Graffiti Gangsta

Conde Nast and graffiti?!

Who knew that Vogue's online sister Style.com would ever do a feature on graffiti artists?? But it has. Once an underground counter-culture and still completely illegal, graffiti has really hit a high note with the fashion industry. Big name brands -- Adidas and LeSport Sac included -- have commissioned top dawg spray-can artists to do major projects. Graffiti-ists such as Banksy, Miss Van and Shepard Fairey are raking in the dough by selling their wares on canvas. Street-art sites like Wooster Collective have tons and tons of regular readers -- myself included (all the newsletters I get from them get a read-through, then get dropped into a special folder in my Hotmail account for future reference purposes).

Some may say these graffiti gurus are selling out, kind of like how Outkast sold out by going from a golden album like Aquemini to a stank album like, well, Stankonia.

I say it's great. And seeing their work get so much props is the freshest thing to happen on the art scene since Warhol silk-screened Elizabeth Taylor.

Vogue Goes Street







Man of the Day: From Breaker High to Young Hercules to Remember The Titans to The Believer to The Slaughterhouse Rule to Murder By Numbers to The Notebook to Oscar-nominated Half Nelson to Fracture -- with Sir Anthony Hopkins, at that. Ryan Gosling, Canadian and international man of the day. And the year. And my life. Damn that cutie-pie Rachel McAdams for being his (rumored) fiancee. Well, hot Canadian couples rule anyway. Cue Hollywood swoon.







* Photos property of gothamist.com, splendora.com