Lead researcher Omri Gillath showed 63 students photographs of 208 pairs of shoes that belonged to volunteers. The students were then told to guess all sorts of things about the shoe owner, including age, gender, political affiliation, social status and emotional stability. And the researchers found the students nailed it most of the time. Participants accurately guessed about 90 percent of the owners' personal information.
"Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal cues with symbolic messages. People tend to pay attention to the shoes they and others wear," the researchers wrote. The only thing I know that my scuffed up shoes say about me is that I could really use the services of Andy Dwyer.
The West 18th Street Fashion Show packed the streets Saturday night, bringing "A Summer in Spain" to the Crossroads. Pitch photographer Angela C. Bond shot the steamy affair that included lots and lots of hair fashioned into horns. Click the photo to relive the night.
Remember doodling on your shoes in school? How cool would it be to have your doodles mass-produced? Kansas City's own Peggy Noland has that answer. She was recently tapped by Keds to crank out designs for their footwear in her signature, goofball style.
A pair of those bad boys at right will set you back $80. The green feet and pink toenails are a shout-out to the most recent incarnation of Noland's teensy storefront on West 18th Street, decorated with 3-D, witchy fingers carved out of hard foam.
Break out the cubes of cheese and dodge the Naomi Campbell-propelled cell phones: It's New York Fashion Week, Kansas City! It's high holiday for those of us who care way more about hemlines than linemen.
Despite all the preening and superficiality associated with fashion, the industry is candidly grappling with issues of race and racism. It seemed that with all the race talk, the industry was taking steps to bring a few more shades of beauty to its pages and catwalks. Even local women's mag HerLife had a black cover model in its August 2010 issue.
So with all this in mind, I was a little taken aback by Standard Style's largely lily white Spring/Summer 2010 fashion magazine.
Does rooting for KC's professional sports teams make us gluttons for punishment? Hell no. Being a die-hard fan of the home team is a beautiful thing. Which is why we're so taken with this tee, designed by a mysterious design squad called the Loyal Locals and available on the Formula Werks online store.
Let me begin by saying that I know pro-sports jerseys are expensive. But this gentleman in the Jared Allen jersey, who was spotted
last Saturday night at the Riot
Room in Westport, exemplifies classic,
lazy-dude non-style.
Did you miss out on meeting Ginuwine, checking out the hair show and seeing models strut the runway at last night's Arabian Nights Under the Stars event at The Jones? Sorry -- for that, you had to be there. (My favorite part: the MC's live updates of the Lakers/Celtics score.)
If you want to know who you'd have been rubbing elbows with, we can help you out with this slideshow (<--Click the link to ride this pony).
Of all the West 18th Street Fashion Show designers I've met thus far, Nataliya Meyer has come the farthest -- literally. Meyer is 27, and she moved here from her native Ukraine seven years ago.
Meyer is a fun conversationalist, not only because of her accent but because her thoughts spill out in such an unselfconscious manner.
"I love history, so I love making corsets, but I'm trying not to get stuck on corsets," she says. "Girls are so taken by it. I try to feed them what they want."
Meyer has been drawing clothing designs since she was a child and her mother occupied her with a pencil and paper.
"We are from a very poor background, but do not feel sorry for me," Meyer says sternly. "I am where I want to be today."
I, for one, cannot wait to see the out-of-this-world headdresses dreamed up by Kansas City Art Institute junior Maegan Stracy at the West 18th Street Fashion Show this Saturday.
Stracy, an Overland Park native, is 19 years old -- the youngest designer to have her work featured on the runway at this year's show.
Peregrine Honig, one of the busy bees of West 18th Street, is among the 14 people -- Bravo calls them "aspiring artists" -- competing on the cable network's new reality show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
Which is funny, considering Honig is already an artist, and a very established one at that: she is the youngest living artist to have work included in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
But back to the show. Honig and her 13 co-competitors will undergo scrutiny from gallery owner Bill Powers, New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn (who curates and owns the gallery Salon94) and art auctioneer Simon de Pury. The whole shebang is co-produced by the Bravo peeps who helped create Project Runway and by Sarah Jessica Parker's production company, Pretty Matches.
The Gaf has closed in Waldo
Pitch Taste of KC beats the weather, draws 700 hungry people
Kanrocksas single-day tickets now on sale
Insane Clown Posse fans will be chugging Faygo in Lawrence tonight
Big Rip Brewing Co. opens to the world Sunday
Boulevard's Saison-Brett hits store shelves and taps Tuesday
KC Pride Festival 2013? Yes, it's still on
Rob Schamberger shows his paintings and sells prints of wrestling champions tonight with 100 percent of proceeds going to Make-A-Wish