#project: the mondrian dress

[hebuiltfive]

Eeek! The mock up for the dress is coming together! Lots of adjustments to make but the mock up has turned out better than I'd hoped! 🥹

[cariyvette]

The Photojournalist and the Portrait

“The photojournalist and the Portraits

According to the text Truth Needs no Ally by Howard Chapnick and according to Robert Sobieszek, curator of photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the purpose of the photographic portrait “has been to record the faces and figure of kin, acquaintances, and the famous. As a document, the portrait becomes a form of visual biography utilized for both immediate recognition and historical recollection.”

Throughout a typical career, the photojournalist will be called upon to do more photographic portraits than any other kind of assignment. Many of the photographs you find in the news magazines are what are called “significant portraits,” relating the individuals to the singular accomplishments they have achieved, discoveries they have made, issues they have confronted, or new products they have patented or developed.

In taking better portraits, the photographer must aim to go beyond the photographic snapshot of record. Portraits that will be remembered and appreciated are those that penetrate public masks, revealing the inner person beneath.

This can be achieved by: - Capturing facial expressions - Unconscious hand gestures - A contemplative look

Arnold Newman: Environmental Portraits

“No one picture can ever be a final summation of a personality. There are so many facets in every human being that is impossible to present them all in one photograph. When I make a portrait, I don’t take a photograph. I build it, seeking all those graphic elements that will express the most typical common denominator of the subject as I see him within the obvious limitations of a single image.”

Newman’s 1942 portrait of artist Piet Mondrian

Brian Lanker: Portraits of Dignity

Brian Lanker produced a portrait projects based on a simple idea executed with grace, simplicity, and compassion. In I Dream a World, Lanker set out to make portraits that would underline the power and strength of black women who changed America.

“The exhibition of late photographer Brian Lanker’s work includes a portrait of Rosa Parks in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where the mid-1950s Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized.”

Portraits

After reading the chapter about portraits from the book Photojournalism by Kenneth Kobre I learned a few helpful tips that could help you accomplish a great portrait.

Steve Raymer who’s the longtime staff photographer for National Geographic said, Candid photography can produce honest, believable portraits without a lot of elaborate prompting, staging, or lighting. It’s a matter of knowing the subject, using the light, and waiting for the moment.

Put Your Subject at Ease

If someone is uncomfortable in front of the camera, the best photojournalistic techniques in the world will not produce will not produce a revealing portrait. Photographers develop different techniques to loosen up and relax their subjects.

Here are some choices to consider…

Talk it over During a shooting session, the talk usually turns into the person’s involvement in the story. When people become engrossed in conversation, they often forget about the camera, which allows those candid moments in otherwise controlled situations.

Look them in the eye

Rather than using the viewfinder for portraits, many photographers use the camera’s LCD monitor to frame the picture while still maintaining eye contact.

  Example: Alfred Eisenstaedt an original Life magazine staffer, avoided the disruption of picking up and putting down the camera by using a tripod and cable release. He said, “for me, this method often gives the most relaxed pictures.”

Let people be themselves

o Watch for your subject’s body language:

How do they hold themselves, erect or relaxed?

Do they point with their fingers or make a fist?

Which way do they tip their head?

When they are relaxed, do they use one hand or two to hold up their head?

o Look to see how comfortable they are with their own body

Be a bore (but not a boor)

When you have time, the boredom technique works well; if you wait long enough, the subject often gets tired of posing, and you can shoot natural looking photos that result in casual, relaxed portraits.

Let someone else do the talking

 If an interviewer doesn’t accompany you on an assignment, take a friend along. When no outsider is available, look for someone on location, like the subject’s colleague, to whom he or she might enjoy talking. Light as a Storytelling Element When a moodier effect is desired, however, photographers often choose lighting that will leave large areas of the picture in shadow. The photos dominant tones are dark gray and black.

Understand light

To add depth to a subject’s face, arrange the person so that the main light, whether it is from a continuous light source, flash, or window, falls toward the side of his or her face.

Look for light

Example: Nicole Bengiveno will use any light she can find. “there have been times I have used the headlight of a car, streetlamp, or a table lamp,” she says. To find the right light and to catcg her subjects in a more relaxed atmosphere, Bengiveno often takes people for a walk in the streets.

Provide clues to the “inner person”

A subject’s face, hands, and body position reflect the psychological state of the sitter…

Are the subjects smiling or showing a grim face?

Are his hands pulling at his beard or resting at his side?

Is he standing confidently or shifting awkwardly?

Environmental portraits

An environmental portrait supplies enough details with props, choice of dress, and choice of background to let the reader know something about the lifestyle of the sitter.

In an environmental portrait, the subject is photographed at home, at the office, or on location, the place that best reflects the story’s theme.

Group portraits

-Show all faces

A prime requirement of a formal group portrait is that it shows, as clearly as possible, each person’s face. This takes careful planning. Arranging subjects’ shoulder-to-shoulder sometimes works but arranging people in rows, one row behind the other might work better.

-Soft light is best

For group portraits, soft light creates the minimal of shadows is usually the most effective.

-Add zest to small-group portraits

Try to keep each person’s head on a different level. With a combination of kneeling, sitting, and standing.

Dress the alike

Hand them props

Watch the background

Pose to carry information

[floggingink]

bitch I bet you thought I’d forgotten about Riverdale, “Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men’s Eyes”

I absolutely agree with Archie’s wild careening off the side of the road of justice to plead guilty to a crime he “may as well have” committed. I couldn’t believe Archie was so preposterously on the money about himself: “I didn’t kill anyone, but I could have.” GOOD, ARCHIE. I love Juvie Archie. better than Fascist Archie!!!!

I didn’t google “prison powder” to see if that shit’s soap or for lice or what but y’all’ll fill me in on that won’t you

“Leopold and Loeb” is just the level of allusory on-brand naming hubris I demand

“Captain Golightly” doesn’t seem to be a reference to anything other than a brutal dichotomy between whimsy and a dictatorial prison state

you know they hit us up with that Pop’s lighting not even at Pop’s! I never met a window I didn’t want to have bathe me in God’s light!

Sixth period is Intro to Film: the cross stitch quote on the warden’s wall, which I assume dude’s wife made for him because he and she adhere to traditional gender roles, is of course from Sonnet 29, referenced in the title to a play and 70’s movie very much about sexual slavery in prison (Archie has not seen it)

Day One at Juvie Coif: very good, uplifted, touchable but held fast

they really did the line-up of the Hot Dads of Riverdale right there: Tom seems to be eating pancakes and bacon, and FP is wearing a scarf like a headband but like a necklace

Fred’s flannel is an interesting mix of colors like, for a flannel, and Veronica appears to be wearing subtle yellow eyeshadow to go with her waitress dress

when were we going to hear about the three perjuring thugs? who corroborated Archie’s false confession???? cold

“Shadow County” is the third county in “Riverdale State”

The Blossom spawn: Dr. Patel seems to be the Cooper family GP with specialities in both obstetrics and neurology; Betty is still wearing her hospital bracelet

I never noticed the teensy blackboard under Alice’s kitchen cabinets; the Coopers are truly peak bourgeois chic

Polly’s itty bitty lace headband is good and the Farm has done wonders for her and Alice’s accessory game

Betty’s body language at “Uh...because I saw you and mom throw the twins on a fucking fire” is very funny (Betty has not told a joke yet)

Dilton Doiley is a canonically great dancer: RIP!!!!!!

I want to get out of the way that for some reason Jughead looks really good throughout this episode. I can’t explain why, maybe it’s because he’s finally wearing plaid again, but he looks good. if you thought he looked good in the first place, he’s back

is Betty wearing her Carrie: the Musical outfit?

last week I misheard Dilton and thought he said “Cardinal King,” and I was like, What? and then it got even better

Places Bughead are Fucking: the Blue & Gold office

Archie > Dawson: God bless Archie but he does try to be personable with Mad Dog right away, unleashing one of his legendary “bros.” how old were you when you realized you couldn’t do a pull-up? I’ve never done a pull-up in my goddamn life and certainly not to a vinyl of a piano sonata

Mad Dog (I just wrote “God,” because I guess he’s that beautiful) has approximately 100 cigarettes, which he certainly does not smoke, so he is hoarding them for some grand purpose?

when Mad Dog turned around I swear I saw muscles I didn’t know the human body possessed. I’m talking fresh-out-of-the-science-tube Steve Rogers

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Mad Dog’s impeccably maintained fade

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie has the right attitude about LBJ and Vietnam, except I think JFK got us into Vietnam, but then the Gulf of Tonkin was LBJ. I don’t want to google the Vietnam War. look, McNamara is a war criminal

Cheryl’s sheaths: I wish I had the energy to coordinate my bras with the rest of my aesthetic like Josie, in a leopard print, and Cheryl, in red lace. I will say I have recently discovered unlined bras and they have changed me for the better

do you think Archie + varsity football + theater extracurriculars = Cheryl + student body president + 4.0 GPA + theater extracurriculars?

Serpent with the General-style opthalmic frames and low-rise Chucks intrigues me

Joaquin does Archie so bad!!!!!!! even after he got the fucking tattoo, damn!

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Joaquin’s eyes are so crystal clear that I don’t think they have a color of their own. he’s wearing the optional grey shirt, so they look grey; if he wore the optional navy shirt (I can’t yet tell a difference in status) they would look blue

oh god, what is that Ghoulie doing at the fucking fence? is he slicing his fingertips for fun? what the fuck, the Ghoulies are so fucking bizarre

Archie calls Joaquin “bro” which means he is fucking serious

we all need to take a moment to ourselves to truly absorb the skull of Dr. Curdle’s son, who is also a corrupt coroner (his name tag says “Dr. Curdle Jr”). of the three most alien skulls so far, this is the most take-abacking (I HAVE seen every episode and my calculations are sound)

he’s really gonna let Dilton (RIP!!!!!) have his arm hang down off the table like that, in this, his final repose? cold

the almost ironic intonation of “signs….of stress….” as he pulls the sheet down is amazingly 50’s horror movie

“Runic, I’d say.”

mmmmmmmmmm Fresh-Aid! I listened to the Jonestown tape in an episode of Last Podcast and was well disturbed!!!!!

you tell me why Jughead is using the camera he used in the pilot instead of like, his phone camera: because Jughead?

because Jughead

Places Bughead are Fucking: coroner’s Office

I want one of these L & L shirts. I would prefer the navy version with the little sleeves

excuse me but one of these Ghoulies has an absolute 2008 sidebang

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “DON’T TOUCH HIS FACE”

Veronica’s flower sweater

BEN BUTTON

Betty’s 70’s-collared Piet Mondrian shirt is super cute, although a white-backed women’s shirt with that thin Forever 21 fabric always fucks you if you have to wear a bra

the actress who plays Evelyn Evernever is named Zoé de Grand Maison and honestly I don’t know who has the better name

DOES KEVIN STILL WANT TO LOSE HIS VIRGINITY BY HALLOWEEN

if homecoming is in September or October, the schedule should be roughly 1) Archie gets out of juvie, followed by 2) Kevin loses his virginity with Moose

Gay.: Kevin’s kiss is VERY good and quite bold! for a hallway, and Moose’s twangy hair is nice

at my high school, everyone just said “rot-see” for ROTC, so surely these hip kids wouldn’t go around saying R-R-O-T-C like that, UNREALISTIC, RIVERDALE

the extremely tall gothy Vixen is even taller than the extremely tall Ghoulie and I would like to take her to homecoming

Summer + Blair = Veronica: “You’re acting like trash, and I don’t want to get a citation.”

what the hell does student body president even do? to the extent I can even recall our student body president, whose name I believe was Lauren, I think she read the afternoon announcements

Ben WAS the kid Kevin ordered that hot dog from during the James Dean closing night! (I’m not double-checking)

Ben WAS the kid Miss Grundy was ~grooming~ when she got merked!

Ben’s mom is such a boring white mom lady that she’s wearing a denim button-down with but a single flower appliqué

YOU KNOW I LOVED THAT BLAIR WITCH TWIG BABY

Officer Henderson WAS the cop who found the “HL” briefcase at the dead Serpent’s hotel room!

I looked into what starting a chapter of the Innocence Project entails for a “couple of minutes.” I assume Veronica is going to go with option one: nonprofit organization, “independently incorporated” with “its own governing board” and fundraising, as I would doubt Riverdale has a local law school or much of a public defender’s office, you know what I’m saying?

What damn high school in America: Veronica is wearing some high-waisted black slacks and quite the polka dot top, which may in fact simply be a bustier. I imagine Principal Weatherbee has battled so many times over the years with Cheryl, who is constantly toeing the line of what a 16-year-old can legally wear, that he has since given up entirely

Jughead crawling over the back of the couch and dangling the totem baby is such a throwback to Jughead crawling over the back of the diner booth and eating the whipped cream cherry that now they are simply teasing me with the grandeur of times gone by, like an Andy Williams Christmas song thrown up on 101.9 KINK

Ethel has on some sort of wicked pin but it’s not in focus!

Betty’s top is very cute, structured

everyone has their own “Yeah, I guess” face at “Dilton Doiley [RIP!!!!!!!] has a secret bunker in the woods?”

Jughead cooly threatens Ethel with quote-unquote telling the police; this of course calls back to Jughead threatening Dilton (RIP!!!!!) in the third episode with Sheriff Keller, but let me ask you this: if Betty & Jughead DID take Ethel to the sheriff, would Sheriff Minetta give a flying fuck? doesn’t he answer directly to Hiram on all things Jughead at this point? could Betty and Jughead POSSIBLY still imagine the cops will heed anything they bring them?

Sheriff Minetta: Jughead Jones now seems to be under the impression that a band of Riverdale High juniors are in an underground RPG cult that has led to a double-suicide

Hiram: Thank God

something about Jughead’s teensy Yes’m head nod is just enough like a chivalrous bow that I have thus taken the time to note how cute it is

Day Two Juvie Coif: visibly succumbing to stress, but with dignity; starting to feather

I don’t know anything about sneakers but I like Mad Dog’s hightops

the cinematography in Archie’s cell is great. I especially like the panning around Archie when he’s not even moving, just listening to Mad Dog talking about, “The moment you set foot in here,” etc.

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: FP AND ALICE BOOOOOIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!! missing is the implied scene where Alice called FP to “get over here” so they can “talk to our kids” “together”

50 Shades of Betty: Betty tries hard to communicate with only her left eyebrow, fails

am I imagining a callback to Alice assuming Jughead was the one who railroaded Betty into looking at Jason Blossom? Alice’s stance on Jughead is too exhausting to track

Alice is certainly wearing a sheer floral peasant blouse she would NOT have worn the previous two seasons, SUSPICIOUS

Places Bughead are Not Fucking: Betty’s room

Gay?!: Archie’s incredulous delight at Reggie having helped picked out his RHS-themed sneakers; the Bulldogs are all about that #threestripelife

Veronica was rich: “FRESH KICKS”

Moose is apparently a “straight beast,” if you will

one of these Serpents is holding two playing cards, just chilling and holding two playing cards. I hope his prison name is like SNAKE EYES or THE JOKER

that Ghoulie dude is so striking and elongated, I swear to God he looks like John Travolta in Grease. that undercut, the well-oiled curls on top? can he be Josie’s fall fling?

God bless jingle-jangle: can you DROP OUT of fourth grade? doesn’t the state come for you, what the fuck?

I unironically love Archie’s plan. I fucking love it

“YOU’VE NEVER KNOWN THE EPIC HIGHS AND LOWS”—ARCHIE—YOU’RE A FUCKING SAVANT

I’m looking for other good haircuts in the background. one dude has a solid Wakanda-era Bucky Barnes and there’re slicked up curls aplenty. this juvie is like a candy box

you know this bitch loves a rack focus, especially onto prison wardens

Please protect Betty: “It’s chamomile, Betty. Calm down.”

FREAKISHLY good micromoment of Alice just like wiping away an eyelash or something

aloud, with witnesses, I said “This is like when they first held hands, am I right?” and then Betty said the “kind of reminds me of when we first started dating,” just to prove to you I HAVE seen every episode

Betty calmly checking in with Jughead re: Satan’s Reindeer

he’s most certainly Ethel on stilts (I’m very bad at predicting), but I love the Gargoyle King. he’s just the right mix of she-puts-you-in-the-corner and herky-jerky T-Rex, plus she put paint on him or whatever, in case somebody put a flashlight beam on him? Ethel fucking Muggs or whoever

love the sexy noir diner lighting and I will die loving it

Jughead eats: a toothpick

Day Three Juvie Coif: back at it, flush with victory; firm and wavy

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: I do wish Cheryl were not so permanently a good guy. I wish she wanted to be Student Body President, all of a sudden, so badly that she was trying to keep Archie in juvie so he could never reclaim his throne, like if she were Scar

Kevin’s magenta polo has a subtle wave print

I hope the RROTC is somehow rotting from the inside, like the Adventure Scouts or Aquaholics

The female gaze: Archie’s cranking out push-ups and Mad Dog is doing tricep dips to warm up, for the game and “other business,” respectively. sometimes I like to do tricep dips too, usually for forty-five seconds while I’m waiting for the microwave to reheat my Kraft Thick N’ Creamy

Archie’s “What the hell are you to him?” is maybe his most astute query into something not being right that doesn’t include his remarkable quickness on the uptake of Jughead at the end of season one (I HAVE seen every episode)

These students are legally children: what the fuck did Mad Dog do that he’s been sentenced to like 25 years in prison? he’s a minor for God’s sake. get on this, Veronica

Places Bughead are Fucking: the fucking woods

catch me hightailing it the fuck out of there when Betty and Jughead do anything that even remotely resembles opening a circular hatch to ANYTHING out in a fucking forest clearing and peering down inside. BYE BITCHES YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!!!!!

someone in the writer’s room at even only one point said the phrase “like in True Detective” while unspooling this yarn

Fifth period is AP English: I have to take Jughead’s word for it that there’re any bunkers in any Philip K. Dick novel

I am STILL salty that the Swords & Serpents thing IS NOT THE SAME THING as THIS RPG and that it was wholly abandoned. I can’t believe we’re not doing Jughead being sucked into the RPG cult and Betty have to haul him out SIMULTANEOUSLY with her mother being sucked into the postpartum cult and having to haul HER out

“He’s also featured prominently on this copper coin.”

y’all can just buy cyanide like that, in that glass growler? it has a “reliable prescription” sticker on it, WTF?

“Drink from the correct cup and ascend to the kingdom” is definitely ripped from one of the tracks on that Avenged Sevenfold album I bought at Borders freshman year

Jughead doubts it: “OR SOMETHING EVEN MORE INSIDIOUS”

I fucking knew that Adventure Scout was gonna be under that fucking cot but it still scared the crap out of me because The Haunting of Hill House exhausted my reserves

I’m going to come out and say that I’ve never cared for Charmed and I’m not watching the reboot. however I am exceedingly ready for Sabrina

“Princess Etheline”

guys, I found the “Jailhouse Rock” dance charming, especially the implication that the boys started the game up again in the middle to like, show off for the girls. am I getting soft in my old age?

Josie’s VERY bright blue eyeshadow

Cheryl’s hair: Cheryl had to have been influenced by the trend started pre-2012 in So You Think You Can Dance wherein dancers with very long hair just leave it down

Hiram…..Archie’s in jail. what else do you want? like, he’s IN JUVIE

am I out of my fucking mind or is Hiram wearing a pin that is PSYCHOTICALLY close to being the Hydra hydra?

Archie overtaking the first few guards with those slow-mo crosses until they finally beat him down by their sheer numbers was basically a scene from Spartacus: War of the Damned

Betty’s bug print is cute while being, subconsciously, slightly unsettling; this is true for Betty as a whole

Ethel’s mustard yellow cotton cardigan has some sort of flower print on its back? COOL

I would like to extend a hearty “fuck off with that for fucking me” to whoever blocked out seizing-Ethel whipping her arm up like that with her jacked hand JUST LIKE IN HEREDITARY. FUCK OFF!, and I mean it

“Damn good coffee”: Evelyn has just the sort of niche superpower I wish I could have: to fuck with other people’s social interactions from a casual remove

Jughead is remarkably polite with 911, much calmer than with the desk nurse after Fangs got shot (I HAVE seen every episode)

(Hereditary was much better than Hill House)

Best costume bit: Monica Posh is hot

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: Kevin wants that dick SO BADLY that he has JOINED THE ARMY (or whatever)

how did Pop’s lighting manage to glide all the way over to L&L?

Day Four Juvie Coif: slept on but still truckin’

Archie can only be fucking imagining what is about to happen to him (Archie has definitely seen Fight Club, and Jughead had to explain how it was satire)

Certified pedigree: LEGENDARY SQUAD OF PARENTS!!!!!! Hermione’s getting the band back together à la It

Penelope Blossom has gone full Victorian goth in that floor-length lace Chicago black widow number

“At the mere mention of ‘blue lips,’” Jughead wrote, “a shiver frissoned around the room.”

you can tell Alice is in a hippie cult because not only is she wearing crystals but she has stopped wearing eye makeup (I could never be in this sort of cult because if I don’t smear kohl all over them I look like I have tiny eyes; I am sensitive about this)

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the reveal of Ben in the window, bathed in the blue glow of Pop’s diner, was like, ~chills~

“You’ll fly too” is of course also It, which, FUCK OFF

NEXT WEEK: I could be very fucking wrong about this but FP has a tattoo on his left pec that may very well be of a jellybean

[andiegallo]

HELLO FRIENDS! This month I'll be working on a new character design/fashion illustration project called 28 Dresses! Each day I'll draw different kinds of people (and maybe animals) wearing all sorts of dresses!

For day 1 we have one of the many Mondrian-inspired dresses designed by Yves Saint Laurent in the 60s. Wish I could wear one!

TUMBLR | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

[5hfanfiction]

you're like a piece of art (you need to be nailed against a wall)

A/N:

Part of a one shot book on wattpad, at jaureguicabello5eva

–

Camila doesn’t know what she’s looking at exactly. Actually, she does know what she’s looking at, she just doesn’t understand the big deal. Like, it’s a bunch of colorful squares and rectangles? She thinks she’s absolutely capable of painting that, and she doesn’t even consider herself an artist, so yeah, pay her whatever they’re paying these “abstract” artists. Whatever that means.

God, she feels uncultured as fuck, she thinks as she takes a sip of her third(?) glass of champagne.

Camila’s spending her Friday night in a too-tight red dress at the Museum of Modern Art in New York instead of catching up on sleep like she had planned. The museum is holding an exclusive exhibit for the weekend that features several works from known artists around the world. Not that Camila actually knows any of them.

Dinah, her best friend since coming out of the womb, had scored passes for the event from the sister-in-law of her cousin’s best friend’s girlfriend? Camila lost track after sister-in-law to be honest. Dinah knows way too many people, and she’s related to like half of California, so who knows?

Anyway, Dinah had gotten these passes and had planned to surprise her ex-boyfriend, who is the broody, artist, mysterious, lying, cheating, S.O.B. type apparently. After finding her ex in a very compromising position with some wench in their previously shared apartment, Dinah had immediately broken it off and proceeded to get over him by getting under as many people as she could, until she got over that too, and now she’s sort of just wallowing in self-pity.

So, Camila, because she’s the greatest best friend in the world, naturally, offered to go with her to the stupid exhibit anyway in hopes of cheering up her best friend, and maybe you’ll even get lucky with some hot-shot artist who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars painting blobs, Dinah!

Well, now she’s kind of regretting her decision. She loves Dinah, she really does, but is everyone who attends exhibits just naturally broody and boring or does she just have to widen her perspective?

–

Lauren is in heaven. She thinks this must be where starving artists lay their brushes down and go to die. She’s surrounded by incredible pieces that range from hundreds of years old to decades to within the last few years. There are pieces from your classic Van Gogh and Warhol, to newer pieces by Philippe Parreno, and her personal favorite, Weiwei. She’s convinced she’d actually died and gone to artist paradise.

She’d gotten a hold of a pass for this exclusive exhibit from Normani, her best friend, and who, by the way, was already Lauren’s favorite person in the world before she’d given her the pass, but now undoubtedly and solely owns the green-eyed girl’s heart.

And because the universe is being extra kind today, the exhibit just so happens to have Piet Mondrian’s Tableau I on loan from Museum Ludwig in Germany.

Lauren is absolutely ecstatic. She’s been having kind of an artist’s block lately and there’s nothing like one of the greatest pieces in abstract history to inspire her. Mondrian’s Tableau I is a math-based geometric perfection that brings colors and lines and absolute arithmetic precision to life and Lauren can’t wait to see it in person.

She’s majoring in architecture [A/N: sorry I keep writing Lauren as an architect/aspiring architect lol] though if things were up to her, she would have majored in fine arts with a focus on painting and drawing. She’s a great painter and she’s not too bad at digital design either, but her passion lies in drawing. Give her a pencil and anything can be her sketchpad.

She’s studying architecture because it incorporates her love for design and drawing and you need to major in something realistic, Lauren. There’s a reason they’re called “starving” artists. Do you really want to starve your future husband and kids?

Has it been mentioned that her mother can be a bit overbearing? Well she is, and so Lauren is going to let her mom have her way because as suffocating as her mom can be, the dark-haired girl does love her with everything that she has. But since she’s hell bent on getting some say in the matter, she’s also minoring in fine arts with a focus on, yup, drawing and painting.

She needs inspiration for her project in her Drawing II class as well as for her Advanced Urban Design class and thinks Tableau I is the best of both worlds. Some people might think his work is just rectangles and squares but those are probably the same people who think pineapple on pizza is okay, which it’s not.

Also, her mother doesn’t know it, but she’s pretty sure she’s not going to end up with a husband anyway. Not when she’s just laid her eyes on the most beautiful person? goddess? God’s gift to gay women? she’s ever seen.

Lauren is on her way to where she knows the painting is displayed when she spots a brunette squinting at Mondrian’s work. One of her hands has delicate, slender fingers wrapped around an almost-empty flute, while the other is worrying the bottom of her luscious lip.

Normani who? This woman owns Lauren’s heart now as far as she knows.

Lauren is your typical artist/aspiring architect so of course, she carries a sketchbook and pencil everywhere she goes. She pulls them both out and sits on a bench not too far, but not too close to pretty, brown eyes either. She doesn’t want to seem creepy, even though she is being creepy.

Lauren forgets the world around her as she gets completely absorbed in trying to capture the beauty in front of her as best as she can. She needs to capture how this girl’s long lashes curve up in the most tantalizing way and the delicate way they fall over her mesmerizing eyes when she blinks. She needs to properly portray the gentle slope of her nose, the curve of her mouth when her desirable, full lips smile, and the defined cheeks and sharp jawline that flank her entire face. 

And that ass though.

She’s finishing up on outlining how her hair falls perfectly down her curved spine when she looks up and the object of her affection is gone.

“Shit,” she whispers to herself. “Where did she go?”

“I’m right here,” Normani says as she takes a seat next her. “I thought you’d be glued to an art piece by now, Laur” Normani chuckles. “You were so excited to come here and I find you just sat here, not even appreciating the work around you?” Normani clicks her tongue.

“Whatcha got there anyway,” she asks as she leans over and tries to see what’s got her friend busy.

Lauren scrambles to close her sketchbook and answers, “Nothing, just- um,” she struggles to look for an excuse that’s not I was drawing this pretty girl I saw. “Just working on a piece for my class,” she finally says. “All these pieces have given me the right inspiration,” she says with a bright smile and a thumbs up.

“Uh huh,” Normani says skeptically. “Anyway, I have to get back to finish this thing that’s due tomorrow. Did you want to leave with me or do you wanna stay for a bit?” Normani asks her friend.

Lauren takes one last desperate look around the museum for any sign of the mystery girl, and finally gives up when she sees none. “I’ll go with you I guess,” she answers despondently.

  –

It’s been two weeks since Lauren saw Ms. Brown Eyes and she still can’t get her out of her head. The girl’s been hounding her thoughts, partly because she feels frustrated that she can’t finish her piece, and partly because, well, pretty girls tend to occupy her mind a lot.

She’s rushing out of the Starbucks on campus to get to her design class on time for once when she spots the same wavy, brown locks that she’d been trying to re-create on paper, sitting on one of the outside tables. She guesses it won’t make a difference now if she’s late to class one more time.

She goes here! Of course she goes here!

When Lauren sees the girl get up to leave, she immediately follows her before she realizes what she’s doing. Stalking is probably not the way to get her point across to the girl, although, she’s not really sure what to say to her.

Hey, I saw you at the museum and then I started drawing you without your permission, but you left before I was able to finish, so do you mind just posing for me for a bit. Also, you’re really pretty. My name is Lauren and I’m an idiot.

That doesn’t sound like it would get her a very desirable outcome.

So, naturally, she proceeds to just follow the girl like the creep that she actually is and finds out that she’s taking a class in the BIOL. building around two-thirty on Thursdays. The stalking gets a bit out of hand and before Lauren realizes what’s happening, she’s basically got the girl’s schedule on three out of the five days of the week memorized.

In her defense, she really just wants to get a few more details on the girl’s face so she can finish the drawing. She’s an excellent artist, but she’s also a perfectionist, and her memory just isn’t doing the girl justice.

“Mani,” she catches up to the girl one afternoon. “I saw her again but she took a different route to the CHEM building today, and so I still don’t have enough details for my sketch,” she pouts. Lauren has given up on keeping the girl a secret from her best friend and since that cat got out of the bag, it’s all she ever talks about now.

Normani rolls her eyes and tells her, “You are an actual stalker. Just go up to the dang girl, geez. I’ve never seen you have so much trouble talking to a girl.”

“She’s not just some girl, Mani” Lauren insists.

“So you think the best course of action is to never speak to her,” Normani deadpans.

“Alright, fine” Lauren responds. “I’ll talk to her tonight. After her night class in the physics lab building” she decides with a determined nod of her head.

Normani looks at her like she’s crazy and shakes her head, “I’m not even gonna say anything about how that sounds.” Lauren rolls her eyes but slings an arm over the other girl’s shoulder. “I think I’m in love, Mani” she sighs dramatically, putting a hand over her heart as the other girl laughs and pushes her away.

–

So the whole coming up to and talking to mystery girl plan has totally fallen through. Lauren’s not sure how she got to where she is but that’s not important at the moment. Right now, she’s truly reached absolute stalker level because she’s currently following her in the dark to what Lauren assumes is her apartment on campus. Every time she tried to approach her, the green-eyed girl’s nerves got the best of her and she ended up psyching herself out. Now, the window in which it’s acceptable to approach a stranger about possibly drawing them has passed and Lauren is stuck.

She’s so lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize the girl she was following is no longer in front of her. She takes a few steps forward and when she passes an opening to an alley, the mystery girl jumps out in front of her with her hands holding something pointed towards the dark-haired girl and screams,

“I HAVE MACE! STAND BACK” the girl screams and Lauren can’t help but think even her voice is sexy, and wow she’s about to be sprayed.

“No! Wait,” Lauren pleads, raising both her arms up. “I’m not going to hurt you I swear” she tries to convince the girl.

Camila is a bit taken aback by the girl in front of her. When she first realized she was being followed, she expected some buff, tattoos-in-the-face, hoodlum, who may or may not be armed with a knife or – or like nunchucks (she’s never robbed anyone before, she doesn’t know which types of weapons are appropriate).

Anyway, she wasn’t expecting this- this, beautiful human being. God, those eyes are mesmerizing, she thinks. But, back to the topic at hand.

“Okay green eyes, I’m gonna need you to explain yourself and if you so much as make a move,” she warns, “I’m going to spray you.”

Lauren keeps her hands up and decides to just rip the band-aid off. This situation cannot get any more out of hand so she thinks it’s best to just come clean.

She takes a deep breath and says, “Okay, well, I saw you at MOMA a few weeks ago and I was just so taken by your beauty and I thought you were the prettiest piece of art there so I started drawing you for my class, but I lost you before I had the chance to finish, so I started to sort of follow you around? You know, to add details to my sketch but it’s so hard when you’re constantly moving, so now I have this unfinished piece and it’s due tomorrow and I was wondering if you would mind posing for me? So I can finish my drawing?” Lauren rushes her words all in one breath. “How was your physics lab by the way?” she asks with a nervous chuckle.

Camila tries to process all the information and when she does, she can’t help but flush red. This gorgeous human being called her pretty? And she wants to draw her? She’s not sure if she’s creeped out or endeared.

She decides on the latter.

She slowly brings her hands down and puts her mace away. Lauren relaxes at that and throws her a meek smile. “I mean, it’s probably a hundred percent not safe because you just admitted to stalking me and you’re a complete stranger, but you’re really pulling off the whole awkward-but-cute thing you got going on, so….” Camila trails, putting a finger to her chin and pretending to think.

 “…sure,” Camila concedes. “I’ll pose for you.”

“YES!” Lauren exclaims and then clears her throat. “I mean, thank you so much,” she says, her cheeks flushed. “My name is Lauren by the way.”

“I’m Camila,” the younger girl answers back while trying to contain a smile, extending one of her hands.

“Great, where do you want to do it?” Lauren asks after shaking hands with her. Then she realizes what that sounds like and backtracks quickly, “I mean do the drawing, for my piece, not like, do it in that way – I mean not that you aren’t, you know, attractive -  because you totally are, and I’m not assuming you’re even into gir–”

“Oh my gosh, Lauren. Calm down,” Camila says amidst her laughter while putting a hand on Lauren’s arm to calm the girl down. The touch is doing things to Lauren’s body and she feels a spark of heat travel from where Camila is touching her to the rest of her body, sprinkling a comforting kind of warmth in its wake.

Lauren flushes a deep red that’s accentuated by her light features and rubs the back of her neck.

Once Camila thinks the girl has gone back to her normal pale color, she answers Lauren’s question, “We can do it at my apartment, so at least if you turn out to be a sociopath, my roommate, Dinah, will hopefully get back to the apartment and find evidence of what you might have done,” she winks and Lauren is blushing again in no time.

On their walk to Camila’s apartment, Lauren says “Well if I were really crazy and was planning on killing you, I think I would be called a ‘psychopath,’” she explains. Camila furrows her eyebrows and Lauren elaborates,

“Both obviously have problems regarding their conscience and the way they think, but psychopaths tend to seem like well-adjusted members of society. They can even have charming personalities and hold high-paying jobs, like, they could be doctors,” Lauren explains.

“Sociopaths, on the other hand, are a bit more obvious in their behavior and they tend to be antisocial, and since you think I’m “awkward-but-cute” which I’m going to interpret as subtly charming, I would be a ‘psychopath,’” she concludes.

Camila looks at her and says, “Yeah, your knowledge of this is not helping your case in convincing me that you’re not out to kill me.”

Lauren looks back at her and shakes her head, “I was just clarifying you know,” she says nervously. It’s like she’s lost all of her ability to function socially around this girl. “I swear, I’m not usually this weird,” she responds with a nervous chuckle.

“I hope not,” Camila winks and continues to walk on.

Once they’re in the apartment, Lauren is wringing her hands nervously and Camila raises an eyebrow, “Is something wrong?”

“No, I just-” Lauren sighs.

“Not to push my luck or anything, but since we’re here and you’re willing to pose, do you mind if I start the drawing over? Like the one I’ve been working on is kind of hard to finalize because I’ve had so many viewpoints of your face. So, if it’s okay, would you be willing to pose for a whole, new drawing instead?” Lauren asks nervously.

“Well, since we’re here anyway,” Camila thinks about it. “Sure,” she finishes with a smile.

Laurens spends a couple of hours perfecting her drawing. Well, she tries to perfect it anyway. She doesn’t think it’s possible for anyone to capture Camila in a way that does her beauty justice. Now that Camila isn’t constantly moving and because she doesn’t have to draw from a distance, she does a better job at highlighting some of her features.

When she showed Camila the finished product, Camila had gasped into her hand and praised her talent so much that Lauren was convinced the blush on her cheeks was going to be permanent.

Now, they find themselves watching Black Mirror on Netflix and no, they’re not Netflix and Chilling. They’re actually just watching.

Lauren is in the middle of a passionate rant about the dangers of social media especially bullying in social media after watching an episode where literally hundreds of thousands of people died because of it, when Camila catches herself staring at the girl’s beauty.

Lauren is obviously pretty on the outside, but after spending a few hours with her and speaking with her about her passions and views on life, Camila is convinced maybe that the saying about beauty coming from within is true because Lauren is the embodiment of beautiful. She’s breathtakingly exquisite without reservation.

“Sorry, I’m ranting,” Lauren says with a weak smile.

“No, I think it’s great. I think you’re great,” Camila responds without thinking.

“Um, thanks” Lauren says. Then, she doesn’t know where she gets the courage, but she asks anyway,

“Would you like to have coffee or something, some time this week, my treat” Lauren asks shyly. “You know, it’s the least I could do to thank you for saving my assignment and not calling the police,” she says with a nervous chuckle.

“Are you asking me out,” Camila asks teasingly.

“I mean we can do something inside,” Lauren responds cheekily.

“Oh my gosh, you’re a dork,” Camila says mid-laugh. Lauren thinks she’d gladly shed her bad girl persona and be the biggest dork if it elicits laughs like this from Camila.

“It’s a date,” Camila says and Lauren’s heart soars.

Lauren is about to bid her goodbye when a loud clap of thunder, accompanied by a sudden downpour of rain and strong winds, sound from outside and reverberate through the apartment.

The girls jump and Camila says shakily, “Um, maybe you should stay the night? It’s late and it’s raining, I don’t want something bad to happen to you,” she explains. “Also, I’m not sure when Dinah is coming back, kinda depends on how her date goes.”

Lauren starts to refuse and says, “I don’t want to impose and-”

“Honestly, Lo. It’s fine. I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe,” she says with a genuine smile.

“Okay, I’ll take the couch,” Lauren concedes, the nickname catching her off-guard but sending another wave of pleasant warmth through her chest. She recognizes this feeling and she knows it’s way too early, but Camila’s soft smiles and genuine concern and just her overall presence is captivating Lauren in a way she’s not sure she has a chance to go against.

“No you can-,” Camila starts to protest.

“No, Camz,” Lauren says resolutely.

She shakes her head internally for letting the name she’s been calling Camila in her head all night slip out loud. “I’ve already asked too much from you, I’m not gonna take your bed too,” she says with a smile when it doesn’t look like Camila is going to object to the nickname.

“Okay,” Camila breathes out.

–

It’s about two in the morning when Lauren sleepily rubs her eyes as she hears movement from the far side of the couch. She jumps up from the couch in fright when she sees a figure standing above her and sighs in relief when she realizes it’s just Camila.

“Shit, Camila,” she gasps. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry,” Camila answers quietly, her breath shaky.

“Is everything okay?” Lauren asks the younger girl.

“Um, it’s just that – I mean the thunder, you know, it hasn’t really stopped,” Camila answers weakly.

There’s a curve to Lauren’s mouth when she says, “Are you scared of thunderstorms?”

“What, no,” Camila says indignantly. “Of course, not. You’re scared of thunderstorms,” she throws back lamely.

Lauren raises an eyebrow and tries to stop herself from smiling.

“Okay fine, I’m scared of thunderstorms, so you’re either coming with me to bed or I’m joining you on the couch,” Camila dictates while crossing her arms.

Camila’s words spark a jolt of lightning through Lauren that starts from the base of her stomach and courses through her veins, spreading to her extremities, leaving her hot and bothered. She shakes the many different, dirty ways she’d made out of Camila asking her to bed and responds as steadily as she can, “Y-yeah, I’ll just join you. I don’t think we can fit in this couch anyway.”

She knows she wasn’t successful in hiding Camila’s effect on her when she spots the younger girl smirking at her shaky response from the corner of her eyes.

The heated atmosphere between them dies down when they settle in Camila’s bed. It’s not long before they start talking about anything and everything under the sun. They get in passionate debates about world issues and laugh at the silliness of toe socks.

Lauren, for her part, is decidedly continuing conversation between them because she recognizes a distraction is what Camila needs as she realizes early on that Camila’s fear of thunderstorms is pretty serious. Camila can tell that Lauren is fighting off sleep to keep her company and she feels herself falling.

It’s been less than twelve hours, Camila she thinks. There is no way she’s actually falling, right?

She goes to sleep free of the nightmares that usually plague her whenever there are thunderstorms and dreams about green eyes and white smiles and flushed cheeks instead.

–

The next morning, Camila walks out of her room and she is immediately jolted awake by the sight in front of her. Lauren had borrowed her clothes to sleep in and she’s wearing Camila’s favorite oversized hoodie that goes down to Lauren’s mid-thigh, sufficiently covering her short shorts and giving the illusion that she’s not wearing anything underneath.

Her messy hair is in a loose ponytail, highlight her widow’s peak and a few dark strands are framing her face. Her burrows are furrowed as her tongue is poking out between her teeth, seemingly in great concentration as she mixes what looks like pancake batter.

The sight is doing unhealthy things to her heart and even unhealthier things to the heat between her thighs.

She walks forward and makes her presence known. The green-eyed girl looks up and flashes her a smile that is threatening to combust her heart from where it’s trying to escape from her chest. The morning light catches Lauren’s eyes perfectly, making them the lightest green she’s ever seen them and highlighting the brown specks that are scattered right around her pupil. Camila’s heart needs a break, for crying out loud. How can anyone look this good at – Camila checks the time -  seven in the morning?

She’s shaken out of her thoughts when she hears a raspy voice say, “Good morning, I hope you don’t mind me taking over your kitchen. I made you breakfast,” she says while gesturing to a plate that’s already made with eggs, bacon, toast, and pancakes. Okay, she seriously needs to stop.

Lauren’s voice sounds even sexier in the morning and Camila has to take a deep breath to collect herself. She’s about to respond when –

“Why thank you, kind stranger,” Dinah says, walking out of her own room and grabbing Camila’s toast from her plate, proceeding to stuff her mouth with it.

Camila scowls and Lauren just looks amused.

“Wow, none of Camila’s previous hook-ups have made it past midnight before,” Dinah says while chewing. “And here you are making her breakfast and shit,” she says chuckling.

Lauren feels unmistakable heat creep up her neck and into her cheeks as Camila throws a piece of bread at her best friend, “Dinah! We didn’t hook up. Jeez,” she says scandalized, not yet at least. “She’s a friend. I helped her with a project. Lauren, this is Dinah,” Camila says gesturing to her friend, “Dinah, my friend Lauren,” she says as she introduces the two.

“Hm-mhm,” Dinah says, eyeing the two skeptically. “We all know what ‘friend’ means,” she says with exaggerated air quotes.

–

Their coffee date goes well and they continue to find out new things that they like about each other. Lauren is as passionate about her art as she is about world issues and Camila somehow pulls off being goofy and sexy at the same time while still keeping up with Lauren in their many, varied conversations.

They’ve gone on a few dates when Camila asks Lauren to go on a road trip with her to Baltimore one weekend. Lauren says yes without even thinking about it. She thinks she’ll follow Camila to the ends of the earth if she asks her.

Camila is finishing up her make up on the dresser in their hotel room when Lauren comes out of the bathroom, already made up, except for her dress, which she’s holding in the front of her chest with two hands.

“Hey Camz,” she says as she turns around and flips her hair over her shoulder so Camila can have access to her back, “Can you zip me up please,” she asks with her head only half-turned. She misses the way Camila basically drools at all the exposed skin.

They’ve only been dating a couple weeks and haven’t gone further than heated make out sessions where Camila had snuck a couple gropes on a breast or two and Lauren had made herself familiar with expanse of skin that is Camila’s ass. But right now, Camila is seriously considering throwing away her plans and throwing Lauren to bed instead and telling her she won’t need clothes for the rest of the weekend.

She’s shaken out of her trance when Lauren’s voice floats through the air and addresses her, “Camz?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” she says as she stands up and goes behind Lauren. They make eye contact through the full body mirror in front of them and shoot each other meaningful smiles.

Camila steadies her shaking hands as she rests her left hand on Lauren’s hip and the other grabs the zipper near her lower back. She swallows hard and slowly pulls the zipper up, her knuckles grazing Lauren’s skin and leaving goose bumps in their wake. She hears a soft gasp from Lauren and she squeezes her hard on the hip. When she sees Lauren through the mirror closing her eyes with her red-painted lips slightly ajar, Camila leans forward, turning her head to face Lauren’s side and grazing her mouth on Lauren’s ear as she breathes out, “Can’t wait to help you of this later,” she husks as she gives Lauren one final squeeze and a quick, but deep kiss just below her ear.

Lauren turns around breathless and says, “I don’t care what the surprise is, I want you naked on this bed now.”

  –

Camila should really get an award for having the world’s greatest self-control. After Lauren not so subtly expressed that she’d wanted to take Camila to bed, Camila had to power through and convince Lauren that the surprise is worth seeing.

Not very many people can defer such an offer from one Lauren Jauregui.

Lauren walks into the Baltimore Museum of Art and an energy of pure excitement courses through her as she looks around the exhibit. The museum had secured an exhibit from Ai Weiwei, Lauren’s absolute favorite contemporary artist. Weiwei is the perfect embodiment that showcases the intersectionality between Lauren’s two loves, art and activism. He uses his prominence to give voice to victims and decry faulty governments. He’s using a hundred percent of his profits from this specific exhibit to help the refugees in the Middle East.

The exhibit was pretty hard to get into and many other prominent artists and powerful figures had already secured VIP passes to this exclusive, one-night show months ahead, from what Lauren knows anyway. She looks at Camila and her heart soars at the way she’s looking back. Surrounded by magnificent art and Camila is looking at her like she’s the central piece.

“How?” she asks quietly, Lauren’s eyes stuck on Camila’s.

Camila shrugs her shoulders and says, “Pulled a few strings. I knew some people so…” she trails off when Lauren keeps looking at her like she had brought the moon to her.

“Thank you,” Lauren says sincerely squeezing Camila’s hand in hers.

“Anything for my girl,” she says with a with a wide smile.

–

After spending a couple hours in the exhibit, Camila finds Lauren in front of Weiwei’s Odyssey, a wallpaper piece that covers an entire wall on the far side of the gallery. The piece depicts the struggles of refugees in the Middle East in an ancient art style in which the characters in the piece are drawn as if they would have been in ancient times, on earth ware clay (Shaw, A. (2017) “Lest we forget, Ai Weiwei’s first show in Turkey is a meditation on refugee crisis. The Art Newspaper) [A/N: I still don’t know how citations work].

Camila comes up behind her and gently wraps her slender arms around Lauren’s midsection, laying her chin on the other girl’s shoulder.

“Do you like your surprise,” she whispers softly.

A fond smile forms on Lauren’s red lips. “I love it,” she says turning her head slightly. “I don’t even remember mentioning my favorite artist’s name to you” she says furrowing her brows.

“You may not have said his name, Lo” Camila explains. “But you mention his works a lot. Gosh Camz, there’s this artist I love. His pieces are so powerful and he’s a self-taught architect. He’s like me basically! An artist, an architect, and an activist,” Camila says in a deep, husky voice in what is supposed to be her imitation of Lauren’s raspy voice.

Lauren laughs softly, and god, she is endeared by the woman in front of her. “I do not sound like that,” she says mid-laugh. “I hope you don’t do that impression of me to anyone else.”

Camila feels that familiar warmth in her chest whenever she hears Lauren laughing because of her and she tightens her arms around the girl, trying not to say anything that could definitely scare the other girl away. Two weeks is way too short for such deep feelings.

“But I can’t believe you pay enough attention to my ramblings to pick out my favorite artist just from talking about different pieces. I mean, I talk about a lot of other pieces too,” Lauren continues to point out.

“Well, it really isn’t hard to pay attention to you, Laur,” Camila responds softly. “I know you don’t notice it, but half the room pays attention to you even when you’re not doing anything. It helps that I’m also always so in tune to everything you do. It’s like my body and mind are programmed to listen to and watch everything you do,” she finishes.

Lauren’s heart is hammering against her chest. She can’t believe Camila turned out to be even more beautiful on the inside once she got to know her. She turns around in Camila’s arms and wraps her own hands around the other girl’s neck.

“You know, you called me ‘your girl,’ earlier,” Lauren says.

“Oh did I?” Camila pretends to scrunch up her face.

“Well, am I?” Lauren asks hesitantly. “Your girl I mean, like, are we girlfriends?” she powers through the mad blush that is taking over her face.

Camila can’t believe this precious human being is all hers. “Lauren Michelle Jauregui,” she responds while trailing her hands down Lauren’s back so softly Lauren might not have noticed it if all her nerve endings weren’t firing like crazy at the moment.

“Will you be my girlfrie-,” Camila tries to say.

“Yes,” Lauren breathes out before she even finishes and attacks Camila’s lips with her own, immediately slipping her tongue in Camila’s mouth when she gasps. Lauren indulges in the warmth of Camila’s mouth and tongue and the soft breaths she’s letting out for every particularly hard swipe of her tongue before she pulls back, lest they get kicked out for public indecency.

Camila opens her eyes slowly, still slightly dazed, “I’m gonna go research a bunch of exhibits you like if I get thanked like that every time” she says in a breathless voice.

Lauren laughs and then leans close to Camila’s ear, playing with the hairs behind her neck when she rasps out, “That’s not all, baby. I plan on thanking you a lot more when we get back to the hotel.”

Camila swallows hard and responds shakily, “H-how exactly are you going to do that?”

Lauren smirks and subtly sucks on Camila’s skin where her jaw meets her neck while wrapping her slim fingers around Camila’s neck lightly, but noticeably more tightly than before,

“How about…,” she whispers, “I let you have your way with me?” she says and Camila drags her out of the museum before Lauren even has a chance to figure out what’s happening.

–

They’re cuddled up on Lauren’s bed one night with Lauren’s arms wrapped around the other girl and Camila facing away from the green-eyed girl, the brunette’s own hands playing with Lauren’s fingers, which have snuck their way in Camila’s shirt and is drawing patterns on her toned stomach when Lauren breathes out against her neck,

“Will you let me paint on you?” she asks.

Camila turns around in her arms and brings both hands to Lauren’s face, cupping her face gently when she responds with a cheeky smile, “You want to paint me like one of your French girls?”

Lauren laughs lightly and turns her head to plant a quick kiss to the inside of Camila’s palm. Camila’s gaze softens at the action and she’s close to saying the same words she’d made a conscious effort not say to anyone for a very long time when Lauren says,

“No I mean like, paint on you” she says. “I want to paint on your back, specifically.”

Camila shakes her thoughts away internally and thinks about it for a second. “Hmm, that’s very tumblr-y. And kinda gay. That’s very tumblr-y and gay, Laur” she finally says.

“Well then it’s perfect for the both of us,” she says with a bright smile. “Come on,” she implores while running her hand down Camila’s back and up her shirt, tracing the soft skin along the ridges of her spine as she leans forward to breathe out against the other girl’s neck, “Your back is so sexy, baby. It would be like making art on art,” she husks out after sucking on a sensitive spot on the other girl’s neck.

“You can be very persuasive,” Camila half says, half moans.

Lauren smirks against her skin and pulls back, “So is that a yes?”

Camila looks her girlfriend in the eye and says, “You’re way too charming for your own good, you know that? It’s kinda scary, like what if down the road you want to paint our kids’ room a crazy color or display raunchy paintings in our living room because it’s art, Camz.”

They both seem to realize the implication behind Camila’s words and the brunette flushes a deep red as her hands become sweaty.

Shit. She’s gonna run. I totally freaked her out.

Lauren’s heartbeat is thunderous in her chest and she can’t help but picture a future with Camila. A slow smile forms on her lips and she says before the other girl can backtrack, “Then I guess I’ll just have to persuade youthe only way I know if I want paintings of naked girls in our homeor if I want to paint our kids’ room a light shade of smaragdine.” [A/N: it’s green].

Camila’s heart leaps in her chest and it’s like Lauren and Camila’s hearts are competing to see who can jump out of their ribbed confines first. They look at each other with soft smiles and twinkles in their eyes, and against all the dating rules they’ve placed for themselves, with love. With Lauren’s response confirming that the green-eyed girl is in this for the long run, Camila can’t help but think she can’t wait to hang paintings of naked girls and design smaragdine-colored rooms.

That’s how Camila finds herself on her stomach with her top off and wearing only her Iron Man boy shorts with Lauren straddling her, the green-eyed girl perched right on top of her butt. They both go to sleep in just shirts and underwear so Lauren herself is sitting on Camila with nothing but a shirt and some lace underwear and Camila is finding it hard to focus.

They’re facing towards the foot of the bed so Camila has a perfect view of Lauren working on her back through the mirror on Lauren’s dresser, which is in front of the bed across the room. Lauren’s The 1975 shirt, or is it Camila’s(?), has already collected a few paint spots as Lauren seems too absorbed in her work to notice anything else. Her hair is up in a messy bun and her tongue is poking out between her teeth in the way that it does when she’s concentrating and she’s wearing her glasses and Camila is in love.

She’s still reluctant to say it because it’s still way too soon in her opinion and she’s had her heart broken too many times. She’d given her heart out way too easily in the past and she refuses to lose in love again. Her thoughts are broken when Lauren moves on top of her.

The older girl leans forward and props her right hand by Camila’s chest, her fingers grazing Camila’s exposed side boob, while she uses her left hand to work on, apparently, a very small detail on Camila’s back because her face is inches from Camila’s skin and her hot breath is sending a warm, tingling sensation throughout her body. Lauren leaning forward also shifts where the green-eyed girl’s center is sat on top of Camila’s ass and the friction causes Camila to moan.

Lauren seems to be shaken out of her focus and immediately asks, “Shit, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“NO! Um-,” Camila clears her throat. “I mean it’s just um-” she tries to gather her thoughts to no avail and swallows hard.

Lauren looks at Camila’s flushed cheeks through the mirror and sees how her blush has spread to her ears and the back of her neck. She smirks, “Oh, I see what’s happening. Can’t you keep it in your pants for like two seconds?” Lauren says while chuckling, their point of contact making Camila feel every vibration through her body.

“No I can’t just keep it in my pants. Have you seen yourself?” Camila huffs indignantly.

Lauren just shakes her head and laughs. She leans forward and puts her brush down, placing both of her hands on either side of Camila’s head, being careful not to touch the paint, and turns to give Camila’s cheek a lingering kiss followed by a whisper in her ear, “Later, babe.”

Lauren finishes up and takes a picture of Camila’s back with her polaroid camera while remaining seated on Camila. She retrieves the picture and can’t help the smile that forms on her lips. The flawless curve of Camila’s back had been the perfect backdrop for the galaxy that she painted, the swirls of the cosmos perfectly complementing the shape of Camila’s body. She can see her own pale thighs dotted with paint and contrasting against Camila’s tan skin as she straddles her. Camila’s head is turned to the side, showing her mid laugh with her eyes closed and smile wide.

Lauren looks at it and knows she’s in love.

–

Lauren and Camila are at another exhibit and this time, it’s Lauren’s.

It’s been three years since Lauren stalked Camila on her way to her apartment and started their story of a lifetime. Camila graduated with high honors and is now nearing the end of her first year as a medical student. Lauren, on the other hand, had been picked up by a benefactor when Camila and Lauren spent the summer after graduation in France.

Her patron’s massive wealth combined with her incredible talent meant it took almost no time before Lauren gained ground in the art scene and became one of the fastest rising artists in the world. Following the footsteps of her artist/activist hero, Lauren has been donating a good portion of her profits to various charities, some she’d founded herself, after she had established a steady pace in her career.

Now, she’s in the middle of one of her most important exhibits yet. The gallery is filled with art pieces that depict her own life. Her benefactor had convinced her to create a showcase as a way for people to “get to know the artist.” She had used as many different media as she could think of to symbolize the many different layers and nuances that make up her life. She has her career, her friends, her family, her hobbies and interests, and of course, she has her Camila.

Lauren feels exposed and not because there are people looking into different aspects of her life, but because even after years of being with Camila, she feels the most nervous about her art when it comes to the brown-eyed girl. What if she thinks the whole exhibit is ridiculous and narcissistic?

“Hey, babe” Camila addresses her cheerily as she comes up to her girlfriend, effectively stopping Lauren’s train of thought. She looks up and sees her inspiration for just about every significant art piece she’d sold.

“Hey,” she says. “What do you think?” she asks nervously.

Camila comes up to wrap her arms around the other girl’s neck and Lauren instinctively places her hands around the girl’s waist. “I think you continue to amaze me with your talent is what I think,” Camila says, pride shining in her eyes.

Lauren lets out a sigh of relief and grabs Camila’s hand, “Come on, it’s time to reveal the central piece.”

Lauren is next to Camila as the curator for the gallery is giving an introduction about Lauren and her piece and Camila can feel the nerves radiating from the girl next to her. Lauren had refused to show Camila the piece before the actual exhibit. She had even worked on it in secret, sneaking out at night and sneaking back in the early hours of the morning. It had caused quite the problem for them.

–

Camila stirs awake and her hands instinctively reach out for her girlfriend’s warmth, only to be met with cold, empty sheets. She sits up and rubs her eyes, adjusting her eyes to the darkness and finding no sign of the green-eyed girl. She gets up and calls out into the empty apartment,

“Laur?”

Nothing.

Her heart thuds in her chest and she feels a familiar ache in her chest. Lately, Lauren has been busy “working on something” and she’s barely seen her. She had trusted the girl early on, but Camila had been cheated on so many times she knows the signs like the back of her hand. She picks up her phone and dials the other girl’s number only to see it vibrating on the coffee table.

“Damn it, Laur” she whispers.

She tries to stay up for the girl but finds herself falling asleep on the couch after a couple hours. She’s stirred awake when she hears keys jingling on the door. She stands up and crosses her arms immediately. Lauren walks in looking tired.

“Long night?” Camila asks harshly.

“Camila, what are you doing up?” Lauren asks.

Camila looks at her like she’d lost her damn mind, “What am I- are you kidding? Where have youbeen?” she asks angrily. Her temper rising against her own volition.

Lauren sighs and moves to the kitchen, “I’m tired Camila, can we not do this right now? I told you I’ve been working on something.”

“Something or someone?”

Lauren turns her head and says angrily, “Are you serious? Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“You’ve been out late most nights and all you have to say about it is you’re ‘working on something’.” Camila says heatedly. “I mean, we live together and I barely see you, Laur,” Camila says, her voice cracking. “I just miss you.”

Lauren looks at her with an unreadable expression, “Do you not trust me?”

Camila looks at her and stays silent. Lauren scoffs and shakes her head, “Unbelievable, after almost three years of being together, you still think I’m like your exes? Like I’m just gonna get up and leave? What do I have to do to show you that I love you and I’m here for the long run?” she asks exasperatedly. “You’ve been looking for reasons to not make this work, Camila, and as far as I know, I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Lauren I’m sor-”

“You know what, I can’t do this,” Lauren says picking up her keys again. “Come talk to me when you’re ready to listen” she says as she walks out the door.

That following night, when Lauren doesn’t come home, Camila cries herself to sleep. Lauren had left her phone again in her haste to leave and now Camila doesn’t know how to reach her.

Lauren is spending another late night at the studio and when she walks out of the ART building, she sees Camila by the steps. “Camila?” she asks. The girl turns around and gets up quickly. Her body is aching to bring Lauren in her arms and hug her and never let her go again, but she’s not sure where they stand so she keeps her hands to herself, choosing to stuff them in her pockets instead. Her eyes are swollen and she looks like she hasn’t slept in the last couple days. Lauren’s heart breaks at the sight. She thought she was doing the right thing by giving them space.

“I’m sorry,” Camila says, trying to keep her tears at bay. “I do trust you Laur. I do. It’s me, I just get so insecure,” she looks up with pleading eyes. “Please come home.”

Lauren closes the distance between them and wraps her arms around the other girl. She’d miss Camila and her warmth and just her these past few days, it’s like she’d been on autopilot until she got to touch her again. “I’m sorry,” she responds. “I’ve just been so stressed lately and I thought I was doing us a favor by giving us a break,” she turns her head to give Camila’s head a kiss.

Camila pulls back with tears in her eyes and leans forward to give Lauren a watery kiss, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Lauren sighs. She’s glad to be home again.

The next morning, Camila wakes up to empty sheets again but when she turns her head, she sees a single rose with a note,

“I love you, Camila. I’m sorry if I did anything to make you feel otherwise. I’ve packed your stuff. Get dressed and come meet me downstairs, I’m getting the car ready. We’re going away for the weekend. – Yours forever, Lauren”

Camila smiles to herself and gets ready as fast as she can. She sees Lauren downstairs leaning against her car and holding a bouquet of red roses with her attention on her phone. “Is this how you’re going to make it up to me every time we fight?” she asks as she approaches the green-eyed girl.

Lauren looks up and smiles as she offers her girl the flowers. “Actually, I’ve had this planned for a while. I’d been working late because I was trying to finish my piece so we can have this weekend all to ourselves,” she says sincerely.

Camila’s gaze softens and she starts to feel guilty. “Don’t,” Lauren interrupts her moping. “I should have done a better job at communicating with you. We both messed up,” she says as she brings Camila’s chin up with her fingers. “We’re going to continue to mess up but it won’t matter because at the end of the day, we’re always going to come back to one another. My heart isn’t capable of doing anything else but beat for yours, okay?” she assures Camila as she kisses her forehead.

–

Camila looks over and sees the girl worrying her lip and fiddling with her fingers. Camila reaches out to stop her fingers and interlaces their hands instead. Lauren gives her a soft look and mutters a “thank you” in her ear when she leans over to give her forehead a kiss.

“…and now, it’s time to reveal, The Center of Her Universe,” the curator announces as the veil is pulled down from the framed piece.

There are soft gasps all around and flashes flicker as the invited press takes pictures of the gigantic drawing in the center of the room.

Camila herself is finding it hard to breathe. She’s looking at the piece and it’s causing a rush of emotions that bulldozes right through her entire being. The art piece is a larger-than-life drawing of a girl that looks a lot like Camila.

The artist’s perspective shows the girl’s side profile. She’s standing with her hand worrying her lip as she looks to be concentrating on what’s in front of her. Camila notes the familiar geometric shapes that the girl is looking at.

Tableau I.

It’s a drawing of Camila when Lauren first laid eyes on her.

What makes the drawing breathtaking is the fact that on the dress Camila is wearing and throughout her wavy, brown locks, there are miniature drawings of different scenes from Camila and Lauren’s time together. The mini scenes are drawn with exquisite detail despite the seemingly non-existent space. There are sketches of their movie dates, gifts they’ve given each other, and quotes and declarations of love they’ve said over the years.

Camila, with tears in her eyes, turns to look at Lauren, who of course, is already looking at her.

“Lauren,” she whispers in awe. “This is incredible.”

“It doesn’t do justice to half of your beauty and what you’ve done to my life since I found you,” Lauren responds sincerely. Camila can’t say or do anything but throw her arms around Lauren and say, “I love you so much.”

–

They’re sitting on the rooftop of the gallery a couple hours after the exhibit had come to a close with Camila’s arm intertwined with Lauren’s and her head leaning against the other girl’s shoulder.

Camila can’t think of any other place she’d rather be.

Lauren disrupts the silence when she reaches for something in her jacket and for the second time that night, Camila is speechless. In front of her, Lauren is holding onto an open small box with a ring.

“I actually wanted to this at the reveal, but then I remembered how every milestone in our relationship had always just been between the two of us and I also didn’t want to pressure you in front of those people so…” Lauren says with a nervous laugh.

Camila looks up into her favorite green eyes and she sees the other girl’s nervous gaze as if Camila could even say anything other than yes to her.

“Like I wanted to depict in my main piece,” Lauren starts. “You’re the center of my universe, Camila. You’ve brought nothing but happiness and pure love to my life and I can’t thank you enough. You continue to be my number one supporter and have stayed by my side through everything. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how grateful I am for you if you’d let me, so…” she takes a deep breath.

“Camila Cabello,” she starts again, “Will you marr-”

“YES!” Camila answers and throws her arms around Lauren’s neck and kisses her as if to say every single thing she doesn’t know how to describe in words through the way her mouth moves along Lauren’s. She’s kissing her to show Lauren that with the green-eyed girl, it’s always going to be a resounding yes. Lauren owns her heart and everything else. She owns all of Camila.

“A thousand times yes,” she breathes into Lauren’s mouth as the other girl’s lips curve into a smile.

–

Camila is admiring the ring on her finger when she suddenly says to the other girl, “I still can’t believe you didn’t just come up to me that first day in MOMA,” she says with a confused look.

“That was probably honestly for the best,” Lauren says.

“What, why?” Camila asks curiously.

“The only thing that was going through my mind at the time was a lame pick-up line that definitely would not have worked in my favor,” Lauren says laughing to herself.

“What was it,” Camila asks.

Lauren looks at her and concedes. She clears her throat and says in a deep, husky voice,

“You’re like a piece of art,” she starts.

When Camila only raises an eyebrow, she continues.

“I want to nail you against the wall.”

–

The End.

  –

A/N:

Hey everyone,

I’m back with another one shot. I’m compiling my one shots in a book on wattpad under @jaureguicabello5eva (still working on getting these on ao3). I have a few ideas and I’m going to try to upload semi-regularly.

Feel free to send me some prompts or just general things you want to see in future stories and I’ll see what I can do.

Comments/feedback give me life so please tell me what you think. Talk to me about some ideas, scenes within the story, your thoughts on the plots, the characters, point out some typos if you want, etc.

Hope you guys enjoyed this one!

side note: there are pictures in wattpad if you want to have a better idea of the pieces being referenced

-Maddox

[lanewyearsnightlife]

New Post has been published on NYE Party Nightlife Guide 2018 New Years Events

New Post has been published on http://newyearsnightlife.net/skybar-los-angeles-nye-new-years/

Skybar Los Angeles NYE New Years

LA Top-Ranked Hotel New Years Destination · Ultimate NYE New Years Night Out: 

Mondrian Skybar LA | NYE Party

3-Hour Premium Open Bar 9pm – 12am

Date and Time: December 31st, 2017 at 9:00 PM – 2:00 AM PST

Carnival NYE 2018 | Skybar New Years Tickets

Skybar LA at the Mondrian invites you to Samba into the New Year with an unforgettable Carnival themed celebration. Couple that with a gorgeous crowd, an open bar, live performances and sparkling views of Los Angeles skyline, the Skybar LA New Years Event is a glamorous place to see and be seen.

BUY NYE EARLY DISCOUNT TICKETS

  CHECK OUT VIP TABLE PACKAGES

You’re a click away from having the ultimate NYE New Years night out at Skybar LA. Act fast. Buy early discount tickets to save money as price will increase as NYE approaches. Looking to make the night more special? Indulge in one of Skybar at The Mondrian’s VIP options with swanky table and bottle service, reserved seating, and more deluxe amenities.

Skybar Pool Area Tented Nightlife

Skybar LA Aerial View

Skybar LA Outdoor Living Room

Skybar Evening Hut

Mondrian LA Skybar

This year, Skybar LA is pulling out all the stops for New Years Eve. With first-rate amenities like an open bar, live DJ performance and more, guests are sure to welcome 2018 in style. Sultry candlelight and ivy accents set the mood in this open-air space, while stunning skyline views provide a breathtaking backdrop. Featuring sets from a renowned DJs, the lively dance floor is the place to show off your moves—and maybe even find that New Year’s kiss.

When the velvet ropes part, you will join the most beautiful party people from all over the world for a night of luxury, class and style – with a special focus on hospitality and service that has set Skybar and Mondrian LA apart from the rest. So come dressed to impress as bid farewell to 2017 with an unforgettable NYE that party-goers won’t want to miss.

What We Love About NYE at Skybar LA

Ring in the New Year at one of Southern California’s swankiest party destinations: Skybar at Mondrian Los Angeles.

This lavish bash includes a three-hour premium open bar from 9pm to 12am. As you mix and mingle with the city’s finest, relax on the ivy-covered poolside terrace, and take in the glittering views of the L.A. skyline.

Renowned DJs will keep the dance floor packed well into the night, while other risqué performances ensure the party is a lively one.

When the much-anticipated midnight arrives, grab a complimentary champagne toast and join the DJ as he leads the whole crowd in a electrifying countdown to the New Year.

Skybar LA | Why We Love This Place

A PARALLEL UNIVERSE OF PERPETUAL POSSIBILITY…

Boasting some of the finest views of Los Angeles, Skybar is an open air, ivy-covered pavilion perched above the Pool at Mondrian LA. Having been the spot for the hottest nightlife and bar scenes from the day it opened, the venue’s newly re-imagined design brings a fresh approach to this iconic space.

The beautifully designed hotel pool, set flush with the surrounding teak deck and featuring underwater music, is the perfect spot for soaking up the sun while enjoying the stunning panoramic views and upbeat vibes of Los Angeles. By day, the lushly landscaped Outdoor Living Room brims with flowering vines and comfortable teak and wicker furniture, making this a chic go-to oasis for enjoying impeccably fresh cocktails with a lively and fun atmosphere.

When the sun sets, the pool lights up with hundreds of flickering lanterns placed around the deck and hanging from the boughs of trees. And the pulse of Skybar beats even louder, stirring a seductive energy, aroused by world-class DJs and Hollywood glamour.

Need help selecting the right party? Still have questions? Our customer experience team is here to help. For a spectacular New Year’s Eve, give us a call +1 (310) 749-9029.

Los Angeles Top-Ranked Hotel NYE New Years Events Guide

Hollywood Roosevelt | A Classic Hollywood New Years

The NYE party at the Hollywood Roosevelt is back again for another year. The celebration features 5-hour premium open bar, 4 rooms of music powered by 10+ DJs, LED wall countdown at Tropicana Main Stage, and a giant projection wall countdown at the Main Ballroom. Hear So-Cal’s top DJs, everyone from Chris Garcia to Luke Wryder as you revel with stellar VIP bottle service packages in all areas.

W Hollywood | Gatsby’s House NYE

Amplify your night at W Hollywood Ballrooms, where you can drink, dance, and ring in 2018 with [5] DJs, [4] hour premium open bar, [3] rooms of music, [2] VIP areas to mingle, and [1] spectacular countdown. Plus, complimentary flapper party favors, glow toys, VIP photo booth, and more. And while you don’t have to pretend you’re a roaring flapper, Roaring 20’s themed attire is not only encouraged, but it’s just so much more fun.

W Hollywood | NYElectric 2018

The party isn’t only inside the W but on the roof too! The annual NYElectric bash takes over Hollywood’s best rooftop at the W. Here are the highlights: panoramic views of city, [4] hour premium open bar, [3] DJs spinning House Hip-Hop & Top 40 hits, [2] areas of music, [1] epic NYE countdown, and state-of-the-art sound and lighting that will have your bow ties and high heels off before midnight. Plus, young Hollywood star sightings are virtually assured.

Sofitel Beverly Hills | Midnight Along Riviera New Years Eve

There is no great feeling then been along the Riviera so we brought it to Beverly Hills at Midnight NYE 2018 Celebration. Featuring – [6] DJs spinning open format Top 40 & House, [5] hour premium open bar at multiple bars in each room, [4] rooms of music & dance floors, [2] floors, and [1] giant LED wall countdown at midnight in the Paris Ballroom.

Loews Santa Monica Beach | Pearl New Years Ball

Kick off 2018 with a spectacular celebration and countdown to the New Year in style at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Here are the highlights: [4] hour premium open bar, [3] areas to mingle, [2] DJs playing Top 40 hits all night, and [1] amazing countdown. Opt for VIP ticket with access to additional room with private bar and upgraded party favors.

W Westwood Los Angeles | W & STK NYE Party

Get the star treatment with 5hr premium open bar. Embrace your inner diva on the dance floor as DJ DiJiTAL spins a sizzling open format selection of Top 40, Hip hop, House, and Mash-ups before leading an electrifying countdown to 2018. Don complimentary party favors and raise a toast with a complimentary glass of champagne. Craving VIP treatment? Opt for an exclusive table package featuring reserved seating and spectacular bottle service.

Skybar at Mondrian Los Angeles 8440 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90069 United States

[sarahpatersonphotography-blog]

Some ongoing projects!

I met up with my model to discuss outfits for the fashion front cover and we decided on the one in the photograph above:

•Blue headscarf •Bold yellow beaded necklace •Classy red dress •Yellow wedged shoes

I think this looks very high fashion and beautiful.

I also designed the coloured boxes by finding some blue and red wrapping paper (very very difficult)and using some cardboard boxes to cover them. Finally I used some black tape to add to the Mondrian effect.

[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

Uggs just got a major makeover at one of Fashion Week's buzziest shows

Models walking in the Ugg x Eckhaus Latta footwear collaboration. (Photo: Nathan Perkel)

There are no limits to Ugg‘s high-fashion appeal. Eckhaus Latta, one of the buzziest designer duos, dropped a brand-new collab with Ugg at New York Fashion Week.

Six new Ugg shoe styles were launched on the runway, with each shoe featuring a prominent square toe and revitalized in fresh new colors and textures. There were high-heel mules, clogs, boots and slippers in chestnut brown, sky gray, mandarin orange and absinthe green. They featured slim wood heels, whipstitch detailing, lamb suede and sheepskin lining.

All the shoes were styled with Eckhaus Latta’s artful series of Mondrian-inspired dresses, cold shoulder LBDs, blazers, shearling coats and trousers. At first glance, you don’t immediately notice the stylish set of shoes each model wears on the runway are, in fact, by Ugg. Each outfit looked plucked from a fashionista’s closet in Brooklyn, where the show was fittingly set in the ultra-hip Bushwick neighborhood.

Models walk the runway at the Eckhaus Latta ready-to-wear fall/winter 2019 fashion show during New York Fashion Week on Feb. 9, 2019, in New York City. (Photo: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images)

Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are not trained fashion designers, but that didn’t get in the way of their success. They first met while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. Eckhaus studied sculpting, while Latta focused on textiles. The fashion label originally began as an art project, but has since grown into a subversive cult-favorite label that has caught the attention of LVMH and even Kylie Jenner.

The duo is unafraid to challenge fashion norms by casting nontraditional models for both their runway shows and their infamous “NSFW” ad campaign (which featured real couples having sex). This year, the collection’s silhouettes and styles have matured from seasons past, with more structured shapes, tailoring and graphic art prints.

Models walking in the Ugg x Eckhaus Latta footwear collaboration. (Photo: Nathan Perkel)

Models walking in the Ugg x Eckhaus Latta footwear collaboration. (Photo: Nathan Perkel)

Models walking in the Ugg x Eckhaus Latta footwear collaboration. (Photo: Nathan Perkel)

At first, the partnership between Eckhaus Latta and Ugg may have seemed strange. But upon closer look, it makes complete sense. Ugg has a long history of partnering with high-fashion labels — Y/Project, Sacai, Heron Preston, Jeremy Scott and Kith, to name a few. These new Ugg x Eckhaus Latta styles still possess the Ugg DNA, but have been reworked for a high-fashion context. For the Eckhaus Latta’s consumer, the laid-back style fits in with Ugg’s Californian roots. “We love the fact that Ugg products embody an easygoing lifestyle and have crossed from being a more casual product to being iconic in a fashion sense,” said Eckhaus and Latta in a press release. “Being able to add to this foundation has been an exciting honor.” 

However, this all comes at a premium price point, which Ugg consumers might not be accustomed to. The new styles range in price from $295 to $525, and will launch this fall.

Models walking in the Ugg x Eckhaus Latta footwear collaboration. (Photo: Nathan Perkel)

Until then, keep scrolling to shop 10 different Ugg shoe styles you can wear right now.

Ugg Lane

Ugg Lane (Photo: Zappos)

Who needs Gucci fur loafers when you can have these plush (under $100) beauties instead?

Shop it: $90, zappos.com

Ugg Hailey 

Ugg Hailey (Photo: Zappos)

An easy, slip-on-and-go kind of loafer that is just as stylish as it is comfy.

Shop it: $100, zappos.com

Ugg Bandara Ankle Boot

Ugg Bandara Ankle Boot (Photo: Zappos)

These stylish ankle booties have a Western flair you can wear all year long. Style them with skinny jeans for an ultra-chic weekend look.

Shop it: $150, zappos.com

Ugg Lynwood Clog

Ugg Lynwood Clog (Photo: Zappos)

Have you heard? Clogs are more popular than ever, especially with hip Brooklyn moms.

Shop it: $70 (was $120), zappos.com

Ugg Marte Boot

Ugg Marte Boot (Photo: Zappos)

Switch up your favorite Uggs for a feminine wedge. With these, you’ll no longer feel guilty for wearing Uggs every day of the week.

Shop it: $120 (was $180), zappos.com

Ugg Aya Waterproof

Ugg Aya Waterproof (Photo: Zappos)

Finally, a pair of winter boots that are functional and gorgeous. These boots are made from waterproof leather and Vibram’s innovational Arctic grip to give you better traction on ice. The perfect dose of flair for dreary winter months.

Shop it: $160 (was $350), zappos.com

Ugg Dalla

Ugg Dalla (Photo: Zappos)

You’ll feel like you’re walking on clouds in these fluffy sheepskin slippers.

Shop it: $60 (was $90), zappos.com

Ugg Sundance Waterproof

Ugg Sundance Waterproof (Photo: Zappos)

Kick up your feet in these toasty boots on your next winter road trip.

Shop it: $167 (was $250), zappos.com

Ugg Dakota

Ugg Dakota (Photo: Zappos)

These are the kind of plush moccasins that you’ll never want to take off. They’re made of a luxurious suede and sheepskin lining.

Shop it: $100, zappos.com

Ugg Classic Short II

Ugg Classic Short II (Photo: Zappos)

Is it finally time to upgrade your classic Ugg boots? Order now and get free shipping!

Shop it: $160, zappos.com

The editors at Yahoo Lifestyle are committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. At times, we may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.

Read More from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Wayfair’s major Presidents’ Day sale started early: Here’s every deal • Presidents’ Day 2019: The best tech deals on TVs, laptops and more • Shop our top favorite picks from Coach’s 50 percent off sale

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[hebuiltfive]

Today is apparently the day for crying over making this Lady Penelope dress for next month. I can't make heads or tails of the pattern, I can't find where I got the pattern from in the first place because I think the site has been changed, and the stress is starting to build up. The question of "why did I decide to try and make this again?" is circling the brain. I'm terrible at sewing 😭 but I refuse to give up, even if I am just:

A postive, however, is I had to finally sew together the pillows I was making, because I needed the pins to start this project. They look semi-decent at least.

But this dress... Ahaha this dress is going to drive me to insanity before I'm done.

[p0isonleaf-blog]

When Art meets Fashion

For decades the relationships between art and fashion has been a source of controversy and debates. There are dozens of prejudices involved in this discourse: the question of "high art", consumption, fashion as a mere product manufacture, commercializing etc. Amid all these obstacles, fashion and art has been interfering with one another over time; sometimes more  successfully, while other times - not so much. Today we are going to have a loo at some of the most interesting and controversial collaborations between these two fields.

Yves Saint Laurent & Piet Mondrian While we are familiar with the oeuvre by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, not everyone knows about his contribution to the fashion world. His works were very much about rhythm, musical as well as the dynamics of nature around us. This is the perfect pursuit for swinging 60s and its experimenting fashion. Yves Saint Laurent created an a-silhouette dress with the complex seamlessness structure - each peace was sewed separately to create this illusion. The dress turned into an iconic symbol of the era, just as the artwork that inspired it.

Zaha Hadid & Chanel Yes, the collaboration between an architect and a famous fashion brand is possible. Though it might not deal with garments directly.In 2008 Zaha Hadid, who was names as  'Queen of the curve' by The Guardian, cooperated with Chanel in order to create a mobile pavilion for the famous fashion house. The structure of the pavilion's surface played with the design of iconic Chanel purse and was designed in a way to be put together in less than a week. Though the project gained a lot of criticism due to its neglect of the surrounding architectural environment (well, just as some other Hadid's daring buildings), it became a significant point in the Chanel promotion campaign.

Cindy Sherman & Comme des Garcons Cindy Sherman who is famous for her series Untitled Film Stills where she had created an enigmatic and collective image of a movie-and-media influenced woman had a collaboration with Japanese brand Comme des Garcons and its designer Rei Kawakubo. The Kawakubo's style is not traditional in any kind of way, so the final product of the cooperation was quite unique. Sherman created an image of a peculiar model, rather going for decadence that the glamorous perfection typical for the fashion campaigns. As an outcome we have a perfectly surreal and daring photos that expressed style and manner of the designer and a photographer in a most flattering way for both of them.

Rene Magritte & Opening Ceremony As for desert, last collab we are going to talk about today is absolutely mesmerizing 2014 collection by the brand Opening Ceremony. What is so special and "tasty" about this collaboration? Well, it was inspired by the works of the famous surrealist Rene Magritte. And it's no wonder, simply because Magritte's oeuvre stands as a rich field for inspiration and interpretation for decades now. just look at this garments! You can easily put them on your walls instead of the traditional paintings, and it will be just as conceptual as any surrealistic picture!

[chartnellfmp2017-blog]

Fashion Design - Context

Looking at current Trends

On my trip into Drake Circus, I visited Topshop, River Island, H&M and New Look. Each shop has their own style but it was obvious that they are taking trends from catwalks, as all the shops have a similar style in the clothes they are selling. I noticed all of the shops using a lot of textile techniques, in particular embroidery and ruffles. I noticed two main colour palettes through the shops - pastels and primary colours. 

The first photo is from New Look, and the second is from H&M. I really liked this corner in New Look, the lay out of the clothes meant that the brightness of the primary colours really popped out from the darker items of clothing. Where as, I think the clothes in H&M do not stand out as much, I think this is because the clothes in H&M are in a very small selection of colours, so they easily blend into each other. 

When first looking at the clothes in H&M, it made me think of of clothes from a charity shop, this is because of the more classical shapes and the pastel colour palette. I think the frills make the collection seem dated; however, the frills and ruffles on the dresses and shirts, makes these clothes very feminine. As well, the light musky pink and muted greys are feminine and delicate in style. When in the shop, I felt the clothes - soft suedes and poly cotton mixes have been used. The light pink colours, mimic spring colours in a more classical style, this has been done because the clothes are for S/S 2017, and in these months people want to wear lighter colours. These fabrics have a lot of movement, and can easily be manipulated so are effective in this collection. I particularly like the suede skirt which has had a pattern laser cut into the bottom, I think laser cut patterns are delicate and elegant. I think that laser cutting could be a good technique to try in my final major. I’d like to try laser cutting because this is a technique which I haven’t yet tried, so I would be challenging myself, and I think that the effect would suit patterns and shapes drawn from looking at nature. 

The clothes in New Look have used primary colours as a block, this is very bright and eye-catching. Unlike H&M, their clothes don’t feature the same textile techniques, such as frills and ruffling. Personally, I think that the brightness of the colour is the feature of these clothes, and to have textiles and fabric manipulation with this would mean there was too much going on on the piece of clothing. However, on the puffa jackets, the stitching moulds the padding, so this adds texture and shape. Looking at the colour palette of these clothes, makes me think of Piet Mondrian’s work, where he worked with yellow red and blue. Fashion designers often look at artwork for inspiration to their own work, so I think the designers at New Look could have looked at Mondrian’s. 

Both New Look and H&M are fast fashion brands. This means they look at catwalk fashion and then quickly reproduce the styles to a larger target market. Often clothes on the catwalk are more risk taking and flamboyant, so high-street stores will simplify these styles to make their clothes more wearable in daily life. At the moment, I would like to really challenge my pattern cutting skills, so I think that I would like to produce a collection of clothes that are for the catwalk.

In Topshop I noticed a lot of embroidery, the embroidery was usually floral, and was mostly bright florals on a dark background. I love floral embroidery like this, I think it’s elegant, feminine and luxurious in style. Topshop, like H&M and New Look is a fast fashion brand, so they are influenced by trends in higher fashion. I think that Topshop could have been influenced by the likes of Gucci or Versace. When looking in the shops, I noticed a lot of textiles being used, fabric manipulations and embroideries. With my work in this project, I need the clothes to be on trend, so working with techniques like this would make my work current.  

I noticed a lot of fabric manipulations being used on clothes, this top is from H&M. Because of the sheer fabric, spots and ruffles I think this top is feminine and delicate; it makes me think of Barbie or My Little Pony - a stereotypical girly figure. But, the use of lace has a sexier and more mature style. I can also see historical references through the use of ruffles, the sleeves are similar to Victorian ruffles, and have been used as the main feature of the top. The ruffles are effective as they draw your eye to the neckline and sleeve.  

[micaramel]

Artist: Tobias Kaspar

Venue: Urs Meile, Beijing

Exhibition Title: Horn of Plenty

Date: November 2 – January 5, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of the artist and Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing

Press Release:

Galerie Urs Meile is pleased to announce Horn of Plenty, Tobias Kaspar’s (*1984, lives and works in Riga, Latvia and Zurich, Switzerland) first solo exhibition in China. The “Horn of Plenty” is a symbol of bountiful harvest from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. “Horn of Plenty” was also the title of Alexander McQueen’s 2009 Autumn/Winter fashion collection, his last before committing suicide. At this landmark runway show, the fashion designer turned a critical eye on the excesses of the fashion industry that uses the name of “creativity” to maintain the cycle of consumption, thus shifting the subjectivity of “creation” from specific creators to the capital production and sales process—a perpetual motion machine driven by human desire.

A decade after McQueen’s collection, Tobias Kaspar turns this critical view of the fashion industry on a forgotten corner and shifts it to the art world. Since 2015 Tobias has been producing artworks using the infrastructure of a Swiss textile company known for producing fabrics for haute couture, and in the process became interested in a series of embroideries the company developed for the Asia market from the 1960s to the 90s. For the exhibition in Beijing, Tobias Kaspar photographed a series of these embroideries, which were originally sent out as markers of the Western lifestyles to which Asian consumers aspired, which Kaspar is now questioning. With the use of photography, a method for capturing images with a sense of distance, he has produced pictures with bright colors and clean, simple forms, and is now “re-exporting” them to Asian countries in the name of art. In the photographs, we see women wearing ballet costumes, the famous YSL Mondrian dress, street scenes of London or Paris, and polo players. The metaphor of old desires returning as spiritual products is not only an exploration of the power of criticism in today’s international art market, but also a look back over a process—of how a material is infused with a fleeting allure.

Another part of the exhibition is connected to the artist’s stay in Beijing with Galerie Urs Meile this spring. The artist collected birdcages—these cages used for raising and enjoying birds by Qing dynasty elites can still be found among Beijing’s elderly in 2019, but are now no longer attracting the interest of a new generation of youth—and adorned them with elegant, fashionable “new clothes.” In the artwork Delivery, this vehicle and symbol of express package delivery, that indispensable yet unassuming facet of commercial circulation, has been draped in cotton, just like the bird cages, and applied with acrylic and ink drawings made by the artist himself with motifs based on the current September issue of China’s biggest fashion magazine. Tobias uses concealment to render it visible, while also beautifying this concealment, as if he is showing pity for them. In Soymilk and other sculptural works, the artist has created nearly identical, life-sized replicas of everyday consumer items such as soymilk as bronze sculptures. For the artwork Raven, which takes the form of a carpet, the artist has geared up with Chinese fashion and home textile brand JNBY.

Tobias Kaspar’s works have been shown in institutions including the Kunsthalle Bern (2018) (solo); Kim? Contemporary Art Center Riga (2017) (solo); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2016); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2015); Solo Shows, Sao Paulo (2015) (solo); CAFA Museum, Beijing (2014); Kunsthalle Wien (2014); Kunsthalle St. Gallen (2014) (solo); Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2013) (solo); Artists Space, New York (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Kunsthalle Zürich (2011); Kunsthalle Basel (2011); Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2011); and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2010).

In early 2020, Kaspar’s first monograph Independence, covering works from 2009 to 2019, will be published by Kunsthalle Bern and Koenig Books. Tobias Kaspar’s practice includes several offsite projects that attempt to challenge and extend his own practice and the system he works in, these include Kaspar’s blockbuster The Street, which was staged 2016 inside the Cinecittà Film Studios Rome making use of Martin Scorsese’s crumbling outdoor studio street which was erected for the production of the film Gangs of New York (2002). Its documentation and continuation in form of a book — The Street Cards — was published in 2018 by Koenig Books. But also his own jeans line (since 2012), ballet costume designs for the choreographer Adam Linder, the publishing of the bi-annual publication series PROVENCE (since 2009). Since 2018 Tobias Kaspar co-runs the “tank to think through contemporary art” Longtang in Zurich, which host also his studio.

Link: Tobias Kaspar at Urs Meile

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from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2rYD3Fh

[byanamena-blog]

APD 341 DENIM PROJECT

This was the final project for my advanced draping class. The purpose of this project was to design and make a denim look that could be sold in budget stores in 2020 but meets current denim trends.

My shift dress was inspired by the YSL Mondrian collection, but with a denim twist. I added the asymmetrical fringing to meet current streetwear denim trends.

[elliotrobertslawrence]

The weekend before the shoot I decided that as well as a garment made and designed for males to wear based on my themes, I wanted to make a dress for women in a 60s style. I designed the dress in collaboration with my girlfriend at her house using her sewing machine and mannequin, as she wanted to make a dress for a different independent project. For inspiration I looked for popular innovative dresses from the 60s that would work well along my Space Age / modern / futuristic aesthetic, eventually I came cross this recognisable dress from the house of Yves Saint Laurent, inspired by the minimalistic art work of Piet Mondrian. I wanted to use the box dress shape but tone down the use of colours to just a use of two colours, seen in a lot of the Space Age designed fashion examples I have prior. However, I still wanted a focus on white panelling as I think it would work well with a busier set design in relation to the fabrics I have already chosen for the wall and flooring.  

Utilising the panelling to a lesser extent and borrowing the high neck that had been used on my first and second garment I pinned the dress together before stitching. As well as borrowing aspects from my previous garment I also wanted to try out a new colour scheme so instead of using the same baby blue I went for a purple to go alongside the white. I chose purple and not any other colour as I wanted a cooler colour to contrast with the warm colours used in the set design. The high neck as well as the choice to add on sleeves to the dress were all decisions of mine designed to contrast against the original design that inspired the dress as I wanted some symbolism of innovation and evolution beyond that of just a standard 60s dress, with the sleeves contrasting the suit I had planned on shooting with, borrowing from specific gender expectations, replacing and swapping features intended for boys and girls.  

Piet Mondrian 

V&A

The inspiration to make this dress came from a visit to the V&A museum as I wanted to go and have a look for some stand out documented looks and clothing items from the 60s and early 70s, as well as looking at some of the more modern pieces symbolic of the modern generation. Whilst in the V&A I did come across some inspirational pieces that would definitely influence my set and shoot, specifically the use of Op-Art and the application of it to a dress. Looking at the way the garment had been used to create a use of the style of art made me think about the way in which I could use my own set design and emphasise it in some of the garments, this is what inspired me to make a dress quickly and use the 2 striped nature of the fabric I was using for a backdrop and apply it to a garment, again only using two stripes and two colours, sharing one colour with the material and the other contrasting, as I did not want the dress to be too similar to the set.

I had also noticed an early 70s pair of sunglasses, undoubtedly keeping a 60s influence of a Space Age variety. I found it interesting how one specific pair of sunglasses could have caught my attention as well as making me begin to think about my themes of Space Age design and Op-Art. It had been a while since I had discussed the use of small accessories to bulk up a specific theme and aesthetic and by utilising the Space Age 60s glasses I have in my possession I may be able to strengthen the look of the dress I made.

[decorfrontline]

Why Are Architects So Obsessed With Piet Mondrian?

New Post has been published on http://www.decorfrontline.com/index.php/2018/04/01/why-are-architects-so-obsessed-with-piet-mondrian/

Why Are Architects So Obsessed With Piet Mondrian?

In the 1920s, Dutch-born artist Piet Mondrian began painting his iconic black grids populated with shifting planes of primary colors. By moving beyond references to the world around him, his simplified language of lines and rectangles known as Neo Plasticism explored the dynamics of movement through color and form alone. Though his red, yellow and blue color-blocked canvases were important elements of the De Stijl movement in the early 1900s, almost a century later Mondrian’s abstractions still inspire architects across the globe.

But, what is it about these spatial explorations that have captivated artists and designers for so long?

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/ikkoskinen/4292086359/in/photostream/'>Flickr user IK’s World Trip</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

Arguably the first instance of the architectural adoption of Mondrian’s explorations came in the form of a modest two-story home—architect Gerrit Rietveld’s first building—for the recently widowed Truus Schröder and her three children in Utrecht, Netherlands. Constructed between 1923 and 1924 the Schröder House saw the painter’s vivid planes and grids transformed into metal strips, expanses of wood, and lengths of tubular steel painted red, blue and yellow that frame the shifting planes of the roof, windows, and walls. The home’s inner walls were freed of their structural responsibility allowing the internal space to function as a flexible composition of floating planes.

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/28797718610'>Flickr user Jean-Pierre Dalbéra</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

In 1926, painter and architect Theo van Doesburg—a contemporary of both Mondrian and Rietveld—was commissioned to design the Café L’Aubette. He conceived the interior renovations as an inhabitable De Stijl Painting—grids tilted at 45 degrees envelop the walls and ceiling of the “Ciné-Dancing” hall with vibrant hues of red, yellow, blue, and green occupying the irregular spaces between. Only two years later, Mies van der Rohe would seemingly transform Mondrian’s 1917 Composition in Colour A into the broad expanses of glass, marble, travertine, and steel defining the Barcelona Pavilion. 

Architectural interest in Mondrian’s work would wane in the years leading up to the second World War until post-war consumerism drove the development of George Nelson’s primary color-blocked StorageWall of 1945—bringing the artist’s work to the scale of home storage—while the vibrant aluminium panels in Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé and Sonia Delaunay’s Bookcase linked Neo Plasticism with domestic display.

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenmanning/8008065034'>Flickr user Lauren Manning</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

With the inauguration of Arts & Architecture’s Case Study House Program, design duo Charles and Ray Eames modified the artist’s black grids into prefabricated steel frames for the bold cladding wrapping the two volumes of their 1949 Case Study House #8. In designing a prototypical, prefabricated structure in response to the housing boom, Mondrian’s abstracted planes and grids naturally complimented industrial production and war-born techniques to bring domestic architecture to the masses. Similar bold primary colors accented the balconies of Le Corbusier’s brutalist utopia Unite d’Habitiation in 1952 and would eventually appear on the Pavilion Le Corbusier as color-blocked enamel paneling. Even fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent adapted Mondrian’s graphic grid into a sack dress in 1965.

via City of Hague

Mondrian’s lasting influence on architecture is still present today—from the Mondrian Hotel in LA and the Mondrian Residences in Muntinlupa, Philippines to the cladding of Richard Meier’s 1955 City Hall of the Hague Netherlands, which was repainted in early 2017 to celebrate De Stijl‘s centennial.

Whether employed alongside new manufacturing techniques or structural capacities, the language of Mondrian’s abstraction has fascinated architects in their exploration of new spatial types. The artist’s vision for the plasticity of the built world allowed him to interrogate the reductive idea of architecture as mass, instead considering it as a dynamic framework connected to the essential shapes and rhythms of human life.

See more interpretations of Mondrian’s work below.

La maison du parc 93500 Bobigny #mondrian #bauhaus #brutalism

172 Likes, 9 Comments – Ro © (@romainbourven) on Instagram: “La maison du parc 93500 Bobigny #mondrian #bauhaus #brutalism”

#mondrian

15 Likes, 2 Comments – Amy Snow (@viveutvitas) on Instagram: “#mondrian”

finally saw this irl last night❤️

76 Likes, 3 Comments – S▲LEM (@salemm___) on Instagram: “finally saw this irl last night❤️”

Jmenuje se to “Mondrian nemá prachy na nový plátno.” Začal jsem malovat, musel jsem zešílet. #selžeš #mondrian #artmaybe #redwhore #czechbitch #zlo #dejinyumeni

8 Likes, 1 Comments – Venca Zlø (@vencazlo) on Instagram: “Jmenuje se to “Mondrian nemá prachy na nový plátno.” Začal jsem malovat, musel jsem zešílet….”

Piet’s house. #picoftheday, #oneaday, #mondrian, #popart, #modern, #squares, #rectangles, #pietmondrian, #imitation, #flattery, #seattle, #washington, #pnw

48 Likes, 1 Comments – Chico Santana (@chicosantana206) on Instagram: “Piet’s house. #picoftheday, #oneaday, #mondrian, #popart, #modern, #squares, #rectangles,…”

#mondrian #brentwood #art #la #canvasartapp @kedcampbell

34 Likes, 4 Comments – Matt Melton (@mattymeltz) on Instagram: “#mondrian #brentwood #art #la #canvasartapp @kedcampbell”

#mondrian #brescia

52 Likes, 1 Comments – Flavia Buiarelli (@flauta38) on Instagram: “#mondrian #brescia”

How amazing is this Mondrian-inspired house boat? Came across it in Amsterdam, this should brighten up this freezing cold day. . . . #amsterdam #mondrian #destijl #houseboat #architecture #urbanism #mondriaan

57 Likes, 6 Comments – Pauline den Hartog Jager (@pdhj) on Instagram: “How amazing is this Mondrian-inspired house boat? Came across it in Amsterdam, this should brighten…”

Accostamento nuovo/vecchio. Edificio in via Cesare De Lollis, Roma (quartiere San Lorenzo). Per la serie #Mondrian regna a #sanlollo.

12 Likes, 1 Comments – M a r i l e n a L e t o (@_marileta) on Instagram: “Accostamento nuovo/vecchio. Edificio in via Cesare De Lollis, Roma (quartiere San Lorenzo). Per la…”

사각사각 . . . #몬드리안 #집 #빌링엔슈벤닝엔 #독일 #mondrian #house #germany #haus #villingenschwenningen #deutschland

29 Likes, 1 Comments – 안해원 (@softsunny214) on Instagram: “사각사각 . . . #몬드리안 #집 #빌링엔슈벤닝엔 #독일 #mondrian #house #germany #haus #villingenschwenningen #deutschland”

#mondrian #bari #cityphotography #architecture #colors

54 Likes, 2 Comments – @amrenna on Instagram: “#mondrian #bari #cityphotography #architecture #colors”

Love this Mondrian style bar. #mondrian #picoftheday #l4like #l4l #likeforlike #f4f #f4follow #holidays #capetown #streets

45 Likes, 1 Comments – Joseph Dubruque (@jodubruque) on Instagram: “Love this Mondrian style bar. #mondrian #picoftheday #l4like #l4l #likeforlike #f4f #f4follow…”

Dudziarska II, from ongoing documentary project on how the post-transformation Poland manifests itself in architecture and urbanism. The temporary social housing designed as a short-term harbour for people kicked out of council tenancy or other projects was built in the middle of nowhere, and in a manner that intentionally was considered as a motivating factor to get out of there as fast as possible. Instead, without much surprise, the Dudziarska blocks turned into a ghetto dubbed the worst address in Warsaw. In 2010, as a part of art intervention, blocks were painted with Malevich’s Black Square and Mondrian compositions, and during Warszawa w Budowie festival there was a special bus trip to the district to show it off. This action was generally perceived by the inhabitants as a safari-like. In 2017, the city authorities admitted the absolute failure of the Dudziarska project, and announced a gradual abandonment of the estate and its demolition or change of character. / #documentary #warsaw #dudziarska #warszawa #grochow #pragapoludnie #architecture #social #projects #newtopographics #mondrian #staybrokeshootfilm

390 Likes, 5 Comments – paweł starzec (@pestarzec) on Instagram: “Dudziarska II, from ongoing documentary project on how the post-transformation Poland manifests…”

#nonplace #underground #urban #photography #digitalphotography #contemporary #contemporaryphotography #yellow #blue #red #trainstation #minimalism #minimal #architecture #hamburg #mondrian #fubiz #minimalmag #fisheyelemag #fotografiska #myfeatureshoot #thisaintartschool #noicemag

145 Likes, 2 Comments – Ali Sahba (@dsahba) on Instagram: “#nonplace #underground #urban #photography #digitalphotography #contemporary…”

#detskykutik #mondrian

35 Likes, 5 Comments – @misovesely on Instagram: “#detskykutik #mondrian”

#mondrian #durrës #durres #albania #cityscape #citybreak #architecture

33 Likes, 3 Comments – Isídōra (@seltenabermanchmal) on Instagram: “#mondrian #durrës #durres #albania #cityscape #citybreak #architecture”

#citylife #citystreets #lorient #igersbretagne #morbihan #mondrianbuilding #mondrian #architecture #architecturelovers #architecturephotography

36 Likes, 1 Comments – Cath Foch (@cath.in_lorient) on Instagram: “#citylife #citystreets #lorient #igersbretagne #morbihan #mondrianbuilding #mondrian #architecture…”

How Mondrian Inspired #Architecture Around the World – #Arts http://ow.ly/558430ispjs #Mondrian #Grugliasco #Austin #Texas

6 Likes, 1 Comments – Juan Ramon Rodulfo Moya (@rodulfox) on Instagram: “How Mondrian Inspired #Architecture Around the World – #Arts http://ow.ly/558430ispjs #Mondrian…”

The retro-future of Auckland housing? The Paora apartments, Coates avenue. . #modernistarchitecture #mondrian #apartmentliving #housingcrisis #findinghome

82 Likes, 1 Comments – Angus McNaughton (@angus_mcnaughton) on Instagram: “The retro-future of Auckland housing? The Paora apartments, Coates avenue. . #modernistarchitecture…”

#capetownwithlove ❤️ #mondrian

83 Likes, 1 Comments – Flore Silberfeld (@floresilberfeld) on Instagram: “#capetownwithlove ❤️ #mondrian”

Still several sleeps away till the Hong Kong Art Basel, but really excited to be organising my itenerary while I’m there and exploring all the incredible architecture including this #Mondrian inspired building in Wan Chai. ▻  @iamdimitra ▻ #artist #melbourneartist #melbourneart #hongkong #hkartbasel #hongkongart #hongkongarchitecture #artinspired #travellingartist #artfair #hk #wanchai #nikosopelarioart

110 Likes, 4 Comments – Niko Sopelario (@nikosopelarioart) on Instagram: “Still several sleeps away till the Hong Kong Art Basel, but really excited to be organising my…”

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[titoslondon-blog]

New Post has been published on Titos London

#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.co.uk/the-story-behind-michelle-obamas-dress-in-her-official-first-lady-portrait/

The story behind Michelle Obama’s dress in her official First Lady portrait

Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were immortalised today. Their official portraits, his painted by Kehinde Wylie and hers by Amy Sherald, were revealed inside the Smithsonian Museum this morning, and both were far from traditional. Mr. Obama is pictured seated in a chair surrounded by a heaping mass of vibrant flowers, while his wife is captured in a halter gown printed with geometric shapes. The dress was a bespoke creation from American designer Michelle Smith of the label Milly, based on a look from her spring 2017 collection. At today’s unveiling, Sherald spoke about how the dress reminded her of a quilt from Gee’s Bend—a quiet, all-black community in Alabama that became widely known for its craft. She also noted that the colours were reminiscent of Mondrian. But the actual thinking behind the dress was quite different, according to Smith, who worked on the project alongside Obama’s stylist Meredith Koop. Smith says it was meant to be “a dress that Mrs Obama could wear in her everyday life, as well as in this iconic portrait.” The designer adds, “It’s made of a stretch cotton poplin print in a clean, minimal, geometric print without a reference to anything past or nostalgic, which gives the dress a very forward-thinking sensibility—this is very Michelle Obama.”

Obama stood out as a First Lady because of her progressiveness and reliability, much of which was mirrored in the American labels she chose to wear, whether it was a reasonably priced cardigan from J.Crew or a floral skirt from Milly. Some within the fashion industry may have wondered why she didn’t choose a luxury label she worked with in the past, like Jason Wu or Michael Kors. However, it makes perfect sense that she would like to be remembered for her approachability and her effortless sartorial sensibilities. As Smith also points out, the gown was made in New York City, in the heart of the garment district.

MY MOST AMAZING #MILLYMOMENT FOR ALL TIME! I’m so honored that Former First Lady Michelle Obama is wearing a custom-made MILLY dress in her official portrait, painted by artist Amy Sherald @asherald . The portrait will hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. I would like to express my deepest, sincerest thanks and love to @michelleobama @asherald and @meredithkoop for including me in this incredible moment which will endure for generations to come. I’m so honored that I get to be a little part of what was such a ground-breaking and positive presidency. The beautiful Obama legacy will endure. #obamaportraits #milly @cfda #cfda

A post shared by MILLY Michelle Smith (@milly) on Feb 12, 2018 at 10:45am PST

“It’s up to Mrs. Obama to say why she chose this for the portrait, but I would say that it’s a very modern, emotional dress with a very womanly, very American spirit,” Smith says. “The dress also reveals her arms, which I believe is groundbreaking and very modern for a portrait of the First Lady.” She adds, “her portrait represents her perfectly—her intelligence, modernity, confidence, sensuality, and kindness. It’s a very open, honest, and beautiful portrayal of her.” Having worked with Obama over the years, Smith was ecstatic to be given the opportunity of designing the portrait gown. During the process, she also made one very big request: “I hope she runs for president! I begged her to do so in a handwritten note.”

This post originally appeared on Vogue.com

The post The story behind Michelle Obama’s dress in her official First Lady portrait appeared first on VOGUE India.