Judy Blame was a genius of unorthodox styling

"I wanted a lady name because everyone changed their name to one of the same sex, so I thought I'd confuse people. Judy was a nickname given to me by a friend, and Blame just sprang to mind one day. It sounds like a trashy b-movie actress from the 50's - a bleached blonde tart who only made one film and never got anywhere - I like that"
Judy Blame

Judy Blame :PH: Francois Nars

LA Models Austin: The Epitome Of the LA ideal PS Austin is NOT The Saint

Back in NY TI barely pays attention to the comings and the goings of male models. Betty Sze at the day job has that beat covered, but Thursday night, on the way back from the big Motorola extravanganza, I heard the most telling tale of the strange variations you get on male models. My chaperone for the night (for I am not allowed to roam LA unsupervised) is also an eagle-eyed young model scout specializing in the male market. For obvious reasons, there is a constant influx of beautiful kids into this city . He described the story of driving down this very strip of Sunset when he spotted this face on a young man that was straight out of a Pre-Raphaelite canvas. Car lurches to a stop. He goes up to the Pre-Raphaelite saint stuck in the form of a LA rocker/panhandler. The radiant beauty is huddled on the sidewalk with another friend, so unwashed, their clothes almost seem to slow-drip an oily black substance and you can almost see the flies spinning around their heads like a halo of sorts. They have a small dog. Its ribs are showing.
"Hello," says the scout. "I think you really should model.
" Do you have a buck so my dog could get some food," said The Saint.
"You think HE can be a model?" demands the Saint's grimy companion.
"Yes I do," says the scout. "I don't have a dollar on me right now but funny enough I'm on my way to the pet store so if you stay here I can bring back some food for your dog."

I would kill your cat for this KAWS/Commes des Garcons collaboration wallet!

The last three weeks have seen LA going through a major art/ fashion high. Everyone from V Magazine's Todd Eberle to the Paper mag team staging their annual extravaganza of an operation is here right now. Plus a plane-load of Victoria's Secret beauties touch down on Monday afternoon(and kids, there are STILL some surprises on board. Stay tuned!). Marc Jacobs (Chateau), Carine Roitfeld (BHH),

The kids at Kanye's Sky Loft featuring an Astro canvas

Some of Marc Atlan's Greatest Hits

From I-phones to limited edition Nikes, why has design become this much of a market force? Is it that we're experiencing an on-going visual evolution of contemporary culture in the same way we are under-going a technological revolution? I'm not trying to write a master's thesis. (Part of the discipline of The Imagist for me is to learn to be...succinct). I'm just trying to figure out how the hell the whole world got to be so design sensitive. When did American product packaging start to overwhelm its content? To personalize the issue a little bit... I was out out to dinner last night with a pal from an ad agency, when the subject turned to Fabien Baron and his powerhouse agency Baron and Baron. Its not a company anymore it seems.Its a brand in itself, if you'll pardon that dirty word..."brand".
Baron you know from the firm's traditional image management of magazines : Paris Vogue, the 90's Harper's Bazaar- which obviously I've been looking at a LOT- Interview magazine, Arena Homme +, as well as fashion ads -most notably Calvin Klein. We gossiped a little bit about the influence Le Baron and Karl Templer now had over the direction of Calvin, down to the models, in which that team seems not to be as personally invested in. Certainly not the way Calvin the man invested in Kate Moss and Brooke Shields and now no girl or boy for Calvin is allowed to be a bigger story than the clothes.