FASHION Magazine

Vivek Shraya and Mic. Carter collaborate on a new shirt for Pride   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by VIVEK SHRAYA 🆚 (@vivekshraya) As Pride month officially begins, it’s only fitting that musician Vivek Shraya and designer Mic. Carter have once again teamed up to create a new VERS Shirt for […]

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MAC partners with Keith Haring Studio for this year’s Viva Glam collection MAC launched its annual Viva Glam lipsticks this week and the collection did not disappoint. In collaboration with Keith Haring Studio, the three lipsticks feature the NYC artist’s instantly recognizable motifs and bold primary colours. Originally launched in 1994, each MAC Viva Glam […]

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“Keith Haring was all about New York in the ‘80s, and New York in the ‘80s was all about four things: it was dirty, dangerous, full of drugs and everyone loved dancing,” says Beverly Schreiber Jacoby, art expert and founder of BSJ Fine Art Consulting Firm, while leading a tour of Haring’s artwork in downtown […]

The post Keith Haring’s Gritty Street Murals are the Subject of this New Collab appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

T-shirts have always been political. Even 100 years ago, when they were marketed as undergarments, they were part of the U.S. military uniform during the First World War. During the 1950s, wearing them as outerwear or under a leather jacket, à la Marlon Brando or James Dean, became a subversive act. But to participate in […]

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It’s 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night in Toronto’s west end. A crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings are lined up outside La Perla lounge for an event called Her, organized by Frank Griggs—fashion designer Jeremy Laing’s communications director and husband. The looming line looks as though it was pulled from a casting call for a ’90s music video. A guy at the front of the queue—wearing low-rider bell bottoms, champagne-hued fun fur and a CeCe Peniston tour ball cap—is chatting up a young woman dolled up in an apricot catsuit replete with a handbag covered in Keith Haring art pins. Anxious to get their hands stamped, the duo sway to a house remix of En Vogue’s vintage hit “Hold On” blaring from the DJ booth inside. A skinny-jeaned teen sporting a graphic T-shirt that reads “House Music Is The Future” gets out of a cab and joins the pair. “Honey, this is no novelty tee,” he says, pointing to the neon font on his chest. “This is a prophecy tee.”

According to ethnomusicologist Kai Fikentscher, that tee isn’t just a fashion statement, it’s a cultural one. The author of “You Better Work!” Underground Dance Music in New York City claims that house—a soulful branch of electronic music typically set to a 4/4 tempo—is infiltrating nightlife, fashion and film. “After over 20 years of bubbling below the belt of the status quo, house is finally starting to get the global respect and popularity it deserves,” Fikentscher says.

Known for diva-centric vocals, lush strings and syncopated bass, house saw a popularity peak in the late ’80s and early ’90s when hit makers such as Inner City, Crystal Waters and DJ Frankie Knuckles delivered it to radio from its roots in the gay nightclubs of Chicago and New York. Surviving well beyond its older, kitschier sister, disco, house did not die at the hands of grunge—it just moved further into the underground when Nirvana came along. “It has had so many reincarnations and new names,” says Fikentscher, citing nu-disco and electro. “In the past five years, a proper resurrection of [soulful] house has truly been happening.”

The resurgence isn’t just about nostalgia. A new wave of vocalists, songwriters, rappers and designers who weren’t old enough to party in the late ’80s are embracing the sophisticated boom boom. Cutting-edge MCs such as Toronto’s Isis Salam; 23-year-old New Yorker Le1f, who DJed Patrik Ervell’s spring runway show and performed at Opening Ceremony’s 10th anniversary party; and House of Ladosha (they rap about Naomi Campbell’s weave) are experimenting with the look and sound of house, and attracting bigger audiences because of it. Pop names such as Beth Ditto, whose club hit “I Wrote The Book” is a flagrant homage to Madonna’s “Vogue,” Rihanna (her new disc transparently lifts from ’90s DJ duo Masters at Work) and Scissor Sisters have pushed classic, soulful house into the mainstream.

Thanks to some stylish ladies, the usually-worn-by-the-boys headgear is no longer relegated to bad hair days: the embellished baseball cap is making a comeback.  Style stars like Gwen Stefani and Rihanna have been spotted about town donning some covet-worthy caps—Stefani paired a bright red cap with her gauzy beach ensemble, and Rihanna got the blogsphere abuzz when she donned a spiked Peace, Love and Understanding cap complete with tartan tail. From studs and spikes to prints and pops of colour, we’ve got ten caps that will upgrade your off-duty look!

Check out our cap roundup!»