Does London need another vintage store? Hell yes when it’s Blitz London, a new 5-room ‘vintage department store’ in Hanbury Street, E1. The press release promises all sorts of riches, including new stock every day, an in-store cafe, upcycled furniture, blogger-friendly ‘account managers’ and a mix of reasonably priced and rare vintage finds (hello Swatch watches). (more…)
There’s a rumour going round that Vogue is working on a site that will catalogue every issue ever published. If it’s not true it should be. In an age where the young generation of media consumers do so online, it’s a smart move to make old material newly available to all. There’s an idea that magazines are forever and online is ephemeral. Yes, a magazine is a tangiable product that you can keep and refer back to, but how do you remember in which 1990s Vogue you saw that amazing David Sims editorial? Once something is online, it can be searched and brought up again, it doesn’t just disappear into the ether.
As I mentioned to journalist Ellen Burney, the generation that has grown up with technology doesn’t have magazine nostalgia. If people have never had a relationship with magazines they won’t feel the need to collect them, they’re happy to consume everything online. I think by archiving the Vogue back catalogue online, it will come alive again as ancient articles are easily rediscovered and shared by new readers.
What do you think? Are young people less interested in collecting magazines? Is an online Vogue archive a good idea?
Out of all the mid-priced French brands (Maje, Zadig & Voltaire, The Kooples et al), Sandro is the one doing it for me right now. Autumn-winter 2011 is more boyish than previous seasons which of course is fine by me. The proportions are perfect for my small-shouldered frame and the fit of the tailoring is excellent for the price… (more…)
As I have no trouble admitting, I don’t do festivals. Omnipresent mud, stinky toilets, itchy hair, overpriced veggie burgers, endless queues – all for the price of a week in Ibiza? No thanks. One person I know returned from Glastonbury with piles and a faceful of cold sores. How delightful. But Wayne Hemingway’s Vintage Festival promises to be a different sort of festival altogether; it’s in London for a start and on concrete. (more…)
