RIP Vice

On Friday, it was announced that media publication Vice would stop updating its website and lay off hundreds of workers by March 1st.  I can't exactly say that I'm surprised because Vice has been dealing with financial issues for a while (their content isn't exactly advertiser-friendly), but I still find the whole situation to be really dystopic for a lack of better words.  

Within the coming weeks, literal decades of reporting on style, fashion, niche subcultures, politics, niche African warlords, and obscure drugs may vanish forever, all because a few greedy tech bros want to increase their profits.  And I know people will say "good riddance," because, yeah, some of their articles were genuinely dumb.  But how many news organizations were really sending scrawny Brooklyn hipsters to report on cannibal warlords and drug cartels on location?  Where else could you watch Daria Morgendorffer’s long-lost Twink brother drug himself on toad venom in the name of journalism?  There was no one really doing it like Vice.  And even if you think hipster culture is annoying (like I do), you can't deny the impact it's had on our culture, which is why it's important to preserve institutions like Vice.

Anyways.  The site is still up for now, so I've spent most of the weekend combing through articles and editorials to save as many things to the web archive as I can.  Sadly, many of the articles already are full of broken links and lost images, which is a real shame, but at least we can preserve what is still left.      

 

exploring blog archives: frozenfleur, february-april 2013

Typically I try to focus on blogs during the height of the blogging era, but I couldn't resist sharing a few image round-ups created by frozenfleur on Wordpress.  I wasn't able to find out a lot about this blogger (other that she's based in Hungary), she definitely had a very frilly, proto-coquette aesthetic that I feel would resonate among today's girlbloggers.  Sadly, many of her posts are marred by Photobucket watermarks, but I was able to recover most of the original photos thanks to tineye: 

Feb 12th 2013: Daydreaming

flickr finds: sophieparade, 2008-2011

It's not Friday without a flickr round-up, right?  Here are some quintessential late 2000's and early '10s snaps from NYC and Philly based photography Sophie Samuel: 

where you even a late 2000's hipster if you didn't wear a culturally insensitive headdress at one point?

love bites: wildfox couture fall 2009

Usually I'm not one to celebrate Valentine's Day, but I couldn't' resist the urge to share one of my favorite Wildfox Couture lookbooks, "Love Bites."  Shot by Emir Eralp and modeled by Hailey Clauson for their fall 2009 collection, it's full of sleaze-y flash photography and seductive LA cool girl vibes that are perfect for the day of so-called love (the vampire fang/smudged red lip combo is sooooo good).  See the full lookbook below: 

lazy oaf winter 2013 campaign, photographed by viktor vauthier

it's hard to overstate photographer viktor vauthier's influencer on the internet (his photos are plastered on every grunge blogger's archive), and bloghousearrest is long overdue for a post featuring his work.  this week, I'm getting around to sharing these photos he took of anja konstantinova for lazy oaf's winter 2013 campaign.  They're very tumblr-y and have that "can't you tell by my slightly messy eye makeup and perfectly disheveled hair that I'm an edgy punk rocker chic" vibe that a lot of "grunge" editorials have.  That always puts a bad taste in my mouth (fast fashion is one of the least punk things I can think of), but since I'm a fan of viktor's work, I'll let it slide: