Cactus à la mode

My favorite reality TV guilty pleasure, Project Runway, began its 9th season this past Thursday. After viewing the first episode, I can tell this season will bring with it all my fave elements: tearful backstories, bad hair and outfits and catty runway backstabbing … and, don’t get me started on the girl contestants! So, to honor the fashion spirit, here’s a trio of fashion items featuring succulents, specifically cactus.

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Click to view; Fendi A/W11; Set: Fred Butler; Photo: Kristin Vicari

FENDI MARY JANES & POTTED CACTI

How do you sex-up the rounded toe, single-strapped footware favored by both schoolgirl heroine, Madeline, and spinster schoolteachers? Well, you take the heel and raise it to sky-high levels, ditch the usual black patent leather in favor of acid-tinged hues and photograph the eccentric result in the presence of banal grocery store florist potted cacti. Fred Butler, the mastermind behind this creation, calls it “Peyote tutti-fruiti cutie … and if you think she arrived at this photo solution lightly you’re mistaken. Read the interview here, and marvel at her creative process.

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Model: Naomi Campbell; photo: Alessandro Lucioni

HERMES S/S09 RUNWAY SHOW

I wonder if anyone sitting in the front row of the Hermes Spring/Summer ’09 runway presentation asked themselves this question: Quíen es mas prickly — Rage-y assistant basher, Naomi Campbell, or a barrel cactus? Jean-Paul Gaultier, the collection’s designer, had models sashay down a runway covered in a dune’s worth of sand and dotted with handsome barrels and uprights, all the while dressed in cowgirl drag. I know it’s unspeakably past season, but view the collection slideshow here.

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Fashion victim

LADY GAGA IN ARIZONA

Literally embodying the phrase “hot mess”, Lady Gaga graces the steamy Arizona desert in sight-gag shoes, a pointless dress, bleached beehive and three blind mice sunglasses. As prickly pears and yucca’s strain to take in the attention-at-all-costs pop star, she took the time out to tweet the following to her fans, her Little Monsters:

“Days off in the AZ Desert: Cactus fashion + Tequila. Can’t make me take off my leather, I would rather faint and die of glamour.”

I like the Lady; she’s never afraid to take a fashion risk. I just wish she’d had the foresight wear her infamous meat dress (click here) to AZ. Fajitas go great with tequila.