Blog watch... The Satorialist

At least once a week I try to read all the blogs on my blog roll, mainly because I am a fan of their creators' work, but also to catch up on all the different things in-industry that I'm most passionate about. I don't usually make a habit of copying/pasting other people's imagery, but I LOVE this photo taken by The Satorialist so much that I had to mention it - maybe if only to not forget it myself. They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so lets hope it applies in this instance...

I don't really get many style crushes for people, although objects - mainly accessories I do - (maybe I'm missing an envy gene) but in this case I've fallen completely head over heels!

Image courtesy of The Satorialist. If you're reading this Scott, thank you ever-so!

I love everything about this French lady... I love the mix of colour, the miss matching socks, the beautifully cut red blazer... I love how her beautiful leather bag is so carelessly strewn under the table. I love the brogues too and can't wait until mine adopt that - ever so hard to purposefully replicate, and where's the fun in that anyway?! - lived in look. I love hats with a passion (have I ever mentioned that I'm obsessed with navy?!) and just love everything about her individual style right down to her effortlessly cool curly hair. And doesn't her salad look so well presented? I'm longing for Paris... I used to make a habit of taking myself every year for my birthday but that kind of stopped after 19 which was alarmingly some years ago now... I love the anonymity of walking around such a beautiful and culturally rich city alone absorbing the romance of the place and relishing any excuse to visit my favourite galleries. Its been too long, and my birthday is nearly looming... (although its a birthday of a different kind today!!!) I'll let you know when I can afford that Eurostar ticket!

Alexis Mabille can do no wrong

As someone not usually known to pass comment on Couture I just couldn’t resist giving Alexis Mabille a mention, as I thought his collection - that he debuted in Paris last week - was amazing! Partly channelling the current 80s trend, this eye-popping collection featured plenty of colour blocking – yet again another big trend for us mere mortals this SS10.

Imagery throughout courtesy of coutorture.com

With severely sharp tailoring, Mabille kept the silhouettes clean and simple, which isn’t necessarily something I would expect from most Couture designers, making this one of the most wearable Couture collections I’ve possibly ever seen. I loved how chic and sophisticated the dresses were and also loved the little touches visible from the show – such as the models wearing odd shoes and brightly coloured half-head-pieces to match the contrasting colours of their outfits. Ingenious!

Graffiti animation by Arnaud Jourdain

This morning as I was travelling to work I read a copy of the Metro as I'm sure hundreds of thousands of other commuters did too. What caught my attention was news of a fantastic short film by mysterious ench designer Arnaud Jourdain who over the past five years has documented the graffiti left in tribute to the great Serge Gainsbourg on the side of his Paris home. The film is an obvious homage to the late Serge and briefly examines the layers of graffiti built up using animation to speed up and also strip them back, bringing the 3-D graffiti back to life that has long since been replaced by bigger and better throw-ups and murals. A fantastic piece of work, I'm sure you'll agree.

Serge Gainsbourg - animation des graffitis sur 5 ans du mur rue de Verneuil from Arnaud Jourdain on Vimeo.

Ethical Fashion Show, Paris 2009 (written for Amelia's Magazine)

The dawning of October saw the fashion world descend on Paris to experience what is arguably the most highly anticipated of fashion weeks. With highly influential and renowned designers: Lanvin, Givenchy, and Chanel showcasing their collections for SS10, you would be forgiven for thinking that Paris was only about the ubiquitous fashion houses. Whilst the presence of big name designers and celebrities alike was a mathematical certainty, thankfully there was one big ethical reason to keep an eye on Paris...
To continue reading about the Ethical Fashion Show go to Amelia's Magazine.
Image coutresy of Studio Jux.

'Trespassers of the World Unite' private view- 28th May

Earlier in the week I was lucky enough to be invited to the private view of the new Toaster’s exhibition hosted by Nelly Duff Gallery in a disused space on Kingsland road. Suffice to say that the Toasters are an elusive collective of street artists who have joined forces with several other influential artists from across Europe to produce a collaborative exhibition titled ‘Trespassers of the World Unite’.

I have long been a fan of the Toasters artwork and street art, and even included their iconic Toaster symbol in a photography book I wrote called ‘Street Style; the culture, social significance, and politics of graffiti and street art’ (pictured below). Therefore as you can imagine it was a great honour for me to be invited to preview this exhibition and I was far from disappointed.
For all those unfamiliar with the Toaster’s work let me fill you in. The Toaster project started on New Year’s Eve 1998 up in Wolverhampton where a group of artistic friends came up with the idea to make a mundane everyday household object famous by subverting the image through graphic rendering. Having taken their Toaster art to the streets since 1999 they have created stickers, posters, and murals which have decorated cities around the world such as Berlin, Stockholm, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Sydney, New York, Paris and of course London town.

‘Trespassers of the World Unite’ celebrates the Toasters work over the past decade and pays tribute to their fellow artists and graffiti writers who they befriended many years ago. Exhibitors aside from the Toasters themselves include Will Baras, Bomb kid, Butch, Crackrock, Dicy, Eco, Erosie, Inflenza, Mr Jago, Late, Paris, Phet, Rabodiga, Space3 and Zime.
Amazing exhibition which made me want to run hope and get the old silk screen out so watch this space. ‘Trespassers of the World Unite’ is showing at 9 Kingsland Road, E1 until 14th June.
Invitation courtesy of the Toasters.