@cxcart

When Facebook bought Instagram, the photo app that makes images look vintage yet picture perfect, for $1 billion, the tech world was stunned. Not because Instagram is a two-year-old startup, but because no one realized that this young app—which simply consists of taking pictures and that surely anyone with a smartphone has downloaded—had that much power.

Now, the W Times Square, in partnership with Instagram NYC, will exhibit images from some of the most talented Instagram photographers in the first-ever Instagram photo exhibition, which opens tomorrow. We couldn't help but wonder whether an Instagram image qualifies as art. But we caught up with Brian DiFeo, curator and founder of Instagram NYC, who hand-selected photographers ranging from professionals to multimedia artists and asked him what an Instagram exhibition actually entails. He says artists were asked to capture New York's most fascinating structures and urban creativity. From what we've seen, the images themselves are pretty remarkable, considering they were taken with a phone. No wonder Kodak went bankrupt.

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Style.com

Dear Ladies of the Red Carpet:

Where's the shock of the swan dress or the pizzazz of the goth showgirl of yesteryear? Come on, ladies, this is the Oscars, and it's 2012! Why are so many of you million dollar actresses playing the Grace Kelly card? We are fully aware that all of you can't pull off a nip slip like Jennifer Lopez, or a bare-leg pose like Angelina Jolie. But you can still be poised and scandalous at the same time.

Please, don't get us wrong, we're not asking for sex-on-a-stick -- we're just looking for some real Hollywood bravado. We would be perfectly content if you had wowed or offended us, but we just hate being on the verge of a yawn. Thankfully, there was a nun on the red-carpet, and Sacha Baron Cohen in his dictator garb. Even veteran actresses like Meryl Streep in a shiny gold long-sleeve Lanvin and Glenn Close in a strapless/blazer Zac Posen put their younger counterparts to shame.

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Angela Ashman

Bill Cunningham

It's time to dust off our Converse and put away the heels: Fashion Week is officially over (tear). After roughly 26 fashion shows between two reporters, including the Oliver Twist-themed Marc Jacobs show, the Gisele-spectacle at Alexander Wang, and the fiery S&M show at Monique Lhuillier, we somehow managed to make it out alive.

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Nikki Reed and Tracy Reese

We couldn't help but feel as if we were intruding while walking around backstage at Tracy Reese. It's as if we invaded her personal (ginormous) studio. The backdrop of the runway was a mix of photographs of people and places, colors and patterns, all inspirations of Reese. Friends and family gathered to wish her well, models prepped in hair and make-up, dressers closely guarded each article of clothing.

Reese swiftly looked at the models, doing last-minute modifications, rallied the troops and thanked them for all of their hard work. Then as soon as actresses Nikki Reed, Shenae Grimes, and Beverly Johnson took their seats, the show began.

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Araceli Cruz

Christian Cota

Imagine being lost in Mexico City. Perhaps an uneasiness notion to some, but for designer Christian Cota it's a kaleidoscope world full of alluring mystic, and romance. So naturally we went along for the ride.

The 30-year-old designer took us on quite an adventure on a bitter cold Saturday morning through his autumnal presentation at the Standard Hotel, full of rich textures, embroidered prints, and indigenous graphics that the Mexican designer knows all too well.

Little did we know we'd soon be encountering our most tempting vices later in the day. More »

For the fifth time, Concept Korea -- a group fashion show that helps Korean designers break into the U.S. market -- is at New York Fashion Week, bringing forth a variety of styles and and emerging talents.

The selected designers for the Fall/Winter 2012 season are Doho (by DO HO), Lie San Bong (by Lie Sang Bong), Resurrection (by Juyoung), Son Jung Wan (by Son Jung Wan), and Steve J & Yoni (by Steve Jung and Yoni Pai).

This year overall theme was "Ink Wash Painting" (a type of East Asian brush painting which cannot be changed or erased) , and the designers expressed the spirit of this technical and demanding art form.



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Fashion Week has quickly gone from exhilarating momentum to a slow-motion punch in the gut--and it's just started.

Each season we look forward to this one week of pure fashion craziness, in which we always manage to RSVP to too many fashion shows (usually overlapping), continuously loading up our Metrocards on treks back and forth between Uptown and Downtown, and the only thing keeping us on our toes is the caffeine, free alcohol, and the wannabe diva who's sitting in our assigned seat.

Plus, dressing to the nines (by this we mean attempting to look hot, albeit nonchalantly), takes a lot of damn work. It makes sense initially to dress up, but by mid-day our feet ache so badly that by the time day one is over, all you want to do is go to bed...forever.

Alright, we'll stop bitching about the whole thing and tell you the cool stuff we encountered on our first day including a model getting scolded, Susan Sarandon looking mighty casual in jeans and a cap, and lots of drama (the classy kind).

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The definition of what makes a woman has never been as black and white as simply having a vagina. In Young Jean Lee's latest production, the Obie recipient puts this perplexing label to test in the Untitled Feminist Show, where audiences experience what it's like being female--in all its form, and completely nude, through a performance featuring six famed downtown stars of theater, dance, cabaret, and burlesque.

The practically silent dance piece, part of the 7th annual Coil Festival sponsored by P.S.122, includes Becca Blackwell, World Famous *BOB*, Amelia Zirin-Brown (a/k/a Lady Rizo), Hilary Clark, Katy Pyle, and Regina Rocke.

For the continuously fascinating, and hilarious, Blackwell, who's been seen in the productions of Circus Amok, Room For Cream, and Parlour, a film (directed by Sharon Hayes) at the Whitney Biennial, dealing with gender and identity issues is always a constant battle. And although this isn't the first time she's been naked on stage, because of the rawness of this show she says "it's really the most naked" she's ever been. More »

Who can resist?

Well, this is not the real James Franco, but this version of James Franco can live on forever. For a measly $8,000, original photographs taken by the lovable Jack-of-all-trades can be yours when they go on sale next week at the RxArt Pop-Up Shop.

The nonprofit, which places fine art in hospitals around the country, will offer original artworks for sale by sought-after contemporary artists such as Terence Koh and Carroll Dunham. We know the last thing on your mind is doing some early holiday shopping, but wouldn't Franco make an ideal stocking stuffer?

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Baby Ajax, previously known to the world as Baby X, was born Tuesday morning at Microscope Gallery in Bushwick at 10:17 a.m. weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces at 21 inches.

We first received notice that the baby was coming soon at 9:34 a.m. and rushed to the quaint gallery. Although we were one of the select few to witness the live birth, an art performance/installation by Marni Kotak, we, unfortunately, didn't arrive in time. What we did find when we entered the steamy space, which the artist converted into a birthing center, was Kotak calmly eating a banana, the placenta in a bowl and the baby's father, Jason, holding his son who was wrapped in a blue towel. The beautiful baby boy was wide-eyed, and as quiet as could be, staring blankly into the camera and video lenses that hovered above him.

The exhibition continues through Monday, November 7th, and remnants from the birth will be added to the exhibition along with a video of the birth.

[ACruz] [@chelipj]