Meagan Cignoli

Meagan Cignoli is an up-and-coming fashion and portrait photographer in NYC. Only in her 20s, she has already photographed fashion editorials and features for the likes of Elle magazine, Prestige magazine, Fortune, Womens Wear Daily, and Industry magazine.

To say Cignoli is an incredible photographer would not only be an understatement, it would detract from what she actually does best--telling stories, creating characters, and playing with identities. Meagan's photographs have the feel of motion picture still lifes whose plots you are yearning to discover. Whether capturing beautiful women in exotic locales or mere mortals in the throes of mundanity, all of Meagan's images are perfectly crafted homages to mood and detail. Needless to say, we were excited to interview her here at Chicktellectual.

Bangs are hot.  If you don't believe me, just check out the hair of the people who know fashion the best: teens, musicians, models and those cute people at the clubs who you envy -- or want to get with.  They are wearing bangs and they look terrific.  Bangs are so popular that the sarcastic blog Stuff White People Like even had to have an entry about it.   However you look at it, though, there's no denying a good look, and the last few years has seen an explosion of bangs.  If you're considering jumping on the bang-wagon, now's your chance because with the help of some people who have some seriously great bangs, we're gonna show you how it's done!

Note from our friends across the pond: bangs are also called fringe hair!

Goth, emo, dark punk and related looks have been making inroads into mainstream fashion since... well... forever. Long ago, mainstream fashion discovered that it's not just a fad, and regular people don't have to seek out specialty stores or even Hot Topic to do the look. But let's face it, the complete vamped-out gothic-lolita style is not for everyone. Maybe you just want a touch. These looks have a lot of sex-appeal, but maybe it has too much charge for everyday wear. You can easily vary it so that the same look is appropriate for going to galleries, dancing or even a fancy dinner -- maybe even work, if you work somewhere laid back enough.

We thought we'd start off NYC Fashion week with a little tip from our good friend Liz who created a more subtle look you might want to try out.

Liz is a PhD student in psychology. She studies Asperger Syndrome.