I love statement jewelry, especially pieces made by those with a strong streak of creativity and an eye for sculptural forms.
Mariam Nassir Zadeh, Totokaelo, and Creatures of Comfort seem to get the right mix.
Arielle De Pinto, Manu, Anndra Neen and Samma are a few designers that I really love.

Every time I wear this necklace people ask me if I made it myself.
Unfortunately the answer makes me feel like a failure.
You can find Lauren Manogian’s (Manu) work at Bona Drag, Pour Porter and Anica.

This piece (I forget who made it) is from Maryam Nassir Zadeh.
I love the look of oxidized materials. This looks like a treasure dug up in the Southwest.

Peppercotton (crystals in a mesh tubing)

Lizzie Fortunato “Mad Men” necklace.
Available at Anica in San Francisco.

I forget who made this

Samma.
Available at Domahoka and Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Anica

Arielle De Pinto.
I have two of my friend’s web necklaces (thought I lost one and then it resurfaced a year later). All of Arielle’s work is amazing.

Available at Lambs Ear, Creatures of Comfort and Totokaelo.

Broken Fab

Anndra Neen.
Sold at Ten Over Six, Kirna Zabete and Roseark.

This week Sephora launched my signature eyeshadow compact. You can pick one up HEREIt’s for Holiday and the illustrations were based around the theme “til dawn.”
Maybe you can’t tell in the photo, but that illustration is shiny silver ink on a black gloss case. In real life it’s very SPARKLY!I love Sephora and was so excited to finally get to have my art on something related to make up. Thanks to Michelle Ng for supporting me all these years and being the catalyst for this to happen. Yay!

Make up gods, I really really want to do art on nail polish.
I am counting on you to work your magic. MAKE THIS HAPPEN PLZZZZZ

If you want to see other ideas I had kicking around here they are:

Tried to do something sorta gothy but I think the idea of a girl with a pentagram on her forehead was a tad too edgy. Just a tad…

The trick was to create something that was legible when inverted. For example, this image looked horrible.

Below is the fashion editorial Elizabeth Weinberg and I collaborated on. We shot it upstate with the help of Turner and Erica’s styling genius.

I just uncovered this super quick sketch I sent her when I had a “vision” for our first collaboration. A year later…and it happened! Someday I’ll do another shoot where the flowers and trees are 2-d. As if the shoot was one big theatrical set.

Hopefully, you will notice all my props! There are ones I sourced: a bow and arrows from Fredricks and Mae, an early 1900′s willow rocking chair, and Native American inspired rugs and drums.

And there are those that I made: a painted walking stick and axe, beaded necklaces, a teepee constructed out of branches from the forest and a drop cloth that I painted with various geometric patterns, and of course the toilet paper “installation.” I created it to look as if a gang of teen pranksters were unleashed upon the forest.

It was DEFINITELY the most fun part of the day. There’s nothing like tp-ing the hell out of the woods. It brought me back to high school. I am an expert at this sort of stuff.

Spent today revisiting Sonia Delaunay and the Orphism movement. Delaunay was known for her use of geometric abstraction, modernist pattern design, and crazy lyrical color combinations. In a recent interview, Rachel Comey mentioned Sonia is one of her favorite designers. Makes sense. They both use textiles and color in unexpected ways.

While I don’t like everything Delaunay created (some of her colors and compositions hurt my feelings) there are others I really enjoy. Especially those using subdued hues or fewer colors or involving costuming.

Here are some I find inspiring

These images are from FIT’s archives, blog entries at swim two birds,the textile blog and of course google images

There are some nice colors here. Very serene 1930′s (or early 1980′s) going on.

Here are some of the references Elizabeth Weinberg and I sent over to Tokion before we worked on a fashion editorial for their September issue. Turner and Erica Blumenthal styled it and our lovely models were Matthew Mosshart (Alison Mossheart from the Kills is his sis) and Tilda from Img.

The images are ultimately going to run elsewhere (ummmm long story!!), but for time time being… I thought it’d be fun to share what I was channeling.

We were going for images inspired by sixties documentary photography, in particular those of hippie encampments like the Mystic Arts Commune. We used bows and arrows by Fredericks and Mae, I created a teepee, painted axes and walking sticks, and covered the forest with toilet papered streamers. It all looked amazing!

Tilda Lindstam at IMG (one of our models)

Antique Navajo patterns. Reference for my teepee

Pippi Longstocking. My all time favorite muse

Bows by Fredericks and Mae. They were kind enough to loan me masks, a bow, and kites as well!


60′s psychedelic interiors and teepee inspired shelters. The book Spaced Out is good reference.

Nomadic fashions, fur, braids, lots of jewelry

My moodboard (including fashions by Rag and Bone, Suno, and D&G’s Fairisle looks)

Look at these coats! Don’t you want to crawl inside everyone one of these warm snuggly oversize soft things? I do. We are hopefully pulling some Burberry for our upcoming shoot and I hope it’s not too hot that day, because I plan on pretending I own it and wearing all over that woods upstate.

I need. Don’t even care which.

I like getting google notifications that my wares are for sale. Today I discovered a tee of mine, “Kiss of Death,” is currently available at Urban Outfitters UK. Too bad the wrinkles make the girl’s eyes look a lil “special.”

Another one of my tees is now being carried at Oak — a great boutique with locations in Williamsburg and in Manhattan on Bond Street. They’ll be getting in my Charlotte Rampling tee, “The Night Porter,” shortly. I think they’re mostly for dudes right now, but the Blood is the New Black website has ladies sizes.

James and I recently collaborated (for the first time) on this Refinery29 fashion editorial inspired by summer’s prevalent graphic, “ethnic,” and “tribal” prints. Rachel Hill, one of my oldest New York friends, styled it, Elsa Canedao created a complex array of braids for the three girls and Chichi Sato supplied the amazingly bright makeup and bold nailcolor.

I found a ton of amazing models by calling around different agencies with our pitch and ultimately chose three girls (Annaleise, Fabienne, and Mariana) from Trump, Supreme and Next.

The backgrounds are 12′x12′ acrylic paintings on set paper, created by sourcing African mudcloth, moroccan textiles, some prints from John Robshaw,and various woven fabrics. I tiled, cropped, rotated, enlarged, changed the colors and projected them the last few nights that lead up to our shoot.

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What resulted were 10 really strong bold images that I’m super happy with.

Here are some iphone pix i took while working and during our shoot!

I hope I get to do something like this for Dazed and Confused or i-D down the line!

Anne Sophie at Q

More pictures from the shoot

These backgrounds were so easy to make, I want to do this more often!

Ian Bradley

Painting #2. Was going to fill in the outlines but I think i’ll leave it as is, the colors look nice

First: blue & green

Then added red & pink acrylic (taking a break before I hit up yellow)

Obligatory detail shot

On to the last one. I like the toile look when it’s all blue.

Added red. Now it feels more John Robshaw

Work in Progress

Acrylic drippy paint on white set paper. 9′ x 9′

First look.
On set with Nicholas Suttle, Ian Bradley, Jillian Halouska, and Anne from Q models

more work from last night!

Elizabeth Weinberg collaborated with me on my first foray into prop making. It was a portrait for Death and Taxes featuring El Perro Del Mar.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be having another go of it. We’re traveling an hour upstate to a secret cave and doing our first fashion editorial together. Our 15-passenger van will include Billy Keith doing hair, Jenna Rainey styling, two beautiful models from IMG, Nadja Nebas our make up artist, Elizabeth and Me. The shoot is themed around light; exploring shadow and reflections and inspired by Jen Kao, Cushnie et Ochs and Jeremy Scott’s recent collections. And Lady Gaga (obviously).

I made several headdresses in gold and silver backed mirrors. Lots of faceted shapes. I really hope they photograph ok in the caves!

The whole process has been a learning experience; finding people to collaborate with, calling modeling agencies, creating pdf pitches to send around and shop our idea. But now that I’ve worked it out I know it’ll just be that much easier when I do another shoot next week.

The first version of these were originally created for Lindsey Thornburg.

There are more where these came from. I’ll post more after the shoot.

Some of the collections i’ve really been feeling.

Headdress research

Been alternating my time between prop styling fashion editorials and lookbooks and working on freelance illustration. I don’t need to decide which “I do” so I’m doing both! Artists who work across disciplines and utilize various methods are my favorite. Playing around in both fields keeps me on my toes and when I’m in doubt I just think: Andy Warhol.

Currently, I’m prop styling a fashion editorial with Turner and Erica Blumenthal and the photographer Nicholas Routzen. Turner actually styled the very first Blood is the New Black lookbook in 2004, when I was art directing. That’s how we met oddly enough. In preparation I’ve visited numerous home-goods stores and local prop shops like Prophaus, Elephant Props, and Props for Today. Once inside a prop house it’s as if you’ve arrived at the best vintage store on the planet! Everything is perfectly organized with and rows upon rows of dishwares and decorative collectables organized by color and shape. Really magical even if you’re only looking.

I’ve also hit up fabric stores like The City Quilter and Mood in hopes of finding 1920′s inspired fabrics. All I have left to do is get my hands on the amazing (and expensive) textiles by John Robshaw and Madeline Weinrib (from ABC Carpet and Home) without spending my own money and I’ll be all set!

Here are some iphone pixxxx

I’ve been drawing and painting ladies in varying states of undress for a couple of seasons: bikini clad girls fighting, centerfolds painted in enamel, x-rated collages. There’s been a variety of references and homages to my favorite muses and films, be they Marianne Faithful, Mia Farrow in Secret Ceremony or Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter.

The last few shirt graphics I did for Blood is the New Black explored similar themes, while taping into darker motifs and several referencing my relationship to Ancient Egyptian iconography. I just found out that Oak (one of my favorite stores) will be carrying two of my shirts from my recent “film series.” Here they are:

Siouxsie Sioux is a reoccurring woman in my arsenal of eternally inspiring ladies. There were a couple years where I listened to girl punk (Riot Grrrl which lead to the likes of Kleenex and The Slits) in High School almost exclusively. Then Crass and Siouxise and the Banshees took over my life when I was sporting a bowlcut and wearing dolly dresses. Kinda inappropz, but whatever!

Lately, the clothing I’m channeling is either inspired by Kelly Bundy (slutty 90′s bodycon numbers), floral and crushed velvet ala 1993 Contempo Casuals and witchy lace frocks, and lots of monochrome androgyny stuff. Now that I am in possession of a pair of black leather pants, early Siouxsie, Debbie Juvenile, Sue Catwoman and Westwood’s Seditionaries inspired looks seem highly appropriate. PS did you know Adam from Adam in the Ants used to be so PUNK? I will post some photos later. What a babe.

Looking for a vintage amazing band tee but none fit the bill. The likelihood of finding one from the Delta 5 is slim to none. I may end up just making one on Zazzle. HA!

Amazing punk flickr sets here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/romanywg/sets/72157602289036890/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agallix/sets/322013/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seditionaries_punkpistol/

Check out http://www.raystevenson.co.uk/ for some great photos (although, small)

And if you wanna buy the original Seditionaries clothing: http://punkflyer.com/seditionariesclothing.html

In my studio it’s been an all out exploration of hard edged things, celestial iconography, geometric shapes, day glo, pyramids, sparkles. Sometimes this leads me to iconography of the early 60′s and the space race, other times into disco era album art with its shiny surfaces, silver, mirrors, and flares.

These two images are from darklorddisco

Right now I’m channeling an old obsession of mine: art school early 80′s complete with angular music, geometric shapes, day glo, early computer graphics. Cyber punk, Neuromancer, films like Blade Runner and Liquid Sky, bands like the Lemon Kittens, Lene Lovich.

Yesterday while on a fashion editorial shoot at Milk Studios (I made the props- will post them soon), the make up and fashion styling reminded me of early new wave and especially the characters in Liquid Sky. It’s unsurprising that nobody had a clue what I was talking about when I recalled the little known 1982 b-movie totally themed around heroin, orgasms, and aliens. But if you were a fan of Adult. and heard their cover “Me and My Rhythm box” or shopped for huge UFO pants in the East Village circa the 90′s, you’d instantly recall this “classic” and the store that shared the same name.

other geometric and inspiring images from darklord disco. i love:

I love a long epic necklace.

Huge jangles from Morocco, those that channel my nine years of Girl Scouts, diy affairs full of knots and braided rope, lanyards, embroidery, and metal. Monkey’s Fists! Carrick Knots! Friendship Bracelets! I will channel them all.

Elizabeth came over, after a trip to the hardware store, for a necklace Crafternoon. A few days later, new friends, and a round two of necklace making that involved cutting up old teeshirts, keychains, knotted clothing line, tassels, and twine. Photos of our successes to come.

Here is some great jewelry, a lot of it by smaller designers, from Kabiri. I love this website and what they sell! If only dropping hundreds on a necklace was no big deal.

+ Kapow Wow

+ Uli Rapp

+ Lizzy Fortunato

+ Lanyard

+ Fernanda Pereira

+ Comfort Station

If you can, buy this stuff, or you can have a Crafternoon and make your own version that is janky but a totally fun activity whilst watching the Rachel Zoe Project and this season’s craptastical Project Runway. Nothing a little hardware store, some wine, and old teeshirts and clothing line can’t take care of.

This afternoon, James and I headed to the Met to check out the fantastic “Model As Muse” exhibit. Among the photography of Twiggy and Turlington by the likes of Bailey, Avedon, and Meisel were the portraits of Marisa Berenson, supposedly a sixties counterpoint to the leggy waifish doe-eyed likes of models like Penelope Tree. She looked so familiar and I couldn’t place her until… I realized she’s the girl from Kubric’s 1975 costume drama Barry Lyndon. Let’s get acquainted, shall we?

I would wear this and pretend it doesn’t look like a shower cap.

Very “I Dream of Jeanie” although it should be Kenneth Anger’s “Lucifer Rising.”

Please note this insane hairdo. It’s like Rapunzel meets Cousin It. Or a personal head-broom.

This seems more Cabaret-era

I think I have this dress

I need these eyelashes. How long would that take….

Oh, yeah, sorry. Back to the task at hand. Screen shots of Barry Lyndon.
Fans of Marie Antoinette, if they are prepared to sit through a longggg film will love the costume design, cinematography (in particular the wide angle shots, the natural lighting) and the epic rags to riches to rags narrative. Gotta say though, love Ryan O’Neil a lot more in Paper Moon. But that just might be me.

She looks a little weary here, but it’s tiring wearing all those hats.