#WCW: @ashleycmsalazar

following on the heels of our very first #mcm, we announce our inaugural #wcw, the amazingly talented, Ashley Salazar! from our very own St. Louis, Ashley not only carries the crown of the first ever Playboy Miss Social and turns out some of the most amazing glamour and artistic images, but she is also an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, an editor in chief, a kick-ass code nerd and helps tons of girls reach their dreams in the glamour industry through her photography and guidance as an agency director! this is why we must send this lady #tothemoon!

check her out at: 

IG: @ashleycmsalazar

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#TOTHEMOON: June Ann D'Angelo + Ashley Salazar | Playboy Mexico

geminijunemoon would like to congratulate our Editor and lead creative, June Ann D'Angelo, on her full page pictorial in the February 2015 issue of Playboy Mexico! The amazing model & photographer powerhouse, Ashley Salazar was responsible for creating the masterpiece and geminijunemoon lead stylist, Kristen Parks, served up fierce glamour for HMU! Evoli Agency was responsible for placing the image in publication! Follow more of June Ann's modeling work at the following places:

Facebook:  /drjuneann

Instagram: @lovejuneann

Twitter: @lovejuneann

Tumblr: @lovejuneann

Playboy Mexico, February 2015

#MOONCULTMEETUP#1: Sweet Emotion Boudoir Photography

by June Ann D'Angelo

Laura Heying of Weird Cult(ure) [www.weirdcult.com] and I decided that we wanted to bring our resources together to host quarterly events for the blogger community under the mash-up title of Mooncult Meetup! Our first one was so much fun. We invited local bloggers over to my house to meet Michael Abrams of Sweet Emotion Boudoir Photography and enjoy some delicious sweet treats from Piccione Bakery on Delmar and some wine! After a few introductions and a fun chat session about what a boudoir shoot entails and pricing, the ladies had their hair and makeup touched up by St. Louis's own internationally published HMUA Kristen Parks who has teamed up to be the go-to HMUA for Sweet Emotion in the Lou! Next, it was...LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!!! See a fun pic from the night below and check out photos from the blogs represented, Laura Heying from Weird Cult(ure) and Carmen Curtis Boeser of The Ruby Zipper!

I know Michael, because he is one of the big up-and-coming glamour photographers in the industry. I actually did a shoot with him a few days after this event that we will be submitting internationally (and I've seen a sneak peek...and they are amazing)! It just so happens that, although Michael lives in NYC, he travels frequently to visit family back in St. Louis and has decided to share his successful and affordable boudoir photography business with the MidWest. If you are going to have sexy pictures taken of yourself, wouldn't you want the person taking them to have experience being published by international Playboys, Maxim, FHM and Esquire? There is not doubt you will look incredible and still look like YOU!!! This is not glamour shots...this is YOUR shot! Not only does his Sweet Emotions Boudoir Photography offer amazing boudoir and supermodel experiences, you can also get your bridal and maternity pictures as well. Michael is incredibly flexible and affordable and is definitely the person to get in touch with if this is always something you have wanted to do. 

Find out more here: www.sweetemotionboudoir.com

Check out the photos over at the blogs that were represented (click the blog name) and mention any of these blogs and receive a booking DISCOUNT of 10% throughout March:

Weird Cult(ure)

The Ruby Zipper


SEE YOU THERE: Gent! by Brainchild Events

Happy Valentine's Day to all the ladies in the Lou. Brainchild Events is at it again to bring us an upscale and sexy night of luxury menswear mixed with the best of what Lexus has to offer all to support a great cause, The Humane Society of Missouri! Check out the press release below and get your tickets ASAP by clicking HERE.

MUNGENAST LEXUS PRESENTS: Gent! 

ST. LOUIS’S FIRST MENS DESIGNER SHOWCASE

SAINT LOUIS --- Gent!, the St. Louis Men’s Designer Showcase was created by Brainchild Events to connect menswear designers with local shoppers, retailers and media. This will be the first all menswear independent designer fashion show in St. Louis. Designers include Paul Gibson (STL), Shan Keith (STL), Jamal Mayers (STL) and Christian Michael (KC). 

Come see new fashion trends in men’s style while you enjoy some libations, light appetizers and The Men’s Lounge. (VIP experience featuring cigar rollers, liquor samples, a shoe shine and more!) Gent!, the all-male runway show is guaranteed to turn heads. 

The runway comes to life at Mungenast Lexus St. Louis on Thursday, February 26, 2014. Mungenast Lexus is located at 13700 Manchester Rd. Doors open at 6pm for VIP and cocktails before the show begins at 8pm.

Paulie Gibson - St. Louis Native that has had runway shows in LA, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Omaha and Phoenix Fashion Week. He was also featured on America's Next Top Model. Paul is a contemporary menswear designer brand sold in higher-end retailers around the world. 

Shan Keith - St. Louis native who has shown in Project:Design!, Missouri Style Week and just finished competing in Under The Gun (Project Runway spin-off).

Jamal Mayers - Jamal Mayers is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League including with The St. Louis Blues. He is now designing custom suiting, ties and pocket squares. Gent! be his first show and launch of his collection Champagne & Caviar Bespoke.

Christian Michael - Christian is a Kansas City emerging designer that specializes in custom menswear pieces. He has showed in KC Fashion Week and Omaha Fashion Week. The christianMICHAEL design label has quickly become one of the most recognized and respected design labels in Kansas City. 

Advanced tickets are available at www.gentstl.eventbrite.com  or  www.brainchildevents.com. Advanced ticket costs for General Admission is $20, VIP is $45 (includes cocktails and seating for show). Ticket prices will increase to $30 for General Admission and $55 for VIP at the door. A percentage of ticket sales will benefit The Humane Society of Missouri.

EVENT REVIEW: The Bearded Lady and Horny Girl go to #SLAM...

by June Ann D'Angelo

This past Friday night I had the amazing opportunity to hang out with aerial artist extraordinaire, Meg! You have probably seen her doing acts all around the city, including El Monstero as my castmate. She loves to get dressed up in crazy costumes and I have not been able to indulge in that guilty pleasure of mine since I lived in NYC, so we decided to dress up for #SLAM: Soundsuits and Sock Monkeys. Of course, we got to the event with only an hour to go, but we still had time to take advantage of some awesome lighting at the event for a mini-photo session and then we hit up Meyer's Grove and HandleBar. Check out these pics...


SEE YOU THERE: #SLAM Soundsuits and Sock Monkeys

Turn on your instagram feeds, because #geminijunemoon will be attending this awesome event tonight and hope to run into you there! Keep a look out on our feed for pictures...www.instagram.com/geminijunemoon!

 

 

SIP on a drink at our cash bar

MAKE a one of a kind creation in our DIY Art Lab, direction provided by The Upcycle Exchange

LISTEN to the entrancing music of Black James 

EXPLORE our Nick Cave exhibition by kickin’ it old school with an I-Spy seek and find

MOVE to the fluid and cerebral beats of 18andCounting

SMILE for the photobooth created by Photomaton

WATCH the one-woman musical enigma, Syna So Pro

 

#TOTHEMOON: January 30, 2015

#TOTHEMOON

submit to us...if we like it, we will blast it to the moon...see guidelines here

Here are some awesome L-wire LED suits made by Ann Johnson that were featured during "Any Colour You Like" by El Monstero on their most recent winter tour! Above is a backstage look of the costume with the lights out from the lusters that doubled up as the electric dancers and below is a look at what the suit looked like with the lights on. I have to say it was incredibly easy to dance and move in. We can't wait to see what Ann brings to the table in the future...she also does custom commissioned work if you are in need of an awesome costume!

PORT +: Coming in Sharp

by June Ann D'Angelo

Everyone at geminijunemoon would like to wish you a Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! We kept only the red and green colors of the Holiday season and threw out the rest to bring you this fashion editorial captured by Mike Gibbons featuring Mycah Hudson!


#TEASER: Coming in Sharp

by June Ann D'Angelo

On the next full moon, December 6th, geminijunemoon will be releasing it's winter editorial, Coming in Sharp, with local model, Mycah Hudson! Take a sneak peek at the cover:

#ARTIST PROFILE: Brian Cattelle - Exploring the Subconscious of the Cities

*** Added March 16, 2015: Please keep this project alive and grab your very own print by donating to this kickstarter: BARE USA!!!***

 

Aside from editor, June Ann: Here at geminijunemoon, we not only want to bring you fashion, but also the freshest art projects around. BARE USA is an artistic nude project that I participated in as a model representing the state of Missouri. BARE USA is confident and inspiring, everything geminijunemoon aspires to be...

Brian Cattelle: Exploring the Subconscious of the Cities

by Lace Nguyen

Without a touch of sensationalism, the pose in Cattelle’s photos is never flashy or provocative; instead, the nude figure becomes one with the space she inhabits. The effect is powerful, not just because of the eroticism, but also because her nakedness seems to emphasize excruciating human vulnerability. The contrast between the texture of dead, abandoned industrial spaces and the soft, quiet vivacity of the bare human body could be described as both mentally agonizing and hauntingly romantic.

Abandoned Grain Elevator | Superior WI

Black and white photography, one that started since Cattelle was in high school, has turned into the artist’s life-long obsession. Cattelle’s virtuosity with the format hasn’t truly manifested itself until his BARE-USA project, in which Cattelle juxtaposes nudity against industrial decay and urban ruins. He is in the course of traveling and shooting local models in each of 50 USA States, and June Ann D'Angelo, owner/editor of geminijunemoon, has had the chance to collaborate with Cattelle when he made a stop at Missouri this summer.

Cotton Belt Train Depot | St. Louis, MO

As part of an international subculture of urban explorers, Cattelle spends a lot of time surveying the decaying skeleton of urban cities. Beyond the thrill of seeing what others have not seen, or dare not see, and the sense that it should be recorded for future generations, urban explorers are driven by other motives, among them, romance. For Cattelle, the draw is the uncultivated, feral beauty that can be found in the broken-down landscape of industrial-age America. And that’s when nude photography came into the picture. With Bare-USA, Cattelle was able to depict the city as a living organism, dissect it and look into its unseen layers. The human figures manifest themselves as dwellers in the darkest rooms in the collective subconscious of all modern cities. Yet the project is not so much about the figure as it is about the triumph of decay and entropy, and the human resistance against it. This sense of communicating with the city on a secret frequency may be what is most appealing to the artist and viewer alike.

United Methodist Church | Gary IN

The photos have a spooky, voyeuristic quality not unlike the feeling you get from looking at Weegee’s crime-scene photos. Beyond the forbidden nature of urban exploration, it is impossible to visit some of the spectacular haunts without experiencing a touch of the sacred. Concrete columns lined up in perfectly symmetrical order, creating a dreamlike procession of naves whose architectural rigor stands in stark contrast to rotting ruin and decay on the floor. But what really gave the building its rarefied air was the silence. Amid the daily cacophony of the city, where every place is packed with a scrum of people, this space stood empty, a still counterpoint to everything around it. And thus Cattelle has accomplished more than what he set out to do: the photos are not only aesthetically beautiful, they’re narrative, poetic, spiritual.

#ARTIST PROFILE: Lauren Bander

by Lace Nguyen

#ARTIST PROFILE: LAUREN BANDER

Two years since Lauren Bander was crowned as Winner of Project:Design! during #STLFW 2012 with her #LBSS13 collection, the St. Louis-native designer has been celebrating her outré aesthetics from Kansas City Fashion Week to New York Fashion Week.

Throwing back to FW2013, LB all-black couture collection features regal evening gowns so ornate that they remind us of the Dior femme relique - the woman mummified by her opulence. There was plenty of cerebral whimsy to offset the noirish femme fatale appeal. The LB woman is the baroness who disdains the familiarity of inferiors, flaunts her diamonds but never her discretions. 

Bander’s most favorite designer is, conceivably, Christian Dior, whose brushstrokes very heavily influenced LB early collections. Bander’s couture has hit the runway in waves of staggering beauty and a little perverse extravagance. The designer’s talent lies in her ability to purge tulle and lace of the materials’ fussy, bourgeois gestures, creating a mermaid nonchalance that is touchingly glamorous.  “I wanted to try and turn something ugly into something beautiful,” she explains. “So while the color story is very dark, the designs are beautiful and feminine,” answered Bander in an interview with ALIVE Magazine. 

Having studied at The Paris American Academy and lived in the haute couture capital of the world, Bander forever holds Paris dear in her heart. The globe-trotting young designer has certainly paid homage to the Parisian scenes: art, elegance, snobbery, nostalgia, and vice distilled with purity make an eau-de-vie that goes straight to the head. 

See GEMINIJUNEMOON’s editorial, Alice on Acid, in collaboration with Lauran Bander [here].