Fashion Beauty Friend Friday - 05.13.11

May 13: This week, the topic is outside influences, courtesy of ModlyChic.

1. What magazines do you subscribe to?
Martha Stewart Living is the only print mag I still subscribe to. I used to have a ton of subscriptions to all kinds of magazines -- fashion, travel, health, politics, news, etc. But I got tired of the clutter. I got rid of my print newspaper subscription too.  I keep MSL for the recipes & photos (they're still better than online, imo).

2. Do you watch any fashion TV shows?
"Ru-Paul's Drag Race" / "Drag U" & sometimes "What Not to Wear." Drag queens are the last, best gasp of real boundary-pushing in fashion we have left! Everything else is so tame. Runway style is so dreary -- McQueen is gone, Lacroix's best days are behind him, nobody shocks & awes with clothes anymore except for female impersonators. WNtW I occasionally watch to see out of pity. They take such sad sacks & bring them up to the base-level mainstream of fashion, it's kind of sweet.

Yara Sofia from season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race.

3. Beyond blogs, what websites do you frequent for fashion inspiration?
Interior design imagery, historical costume, fabric stores, thrift stores. Oh wait, websites? Not really any websites. I'm inspired more by colors, patterns, & shapes out in the real world :-)

4. Advertisements play a huge role in forming public opinion about a product or brand ... what ads do you like and why?
NONE. I freakin' hate ads. I skip past ads on TV thanks to TiVo, I often rip ads out of magazines, & I really hate ad-laden websites. Sure, they pay the bills (in fact, ads support the company I work for!), but I don't enjoy their existence one bit.

5. Do you own any fashion books?
Um, mostly historical fashion! Well, I do have the catalogs for the Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibit & the Stephen Jones hat exhibit (I saw the Westwood exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco & Jones at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London). Both of these designers are very inspiring.