Editor’s note: Better Living Through Publicists is a behind-the-screen look at the consistently ridiculous inbox of a writer.

Ever wondered how Star knows which celebrities partied at which Vegas nightclub? Thank a publicist. Ever wonder how an editor knew about an exciting new product launch? Thank a publicist. Yes, publicists are always ready to helpfully suggest story ideas that educate, enlighten, and entertain, and they really have a handle on the kinds of things that women truly need to know.

At EcoSalon, we receive our fair avalanche of email pitches, and we’ve decided to give you a peek at this valuable information inside our inboxes. These products, people, and services are 100 percent real, although we’re not always sure that they should be.

When the Wet Spot Isn’t Enough

Sex tapes are sooo 2004. The latest way to preserve the evidence that you got laid is the Love Is Art kit. For only $60, artist Jeremy Brown (who has apparently been immortalizing his own adventures in boning for over a decade) helps couples “create an intimate work of art during the act of making love.” Yes, you and your lover can slather yourselves in black paint, get freaky on a giant piece of canvas, and then hang that sloppy mishmash of knee- and assprints above your mantel for all your friends and family to see. Jackson Pollock would be so proud.

You’ll Never Believe What People Leave at Airport Security!

Phones, mostly. And wallets. Also iPods and glasses. Basically, they’re exactly the kinds of thing you’d expect people to leave at airport security, but the lost & found team at Singapore’s Changi Airport would really, really like to tell you about their fast-paced careers in the finding stuff industry. They find some pretty “unusual” items! Cardigans, for example! Here’s something “fascinating” to think about: about 55% of lost items are claimed within a month. Here’s something else to think about: the lost & found team at this airport in Asia has its very own publicist (and to think your company doesn’t offer health benefits).

Some Celebrities Went to a Cemetery and Ate Popchips

Cemetery parties are so hot right now. On October 27th, Nicki and Paris Hilton, the Maddens, Brandon Davis, and Jamie King attended VEVO’s “Six Feet Deep” 3D experience at L.A.’s Hollywood Forever Cemetery, powered by Dubset. Guests grooved to live DJs, competed in a costume contest, sipped cocktails by Belvedere, and noshed on Popchips, all while dancing on the gravesites of luminaries such as Mel Blanc, Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille, Estelle Getty, Hattie McDaniel, Peter Lorre, Johnny Ramone, and Rudolph Valentino. Oh Popchips.

You Should Do Something About Your Fat Face

You do crunches and leg lifts, but what are you doing to exercise your face? Wait—you don’t exercise your face? Personal Face Trainer and facial fitness expert (a totally legitimate profession) Cynthia Rowland is rolling her eyes at you, you lazy piece of woman. You and your fat, saggy face will never get a man. But for the nominal fee of $500, Cynthia will come to your house and show you how to eliminate wrinkles and naturally prevent aging using her special method of facial exercise—no injections or surgery! If you’d prefer to feel bad about yourself in private, you can try her DVD. Of course she has a DVD.

And now you know.

Images: Love is Art, Yesboleh, YogaDork, Popchips, Headless Horseman

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Take off the blind fold will you. I mean, will I, can I?

Tunnel vision, oh god, I have had such a serious case!

After hours spent alone in the house, after sewing non stop for days (insert Project Runway flashbacks) and after vision skewed physically and mentally, the arduous process of inner struggle took hold. And I found myself wondering – is the role of a designer to tell you what to wear now, or what to wear next?

First and foremost I am a woman. And on a personal level, creation is about asking the question, “What is it that I want to wear, can’t find or what speaks to me personally?” The benefit of being a designer is getting to translate desires into design. I want to make clothes, not costumes. I myself play dress up daily, to self express. Designing the items that lack in a wardrobe, my wardrobe is the approach I take.

What makes a good designer great is their ability to listen to their own creative voice and intuition, rather than the public or mainstream. Translating to you, technically speaking, what it is we want to wear. And for you that means what we want you to be wearing next.

After a mildly terrifying review (to be honest the most “positive-bad” critique of my life), during the midpoint in this season’s sampling, my intuition was confirmed. What I had created and presented throughout past seasons and the viewing of PR, had lost its relevancy within my creative hand. And did not and does not work within the context of the direction my work (and self) is taking. Which begs the question – are designers dictators or fortune tellers?

Perhaps a little bit of both.

If you liked what it is that I have created, if you want what I was feeding you a year ago, even six weeks ago, why wouldn’t that be my focus, the next idea? The beauty of this industry is that it works with the way I create. The second I am finished with a concept, I move on. Not holding onto what it is that I have created, but what it is I will create next. Fashion design enables constant dialogue. Communicating in a manner that translates the context or chapter last lived and exposed to, while looking onto the next horizon. Anna Wintour once said “Fashion is not about looking back, it’s about looking forward.”

Agreed.

As I left my critique this past week, with three out of nine designs safe, two in critical care and a few left for the morgue, I thought to myself – what is it that I wasn’t listening to or seeing? My intuition, that’s what.

I am where I am today because I stay convicted. I trust in the direction I am taking because I must. The best part about fashion is that it is objective. If the direction doesn’t suit you, if it doesn’t look like the road you were on with me last season, you can hop off. Or you can trust that your future may just come in a different shade of Gretchen.

For now, eight days left, eight garments remaining.

This is the fourth piece in a new series at EcoSalon with Project Runway winner and sustainable fashion designer Gretchen Jones. For Jones, her daily apprenticeship with the “school of life” has been her guiding teacher and we look forward to bearing witness to her weekly inspiration collages, featuring ideas and scenes from the streets and parties of New York City, where she recently located. As well as her innate sense of style she’ll be pulling from a world of patterns, textures and all the designers who have preceded her.

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