The Radiant Child

Earlier this week, the flim Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, was released in its enterity. The flim, directed by Basquiat's friend Tamra Davis, features unbefore seen footage of the prolific artist and troubled child taken by Davis just s few years before the artist's passing.

While in Miami last December taking in the sights and sounds of  Art Basel Miami Beach, I was able to attend a free preview of this film. Davis and several of Basqiuat's close friends shared their stories of his work and Basquiat the man. The entire thing was moving in a way that only people from that time in New York can move you. They painted a picture of the dirty underworld as a glamorous think tank for writers, artists, musicians and any other creative life force. From this dirty, dark, glamorous world Jean -Michel Basquiat rose to take street art from the sides of buildings to canvas to the world and was ultimately re-claimed by it.

The flim isn't really the stereotypical artist's bio filled with sex, drugs, drinking and genius. It does contain all those things but more importantly it is a snapshot of a man by the people who knew him best.

In all honesty cleaning up the film that I saw would be inconsistent with Basquiat's work and image, then again I kinda have a thing for rough edges.

"build a fort, set it on fire" - Jean-Michel Basquiat

The Glamorous Life: Madonna for Dolce Gabbana part deux

This article originally appeared on MissOmniMedia.com and all images and words are property of that publication. To view the post in its original format go to MissOmniMedia.com.

About a month ago we showed you the first images from the new Dolce and Gabbana ad campaign starring Madonna as an old school Italian domestic goddess. Now a second batch of images from the campaign have surfaced showing the icon channeling La Dolce Vita while doing more mundane tasks such as applying her own makeup and sweeping. While the clothing is less than impressive, the images of Madonna are striking. My fave has to be the one of her sitting in reverence holding a napkin, it looks just like a scene from her video for Like A Prayer, which she recently performed during the Hope for Haiti Now telethon . Classic

Jean Paul Gaultier for Target

This article originally appeared on Examiner.com. To view this article in its original format please go to that site.

I'm sure you have all gotten a glimpse of Jean Paul Gaultier for Target's lookbook. Target has decided to re-release images from the lookbook, due to the previous ones being a bit small. Now you can get a better look at the clothes and decide if you'll be one of the ladies in line on March 7th patiently waiting for your local store to open, so that you can be one of the first on your block to sport a look from the capsule collection...Read the rest of this article at examiner.com

Caren West talks Kell on Earth

This piece originaly appeared on Examiner.com. To view it in its enterity please go to that website.

Last Monday night Bravo gave every fashion and pr girl from here to L.A. yet another reason to set their DVRs with the premier of Kell on Earth, a show chronicling the life and times of the guys and gals at People’s Revolution and their mama wolf Kelly Cutrone. Although Atlanta’s pr girls don’t have to worry about seating Vogue’s editors too close to Harper’s, they do have face the same pressures and demands from their clients whether they be America’s only couturier or the coolest husband and wife jewelry line to hit the scene....Read the entire article here.

Kelly Cutrone: Publicist Turned Reality Star/Author?

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Long before she made a cameo on The Hills or was fired by Yigal Azrouël for seating hooker with a heart of gold Ashley Dupré front row at his show during fashion week, I was borderline obsessed with Kelly Cutrone. Her no-nonsense attitude, impressive list of clients and the fact that People’s Revolution holds a record for most fashion shows produced on September 11, 2002 is one of the main reasons I began dabbling in PR in the first place. So it comes as no surprise that I was a bit excited when I heard that she was finally getting her own reality show and dropping her first book all in one month.

This single mother turned authoress, didn’t miss a beat while filming two reality shows, prepping for fashion week, and writing her self help book, “If You Have to Cry Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You”, this past summer. According to Cutrone the book deals with what it means to be feminine and reaches out to young women giving them advice served up in her usual shoot from the hip tone. With chapters like “A Bitch is Not a Bad Word” and “It’s Not a Break Down, It’s a Breakthrough”, the book could either be fun and filled with witty advice or overly cliché but a best seller because its author happens to be a brilliant publicist. While I may be on the fence about her ability to translate her pearls of wisdom into an awesome tome, I am more than confident her reality show will be one to watch.

After being fed bits of Cutrone’s straight talk and love of the color black via cameos on MTV’s The Hills and The City, the channel responsible for bringing Rachel Zoe and Brad to the masses, is now bringing People’s Rev and fashion PR to the forefront. On the plus side I know Kelly and her staff are way cooler than Taylor and Brad which will make for beyond interesting TV. In addition, 70 percent of her clients have agreed to appear on the show, meaning we actually get to see Jeremy Scott come in the office instead of listening to one side of a conversation with him. The down side is, the promotion of fashion public relations will make it twice as hard for me to find a j-o-b, but I digress.

When asked by WWD if she was planning on moving away from the PR biz to focus on her own personal brand Cutrone had this to say…

“P.r. is what I know how to do to make money and it’s what I’m really good at, I think it’s a natural thing to say, ‘Oh, OK. Well, now Kelly Cutrone has to leave p.r., but that would be an old model and I’m not really interested in old models….Do I want to stick around when I’m making a fortune writing books and producing television, taking s–t from a designer who pays $6,000 a month who doesn’t want to pay their bills for three months? No. Does being on TV and writing books give me the freedom to kick their asses out of my office before they f–k me over? Yeah. That’s the reality”

Well said.

Kell On Earth premiers on Bravo on Feb 1 and “If You Have to Cry Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You” hits your local bookstores on Feb 2.

Husband and wife jewelry designers make one of a kind pieces affordable

This piece was originally written for and appears on Examiner.com. To view the piece in its enterity click here.

Finding one of a kind jewelry that can be worn everyday of the week without having to refinance your house can be a daunting task. What isn’t costly, is usually cheap not chic and can easily be found in any mall across the country. Enter Limón Verde, an online jewelry boutique based in Atlanta that specializes in unique, handcrafted pieces that are both original and affordable. The designs, which are both classic and contemporary, reveal not only the steady hand that produced them but a delicate beauty that has been pushed aside due to the bold looks stomping down the runways as of late...

Paper-Cut Project: Sharp edged hats

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Back in elementary school, paper hats consisted of newspaper folded into a somewhat triangular shape that could barely make it through recess. Now Atlanta based pair style writer Amy Flurry and artist Nikki Salk, have elevated the childhood joy of creating with paper to incredible new heights. The ladies took to designing the impressive paper headpieces as therapy for a difficult year, and were convinced that the fashion community would be eager to join in on their paper play. As a glaring confirmation, Paper-Cut Project has several wigs and hats currently on display at Jeffery New York and Atlanta where the works of art are quietly upstaging the designer duds. Suddenly our inner third grader is wishing they weren't forced to give up on making those three cornered hats, then again our inner third grader could only dream of coming close to anything this amazing....