Lifestyle

    Its time to mix it up. Autumn offers us yet another chance to express ourselves through our wardrobe.  St. Louis has a lot of style to offer; you just have to know where to look.  Local designers, brands and boutiques are the best way to ensure you don't look like a carbon copy. Whether your night on the town is in The Grove or elsewhere, its key to be yourself!  Brett and Rachel show us how to flaunt our inner-sexy all while keeping it cool...

BY: SARAH FENTEM

    It is often noted that fashion functions like a pendulum, regularly swinging back and forth between two sartorial extremes. For what seems like a very long time, the pendulum has been hovering around a louche, rock aesthetic, with fashion being dominated by a mix of eighties pop and nineties grunge. At clubs, on the street, or flipping through magazines, one is confronted by a parade of hipsters wearing slashed tees, leggings, fluorescent leotards, and messy hair.

BY: MATT JAMIESON

    Brighton, United Kingdom. April 6, 1974. The masses cheer as four young Swedes—Agnetha Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Fältskog, better known as ABBA, win the Eurovision Song Contest with their delightfully catchy song “Waterloo.”

    Being that September is our style issue, VV set out to ask some of our favorite retailers what are their “HOT PICKS” for the upcoming season. Mind, body and soul seem to be this year’s fall frenzy. These retailers have always been a big supporter of our LGBT community—VV asks that you return the favor by visiting one these hot spots for fashion!

BAKED T’s

BY KELLEE K. SIKES

    It’s got sex. It’s got drama. A new epic 1,000 to 3,000 mile journey happens each season. Critics and viewers alike rave about its layers of mystery mixed with foreign intrigue, intelligent plot lines, constant introduction of new transformative characters, and it happens right here. With two to three action-packed, brand-new, never before seen seasons each year, it’s the greenest, most astonishing cinematic opportunity to hit the region. Did I mention they are looking for principal actors and extras all the time?

BY: CURTIS COMER

    I don’t know about you, but I am one of the estimated 500,000 Missourians without health insurance. It’s not that I don’t want health insurance; it’s that I simply cannot afford to pay for it. Without a full time job I am both ineligible for benefits and without the resources, financially, to do so. Not that I’m sick (here I literally stop typing to knock on wood) but, at (almost) forty-five years old, you never know what might be lurking around the next corner.

BY: SARAH FENTEM

    What does it mean to be a gay artist today? Is it simply a matter of sexual identity? Or does it mean creating art relevant to the community? Each member of Vital VOICE’s “Arts and Entertainment” personalities had a different take on the question. For some, it is a hugely important facet of their work. For others, their “LGBT-ness” is merely an afterthought or not even relevant to their work at all. Still others use their experiences as a catalyst for creating art that is unrelated to their sexuality.

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

    When it comes to the arts—St. Louis may never match the intensity of cities like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, but we are a formidable metropolis—an oasis of unique culture, history and art straddling the mighty Mississippi. From our world class symphony and art museum to the thriving theatre scene and up and coming art districts, The Gateway City has much to offer even the most refined of tastes.

BY: CURTIS COMER

    When I moved to California in 1987, one of the first people I met there was a fifteen year old kid named Nicole. She was going to high school and working weekends at a café in the heart of the Castro, the same café where I was hired as a busboy. I was only twenty-one years old and fresh off the proverbial turnip truck but quickly fell in love with the Castro and the seemingly endless parade of gay men who frequented the cafe.

BY: CURTIS COMER

    My friend, Kris, has long been obsessed with the macabre. Serial killers, slasher movies, gritty crime dramas…anything that realistically portrays gore or the darker side of humanity…Kris has probably either read it or rented it or both. And, if she really loves it, she’ll buy it.