the b-sidel

Thursday, September 14, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 7B


The University's best dressed in Playboy, UPS brown

By Kimberly Chou
Associate Arts Editor
Warner King Washington
II, a University art and design
senior, is a male model. This
explains a lot.
It explains why he's taking a
break from his fourth year of col-
lege: He's picking up modeling
jobs and working for a party pro-
moter. It explains why he's look-
ing into graphic design classes
in New York City instead of Ann
Arbor, and why he's in talks with
different casting call representa-
tives. It's why he literally runs
into actress Chloe Sevigny while
on an afternoon jog through the
city, and why he'll be at the Calvin
Klein runway show and its subse-
quent after-party with Playboy's
fashion director tonight at the
close of Olympus Fashion Week.
It's also why Washington's been
dressed in that fetching brown
UPS uniform for Fashion Week's
duration, just as the October issue
of Playboy - featuring him as one
of the magazine's "Best Dressed
Men On Campus" contest winners
- hits newsstands nationwide.
Part of Washington's New York
Fashion Week job with promo-
tional agency Premier Party Serv-
ers involves him dressing up in
the customary UPS uniform and
passing out brownies at Fashion
Week events. Presumably the line
"What can brown do for you?" is
involved.
Despite the excitement of the
spring 2007 fashion previews,
Warner's involvement with UPS
- Fashion Week's second-big-
gest sponsor, if not exactly its
most prestigious - pales in com-
parison to the Playboy fashion
story, which is probably his high-
est-profile showcase to date. The
men's magazine first opened up
the competition in April, asking
college undergrads from Hawaii
State to the University of Mas-
sachusetts for applications and
photos.
"A friend of mine sent me the
link and I submitted my photo,"
Washington said. "Six of us were
handpicked by the fashion direc-
tor Joseph DeAcetis and the pro-
ducer. They said there were a
couple thousand applicants."
After being notified of his
s ,tthitn Washington completed
D NESS
Continued from page 3B
the end of the year. The coming
months are a celebratory parade
of big-budget movies for and by
adults, opening nationwide on their
first weekends with the apparent
hope of breigtng back the older
audience industry was happy to
ignore through most of the '90s.
What's different this time?
That's hard to say. To be sure, most
of the films under this umbrella
feature established actors in icon-
ic roles with women sanctioned
to sidelines both in narrative and
sales pitch. And early indica-
tions from the Toronto Film Fes-
tival point to a deceptively weak
season of film (Cannes kicked
off more muted suspicions in
the same vein last May). It's too
early to say whether the fall will
shape up the way pre-season hype

has dictated; TV spots for "The
Grudge 2" are already in circula-
tion, and no one has even heard of
"The Prestige" yet.
But the fact remains that these
films are a considerable risk, one
that almost every major studio
felt the need to take. The sched-
ule is saturated. The movies will
open on 4,000 screens. The bud-
gets are free flowing. And there's
nothing to soften the blow of their
failure. Mainstream adult film
is back, and the reductive fact
of the matter is that if they don't
take off, it's back to wall-to-wall
weekends of "The Covenant" and
hour-long metropolitan drives to
see movies that matter. For the
first time in memory, Hollywood
has put the ball in the public's
court, and I can't imagine it's
something the industry will ever
want to do again.
AT\NLA
to
M C"AEL
Schrotenboer
A f c*nt sxv ;

a short e-mail interview at the
behest of Playboy editor Rocky
Rakovic concerning his personal
style, goals and other details.
"Warner's look is timeless,
which is good because his eye is
on the future," the text accompa-
nying the Playboy feature gushes.
Next to a full-length portrait of
Washington with a model draped
over his arm runs a description
of his outfit (tailored Armani
Collezioni jacket and trousers,
leather belt from Best of Class
by Robert Talbott, et. al.), and a
brief quotation from Washington
channeling Whitney Houston: "I
want ... to better the situation of
Detroit's public schools. Children
are our future."
Washington attended Cran-
brook Kingswood prep school
in the Detroit suburb Bloomfield
Hills.
Nicknamed "The Idealist"
by Playboy for his future plans,
Washington joins five other col-
lege students, all tagged with
cutesy nicknames: The Doctor,
The Preppy, The Rocker, The
Athlete and The Intellectual.
The shoot - set in a swanky
Meatpacking District building -
was spread out over three days.
"The shoot was amazing.
Joseph DeAcetis has this very
fatherly, welcoming personality.
We woke up pretty early in the
morning for the shoot and we'd
all been up late the night before,"
Washington admitted, joking that
he can pick out the photos where
the previous night out shows on
his and his compatriots' faces.
Washington plans on returning
to school to finish up his art and
design degree, although there is
no set date.
"My education is paramount
to me," he said. "I plan on finish-
ing school, but right now I'm just
exploring."
He returns to visit his family
and Phi Kappa Psi brothers in
Michigan once a month, but will
pursue fashion modeling while
he can. Looks, after all, are
impermanent.
"(Modeling) is not just about
(looking good)," he said. "There's
a lot of behind-the-scenes work,
there's networking, you have to
make yourself stand out from
everyone else - I'm like a brand.
I'm my own company."

Courtesy of Warner Washington
ABOVE: Warner King Washington I makes the pages of Playboy
as the magazine's best-dressed campus idealist.

FAR LEFT: LSA senior Sana Syed sports ruched Mary Janes at
University President Mary Sue Coleman's open house with a red-
and-white polka-dot dress over jeans. ABOVE LEFT: LSA senior
Nikhil Kawira rocks his Detroit Tigers cap with a corduroy blazer
and dress shirt. ABOVE RIGHT: LSA sophomore Charlene Kaye
accessorizes with a name-stamped belt, patterned silk headband
and her father's wedding ring strung on her mother's necklace.
Host your next social event here!

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