Water Work

We humans come from aqueous beginnings. Both as tiny pre-babies in the contained sea of the womb and as a submerged primordial life force that grew gills and then fins and then feet after the big bang (that is if you believe in that crazy evolution stuff). Some designers and artists want to get you a little closer to all that wetness. My friend Rahul ("in the know") Sharma tipped me off to the new Robyn video today and it makes a star of liquid fashion. Visual artist Lucy McRae designed the tubular water wear, which is a nice accent to the hot and heavy couple.

Robyn 'Indestructible' Official Video

Robyn | Myspace Music Videos

Lucy McRae's work is fantastic, but she's not the only one looking to make your wardrobe all wet. The designer/artist Charlie Bucket won a Vimeo award earlier this year for the musical video he made of his woven tube textile prototype draining and filling with colored water. Totally deserving of the praise, in my humble opinion.

Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

Hypnotic, no?

One-Earringed Warrior.

Robyn ain't new. She's been around a deliciously long time, a fact I find remarkably comforting. She's someone that I had very ignorantly overlooked for many years simply because once I listened to one of her songs and it was too blip-bloop-bleepy-electropoppy for my taste. After that particular afternoon I never looked back, and dare I say that I was soooo wrong not to. I personally use this example of my own failing to never say no til the third try of anything ever again. After so long of clicking past any presence of the cute blond popstress, what made me reconsider? A friend with good taste (thank God for those!).

A little while ago my friend Rahul posted a Letterman appearance of Robyn's as his g-chat status message with the simple text: "Yes!!!" Because Rahul is nearly prescient in his level of taste, I clicked and watched Robyn make a hand-kissing fan of Mr. Letterman with her rousing rendition of one of her latest singles, Dancing On My Own (see above). The performance quickly became my repeating lullaby, alarm clock, and daytime dance tune. In fact, I only recently replaced it with something new, which is....also by Robyn. Her video for her song Hang With Me is sweet and officially cements her status as cuteness embodied.

Robyn - Hang With Me official video from Robyn on Vimeo.

Robyn's pixie appearance is edged with a taste for the modern. She favors designers with a like of tailoring and structure. She also prefers one of my all-time favorite modes of accessorizing--asymmetrical earrings. She frequently dons just one dangler, or a big and a small one. This trend should have come and gone a long time ago. But, when the right person does it, it instantly transports me back to that sweet spot of time in the '80s when all of the cool, older girls were doing it and creating that magical kind of envy that makes a little girl want to stick out childhood so she can do it too.

Robyn, can I be you when I grow up?

I Want (Madonna's) Candy

I was incredibly obsessed with Madonna at an inappropriately young age. I used to carry my cabbage patch cassette player with attached microphone around our apartment complex giving impromptu performances of Burning Up, complete with floor-writhing choreography, to anyone who would listen, or at least stand still long enough. When I was seven I begged my mother to take me to see Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour. Yeah, the one where she has a little (big, loud, frantic) self-love session in her cone bra on a giant bed. That tour. Somehow my mom, who could quite arguably be the coolest mom ever, agreed to take me and even bought me a special outfit for the occasion. I picked out a hot pink and neon orange pouffy skirt with a matching zip-up hoodie from the local Kids R' Us and rocked it over leggings with alternating, double stacked scrunch socks. I was in heaven.

My Madonna obsession continued through many more years of midnight runs to the Sam Goody to pick up the latest CD, a day in line to be part of the studio audience when she was on MTV's TRL, and two more concerts. Mostly I loved seeing what she would wear day to day. She was a radical style setter, always a year or two before the wave of what was next. She was always creating visual spectacles, incredible videos, working with amazingly talented directors, photographers, and designers.

My Madge-session has cooled off in recent times. I always hoped that Madonna would age gracefully, embracing her vintage status with an edge that would encourage ladies to maintain a sexy elegance in their prime years like the incredible Carmen Dell'Orefice. Instead, she seems to be pumping her face full of restalyne to maintain some modicum of her past wiles. It's a bit disappointing to witness her join the Meg Ryan plumped, ageless, freaky face club. And so, I've lost a bit of interest.

However, my inner seven year old just simply couldn't turn down a friend's invitation to join her at MSG for Madonna's Sticky and Sweet Tour (pictured above) on Monday. I'm excited in spite of my fear that it will be akin to a Broadway revue of her greatest hits performed by Drag Queens. Is that harsh? Well, she'll probably prove me wrong. She's Madonna. She's a friggin' legend. In days past I would have watched her tie her shoes, or paint a room with no questions asked. So, I'm excited. I can't wait to see what the undeniably talented Arianne Phillips has done with the wardrobe. And if nothing else, I'm super jazzed to see Robyn sing Konichiwa Bitches as the opening act. Don't worry, I'll report in full soon enough.