White Wash: The massive DKNY advertising mural turned Soho icon at Manhattan’s Houston and Broadway is, like all the other signs of the neighborhood’s 80s heyday, not long for this world. [WWD]

NFL Lock Out: Football may ban excessive hair use, putting an end to those Thors and rastas of the gridiron. [Styledash]

Chaste Bunnies: The Philippine version of Playboy will be a fully-clothed, demure affair with, “maybe one nipple,” here and there. No fun. [Canadian Press]

Forever in Blue Jeans: Mike “Muffin Top” Albo searches for recession-proof denim. [NYTimes]

Panic at The Mexico: Emo kids are facing systematic beat downs south of the border and uniting to defend their rights and feathered hair. March on, wasted youth. March on. [The Daily Swarm]

Forged Signature: Refusing to let a little thing like legal permission hold it back, an Italian clothes maker bravely strikes out on its own to create the George Clooney collection. [WWD]

The Holy Grail: Bring on the male birth-control pill. [Altpenis]

Il Bue Che Dice Cornuto All’asino: Italy bans Tom Ford ad because of their long tradition of high-minded, unporny public discourse. [Radar]

The Distinguished Gentleman From Milan: In related news, Santo Versace, business manager of the family label, has joined Italy’s Parliment. [WWD, 2nd item]

“Masturbation Cuts Cancer Risk”: Well, in that case, maybe we’ll try it some time. [BBC]

Slip Ons: Socks for men without shoes. [Men’s Vogue]

Ripped From the Headlines: Our very own Jared Paul Stern is set to be detonated in effigy in an upcoming episode of “Law & Order.” We couldn’t be more proud. Also, Chung-chung. [NY Daily News]

Ring of Fire: Like a ribbon ‘round your finger, this accessory will remind you of appointments or anniversaries or burn you in the process. [Uncrate]

Beggars and Choosers: A probing piece about the difficulties of funding and presenting at Fashion Week. [Papierdoll]

Monroe Doctrine: The Marilyn sex-tape fantasy goes “pop” in 1,460 words. [Defamer]

Members Only: A jacket checklist for these windbreaker months. [Refinery29]

Fresh Meat: These gory Eva Herzigova shots by Mario Testino have us hot, hungry and a little bit scared. [The Photography Link]

Curb Your Dog: Some horrid pooch went and peed on our beloved Natalie Portman while she was traipsing about the part with Freak-Folk boytoy Devendra Banhart. Gentlemen that we are, we already have a contract out on the hairy mutt (and the dog as well). [NYPost]

Drawers Raise a Stink: The latest banned ads in Europe aren’t by Tom Ford, but rather the product of Hanes’ anti-racism, anti-subtleness marketing department. [DNR]

Car-Port Chic: Ksubi, Maison Martin Margiela and Adam Kimmel create couture car covers for Intersection Magazine. [Intersection]

Designs from the Pokey: Germans are buying up prisoner-made clothes. The prisoners, predictably, not so much. [CNN]

Street Talk: Izzy points us in the direction of Times fashion photog Bill Cunningham’s new audio slideshow. [Manolo for the Men]

Vampira Lives: Alabaster exhibitionist Dita Von Teese avoids the sunlight. We’ll share the darkness with her any time. [NY Daily News]

Time Travel: Men’s Vogue cast their eyes forward to the Patek Philippe exhibition at Tiffany & Co, offering us some jaw-dropping preview images. [Men’s Vogue]

Courting the Bro’ Vote: There are conflicting reports about who placed those Abercrombie & Fitch jokers behind Barack Obama at a campaign speech. If, as reported, this was the Obama campaign’s attempt to reach out to young voters, it redefines “going negative” in our opinion. [WWD]

Tomorrow Never Knows: The Moment stares into the future and, as Kempt icon Leonard Cohen says, it’s murder. That, and chairs made of stuffed animals. [The Moment]

Rocky Road: Our Gisele pairs up with Sly Stallone to film a Volkswagen commercial for Brazilian television. We’ve been scratching our heads all day on this one. [NYPost]

Check List: Señor David Coleman takes on the whole plaid-on-plaid mishigas. [NYTimes]

Today, PSFK points us to another web gem. This time it’s a post about pre-experience design. That’s (apparently) what brainy ad folk call your expectation of the product, built up by the various things you’ve heard about it. The shining example is the ubiquitous iPhone ads that made everyone want to be able to turn their phone sideways and “pinch” to zoom. Creating the experience starts before anyone buys an iPhone, the argument goes. If you really want to enjoy that wine, he suggests, you should start by buying an expensive glass.

What all this has to do with style»

Although you might not know it from the copy, advertising is spreading out. It’s not just television and print anymore; it’s viral stunts, sponsorships, naming rights, and product placement. The world is getting more media from more angles and advertising is coming along for the ride. Anything you can do, you can do for advertising. All you have to do is tack a logo on the end.

Given that, we’re happy to see videos like this. We’d never heard of Bowmore before, but they just showed us the perfect way to polish our shoes.

And that has to count for something.

See the video after the jump»

via Dan Mendell/NYT

The Times has an unusually thoughtful piece by Justin Porter today about skateboarding shoes. Because the skateboarders tear up shoes so quickly, Porter says they tend for flashier, more disposable pairs, even if they aren’t much cheaper. That caught our eye as the opposite of workwear, where the need for durability means more rugged materials like denim, canvas and metal come into play.

Another point is that this makes skateboarders ripe for sponsorship—Porter refers to some skaters being “on flow,” meaning they get a steady stream of free shoes from a particular company—but we aren’t sure this makes their shoes more important. If anything, they’re so disposable that the kids don’t mind making them billboards.

And what good is a sponsorship if your shoes are being ripped to shreds?

Celebrity brands are usually pretty dicey, but this one is just plain off-the-wall. Beloved Canadian Dan Aykroyd has emerged as the face of Crystal Skull Vodka, a line of spirits inspired by an obscure archaeological mystery. (It may sound familiar.) The vodka itself is fairly bizarre, the occult mumbo jumbo is surprisingly tangential, and Aykroyd comes off as either completely off his nut or brilliantly deadpan. We prefer our skulls with a little more glitz…but we’ll settle for this.

You can actually buy the vodka (if you need a glass skull for your mantle), but just because it’s real doesn’t mean it’s not a joke. The Ghostbusters 3 timing may be too convenient for us to take all of this at face value, but we won’t complain too loudly.

Hoax or not, it’s the funniest thing Aykroyd has done in a very long time.

See the video»