If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Hip Leggings & Sci-Fi Swimsuits From Black Milk.

above: The Helvetica leggings are just one of the many cool pieces of printed stretchy clothes from Black Milk.

Black Milk, a line of trendy fashions by James Lillis has been getting a lot of attention lately thanks to a post on Boing Boing which featured the fabulous Artoo and Threepio swimsuits and has resulted in a four week wait for both of the suits shown below.

But there's a lot more fabulous items in the collection- not just Star Wars-related clothes. While there's other fab space imagery, there's also some wicked rock n' roll, skulls, abstract patterns, union jacks, dollar bills, bones and other hip iconography printed on LYCRA in the form of swimsuits, leggings, shorts, catsuits, jackets and more.

Some of my fave swimsuits:
C Threepio Swimsuit:

Artoo Swimsuit (R2-D2):

Dark Side Swimsuit (Love the combination of the Pink Floyd album cover with Darth):

Galaxy Swimsuit:

Black Ribs Swimsuit:

Resurrection Swimsuit:

Sesame Street Pulp Fiction Swimsuit:

The Great Wave swimsuit (clearly inspired by Hiroshige) and Jaws swimsuit:

Black Skull and White Skull swimsuits:

Some of my fave leggings:

Helvetica Leggings:

Galaxy leggings (shown in black, also available in red):

Dreaming Desire leggings:

Leg Bones leggings:

Newsprint leggings:

Colored Comics leggings:

Black and White comics leggings:

Little Skulls leggings:

Dollar leggings:

Not all of the above suits and leggings are still in production, please check their online store for availability.

In James' own words:
At the beginning of 2009 I walked into a little sewing shop and bought two shiny new sewing machines. It was a slightly unusual sight - a shop full of older women making patchwork quilts for their grandkids... and me.

I didn't mind. It seemed very punk at the time.

My idea was fairly simple - I would teach myself to sew, buy some beautiful stretch fabrics, and make insane leggings. Then I would find girls who would get into them. Girls who wanted leggings that could pack a little more punch than the ones on offer at your average department store.

I made the leggings, found the girls, and so was born Black Milk.

Things were slow initially, but the girls who bought the leggings were always really positive, which was super-encouraging for me in the early days. The turning point came when I decided that I was going to figure out a way to wrap chains around a pair of leggings. It took me a week of drawing, sketching, scheming and failing before I finally figured out how to do it. I called them Cages, and they were a minor cult hit. From that time on, so many girls were ordering Black Milk gear that it became a full time job.

We've come a long way since those early days sewing leggings at midnight on the kitchen table. We've sold thousands of pairs of leggings all over the world. We've been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs from the local paper to Vogue. Best of all, Black Milk has now got score a reputation as one of the most exciting designer leggings labels in the world.

But a lot is still the same. I still stay up to midnight sewing. I still personally design each piece. I still get a buzz every time a girl emails me a picture and tells me how many people commented when she wore out her Black Milk leggings.

Yeah, it's still fun.

xx
james Lillis

Shop Black Milk here.

3D Sculpted Paper Heads By Bert Simons

I spotted these 3 dimensional photographic paper portrait heads and sculptures by artist Bert Simons over at Bored Panda, so I dove a little deeper and found some more on the artist's web site.

Using multiple points on a model's face and head, Bert inputs the data into the computer and uses Blender, an open source 3D program to construct a three dimensional model of the head. He then flattens the image to 2D pieces and prints them out on paper stock, only to rebuild them as a purposely piecemeal modeled head.

The making of Harry Hamelink (2007):

In addition to some self-portraits, he has created versions of other men and women, an anatomical head and a three step head which represents vegetative growth.

Self-portraits, 2006:

Rozemarijn Lucassen, 2007:

Mr. Ivo Opstelten, 2008:

the mask as seen on a human:

Cardboard Cutie, 2006:

the making of Cardboard Cutie:

Anatomical head, 2005:

Vegetarius (just add water), 2003:

all images courtesy of the artist.

The Beauty of Breaking Down. Stranded Motorists Photographed By Amy Stein.

above: Amy Stein captures a broken down vehicle and passenger on Route 84, Texas.

Thanks to the New York Times' Wheels section, I have learned about photographer Amy Stein's collection of broken down vehicles and their passengers.

Stranded is a visual documentation of drivers in distress- accompanied by a Google map which documents the images and their whereabouts. Cars with their hoods up, passengers waiting for tow trucks, vehicles abandoned at the side of the road.

Peri, Route 64, Kentucky:

Steven, Route 10, Louisiana:

Walter, Route 90, Louisiana:

Route 14, New Mexico:

Clarence, Route 71, Ohio:

Man Under Overpass, New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey:

Beth, Outside Tallahassee, Florida:

Car, Route 79, Pennsylvania:

Interstate 15, Cajon Pass, California and Truck Driver, Interstate 10, Florida:

Third Street, Memphis, Tennessee:

Family, New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey:

“I’m interested in the idea of a breakdown as a sort of existential failing,” she said in a recent e-mail to the New York Times.

Inspired by the government's failed response to the flooding of New Orleans in 2005, she has spent the past 5 plus years driving across American photographing stranded motorists.

Cheerleaders, New Orleans, Louisiana: