Skin in the game: is live artistic nudity more than titillation?

Berlin is known for a progressive attitude to nudity, from its debauched nightclubs to the naked sunbathing that takes place in parks and at the city's numerous lakes. But things are changing. Last year, one of its most popular saunas, Verbali spa, buckled under tourist pressure and mandated bathrobes in many areas.

It's these shifting attitudes that performance artist and activist Mischa Badasyan and his partner, photographer Abdulsalam Ajaj, are putting to the test with their work Weil Ich Dich Liebe (Because I Love You), which captures ordinary citizens of various ages and sizes undressed inside 16 of the city's metro stations. In one photo, a row of naked men curves around the edge of an empty subway platform, framed between gleaming white columns and a filthy, gravel railway line. What's striking is how the series offers Berliners the chance to slow down and see what goes unnoticed in the banality of getting from one place to the next – I hadn't noticed the magenta railings of Prinzenstrasse, until the image of a lone, hirsute-backed, bald-pated man made this detail stand out.

"When I moved [here], each station being different caught my eye: they're amazing," says Ajaj, who came to Berlin from Damascus. After trying for six months to gain permission from the city to shoot their series, and failing, the artists put out a call for participants and decided to work illegally in the early mornings – usually before the trains began running – with whoever showed up. The pair exhibited their photos at L'Art pour Elkaar festival in the Dutch city of Maastricht earlier this month and plan to hang posters of the images around the German capital.

"We've lost the feeling of belonging to the city," says Russian-born Badasyan, who thinks unfamiliar experiences can forge connections between people and their surroundings. "But now, when people from these interventions return to the stations we've shot at, they feel: ‘This is home.'" Quelling bodily anxiety is another aim of the project: "A trans volunteer said it was the first time he'd felt comfortable with his body."

Should I dress more smartly for work?

The short answer to "Does it matter?" is yes and no. No one can be on point with their outfit every day. That's why they invented uniforms. I tend to start the week in what I call "cosy clothes", a tracksuit or a jumper. I probably look a "hot mess", too, but it means I can be focused. The beginning of the week is when I do the school run, and don't tend to arrange any meetings. So I'm happy to wear whatever I want.

When it gets to Wednesday and my son goes to his father's for the latter part of the week, I start pulling out the outfits I love, and go to see people I need to make an impression on. It makes me feel good to switch it up and have glam days and chill days. When I like my look, I feel more confident about my meetings.

Advertising, I can imagine, is very image-based and of course you feel a certain pressure to look good. But do you feel a mess because you know you haven't made an effort, or because you feel you ought to look good for your colleagues and clients? Neither is the "right" or "wrong" approach, but it's always good to consider why you feel the way you do.

Only you can know whether your look is so lax that it will hold you back. We live in a selfie- and image-obsessed world: do you want to play that game, or do you want to do your job? Remember, there's a risk that the more presentable you are, the more people want you around merely for decoration (not to mention how relentless the upkeep is).

Would looking smarter enhance your ability to do your job? Do what feels right for you, and what will help you achieve your goals at work. If that means putting in a bit more effort, then let's face it: it's probably worth it.

Poem of the week: Three Poetesses by Kristín Ómarsdóttir

Kristín Ómarsdóttir is an acclaimed Icelandic novelist, poet, playwright and visual artist. She was born in Reykjavik in 1962, and spent some of her youth in Copenhagen. Waitress in Fall, the first major selection of her poems translated into English, draws from 30 years’ work, as chosen by her translator, Vala Thorodds. I greatly enjoyed hearing this subtle, innovative and extremely accessible new voice. The English sounds so thoroughly natural it’s easy to forget the poems are translations. Three Poetesses was originally published in Ómarsdóttir’s 1993 collection, Waitress in An Old Restaurant.

I hope the term "poetesses" won’t need defending. It’s true that this noun has generally been dropped in English in favour of "female poet" (the gender indicator still present, but on its best contemporary behaviour). "Poetess" does not have to be interpreted as a term of ridicule: why should the suffix be demeaning, unless you already construct femininity as second class? It seems to me an aptly elegant and defiant word choice. This parable necessarily evokes a culture hostile to women, not a context in which superficial attempts at equality have been made. The women’s hard-won dignity and seriousness refresh the word for us.

The full stop before the qualifying clause, "With books in hand", at the end of this opening stanza, introduces an interesting feature of the syntax. Such mini sentences, split off from a longer "parent", have an appropriately vivid brevity. The technique suggests an oral narrator’s pause for dramatic or comic effect. Throughout the poem, the lineation is designed to give each phrase or word its necessary space and weight.

Analysis in terms of political message hardly does the poem justice. We know the argument already. The point is that, as a story, it’s new: it’s not a revised fairytale, a feminist version of some ancient legend with a heroine instead of a hero. The three women are not aggrandised, and the man seems as powerless, in his way, as they are. Most unusually, the women are poets – and so it’s emphasised that, as such, they should be in charge of their own script. But they’re not. The poem’s message, or, rather, messages, are simple but the outlines may still, in the current political snowstorm, too easily be lost.

Expert claims exercising too much can actually make you fat

When you're trying to get fit it can be tempting to work out like crazy - at every opportunity.

 Those pounds won't shift themselves, will they?

But the truth is working out all the time could be one of the reasons that you're NOT slimming down.

Confused?

Don't be - we reveal why exercising every day is actually stopping you from shedding fat and building the abs you've always dreamed of having.

We all have a set of abs, it's just that for the vast majority of us, they're hiding underneath a cosy layer of adipose tissue (belly fat).

In order to expose those stomach muscles, you've got to concentrate on getting your overall body fat percentage down.

You can train the muscle underneath the fat but the real game changer is losing the fat covering the muscles in the first place.

It all comes down to stress
We tend to have a high storage of fat around our middles if we're exposed to high and prolonged stress.

Stress comes in many different forms but one of those is physical stress and working out at a high intensity every day is just that.

If you're disproportionately storing more fat around your lower belly, then you need to start thinking about reducing your stress levels and getting a good night's sleep.

And the first thing you might want to think about - if you already exercise regularly - is whether you're working too hard and not giving your body a chance to properly recover.

"Over-training is very common, both in sports and on the gym scene," PT Harry Thomas, owner at No1 Fitness, told The Sun.

"They are now showing that a lack of rest and recovery is why many premiership players are getting injured.

"That's why many teams in recent years have introduced full recovery sessions into their programs."

But it's not just injury you should be wary of - it's also fat accumulation.

It's all down to the production of cortisol - the stress hormone.

Laurence Fountain is the founder of Salus London and specialises in body transformations by way of re-balancing stress.

"Cortisol is going to interfere with different hormonal effects," he told us.

"Firstly, it's going to interfere with your thyroid - meaning it's going to be very hard to burn fat when your cortisol is high. In fact, you're going to be more likely to burn muscle.

"Too much cortisol can also lead to an overstimulation of the brain during sleep causing an increase of ghrelin - the hunger hormone, which is going to make it impossible for you to control your appetite and stay away from simple sugars and high-fat foods.

"And when ghrelin is high, leptin is going to be low so it's going to stop you from feeling satisfied."

Prakash's growing love for 'kirtan'

MY music will tell you more about me than I ever will.

This was the sentiment of local kirtan artist Praneel Prakash Charan who has been singing for nearly two decades now.

Prakash's love for kirtan began when he was in class six through his father Ram Charan — "SP Boy" — who himself was a musician. Prakash, 28, liked playing harmonium and his interest in the music industry grew further after the release of his first album in 2011.

So far, he has released five volume albums, the latest earlier this year.

"My parents have been really supportive throughout my career," said Prakash.

"My mandali, Naudhristi Ramayan Mandali and my Southern Satsang Boys (SSB) group have been really supportive. There are about 15 boys in the SSB group who have been my pillar of strength during the competitions I've participated in."

Prakash's first competition was against Atish Narayan in 2010 and since then he has taken part in various events.

His latest event was last Saturday in Nausori where he took part in a three corner kirtan to raise money towards a four-year-old girl's medical operation in India.

"Our group also does a lot of voluntary and fundraising events for people in need," he added.

"Last Saturday our group not only took part in the competition but also provided sound system and DJ during the night. We do not charge for events like this as all the boys co-operate in the event to raise money."

Prakash's interest is not only in kirtan but also owns a company called Professional Sounds and DJ. He usually uses his own equipment at his events.

"I owe majority of my success to my wife (Rachna Prakash). She manages my DJ business which comes as a big relief to me as it is not easy. "She also supported me in my career as a singer."

The former Assemblies of God student said he and his group of boys start practice three weeks before any event and twice every week.

Prakash is formerly a production worker for AJS designs and writes all his kirtan.

He said all musical artists should love their work but never show pride about their talent.

According to Prakash, it is his humility that has kept him going for all these years and they had been able to make a name for themselves in the field of kirtan sangeet.

He said he had learnt a lot in the past 10 years from his competitors and other musical artists which helped him become a better artist.

This bridal boutique is exclusively for plus-size women

Do a quick scan for wedding dresses online and it's easy to notice something is missing: images of models who look like they wear a size 14 or above.

That's not to say there's nothing out there for plus-size brides, but there are definitely fewer options. Add the discrimination some say they have experienced at bridal boutiques — being told, "There's nothing here for you," or "You still have time to lose the weight!" — and it's no wonder many women consider finding a dress the most daunting part of the whole wedding-planning process.

Shannelle Armstrong-Fowler is on a mission to change that. She launched Haute & Co., a plus-size bridal boutique in Chicago, after hearing a friend's tale of struggling to find a wedding gown in her size, 26.

"She was truly, truly discouraged," she told TODAY Style. "And I decided, 'I can fix that.'"

Armstrong-Fowler, who previously worked in public relations, set out to open a shop that catered specifically to the curvy and plus-size community, offering sizes 14 to 32.

"(I wanted to) give women the best version of themselves," she said. "Surround them with people who are educated in sizing, design, alterations. Make them comfortable."

But it wasn't easy.

"The hardest part was, really, the negotiations and conversations with designers," Armstrong-Fowler said, adding that she had to convince many to increase their size ranges. "They were resistant. I mean, you had designers saying things to me like, 'Oh, do they get married?' Or, you had them saying things like, 'Yeah, you're the one that wants to work the big girls.' So there was a lot of body-shaming and there was a lot of resistance."

Many of the brides she sees are already discouraged by the time they step foot in the door at Haute & Co.

"They're typically a little bit reserved because they've been disappointed," she said. "They've had challenges."
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Most bridal boutiques carry one or two samples of a wedding gown for women to try on, not a range of sizes. If brides can't fit into those samples, they're out of luck. It's hard to find "the dress" when you can't even see what it would look like on your own body.

The plight of a plus-size bride has been well documented. Earlier this year, the New York Times shared the story of Katie Liepold, whose engagement photos were edited, without her permission, to make her and her husband look thinner. In an essay published on XO Jane, a former employee of a bridal store recounted a customer buying two of the same exact gown, so they could be sewn together, all because it wasn't available in her larger size.

Armstrong-Fowler opened Haute & Co. in 2013. Earlier this year, "The Perfect Fit," her series about helping women find their dream dress dress, launched on PeopleTV.

While it's clear designers have started to listen to calls for more size diversity, there's still room to grow. As Armstrong-Fowler sees it, designers are only hurting themselves by ignoring such a large part of the population, pointing out that average American woman wears a size 16.

"What I would love wedding gown designers to do is rethink their current sizing policies," she said. "If you do not go past a size 20 in bridal, if you can't go to a 32, try to go to a 28. I just want you to rethink the number of women you are excluding from your beautiful designs, and the number of women you will never have the opportunity to look (at) and say, 'That's one of our looks. That's our design. And she looks beautiful.'"

On Tokyo’s Fashion Landscape Now

From the boutiques of Nakameguro to the high-end, concept stores of Ginza, the retail landscape in Tokyo is eclectic. The book Tokyo Street Style, out April 3 from Abrams, is expansive, charting styles like the mori (“forest”) girl, who wears earthy fabrics, floral prints, and long skirts, and the ’90s revival girl, who scours vintage stores for the perfect MA-1 flight jacket. Fashion journalist Yoko Yagi and photographer friend Tohru Yuasa collaborated on this trend history meets travel guide, capturing women with cotton-candy-colored hair, BDSM-inspired jewelry, and tiny handbags.

                                                     
Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons are described as “DC designers” (designer and character brands) and credited for starting a wave of gender-neutral trends. Yamamoto and Kawakubo inspired karasu-zoku (“crows”) style, an all-black, gothic aesthetic that became popular in Tokyo in the ’80s. Western readers may already be familiar with terms like kawaii (“cute”) and wabi-sabi (a philosophy of beauty rooted in imperfections), but this book introduces a host of other terms, like mejikara (which translates literally to “eye power”) and applies them to dramatic eyelash extensions, stand-out eyeliner, and bold lip colors. Kururimpa, a relatively new term, describes an inside-out, flipped ponytail style that was popularized by beauty bloggers’ DIY tutorial videos.

In this book, Yagi and Yuasa trace trends from the 1960s to today in different neighborhoods of Tokyo, including a return to high-quality products and craftsmanship. In one section, the jewelry designer Naho Okamoto explains how she incorporates traditional Japanese techniques like edo kiriki (glassware) into contemporary designs, and in another, journalist Hanami Isogimi says that fine-cotton imabari towels are treasured as personal luxury goods. Scroll to see shop owners, editors, and fashion students in avant-garde looks.

Ivanka Trump is ushering in a new fashion trend

Fashion editors swooned over the broad shoulders and stiff lines that took a leading role on the runways of New York Fashion Week this month, appearing in Marc Jacobs', Alexander Wang's, and Tibi's collections.

                                               
While women's suits have been creeping their way into fashion over the past few years (Hillary Clinton formed a campaign around hers) what we see now, and what is slowly trickling into our stores, marks the beginning of something decidedly different.

Today's style veers away from the so-called "pantsuit" and harks back to the 1980s, a decade when women started to command more power in the workplace and dressed in bright-colored suits with big shoulders.

The suit is now being used to make a statement for women's empowerment and by high-profile figures to assert their own power.

Ivanka Trump is a good example of the latter. As a woman in a high-profile position in the Trump administration, her style decisions are often viewed as political statements. She's recently been seen swapping trendy dresses for sharp suits to emanate an image of power and credibility in her father's administration.

Fashion’s potential to influence politics and culture

Political dressing is fashionable right now, but is it fashion?

Celebrities and stars turned up dressed in black at the 75th Golden Globes Award ceremony. Instantly the media was in frenzy over what they dubbed “political fashion statements on the red carpet.” This is just the most recent droplet of a rainy season of purportedly political fashion.

What is fashion?

The political dimension of clothing is intuitively understood from the moment individuals are born. Because essentially, human society equals dressed society. What one wears, how one wears it and when one wears it constitutes expressions of degrees of social freedoms and influences.

Dress expression ranges the full political gamut from conformity to rebellion. Simply put, dress style that challenges — or is perceived as challenging, or offering an alternative to the status quo — spontaneously acquires political meaning.

Simultaneously, “black bloc” dress indicated a willingness to resort to violence if necessary, much like the Black Panthers did in the 1960s and 70s. The Panthers took advantage of a loophole in the second amendment of the U.S. constitution that made it lawful to wear unconcealed firearms in public.