The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues

I hit another deadline on the voyage towards PhD submission last week, and in celebration bought myself some new bathers from Black Milk. I wouldn't normally mention such matters,* but they are quite monstrous, so it seemed appropriate.


*This is clearly a lie. I talk about my loot all the time.


Front:


And back:

So great. The design is taken from this poster.

The print is really good quality. I especially like the angry little fish:



You can watch the full movie here, if you're interested. The first couple of minutes give you a taste of the action:




So exciting!

I am seriously considering getting the 'Shark vs Mermaid' bathers as well.

[Via]

They have a touch of the vagina dentata about them.

The 'Dragon Snot' leggings are also tempting.

[Via]

Hm. Is it cheating to buy yourself rewards before you actually achieve your goals? Yeah. I suspected as much.

Living Shoes

On the theme of hybrid bodies, (or 'things-that-look-like-other-things-and-blow-my-mind') check out these shoes by designer Kobi Levi.

Tongue:
Cat:
Banana:
Dog:

Market trolley:
And the 'Double Boot,' which makes you look fabulously mutated:

Levi explains that his philosophy is inspired by notions of hybridism, and the independent 'life' of the shoe as an entity:

"In my artistic footwear design the shoe is my canvas. The trigger to create a new piece comes when an idea, a concept and/or an image comes to mind. The combination of the image and footwear creates a new hybrid and the design/concept comes to life. The piece is a wearable sculpture. It is "alive" with/out the foot/body. Most of the inspirations are out of the "shoe-world", and give the footwear an extreme transformation. The result is usually humoristic with a unique point of view about footwear."

I think Levi and Insa should join forces. Check out his blog for more creations.

[Via Street Anatomy]

Macho

I enjoy the man-bag.

Partly due to the simple fact that it has the word 'man' in front of it. Usually the generic form is associated with the male, while the female form requires a qualifier. Eg: 'soccer' versus 'women's soccer.'

The man-bag has perhaps evolved via the larger assumption that clothing, accessories and beauty related doings are women's business - so it hardly points to feminist principles at work. (I often notice 'men's' haircuts/shampoo being sectioned off as a special category of hair care, as opposed to the general 'hair' world that women are involved with.) Still...

For those of you who are slightly dubious, or have ever wondered the how, where, and why of man-baggery, I give you this, the manliest of them all:






So now you know.

Short of constructing yourself a handy pouch out of corrugated iron or the still-twitching scalps of your enemies, I don't see how you could out-man this bag.

I just like saying man-bag.

Man-bag.

The Jewellery of Dr Moreau

I recently discovered the animal themed works of Tithi Kutchamuch.





She says:

"Growing up, I don’t remember a time when we didn’t have some sort of animal in the house. At one point we even had peacocks, hedgehogs and a gibbon ape. Even though I’m travelling quite a lot, living in London was the very first time that I didn’t have any animals around me. I began making my first collection, A Secret Friend, a few months after I found out that my dog at my parent home in Bangkok pass away. For me animals and sculpture represent a strong sense of home. The jewellery I make is a way of bringing a piece of home with me."

Most of her work is pretty cute.

This, however, takes it to the next level:













As Kutchamuch says, she views her works primarily as loving tributes to animal friends. In the context of environmental destruction and mass extinctions however, it is hard to deny the poignancy of wearing a creature's organs around your neck. Quite a comment on our culture of consumption and self beautification. It's disturbing. I approve.

[Via Street Anatomy]

The Poo Shoe

I vaguely remember promising more grossness on this blog.

How about heels made from elephant dung?






These lovely items, designed by Insa, have resulted in the inevitable flurry of 'crappy shoe' jokes. I like to think they were intended to operate as an ironic commentary on consumerism and the fashion industry's exploitation of workers in developing countries.

Apparently these shitty heels are part of an exhibition called Bring The Noise which runs at the Tate Britain from March 14th to March 21st. If you live in London, you should definitely go check them out. Maybe wear a nose peg or something.



Perth has its benefits, but I'm really wishing I lived in London right now.


[Via InventorSpot and Trendhunter]

(Hu)Man -Thing 3

Here is another entry relevant to the human/nonhuman theme I have been posting about for a while. Dutch artist Iris Schieferstein has recently attracted attention for her creative boot-making:




Hoof shoes are apparently a growing trend, one which seems to be taking the merging of human/animal/object into fashion territory. I visited her site for more details and found an unexpected bounty; beginning with this intriguing introductory statement:

"For many years, Iris Schieferstein has worked with dead animals as raw material for her pieces of art. She joins the fragments together to [make] new creatures and thus gives a new face to death."

Schieferstein preserves animal bodies with formaldehyde, before grafting different body parts together to create new forms. This is a literalisation of the traditional 'grotesque style' of art in which bodies were assembled from assorted species and objects to create fantastical results.





Amazing. See more in her galleries here and here.

[via InventorSpot, pics taken by Stephan Rabold]

Shoes of Wrath

I'm not a big fan of super expensive fashion and general parading around. But these Alexander McQueen shoes sing to me in the language of the grotesque.





My favourite is the pair that resemble a misshapen skull. I imagine they are the kind of heels a malignant villainess might wear as she sweeps through her castle - every step crushing the bones of her enemies:


Sweet. I suspect McQueen had this image in his head also...






The thought process behind this is a little harder to ascertain:


Models are skinny. I can't tell if that's an arm or a leg. Lets assume its a leg, and those are shoes. Perhaps these will soon feature on the 'get the look for less' page of some fashion mag, showing step by step how to recreate the same effect by wrapping ones feet in brown paper. That's some authentic grotesque stylin.

(pics via style rookie and Fashionising)