Value Vera & Reflections on a Poly-Bin

(pic 1/2): Vera Wang has developed a line of wedding gowns from $600 for DAVID'S BRIDAL. Yes, even by looking at the promotional images there may be some compromising on the delicate hue and feel of nature-made silk (pic 3 by Paulo Roversi for VERA WANG)

In 2000 a friend of mine was ISO a simple, chic and cheap wedding dress. She was a photographer and had yet ascended to the photo staff of The Washington Post (she did that in 2004, I think...). We found a small boutique in New Hampshire where she was living and asked if, perhaps, she could order a bridesmaids dress in white. "um, no." Apparently, wedding dress designers stay one step ahead of value-conscious brides and do all they can to thwart her cash saving strategies. "You have to buy at least three so they know it's for the wedding party."

So we hit the clearance rack in the back.Let me rephrase, it was a cardboard box from a sheet metal manufacturer and inside were some very fabricated dresses.

We tried not to questions how and why these dresses lived in the box, until we started digging. No materials or colors from here. Most of the dress were 100% polyester. I managed to unearth a size 6 dress that may have been originally white, but I decided it lived in the store window for a few months and the sun rays gilded and the polyester.

"OK, so it has a slight suntan and it will be a little scratchy...I'll just overexpose the film when I shoot the pictures and you can run inside and lift your train to circulate the air underneath every so often."

My friend paid $100 and bought the dress right off the bin. It fit perfectly and photographed beautifully (pic 3 by MISSY MCLAMB. I even managed to overexpose enough to turn the dress white and dissolve her sweat beads.

RE Evolution of American Splendor

Tc
 
TOWN & COUNTRY magazine, the grand dame and longest-running general interest magazine has been reincarnated.  And yes, the cover seems snarky and over-the-top, but once inside you realize the cover is hyperbole and the marrow inside is more substantive than the cloak. 
Anthology
ANTHOLOGY, new quarterly shelter and lifestyle print magazine,  takes a narrative approach and is now available. Sign me up!

BONES BY GOD AND MAN

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(triptych 1) A pair of preserved antlers dating to 1930 for sale ($1,100) at Toots & Magoo  in Chapel Hill, NC. They will be removed on or before Monday, January, 31st, 2011, when the shop permanently closes.  The antlers were part of  Cheryle "Toots" Jernigan-Wicker collection which she inherited from her husband photographs of Toots & Magoo © MISSY MCLAMB. (triptych 2). A pair of steer horns in Cast Resin  from Restoration Hardware ($149) Ships via UPS Ground or USPS to arrive in 3 to 7 business days. Rush delivery is available for most items. Available to ship 02/18/11. © 2011 Restoration Hardware, Inc.

"We are in the greatest danger of being run over when we have just gotten out of the way of a carriage," Friedrich Nietzsche 

 As an impovershed photographer in my twenties, I freely purchased reproductions as a means of self-expression. My daughter, Eliza (now 10) slept in crib finished to resemble peeling paint. Her vintage armoire, an artifact from the turn of the century was pure authenticiy-peeling paint, tainted with lead and all. My fear ultiimately prevailed and I had the armoire stripped and repainted by a professional. Before he took the lethal object out of the nursery, the man who made it antispetic, told me his daughter currently has lead-poisoning, but it was in no way due to him trapsing reminants of his craft through his house. At thirty-six some of my food, art and cloaks are handmade and organic. Some will never resemble nature and have been manufactured a hundred times over.