Joe Jarvis

The offerings in Vex Clothing boutique are much like those you might find in a trendy Wicker Park or Belmont shop--smart reworkings of quasi-athletic gear splattered with innumerable clasps and toggles, as well as the obligatory police shirt. Except, of course, they're made of rubber, and the newest garments sprout long strands of human hair from necklines, hems and collars. The shop (4651 North Elston, (773)282-0723) is the creation of Laura Petrielli, Chicago's premier latex clothing designer.

The forthcoming "Vamp Human Hair-Trimmed" line is a take-off on the recent use of pony hair among prominent mainstream designers. Petrielli gets the hair from wig manufacturers, rubberizes the tips, glues them into drapes and then adheres them to the clothes. While there's no quantifiable difference between Homo sapien hair and equine locks, or for that matter even wool, it can be rather unsettling to see burgundy human locks perfectly complementing the neckline of a synthetic purple blouse. Of course, making the wearer comfortable while causing society discomfort surely is a chief point of fetish gear. If only the hair shirts came with matching human leather jackets. (2002-08-14)

Also by Joe Jarvis

STREET CIRCUS, PART 2
Andrew Butler is killing the activist stereotype. PETA members, wearing prison uniforms and monkey masks, squat in rows of chicken-wire cages outside the March of Dimes' Loop headquarters, beneath the banner "Stop Cruel Animal Tests. marchofcrimes.com." Butler and his 5-year-old daughter Shanti hand out pamphlets to chuckling passersby.
(2002-08-07)

IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Just inside the door of the Autonomous Zone—Chicago's haven for anti-authoritarian vegan polymarist cycling activists—a pugnacious clown idles away the time before he goes on stage by giving you shit for being so bourgeois as to buy Fluevogs and, perhaps only half-jokingly, trying to pass himself off as the doorperson to pocket the admission for tonight's Media Mayhem variety show.
(2002-08-01)

NONFICTION REVIEW
Peter Conrad introduces "The Hitchcock Murders" as a "grateful fan letter" to the legendary director after depicting his first viewing of "Psycho" as the experience in which he truly lost his virginity. What follows is an interesting mix of Hitchcock anecdotes, facts and steely analysis.
(2001-11-15)

FICTION REVIEW

(2001-10-18)

NOT MILK?
(2001-03-01)

REPAIR WORK
(2001-02-08)

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