The 5-Year-Old Boy Who’s Become an Instagram Style Icon

Style Icon. Get familiar and take notes. That was the tweet last year from Ugo Mozie, a stylist who has worked with Chris Brown, Beyoncé, and Kelly Rowland. Attached was a photo, which I thought would be his newest client. Instead, there was a tiny trendsetter wearing different outfits: a tailor-made jacket with a Tom Ford pocket square, a Dior shirt, Diesel jeans, and a Gucci belt, then an AllSaints leather jacket with Gucci shades. This was my first introduction to Alonso Mateo, a child who has become an Instagram megastar thanks to his small suits and Frankenstein haircut. Almost every photo of him now makes it to the network’s Popular page. There are now five fan accounts dedicated to his style, two of which have appeared in the last month.

Right now, he’s 5. That makes him the latest in an Internet lineage of child-style icons, from Matthew Weiner’s son, Arlo, to Alexander Wang’s toddler niece, Alia, who is often spotted at his fashion shows. Add to that Hudson Kroenig, the son of model Brad Kroenig who became a Karl Lagerfeld muse when he was 3; the pageant-esque preteen Thylane Lena-Rose, who was shot for French Vogue when she was 10; then there’s Suri Cruise or Maddox Jolie-Pitt and plenty of Hollywood spawn who wear Lilliputian luxury and get shot by paparazzi, often sticking out their tongues. But what’s different about Mateo is that his parents aren’t famous, nor was he discovered at fashion shows or in magazines. Instead, he’s a social media phenomenon. “What first caught my eye about him was his confidence,” Mozie explains now. “His clothes were exceptionally tailored, drop-crotch pants, his hand in his pocket — that stood out to me.”

As crazy as it sounds, Mozie and thousands of other fans think the kid’s got swagger. He poses nonchalantly, looking away from the camera and smiling charismatically. Many of these shots are selfies, naturally, which he snaps in front of a mirror. In one image he wears a Crewcuts shirt and slim-fitting Crewcuts pants, Gucci horsebit loafers, and a Gucci belt. My boyfriend would look great in that. And he’s 29.

Usually, these images first appear on his mother’s feed (@luisafere): Luisa Fernanda Espinosa, a freelance stylist, started posting the pictures last year and now has more than 127,000 followers. There are now 230,000 photos catalogued of her son on Google Images — more than some B-List celebrities — wearing everything from his “favorite” AllSaints motorcycle boots (which his mom nabbed in several sizes before their kids line was discontinued), to designer blazers, tailor-made drop-crotch pants, and his classic Ray-Ban aviators. They’re the kinds of outfits some adults like wearing: Recently, Espinosa learned that the boyfriend of one of her son’s teachers had been taking cues from “this stylish kid on Instagram,” not realizing he was his girlfriend’s student.

Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Alonso lived there with his parents until two years ago, when they moved to Laguna Beach. His mother has contributed to Harper’s Bazaar Mexico and Latin America. His father is the owner and CEO of a private equity firm. Through that, they have the money to buy their son a wardrobe worthy of a Brant brother. Through her fashion work, Luisa has kept tabs on every new and expensive high-end children’s line. They shop together as a family. And like any fashion obsessive, young Mateo follows trends: Right now, his favorite is high-top sneakers, like the Jeremy Scott ones he pairs with jeans and cool sweatshirts.

“I love suits, sneakers, and sunglasses,” the boy told the Cut in a recent phone conversation. “I like to dress like my dad, because he has cool suits.” To accomplish that, mom brings him to Kitson Kids, Dior, Gucci (“for leather jackets”), Stella McCartney, Bon Point (“French couture for kids”), Nordstrom, H&M (“for amazing basics”), Little Marc Jacobs (“amazing”), Dolce & Gabbana (“great”), and even Target. “As long as it’s nice quality, I’ll take it,” she says.

Each morning before school, mom and son head to his personal walk-in closet, where one wall is dedicated to shoes. He’ll tell her which pants and shoes he wants, and then he might choose a T-shirt. “I’ll say that’s a summer tee and we’re in winter,” she explains. “I’ll help him coordinate outfits so that they make sense, but mostly it's him.” When they leave the house, fans might ask to take his picture. But like most young kids, even those dressed less ostentatiously, she says her boy can be a bit shy: “Sometimes he’ll turn down a fan and say he’s too tired.”

Not everyone wants to see a child dressing like this, so some of those photos online are now tagged with comments from critics: “You only teach him material stuff,” they’ll write, or “he’s just a spoiled douche bag” — a loaded insult for a 5-year-old, one that suggests they find these photos exploitative, or that they encourage creepers. “I think people usually judge right away,” Espinosa says, defending her choices. “When we go shopping, if he wants loafers just like his daddy and I can afford them, I get them. We’re fine raising our son. He’s always polite, he’s grounded, he’s a sweet boy.” Others question whether his taste in fashion is “too much for a little kid,” say that he looks like “a miniature adult,” or that he should simply “enjoy his childhood.”

But what if he already is? Espinosa says she lets him keep doing it (and doing it on his own volition, she insists), because he’s just having fun. Often, she adds, the pictures materialize because the kid just loves being in front of the camera. He now produces his own shoots: “I have my own iPad 2 and iPod,” he told me. And even Mateo’s mom admits she’s still trying to figure the behavior out: “I don’t know if it’s because he’s an only child and he’s surrounded by so many grown-ups that he kind of wants to replicate what everybody around him is wearing?” she asks. “I don’t think he really notices he’s fashion forward. He’s too young.”

View the original article here

The Brain-Dead Simple but Astonishingly Effective Way to Become a Better Writer

Home >> Creativity >> The Brain-Dead Simple but Astonishingly Effective Way to Become a Better Writer Posted by Greg Digneo in Creativity, Writing | 73 comments

Jun 19, 13

Write better posts.

Go to any site about blogging and you’ll see some variation of this advice.

Need more traffic?  Write better posts.

Want more comments?  Write better posts.

And on the surface, it sounds like sage advice.

But when you think about it, it’s kind of like a track coach telling an athlete:  “If you want to win an Olympic gold, run faster.”

Well thanks Captain Obvious, but the problem isn’t a lack of effort.

I mean, raise your hand if you’ve ever sat down in front of your computer and intentionally written a bad blog post.

Thought so.

Write better posts might be great advice for the occasionally lazy blogger with a gift from the writing gods, but what are the rest of us supposed to do?

You know, we mere mortals who are willing to work our butts off and spend the hours it takes to produce great content but need a little help with the how.

The good news is that those great writers and artists who seem to have had their talent handed down from above didn’t start out great.

In fact, many of them only got there by using a dumb technique that you can shamelessly steal.

And it’s so brain-dead simple, you’re going to wonder why the hell you didn’t work it out for yourself.

When you look at one of Picasso’s famous paintings, it’s hard to imagine anyone but the Spanish master himself creating those distinctive brush strokes.

His style is unmistakable. His talent undeniable.

It stands to reason that Picasso’s genius can only have been the result of a natural gift, right?

Would it surprise you to know Picasso honed his techniques and developed his unique style by copying the greats who came before him?

When he was 7 years old, Pablo Picasso was formally trained in figure drawing and oil painting by his father José.

José was a traditional, academic artist and instructor who believed that proper training required disciplined copying of the masters and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models.

Slavishly reproducing the greats and experimenting with a variety of styles, theories, and ideas led to the revolutionary artistic accomplishments that brought Picasso his fame and wealth.

Once upon a time, a very average student called Dan Kennedy went to visit his career counselor to ask about internship opportunities.

The career counselor said there was nothing suitable for him at the blue chip companies, but she did know a man who needed some help with his direct marketing business.

That man’s name was Gary Halbert, arguably the greatest living copywriter at the time.

On his first day, Dan arrived at a simple white office with three tables.  At one table, people were stuffing envelopes.  At the next table, people were filling orders.  And at the final table, he watched in awe as people counted stacks of money.

Dan turned to Gary Halbert and said: “I want to do what you do.”

Gary handed Dan a pile of sales letters 2 feet thick and told him: “Copy each of these letters by hand.  And when you’re done, copy them again.”

It took two years for Dan to finish his assignment.

But did it work?

Today, if you want to hire Dan Kennedy to write a sales letter for you, it’ll cost you $100,000 up front plus a commission on each sale you make.

You may not know this, but Jon has a degree in English Literature.  He often says this is the worst major an aspiring blogger can possibly pursue because an English Lit major is trained to write formally (read: boring).

When he first started out, Jon knew that if he wanted to build a popular blog, he would have to break these “good” writing habits in order to become a better blogger.  Drawing on the lessons learned by Dan Kennedy and Picasso, he opened up Stephen King’s “On Writing” and began to copy the text word for word.

Did it work?

Today Jon is one of the most read and shared writers in the blogosphere.

And he still uses this brain-dead technique whenever he’s facing writers’ block.

You’re probably asking yourself:  How can someone become a better writer or artist simply by copying the greats that came before?

The answer is muscle memory.

Wikipedia says that muscle memory is “consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition.”  When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.

For instance, if you’ve ever played a sport, you probably did a lot of drills.  A professional baseball player will hit a ball off a tee thousands of times to focus on the mechanics of the swing.

When he steps up to the plate to face a ball at 90 miles an hour, his body knows exactly what to do without him even thinking about it.

His muscles remembered how to swing the bat.

The same thing is true for writing.

By copying the greats who have come before you, you’ll train your brain to pick up their cadence.  You’ll learn how their words flow together.  And eventually it will become second nature to write like them.

It’s time for you to follow in the footsteps of the most popular bloggers and successful writers. It’s time to train your writing brain for greatness.

And you can do this in four simple steps.

1. Find a writer you enjoy reading and would like to copy.  Here are some of my favorites:

Gary Halbert – If you’re stuck on a headline idea, or want to get more people to subscribe to your email list, copy the Gary Halbert letters.  Yes, he’s a copywriter, but copying these letters will turn you into a great blogger, too.Stephen King – A master story teller, copying Stephen King will help you tell a story more eloquently so you can relate to your readers and cultivate a loyal audience.Seth Godin – Seth’s brilliance is his brevity.  He can take complex ideas and articulate them to the masses in under 100 words. Studying Seth will help you say more with less and become a master of the pithy sound bite.The Bloggess – If you’re looking to inject personality into your post, check out The Bloggess.  She’s opinionated, controversial, and a fantastic blogger.Ben Settle – Smart bloggers know that email marketing and blogging go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Ben Settle will show you how to write emails that get opened and inspire your audience to take action.Charles Bukowski –  For more advanced bloggers, Charles Bukowski will help you develop a rhythm and cadence to your writing style.

2. Get your favorite pen and get some paper.  I prefer using old-fashioned legal pads.  But whatever works for you is fine.

3. Choose any piece of writing from your favorite writer or blogger and copy it by hand onto your pad.  Once you’re done, copy another one.  Do this for one full hour.  Continue this same process every night for the next four months.

4. At the end of the fourth month, find an old post and re-write it so you can see just how much your writing has improved.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is.  As the saying goes, it’s simple, but it ain’t easy.  Not everyone will put in the time and effort required to become a better writer.

It’s why a very small percentage of bloggers become popular.

But we‘re the lucky ones because we now know the secrets of the best writers and bloggers in the world.

They’ve trained their writing muscles to remember the techniques of the greats that came before them.

And you can do the exact same thing.

I won’t guarantee that you’ll become a rock star blogger. There are far too many variables.

But I will guarantee you’ll become a much better writer if you follow these simple steps.

Your blog will start to see more traffic.  Your posts will start to see more comments.  And you will be on your way to becoming a great blogger.

Do yourself a favor and get started today.

There’s no excuse.

Because you finally know what you need to do to… write better posts.

About the author: Greg Digneo is obsessed with helping marketing agencies, consultants, media companies, and PR firms sign up new clients. If this is you and you’d like to learn more about what it takes to generate new leads online, then check out his new video where he shows you how to sign up 5 clients per month.

View the original article here

Airbrushing ‘Bans’ Become Full-Blown Marketing Ploy

First Seventeen publicly "banned" the use of Photoshop last year, and then there was the "did she or didn't she" kerfuffle over Beyoncé's ads for H&M last month. Now British retailer Debenhams announced yesterday that they'll no longer airbrush their lingerie advertisements. The store's website proclaims that they're doing so as part of an "inclusivity campaign" to boost women's self-esteem:

Says Sharon Webb, Head of Lingerie buying and design for Debenhams: “We want to help customers feel confident about their figures without bombarding them with unattainable body images.

“As well as being a positive from a moral point of view, it ticks the economic boxes as well. Millions of pounds a year are spent by organisations retouching perfectly good images... As a rule we only airbrush minor things like pigmentation or stray hair and rely on the natural beauty of models to make our product look great."

So in other words, they'll still use airbrushing to "enhance" the pictures (erase a zit here, delete a weird bruise there), just like Seventeen still does, but they won't use it to change the model's shape or size.

Of course, the incentive behind this is good press and a female-friendly reputation. Sure, Debenhams's executives don't want to go to bed every night knowing that they're portraying unhealthy ideals for women. But they also know this makes their brand look moral and upstanding, and draws more attention to their underwear offerings than a "normal" ad would (see their un-airbrushed" versus airbrushed ads, above).

What's more, they're using it to make their competitors look bad; a spokesperson told the Daily Mail, "We want other retailers to follow suit and encourage positive body-image through minimal retouching rather than bombarding them with unattainable body images." But perhaps this is better than relying on people like the British Advertising Standards Authority to police such matters; economic incentives are always more powerful than weak wrist slaps.

On a different note: Why just lingerie shots? Why can't this so-called "ban" apply to all advertising materials?

View the original article here

When ‘Horse Girls’ Become ‘Horse Women’

It was the night of the Exotic Erotic, and I was stuck in traffic in suburban Connecticut with the college equestrian team. The annual Exotic Erotic dance (“the less you wear, the less you pay”), would start in one hour, and there was no way I was going to make it back in time to partake in my new favorite pastime: “pre-gaming.” It was at that moment, drenched in a potent mixture of sweat, manure, and horse snot, that I decided that I wouldn’t be spending the next four years driving around New England; it was time to pair an unflattering bathing suit top with a pair of cut-off Seven jeans and do shots of Popov vodka. It didn’t matter that at the age of 8, peaking around 11, slightly petering out at 15, and then roaring back for college at 18, I had been obsessed with horses for most of my life.

All this came flashing back this year, a decade later, when I was bored one day and biked over to my old barn. I happened to observe a group of thirtysomething ladies taking a lesson together. They looked like they were having a ball. So I decided it was time to get back in the saddle, even though I felt slightly embarrassed. When I heard horse-related murmurings coming from my cubicle-mate Amelia Diamond's desk, it took me a while to venture over there to talk shop. “So, do you ... ride?” I tentatively asked her one day. Actually, she rides twice a week, occasionally thrice, and even competes. And Amelia, despite a phase as a pre-teen during which she watched National Velvet from start to finish every single day after school, also happens to be markedly well-adjusted. Soon, we both started talking about one of summer’s biggest book releases, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, out this week via Riverhead, which is beautifully written, and essentially horse porn for literary-minded equestrians.

Other than the fact that paying for lessons costs as much as a nice dinner for two, I obviously had reservations about getting back into it: There was something a little silly about a grown woman partaking in something associated with pre-pubescent girls. It's kind of like if I had decided to start playing with American Girl dolls or trading Absolut ads again. I would soon realize that riding as an adult is a lot different from riding as a girl. Gone are intolerable horse-moms, snooty mean girls, scary trainers, and all that adolescent angst. Only as a critically thinking woman can I now fully grasp how insane and amazing it is to be able to use your mind and body to seamlessly communicate something to a massive animal which, in turn, allows you both to fly through air. Whereas the relationship between Man and Horse was something I once thought of as “cute” and “fun,” I now think it’s kind of transcendent. Plus, riding gear is chic! A tucked-in white button down paired with a pair of tan riding pants and knee-high, lace-up black boots is just classically elegant. With dirty hair, it can look awesome.

Beyond the uniform, why did I like the hobby so much? That’s what I hoped talking to other women, riding as adults, could help me determine. “As an adult, I'm now more conscious of and can now articulate what it is I like about horses,” Yonahlossee’s author Anton DiSclafani told me the other day. She rode competitively as a teenager up until college, only returning to the sport a year and a half ago. “Riding requires so much mental and physical energy, and when I’m doing it, it’s the only time of the day when I’m not worried about something. It’s better than therapy.”

But though she leases a horse, rides several times a week, and has gotten to the point where she’s not embarrassed to go to the grocery store covered in all manner of equine goo, she says, “I have to be careful; I'm aware of not wanting to come across as that weird lady obsessed with horses.” I too feel the need to keep my horsiness in check, knowing that it could easily spiral into something verging on kooky, in a non-endearing kind of way.

Sarah Maslin Nir, a New York Times reporter who rode competitively as a teen and now rides three times a week, is less concerned with coming across as a weirdo than as a spoiled snob. There's no denying that horseback riding, at least here on the East Coast, is a sport that’s tied up with privilege; little blonde girls with pigtails photographed atop their ponies next to mom’s Jack Russells; Polo Ralph Lauren; Georgina Bloomberg. “I always think that saddest part of the sport is that it is associated with the elite, because at its heart of hearts, it's just being outdoors and being with a beautiful creature.” While it's still not cheap by any means, Nir says that she’s a strong enough rider to be able to “sit on anything,” and makes it work by riding other people's fancy horses. As a grown-up, she says the superficial values that made horseback riding slightly icky back when she was younger mostly seems to have disappeared. Yennie Solheim, another rider who works at Google and has been riding steadily since she was a young girl, adds that as a teen, there was a lot of pressure to have this fancy helmet, and that fancy riding coat. “For me, now, riding is purely a way for me to relax; it's a getaway.”

As young girls, the barn offered the same thing. “I was less interested in boys than my friends were,” DiSclafani says, “and didn't, like, love middle or high school. The barn was a total refuge.” (Like her, and all who rode, really, Christine Quinn writes in her new memoir that horseback riding was “the activity that sustained” her as a teenager).

But the sexy stuff is unavoidable. “This might be an oversimplification, but girls have a lot of sexual energy at that time, and being obsessed with horses was one way to direct that,” DiSclafani adds. Looking back on my early teens, my friends and I definitely used to talk about horses like we talked about boys (whom we were definitely not talking to): Wasn’t Toy just so cute today? Sarah rode Lucky, and it was so clear he didn’t like her! Windy and I just really have such good chemistry. It's no coincidence that Yonahlossee, a bildungsroman set during the Depression about a young girl whose wealthy family sends her away to a horse-centric boarding school, charts her relationship with an older man as she becomes a more competitive horseback rider. “As she becomes more interested in the world of sex, she becomes a better rider, and riding is an even more important part of her life,” DiSclafani says.

These days, the riders I spoke to seemed to be navigating the world of horses and men just fine. Diamond says that most of the guys she encounters don’t seem to have a problem with it. “But there’s always some dude who says something gross. Like, ‘You ride? Have you seen Cruel Intentions 2?'”

Nir recalls a blind date she went on with a guy who was named after a horse, and, shockingly, liked horses just as much as she did. “I thought, wow, it’s the closet thing to dating a horse as it gets. This is great,” until something just felt off. “I love talking about horses with my girlfriends, but talking about horses with him felt like talking about getting my nails done.”

It's true that there is still some sort of girlish glee that riding brings out in me. Diamond put it best when she said “there is something actually delicious” about that first whiff of horse and leather she gets now when she walks into a stable. Even if it comes at the expense of more grown-up activities: “When you get to this age, and you’re still riding, you've weighed your priorities, and your horse comes before your partner,” Nir adds, before clarifying: “But it’s not a sacrifice. I really feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

View the original article here

Become an 'Iron Man' Expert in 30 GIFs

By Bob Al-Greene2013-05-03 17:36:24 UTC

The latest big Marvel movie, Iron Man 3, opens today. It's getting decent reviews, but it might have a tiny technical impairment holding it back: With two prior movies, plus a little tie-in called The Avengers, how can everyone stay up to speed on the hero's story?

We're here to help the nerd-challenged among you catch up in the best way we know how — through the teaching power of GIFs.

So strap on up your repulsor boots and suit up. All systems are go.

Image courtesy of gifday

Image courtesy of Tumblr, takemyhandvictoria

Image courtesy of weheartit.com

Image courtesy of Tumblr, sh3rlock-h0lmes

Image courtesy of Tumblr, gifs-for-the-masses

Image courtesy of Tumblr, trusotoan

Image courtesy of Tumblr, avengersau

Image courtesy of Tumblr, gotohappyplace

Image courtesy of Tumblr, xmikex714x

Image courtesy of Tumblr, ignitetheliight

Image courtesy of Tumblr, robertdownstairsjr

Image courtesy of socialphy.com

Image courtesy of movieandcelebritygifs

Image courtesy of Tumblr, gracetheceruleanllama

Image courtesy of Tumblr, neogaf.com

Image courtesy of Tumblr, livlovesstuff

Images courtesy of Tumblr, partydude67

Image courtesy of Tumblr, firecracker

Image courtesy of Tumblr, pinkies-wednesday

Image courtesy of Tumblr, staneindustries

Image courtesy of Tumblr, makegodbleed

Image courtesy of Tumblr, archive.fools.us

Image courtesy of therpf.com

Image courtesy of Tumblr, myconfinedspace.com

Image courtesy of comicvine

Image courtesy of Tumblr, giiif

Image courtesy of 9e3k.com/

Image courtesy of Tumblr, imtonystark

Image courtesy of Tumblr, standsurescots

Homepage image courtesy of Flickr, marvelousRoland

Topics: Film, GIFs, Marvel, Pics, Watercooler if(window.pageChanged) window.omni({"channel":"watercooler","content_type":"article","top_channel":"watercooler","content_source_type":"Internal","content_source_name":"Internal","author_name":"Bob Al-Greene","age":"0","pub_day":3,"pub_month":5,"pub_year":2013,"pub_date":"05/03/2013","isPostView":true,"post_lead_type":"Default"}); metaData = {"link":[["canonical","http://mashable.com/2013/05/03/iron-man-gifs/"],["image_src","http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzAzL2VmL0lyb25NYW4uMDgxMDkuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJNzIweDcyMCMKZQlqcGc/62b3ed14/42d/Iron-Man.jpg"]],"meta_property":[["og:url","http://mashable.com/2013/05/03/iron-man-gifs/"],["og:title","Become an 'Iron Man' Expert in 30 GIFs"],["og:type","article"],["og:site_name","Mashable"],["og:image","http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzAzL2VmL0lyb25NYW4uMDgxMDkuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJNzIweDcyMCMKZQlqcGc/62b3ed14/42d/Iron-Man.jpg"],["og:article:published_time","2013-05-03T17:36:24Z"],["og:article:modified_time","2013-05-03T17:36:38Z"]],"meta_name":[["description","Want to see 'Iron Man 3,' but didn't catch his previous films? Get up to speed with the armored Avenger in these 30 helpful GIFs. "],["keywords",["film","features","marvel","uncategorized","gifs","watercooler","pics","megalist","lists"]],["twitter:title","Become an 'Iron Man' Expert in 30 GIFs"],["twitter:description","The latest big Marvel movie, Iron Man 3, opens today. It's getting decent reviews, but it might have a tiny technical impairment holding it back: With two prior movies, plus a little tie-in called The..."],["twitter:image","http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzAzL2VmL0lyb25NYW4uMDgxMDkuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJNTYweDc1MAplCWpwZw/83279d39/42d/Iron-Man.jpg"],["twitter:site","@mashable"],["twitter:url","http://mashable.com/2013/05/03/iron-man-gifs/"],["twitter:creator","@mashable"],["twitter:card","photo"],["twitter:image:width","560"],["twitter:image:height","750"]],"short_url":[["short_url","http://on.mash.to/12wXJua"]]};

View the original article here

Become a Superhero With a Homemade Thor Hammer

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here