Call Me, Beep Me, If You Want To Reach Me

Yes, that is a naked mole rat in my jet pack

When I was in 3^rd grade I thought I was Kim Possible. If you don’t know who Kim Possible was, well then you missed out on some prime Disney Channel years. Kim Possible was a cartoon, crime-stopping, babysitting, high schooler, who had the coolest gadgets such as lipstick that shot laser beams. Her best friend, Ron Stoppable was a little clumsy, but he was vital to the team because he had a pet naked mole rat who often aided in their escapades.  In 3^rd grade I really admired Kim Possible’s unabashed fierceness, so much so that I dressed up as her for Halloween that year. My mom and I searched countless stores for cargo pants that were as close replicas to ones that Kim wore in the show. We then went to a craft store where we managed to find camouflage felt and Velcro tabs, from which my mom sewed a felt satchel just like the one Kim always wore around her waist to hold her beeper that alerted her to a pending mission. I never ate at McDonald’s, but back then I went into their chains to buy their Kids Meal toys. It just so happened that around the time of Halloween they were selling Kim Possible toys and we bought plastic gadgets to bolster my satchel. I even wore a black turtleneck, which my mom hemmed to make into a crop top to match the one Kim wore (perhaps a tad raunchy for the 3^rd grade crowd, but so be it…). Whether or not you were a fan of Kim Possible, she was totally ahead of fashion trends. Back in 2003, Kim Possible was already wearing turtlenecks but experimenting by wearing them cropped and with baggy cargo pants, and camouflage gadget belts. Kim had a style all her own; she was a little bit Tom Boy, too, and didn't dress like the cheerleaders of the school. She wasn't wearing them to be "chic," either. She was wearing them because it was the outfit that made her feel the most confident and was the easiest to move around in when she was stopping crime. This year, every runway from Alexander Wang to Celine to Jil Sander showed some version of the turtleneck for the 2012 fall season, that brought to mind some Kim Possible vibes. Call me, beep me, if you want to reach me, it’s time for Halloween!

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Recess: Behind-the-Scenes

Photoshoot: "Recess" Model: Melkorka  Photographer: Sasha Frolova  Stylist: Emma Orlow

Photoshoot: "Recess" Model: Emily, Sophia, and Sabrina  Photographer: Sasha Frolova  Stylist: Emma Orlow

These are some behind-the-scenes photos for “Recess,” a series I did some styling for , which is featured in this month’s Rookie Magazine. “Recess” was photographed and constructed by one of my friends, Sasha Frolova, who not only is a seriously amazing photographer, but is particularly great at capturing portraits of adolescence. Along with the photos she sent in to Rookie was this addendum: “this series was inspired by the changes and similarities between my childhood and my adolescence. The bullying, the cliquey best friends, and the teasing don’t disappear with age; they just take on subtler shapes. In this sense, we never outgrow the playground.”

I particularly love the contrast between the exuberance of the youthful setting, and her chosen medium of black and white film to depict the underbelly of social politics that dominate the playground experience. 

My dinky digital shots don’t the real photos justice by any means, but my hope was to give a  a better view of the outfits we used in the shoot this way. In the first day of shots, the model, Melkorka, is wearing a striped t-shirt I sewed a smiley face patch onto, floral leggings I stole from my best friend (that was a staple of her wardrobe in 3^rd grade), high-top Converse, and a butt-load of barrettes and other hair accessories. In the latter, Sophia, Sabrina, and Emily are wearing our own frilly socks and chunky Mary Jane shoes, with school girl uniforms courtesy of Old Navy.  To check out the shoot in its full glory click here. 

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Six Degrees of Separation

“Six Degrees of Separation” series, 2011 by Emma Orlow.  

I’ve been meaning to post more of the art I’ve been doing. “Six Degrees of Separation” is a series I started in 2011. The idea of the series came about as I was beginning to think more critically about whom I was allowing  (or unknowingly allow) to influence my art creations, music purchases, and stylistic choices. Though seemingly diverse, I wondered if subconsciously I had chosen my mentors with some commonality in mind.  Looking deeper into these artists’ pasts, I realized that by six degrees of separation they all related to one another—either from spending time in the same place, sharing mutual friends, or being a part of the same social or political movement. Sometimes the way I connected my influencers for my art project was much less concrete: for example, Frida Kahlo was known for wearing flower crowns, so in my brain I bridged her to the list of characters from the 1967 Summer of Love.  I’ve since realized that hiding little inside jokes with myself is a thing I often do with my art. I don’t ever expect anyone to crack the code, but often it’s nice to look at a piece of artwork and be able to giggle about it and appropriate  outside experiences to a brushstroke that no one will ever bother to analyze (I think I thought I was being really clever at the time, but I used lots of green inks in my John Lennon canvas as a commentary on his fight to legalize marijuana).

So when it came time to display my “Six Degrees of Separation” series in my school’s art show, I attached all of the canvases to a black piece of cardboard and with chalk, drew arrows to visually explain how the connections play out in my brain. The ones I’ve posted to this blog post aren't the total number of ones I've created or hope to create—I made a couple groupings of six for my art show. But color wise, I particularly like the way all of the ones I've shared here, flow into one communal tie-dye. Each canvas was made using a mix of repeated ink washes, drawings, and Citrosol image transfers. You can check out more of my artwork on Flickr by clicking here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theemmaedition/

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There's Nothing A Patch Can't Fix

I purchased this patch and it arrived today in the mail. I've been thinking up all of the delicious ways I can wear it. Right now, I think i'm going sew them all over a plain dress to look like giant pepperoni polka-dots... that way I will look so tasty that I will start attracting new friends. This will surely work, right? RIGHT?

Lately, I feel like I'm the human taffy-- slowly being pulled between writing my college applications, homework, SATs, extracurricular activities, making art (this week I'm going to post a new series I've been working on), writing for websites, all while trying to maintain my "essence" (so meta). So as you might imagine, I haven’t been posting on this blog as much I would like to be this month. This is a bit I wrote for BUST Magazine yesterday:

"For thousands of years, embroidered patches have been a means of identification. Dating back to the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean, Mideast, China, and India, elaborate hand-stitched fabric swatches were tools used for the military. Other times, such embellishments were a sign of beauty for other important personnel, stitched onto the robes of royalty or religious figures. Even today, patches are seen on a wide range of people: from the military to sanitation workers and even, of course, on Boy and Girl Scouts.

In the realm of the sartorial, there’s nothing a good patch can’t fix. You can add patches to denim jackets, wear them as falsies, or you know, use them to patch up holes in your clothing. But mostly I like patches because they’re little sew-on (or iron-on) pieces of joy that can immediately spruce up any outfit.

      When it comes to patches, I am usually pretty particular. I prefer the serendipity of stumbling upon a rad patch at a fleamarket or on Etsy, rather than outwardly seeking them out. However when I came across the website Patch Sales, I knew where I’d soon be spending my babysitting income.

Although I’m sure Patch Sales is a company run by adults, all the patches on the site manage to encapsulate everything that is magical about youth. I can’t help but imagine that they secretly have some cool tween (this sounds like a dream job) working in their office, telling them all about his or her daily life to manifest into patch form. Yes, some of their patches do cater to the usual scout suspects, but there are still numerous surprises that seem like they were ripped straight from a mood board in my imagination. Among their many categories are patches devoted to pumpkin picking, scrapbooking, fast food tours, magic shows, and so, so much more. If you want to get patchy, check out Patch Sales here."

 P.S. Patch Sales is not paying me to endorse them. I wish they were, but they aren't. I just am over-zealously in love with them for my own benefit. 

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