German-based brand K1X recently announced a new collaboration following the success of their DCAC Sierra Leone series. The streetwear company summoned the talents of 20 young artists from Freetown in Sierra Leone to create patterned fabrics using the batik dying technique. Batik dying of fabric is an ancient art form dating back to 4th century BCE where it was used to wrap mummies in Egypt. Luckily, K1X and the *folorunsho artists revived the technique and applied it to the DCAC silhouette.

Each of the traditional designs has been customized and used to produce the series. The sneakers are available exclusively at Colette and come with a photobook to show the creative process used to create the fabric. Each pair goes for about $140 with all the proceeds going back to the artists to fund their creative visions. You can view all the colors and purchase the DCAC Batik here.

Image Layout: C_Rocka

I recently collaborated with Cult of Beauty, Founder/Editor of CLOUT Magazine & Founder/Designer of High Gloss Clothing with Nail Jerks. After getting to know her I gained respect for what Cult of Beauty is all about and why she got into the business.

According to Cult of Beauty, the name represents “Finding beauty in all things” ..an obsession with aesthetics.

Clout is the leading graffiti lifestyle magazine based out of San Jose, California, featuring street influenced art, fashion and music and their creators. Landing exclusive interviews with artists and musicians, Clout offers a unique look at street influenced culture.

I really love what Cult of Beauty is doing with her craft. It’s always admirable to find a lady underneath the veil of something that is usually run by men. I’m really happy that I got a chance to collaborate with her and bring you another view of her work.

Photographer: Rosalie Rivera

Graphics: Alex Blaise

Photos: Karl Lagerfeld

Fast forward twenty-years and M·A·C is throwing their hand at the nail art game by introducing a line of press-on nails this summer. The new line will be available in June. No other news yet but I’ll be sure to pass it on as soon as I find out. I like the designs -they’re not too crazy I guess they’ll appeal to a broad audience but the designs are pretty easy – you could easily just get it done at the salon. The nice part is the instant length, no breakage, and I love that they have differently shaped nails – especially the talons! RAWR!

For those of you that want to reminisce with MISS, check these out…

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It’s finally here! Rye Rye’s Go! Pop! Bang! is out today and you can download it on iTunes. I’m looking forward to seeing her new videos and performances to see what she’s wearing and how she’s moving to support the release of her new tracks. I’m sure she’ll be providing the soundtrack to many of you this summer. For a preview check out her live performance of Hardcore Girls at Converse Rubber Tracks below.

Also check out this video she produced that features her in one of her own dresses and her Casio Baby G watch. Shot in Paris, she takes us on an adventure in the city of lights.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on  Azealia Banks’ rising star from her style to performing for Karl Lagerfeld’s personal party and a Chanel pop-up shop in Tokyo.  She has an upcoming mixtape called Fantastic due out soon and we just got a first listen to the first single called Jumanji.

A lot of my friends have great relationships with their mothers and I was always jealous of that – my mother is different. She’s loud, opinionated, embarrassing at times but she has a big heart and she dreams even bigger. Even though we were not close when I was younger, we are now starting to get along better – I thank my daughter for that.

When I said she wasn’t always there it’s because I was shuttled back and forth to Guam where my maternal grandparents lived after leaving the Agnos municipality of the Pangasinan province in the Ilocos region of the Philippines.  She was young mother (23), in a new city (San Francisco) and the only family she had with her was a sister that wasn’t much older than her and really didn’t want to be a babysitter. Therefore, I would live with my grandparents and her siblings in Guam. My father wasn’t in the picture at the time until much later…I’ll just say he was popular with the ladies. Don’t worry, I have a great relationship with him and love him dearly.

When I try to channel my own spin on early 70′s chic, I think of my mother.  My mom had it going on – she had the long black straight Cher hair, wore a bit of makeup to accentuate her exotic bohemian beauty and those shoes in the first pic – something I would totally wear now! She had major style that trickled in my young wardrobe. Well I wasn’t always willing – when I wanted to wear a dress, she put me in a boy’s suit for my kindergarten school picture. The year was 1979 and she was still in her Annie Hall phase. I got teased, I hated her for it but I look back and I now know why I adore the tomboy chic style of Sofia Coppola, Charlotte Gainsbourg and of course Katherine Hepburn.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really bond with my mother as a child so I don’t have a whole lot of memories with her. I do recall crossing the Bay Bridge many times to her friends’ homes in the East Bay with Air Supply blasting on her car stereo. I can’t lie, I do have a soft spot for Air Supply and I’m not ashamed to admit that.  The thing I remembered most was being 4-5 years old, sitting on her toilet watching her get ready for work. I would dip my finger in the whipped cream of her fancy coffee. What made it fancy? A healthy addition of  Kahlua, of course!

I remember this on her bathroom counter top:

Indian Earth powder. I’m going to guess that this was an early form of bronzer or a terracotta shade blusher. The powder puff just added to the glamour. I was transfixed by the colors in the palettes that laid out in front of her. I wanted to cover my mouth with her lipstick, put on her fake lashes and lose myself in massive clouds of her perfume.

She had a fondness for Shiseido products so these were staples in her beauty ammunition:

Later in the early 80′s she wore the Diane Von Furstenburg scent, Tatiana and I’m pretty sure that’s where my sister got her name. Seriously, I became obsessed with makeup. I would watch shows like Three’s Company and rather than focusing on John Ritter’s genius physical comedy, I was transfixed by Joyce DeWitt’s smoky eye shadow and glossy red lips. When I colored in my Barbie themed coloring books, my favorite things to color were  Barbie’s face because I would play makeup artist with my crayons. If I was given Tinkerbelle toy makeup I’d try to recreate a look I saw on a show or in a magazine on my own five year old face. My daydreams featured me running around town all dolled up like Charlie perfume commercial. I never created or daydreamed about a wedding…I was living through my Barbie dolls, being glamorous and dancing at night clubs.

I would get in trouble if caught playing with her makeup or any makeup in general. My mom did let me wear light lip gloss but anything heavier than that and I didn’t even want to think of the trouble that would cause. So you can imagine how torn I was in seventh grade with most of the girls around me were sporting full face Maybelline, Cover Girl or Wet n’ Wild makeup! One of my girlfriends in my homeroom class would loan me her makeup and I would then treat the classroom as my personal vanity table. Okay first of all, we don’t need to discuss the lack of hygiene here and secondly, this was the 80′s – I looked like a applied eye shadow on my eyes like it was spackle. Later that night, I forgot to wash my face before my mom got home. She took one look at my face and yelled at me. Not because I disobeyed her but because I looked cheap and she didn’t like the thought of me using second hand makeup. The next day I got my very first palette – it was by Maybelline. I was so happy.

As I entered high school, the makeup got expensive. Our relationship was even more strained because of my stubborn rebellious attitude – something I inherited from her. We fought almost daily. What kept us in agreement? Makeup. My makeup pouch went from Wet ‘n Wild lip and eye pencils to Lancome face powder, matte red lipstick and black kohl eye liner. Yes, in my mind I was a french woman. Well I tried hard to tune into my inner Isabella Rossellini. I also discover Dior and Chanel makeup at this time. I urged my mother to buy this for herself so I could borrow it, sneaky yes but damn it, I need to flash that double C’s lipstick in my AP English class!

It’s true, you really don’t appreciate your parents until you become one. Another constant – my mother always kept up her appearances when I was young and she still knows how to work a red lip now. I am the same way, well I’m not always wearing red lips but I will always leave the house with my eye brows perfectly done. I even made sure my brows were waxed days before I went into labor. I feel complete and comfortable with my brows done – I’m not apologizing for it and I’m pretty sure my mother doesn’t either.

Now it’s coming full circle – my daughter sometimes watches me get ready for work and she’ll beg and ask for ‘lisstick‘ but I just grab the nearest lip gloss, which happens to be from NARS, MAC or Chanel, and I dot her lips with pigment ever so lightly. But I relax and realize that she is still innocent and she is very girly. She also likes to dip her little fingers in any shadow or blush pan on display at Sephora and she applies them with abandonment on her face. I will take her to the nearest mirror and she giggles with delight. I even paint her toes on occasion. I know I shouldn’t indulge her like this because I fear that I’m indirectly teaching her to rely on cosmetics to make herself feel better. I also know that along with introducing her to the world of beauty, I read to her (almost) every night, I quiz her on her colors and letters and we sing songs. I try to keep the television off as long as possible when I bring her home from school so she can color, look at her books or just let her imagination wonder when she plays with her toys.

I also picked up the habit of fragrance collecting from memories of my mother’s bottles of Lancome’s Tresor, YSL Paris, Lauren, the aforementioned Tatiana on her dresser. My daughter also has picked up on this new hobby of mine when she told me I smelled like a flower. She loves when I spray a very light mist of fragrance on her arm.

Her favorite seems to be Frederic Malle’s En Passant because it makes her smell like a flower. She giggles loudly and it makes her so happy. How can I say no to that joy?

My mother and I are a work in progress. I wasn’t able to get her a Mother’s Day gift so I thought I’d turn the tables by treating her to something at the makeup counter of Macy’s for old time’s sake!

Summer is right around the corner, and to get us beauty addicts in the mood NARS is here to bring on the sizzle!

Summer 2012 features orchid, apricot, regal blue, strawberry red, seashell pink…colors I usually associate with Spring but it’s the pairing of these shades that makes them fun, edgy and just right. Also, I’m a little shocked that the popular shade for the season, orange, isn’t featured.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received the Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil (from the good PR folks at NARS). The shade looks like it would be a vibrant bright, cool-toned pink.

But on the skin it’s something else:

It’s a tame lilac rose. It’s lovely and delicate while complimenting tanned skin and shimmery lids.

I love that it’s subtle and that I can wear it comfortably at the office. With a darker gloss layered on top – it becomes a dark mauve rose. It surprisingly compliments the great apricot blush and peach, silver, apricot eye shadow trio.

As you know, the Velvet Matte Lip Pencils are staples in my makeup bag. It’s a great layering base or as a solo look – it settles nicely and does not settle in the lines of my lips. I do get about three hours wear time, maybe a little longer depending on how much water and coffee is needed on a given work day! This is the fourth Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in my current collection and I’m always excited when a new color is introduced.

Here it is featured as my lip look of the day – as a matter of fact, I have been putting this pencil to work. I have worn this on its own with just a touch of lip balm on top for subtly glossed lips, and I have worn it with a lip gloss on top. I think I wore this at least four days in a row just to put it to the test. It may look muted on my dark skin but it never looks dull. It’s a shade that I wouldn’t normally reach for, but I am pleasantly surprised that I can pull this off.

Velvet Matte Lip Pencil retails for $24/USD and can be found at any department store or Sephora that carries the NARS collection. To learn more about the latest Summer 2012 collection, please click here.

This pencil was sent to me for consideration from the good folks at NARS.