The Biore Style Swap is founded on the idea that one person’s trash is another’s treasure. If you think about it, it is true that your favorite tee came from a thrift store… and those hoop earrings you came to hate are now your little sister’s faves. Fortunately, Cosmopolitan and Biore recently teamed up to bring you the first national Biore Style Swap tour. It’s the largest clothing swap to date, which will travel to 10 major cities in the U.S. I just so happened to be on hand for the tour’s NYC kick-off at an indescript loft in the Garment District.

Share This

Forget boxers versus briefs, Harlem transplant Bill Clinton favors I Love Lucy, Grey’s Anatomy, 24 and Boston Legal. With these must-knows out of the way, the former president took full advantage of a full hour in a room with TV’s most powerful party — advertisers.

Clinton was the show-stopper for TV Land’s 2007 upfront presentation, where network execs hosted a sneak peek of their fall shows for media buyers. The scene was reminiscent of the Senate floor, with every suit trying to rally votes — I mean ad space. I was astonished that the perks of being an advertising constituent now included being in the same room as the former president. I had under-estimated my party’s power.
(more…)

Share This

The hotel’s plush sitting nooks begged for socialite gossip. The lobby filled with whispers and left-right kiss salutations. The crowd was obviously heavy with anticipation for 2005 International Designer of the Year, Jamil Khansa’s, reveal. Men sporting fur coats over pressed tuxedos brandished their portfolios and dignitaries were greeted with acknowledging nods as models fitted in couture gowns scattered backstage. International Couture Fashion week brought the usual fashion dichotomy of diplomats and divas together at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in February.
(more…)

Share This

The French Guinea beat-boxed a rhythym with his barefeet, echoing electronically to silence the crowd. Every so often, Tamango’s focused, balancing gaze would raise toward the rafters and smirk suspiciously. The kind of look a child makes before they paint on the wall. That’s when you knew the troupe of artists from Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Haiti, Cote d’Ivoire, Jamaica and France was about to do something just as unexpected as it was phenomenal.

The performers built off of each other as if in conversation - first “speaking” one at a time, then “talking” over each other and after time harmonizing together. Elaborating on his signature style, the freestyle tap dancer pontificated, “Tap is a language. We can tap it, so it becomes a voice. It is articulated. And it becomes more than just the dance.” This common language was apparent when the dancers improvised with musicians and in battle with Tamango.
(more…)

Share This

A performance art program by a company I had never heard of in a faraway land called Flatbush? Indeed. As New Yorkers tend to do, I trusted my instinct that this was an event I didn’t want to miss. I jumped on the downtown 3 train in a blind leap of faith.

Thankfully, the L.A.-based troupe Diavolo was on my schedule and began just as I arrived right on late at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts. They performed three dances, gracefully climbing, flipping and stunting on each other atop three different six-ft high structures. The first structure, a variety of tall doors that acted as props in a musical of a couple chasing after each other and finally falling in love. Cute and whimsical, the abstract movements provoked thought among audience members. Joy quickly transitioned to defeat as the next piece began. The conditioned athletes sprinted vertically up the second structure, a spiked wall, then slinked down grimly as morose music played.
(more…)

Share This

I made my way through what I call “Tourists in America,” a.k.a. The Met on a Saturday, as I followed a gaggle of art-appeciators to the last weekend of the “Americans in Paris” exhibit. Upon stepping inside this temple I quickly muted my swagger to focus on the significance of the collections.

The exhibit meandered through several rooms, each with one painted wall outlining the thematic simliarities and periods of the work in standout white type. While know-it-alls walked by these walls without giving them a glance, I read every one, sucking up the nuances of the late 19th century.
(more…)

Share This