Boys of Summer The Cool Factor in Menswear Detailing
Published by Zocalo Magazine, July 2011
By Amber Mortensen, PainfullyHip.com
Tucson isn’t a town that typically embraces streotypical gender rolls. We have a heavily attended Pride Weekend, burlesque drag troupes (Boys R Us, Wingspan) and last month hosted the Gender Identity Project. While I’m not suggesting you take up cross-dressing at the office, I do highly endorse a smattering of menswear detailing this season.
Trousers of all orientations, wide-brimmed grandpa hats, wingtip shoes, suspenders, and bow ties are the necessary means to rock this trend. Celebrate diversity by cinching a summery frock with a thick leather men’s belt and a pair of oxfords. Feminize those wide leg tweed trousers with a lacey lingerie top. Try tailored men’s shorts as a bikini cover up. Tuck an androgynous silk shirt into a pair of hot shorts. Like most things in life, it’s all about balance.
Photos by Krysta Jabzenski (Don’t miss her exhibit at the newly renovated Café Passe on 4th Ave)
Style and Art Direction by Amber Mortensen
Hair by Stefani Annaliese at Toni & Guy
Makeup by Tony Tulve
Model – Rachel Yampolsky (FORD RBA)
Special Thanks to Abraham Cooper
Clothing from Pour Moi Boutique (1865 E River Rd #141, and Preen Vintage (210 S 4th Ave)
Swimsuit from Rockin’ Queen
I can say without a doubt that the following shoot was the most death defying to date… and that’s including the time we shot in a haunted antiques warehouse in the bowels of the most crime-ridden neighborhood in Oakland!
After we were forced to abandon our original plan of shooting on top of nearby Mount Lemmon because of severe fire conditions (didn’t think it would be cool to be running a smoke machine up there – we prefer to prevent mass hysteria when possible), we drove wayyyy out into the desert in search of a few trees.
Following several miles of meandering dirt roads we came upon this ominous cracked crater of a pond bed surrounded by sparse mesquite trees in the middle of a known smuggling corridor and thought, “Well it’s no forest, but it’ll do.” Amongst the storm of gunshots we kept hearing with disturbing consistency, this location afforded some pretty amazing captures. David Olsen, the editor of Zocalo, seemed to like it too, he made the first one the cover shot for the June issue! Worth it? You tell me…
Fire Warning:
Summer’s Hottest Trends, Adapted for Life in the Desert
By Amber Mortensen, Painfully Hip
Photos by Ryan Mihalyi
Wardrobe Styling and Art Direction by Amber Mortensen and Bradley Rhea
Hair by Raul Mendoza at Fringe Salon (4861 E Grant Rd #111)
Model: Jessaca Marie Haag
Special thanks to Abraham Cooper and Jonathan Saupe
It’s June in the desert. The sun is relentless, cicadas are celebrating, and temperatures are rising, but what’s this? Hemlines are descending, modesty is rampant, and …black is the new black? Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but pretty much every trend you’ve come to associate with summer (sundresses, shorts, mini skirts, color, color, and more color) have been sent to trial by fire this year. So how do Tucsonans keep cool when fashion publications are telling us that long sleeves, trousers, ankle length hemlines, and black are haute stuff this season? Anything loose and floaty has risen to the top of my wish list. Especially chiffon, the textile equivalent of whipped cream. It’s cool, breathable, and just plain sumptuous. American Apparel (988 E University Ave) offers loads of the stuff. Maxi skirts, cropped blouses, long-sleeved button-ups and even pants in delicious sheer chiffon.
As far as these allegedly low hemlines go, skirts are especially versatile this season. I recommend the high-waisted variety, paired with a fluttery, cropped top or a fitted tank. I love a billowy maxi skirt as a swimsuit cover-up (as seen at the TYP/TFG runway show last month at the Fox Theater), but really anything below the knee is hip for summer. Just don’t forget to add an airy pair of gypsy-esque trousers to your closet while you’re at it.
Black is in, but so is nude. Now with this list of trends, it would be understandable to just decide to translated this to streaking, but first let me explain. Nudity (as far as I know), is still illegal in downtown Tucson, but anything wearable from light peach to pinky beige to tan is so hot, it’s barely legal. All the way down to your toe nail polish, nude is the new black, at least for us desert-dwellers.
And of course there is always room for color on my spectrum, especially for accessories like skinny leather belts and hats. Mindlessly pairing saturated blues, greens, purples and turquoise with your nude, black and otherwise neutral separates will make you appear as though you’ve got this color-blocking trend on lockdown. The point however, is to take whatever trends you’re into this season and make them your own somehow. That’s something we Tucsonans are best at.
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Couldn’t resist including this hotness in conclusion (Abraham was the best fog wrangler in tarnation):
Remember Painfully Hip’s very own Jamaica Cole? Some of the most riveting articles on this site were written by her. Well, she is also a true-ass fashion designer. Always looking for a way to promote real talent, I wrote this article about her latest collection for Zocalo Magazine. Accompanying is one of my favorite Painfully Hip Design Collective shoots to date! Enjoy.
THE EVOLUTION OF “HEARTBREAK”
JAMAICA COLE SEWS HER HEART ON A SLEEVE
By Amber Mortensen
photos: Ryan Mihalyi
Fashion designer and founder of Sapphire Cordial, Jamaica Cole, has been sewing almost since she could walk. But as we saw at Tucson’s inaugural Fashion Week last month, it takes more than just knowing how to sew to be a designer. So how did Cole go from sewing amorphous cow-patterned potholders at 7 to designing entire collections of elaborate dresses without patterns twice every year?
“Trial and error,” she says plainly, “emphasis on the error.”
Sewing without patterns is not only difficult, but yields one-of-a-kind pieces that don’t allow for exact duplication. But Cole has been doing it this way for every Sapphire Cordial collection since 2006. She compares her process to a musician selling only a single copy of his album.
“This has not been incredibly lucrative. Imagine a musician rehearsing all day all night for an album release show. He plays the songs! The audience cheers! People want to buy the album! But then they get to the merch table and there is only one copy of the CD. Someone buys it and takes it home, and the musician forgets how to play the songs. Such is the life of an independent clothing designer.”
On the other hand, why would an artist want to paint the same painting twice? Before moving to Tucson one year ago, Cole lived, showed and sold her ready-to-wear collections in Northern Californian boutiques, inspired by flowery visual influences ranging from New Orleans architecture to Edwardian luggage.
However, Cole’s Tucson Fashion Week collection was something else entirely. Based on her very personal interpretation of the grieving process, the Anatomy of Heartbreak was her first haute couture collection and her most costly and labor-intensive to date. Echoing themes of human anatomy, transformation and death, this collection was not designed to be a crowd-pleaser or quick-seller. This was art for art’s sake.
“2009 was an exceedingly dry year for me artistically, but since moving to Tucson last year, I’ve launched my website (SapphireCordial.com), shown at the Tucson Museum of Art and Preen Vintage, and created my first couture collection for Tucson Fashion Week. I don’t know if it’s returning to the land of my birth, all the wonderfully sincere people I’ve met here, or just something in the desert air, but moving to Tucson has completely recharged my creative batteries and I’m very content for the first time in years.”
The rest of this amazing shoot:
(click the full screen button in the bottom right of the player to zoom)
Photos by Ryan Mihalyi
Clothing by Jamaica Cole
Modeled by Katie Palmer
Art Direction/Styling by Amber Mortensen
Hair and Makeup by Danielle Cushing
Special thanks to Abraham Cooper, James Grip and the Rialto Theatre, Tucson
clothing designed by Sapphire Cordial, who will be showing her “Anatomy of Heartbreak” collection at Tucson Fashion Week.
Following in the freshly laid tracks of Lahore, Pakistan, Tucson will also be celebrating its inaugural fashion week this year. As per usual, Tucson will be putting its very unique spin on things when it blows up downtown (Toole and 6th Avenue) for what would be best described as Tucson Fashion Weekend, on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25.
Unlike major metropolitan fashion weeks in New York and Paris, where the hotel champagne and per diems flow like silk chiffon, the Tucson Fashion Week Collective have decided to keep it local, support young up-and-comers and donate all proceeds to charity.
That sole, deserving charity is Skrappy’s Tucson Youth Culture, an all-ages venue and youth center adjacent to the Tucson Fashion Week lot. The organization specializes in homeless youth services, free after school programs, and social enterprising for young entrepreneurs, including sewing and fashion design classes. Fittingly, some of Skrappy’s most promising fashion visionaries will be showing their work on the first day of fashion week in their very own TFW Youth Showcase.
Saturday, September 25 is when Tucson Fashion Week really busts out the cleavage and stilettos. Nine designers will be featured on the large outdoor catwalk: Siobhan by Elizabeth Albert, Sapphire Cordial by Jamaica Rose Cole, Seven Bells by Diana Deaver, Backstitch Betty by Sandra Pope, RUMb by Ashley Marie Sanders, La Fashionista by Eleonor Leon, Sass Knuckles by Shannon Stevens, Melanie Lockwood, and Silvia Bours.
While their aesthetic influences vary from lacy lingerie to the magnitude of heartbreak, all designers have been allotted the same 30 minutes and 12-15 models on the runway. The tenth remaining runway slot will be decided at The Loft Cinema’s “48-Hour Fashion Challenge: TFW Young Designer Competition” on Thursday, Sept. 16. TFW is challenging young designers to create a piece inspired by an iconic fashion film. The finished pieces will be shown before the film and the audience will vote on the winner, who will take home the coveted 10 featured designer slot.
Watch out Lahore, Tucson’s fashion scene is on the rise!
Wha..wha…what??! How is August already winding up? I think I may have been caught in a wormhole. Don’t be too alarmed… Thank you all so much for your tips! I couldn’t believe all the legit get-rich-quick schemes you could spout when asked… it makes me wonder what you are doing on my blog? Keep one eye on your emails for your free copy of The Wanderlust Workbook from Yes and Yes!
Alas, not a lot of money has been made (I even considered becoming a go-go dancer at a gay bar, but I think I may be too straight-I’m not fooling anyone), but I am still determined to become stranded in a foreign country for the winter because it sounds like too much fun. Well, character-building anyway. I better get used to the cold because I may be moving back to Canada in a couple of years! Details forthcoming and aren’t they juicy!
The plan right now is to hit New York in early October for a pending shoot with the peerless Market Publique and one of my favorite photographers, Kailas. In the meantime, I am working on my quicklycomingomgit’shere! fashion show at Hotel Congress!
The promo photo was shot by the fabulous Steven Meckler and my cohort for the fashion spreads that will soon be hitting Zocalo Magazine. Everyone who knows me knows that dogs are my favorite people. So this event was custom designed for me. Our shoot also featured rescued dogs, including this adorable mutt, Alley, who is now (but not for long!) available for adoption at Hope Animal Shelter.
And this is Butter Bean the Sex Machine, who was recently rescued and adopted.
The theme for the show? I will be dressing my models like a prep school girl with hippy parents. Our dog models will be dressed in their birthday suits. Be there!!
All images were either created by the Painfully Hip Design Collective, used with permission, or found on the web and believed to be in the public domain. If any images that appear are in violation of copyright law, please let me know and i will remove them immediately.
Thanks for reading,
Amber
painfullyhip at gmail.com
