It’s a dog beat eat dog world in VICE‘swonderfully whacky and subversively sadomasochistic editorial “Doggy District,” shot by Bryan Derballa with canine couture by Asher Levine.

While they may have seen better days, these old dogs have nevertheless learned to turn new tricks. As our month of all things sexy — and clearly we mean all things — is in full-swing, we thought this midday doggy diversion particularly appropriate.

No matter how inappropriate it actually is.

“Lagos defies logic. It’s an immensely frustrating place to be. The corruption, homophobia and traffic are a joke, and everything else seems fake, broken or breaking. But the young people are delicious. The models are heavenly, and the way they dance to Nigerian ‘dancehall’ is mind-boggling. No one got paid at this fashion week, but no one seemed to care either. There’s nowhere else like it.”

The models truly are heavenly as Nigeria’s greatest natural resource is clearly its stunning youth. Literally, pluck any girl from the low-rent, no budget knockoff of America’s Next Top Model — imaginatively titled Africa’s Next Supermodel — and throw her on the runway or the cover of Italian Vogue. And the men, while hopelessly narcissistic, kind of have the right to be — just take a look at the part of the episode where some male models discuss the endowment of Nigerian men. Cocky doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Check out the season finale of Fashion Week Internationale below and make sure to catch up on any episodes you might have missed:

Cambodia

Las Vegas

Colombia

Islamabad/New York Full-Figured Fashion Week

On the one side, there’s the crop of  young fashionistas excited to  take advantage of newfound  freedoms as the country pulls itself from the devastating aftermath of the Khmer Rouge communist regime. Then there’s the sobering reality of factory workers paid $2 a day to work in grueling and unhealthy conditions in order to supply the West with its full of fast fashion. And in between the two diametrically-opposed worlds, the glorious Cambodian tranny flits unfettered.

The statuesque Charlet Duboc takes to the streets of Phnom Penh to explore what Cambodia Fashion Week has to offer and as befits a third world nation, she found more than she bargained:

“Culturally, Cambodia is on still on wobbly legs after the Khmer Rouge’s ruthless genocide obliterated any trace of creativity the country had. The very concept of fashion is still ‘Greek’ to most Cambodians. Modeling is frowned upon and many people just wear pajamas, which is ironic considering the country’s biggest source of export revenue is its garment industry, which produces clothes for the West, paying its workers $2 per day to do so. So, you’ll see there were plenty of things to distract me from Cambodia’s first ever fashion week.”

Parts 2 and 3 will debut tomorrow but for now enjoy Part 1 below:

Duboc traveled to the Nevada desert to explore Sin City’s “cutting edge lingerie,” though all she found were some moonlighting strippers flaunting their assets for some old dudes who effortlessly give renewed meaning to the word “creepy.” In her travels, Charlet encounters a G-string factory (the largest in Nevada, thank you), gets her hands dirty in Las Vegas’s Lingerie Football League, stares into the gaping hole of many a crotchless panty and generally learns why what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Check out Part 1 below and visit VICE for more cheerfully disturbing fashion coverage:

Colombian women of all ages seek out the coveted hourglass figure of the Latina bombshell, in hopes of a better life and a better sense of self. Butt, at what cost? While gluteoplasty — i.e. butt implants — cost about a third of what they would in the U.S., some women risk everything, even their lives, in the pursuit of gluteal perfection. Duboc witnesses one of these surgeries for herself when a rather ravishing 45-year-old woman goes under the knife.  ”If you’re squeamish you might find it challenging to watch through til the end!” Duboc warns, and it really is harrowing/disgusting/vomit-inducing watching a doctor gingerly shove a piece of plastic into a sedated butt cheek. After all was said and done, however, Duboc admitted to feeling a bit of “ass-envy.”

Check out the first part of the doc below and check out Vice.com for more Fashion Week Internationale!

Pakistan, a country known more for extremist violence than for extreme couture, possesses a thriving fashion community of dedicated individuals working for something in which they truly believe. Pakistani designers won’t see their clothes in Bergdorf’s or Barney’s anytime soon, let alone on their country’s own women, many of whom still don traditional burqas from head to toe. Despite this passion, it’s hard for Islamabad Fashion Week to shake the stigma of fear and religious conservatism — after all, the fashion shows were staged in a former bomb shelter.

Even for Charlet Duboc, the lovely and statuesque hostess of Fashion Week Internationale, going to the Middle East was a challenge for which she wasn’t sure she was prepared. “I consider myself a fairly worldly person but it made me start thinking: fashion week in Islamabad. What do I know about Pakistan? Militant…a fucking load of shit going down. Nothing good! Fashion? No way, everyone covers up. But there was a story that really needed to be told.” Charlet then went about educating herself but along the way she had to deal with her family, who actually staged an intervention to keep her from going. But as soon as she arrived in Islamabad, she didn’t want to leave.

Me with Fashion Week Internationale's Charlat Duboc

Greeted by “wonderful, warm” people, Charlet was struck by the youth of the country and their dedication to fashion, particularly the women, who were volunteering backstage and sitting front row. “I couldn’t quite believe it. How does that work? How can you look at that and admire it and yet know you can’t wear it? But they were there, they were appreciating it and it didn’t feel like there was a divide. Like, ‘You do your thing, I do my thing’ and everyone got along.”

Islamabad Fashion Week ultimately proved to be a learning experience for Charlet: “Pakistan is strictly not what we see on the news. There’s shit going on [but] they’re wonderful people, it’s a beautiful country…They have a budding textile industry, even though the economy is up the creek without a paddle. It’s still massively divided, but the people are some of the warmest, most open people and I’ve remained friends with them. I have friends that come visit me in London and I’m going to go back there.”

Throughout the documentary, the thing that intrigued me most was the gay culture in Pakistan, if one even existed. After all, and speaking from experience, fashion is a queen’s industry. “The few guys I spoke to, and that I recognized as gay, when I asked them ‘How is it being gay here?’, they were like, ‘You know, there’s opposition but we get by. We have our own network, we just cope with it. Not a big deal.’  Some of the models weren’t so forthcoming about it. I got the impression that a lot of the men working behind the scenes, like the stylists…they were gay and that their wives quite clearly were like beards.” These men that Charlet came into contact with were very rich, however, and she noted that being gay and poor was probably “not as forgiving.” But then again, where is it?

New York’s first Full Figured Fashion Week was more of a celebration of women than of the clothes themselves. Whereas in the mainstream shows, the clothes often end up wearing the models, at FFFW, the models most definitely wear the clothes. And the celebratory air of the show was contagious, causing Charlet to enthuse that it was one of the best fashion weeks she’s ever been to. And the after party, making no qualms about it, was the best fashion party she’s ever been to. “They were fucking wilding out! You go to fashion week and everyone’s going to faint, no one’s had anything to eat. They were just the most warm-hearted and open [people].”

But like Islamabad, Charlet, being tall and thin (hard life, I know) was a bit wary about infiltrating the world of plus-sized fashion. But turns out she had nothing to worry about. “They were so accepting of me. They were happy to make jokes about it. And when I spoke to them off camera they were like, ‘We were bullied at school. It’s not like I was born being confident about my body.’ That’s what’s inspiring. At the time, I felt like if I woke up tomorrow and I was a size 22, these women are here. There’s a support network. It’s not the end of the world.”

After Islamabad and Full Figured Fashion Week, we saw a preview of the third episode, taking place in Medellin, Columbia, renowned for being Pablo Escobar’s old stomping grounds and thus high on its reputation as a cocaine capital. To shake that stigma, the government stages its own fashion week, Colombiamoda. But downtown is the “real” fashion week, Colombia Para el Mondo, put on by the people and purportedly funded by drug money. Aside from a different clothing aesthetic, the models in Colombiamodo represent a European ideal whereas girls in Para el Modo are curvy and cosmetically-enhanced. Plastic surgery is so prevalent, in fact, that 70 percent of Colombian women have had plastic surgery, starting as young as 16 or 17. To better understand the phenomena, Charlet actually sat through a butt implant procedure — an experience that left her feeling much better about her own assets.

Further installments of Fashion Week Internationale are planned, with Las Vegas International Lingerie Week, followed by Russian Disabled Fashion Week and then Charlet and co. are off to Lagos, Nigeria. But to catch the completely enthralling first episode on Islamabad, log onto Vice.com next week.

On Monday, Andy Capper, editor of Vice UK, will debut the mag’s new feature, “Fashion Week Internationale” at Vice‘s office in Williamsburg — the birthplace and subsequent burial ground of post-ironic irony. The series will cover oft-neglected fashion weeks in politically and economically unstable countries such as Columbia, Islamabad and Russia. They’ve also got a new book out, Fashion Cats, featuring two cats in the latest Japanese fashion — which basically has New York Times bestseller written all over it. Anticipating the feline fashion frenzy, Urban Outfitters put in an order for 10,000 copies, but it’s available wherever books are sold…i.e. not Borders. #sad

As for Elektra’s future as a fashion critic…well, let’s just say Cathy Horyn she is not. Her observations went along the lines of ”I’m intensely tripping my shit” and ”I was too overwhelmed by the music and the people. I didn’t even really look at the clothes.” Then there was a run-in with Naomi Campbell that left the poor girl “in a very bad place” — “I got really bad vibes off of her. I don’t feel very well now. I thought she was going to hit me.”

And now Elektra knows what it’s like working for Naomi Campbell. This was a valuable learning experience after all![WWD]

Filmmaker, writer, and fellow photographer Bruce LaBruce interviewed the Kaiser in Paris for the current Vice Magazine Fashion Issue. Check out the issue here

LINK LOVE: VICE Land

I’m a happy tourist in the USA with my American flag shorts and my flip flops…but I’m also wearing a Public Enemy shirt so maybe I’m not a tourist because I don’t want people thinking I’m a terrorist…so maybe I’m just having a good time…but I’m also wearing a SARS/Swine Flu mask and that is NOT a good time…wait, I’m confused!!! Are those buttons on my do-rag?

This man is obviously in need of a little fashion clarification…what do you guys think?

LINK LOVE: Viceland

Link Love: Viceland

I don’t know who allows this person to be a TV host, but I don’t want to watch.

Via Viceland

Nice puka shells, dude.

Thanks Viceland!

Via Viceland

So many things wrong with this photos. Obnoxiously loud pants that are also perfectly outlining her behind (and revealing her trampstamp), and the dude behind her, camo AND hawaiian print? Please, don’t.

Thanks Viceland

Thanks Viceland!

Thanks Viceland!

Thank Vice

Oh my goodness. This one speaks for itself.

Thanks Vice!

I guess they want you to see what you’re paying for?  Note: both of these assless pants were home-cut. Why!

Thanks Vice

Yes, sometimes slashed up jeans or tights look cool, but this is a little overkill.

Thanks Vice

We’ve seen some pretty classy spreads of Fashion Porn lately, but Vice Magazine’s attempt is a trashy mess. I realize that Vice usually is a bit rough around the edges and that the title of the spead is “Copy Sluts,” but this spread absolutley ruined what could have been a great idea for an editorial. Not only is the spread poory photographed, there is way too much T&A and not enough fashion.

Vice Magazine is hiring 7 staffers including some from the now defunk Radar Magazine. Guess dwindling sales don’t affect free magazines. Hopefully, this means they will up the ante in their fashion section cause me likey mucho.

LINKAGE: Vice Adds 7 New Staffers

What: Radar Magazine October Issue Party

When: 8PM – 10PM
Where: Catch 22 - 4 west 22nd St.

RSVP - poull@poull.com or rsvp@rosengrouppr.com

Kangol’s 70th Anniversary

When: 9PM
Where: Le Royale 21 7th Avenue

Music From: Hollywood Holt & Mano
Passion Pit
Justine D (dj set)
HOLY GHOST! (dj set)

Complimentary sake2me, Asahi, Tito’s Vodka till 10

Thanks to Partycrasher for spicing up our lives.

Levi’s teamed up with Vice Magazine to chose someone to do their new Levi’s 501 “Live Unbuttoned” campaign in Stockholm. The winner was Mia Nilsson with her rendition of kids trying to be cool in their 501′s. Pretty nifty!

Thanks Hypebeast!

Vice Fashion does it again with another Dov Charney feeling photoshoot, but I can’t help but feel that there is a bit more artistic value behind this shoot. The spread is called “T-shirts and the absence on T-shirts”, and I with the title this makes the images seem a bit more artistically focused. I love the photos and the focus on t-shirts. The photos were taken by Blossom Berkofsky, and can be seen in the upcoming Vice Fashion magazine.

Thanks Vice for the pictures.

Vice has long held steady as the mag for true indies with it’s gripping reports on the Do’s and Dont’s of the world. This week their Fashion Issue hits the shelves of American Apparel. Be sure to grab this issue quick. Their coverage is legendary, but their availability is limited.