SOMA Magazine SOMA Fall Fashion Issue Oct 15 | Page 23

Can you explain your love/hate relationship with beauty?
Miuccia Prada once said that she loved her work in practice but
despised it in theory. I think it’s the theory of beauty that upsets
me; the way society has defined it and how an exclusive few have
sold this ridiculously limited notion of what it is to the masses.
Beauty should be a broad concept filled with contradictions and
room for individuality, not a rigorous definition with strict guidelines to obey.
From where do you draw your inspiration for your topics
and whom you feature?
Beauty is Boring is very spontaneous and experimental. The looks
I create for it come from a variety of sources and the images are
very collaborative. Often the model comes with an idea they
want to try, sometimes I see a face and I instantly have a concept.
Other times, I have a new product that I want to experiment
with or I just start working and let my hands decide what the
look will be.
You encourage your readers to relax and enjoy the brave
new world that includes boys who wear makeup and girls
who look like boys wearing makeup. Do you see beauty
having the potential to play a role in dissolving antiquated
gender expectations?
Beauty has always been on the forefront of challenging cultural norms. If you look back over the past decades, there are
plenty of examples of beauty helping to redefine social standards. In the ’50s women were still expected to be seen, not

heard—preferably while baking something. Their ideal beauty
look was perfectly coiffed hair, bright lips, drawn in brows and
perhaps a flick of black eyeliner. Shortly after that, in the ’60s,
women burned their bras and wiped their faces clean as they
enjoyed the new freedom of the hippie era. The ’70s brought on
glam rock, androgyny, disco glitter and then that was replaced by
the ’80s colorful, optimistic (possibly cocaine-fueled) statement
looks. Then ’90s grunge with its minimalist, heroin-chic style
rolled around and suddenly Vogue was featuring nude faces with
brown lipstick. The changing attitudes of the times is always
reflected in beauty trends but it’s when the new beauty looks
actually precede the wider social acceptance that it plays a role
in the changing cultural norms.
Tell me about your video collection titled “27 Seconds.”
It was inspired by a series of silent movie screen tests that I stumbled across. In them, an actress does the same motion over and
over, sometimes with small adjustments to her expression—sitting in a chair, then standing up or slowly adjusting her hat or
walking across the screen or looking horrified, etc. Bizarre but
somehow compelling to watch.
Where do you see your blog in ten years? Where do you
see yourself ?
I started the blog on a whim and so I suppose one day it will end
that way. I don’t set goals or make plans for the far-off future.
Instead, I throw myself into projects that interest me and see
where they go.
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