Kanye West’s part time girlfriend, Amber Rose, has a lesbian stripper past and shaved head, so naturally, she says the gossip blogs often refer to her as a “fucking bisexual, dyke, freak, whatever the fuck” in an online interview with Complex. The model also explains that she’s “open” with her sexuality, but does draw a line: “I can be in love with a woman, I can be in love with a man. I’m not into bestiality…” |Complex|
LA-based illustrator and billboard vandal, AUGOR, is featured on the cover of Complex magazine’s “5th Annual Style & Design Issue.” Well, his art is. He even managed to make newbie rapper Kid Cudi look somewhat legitimate with his gooey renditions. But getting there wasn’t that easy as you can see from some of the preliminary sketches. Check out the behind the scenes illustrations (Part 1,2,3) and jump for two of our favorites, both of which don’t include Marc Ecko’s hex. Read more »
In addition to their regular showcase of slender women, Playboy is also revealing their slimmed down editorial budget. Their newest issue features an Olivia Munn cover shot that looks like it was ripped straight out of Complex’s February/March issue with the Attack of the Show host. It’s just the latest in Playboy’s attempt to transform into Marc Ecko’s barely relevant pop-cultural footwear mag, following the soft porn publication’s overly forced “Hot Chicks, Cool Kicks” spread and snatching Aubrey O’Day for a less blatant cover girl copy.
Still stinging from the Complex Photoshop debacle, Kim Kardashian continues to flaunt her natural curviness to any one interested. This week Life& Style magazine becomes the lucky rag to showcase Kim’s bulging bottom half on its cover. Of course, Kim embraces the fact that she’s become the martyr for all non-stick figure celebrities everywhere:
“If there’s a picture that’s not perfect, where I have cellulite, then people say I’m big. I’m built a certain way, and you just can’t change the way you’re built.”
But on her blog, dated April 20th, she also still maintains that she’s a size 2. If she really wanted to be 100% honest, she should just admit to L&S readers, Fat Mommy America, that the only thing on her that’s a size 2 are her ankles.
After yesterday’s cruel unveiling of her pre-altered, not-so-skinny lower half, Kim Kardashian quickly went into Operation Save Face mode. She conceded to having some of the jiggly lopped off via Photoshop, but, she says, what celebrity doesn’t? Fair enough. Kim also claims she’s proud of her curvy figure and hopes this incident shows the world (the kids!) that even do-nothing pseudo-celebrities like herself can be both physically deformed plus mentally deficient and still end up on the cover of a magazine.
In the new issue of Vapors, a D-list skater/t-shirt/music publication, you’ll find a letter from editor-in-chief PJ Canale telling his readers that Vapors isn’t Complex magazine. Canale stresses that “Complex is exactly that, a complex of editors, designers, ad sales, marketing, advertorials—they have freakin’ teams for everything. At Vapors, I’m the editor, staff writer, photo editor, lifestyle and product editor, online editor, budge director, part-time art director, producer of photo shoots, blogger and more…” Truthfully, the comparison isn’t far off. Vapors is like a baby-Complex only with pick-up art, much cheaper ads, and market pages that look like they printed Hypebeast.
How quickly they all forget. One of the many problems with the frequency of online communications is that it seems to cloud everyone’s ability to recollect. The “It’s here today, gone tomorrow” mentality has led to an often hazy collective memory of what’s been done before. Case in point, the new Complex features the former vandal turned very legal artist KAWS aka Brian Donnelly’s art on the cover and in several spreads. Just a couple months earlier—June to be exact—iD released their issue which also included the designer’s signature illustrations on the cover and in key spreads as the Snobs rightfully note—including a rapper in sunglasses with XX’s on the lenses. But long before the iD cover there was the work he did for French fashion magazine Jalouse in ‘07. Now to be fair, from what we’ve heard, Complex technically had KAWS come in and do his thing before iD dropped—but he must have failed to mention that he’s engaged in a similar project with another mag. So the question is, who’s to blame: lazy editors or lazy artist?
You’ve heard about the water into wine, but how about Sunkist into water? Complex’s art department pulled off a modern day miracle, transforming the sugary orange liquid into H2O in this image from a photo shoot featuring Battlestar Gallactica geek girl Grace Park (she’s on the cover of their June/July issue). If it were a can of Sprite, 7Up, or even Sierra Mist they could have pulled it off. Plus, orange stained model face is hot. Unfortunately, what might appear to be an innocent enough mistake on the editorial side, can create big headaches on the publishing one. After all, how can ad reps send this almost perfectly product placed photo to brand managers when it’s not the actual product being poured? Awkward!
Editor-in-Chief:
Bucky Turco
Contributors:
Copyranter
Kari Ferrell
Marina Galperina
Website design:
Michael Ian Weinfeld
