Employees of the Month

JAMES POGUE

Above all else, James is looking for a free place to stay, if you know anyone with an apartment he can housesit for the next few years. His essays and journalism have appeared in n+1, the Oxford American, and the New Yorker. He also sometimes works as a researcher for fashion magazines with initials for names, like GQ and V. For this issue, James traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to survey the aftermath of a garment-factory fire last November that left at least 100 dead. His piece serves as a harrowing reminder that cheap clothing bought by Americans and other Westerners can cost much more than its low price tag would have you believe.

See

DISASTERS MADE IN BANGLADESH
   SAMANTHA RAPP

Samantha began her career in photography after moving to New York in 1997, and in the years since, her work has graced the pages of magazines like Tank, Exit, and the British and Italian editions of Vogue. She's also a regular contributor to the New York Times and shoots tons of portraits for them. In this issue, you will find a Patti Smith-inspired fashion spread she shot with the help of her close friends, stylist Christian Stroble and model Jamie Borchett, in Paris. They ran into an unexpected blizzard but rolled with it, and we think it made the shoot appropriately dark and frosty, not to mention gorgeous in black and white.

See BECAUSE THE NIGHT

AWOL ERIZKU

We asked Awol to write his own bio, but instead he sent us a long list of shout-outs to things as disparate as his mom to the internet. It was pretty funny but also refreshing, because it showed that no matter how far the photographer ascends in the art world, he will never forget where he came from. At 24, he's already developed a signature style of portraiture and has cemented his reputation as the resident documentarian of downtown New York's creative elite. Right now, he is in the midst of Yale's two-year MFA photography program, but he took some time off from book learnin' to photograph our tribute to black barbershops.

See CHOP, DROP, AND ROLL

JAMIE LEE CURTIS TAETE Jamie is a wiry English lad who moved to America because it's the only country that is as devoid of culture as his dead-end hometown. Now he spends his days working in sunny Los Angeles as our West Coast editor, feeling lonely and wondering why he left all his friends behind. He was an employee of the month a few years ago, but the text called him an "adorable little homo," and he felt like he couldn't show his mum (that's British for "mom"). So we're putting him in again so he can mail this issue back home. Hi, Jamie's mum! This month, Jamie interviewed showbiz-costume legend Bob Mackie and took a photo of Bob Odenkirk in drag. He loves Bobs.  See BOB MACKIE HAS DRESSED ALMOST EVERYONE and BOB ODENKIRK'S PAGE

OLIVIA BEE

Olivia, an 18-year-old photography wunderkind, was born in Portland, Oregon and now lives in New York City. She started taking photos at 11 years old and was shooting professionally by 15. She is often the youngest and shortest person in the room, but usually the most talented. She says she's inspired by freedom, the 70s, moments of everyday life, and the relationships between people and the environments in which they place themselves. "I strive to capture the ordinary in an extrodinary way," she told us. And that she did in her cowboy- and cowgirl-themed shoot for this American-centric Fashion Issue.

See COLTS AND FILLIES