Shamim De Varax is a talented up and coming photographer from Melbourne, Australia.

Want to see more? Click here for her official website, and here for some behind-the-scenes blog action.

Ghost Story
Makeup and Hair by Anke Hansen
Designs by Joseph Jang
Models Rebecca G @ Scene and Kat L.
Photography Assistant Vlad K.
Photography by S de Varax

Words: Jessica Weingarten

Image: MaryChingShanghai

Canadian model Irina Lazareanu is teaming up with Japanese retailer Seibu to design her own line of clothing and accessories. Seibu, a department store, is a mass retailer located in Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia (similar to the US’ Macy’s). Now, she is following the footsteps of fellow supermodel and her close friend Kate Moss, who previously launched a line with British fashion giant Topshop. Perhaps, Kate will even model Irina’s clothing as Irina modeled Kate’s collection for the Topshop catalogue. read more »

Words – Jordan Shertock read more »

Words: Anna Conn (Everything is Beautiful)

Images: Ariana Page Russell

Ariana Page Russell has found a unique muse for her photography – her own
skin.   Growing up with a skin condition called dermatographia, her skin is
not only her inspiration, but a canvas and medium as well, allowing her to
produce welts and flushing with ease.  While the condition is not something
she can control, it is something she can manipulate, creating images that
call our attention to human vulnerability and adornment. Since she began this venture, Ariana has produced a broad spectrum of
methods and forms in her work, including collages, adhesive tattoos and
wallpaper designs.  This variation allows us to look at skin from many
different perspectives, and perhaps reconsider our own assumptions about the
role this important organ plays in our lives.  For most of us, adornment is a method of self expression, while also
concealing our vulnerability and physicality.   Ariana creates a sort of
paradox by adorning herself with her own skin and its inherent sensitivity.
As she so eloquently puts it, “I am investigating where one surface ends and
another begins, the bloom of adornment, and how shifting exteriors reveal as
they conceal.”

read more »

Words: Stacey Main

If you’ve ever despaired as to what in life is meaningless–it’s time you read Rules of Attraction.

“and it’s a story that might bore you but you don’t have to listen…”

The story starts here, halfway through a sentence. It ends halfway through another. It’s not a warning to be dismissed. Bret Easton Ellis has every intention of boring you. I’d be lying even to say that the plot unfolds, it more effectively spews it’s way across the 326 pages.

“Rock n’ Roll. Deal with it.” says Sean; one of many main characters.

And that’s just it. It is rock n’ roll. But probably rock n’ roll at it’s most hideously tedious. Take that as a compliment. I may paint an ugly picture, but the book is every bit as interesting for it. Rules of Attraction takes place in the Fall of 1985. If I could remember I would tell you what happens, but I don’t remember–in the same way I don’t remember the specifics of what happened everyday last semester. It is a ’snapshot of college life’ book. And, yes, it is equally as narcissistic as that comment suggests. The characters are unlikeable. They are vain, self-absorbed, petty, upperclass brats. The type of rich college kids who don’t have enough money for hygiene. No-one goes to class; every night is for drugs, alcohol, and sex; and every day is for hangovers, regrets, and recovery.

Everything happens, and nothing happens. The book is most interesting in it’s narration. The story shifts unceasingly between the voices of the students on campus (once even to a french roommate–entirely in french). Their stories run alongside each other, and at times overlap and intertwine. Here, the book captures the absurdity of human relationships. It meanders through what most books silence, the blandness of day-to-day interactions.

This is Bret Easton Ellis’s true success. The shift in voices brings us respite from what is not happening. It maintains our interest in order to carry the stories satirical purpose. Rules of Attraction exaggerates nothingness with great effect. Ellis does this flawlessly so that without offending, the story shows what we are often doing with our lives–nothing.

How very rock n’ roll.