Do the Right Thing
Plagiarism Lurks Onto Columbia's Campus
It’s November 2002. Bryan Laulicht, a CC senior, enters the private room he requested at the Sylvan Learning Center in Garden City, NY to take his GRE. Once inside, he places an electronic device onto the computer used for the exam. Outside, in a van parked near the building, sits Sasha Bakhru, a SEAS senior. He is surrounded by $12,000 worth of high-tech equipment, receiving images of test questions on a laptop computer able to receive wireless transmissions. He takes photos with a digital camera of the images as a backup. If everything goes according to plan, both boys…
Neither Fish Nor Fowler
Two years ago, skateboard company and patron of the arts RVCA approached skateboarder Ed Templeton about starting a free glossy arts zine. He consented, but upon the condition that he bring in his friends a collaborators. Templeton brought in
Brendan Fowler and Aaron Rose, friends who had curated together at the influential Lower East Side gallery Alleged. In the early 1990s, the ANP Quarterly, now in its sixth edition, was born. Fowler, who had also practiced as a freelance journalist and conceptual artist, jumped at the chance, but continues to tour with his band Barr. This week,…
[La] Force to be Reckoned With
What’s in a name? A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but it won’t sell as well. James LaForce puts his evocative last name to work as cofounder of the public relations superfirm LaForce + Stevens. After graduating from Columbia’s School of General Studies in 1981, LaForce made his mark in the public relations industry, teaming up with Leslie Stevens in 1995 to found their own boutique agency. Since then, the company has become one of the leading marketing and public relations firms in the industry, bringing a fresh, innovative, and consumer-savvy approach to the brand-building…
All That Glitters Is Gold
Madonna’s “material girl” phase is long gone, but in the Fall 2007 collections, the spirit of diamonds lives on. Sequins, shimmer, and shine adorned the runway, sparkling elegantly on everything from evening gowns to embellished ponchos to extravagant high heels. On Friday, Japanese designer Akiko Ogawa set the standard with her gold glitter platform boots, while Matthew Williamson continued the celebration with a poncho that sparkled in the colors of the rainbow. Max Azria infused his luscious silk dresses with plenty of shine, while always glamorous Badgley Mischka showed a sparkling gold-and-silver cocktail dress. Girly girl Tracy Reese covered…
Sheer Genius
One of fall’s most popular accents came as a sheer surprise, given plunging temperatures and the abundance of fur touches. But sheer overlays, especially atop the neckline, appeared across the spectrum on Fall/Winter 2007 runways from Baby Phat to Carolina Herrera.
London export Matthew Williamson ended his eclectically colored extravaganza with a midnight-black, floor-length dress covered with a sheer, textured overlay. BCBG Max Azria featured a cornflower-blue top draped dramatically over a slate balloon skirt—the look successfully toed the line between seductive and modest. Likewise, up-and-comer Jayson Brunsdon used sheer organza to great effect, extending otherwise coquettish…
Style Profile
Marc Bouwer gives new life to animal power
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is not known for its friendliness to the world of high fashion, what with fur as dominant as ever for the Fall/Winter collections and leather a ubiquitous component in everything from jackets to hand bags.
Since 2002, however, PETA has found its way into the tents at Bryant Park, and not in the form of pie-slinging protestors. 2002 marked the first year that designer Marc Bouwer debuted a collection entirely free of animal products, and his ideological commitment to cruelty-free clothing holds strong in his Fall 2007 collection, where his…
High Fashion
Brooklyn designer H. Fredriksson recontours the silhouette
Inside Helena Fredriksson’s sprawling Williamsburg loft, canvases silk-screened with butterflies lean against the walls of her studio. A cutting board tips precariously off the edge of a table. Unsurprisingly, Fredriksson does most of her cutting here.
“I think that’s something that sets me apart [from other designers], she says. “… Just the fact that I do it from step one to step 10, from the shooting to assembling it. I’m very attached to the concept.”
For Fredriksson’s first show, she had 16 looks and “did every single garment” herself. There is none of that corporate…
Letter from Baghdad - Dispatch # 5
Dec. 19, 2006
The sectarian violence has been somewhat less spectacular since the much-publicized attack in Sadr City some weeks ago, but it is persistent nonetheless and colors everything that happens in the city. I can’t claim to have studied war and warfare enough to be able to pronounce one way or the other whether Iraq is in the midst of a civil war, even if I had every single bit of evidence that might support one argument or the other. To the extent that the happenings of the country are shaped by—and shape in turn—the violence…
ChoTime
Downtown Darling Ben Cho Goes Minimalist
The name Benjamin Cho has perhaps become synonymous with “downtown” in the world of fashion. After all, the 29-year-old Parsons drop-out is not only the designer who The Misshapes and Chloe Sevigny love to support, but is also the DJ who hosts his own Sunday night party at Sway, manning the booth to a slew of Morrissey songs and hits by The Smiths.
So it’s somewhat interesting that Cho thinks his designs, rather than belonging on hipsters with asymmetrical haircuts, are really for “rich uptown women.”
Certainly, whereas Cho’s Spring ’07 collection featured big, elaborate…
Jovovich-Hawk
Design Duo Make a Model Pair
“Feel good, look great, feel bad, look great” is the motto of designers Milla Jovovich and Carmen Hawk, whose joint fashion label, Jovovich-Hawk, has been “looking great” since its launch in 2003.
The designer duo’s Fall 2007 collection came alive at the luxurious Bryant Park Hotel. Staged in a series of theatrical scenes, the models transformed into characters in a series of intricately-designed sets.
As spectators strolled from scene to scene, Milla Jovovich and Carmen Hawk mingled among them.
“Our collection was very much inspired by [Kenneth Anger’s short film] Puce Moment,” Jovovich…
Pretty Women
It has been noted that in times of instability, be it economic, political, or otherwise, designers err on the side of conservative dressing—we find safety by covering up. Whether that is true or not, the clothes speak for themselves.
It started with the glove-shaped invitations Betsey Johnson sent out for her School of Charm show, where the audience sat at four-person round tables and drank tea. Jill Stuart and Tracy Reese came out with black patent leather opera-length gloves. Similarly, Jayson Brunsdon chose silk and satin gloves studded with Swarvoski crystals for his classy collection. And Ralph…
Letter From the Editor—021507
For the week of Feb. 4-9, The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that Iraq Policy occupied 12 percent of the television news reporting; events in Iraq took 10 percent; Anna Nicole Smith, the force of a nation behind her, had 9 percent. Anna Nicole Smith died Feb. 8, leaving her less than two days to ratchet up ratings.
Within hours, an anonymous vandal edited Smith’s Wikipedia entry. Viewers called into CNN to protest the station’s continued coverage of the event. A patrimony suit ensued, involving her longtime partner, Howard Stern, her ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, the cryogenically…
Columbia’s 10 Worst Alumni EVER
Vote for the worst alum: E-mail or answer the poll here!
Pat Buchanan
School of Journalism ’62
An insane conservative commentator, Buchanan first made his name as an adviser to President Nixon. He tried to convince him to burn the White House tapes, but apparently wasn’t very persuasive. He has run for president three times and has always failed horrendously, perhaps because he wants to abolish the Department of Education. He famously hates immigrants, gays who want basic human rights, and for some reason, Martin Luther King Jr. During his 1996 presidential campaign, he actually carried around a pitchfork.
Martha Stewart
Barnard…
Crimes at the Café
Cheap students find it easy to pickpocket paninis
It’s Tuesday at noon and you’ve got 15 minutes to make it to your class on time. You’re starving, though, and you know that you won’t be able to focus unless you get a delicious Twister panini from Café 212. You get there right at peak rush hour; the queue for sandwiches extends all the way to the bathrooms and this is your last opportunity to grab something to eat for the day. Now that you’ve waited 15 minutes, the hot sandwich is in your hands and you’re ready to bolt out the door to Hamilton. The problem? The…
Higher Education
Professor Hart’s Drugs and Behavior course explores the academic appeal of drugs
With a Rastafarian poster of Bob Marley on the wall of his office, Carl Hart sits back and enjoys teaching one of the most popular classes semester after semester: Drugs and Behavior.
But Hart is humble about being so popular. “I think that drugs is a topic in which a lot of people are just interested in,” he says. “Kids are exposed to a lot of press about it and now they want the opportunity to academically pursue the topic.”
Unlike the potential psychology majors he now teaches, Hart did not begin his career with…