With Christmas just around the corner, now might be an ideal time to focus on holiday fashion.  No, we’re not talking about the latest festive creations from Dolce and Gabbana or Tory Burch.  We’re talking about the most enduring symbol of seasonal fashion.  The Christmas Sweater.  No doubt you’ve seen a few as a lifetime of Decembers have rolled by.  The red one with the appliquéd, patchwork tree on the front that your Aunt Carol wore with the little bells that jingled when she walked.  The Rudolph sweater featuring the Amazing Red Nose That Lights Up that some friend of your Dad’s always showed up in.  They were ugly, they were unfashionable…they were Christmas.

Now, they’re also art, thanks to truly bizzarro underground scenestress Leslie Hall.  The sometime musician, sometime actress, sometime artist has assembled what she refers to as the “Mobile Museum of Gem Sweaters,” featuring an array of designs that would put Aunt Carol’s tree to shame.   Lovely Leslie poses in each of the 120 gem-encrusted creations, that feature names like “Goblit from Bethlahem,” (her spelling, not ours!), “Midnight Roller Coaster” and, we kid you not, “First Lady Manners!”  To be honest a quick tour through the collection doesn’t turn up a lot of reindeer, trees or even presents.  But who cares?  They’re hilarious.