Acne outlet
Not sure why sale stuff seems more appealing when it has its own website but…somehow it does. Acne is the latest brand to follow in the footsteps of Netaporter/The Outnet and ASOS/ASOS Red.
Obsession du jour
Anyone else fascinated by these taxi huts? I want to go inside one…
Pop-up poster art
Silly me. South Kensington is really not the place to go during half term unless you enjoy jostling with 100 pushchairs and twice as many toddlers, not to mention a brace of frazzled parents and the odd bedazzled tourist – all going far too slowly through the ticket barriers of South Ken station. No matter, I soldiered on to the V&A as the Stephen Jones hats exhibition ends on Sunday and I wanted to get one last look. (If you haven’t been yet, go now but be warned, it WILL be jam packed.)
The best bit was passing a pop-up gallery en route to Cromwell Road. A display of American and Swiss poster art is on show until 20th June at 1-5 Exhibition Road, SW7, including some Lichtenstein stunners, a couple of Frank Stellas and a Jasper Johns, plus er, lots of free Toblerone chocs. ‘I’ll come back tomorrow,’ I told myself but something tugged me in. And just as well, as in the process of appreciating the art, I managed to wangle myself an invitation to a Swatch cheese-n-wine soiree a few hours later. Bingo!
AW 09-10 trend report: Kurt Geiger press day
A sneaky peak at what Kurt Geiger has in store for AW09-10. I’m all about the ankle boots…
Loving these mid-heels. A sexy shoe that’s kind of sensible. How novel!
Kind of ugly but I like ‘em
The sexed-up desert boot 
Gotta love a dancing shoe, no?
Balmain brights…
Channelling Coco
Found this Meridien Breton shirt on the Brittany Boutique website.
“Meridien, genuine heavy duty traditional Breton fishing shirt. It is a a unisex long sleeves fishing shirt, a striped fishing shirt, part of a full nautical sailing and yachting clothing line from Brittany France. All French fishing shirts were working items. Meridien fishing shirt is a heavy cotton long sleeves sailor shirt used to be worn at sea aboard fishing boats. Other light weight sailor shirts, such as levant sailor t shirt and minquiers long sleeves fishing shirt, made out of a very fine cotton were worn on summer days and sundays.”
Coco before Chanel
Went to a screening of Coco Before Chanel this afternoon but reviews are embargoed until 27th July apparently. Just as well as I fell asleep during a big chunk of it but what I will say is the costumes are fabulous. Look out for the white waistcoat, the tweed coat and the belted Breton. J’adore!
Burberry Prorsum at London Fashion Week
Wow wee, Burberry to show in London to celebrate 25 years of London Fashion Week. This is brilliant news for the UK fashion industry. Whether it’s a cost-cutting exercise or a genuine supportive gesture to LFW, all I know is I’ve got to get a ticket to this show!
Short shrift
Great commentary by Vanessa Friedman in the FT on the trend for fashion short films. At Cannes we have the Oliver Dahan (director of La Vie En Rose) six-minute Dior movie starring Marion Cotillard. The online-only short has a thin plot, looks suitably lush and of-course features lots and lots of lovely product. It follows on the heels of the Chanel No 5 internet film starring Audrey Tautou – another big budget ad dressed up as a film. There’s no doubting the films are beautiful but are the punters fooled that they are art rather than commerce? Read the article here for Friedman’s verdict.
PYMCA Unordinary People
Really pleased I made it to the last day of the PYMCA Unordinary People photography exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall, documenting British youth culture from 1960-2009. The picture above is my favourite but there were lots of other excellent snapshots of blink-of-an-eye fashion moments. PYMCA (Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive) was started by Steve Lazarides back in the days before he was Banksy’s agent and was merely the picture editor of Sleaze Nation magazine. These days it’s run by Jon Swinstead and is being developed to include a youth culture video archive from the BBC Motion Gallery (this I’d love to see) as well as streamed music from each decade. Unfortunately, it will be subscriber-based which I assume means not-free.
