Pete and Repeat

Philly U recently held a fashion show featuring designs by graduating seniors. Check out the up and coming talent.

While the First Lady likes to wear the designs of up and coming designers, and might even rock something created by a Philly U designer, apparently she committed a faux pas yesterday. Michelle wore a dress that she had previously worn! While I understand that she isn’t a cartoon character and isn’t meant to wear the same thing everyday, I also think she is allowed to have some repeats.  I mean, the woman has been the First Lady for over 100 days, and in the spotlight for much longer. It’s only realistic that she’ll have some repeats.

However, there is an outfit that I think shouldn’t be repeated for a while. That would be the lack of attire sported by radio personality Michael Smerconish. Smerconish posed nude in Philadelphia Weekly in order to promote his new book. I mean, his bum isn’t bad. It’s just that if he continues to be naked, it’ll lose it’s effectiveness.

Earlier this week, there was a gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. There were some interesting looks on the red carpet that are worth checking out.

Lastly, I came across the photos of a Swedish artist, Erik Johansson. He seems to specialize in photo manipulation, and while he’s not local his photos are intriguing anyway.

Five Funny Obama T-Shirts You Should Own

Happy Obama Day! So far, so good.

To celebrate, DMac and I have scoured the Internet and the streets of Philadelphia to bring you the awesomest Obama T-shirts. (We use the word “awesomest” to mean both tacky and legitimately rad, depending on the circumstances.) Though some people—including former mayoral candidate and dude who went to my high school Larry West—aren’t thrilled with all the Obama merchandise, we at PW headquarters are big supporters of T-shirts. Particularly ones that include both topical humor and presidential Jedi.

First up, we have bedazzled Barack in Swarovski crystals courtesy of Etsy artist yayaMarsy. Bonus points for the cat-like yellow eyes.

DMac found this gem at Sneaker Villa (two for $10!).

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you The Baracktopus!

Is Andy Warhol rolling over in his grave or smiling down on us from a better place?

My Thoughts On The First Lady’s Dress

Meh. I like the green shoes, but otherwise I think the whole ensemble is a tad blah.

Also: So much discussion on whether or not Obama would wear an overcoat. Does it matter? Even a little?

PW Style Needs Your Help!

In honor of that big thing happening in Washington tomorrow, DMac and I are compilling photos of the tackiest Obama merchandise we can find. Do you own one of those airbrushed T-shirts from the corner of Broad and Spring Garden? How about Obama earrings? Or one of those collectible plates? Take a picture and send it in to epalan@philadelphiaweekly.com. The funniest submissions will be posted tomorrow.

Victory! I Have Found the Tackiest Obama T-Shirt!

Available at Body Central at the Gallery for under $10.

Adventures in Bad Graphic Design: We Didn’t Expect This To Be A Series …

… but this ad in Citypaper was just too awesomely bad to ignore.

I’m not a trained graphic designer. I took a few design classes in college and if Temple had offered more, I probably would’ve explored that career path instead of journalism,  but since they didn’t, I didn’t. However, one of the things I know—both as someone with a teensy bit of design knowledge and a moderate level of common sense—is that if you’re going to Photoshop the head of a famous person—say, the President-elect of the United States of America—onto the body of non-famous person, you need to either: a) do it well enough that no one can tell or b) do it really, really badly on purpose so that we know you know it looks ridiculous.

NYT Breaks News: Barack Obama Doesn’t Always Wear Suits

This passage from the New York Times is presented without comment.

APART from the trip to Washington to visit his new home, President-elect Barack Obama has been looking pretty casual of late. Instead of the familiar dark suits and solid dress shirts, he has variously worn a baseball cap with a North Face warm-up jacket, jeans and white sneakers, and a black windbreaker that some observers assumed was leather but, more likely, was nothing fancier than cotton.

Several things happened when Mr. Obama surrendered, if briefly, the formality of his suit. You realized what a celebrity he is. After all, we know celebrities not so much by what they wear on the red carpet as by what they wear at the airport or to run an errand: a baseball cap and some version of a track suit.

The only thing missing from photos of Mr. Obama entering his SUV is a Starbucks in hand.

For $30 You Can Own This Ugly (But Commemorative) T-Shirt

This just in from the Obama campaign’s fortieth email of the day (Seriously, you won. Stop emailing me.):

The Democratic National Committee poured all of their resources into building our successful 50-state field program. Their efforts over the last four years have opened up new battleground states where Democratic nominees haven’t been competitive for a generation. We couldn’t have won this election without their support, but they’ve taken on considerable debt to make it happen. Make a donation of $30 or more now to help the DNC recover the resources it took to win, and we’ll send you a 2008 Victory T-shirt.

It’s not that I wouldn’t donate to Obama post-win. But Americans are being hit with this pesky economic crisis. A $30 T-shirt? Please. Do you know how many packages of Ramen noodles I could buy for that?

(Answer: 100 packages!)