no, not again

oh, how i have loved FANTASTIC MAN, the gentlemanly counterpart to BUTT magazine. this love affair, i fear, has come to an end due to the egregious choice of look for november 2009: a bodysuit paired with a body warmer.

"The throw-on practicality of the body warmer makes it a boon as the temperature in the Northern Hemisphere fluctuates between Indian summer and winter chill. Meanwhile an all-in-one bodysuit makes for an incredibly warming base-layer, and is surprisingly appropriate to wear on its own as an outfit in itself."

No, FANTASTIC MAN! Have we learned nothing from the rise of leggings-as-pants? Men of the world: it is not okay to go out in public wearing a pair of glorified longjohns.

reasons why i'm disappointed by leighton meester's video for "somebody to love"

1.) around the 2:01 point, the close-up shot of her super red, super shiny lips. i mean, aren't DSLs supposed to be sexy? i hate overt sensuality in pop culture.

2.) speaking of overt sensuality, that effin' unitard she wears in the hotel scenes. i blame beyonce for the unitard explosion sweeping the younger generations of the world right now. i don't want to declare an official war on unitards because i believe they can sometimes to sexy, but it seems to me a woman has to wear a unitard with a knowing smirk, like "yeah, i'm wearing a fucking unitard. can you believe this shit?"

3.) i'm hoping she isn't titling her album "leighton meester 2010." take a note from proper divas like beyonce and mariah and title the album a variation of "b'day" (perhaps just birthday, since she's covering that song on her album) or "memoirs of an imperfect angel who loves portraying a glamorous, evil bitch on TV."

4.) rings with appendages. oh, leighton, i didn't know you loved gimmick jewelry. i'd like to think blair waldorf would never wear such a thing. i think we can blame lady gaga for this.

5.) robin thicke's existence in your video. let me say this: i used to love robin thicke back when he went only by his surname. "thicke" is such a brilliant name for a white dude who sings r&b, and his was built-in because he's alan thicke's son! his styling in this video is bad enough (except that dreamy suit), but then he adds stupid gestures and sunglasses in the next scene. i don't know if i'm blinded by his tacky bling or his tacky pantomiming.

6.) on youtube, it says this:

Official Music Video For Song "Somebody To Love" By The American Electropop Singer Leighton Meester, Taken From The Album Leighton Meester Upcoming On January 2010, Check It Out

um, leighton meester isn't annie or sally shapiro or lykke li, so just call her a pop star. although props to her for following a different road than jennifer love hewitt and hilary duff.

7.) the "sexy" gyrations in the club. again, too overt.

8.) i honestly thought i would love her as a pop star. i was even prepared to give her her very own gold digger label and join the likes of the olsens, kate moss, beyonce, amerie, and rihanna. for right now, a label for "gossip girl" is all i'm willing to give.

i need this for christmas

i was looking for a london tube shower curtain (i'm immature) and then i found this beautiful, beautiful mirror. AND IT'S PRINTED IN GOLD.

Transport for London, £79.99

trick or treat confusion, sadness

i just wanna say i now support rihanna. yes, we've had our problems in the past (re: almost every single she's released), and yes, i may have made a tag because i used to hate her a lot, but that's all in the past because i think we really understand each other now. see, she got beat up, had all those police photos of the damage leaked to the media, and stayed silent the entire time and now is back and, if i can say so myself, better than ever, with a ridiculous but still hot fauxhawk 'do and twistedly glamorous sartorial choices. i feel like we both went through some horrific things in the public eye, and aside from posting about it once on here, i kept my recovery to myself as much as i could, too, but now i'm back in the land of the living and my style has been tweaked just a bit. and if you substitute a car wreck for domestic violence and substitute an F250 for chris brown, and also substitute learning how to walk and eat and read again for public gossip, we're exactly the same!

i feel like both of us were on these paths before we had our train wrecks, and now that we're both on the other side of that disaster, we've gone full-on with our aesthetics. our lives were forced into massive changes, and after a while, we're both rebounding successfully. like this:

Glamour: "You’re talking about the photo [reportedly of Rihanna’s injured face taken by police after Brown assaulted her] that was allegedly leaked by cops. You handled that so well; you kept silent in the press."

RiRi: "It was humiliating; that is not a photo you would show to anybody. I felt completely taken advantage of. I felt like people were making it into a fun topic on the Internet, and it’s my life. I was disappointed, especially when I found out the photo was [supposedly leaked by] two women."

girl, i know how feeling humiliated is so crushing and even though you have no reason to feel humiliated, you still do, so you have to power through it and come out on the other side a better, more humbled person.

i also have to say i was pleasantly surprised more people didn't dress up as rihanna and chris brown for halloween. apparently as a culture we're good-natured and kind! well, sometimes.

so this post is for you, rihanna. gold digger salutes you, boo.

[this post is in no way a full endorsement of rihanna, since we have a rule here at gold digger that we all can't agree on anything. also, i don't want to say i've been through a lot worse than rihanna so i won't, but i will say that a lot of times i mitigate the seriousness of my recoveries because i don't want to recall most of it, hence i write about how trauma changed my opinions of clothes, and how i now relate to pop stars. also, i'm really, really, really gay.]

I'M BACK

after a year of never bothering to get my laptop fixed after the dr. pepper and rum fiasco, i finally picked it up from the genius bar today and the keyboard is fully functional, bitches.

but i don't really recall what i used to blog about.

love,

diamond

big women, big hair, right?

agyness deyn

solange knowles

keyshia cole

cassie

amber rose

"It was my first acting school. I would pretend to be doing my homework, but I was really observing the women. I found their behavior mesmerizing — what they were hiding, how they left feeling a little different after they'd been helped to become a little more like whom they wanted to look like. They treated the place a little bit like a psychologist's office. They would share all their secrets." Penélope Cruz on her mother's hair salon

perhaps years from now, this decade we're almost concluding will be known for females with almost no hair. if i were still in school, i'd be tempted to write a paper about how hair is a physical response to the economic recession, and then predict a resurgence of big hair thanks to aqua net. thankfully, i already have a degree, so i'm just posting pictures of this phenomenon on my blog.

and agyness, i'm really sorry to feature such a bad photo of you, but i need to be reminded me why i used to dislike you so much.

light brite

my dream home would have light installations all over the place. i promise it won't look like kanye west's place, though. yo, kanye, i'm really happy for you, imma let chu finish, but my house will be one of the best of all-time. of all-time! i think filthy, (pseudo)sexual phrases look best. i have a list of things friends have said or heard while they were boning; one day i will turn these quotes into art. and no, i'm not going to publish them here out of discretion. and kindness.

am i the only one who thinks the mirrored piece would be brilliant as a headboard? no, it doesn't fit in this post, but i've had it on my desktop for months and thought i would finally upload it to the blog.

i'm sorry, ya'll, but i've been collecting these for quite a while and haven't sourced any. what can i say? sometimes i get lazy with my tumblr.

you must buy: cologne du 68

Of course, it's only now that we've properly entered autumn that I've found my perfect summer fragrance: Guerlain's Cologne du 68. Ok, ok, some clarification. I know most people read cologne and automatically think of masculine notes like tobacco, leather, spice, and wood, but really it doesn't have anything to do with that. Cologne just means that there is a very low concentration of the perfume extract than compared to a typical perfume or eau de toilette. It is lighter and cleaner, which is exactly what you need during the oppressive heat of summer.

Now, technically I discovered 68 a few months ago at the Guerlain counter of a department store, but I was distracted by the dreaminess of classics like Derby and Le Heure Bleue and expensive limited editions like Spiriteuese Double Vanille, all of which I gushed to Eric about immediately after I left the store. I managed to jot down 68 on my notepad amongst a dozen other fragrances and ordered samples from The Perfume Court so I could test them at home. It sat ignored on my nightstand for weeks until I picked it up again last night.

I had forgotten how fresh and bright it was, the same citrus topnotes as Coco Mademoiselle except maybe not as sharp. It slowly evolved into creamy florals, star anise, vanilla and cedar.* It seems like all those notes would be overwhelming and heavy, but somehow the cologne remained modern and fresh. The scent stayed close to my skin, impossible to smell unless someone came in for a hug, and lasted for a full four or five hours. It was patient and mellow, something you could wear in an office cubicle or the cramped backseat of a car during a road trip. Plus, who does not love that packaging? I've heard a lot of people bemoan the masculine look and would have preferred the pretty Guerlain bee bottle, but that dark wood cap and elegant typography make me so happy.

People complain about priceyness, but luckily with some help from Now Smell This, I was able to find a bottle for $60. Still a little expensive, but totally worth it.


And since I so rudely ask this question of everybody, what are you wearing now? Are you transitioning into a fall or winter fragrance, or do you have a signature scent(s) that you wear year-round?


* Cologne du 68 refers to the sixty-eight different ingredients in the formula and the Guerlain store address on the Champs-Elysees. They are:

bergamot, green mandarin, lemon, clementine, orange peel, blood orange, sweet lime, grapefruit, basil, fennel, star anise, lavender, bay leaf, cypres, elemi, thyme, myrthe, bigarade, mandarin petit grain, lemon petit grain, pear, violet greens, lierre, gentiane, seve, blackcurrant, freesia, lily of the valley, hazel leaf, cyclamen, cardamom, coriander, black pepper, pink berry, nutmeg, ginger, jasmine, frangipane, magnolia blossom, orange blossom, peony, rose, carnation, ylang-ylang, lychee, fig, blackberry, immortelle, lentisque, opoponax, amber, benzoin, vanilla, cistus, heliotrope, iris, tonka beans, sage, musk, patchouli, agarwood, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, vegetable musk, praline, myrrhe and lychen

true blood

i would just like the world to know that once i began thinking of true blood as twilight fan fiction written by a drag queen who loves flannery o'connor and tennessee williams, it became acceptable. its not as good as cam4, but what is?


P.S. after explaining why i think its fine to like this show, like, a scrillion times, i thought it was best to put my explanation on the blog. and because i'm sure at least a portion of our readership is like diamond, who absolutely detests camp, especially when its mixed with sexuality. john waters, there is no love lost between you and gold digger diamond.

P.P.S. does this vampire remind anyone else of logan mccree? i would link his name, but every single link i've found tonight for logan mccree is NSFW like woah.

the thomas crown affair

a couple nights ago, i watched the thomas crown affair. i saw it once, years and years ago, and thought it was good but nothing spectacular. this time, however, i was blown away. i think it is the sexiest movie ever made, and yes, that may be hyperbolic. if so, feel free to comment and suggest a sexier movie. in short, bring it, bitches.

i could write a post about the singular style of this movie and how all the characters seem effortless and comfortable and fabulous, but instead i want to write about tom's signature color: hermes orange.



this picture isn't the best to highlight the exact shade, but i can't take screen captures because my parents stole the DVD away so i couldn't return it immediately (i think its a tad strange when parents are stealing from their children but whatever). thomas crown loves the rich, masculine shade of orange made famous by hermes and to those who have champagne taste on a budget, veuve clicquot (um, the gold diggers).



this color keeps appearing throughout the movie: the blankets on his bed, the towels in his steam room, on his clothes when he's relaxing and romancing faye dunaway. it made me wish i had a signature color. and while robby thinks signature anything makes a person too closed off and staid, i really want one, ya'll.

i think neutrals cannot be your signature color because they're too easy to find, or to feign, so black and white and gray and gold are out. plus, yawn. also, it can't be blue because that's the university of kentucky's color and there is no way i want to seem affiliated anymore with that school, other than my couch and living room rug and dreamy, old walk-in closet. and while i love purple, i think prince owns the copyright to the exact shade i have in mind. tennenbaum pink? sigh. i guess. i do love that color something freakish, but publicly admitting this unhealthy love doesn't make me feel any better. ugh. do signature colors have to come about naturally?