Muse Magazine

Three things I really love this week

1) Art magazines
Ever since I was little, pouring over my mom’s women’s magazines, I’ve
loved monthly glossies. Ad sales slump or not, I’ll always love seeing
words and beautiful photography printed on a page. So when I was making
the rounds at the Frieze art far, it was the art magazine booths that
really caught my eye. Two new glossies looked especially good: tar
magazine and Fluer du Mal, both of which are inaugural issues. Tar’s list
of contributors has a bit of a too-cool-for-school art sceney kind of feel
to it (Julian Schnabel shot the Benicio Del Toro cover and Matthew Barney
and Steve Soderbergh contributed work to the feature well), but features
really beautiful design and photography on amazing paper stock (the beauty
of a big budget). The Tar gang also seem to have a very clear idea of who
their target audience is. When I made a little shopping trip to Dover
Street Market yesterday, a girl carrying a stack of the magazines had
managed to talk the store manager into selling them at the register, which
is apparently a rarity for the emporium according to one of the sales
staff there. Fleur du Mal, meanwhile, seems like the art world version of
the indie zine, Me magazine, with an issue guest edited and centered
around collage artist Kristine Roepstorff who makes girl-centric,
intricate works on paper. (See the entire issue here). The issue also acts
as a cheeky parody of women’s mags. We especially loved its juxaposition
of Roepstorff’s work with old school 50s and 60s advertisements that could
very well be on the inspiration boards of the guys behind “Mad Men.” But I
digress. Both of these books got me excited about magazines as a relevant
form of print media again, because lately I think most of the inspiring
work is taking place online.

2) Men’s sweaters
I just don’t like the way most women’s sweaters are cut to accentuate the
waist and bust-line. It’s not my style. Plus, a fitted sweater is not very
layering-friendly, which is key in the damp and chilly weather here. The
obsession began when I started wearing my guy’s sweaters last winter. So
this year, I’ve decided to buy my own, beginning with a few size medium
heather gray cashmere pull-overs from Uniqlo. I recently kicked it up a
notch by adding a wool camel colored Comme des Garcons cardigan (also size
medium) to my arsenal. It will look great over all of the gray American
Apparel tees I’ve loaded up on recently (I have a thing for gray if you
haven’t guessed). I’ve been accessorizing them with an oversized gold and
silver men’s watch that belongs to, you guessed it, my boyfriend, and
these little leather Topshop shorts and platform heels to balance out the
tomboyishness of it all. Problem is, my boyfriend keeps swiping all of my
new sweaters.

3) Jazzanova’s “Of All Things”
It turns out my little “Southport Weekender” purchase wasn’t the only new
Jazzanova CD in stores. I just downloaded the Berlin collective’s latest
and have been listening to it nonstop all week. My favorite tracks keep
rotating, but today’s pick are “Dial a Cliché,” and “Look What You’re Doin
to Me,” which you can listen to here.