably because it is. I wrote my undergraduate thesis last Spring about the significance of art to the environmental movement, and explored the significance of Alexander McQueen’s designs as examples of art. This link ties the two together into a smart and useful package: get your furrowed brow ready.

illustration // Andrea Manica

Très Click: Karl “Leather Daddy” Lagerfeld and Pussies Protesting Putin

By: Jenna Danchuk

Free Pussy Riot: The Only Band That Matters in 2012
If you haven’t heard of Pussy Riot yet, you need to take action now! Tobi Vail (yes, of Bikini Kill) had much to say about members of the anonymous collective (who were jailed for protesting the conservative Russian government) as well as their outfits: “Their uniform not only disguises their identities, it congeals their individuality into a unified set of symbols. Their neon balaclavas clash with the individual pieces of clothing worn by each girl, but also express a visual unity. Bright purple, pink, green, red, yellow and blue; one girl’s tights clash with her dress, but match another girl’s balaclava, which match a third girl’s tights, whose balaclava matches the first girl’s dress, and so on. The result is an image that is striking and memorable.”

Thinking Kink: The Politics of BDSM Fashion
Catherine Scott at Bitch Magazine recently wrote this short piece about the place of clothing in BDSM culture. These kinds of interesting discussions happen on fetish community discussion boards all the time, so seeing it moved into a venue like Bitch is exciting.

Tom of Sinland (NSFW)
While we’re on the topic of S&M, we must bring your attention to these totally ridiculous (and awesome) drawings by Bendix Bauer for Horst Magazine. Playing off the works of legendary gay illustrator Tom of Finland, Bauer replaces the beefcake hunks of yesterday, with the gay fashion icons of today.

SSION’s “Earthquake” Video
SSION is so FSHION. One can spend hours going through their video stream (I have). The best band, and the best dressed. Maybe I should be in the next SSION music video?

text by Jenna Danchuk
image by Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

Très Click: Snozzberries and Zou Bisou Bisou

By: Mai Nguyen

Field Notes on Fashion and Occupy (Part One)
Who says the fashion police don’t exist? (I’m sorry, I had to.) During the Occupy movement, protesters were targeted for what they wore. In moments of clash, clothing becomes political and as The New Inquiry puts it, “Fashion is endowed with the potential to inform a political reality.”

Podcast: Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant on CBC Radio’s Q
Hanging corpses and Zou Bisou Bisou may have been the highlights of season five but seriously, can we talk about Trudy’s nightgowns and Sally’s gogo boots? Janie Bryant sits with radio host Jian Ghomeshi to talk Mad Men’s character style evolution. Heads up, those pretending to be hard at work—the link takes you directly to the podcast. Fast forward to 39:40.

Swimwear as a Fashion Over the Decades
Hey! You look kind of cute, in that polka dot bikini, girl. And in that one-piece. And that bathing gown. In any kind of swimwear really.

What Fashion’s “Ethnic” Prints Are Really Called
Ever come across an intriguing print you wanted to know more about, only to see it frustratingly labelled as “tribal”? Stop sweating. Refinery 29 breaks it down for you in this smart glossary.

Part of this world, part of another
Gene Wilder’s got more taste than a snozzberry. Letters of Note unearthed his correspondence to director Mel Stuart in which he recommends specific sartorial ideas for Willy Wonka’s wardrobe, from the hat “two inches shorter would make it more special” to the pants “slime green trousers are icky.”

Tres Click: Pride Edition

By: wornette

JJ Levine’s Switch Project
Montreal based genderqueer artist JJ Levine’s Switch photos depict couples in different-gender dress, awkwardly posing as if at a spring formal. In these diptychs, partners change outfits, and each person gets a chance to dress as “girl” and “boy,” despite their gender identity.

David M. Halperin, “Style and the Meaning of Gay Culture”
Halperin’s recent article discusses the significance of “style” to gay male culture: “To inquire into melodrama, camp, irony, drag, bodybuilding or Art Deco as “gay” styles is to seek the content of gay culture in its practices — to describe the intervention gay culture makes in the world as it is given. Everything depends on the all-important and elusive meaning of style.”

Becoming Judy: Jonathon’s Story
Pride Toronto helped produce these short videos in which a few LGBTQ folks tell their own unique stories. Drag queen Judy Virago talks about dressing up and being queer.

Queers and Steers: Night of 1000 Dollys
This long running, country western cult party on Thursday June 28th at the Gladstone Hotel pays tribute to “country’s greatest drag queen;” Dolly Parton. Don your gaudy blonde wig, chaps, and glittering cowboy boots while you enjoy watching performers like Keith Cole, Lex Vaughn, and The Tennessee Mountain Homo Choir.

Text by Jenna Danchuk
Image by Brianne Burnell