Madonna: Like A Virgin All Over Again

The last time we saw the "material" girl on the cover of Interview Magazine was in April 2008, where she was holding onto the cords on a corner of a boxing ring, wearing black Chanel boxing gloves, high-heeled lace-up boots and a gilded "champ" belt with a big "M" emblazon on the front. Photographed by none other than Steven Klein. Now Madonna is back for the double-cover May 2010 edition shot by the dynamic duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by Karl Templer. Unlike many artists of her generation, Madonna has this uncanny ability to reinvent herself time and time again imposing her very influential persona in the entertainment, music and fashion realms. Now a mother of (how many kids now?) and still appearing as rebellious and controversial as ever, she reveals to Milk's Gus Vant Savant on her initiatives to build a school for underprivileged kids in Malawi, which is where two of her kids were adopted from:
"He's (Jeffrey Sachs) starting a global education initiative, and I'm going to be his Girl Friday, so to speak. We're holding a press conference to talk about the school for girls that I'm building in Malawi. It's kinda our way of making sure that every kid has a chance to have an education-more specifically girls, but boys as well. Girls, though in a lot of developing countries don't have the opportunity to go to school, nor are they encourage to go to school, so what we're doing is the beginning of a dream. But I'm going to Malawi for lots of reasons".
Not only Madonna is unquestionably musically gifted but she also seems to have a noble heart and a humanitarian side, as well. And that's admirable. I think she recognizes that as several celebrities and public figures, she is in a platform to help those who are not as privilege as her, and seeing that generous side from such an icon is great to watch. Furthermore, Madonna continues on and talks about his first encounter with a gay man, staples in her lengthy career: 
"The character that Richard E. Grant plays in the film I directed, Filth and Wisdom (2008), is this blind professor who was based on my ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn. Growing up in Michigan, I didn't really know what a gay man was. He was the first man-first human being-who made me feel good about myself and special. He was the first person who told me I was beautiful or that I had something to offer to the world, and he encourage me to believe in my dreams, to go to New York. He was such an important person in my life. He died of AIDS, but he went blind towards the end of his life. He was such a lover of art, classical music, literature, opera".
She also confess that she felt at "home" when she stepped into a gay club for the first time:
"He (Christopher Flynn) brought me to my first gay club -- it was this club in Detroit. I always felt like a freak when I was growing up and that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't fit in anywhere. But when he took me to that club, he brought me to a place where I finally felt at home".
It wasn't not that long ago when I heard Lady Gaga say the same exact words in the Ellen DeGeneres show, "I felt like a freak when I was growing up" and I'm not surprised these two women felt that way growing up in a conservative or/and secluded environment. I believe great artists, whether in music or fashion, have traditionally found road-bumps and major obstacles when growing up, trying to express themselves in a world where they are commonly misunderstood. It's a shame that the world we in live in today, or certain parts of it, have not reached up to a level of tolerance, acceptance or have no sense of being open-minded. Madonna also touched on the idea of collaborating:
"I quite like the idea of collaborating in general. Not only is it lonely to do things on your own creatively, it's also kind of arrogant. I guess some people are great enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with the fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, "That sucks" or "You're crazy" or "That's cheezy" or "What do you think of this?" If anything, it helps you understand what you believe in and what you're passionate about and what is shit. I think it's important to have a  sounding board."
Furthermore, she briefly talks about a very influential person in her career, Seymour Stein, vice president of Warner Bros. Records: 
"Oh my God. Yeah, of course. he believed in me. Seymour Stein is the person who signed me in and gave me my first record deal, which was my only record deal I stayed at Warber Bros. until five minutes ago. He listened to my demo. He was in the hospital, he had me come in to visit him. He was hooked to all these weird devices -- I don't know what was wrong with him. But he made me bring my boom box and play my music for him. He was laying there in his boxer shorts and a wife-beater. But he was a champion during the first decade of my career. So he's a very important character".
I hope you noted she mentioned "boom box" so you can imagine how long  ago this encounter was. 

The two covers look amazing, sort of reminiscing to what they did to her "boy-toy" Jesus Luz, but the one on the left, where she's holding a crucifix right in front of her face looks more enticing, like an iconic Helmut Newton photograph. I like this red crossed seemed on the center, which I thought at first looked like blood. I just love the two covers, very strong photographs that make two very strong covers.

The video clip below is the behind-the-scenes of the shoot with the aforementioned photographers and stylist. I mean how many people you know who get a "behind-the-scenes" video of their cover? Well besides all the Vogue celebrities. And isn't the music in the background so hot?

The fashion spread looks as good as the two covers. As I mentioned before, I love the idea of the whole thing being black and white as a backdrop and having Madonna pose as seductive and daring as ever. I really like the attitude and strength of the pictures, I mean what's not to love Madonna in Dolce and Gabbana? One thing that caught my attention besides her amazingly well-kept figure (the woman is 51 years old, I know women half her age and don't even look as good as her) is the use of the crucifix. The religious symbolism behind a crucifix is very important to the catholic church and its followers, and placing on her stockings it can be misread as an insult. I don't mind for a controversial picture. Matter of fact, the top fashion magazines today have had controversial moments at some period in their existence. But I guess we will have to wait and see if any preacher is caught with the magazine under his robe (just saying). Click on images to enlarge.

Photos via fashiongonerogue.com

In The Meantime

I been getting a few different responses, though they might not show up on the comments section, about my previous post on Kobe's spread for LA Times Magazine. And they seem fair, but the ones that made me stop and wonder were the ones that had some type of reasoning behind it. After all, fashion makes sense to some but not all. 

While I'm working on my next post, I want to leave you all my sexy readers with a song that you probably heard on the radio already (means that I'm super late, yet again), but it's going to be added on my ipod as soon as I can fix this iTunes problem. It's "Memories" by David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi. (Guetta is one of the most commercially successful and musically-gifted  DJ's in the world, enough said). I like Kid Cudi not only for his "soft" approach to a genre of music that is known for its machismo and by soft I don't mean sissy. In the past from what I seen from this young man (sounding like I'm old, but I'm younger than him) is that he has fun with fashion and he's not afraid to take chances (so he's good on my book). I think I read somewhere that he got discovered working at a Bape store in NYC, I might be wrong but it's a compelling story. As Cudi freely expresses his sense of style, I wish more artist would naturally demonstrate that as well, instead of letting a stylist pull all their clothes and leaving them with no voice. But then that's another story for another post. 

Photos via interviewmagazine.com

Kobe Bryant in L.A. Times Magazine: A Little Too Artsy?

I was perusing on this popular celebrity blog when I stumbled upon a batch of, say, "eerie" looking photographs of an initially unknown but strangely familiar man. I thought, "is that Kobe?", "the NBA player?", "Kobe Bryant?". The article posted below the pictures reaffirmed my doubt, "that's definitely Kobe Bryant". Frankly speaking, I did not not what to think, I was distraught, confused, surprised. I wasn't at any moment loving the images, but I wasn't sure hating them...yet. I was too excited to find the source and purpose of the photographs so I clicked over a link provided on the article. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these images are part of the May edition of LA Times Magazine (the one on the upper left ended up being the cover). The images seem to depict an "avant-garde" feeling to be printed in the pages of Dazed, Officel Hommes or even any international edition of GQ. The photographs shot by Rube Afanador just don't quite fit the mold of the newsy, down-town look of the LA Times. However, I can clearly understand why Kobe was asked to do the cover. The man is the maverick of the Lakers, his towering, intimidating presence commands respect on and off the court and he's shown a strong penchant for style. And the editor seems to like him for his "phenomenal amount of natural ability for the game" calling him a "basketball savant". Not to mention he's straight up eye-candy.

So what's the problem? If you haven't noticed yet, there is something "out-of-context" about these pictures. First, I was disgusted with the amount of photoshopped, or as Mr. Bryant himself calls it, "doctored" the images clearly look. I mean when did the photographer said,"ok, he looks like he been on the sun-tanning salon for the whole weekend, and all these white ensembles just emphasize that", or I guess he didn't, obviously. I just don't get it. Why are all these glossy magazines digitally fixing the hell out of all these models and actors they put on their covers? When we all know the majority of their readers don't look nearly as the models/actors they feature within that magazine, and supposedly all these editors are claiming that they're trying to present a more realistic product that relates to their readers beyond the surface. But I'm still hopeful that one day I can ignite a change on how folks in America look at magazines, especially fashion ones.

But the the aspect that bothers me the most is the styling, done by James Valeri. Though I'm firmly believe that white clothes always look great against a black pigmentation I was distraught to notice how these pictures mimic minstrel characters wearing blackface, or even on the cover shot where I can't erase the word "slave" out of my mind. I'm just appalled that Mr. Valeri did not do any type of research on black history, mistakingly putting clothes on the subject that resembles a 19th century slave working on some planation or a cotton field on the south. When the images surfaced the net, the reactions were not pretty for the most part. The public resented them. His teammates were on the limbo about the pictures, some were interview, and one that seemed very animated was Lamar Odom, "it's different, it's hot, I like them", and Ron Artest added, "He's a star, he's Kobe Bryant, he can do what he wants" but the rest of them tried to somehow evade the question or give a "wishy-washy" response, which can be assumed that they weren't to thrill for the results. I mean, asking an NBA player to critic a "high-fashion" shoot is like letting the Pope drive a Nascar car, so their answers are not necessarily a determining factor whether or not the images are going to be publish or not. As any publication of such scale, they don't want bad publicity or negative comments towards their business so they took matters into their own attempting to soothe the situation. 

Mark Medina, who writes the Lakers Blog for the LA Times went on to interview the stylist to get the whole "vision" behind the shoot. "The concept was about shooting everything in white. That was Ruven's idea (photographer Ruben Afanador). But I wanted to do something more modern and less conventional and less cliched... It's a modern silhouette. It's not like "let's put Kobe in a pair of pants and a shirt or in a suit" The clothing is all layered" I commend Mr. Valeri for trying take the look to a different level and make it modern, staying away from the banal suits we see in every issue of American GQ. But then the transition is lost. Modernity has to do with relativity and time, which is now, and I'm afraid to note that I don't see that in the pictures, I only see a man that is wearing layered semi-translucent white ensembles. I feel there was something missing here. 

Then he continues on and referring to the cover shot (first picture on the left), "I wanted to give a modern approach. I was thinking of rapper Tupac (Shakur) where I put a band underneath in the hat to make it look hip-hop, but... it creates a surreal look where it creates a strong image. It was something that hasn't been done before. It's mixing the inspiration of Tupac and a gentleman in a white hat... a mix of hip-hop and a conservative look." After I read this quote I HAD to find out who this man was, I saw his portfolio and he clearly has a sense of style and vision of fashion. His work has been publish V Man, Wonderland, Hercules and uber-gay magazine Out. But then where has all his experience gone when he was brainstorming for this spread? What happened? I'm not sure if he was thinking of Tupac just because he was styling a black man or he as he claims "there was hip-hop playing in the background and he was singing it and knew all the lyrics of the songs" but then. Was that Tupac has to do with the publication? I though it reminiscent Al Jonson. But then what sounded utterly ignorant was that mixing hip-hop and a more refined look hasn't been done. This just shows that Mr. Valeri does not read any type of american men's magazine, not less one that is hip-hop influenced. I hope in future projects this man does some research before attempting to create something that he's clearly is oblivious about. Isn't that what stylist suppose to do anyways?

I don't know how you feel about these images, but I see fashion as an confident booster, a friend, a confidante, an outlet. Conversely, fashion can be controversial, elitist, off-putting, ephemeral or as Karl Lagerfdeld once said, dangerous. If you play with fire you are going to burn if you don't proceed with caution and this is a perfect example of that. They got burned (no pun intended). Honestly speaking, if I was the editor of the magazine and it's my responsibility to decide what ultimately gets printed, this spread will hit the "reject pile"

Photos via latimesmagazine.com

This is Why...

I <3 LADY GAGA

When Gaga was shot by a sea of paparazzi at a Tokyo airport carrying a white Hermes scribbled on the front of it 'I love little monsters" in Katakana in what seems to be sincere sign of devotion to her fans was just a glimpse of what was to come on her stay in Japan. On April 10, 2010 (so that means I'm super late) Ms. Gaga performed at a charity concert for people living with H.I.V and to support the MAC's Viva Glam campaign. Not only this women is amazingly talented but she also has a heart that at times is unfortunately overshadow by her plumery. As usual, she gives a show, and I mean A SHOW. The white powdery yellow big wig worn with this white lace bodysuit just added more drama to her show. I'm pretty sure her Japanese fans were satisfied. And check out the  last picture. YES!

Photos via gettyimages.com