Implanted Chokers and Bio‑Heels: The Future of Fashion Is Straight‑Up Sci‑Fi
Plus, South Korea’s ‘loner’ culture.
In The Buzz Cut, we give our take on all of the intellectual and Internet-famous, celebrity and bizarre, buzzy and overlooked news we gossiped about all week.
Future Visions: Teleport yourself to 3030, where fictitious fashion designer A. Huxley has put out his latest collection in time for New York Fashion Week. That’s the aim of Simon Huck’s new art installation, ‘A.Human,’ which includes a man buried up to his shoulders in soil, with a ruffled collar made of flesh, an implanted choker that lights up in sync with your heartbeat, and conch shell bio-shoes. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen have worn Huck’s creations on social media, so maybe the future of fashion is closer than we think. In other news, the nominees for the Beazley Designs of the Year, run by London’s Design Museum, include Sony’s Aibo robotic dog, “Fenty Beauty,” Rihanna’s make-up line, and the world’s first plastic-free shopping aisle. A boutique fertility clinic has opened in New York, with plans to offer egg-freezing, IVF, mental health, and nutritional services with a decidedly millennial bent. And the future looks lonely, as photographer Nina Ahn captures a generation of young South Koreans who are embracing ‘loner’ culture.
Family Matters: Slick Woods gave birth not even an hour after walking the runway at Rihanna’a Savage X Fenty lingerie runway show and we are shook. If you don’t know who we’re talking about, here’s a refresher course on her life as a homeless teen turned supermodel, and her views on pregnancy and motherhood. Sociologist, Scott Melzer, talks about his book, Manhood Impossible, and how stay-at-home dads are changing the way we think about masculinity. When mothers who suffer from postpartum psychosis hurt their children, courts are still uncertain about whether we should hold them accountable. Would you get married next to a minefield? Here’s how families in the Ukraine are adapting to life during wartime.
Against The Grain: In the remote hills of Niyamgiri, Odisha, two girls’ from the same tribe take different paths, forecasts the fate of their community. The story twists from accusations of Maoist alliances, greedy corporations attempting to mine the land, and the threat that with mainstream education, cultural knowledge will be lost forever. In the wake of the 377 ruling by the Supreme Court, it’s important to examine the homophobic legacy of colonial rule by the British and countries still struggling with repealing outdated laws and ideas. A 40 year old woman who worked in the legal justice system for most of her professional career, decides to resist authority in a creative way — by becoming a street artist. And in the age of social media, rising populism, and ‘fake news,’ we have to start separating feelings from facts.