FASHION GIRLS FOR HUMANITY

We asked longtime Last Magazine collaborator and makeup artist Mark Carrasquillo for his beauty must-haves. He sent over six of his favorites—straight out of his kit.

The story of Krochet Kids Intl. has been an improbable, guts-or-glory story of success following faith, says Kohl Crecelius, one of the nonprofit’s three laid-back founders. “I will tell you, there was a point where a group of about ten of us paused the night before we were going to teach the women in Uganda and we thought, What if they’re not very good at crocheting?”

Douglas Abraham, founder of the idiosyncratic jewelry and fashion line and Manhattan Wunderkammer Bess, decided if he was going to continue to use Instagram, it would need to serve as a platform for art, viewing the feed as an instrument to “create a story about yourself, to build an identity and share it.” Search his handle @bessnyc4, and it’s evident his identity is unique. Since March, Abraham has been posting a daily trio of aberrant fashion photomontages, evocative images that may at first glance appear to be a menagerie of subculture icons and fetishist imagery debasing beloved campaigns. But after swiping through your tenth, eleventh, or twentieth triptych, it’s apparent he’s seamlessly threading in his own wickedly cool perspective.

When the Litke womenswear line launched out of Brooklyn in 2012, the minimalist separates with eccentric cuts seemed fit for any New York ensemble: clean lines with quirky details (think of strategically-placed ruffles or asymmetrical patchwork), almost all of it in black and white and crafted from natural materials.

Is there a way to give back without ever opening your wallet? Catchafire inspires creatives to give their skill and time, creating a new mode of philanthropy that’s spreading like wild fire.

The standard shoot revolves around the ideas of the photographer or the creative director, with makeup artists and hairstylists working as a support team. Here at The Last Magazine, we wanted to celebrate these beauty experts in their own right, so we gave hairstylist James Pecis the opportunity to realize his own vision. As with our first beauty portfolio in the last issue, the results are a stripped-down, powerful response to the standard glossy glamour shot. It’s A Different Kind of Beauty.

View the full portfolio, featuring makeup artist Yadim and hairstylists Esther Langham and Duffy.

Ask the Danish singer Karen Marie Ørsted—better known as Mø—why she has devoted her life to music and her answer couldn’t be clearer: “I wanted to be like the Spice Girls!” Many girls who grew up in the mid-to-late Nineties harbor whimsical memories of dressing up in cropped tops and lip-synching enthusiastically to “Wannabe,” hairbrush firmly in hand. But while few can claim that their fandom launched them on a career in music, Mø certainly can. Ever since first listening to the Spice Girls’ début album Spice, the 25-year-old artist has been determined to bring girl power to a new generation.

In the short time since its launch in 2011, ADEAM has come a long way. The young line, helmed by Hanako Maeda, takes its cues from a mix of East and West, pulling inspiration from the designer’s twin hometowns of Tokyo and New York. A recent move stateside helped set her up for bigger things, and she expands her reach around the globe this month with the launch of ADEAM’s online shop, which offers a range of the label’s classic and inventive pieces, from smooth asymmetrical tops to sweeping evening gowns.

Haider Ackermann, long known for the sharp shapes of his progressive womenswear, brings his careful eye and steady hand to menswear for the first time this season, with a sleek collection captured by photographer Hayley Louisa Brown and stylist Stephen Mann.