Liquid Vinyl is a statement in its own right; but when Kelly Maglia gets her hands on it she creates the essence of edgy style. After recently releasing her latest collection Get A Grip, which was initially for pole dancers and performers alike, she aims to expand her designs to streetwear. One of my many favorite pieces out of the collection is the Liquid Vinyl Cropped Moto Jacket. I have styled the moto jacket with three different streetwear looks. Kelly’s Rock ‘n Roll Couture is for the creative and bold; someone just like you! In this first look I went with a pair of bold patterned shorts and a message crop tee. This outfit is perfect for a fun day out and about. The moto jacket’s material is super comfortable and stretchy, which means you can still be comfortable AND stylish while rocking it. Flirt with danger and wear a … Read More
The Stripper and the Ballerina: A Tale of Two Shoes
One is the stuff of little girls’ dreams. The other, forbidden fruit. One whispers of the sylph, the swan, the dying innocent. The other, the stripper, the slut, the vibrant temptress who never dies – especially not in the minds and groins of men… Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I dreamed of satin slippers and eventually danced in them. Later, I was a good university student where any card-carrying feminist – myself included – learned that the ballet shoe AND the stripper shoe were classic symbols of female subjugation. One was a male fantasy of female other-worldliness and weakness. The other, a sexual construct by men, for men, and created to elicit the most base of pleasures. Now, fast-forward some years. I’m a woman with a career – a thriving costume business, a hard rock/metal album, and, more than Virginia Woolf’s prescription for a “room … Read More
A Machete Path to the New
A new you often begins with throwing something out. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to lay out today’s gourmet meal on the table if yesterday’s fast food is still sitting there gathering flies. And yet, I seemed to have made a career out of piling shiny new stuff on top of detritus. That is, until I took a machete to my house this past weekend and carved out spaces I never knew existed. Including space for me to inhabit an alter-ego that has been in the process of becoming for so long – like a slow cross-fade. Namely, I made space to be a rock star. Why we hang on to things that no longer serve us is the grand question of modern psychology. For me, it was always the excuse: “I might use this one day, and if I don’t have it, what on earth will I do?” As … Read More
Cinderella In The Desert
Putting on a ball gown is hard. In the Cinderella story, it’s easy. The Fairy Godmother appears, and poof! Cinderella is off to the ball. In real life, that transition can take years. Or it never happens at all. Most of us stay content with sweeping cinders and crouching in corners because going to the ball is infinitely more scary. Somehow we have learned that our deepest desires are wrong, and to follow them means sure ruin. Growing up in Orange County, California, I was always told not to want too much or dream too big. Because money is hard to come by and artists are crazy. So forget your silly artistic dreams, get yourself a good, safe job and stash your money away. And you’ll be happy someday. So, I tried that. I tried to behave and follow the rules of whitewashed suburbia. Because I was an A+ student, … Read More
The Democracy Of Pole – and How The West Is Being Won By Pole Sport Organization
Jessica Anderson-Gwin – Female Pacific Pole Champion, 2015. Photo courtesy of Alloy Images and Pole Sport Organization. THE DEMOCRACY OF POLE – AND HOW THE WEST IS BEING WON BY POLE SPORT ORGANIZATION We’ve all seen the Facebook fights and social media rampages. The pole industry has been all a-twitter in recent years about whether or not we are fair in our competition judging standards, whether we are professional in our presentation to the outside world, whether we should become an Olympic sport, and on and on… The conversations have been friendly and quizzical at best, fiercely heated at worst. And like a raucous, pimply teenager, and (to mix my metaphors) a Wild West gunslinger of old, we have stumbled along, trying to figure out who we are, and in the process, we’ve become notorious. The shouting on Facebook notwithstanding, our questions are legitimate: Will we go the way … Read More
Two Men, One Choice? Not Really!
I’ve been thinking a lot about security lately. And how it’s over-rated. We’re trained from birth to seek what is safe and familiar, but we are never told that that way, death lies. Not literally, of course. Or maybe yes… All I know is that the very essence of safety is stagnation, when everything in our being cries out for change – for the next challenge that calls forth the next and the next. When everything is too familiar – i.e. safe and secure – we can lose the wonder that the unknown provides. Safety is, by its very definition, conservative – and it asks that we stay right where we are, with the devil we know, all the while proclaiming that the devils we don’t must be far more wicked… I used to subscribe to this theory. But not now. Today, I appreciate the unknown, and seek to chase … Read More
Silky Satin Shadows
I used to find comfort in shadows. Like one finds pleasure in a silky satin robe. And it was a garment I knew well. I hid in the soft darkness, refusing the light of the stage, and as a costume designer, I preferred instead to fluff and pin and perfect the women I’d outfitted who would enter the light in my place. Of course, I still love that – making beautiful costumes for beautiful women. But not so long ago, I knew it was my turn now. My desire to be on stage had been long-suppressed, given the comfort of the shadows. Once upon a time, I had scurried to dark corners because the painful spotlight stripped me of the armor I wore. The armor of needing to be perfect in front of everyone. The armor of the acceptable, over-achieving, money-making middle class life I had been trained from birth … Read More