Soul Strut Catnip

CousinLarry

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/fashion/29DEEJAY.html?ref=styleNovember 29, 2007Setting the Beat, and the StyleBy RUTH LA FERLAJUSTINE DELANEY speaks fashion like a native, her conversation studded with insider argot and references. She is drawn to hipster clothing brands like Preen and Comme des Gar??ons, and is as well acquainted with the Bauhaus aesthetic as she is with Vivienne Westwood or Siouxsie Sioux. A onetime Goth, she describes her current style as ???preppy, but with a darker edge.???Listening, you would peg her as an indie designer or, at the least, a ???Project Runway??? star. In fact, Justine D., as she is known to her public, is on cozier terms with a turntable than she is with a cutting table; her medium is vinyl ??? the kind that spins.A high-profile D.J., she blends the sounds she loved as a teenager ??? strains of the Clash and British punk ??? with more-current fare, which she plays at private parties in New York. Like others in the growing contingent of female D.J.???s commanding the dance floor and building cults on the Web, she has an avid following. Scores of young women have picked up on her sound, and with it, her style, a graphic amalgam of black shirts with white bib tops and slinky halter dresses accessorized with tattoos and cataracts of cola-tone hair.???I did have several female club-goers ask me, ???How does it make you feel that everyone is dressing like you now??????? Ms. Delaney said. ??????Does it make you angry??????? Not so much. ???Is someone really going to realize that I???m going for the Diane Keaton look in Woody Allen???s ???Manhattan???? I doubt it,??? she said briskly.Her crowd, of course, is far too young to even catch that reference. Not that it matters. To them, Ms. Delaney is part of a formidably groovy sisterhood of well-established style-setters like Beverly Bond, Sarah Lewitinn (D.J. Ultragrrrl) and Skye Nellor in London; and younger influencers like Samantha Ronson in Los Angeles.Yes, they are shaping their fans??? musical preferences. And to judge by the prevalence of high-waisted trousers, suspenders, cropped leather jackets, porkpie hats and fedoras on the dance floors, they are calling the tune in fashion as well.???When you go into a club and the D.J. is wearing something, it almost gives it idol status,??? said Frannie Schultz, 21, a college student from Brooklyn. Ms. Schultz, who mingles high style and low in deference to idols like Leigh Lezark of the MisShapes and Roxy Cottontail, noted that on the Lower East Side, epicenter of the downtown club scene, style is ???centered around the promoters and the D.J.???s.??????If you see a girl who is D.J.-ing, wearing a certain shirt or brand of shoes,??? she said, ???it makes people want to buy that item.???A decade ago, only a handful of women, including Ms. Bond and Ms. Nellor, could claim the kind of style clout that comes with a presence in the D.J. booth.???The barrier was high for females trying to enter an essentially male-dominated field,??? said Rob Principe, a founder of Scratch Academy, a school for aspiring D.J.???s with outposts in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. Today, women are less intimidated, Mr. Principe said. In 2002, when the school was established, 10 to 15 percent of applicants were women. Now that figure is closer to 40 percent.???D.J.-dom has definitely been a boy???s club, a kind of cabal,??? said Alexandra Wagner, the editor of Fader, a magazine that covers emerging music and fashion. It is a club, she noted, that women are only now penetrating in significant numbers.???Cultural dominatrixes,??? in Ms. Wagner???s phrase, they have a fashion influence that is a direct extension of their power on the stage. Unlike pop stars, who tend to be molded by production teams, the female D.J. is distinctly in charge, she observed: ???The music that gets played is what she decides.??? From the vantage of the dance floor, she added, ???the D.J. booth is like the altar in the sky.??????The woman who commands it can be a really powerful icon,??? Ms. Wagner said.That is not news to their fans. Their maverick stance and wizardry at the turnable have earned some performers fashion points. ???A lot of these girls are just novelties,??? said Alisa O???Connor, 21, of Brooklyn, alluding to the D.J. who flaunts glitter and angel wings to distract from the fact that she is playing prerecorded CDs. But ???if she is a good D.J.,??? Ms. O???Connor said, ???I???m going to respect her for what she wears.???Dispensing, for the most part, with stylists, the most memorable D.J???s strive for originality, setting themselves apart from competitors with looks that vary from Ms. Delaney???s Goth-tinged temptress to Ms. Ronson???s brash tomboy. Image, they argue, is essential to success.???Today everyone is a D.J.,??? said Lindsey Caldwell, a native of Atlanta who plays an amalgam of ???80s hip-hop, vintage Detroit sound and modern electronics Tuesday nights on the Lower East Side. ???Just to be able to blend records is not enough anymore. You have to have a look.???Her personal m??lange, part fashion-progressive, part schoolmarm, is based on flat-soled granny boots with laces, skinny high-waist jeans, trailing scarves, the occasional Hanes T-shirt and, always, her trademark ???big old glasses. They look like your science teacher???s glasses,??? she said.Like many in her cohort, Ms. Caldwell, known as D.J. Lindsey, has worked as a fashion insider. While wheeling sample racks at KCD, the fashion publicity firm, and casting models for clients like Marc Jacobs, she learned what it takes to stand out. D.J.-ing is ???all about self-promotion, about getting on somebody???s photo blog,??? she said. ???You have to play that game. Because nobody is going to take your picture for Lastnightsparty if you look regular.???She was referring to a popular blog that covers the late-night scene and is a measure of a D.J.???s standing. Faces turning up there may include those of Ms. Caldwell and New York personalities like Denise Kozlowski and Cyan Bonacci of VisAvis, the female D.J.???s seen spinning last week in the windows of Madewell, a youth-oriented store on Lower Broadway that is owned and operated by J. Crew.They were enlisted, said Margo Brunell, the director of marketing for J. Crew, after being spotted on the Web. ???We would look at the blogs and discover that the women who posted there were talking about fashion in one sentence and referencing to a cool D.J. they had seen in the next.???The D.J. style is alluring to her target customer. ???These women don???t necessarily like to be told what to wear,??? she said.Janessa Bautista, 28, a fashion designer in Manhattan, agreed, noting that the D.J.???s she likes dress in a manner that is unforced and inventive. ???People who carry their own style are influential,??? she said.They include celebrities spinners such as Ms. Ronson, the sister of Mark Ronson, a music impresario, and the designer Charlotte Ronson, whose fashion show last fall was animated with her sister???s brand of hip-hop fused with rock ???n??? roll. Samantha Ronson???s signature look is unrehearsed, a combination of trousers worn with braces, short-sleeve tees, blazers from Dior Homme and the festoons of jewelry she piles on pell-mell.???You don???t want to look like you went into a store, and they decided what you should wear,??? she said.You would never accuse her or her counterparts, D.J.???s like Stacy Spierer, whose stage name is Stacy Stylez, or Concetta Kirschner (a k a Princess Superstar), of catering to commercial tastes. Ms. Spierer???s twisted schoolgirl look is a funky combination of vintage cheerleader dresses, brownie uniforms or prom dresses, all liberally sprinkled with rhinestones. ???Whateve
r I put on, it???s got to have some sparkle to it,??? she said.Ms. Kirschner, a recording artist, goes in for corsets, star-shaped mouches and shimmery eye makeup. ???My look is definitely sexy,??? she said, ???but it???s also a bit trashy.??????I don???t like to look too polished ??? for me that???s really bland,??? she said, adding dismissively, ???It???s good for pop stars.???Jake Bernstein contributed reporting.

CousinLarry

I can't even read this all at once, its like a section out of a brett easton ellis novel. I just keep laughing and rereading lines like, ???preppy, but with a darker edge.??? and I skipped to the end and found this one, ???My look is definitely sexy,??? she said, ???but it???s also a bit trashy.???