Fashionista

How to Make It in Fashion: June 21, Dream Hotel Downtown, New York

Monday October 25th, 2010

The Revenge of the Smallest: How Crush Fanzine Bucks the Publishing Trends
Magazines

The Revenge of the Smallest: How Crush Fanzine Bucks the Publishing Trends

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

The images projected onto a tan brick wall on the back of New York’s 48th Street Holiday Inn showed a blond guy wearing a dark blue cotton jumpsuit, mopping the floor of what seemed like a manufacturing building. It wasn’t a preview for a new movie release. It was surely not a commercial for the latest detergent or all-powerful mops.

Instead, it was a screening of the short film “Romance Language” by Jarrah Gurrie. The movie centers around an encounter between a blue collar office cleaner and his female counterpart during a late night work shift. Without exchanging any words due to language differences, he shares his meals with her.

The blond guy playing the cleaner is model Travis Lee Hanson. And the people gather on the roof watching him were there to celebrate Crush Fanzine’s Obsession # 5: Travis Lee Hanson.

Unlike any other publication, CrushFanzine’s entire issue–there have been five thus far–focuses on one subject. Travis is the newest topic; others have included actress Charlotte Rampling and model Arthur (who starred in the first issue.) It’s not about fashion as in: “a report on what’s new this season.” It’s about fashion as it’s seen through the eyes of an individual. Above all, it’s about the pleasure and the enjoyment a print product can have on its readers.

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Published at 7:00 PM

Thursday September 2nd, 2010

XXL: How BBW Became Fashion’s Latest Prey
Commentary

XXL: How BBW Became Fashion’s Latest Prey

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

“Life in the Fat Lane,” the third chapter of media studies professor Laura Kipnis’ 1996 book Bound and Gagged, juxtaposed the dilemma of fat fetish pornography and how popular culture confront the issue of fat and desire. On one hand, obese porn, a niche in the vast porn business, is an absolute revolt against the dictatorial and incessant aesthetic of thinness. On the other, the images of these chubby women–often 44-35-44–entice desires that contradict and challenge prevailing cultural norms.

Yet over the past decade, the fat porn market has grown tremendously as acceptance of full size women becomes the norm. At least in the porn industry. Once a province of cheap production titles, big studios have been producing lavish titles with more budgets. The advance of web technology has allowed better quality for those choosing to self-published. Even the nomenclature has changed–the category is now called BBW or Big Beautiful Women. Hardly anyone ever mentions “fat porn” in an age where the “deviant” bodies of April Flores, Karla Lane, Kelly Shibari and Bonnie de la Cruz–some of the industry’s stars–are becoming household names.

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Published at 4:30 PM