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A blog dedicated to the interesting, scandalous, useful and cutting edge in the world of men’s style, fashion and grooming.
Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.
The trademark leer, the thumbs up, her rather addled expression - we have to ask: is the prince of pervy photogs getting his hooks into Top Chef temptress Padma Lakshmi? We spotted the unlikely pair looking cozy at Interview magazine’s party celebrating the soon-to-be-extinct Polaroid at Delicatessen the other night.
We’ve always said you’d miss analog when it’s gone, but we didn’t expect things to go this far.
Now that the down-and-dirty look of the Polaroid has gone the way of the dinosaur, we’re scrambling to get it back. Poladroid is a program that takes digital camera images and adds a touch of blurring, that familiar light green tint, and ends up with something that looks like it was printed from a handheld camera and shaken impatiently until it developed. Just like grandma used to make!
The only thing better would be if they started making actual Polaroids again.
Polaroid may not be making old-school film anymore, but at least they know how great it was while it lasted.
Their CES booth included a genuinely wistful look back at the company’s past, including these pitch-perfect plastic models. (Our favorite was the 60s relic the “Polaroid Swinger.”) Nothing against their current line—which included a portable photo printer—but there wasn’t anything you could shake…
Oh well…there’s always eBay.
Summer Days: Matt Schwartz makes us miss Polaroid all over again. [Refinery29]
It’s in the Air: Smellable chocolate…somehow we don’t see this catching on. [NotCot]
Going Grey: In anticipation of HBO’s Grey Gardens miniseries, New York Magazine just posted their brilliant 70s piece on the East Hampton estate. It’s some of the best stuff they’ve ever published. [NYMag]
Red, White and Denim: George Will thinks blue jeans are weakening our national resolve. That’s funny; we thought it was bowties.[Wonkette]
Now that it’s fallen out of production, the Polaroid snap is getting perilously close to being an icon. Of course, having a few artists on the case doesn’t hurt.
She Hit Pause specializes in grungy, Richardson-esque polaroids that get dismantled and transferred onto watercolor paper for an extra bit of texture. His most recent success was landing a few pieces in New York’s recently opened Ace Hotel, where we’re guessing a bit of blurry stocking would fit right in.
Go Jump in the Lake: Nothing like a warm day and a swimwear collection. [FreshnessMag]
Shepard Fairey has a Posse: Mr. Obey gets a softly glowing writeup from the art press. [ArtNet]
Continuing to Shake It: The hunt for a cheaper Polaroid is on. We’ll save this medium yet! [NYTimes]
Give ‘em the Boot: Another day, another good pair of work boots. [CoolHunting]
Photo via Eric TrineIn a heartening bit of news for retro gadget fans, Polaroid has announced they’ll resume production of instant film and the iconic one-step camera. We’re not sure what brought on the year-long production stutterstep, but we imagine the wave of nostalgia-driven art and digital filters made them realize they were giving up a pretty good thing. Not everyone wants their photos on Facebook…
Polaroid devotees tend to be a pretty crafty lot, and it looks like all that tinkering finally paid off. The Austrian experimentalists at Polar Premium just released a limited edition set of film called Fade to Black that does a whole lot more than the average strip of film. Over the 24 hours after exposure, it, well, fades to black.
There’s an extra chemical cocktail alongside the usual film, so it cycles through a series of increasingly dark exposures after you take it, before eventually blacking out entirely. It’s a pretty smart trick for a camera that’s ephemeral to begin with, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the resulting snaps got a lot more attention than otherwise. The lesson is something like “live in the moment”—or at least 24 hours at a time.
Of course, if you’re particularly attached to the snap, there are a few tricks you can use to stop the march of time…but where’s the fun in that?
