Please pardon our appearance while we undergo some heavy reconstruction. We hope to have something new up soon!
Category Archives: Commentary
Recently, I read a newspaper article by Andrea Peyser (New York Post) regarding this year’s Fashion Week.
I didn’t really take issue with her caterwauling regarding the “good ol’ days”, as we expect to hear from the elderly. Nor did I take issue with the antiquated opinions regarding fashion, how the writer found it hard to adapt to the evolution of what is celebrity, nor the fact that anything that wasn’t outrageously expensive was simply too jejune for her.
Rather, I took issue with the group of people that she calls “the Dregs”, those people who need to stand and wait for a seat at a fashion show. She regards them as losers, but in her dotage, she has overlooked exactly who these people are. “The Dregs”, as she calls them, consist of fashion students, budding stylists, and young, new designers that don’t happen to have the money nor the fame to be blessed with a designated seat. These are the people that have a true and real passion for fashion. These are the people who are driving the industry. These are the people that might one day become people whom she will need to kowtow to.
Let us not forget that Coco Chanel once tried to become a cabaret singer (it didn’t work out), worked in a tailoring shop, and the first store that she opened failed. Tom Ford dropped out of NYU and originally concentrated on acting in television commercials. And Thom Brown started off as a salesman in a Giorgio Armani showroom. These are the people that, in their early beginnings, she would have called “the Dregs”.
As she blithely dismisses “the Dregs”, she also dismisses the actual future of fashion. I wonder where, exactly, she thinks designers and stylists come from?
Building Hope: The Orphaned Starfish Foundation
Brazil is a beautiful and amazing country. But for some children, they never get to experience this beauty. They live in poor and dangerous surroundings, with little chance of improvement and no family to turn to. The Orphaned Starfish Foundation is dedicated to helping orphans and impoverished children break the cycle of poverty through education and training.
I had the opportunity to photograph these children, along with the facilities that Orphaned Starfish supports. They are truly building a future for these children, and I implore all of you to help Orphaned Starfish help these kids.
Their yearly gala is coming up, and if you can purchase a ticket, it can really make a difference in the lives of these children:
Click here to see information about the Gala.
If you’re not able to attend the Gala, then please think about making a direct donation to the organization:
Click here to make a donation to the Orphaned Starfish Foundation.
The slideshow in this post has some of my favorite photos from my visit, but you can see more of the photos by clicking here or here.