More astronomy related fashion

Inspired by the Spring collection of Christopher Kane, I went off trolling the internet for other astronomy-fashion related golden nuggets.  This kept me busy while I waited for an error run in Xspec to finish up.  I found this post on astronomy inspired fashion in New York magazine from late 2009.

Some of the clothes are kind of cool.  Others, not so much.  I'm not even going to tell you what I think of the pants with the star forming crotch.  However, I have to say that including anything with stars or UFOs on it in this slide show disappointed me a little.  Lets hope more designers follow Kane's lead and actually look to our amazing, massive archive for inspiration, rather than Manga sci-fi cartoons or illustrated children's books.

Hubble inspired fashion

In sharing the existence of gaystronomer with my friend Maggie at Goddard, the new spring 2011 collection of designer Christopher Kane was brought to my attention (check out the Style magazine summary here: Christopher Kane Spring 2011 collection).  Kane has used HST images of nebulae as the basis for bold new prints, which he has fashioned into a veritable Hubble sequence of dresses and separates.  While a few of the pieces are stunning, I'm not sure all of them work.  In particular, the outfits with solid black components remind me a bit of zooming out too far in ds9 - oops, no more image!  However, I do find this collection exciting for another reason - Kane is a fellow Glaswegian.  In fact, he is about my age, and I actually knew a guy called Chris Kane in high school - I wonder if he is the one and the same?

Anyway, enjoy the beautiful clothes, and keep them in mind as you get your new WFC3, Chandra or Spitzer images in your inbox!  All that hard work proposal writing may not get you the scientific results you had hoped for, but it might grace the runway at London Fashion Week!

Laundry

Last night, I bought a bottle of Shout! power stain remover, complete with attached brush for really getting that goop in there.  And you know what?  I got a year and a half old grease stain out of a navy blue sweatshirt I really love!  Who cares that I only paid $15 for it at Banana Republic outlet?  Its been a shitty week, and the triumphs add up.  Like Chinese water torture, only good.

Andromeda

Name: Andromeda
Sex: Male by day, female impersonator by night
Age: 31 (although don't ask in person, a lady never tells...)
Gay score: 5/5

During the day, M31 is just another galaxy. Sure, he is good looking, with a jaw that could cut diamond, a nice pair of arms, and a giant bulge, but what grand design spiral isn't? Its under the blacklight of a dark, stinky gay club that M31's alter-ego, Andromeda, comes into her own. The UV light shows off sequin encrusted sleeves, just ready to strike a pose. An ethereal glow, which could only come from industrial strength makeup and one too many Long Islands, surrounds her completely, and somehow you can't quite look away. And my, that bulge has all but vanished! You feel a pull in your stomach - or wait, maybe its that she is falling towards you? Its an attraction so strong it would surely traverse the kiloparsecs. On her stage in the sky, lip-synching to showtunes, she is truly the center of all attention, and if the club is dark enough, she will always catch your eye.

Swift UVOT mosaic of M31 produced by Stefan Immler (NASA/GSFC).

Giant Elliptical Galaxy

Name: M87
Sex: Male
Age: 87
Gay score: 4/5

Ah, giant elliptical galaxy, known to your friends as cD. How glorious you look in the sky! Although now enjoying the majestic spoils of old age, you look as grand and fabulous as you ever did in your youth. And what a youth it was! So many boyfriends. So many intense, destructive codependent relationships. Some of those boys figured you out, and jumped ship, cast back out into the universe to find another love. So many more, however, succumbed to your charm and your gravitational personality and your ever growing ego.

And so now you sit alone, bloated and aged, enjoying the spoils of your life. The wreckage of your love life, lived fast and hard like a never ending circuit party, lies strewn around you - a collection of miniature poodles and shitzus, yapping at you incessantly in your room at the gay retirement village. As a wise homo once said to his teacup poodle in Washington Square park in San Francisco; "Princess, get in your damn bag already!" Will your orbiting dwarf dogs ever get back in their Louis Vuitton? Only time, and patience, will tell...

M87 image originally obtained by Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA).