Curves Ahead | 'Sunrise' Flying Machine | Skinny vs Curvy | Yoka Sara's Kayu Aga Bali House

Indonesian architect Yoka Sara designed the Kayu Aga house in Canggu, Bali. Built for an Italian businessman named Alberto Agazzi, the layout of the house consists of a garage and three orthogonal sleeping pavillions or platforms, each with a private garden. Occupying the center is a two-story pavillon containing the primary living/dining facilities. The house also has an elevated studio at the first floor and a verdant roof garden.

Ironically, the natural swimming pool is one of the few elements of the house that's not curvaceous -- but it's spectacular! More images at HomeTrendDesign.com. Tip via VV.

Curvy vs Skinny | Always Wrong?

Model Katya ZharkovaVogue Italia keeps up the heat on the body image debate, closing in on core AOC arguments. Anne has tried for years to shift the argument away from anorexia and fashion monasticism or curvy women who are also real women onto the larger topic of a cultural need to control women's bodies.

At AOC we tell women's stories from fashion to flogging for a reason. At the core of modern civilization is the need to control women's bodies for several patriarchal reasons largely revolving around sexuality, paternity and inheritance.

Anne believes that modern civilization post monotheism has a general disgust for curves -- translated women. We understand the Reubens time period and other passions for curvy women. But monotheism is totally devoid of positive respect for female physicality. We also subscribe to Ernest Becker's philosophy that the female body reminds men of their mortality and perhaps the womb's original power over them -- the devouring monster metaphor.

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Andrea Mary Marshall's Spectacular Female Archetypes

It takes a lot to render Anne speechless, but her totally visceral response to Andrea Mary Marshall's artistry will take days to unravel. If ever an artist has captured Anne's words about women's lives, it's this talented young woman living in New York, who has already received a Dior LVMH commission five years after receiving her BFA at Parsons.

We've posted another series of Andrea Mary Marshall's images on Anne of Carversville; and Anne will be taking a deep dive into her work. (See website)

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California Bans Tanning Beds for Teens Under 18

Images: Giedre Dukauskaite | Alexandre Weinberger | L’Express Style

Suntanning Triggers Brain's Reward Region, Linked to Addictions AOC Health & Happiness

California has banned tanning beds for teens under 18 in a new law that goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2012. Teens under 18 comprise 5%-10% of tanning-bed users nationally, but probably more in Los Angeles County. The bill's author State Sen Ted Lieu told AP that tanning salons outnumber Starbucks or McDonald's n Los Angeles County.

An undercover 2009 study sponsored by NCI (National Cancer Institute) trained female college students to pose as fair-skinned, 15-year-old tanner newbies in phone consultations with 3,600 tanning salons in 50 states.

Fewer than 11% of tanning salons adhered to government recommendations on sun lamp exposure, which limits tanning to no more than three sessions in the first week. 71% of the salons contacted in the study promoted tanning every day for the first week and promoted 'unlimited tanning' discount price packages. Dermatologists are adamantly opposed to daily tanning on 'virgin' skin.

Based on new research and cancer statistics, coupled with psychological research on females and tanning in particular, other states including New York, Illinois, Rhode Island and Ohio are considering similar restrictions on younger teens using tanning beds.

Melanoma -- which kills one in eight victims -- is the second most common cancer in America for women aged 20 to 29.via TIME

We covered most of the psychological research -- including scans monitoring the 'addiction' center in the brain among a large percentage of female tanners  --  in this earlier article on AOC.

In a stunning piece of research around the 'wisdom' and judgment of young women tanning bed users: 

Having a history of melanoma and skin cancer did NOT reduce tanning but increased the likeliness to tan.

Of the students with a positive family history of skin cancer, 77 percent purposely tanned their skin outdoors and 45 percent used indoor tanning devices.

 

AJ & Ollie | Michael Donovan | Husk Magazine Fall/Winter 2011

Note | Nudity When you are a self promotion steamroller, you better be good in our playbook. Kanye West comes to mind has having both ego and genius. It's time to call out another.

Not to inflate his ego further, but Michael Donovan rocks!!! He just does -- in editorial after editorial, his creative genius is ballistic. I never know what MD will deliver next in terms of an editorial.

Today Michael Donovan shares AJ & Ollie, for the new Fall/Winter issue of HUSK magazine. Katie Burnett styled this montage of sexy images. I assume Michael's mind bears creative responsibility for putting it together.

Not only is Michael a confident egomaniac of the best kind. He also publicly supports his friends and gives generously of his ideas, possessing a well developed philosophy on the photographer's life while truly engaging with readers on his blog.

Michael Donovan is a young Terry Richardson with far more talent and a refreshing humility. Let's hope MD stays so well-balanced and erupting with originality.

The best tribute I can make to MD is to feature him in AOC Sexual Politics as a learning model for women who are so damned afraid to call attention to their own talent. A new book is out on this topic, and Michael Donovan is a great example of marketing oneself with sexy sizzle and REAL substance.

If you don't got it -- the talent -- do not try this approach or you will take a bigger fall than Icarus. In the case of Michael Donovan, "you go, guy!" Anne

More Michael Donovan

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Juicy Couture Founders Launching New Label Skaist-Taylor

Juicy Couture Co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-TaylorToday's WWD reports that Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor's non-compete agreement is up and the founders of Juicy Couture are ready to roll with a new collection called Skaist-Taylor. The California-eccentric collection will debut in February 2012 for fall selling.

Best friends for 23 years, Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor founded Juicy Couture in 1996 based on the casual California lifestyle. Their iconic velour tracksuit became a symbol of Los Angeles style and a wardrobe staple among celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Britney Spears. The designers sold their profitable company, which was generating about $48 million in sales, to Liz Claiborne Inc. in 2003, and the business exploded with freestanding stores, accessories, swimwear and fragrances, reaching sales of about $600 million in 2008. Juicy Couture became a major resource at Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. The designers, who benefited handsomely during the earn-out period, stayed until January 2010, when their contracts were terminated.

Skaist-Levy say they've turned away prospective investors, preferring to make their own decisions and answer to each other, not the money people at this point in the evolution of their new brand Skaist-Levy.

Admitting that Juicy Couture changed how American women dressed in the Nineties, they are set to do it again but the new brand Skaist-Levy will reflect who they are now. Admitting that she is 48, Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor, who said, “I’m very close…a little older,” say they will dress women of all ages.

Tavi's Rookie Mag Website

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Mission 2011 | Claiming Our Genitalia And Not As Junk

The Great Wall of Vagina | Learning To Love Our Genitalia Anne of Carversville

If we write that Marilyn Minter is a peddler of scopophilia, it makes her sound like the dirty old lady that she isn't.  Recognizing the strength of her earlier article on vaginas and vajayjays, Anne returns to the topic from a different perspective.

We share videos of a superb art project in Britain, Jamie McCartney's Wall of Vagina and talk labiaplasty. And we also stop at the summer festival in India known as Ambubachi Mela. Unlike America, yonis are celebrated, menstrual blood included.

'Allure Magazine' Models Bare Beautiful Bodies

Allure magazine has released its issue with models sans clothes. Emmanuelle Chriqui, Regina Hall, Kara DioGuardi, Jessica Capshaw, Colbie Caillat & Catherine Zeta-Jones look please to have conquered every woman's worst nightmare: confronting the lens without clothes.

KARA DIOGUARDI

"This shoot was less about beauty than about taking a risk and showing people a side of me they never have seen," says the American Idol judge. She was proud to have the confidence to strip down for the camera after struggling with binge eating and depression in her early 20s. "Back then I was a size 6 or 8; now I'm more like a size 2. Food is not what I use to anesthetize myself anymore." She didn't diet or work out like a maniac in preparation, but she did make one change: cutting way back on salt. "I can really retain water," she says.

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