Menswear focus: stylish Londoners get suited and booted at Burberry, Alexander McQueen and Selfridges
I literally can’t keep up with all the menswear retail goings-on in London this autumn. Just opened in Knightsbridge is another shiny new Burberry store (above), this time focussed on menswear. Craftsmanship and technology are given equal attention, with the store itself built by British stonemasons, carpenters, cabinet makers etc and over 50 speakers and 100 screens installed to engage the customer with digital experiential content. Continue reading
Must see: Some Day All The Adults Will Die – Punk Graphics 1971 – 1984
This is showing at the Hayward Gallery Project Space from 14 September – 24 November 2012. An exhibition of raw punk graphics which still have an impact 40-odd years later, there’s an accompanying Rizzoli book: PUNK: An Aesthetic by Johan Kugelberg and Jon Savage. From the press release: Continue reading
Trend report: Nina Ricci’s animated GIFs
Here’s a great execution of a luxury trend that ticks two boxes – playful luxury and what The Future Laboratory calls ‘netstalgia’. Nina Ricci has released four animated GIFs designed with Jo Ratcliffe to launch its AW12 La Rue handbags. Although I must admit the bags aren’t really my taste, I absolutely love the GIFs which are charming and playful yet absolutely retain the aspirational whiff of luxury…
A.P.C X Art Berlin Contemporary tote bag
I only had one free hour in Berlin, so I literally checked out of the Soho House Hotel, stowed my bags with the staff and took a right out of the front door to tour the neighbourhood. Very luckily I wandered into a street where I made three lovely discoveries. The BLESS store, RSVP (a shop that sells single paperclips and posh rotating pencils? Yes please) and – what a stroke of luck – the A.P.C store.
The Art Berlin Contemporary tote bags had just gone on sale. I resisted the urge to buy one in every colour and stopped at the red and the black. (I’m still sorely tempted by the khaki though). At €15 each, they’re not a bad price for a bag that will get tons of use. They can be bought online here (thanks Emma for the heads-up).
Quote of the day: Anna Sui on Antonio Lopez
“It’s not about fabulous anymore. It’s about having 500 friends on Facebook and the same American Apparel outfit to wear to a festival. It was kind of the opposite then. Freak was the preferred genre.”
Anna Sui in Guy Trebay’s excellent New York Times piece on Antonio Lopez
Other things I learnt:
Rizzoli is publishing the monograph, Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex & Disco by Mauricio and Roger Padilha next week
The next major MAC make-up campaign will be inspired by Lopez’ illustrations and coterie of fabulous friends
Bill Cunningham and Antonio Lopez were BFFs and studio neighbours
Pat Cleveland is working on her memoir
Robert Rauschenberg on rollerskates
Things I didn’t know about Robert Rauschenberg: In 1963, he choreographed a performance piece called Pelican. And rollerskated in it. With a parachute on his back. Pelican was a tribute to the Wright Brothers (Rauschenberg’s heroes) and took part at the America on Wheels roller rink as part of a festival by The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There’s even a video of it. Isn’t it bonkers fabulous?
Tom Ford’s new hero product and a novel use for old beauty boxes
When it comes to beauty products I’m as swayed by the packaging as I am by the performance of the product. Tom Ford’s packaging is the best (and most expensive) in the business, with lipsticks clocking in at £36. Alas, I’m more of a sheer lip stain girl, so I haven’t had reason to indulge in the highly pigmented Ford lippies but here’s something I will entertain. Continue reading
Are magazines still relevant? Paradis, Apartamento, Modern Matter
More than ever I’m finding that the magazines I read (as opposed to buying, then placing untouched in a pile for two months) are those with a unique or personal point of view. Possibly an influence from the blog phenomenon, it feels like these mags have more to say and are therefore savoured, returned to and kept. Three I’m liking at the moment: Continue reading
Paris men’s fashion week photo diary
What could be more thrilling than bumping into both Catherine Baba and Ines de la Fressange (alas, not together) on the streets of Paris? Baba flitted into the Louboutin soiree for all of five seconds, while we witnessed Ines de la Fressange being papped in Place Vendome on her way to the Schiaparelli salon launch (nice Miu Miu trousers Ines)
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The perfect bag? A.P.C for ABC
My beloved Strand Book Store bag is well past its best and it’s possibly time to be put down. To replace it? Perhaps one of these A.P.C bags, made in collaboration with the Art Berlin Contemporary event (ABC). Continue reading
