On this lovely Labor Day afternoon we're really digging these experimental fashion pieces from Australian illustrator Justin Maller and NYC-based photographer Chris Knight. They're a prime example of the beauty that can arise when fashion, illustration, and erotica converge.

Rosalie Kate Whittingham is an illustrator based in Manchester, United Kingdom. A student of the London College of Fashion, Whittingham uses pencil to render her black and white portraits of fashion models which she accents with thoughtfully composed splashes of color. When she isn't making art, Whittingham also designs lingerie and models.

Join legendary Vans pro skateboarders Ray Barbee and John Cardiel for the second leg of the Vans Get Out and Do Something Tour stretching through four stops in Washington. Featuring live music by Ray and the Mattson 2 followed by John Cardiel spinning his favorite music. Greg "Pnut" Galinsky will also be in the scene sharing his artistic flavor.

"Iain Crawford  loves to capture images that have a strong graphic and textural quality, often searching out the graphical symmetry in chaos, while still maintaining the personality and emotion of the subject. His career has lead him to shoot campaigns for many of the world’s top brands and receive commissions from a host of top international magazines."

Our good friends at TFR Gallery in Leucadia, California and the good people of Brixton will be having a nice photography and art show opening this Thursday, August 23, called Inoculated City. The photographers and artists will be Michael Upton, Jason Lee, and Taylor Lewis. A little something to do on your Thursday night. Tell Dave we sent you. 

We have touched on the idea of high fashion using skeletal make-up styles for shoots, and we are especially impressed by French photographer Pauline Darley for Ever Magazine, where model Clémentine Levy is touched up with a ghostly look. Elegant and subtle. 

These vintage illustrated Vogue magazine covers caught our eye, making it hard to believe that this is the magazine you see in the grocery store today. The typefaces and illustrated figures are fascinating blasts from the past taking us to the fashion and design of the early twentieth century. The simple, hand-illustrated design is something that has become a thing of the past and a visual treat to enjoy.

Basic geometric forms and good use of colors are hard to turn down, and Saskia Pomeroy is an artist and illustrator working out of London who seems to know this well. Her commercial clients are a respectable list including Folk Clothing, Topman and H & M. Her use of pattern and illustration work equally well for fashion as for a fine art print.

You can now eat luxury (and there are a ton of people who gobble up LV goods like they are waffles, and we are pretty sure that LV makes their low end bags like waffles). OTIS graduate Andrew Lewicki has created one of our favorite sculptures of the year; the Louis Vuitton Waffle Maker. Waffles from here go for $32. Joking. Not really.

Charming Baker, the UK artist that was featured in our January 2012 issue, collaborated with famed British fashion designer (he makes a fantastic sunglass, FYI) Paul Smith on Triumph in the Face of Absurdity, a polished cast aluminium bicycle now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The work was part of Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion, where leading British fashion designers and visual artists collaborate in a ground-breaking series of works commissioned as part of the London 2012 Festival.