Psych Babes
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Perhaps it's our nation's increasingly lax attitude toward marijuana, or fashion's newfound interest in all things hallucinatory (see: Dries Van Noten, Acne and Prada's mind-bending prints or Jeremy Scott's spring/summer 2015 show, Psychedelic Jungle), but in recent months we've noticed a spacey haze in the air. And right now, it swirls the thickest around indie-pop women. Zola Jesus' avant-industrial creations are as otherworldly as they are warm and romantic; her latest LP, Taiga, out early next month on Mute, is one of our favorite new albums. Lowell, a Toronto-based former stripper turned singer, makes distorted fizzy pop that sounds like she has a bubblegum- flavored tab of acid dissolving on her tongue. On the West Coast, the video for Doja Cat's woozy R&B track "So High" features the L.A. singer on a giant lotus flower like some 4:20 goddess, while California transplant Lia Ices' track "Higher," off her new Jagjaguwar album, Ices, is a kaleidoscopic freakout. Speaking with Papermag.com recently, Ices summed up the album as a celebration of the urge to "go outside of yourself, explore and travel." Looks like fall is going to be one big trip.
Text by Elizabeth Thompson
Lowell Photo by Norman Wong, Doja Cat Photo by Michael Creagh Creative Direction by Kyle Luu, Lia Ices Photo by Jersey Walz
Perhaps it's our nation's increasingly lax attitude toward marijuana, or fashion's newfound interest in all things hallucinatory (see: Dries Van Noten, Acne and Prada's mind-bending prints or Jeremy Scott's spring/summer 2015 show, Psychedelic Jungle), but in recent months we've noticed a spacey haze in the air. And right now, it swirls the thickest around indie-pop women. Zola Jesus' avant-industrial creations are as otherworldly as they are warm and romantic; her latest LP, Taiga, out early next month on Mute, is one of our favorite new albums. Lowell, a Toronto-based former stripper turned singer, makes distorted fizzy pop that sounds like she has a bubblegum- flavored tab of acid dissolving on her tongue. On the West Coast, the video for Doja Cat's woozy R&B track "So High" features the L.A. singer on a giant lotus flower like some 4:20 goddess, while California transplant Lia Ices' track "Higher," off her new Jagjaguwar album, Ices, is a kaleidoscopic freakout. Speaking with Papermag.com recently, Ices summed up the album as a celebration of the urge to "go outside of yourself, explore and travel." Looks like fall is going to be one big trip.
Text by Elizabeth Thompson
Bigwig
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Superstar hairstylist Sam McKnight is best known for running his fingers through the hair of Vogue cover girls and creating trendsetting coiffures for the Chanel show each season. But these days our favorite McKnight moments involve the London-based legend posting selfies showcasing outrageous wigs. From the chic to the ridiculous, every tress-related creation this wizard touches turns to gold. Want more blissful wignorance? Head to Instagram and follow @sammcknight1.
Text by Mickey Boardman
Text by Mickey Boardman
To Distraction
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Cory Angel, Working On My Novel, 2014 Published by Penguin Books Ltd.
Phillips officially recognized net art when the auction house partnered with Tumblr to hold the first major all-digital art auction just last year, but Cory Arcangel has been one of the art world's OG digital hackers for a while now. At the 2004 Whitney Biennial, he made a name for himself by deconstructing Super Mario Bros. These days, the Brooklyn-based artist is turning from video games to social networks. For his book Working On My Novel, out October 8 via Penguin, Arcangel used a bot to search Twitter for the title phrase, mining tweets from hopeful novelists writing equally in Word documents and their feeds. Together, the tweets reflect a creative climate in which distractions triumph over breakthroughs. Like the book, Arcangel's latest show, tl;dr, at Team (gallery, inc.), makes a case for technology as a praxis in itself. He works with compression techniques on pop culture images, like a glitched picture of Beyoncé and Jay Z, to illustrate the process by which we consume and degrade them. In both tl;dr and Working On My Novel, Arcangel plays with the tension between technology and art, revealing what the two can do for -- and to -- each other.
Text by Gabby Bess
Cory Angel, Working On My Novel, 2014 Published by Penguin Books Ltd. Phillips officially recognized net art when the auction house partnered with Tumblr to hold the first major all-digital art auction just last year, but Cory Arcangel has been one of the art world's OG digital hackers for a while now. At the 2004 Whitney Biennial, he made a name for himself by deconstructing Super Mario Bros. These days, the Brooklyn-based artist is turning from video games to social networks. For his book Working On My Novel, out October 8 via Penguin, Arcangel used a bot to search Twitter for the title phrase, mining tweets from hopeful novelists writing equally in Word documents and their feeds. Together, the tweets reflect a creative climate in which distractions triumph over breakthroughs. Like the book, Arcangel's latest show, tl;dr, at Team (gallery, inc.), makes a case for technology as a praxis in itself. He works with compression techniques on pop culture images, like a glitched picture of Beyoncé and Jay Z, to illustrate the process by which we consume and degrade them. In both tl;dr and Working On My Novel, Arcangel plays with the tension between technology and art, revealing what the two can do for -- and to -- each other.
Text by Gabby Bess
Men to The Front
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Sibling, KTZ, Nasir Mahzar, Christopher Shannon, J.W. Anderson. Images (c) catwalkpictures.com
Sibling, KTZ, Nasir Mahzar, Christopher Shannon, J.W. Anderson. Images (c) catwalkpictures.comWe confess that menswear can be a bit tame compared to the over-the-top fantasyland of women's fashion, but on a recent trip across the pond our socks were knocked off by the wild and crazy cuteness we saw at London Collections: Men. Jonathan Anderson is crown prince of London fashion; his show explored the J.W. Anderson line's signature elegant gender bending. (The week after LC: M, Anderson was in Paris presenting his first menswear collection for Loewe.) Meanwhile, a whole crew of youngsters -- like Astrid Andersen, Nasir Mazhar and Bobby Abley -- struck us as the sartorial offspring of Jeremy Scott. Inspired by style archetypes that run the gamut from hip-hop to The Little Mermaid, this talented new crop use heavy doses of whimsy to jazz up their wearable silhouettes. Looks like there's hope for menswear after all.
Text by Mickey Boardman
Text by Mickey Boardman
Man Braids
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Grooming by Dylan K Hanson for MAC / Cosmetics at Artists at Wilhelmina Image Board NYC / Modeled by Quiller Sharratt at Major Model Management / McQ by Alexander McQueen jacket
From Silver Lake to Williamsburg, the Mission to Wicker Park, men with buns are as ubiquitous as $4 pour-over coffee. It only makes sense, then, that these long-locked fellas would eventually seek out a new 'do: braids. The nascent trend found its ambassador at this year's Emmy Awards, where True Detective director and 2011 PAPER Beautiful Person Cary Joji Fukunaga sported long French pigtail braids. Unexpectedly versatile, these thick, full-bodied plaits (don't confuse them with cornrows) have popped up on everyone from models like Willy Cartier to rappers like A$AP Rocky and Lil Wayne. Whether you're down with man braids or think they should be left to Willie Nelson, at least one major benefit will come of this fad: kids in the 2020s are going to have dads with mean braiding skills. Lopsided ponytails will be a thing of the past.
Text by Abby Schreiber / Photo by Diggy Lloyd
Text by Maggie Dolan
Grooming by Dylan K Hanson for MAC / Cosmetics at Artists at Wilhelmina Image Board NYC / Modeled by Quiller Sharratt at Major Model Management / McQ by Alexander McQueen jacketFrom Silver Lake to Williamsburg, the Mission to Wicker Park, men with buns are as ubiquitous as $4 pour-over coffee. It only makes sense, then, that these long-locked fellas would eventually seek out a new 'do: braids. The nascent trend found its ambassador at this year's Emmy Awards, where True Detective director and 2011 PAPER Beautiful Person Cary Joji Fukunaga sported long French pigtail braids. Unexpectedly versatile, these thick, full-bodied plaits (don't confuse them with cornrows) have popped up on everyone from models like Willy Cartier to rappers like A$AP Rocky and Lil Wayne. Whether you're down with man braids or think they should be left to Willie Nelson, at least one major benefit will come of this fad: kids in the 2020s are going to have dads with mean braiding skills. Lopsided ponytails will be a thing of the past.
Text by Abby Schreiber / Photo by Diggy Lloyd
Best Medicine
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Photography by Ashley Nguyen, Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions
"As late as 1967, it would have been illegal for my parents to be married in the States." Actor Tessa Thompson is placing her life in the context of her new film Dear White People, a spirited satire on America's never-was "post-race" mentality. Thompson plays Sam White, a mixed-race student navigating life on a predominately white campus where the semester's tensions culminate in a "themed" frat party complete with watermelons and blackface. Eight years in the making, Dear White People is finally hitting theaters October 17 -- just over two months after Ferguson erupted. "This is something that needs to be an ongoing conversation in America," Thompson says. "We have quite a bit further to go, and I think it's okay to have a sense of humor about that." Writer-director Justin Simien, who won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance this year, took to Twitter to road test jokes; the result is a hilariously honest script. And laughter, Thompson says, could be part of the solution. "Losing a young boy like Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin, these are serious issues. But I think [Dear White People] offers one perspective that is not so adversarial -- we are all just trying to figure it out."
Photography by Ashley Nguyen, Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions "As late as 1967, it would have been illegal for my parents to be married in the States." Actor Tessa Thompson is placing her life in the context of her new film Dear White People, a spirited satire on America's never-was "post-race" mentality. Thompson plays Sam White, a mixed-race student navigating life on a predominately white campus where the semester's tensions culminate in a "themed" frat party complete with watermelons and blackface. Eight years in the making, Dear White People is finally hitting theaters October 17 -- just over two months after Ferguson erupted. "This is something that needs to be an ongoing conversation in America," Thompson says. "We have quite a bit further to go, and I think it's okay to have a sense of humor about that." Writer-director Justin Simien, who won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance this year, took to Twitter to road test jokes; the result is a hilariously honest script. And laughter, Thompson says, could be part of the solution. "Losing a young boy like Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin, these are serious issues. But I think [Dear White People] offers one perspective that is not so adversarial -- we are all just trying to figure it out."