Films

Armani, Armani, Ar-Ar-Armani



Alessandra Carlsson Beri Smither Harue Miyamoto for Emporio Armani by Peter Lindbergh 1989

Before The Row, Lemaire and Brunello Cucinelli, there was Calvin, Donna and best of all, Giorgio. A fabric meister, rigorous deconstructor (before Margiela), uber-minimalist yet (contrary to expectation) anti-perfectionist, Giorgio Armani is the godfather of what we now call ‘quiet luxury’.

Fantastic Man has a, well, fantastic deep dive on the man himself in its latest issue, as well as a mention of Made In Milan, Martin Scorsese’s 1990 mini-documentary, that gives us a delicious glimpse into Mr Armani’s influences and philosophies. (more…)



Last night



Hanif Kureishi Substack

Last night I went to the Substack Writers’ Party, invited as a plus one by my friend Katie.

It was held at Reference Point, the reference-library-slash-bookshop-slash-bar near Somerset House. It was super busy and quite network-y but also, fun. Best of all, we got chatting to Carlo Kureishi, the screenwriter son of writer Hanif Kureishi. Carlo is also known as the guy who types up the Substacks dictated by his dad, since his dad endured a freak accident a year ago that resulted in him unable to use his hands or any other limbs and obviously unable to write. (more…)



Quote of the day: Michael Chow



Michael Chow studio 1973 Barry Lategan

“It’s a photograph dress, not a wearing dress. And that reminds me of a story. This man sold a thousand tins of sardines, and the buyer rang him up and said, ‘I’ve just eaten one of your sardines. It was disgusting,’ and this man said, `You fool, they weren’t eating sardines, they were buying and selling sardines.’”
Michael Chow on Tina Chow’s Fortuny dress, Vogue, 1973 (more…)



The soft openness of a scrapbook



Sofia Coppola Archive book

Continuing on a books tip, here’s an excellent recommendation if you’re in a creative fug or a chronic procrastinator.

Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share* (below) is a highly bookmarkable little companion that suggests unexpected approaches to unlocking creativity. It’s all about seemingly micro actions; paying attention, collecting and sharing.

Author Russell Davies interviewed me for it following a brief email exchange about his fab cool cafes blog. We discovered we had a similar dot-joining approach to creative thinking and he particularly liked the descriptions of my overstuffed scrapbooks.

Do Interesting is genius because you can passively consume it and let the advice seep into your subconscious, or you can actively follow the “Do” takeaways at the end of each page. Or a bit of both. (I just discovered some more scrapbooking intel from Russell here.)

Do Interesting Russell Davies book - Scrapbooks (more…)