The Boys Next Door
The guy next door, Ashton, says I live in a lucky apartment. The people who live there go on to have success (Kyle XY, anyone?). I hope he is right. Ashton is already successful. He is a well-known fashion designer. This is him:
He likes to look mean in pictures, but here’s the truth…he is incredibly sweet. I’ve tried to shoot him laughing, but he’s way faster than me. When he laughs he looks like the adorable, mischievous ten year-old boy. But he doesn’t want you to see that. So here is the closest I could get:
Ashton ALMOST smiling
Ashton is part-owner of a fashion design company in Hollywood called House of Infinite Radness. The clothes he designs are gorgeous. They are also funny. I love clothes that have a sense of humor. Like this necklace, which one of his:
He showed me this months ago, and I’d never seen anything like it…since then, I’ve begun to see stuff like it everywhere (not as well made or beautiful, though). He’s really good, designing stuff before it becomes mainstream. And he and James both have this lock tattooed on them, which proves Ashton came up with it first.… Ashton will be on a fashion reality show this fall, but I can’t say anymore about that because he is under contract and it is all very secretive. He’s actually way too cool to be on a reality show (unlike others I know, ie me. See I Wanna Be On TV), and I’d been bullying him to audition for them, which he wouldn’t…then, of course, this one recruited him, and he finally said yes. But I better shut the hell up so he doesn’t get sued. So, for now, no more about Ashton.
This is Ashton’s boyfriend James:
took this in NY when i was visiting
He also looks mean in pictures. Actually, he hates pictures, and will be super pissed when he finds out I put one on my website.
James is a genius makeup artist. He designs makeup for politicians, celebrities, Broadway shows, fashion shoots. I have never really known a makeup artist before James. I admit, before I met him, I figured most makeup artists would be vapid and narcissistic. And, just like any field (writing and teaching included), I’m sure some of them are…but James is absolutely brilliant.
In college, James studied theatre history and psychology. And he brings that to his art. God, he’d hate me using the word art. But it is.
Not only does he know how to make a woman beautiful with makeup…but he knows what makeup represent on an emotional, psychological, historical and societal level. When I got assigned to teach Women and Film, a class I was completely unprepared to instruct, he gave me a crash course in the representation of women on the screen, citing specific lines and scenes from the most obscure of films, and explaining how they relate to the politics of the decade.
James has great insight into beauty and how/why it changes decade by decade. Beauty in other cultures. Cross-cultural beauty.
Oh, yeah, and he has an amazing heart.
As a gift, he designed my makeup and gave me hundreds of dollars worth of products for free. He fit me in between breaks at a shoot he was working. He zipped between creating my Victorian-style makeup scheme and then rushing into the next room where the had to touch up this hot model boy dressed as a sexy Tin-Soldier. I wasn’t supposed to take any pictures, but I couldn’t help it.
right after this James shoots me a glare and i put away the camera
Later, I found out the model guy is also a gay porn star. Which explains why he felt comfortable walking around in a g-string between takes.I tried not to look at his crotch. I swear I did. We had a whole conversation, and I made a huge effort to stare at his face.
But back to James. And I’m really hard on myself, especially in the looks department (see prom picture). But I felt pretty that day. He really got my wedding “concept”, but designed the makeup so I looked like me. Thank you, James.
And now my two cents (if your still reading, your used to this by now): anyone who dismisses the history of fashion and makeup as silly and important is highly misinformed. The female form in fashion…something as simple as the changing shape of the eyebrow…tells us a great deal about our culture and ourselves. Not that I can even pluck my own eyebrows without fucking it up, but I appreciate what eyebrows represent.
This is Jame’s magazine. Even if you hate makeup, you might like it. It is about so much more that makeup:
And those are The Boys Next Door. And they are adorable, sweet, gifted and hot…sorry, ladies. Unless you want a makeover, you ain’t gettin’ anywhere with these two, ’cause they are in love.
