The world is not enough for Amy Doan, she successfully conquered the DIY fashion scene with her signature brand of neon-colored, naughty-yet-nice apparel, known as Shrinkle, that a girl can party harder than Paris or Britney in, only to go home to cuddle with her Hello Kitty doll. Doan has spent the past few years concocting the perfect accompaniment to her not so secret stash of sequined tube tops and pink leopard print hot pants. Also known as Sugarpill Cosmetics, your newest, most spectacularly packaged antidote to the droll and predictable world of soft taupes, muted corals, pale peaches and anything else one wouldn’t catch a drag queen dead in. Rescuing natural beauty eschewing, pigment-starved club kids two eyelids at a time.

photographer : Kevin Marburg
hair and makeup : Tess Kim
model : Amy Doan
interview by Vanity Kills

Has the successful launch of Sugarpill inspired you to follow other dreams that you once felt were out of reach?

Amy Doan : I definitely feel a lot more confident about taking risks and embarking on new adventures. Before launch, there was always that tiny nagging insecurity that people might not share my love of this project that I poured my heart and soul into. But everyone’s reaction has been so sweet and supportive, I feel even more motivated to continue creating things that I hope people will love!

Many women (and fashion-forward males) secretly want to experiment with vivid high-pigmented hues, but shy away from color out of the fear of looking like a circus clown or a trailer park hooker. What advice would you give to Auxiliary Magazine readers who are novices to the wonderful world of in-your-face color? How would one wear an ostentatiously bright shade without it wearing them?

AD : Well first, I would tell them that there’s nothing wrong with looking like a circus clown or trailer park hooker. One of my very first inspirations for wearing bright makeup was when I was in my teens and saw a TV documentary about a tranny hooker. He had neon blue eyeshadow up to his eyebrows! I thought that was pretty sweet. I think you just have to remember that bright colors aren’t supposed to enhance your “natural beauty”, they’re more about having fun and just going for it. So don’t worry if you look like a crazy person! If you love it, then you will own it.

read the full interview in the June/July 2010 Issue

Bill Leeb has been in the electronic music scene since 1985, when he started out with fellow Vancouver boys in Skinny Puppy. Following a need to find his own personal voice he set out on his own and produced music under the name Front Line Assembly, creating a massive body of music from 1987 to now. This eventually wasn’t enough to contain his creative juices and his musical catalog now also includes projects like Delerium, Noise Unit, Intermix, Equinox, and various FLA remix credits.

Front Line Assembly’s newest album, Improvised Electronic Device, came out on June 22. Leeb was kind enough to answer my questions and shed some light on some things I’ve always wondered.

interview by Aaron Andrews

How long did you work on your new album, IED?

This album took the longest out of any Front Line album ever. It almost took three years to make it. In the first year we took about six months writing a bunch of the songs then we decided we’d just walk away for a couple months. We’d never done that before, you know see if you still liked the record. Also all four members were inputting equally, where as before it was just me and Rhys or me and Chris. So it’s kind of a whole new way of doing it like a band almost, which was kind of interesting. In the end we got what we wanted to get. I think we’re all happy with the outcome.

Who else was involved in the making of this album?

Me, Chris Peterson, Jeremy Inkel, and Jared Slingerland. Since we’re on the subject, usually we use Greg Reely to mix the albums but this time we used Greg and Ken (Hiwatt) Marshall, who does all the Skinny Puppy stuff. So this is the first time we’ve used two engineers/mixers. We also have another guitarist on some of the tracks, Justin from a band called Three Inches of Blood. We also did a track with Al Jourgensen of Ministry. We really went around and used a whole bunch of people, I guess after making so many records it got to me. It’s fun to get other people involved and see where we can go with this kind of music. Just see if we can find new ways to turn stones over and stuff.

This album, IED, and the last one, Artificial Soldier, were made with more cast members than most of the previous FLA catalog. Was this intentional or did it just fill out that way?

Well, the thing is because we have a revolving door with Front Line, people sort of come and go, I never say never on anything. So on Artificial it was kind of Rhys had minimal participation on four tracks, he hasn’t toured with us in years and years. So these four guys I just mentioned we played over a hundred shows in a couple years and we formed a good unity. So when it came to working on our next album they wanted to be really involved. I found that the only complaint was there were too many people trying to steer the helm. With Rhys in the old days, and Jeremy and Jared are both 25, you know their pretty young, so it became a bit of a cluster… bomb. You know with everyone trying to get their ideas in.

But on this one there’s no Rhys at all and we’re just forging that idea from Artificial Soldier, it just made for a smoother transition and even though there was more input from everybody it still had more of a calming integral feel from everybody in the band.

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interview by Mike Kieffer and Jennifer Link

Ellen Allien, owner of the label BPitch Control and fairy queen of Berlin’s rave music scene takes a different approach to techno music by releasing albums that are made to stand the test of time, each the condensed result of a completely different creative phase. Her newest album, Dust, follows with this tradition and is about the balance between nocturnal excesses and the packed diary of a Berlin lady who is manager of one of the world’s most illustrious electronic record labels, a fashion designer, producer, and DJ.

What is the concept behind your new album Dust?

Ellen Allien : Dust tells about my life, about both my day and night life. There are songs that talk about falling down and coming up again, “Sun the Rain”, or about how I feel after a long night on the way to the next gig, “You”, or about how I get to know someone special looking through the flashing disco lights at Panorama Bar, “Flashy Flashy”.

It’s been two years since your previous album Sool, I sense a change of direction, what would you say are the main differences between Sool and Dust? What influences have caused these differences?

EA : I produced Sool together with AGF and the main idea was to make it sound minimal. Whereas Dust has been produced together with Tobias Freund. We tried to find the right classical instruments in order to make it sound more homogeneous. The guitars are by Tom Krimi, the clarinet by Andreas Ernst, and percussions by Miguel Toro. The voice is mine and I wanted to make it sound very bright and clear.

read the rest of the interview in the June/July 2010 Issue

interview by Mike Kieffer and Jennifer Link

Mind.in.a.box is the musical colaboration between Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger. Often described as technopop, mind.in.a.box emerged in 2004 with a highly impressive debut album, Lost Alone. The name being a metaphor for everything that prevents our minds from truly being free, mind.in.a.box then released two more albums that weaved a narrative building on that metaphor. Their hard to categorize style of electronic music garnered the respect of fans and critics alike. In 2010, mind.in.a.box is in full force, after years of being a studio-only project, they are performing live and have a brand new album, R.E.T.R.O., with the goal of re-inventing the past for an advanced future.

Your new album R.E.T.R.O. is out now, musically, how is it different and yet similar from previous albums?

Stefan Poiss : There is quite a difference between R.E.T.R.O. and our previous albums. Whereas our other albums focus on emotions and are connected in the background by a continuing storyline, our latest album is most of all a homage to the good old days of the Commodore 64 and the early days of home computer and video games. We tried to bring back the emotions, we personally connect with those times, using our music. So I think the feeling of the album is quite different from the other ones, but I hope people will still be able to recognize a lot of our sound in it. Also, the Commodore 64 produced very particular sounds and melodies, and I was hoping to capture that as much as possible on R.E.T.R.O. So the album is a tribute to those times and a homage to some of the incredibly great composers on the C64.

Markus Hadwiger : We were thinking about something like this for a very long time, and Stefan started to work on new interpretations of some of our favorite C64 songs. We liked the mood and feeling of nostalgia this created a lot, so at some point we also started to do completely new material like “8 Bits” and “I Love 64”. It was a nice break from our other work, and an awful lot of fun.

R.E.T.R.O. doesn’t fit into the storyline that was established with the previous albums, was there any hesitation in labeling the album as mind.in.a.box rather than a separate side project?

MH : Yes, we were thinking about that for a long time, and the initial plan was to release the album as a separate project. But in the end we decided to release it as mind.in.a.box, and our label also liked the idea a lot. Fortunately, it seems as if almost everyone who already liked mind.in.a.box also really likes R.E.T.R.O., which makes us very happy.

read the rest of the interview in the April/May 2010 Issue

Business woman, fashion designer, and stylish lady, we caught up with Adriana Fulop to talk about her highly successful clothing companies, Plastik Wrap and BitchCraft.

photographer : Billy Archos
fashion stylist : Adriana Fulop
models : Adriana Fulop, Robin Domander, Kassandra Merrit, and Giovani Pereira
interview by Vanity Kills

If you ever found yourself ignoring the plot of a sci fi action adventure flick due to the fact that your attention was fixated on sleek and sophisticated future fashion, you are not alone. Many of us longed for dresses seemingly made of polished chrome and punctuated with bursts of vivid color. Something to hold us over until neural implants with social networking capabilities become commercially available. Luckily, Plastik Wrap’s Adriana Fulop and Ryan Webber possess the creative genius and technical skill to keep you looking like android royalty straight out of the pages of a gripping cyberpunk thriller. They can’t hook you up with the aforementioned brain implants, nor with a prototype hover car, but they can infuse your life with a little artificial flavor by outfitting you in precisely tailored cyber apparel which flatter and accentuate both the male and female form.

Not quite ready to enlist in the plastik army just yet? If you crave high impact alt fashion with a more relaxed fit, then a sampling of Bitchcraft’s tasty offerings might be in order. Let Plastik Wrap’s Adriana Fulop and her creative partner Gabrielle Neveu tempt you with playfully dangerous body hugging tees adorned with prints of things that might hurt you if you’re not careful. Brass knuckles, scissors, syringes, and daggers, that’s what little girls are made of. In Bitchcraft’s world anyway. Those less fond off cutsey implements of torture can always hang with Mr. “Grumpy Octopus” or overdose on girlie glam in the “Tie Me Up Pretty” tee.

Old world elegance and love of quality craftsmanship fused with durable modern fabrics and space age trimmings on one end of the spectrum. Deliciously dark tees
you’ll want to live in on the other. How does Adriana Fulop do it all?

How would you describe Plastik Wrap’s current aesthetic? How did it evolve since the initial inception of the company?

Adriana Fulop : Initially we were designing simple, starch, space age styles. Which over time evolved into a darker, more utilitarian and avant-garde aesthetic. We haven’t focused on any one style category and have allowed ourselves to explore many interests, which has extended our tool set and fashion vocabulary. All of this combined has helped Plastik Wrap remain a design house that is very difficult to label. At least that is how I feel about it.

What’s the primary difference between your newest fashion endeavor, BitchCraft, and Plastik Wrap?

AF : BitchCraft is more playful, more of a fun evening project. Plastik Wrap is more like air to my lungs.

read the rest of the interview in the April/May 2010 Issue

tomorrowland jacket w/draped collar, lambskin & recycled leather, $1,245, by custom order
ruffle skirt, rayon jersey w/recycled vintage lace slip, $210, by custom order
tribal fusion pendant necklace, $95, by custom order

What is your background in fashion and accessory design?

When I was about 14, I became inspired to learn how to sew. My mom pulled out her old 1970s mint green Singer, taught me how to thread the bobbin, patted me on the ass, and said, “have fun.” I started making really unique, but very badly sewn clothes, and continued to do so throughout high school. I credit much of my creative path to the teenage years I spent in the rave scene, in Buffalo and Toronto. I was inspired not only by the music, but by the people I met from all different walks of life who came to revel until the wee hours of the morning in the most fantastic and ridiculous outfits I have ever laid eyes on. I fell in love with this unapologetic self-expression, and thus began my affair with adornment. My “official” education came from Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) where I studied fashion design, costume, and cultural studies. During my time at Pratt I interned with NYC accessory designer, Kelly Horrigan, to whom I credit my leather-working skills.

Do you find yourself influenced by other designers or past movements in fashion and costuming? Or do you find that more of your influence comes from outside fashion culture, looking more into ethnic influences, mass media, naturalism etc.?

I find that I’m most inspired by groups of people, tribes, I guess you could say, both ancient and modern. Native people in this country, in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. And also the nomadic wanderers and spiritual seekers who make their pilgrimages each year to places like Goa, Burning Man, and Bali. This emerging modern tribal culture is one that offers a different approach to fashion and adornment – one that is entwined with conscious evolution.

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