Tired of walking past buildings when you’d rather wear one? Joshua DeMonte steals architectural elements to create totally out-there accessories. A banister winds around a wrist. A staircase adorns a neck. A curtain-billowing window becomes a bracelet. Surely not for the fashionably shy, one imagines how long it’ll be before we see Lady Gaga wearing one of these creations. [NOTCOT]

Have I seen too many vaginas, or does this pink-hued escalator in the world’s first ever Barbie flagship store in Shanghai look a hell of a lot like a hooha? I mean, really. The recently completed Barbie-themed Mattel store in Shanghai, China, was designed by Slade Architecture. At a whopping 35,000 square feet, the Barbie palace “holds the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and licensed Barbie products, as well as a range of services and activities for Barbie fans and their families,” in which, per Mattel’s request, “Barbie is hero.” Um, you go, girl? The exterior is minimalist futurist, and the interior is slick pop with its Barbie-embedded walls, spaceship cosmetics counter, and a high-tech area where you can design your own Barbie doll. Still, that escalator is its most striking feature, IMO. What do you think of it: pretty people mover or totes cooter? [ArchDaily]

Nothing says, “Hey, let’s write a sex story,” like a slow economy. The New York Times weighs in with a report on adult shops that indicates sex toy sales are on the rise. Adult toy retailers say vibrator sales are up as much as 50 percent. Why? According to Babeland founder Claire Cavanah, “People are looking for stress relief and a little connection.” Over at the Huffington Post, Mike Alvear, host of HBO’s “The Sex Inspectors,” predicts 2009 sex trends: 1) more sex, 2) more porn, 3) cheaper sex, 4) more high-tech sex, and 5) more online sex. And having listed the world’s most phallic monuments, Listicles lists the world’s most yonic monuments, from the womb-like to the architecturally vaginal. [New York Times, HuffPo, Listicles]

Penises have caused many people to do many things.  In the case of construction, builders keep on raising the bar, inch by inch!  While most people look up at these buildings in awe, we’re pretty sure the architects looked down at their crotches for inspiration. In honor of the structures that remind us of our boyfriends, here are The Seven Phallic Wonders of The Modern World.