Gothic Video Diva: Floria Sigismondi

How often in the overly commercial world of MTV are you awestruck by a piece of museum-quality video art?
Over the past few years, I have found that the most disturbing and stylish music clips I have watched all seem to be by the same director. Fabulously dark and Gothic, this amazing female director has created some of the best imagery that artists like Marilyn Manson (Tourniquet, The Beautiful People), The White Stripes (Blue Orchid), The Raconteurs (Broken Boy Soldier), David Bowie (Little Wonder) and Bjork could ever hope for.
A photographer and film artist, Floria Sigismondi's vision focuses on "hyper-surrealism" according to her biography, mixing photography with painterly aesthetics. She seems inspired by hallucinatory dream-states, the poetic and the macabre.

Get Your Corset and Cape Ready...

If you're in NYC before September 1, and looking for one of the most fabulous, fashionable and fun exhibits to land at the Met Museum in a long time, check out "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy".
Curator Andrew Bolton and movie set designer Nathan Crowley ("Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight") have put together a production that showcases "how the superhero is the overarching metaphor for fashion, because both share this obsession with the body, identity and transformation." according to Bolton.
The exhibits are organized into such themes as "The Graphic Body," "The Patriotic Body," "The Armored Body," and "The Mutantl Body," the mixes actual superheroes with the symbolism of their costumes with fashion designs of similar veins.
How often does the classic Metropolitan museum flaunt the fetishism of Catwoman with Dolce & Gabbana black corset gowns or Thierry Mugler PVC catsuits? How often do you get to see Spiderman couture with dresses by Jean Paul Gaultier, Julien Macdonald and John Galliano?