Hot in the City? Wear a White Dress for Global Cooling #NYC

The Canary project, an art platform for global warming awareness and citizen solutions from NYC pointed me towards a project they organised in 2007 but which is still very relevant with the heat in Europe & rest of the world these days. The 'Raise your Albedo' project chose one of NYC's literally hottest fashion districts (the Meatpack) to raise awareness by hanging 550 fancy white shirts as a cloud on West 12th street:

The number, 550, is the amount of carbon parts per million projected in the atmosphere by 2050. These shirts were then cut and torn and well assembled into cute dresses by Annie Murdock:The rest of the 'Raise your Albedo' campaign consisted of the Albedo pilgrims to go out in white dresses and encourage people to do the same: Albedo is a measure of the earth's reflectivity, so the more white we wear, even as the tiny individuals we are, the higher the city's reflectivity.
IMHO, the coolest climate campaign I've ever seen. These dog days ask for reflective cool white dresses, so it would be great of this project received follow-up in Brussels, Paris or London. At least, everyone can start wearing white, so that we don't have to start filling the atmosphere with weird chalk layers for reflection, like some greenfingers suggest. Do it, and if that's not enough for you, go here.

Why the Sony VAIO P series Lifestyle PC is this season's #1 Fashion Accessory

Disclaimer: Welcome to my post with visual cues about why I want/need/deserve to win the Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC. I know lay-out is not my greatest talent, hence I really should get that Multimedia suite sooner rather than later!Being a geeky fashion-loving criminal, my serotonin level went through the roof as I saw this new beauty in the land of mini portable wonders: the Sony VAIO VGN-P21Z ! Heck, it even bears my initials (VGN)!

It was presented at BGGD13 where it got the same reactions (sqeals of happiness) as when you would place a group of teen boys in the Playboy Mansion. right.
This time, nevertheless, the white bunny out of Sony's hat was a geeky and sexy one.
Because the beautiful people at Sony Europe are giving one baby away to a Brussels girl geek (yes! although 999€ isn't much more than the prize of a new handbag, right), here comes my attempt to prove why this Brussels' fashion chick needs to be reunited with thé most stylish object in Geekworld:

- It fits puuurrfectly in my white Chanel purse, next to my credit card and train tickets. because: good things come in small sizes. Although I might have to get the see-through Special Edition Delvaux bag, because the white Vaio baby needs attention. but maybe not where I live, since I am a Brusssels Girl Geek, aaight. Ooh, and I can't believe i'm actually thinking this: i'd rather have this baby than a Hermès Birkin bag. woosshh. who would e-ver have thought?

- as an independent journalist, the time I save by opening a Vaio instead of messing around with a smartphone, will be used for better articles, better images, better typewriting and better quality of life!

- being small and energy efficient I'm sure this baby will get a top score for green sustainability!Which means love of the green girl geek!!

- good pitches and inspiration for new stories, or even my long-time dream to write for WIRED, will now no longer have to wait in a scrapbook. because inspiration doesn't (always) follow you to the computer.

- always on the road, always travelling, the built-in GPS system will get me faster to the right place! which means, more friends, more drinks, more music, more work and less time spent on navigating the wrong area . So bear with me, friends in London, Orlando, Toulouse, LA, Zagreb: next time round I'll be quicker!

- for medical reasons, I sometimes have to upload data to my doc, well, this will work in realtime now, wherever I roam! Just like a real cyborg..doc, better watch out for Molly Millions!- it does have two USB ports for when I forget documents and for whatever device I need to plug-in (often cameras, audio recorders or my golden hard drives), so i won't come across problems like these

- because fashion weeks and mags, TED conferences, Kate moss' latest campaigns, IT news stories, my friend's latest mix on the radio, interview deadlines, DAA-H&M collaborations, new designer fairs, gig dates, demanding editors, stocksales and caring family members, all need their devotion at different times of the day, this girl'd be very happy to get it all sorted in one smooth mode and WITH a keyboard! not to mention the love that will be spread and returned!

Subliminal message: send this post to ten of your friends; repost it on Twitter, FB, digg, or whatever it is you like. Do comment! It will bring good white karma to you and those you care for.

Big Love from the Whitest Bunny of the Brussels Girl Geeks,Baby Kai.

From the (g) round-up!

Here's some news I gathered, from the ground up, as you know me, in a random order:
to prove the world that, ehm, well:

"Pink is not enough": Finally, a well written piece on a subject many women must have been irritated by since, well, ever since the advent of 'Female' mobile phones. So, shrink and pink an item is not enough. making it oversimplified without any advanced options isn't very appreciative of your customer. Funny thing is, that ditching touch screens (for long fingernails), iPhone apps for menstrual cycles and grocery/ recipe todo lists on the iPhone, are described as things that 'real women' can use. I guess this means this geek girl is not a real woman and I guess I'll wait to develop my own apps on Android to measure things (heartrate, blood pressure, bank account) that are more important for me.

Geek present: My friend Aure Uzi Ohn blogged for Elle about the latest geek present, the golden ring representing the processor of the 1981 Atari video console. It is designed by Brooklyn-based artist Sakurako Shimisu

Bicyclists: Cycling, something that used to be an emancipated act, nowadays, in Brussels at least, is more like an SM act of enslavement to trucks, and a death wish. On an international level, however, cities full of eco hipsters are trodden with cyclists, like Agyness Deyn in London, Duffy in LA, and Cycle Chic blogs popping out on the net everywhere.
With the failure of Brussels' shared bikes project, Brussels is now, ironically, hosting the worldwide conference on "Re-cycling the city" (Velocity, coming May) and will release a new system that adheres more to the one in Paris, where Parisiennes, even the most elegant, all cycle around. So, why am i writing about this? because the BBL, is looking for cycling fashionable ladies that could write some blogposts or post pictures for the Brussels Cycle Chic blog. I would love to, unfortunately, my great bike, has no place to stand anywhere in brussels so I can't join...

Courtney and Kurt: did anyone notice, after years and years (it started in 2003) of 80ies fashion and music recycling we have finally arrived at a 90ies revival? This makes me feel quite old, but I do understand the nostalgia now that people have towards 60s-70s-80s: so much awesome stuff. The best style from the nineties (hey, I was a teen then) is of course grunge. and sometimes, it resembles nerd/geek style (think: checked lumberjack shirts). i guess the common element is carelessness: not shaving, growing your hair, wearing old and baggy clothes was just as cool as it was uncool. and we didn't need 80s hysteric No Future- punk nor goth parades.


Here we are now, entertain us: Green My Style is selling the vegan eco version of Kurt's famous flannel checked shirt

HRP 4C: the android robot swaying the catwalk?

This sweet HRP-4C, the Japanese robo-model, is still quite far off from being commercialized for catwalk objectives (think: she costs 200 000 dollars and still doesn't walk quite nicely), BUT she can walk, talk, wink and smile the way she is programmed to. It looks like the nineties supermodel diva's have so severely traumatised and obsessed designers (with their catfights, hysteria and smooth bodies) that this is a 'solution' to both: no more pet peeves and demands from the models, and still have the crazily "perfect" smooth body (FYI this robot would weigh 45 kilos as a human being, now that's what I call sci-fi for an adult woman)...it makes me ponder: shouldn't these people focus on stuff like this:

Tears for Fears

I wasn't planning on blogging on any fashion week at all,
but this tickled my pen.
Why Auguste Abeliunate might have been crying on the Jil Sander runway:
1. She obviously wasn't, according to Jil sander press reps
2. Allergies from the over-the top make up (notice the specific nude look, then!)
3. She got a phone call from Lithuania reporting on a family member's death or illness, and wished she could have been present in real life.
4. A colleague just broke her wrist backstage 'by accident'
5. A dresser just told her she'd never make it because of an obvious non-reason like, eh, 0,01 inch on her hips
6. her agent called to stress her out about her workVISA
7. her boyfriend just left her (hello, models are people, too)
8. PMS. enough said.
9. Someone doubledared her.
10. An internal person at JS ordered her to, as a secret promotion stunt. or an outsider, to spoil the show. we'll never know.

Why, with these exhausting fashion weeks, and so many women strutting up and down the runway,14hrs a day, whilst living out of their bags, how come this is the first time we see a model cry? and why do we single this out as something so sensational? why deny she was crying?

Just to say, that I love all the girls working their asses off, literally.
And also those that don't win all the castings or have to go back home after an anticlimax.
They are all real people with feelings, no matter how divine or otherwordly they might look.
stop bitching.

Addicts All over the World

A newborn Addict publication, the 'Labfiles', will appear bimonthly, giving you updates of the Labbies' activities in between the paper-copy Addict magazines. Part of the complete web evolution the Lab is going through, it's well worth the free download: check Lucy and Bart's dripping juices on p 12-13 or Belgian's SOKI Label with the purest of white forms on p.8-9. Keep checking out the Labfiles on a bi-monthly basis, as they'll bring you closer to a vibrant world of young creative people, weaving the threads of their passions into multilayered, -faceted and -coloured designs and forms.

Who said models didn't (r)ead

They may be lazing about, goofing around or work hard, models do read sometimes. Be it in a slightly 'posy' position with a book renowned for its lesson that the narcissistic struggle for beauty and youth is in vain, and that decadent dandyism and hedonism lead to debauchery.

Funny.

Picture taken from Models.com: NY fashion week.