There is no argument among Ecthomites that the classic weaponized jewlery of yore is gorgeous. Yet owing to its antiquated nature, bits and bobs of the destructive ilk can be both difficult to acquire and fragile (once the former issue is overcome).
Jewelers Digby and Iona seek to skirt this problematic issue with their Fall line featuring the above piece. While inoperable as a weapon of elegant destruction the ring is none the less a fearsome addition to any finger.
If digit-weaponization isn’t your thing Digby and Iona also have a moustache pendant available (among other quaintly curious adornments) for all your moustache emergencies.
Much as we enjoy shedding light on the many wondrousworks brought forth by today’s designers, be they of the walled interior or clothed exterior variety, the sad fact remains that many of the pieces posted are either conceptual or prohibitively pricey. Unfortunately most of us aren’t sewing machine maistros, and as such the aforementioned delights remain as pieces of a beautifully bedecked dream.
However, thanks to ERNTE Fashion Systems’ upcoming release of their E.S.P. line we dreamers can obtain a bit of our woolgathered wardrobe on the cheap. The official site launches on May 15th but you can peer into their wondercloset for a peek at their pre-release offerings.
Well, you tell me. How could this line have gone under our radars, mine and Q’s? A googling reveals nothing but a Tribe page and links to these Flickr photos.
The gasmask is an integral part of any space-hobo’s fashion arsenal, and while there’s a nearly infinite number of stylistic permutations from which to choose the mask that best suits you nearly all of them are drab militaristic affairs. Hardly surprising considering they’ve never been intended as anything other than tools to avoid taking lung-fulls of poisonous gas or air swirling with microscopic debris during a siege.
Thankfully an enterprising designer, Diddo Velema, saw the gaping couture void in post-apocalyptic style and decided it needed a good filling, creating high fashion gasmasks, studded in diamonds and logos, thus cementing her place in the annals of fashion history.
Personally I prefer the understated elegance of the Vuitton, but if gaudy is your thing there’s more than enough Gucci analog to go around. Hit the jump for larger versions of the masks.
Is it art? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it appears to be a creature out of The Dark Crystal with huge, pendulous testes, hanging from gymnastics rings and covered in stick-pins. Yup, thanks John.
Abdopus aculeatus octopi lead a life of sex, murder, and gender obfuscation but only once. After that they die. Thanks to Jenny and everyone else who sent this one in!
Welcome your new cephalopod masters with a t-shirt. Thanks, Vinnchan.
Hikashu, who appears to have been Japan’s answer to the Talking Heads, sings “Puyo Puyo”. Thanks, bubliki!
The trailer for Angels and Idiots, a new film by animation god Bill Plympton. Thanks, Monkey!
I am engaged in a constant search to expand on my haughty crew of irreverent imps, and to discriminate based on unimportant factors, least of all sex, would be a disservice to the imaginary islands we inhabit. Candice has secured her spot in my raucous gang of children, and woe to those foolhardy pirates that may stand in her way.
Colloquial wisdom has it that the first thing a woman descries on a man is the color and caliber of his shoes, which is why Friends of Dorothy know that their ruby slippers must strongly proclaim their lack of interest in the gender.
Needless to say, then, Qais is frothing at the bit that this incredible Electric Light Shoe is not available for purchase. Designed by the Onitsuka Tiger footwear company, the Electric Light Shoe contains an entire cityscape, pulsing with rainbow neon lights and even containing a rampaging kaiju near the heel.
Actually, I take it back. Fashionologically conservative as I might be, I would proudly wear such a shoe. Unfortunately, it’s not for sale, and at three feet long, the only feet it would fit would be Eliza’s, and she’d still have to whittle off her big toes.
Y’know, I always thought that once time travel had been invented I’d use it to go back and give advice to my adolescent self, not to parade around the streets of Paris in what is apparently the natural evolution of my already questionable fashion choices, though when I think about it the idea makes sense. Apparently even in my advanced years I am a force of fashion with which to be reckoned.
In your daily meanderings through the hallowed halls of Ectomo you may at some point have taken note of my odd name. I can assure you it isn’t the result of air-headed, hippie parents and in spite of my questionable ancestry and modern American nature I still have quite a bit of reverence for parts of my dubious heritage.
As such, I can’t help but love this outfit recently featured by fashion aficionado The Sartorialist. This woman is the spitting image of the pack of post-apocalyptic Neo-Bedouins that stalk across the vast expanses of my imagination. I adore the combination of flowing, layered fabrics employed as shawl and head dress, and the tight, boot strapped pants easing mobility, all of which unites to form the image of an ancient wanderer fit for a modern age.
The trend by couture designers to take inspiration for their advertising campaigns from surreal art is a most welcome one. Prada’s Spring-Summer 2008 line is advertised with the work above, which while beautiful, at times suffers from the translation of static image to dynamic. Artist James Jean produced the storyboards for the film, which are more stunning than the video by dint of not having to move. Particularly interesting are James’ flower/insect concept sketches, the delicate petals of each blossom supported on the shelled stilts of a beetle; so alien they seem to have sprung from Alice’s Incongruous Wonderland, in which the fields of chittering tulips scuttle and sway with the wind.
Oh to have been born in the 27th Century, where the futurenymphs of indeterminate sex prance and lurk in the neon drenched, rain slick alleyways. A place where the Martian fashion districts are surrounded with federally mandated billboards, warning potential shoppers of the fashionshock that lies within. This is a place in which clothes such as these are de riguer, and I will not rest until I call it home.
Instructables has a step-by-step to crochet your very own Cthulhu! A few people tipped us on this one, but Bibi was first.
Bela sends us some fantastic artwork from the talented Sayaka; comprised of an Ectomo favorite, namely: lithe, Japanese nymphets. Also, tentacles.
Asa Gilmore calls out attention to a list of abandoned wonders in Russia, saying “Scroll to the end of the article. If that strange contraption doesn’t scream ‘Steampunk’ to you, I shall eat my hat and say ‘balderdash.’”
Benton Barnett submitted this badass gas mask t-shirt which will now have to be added to my wardrobe. They can be purchase here.
Dr. Hypercube warns us, via ectotweet, to beware the cephalopod loo.
My father and I have long maintained a correspondence of epic intellectual proportions. Usually these take the form of discussions on science and science fiction, Rick Gauger being an award-winning science fiction author, and all-around life of the party.
Recently I sent him a link to a collection of cartoons on the fashion wars of the early 1800s, which were as vicious as they were short-lived. Men and women abandoned the stiff, straight-laced wardrobes of the 1700s and briefly adopted a more modern, flowy, comfortable look. This was the famous Regency era, in which Jane Austen lived and wrote. Unfortunately for fashion, it was quickly destroyed by the severe repression of the Victorian age’s corsets, high heels, and silly hats. Dad, armchair fashion historian, elaborates [with my notes appended, thusly]:
Yes, I’ve always thought it odd that women went out of, and back into corsets in the early 19th Century. In our own time, the 60s got over in a hurry, as women went back to makeup and hairdos in the early 70s. In my century [Dad is 64], I think that the corporations panicked as they saw hair styles, makeup and tailored clothing apparently becoming obsolete, and they put on a major propaganda offensive. The majority of people (including women) never understood the 60s anyway, so they were ready to buy into it. We had a last hurrah of big cars, just at the moment when we should’ve been changing our ways.
Another reason for the quick loss of those styles was that a woman really has to be very good-looking [such as my mother, 54, who to this day refuses to learn how to use an eyelash curler, probably because she’s too busy beating men away from her door with a stout stick] to be able to go without makeup and tailoring. There were a couple of girls among the grad students of 1965 that made me froth at the mouth; most others, however smart and sweet they might be, just didn’t have what it took. One of them was the girl who welcomed me back from my first tour in Vietnam. She came out in a nightie that made her look like a joke. I would have rather died than hurt her feelings at that moment.
Congratulations to this Detroit-based pest control company for discovering what many have suspected for years, namely that nothing says “Allow me into your house to exterminate vermin.” like dressing up as a woman and singing a reworded version of “Banana Boat Song”, off-key, in front of a green screen while ironing. One must assume that the money is pouring in.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
