If I have to choose between a kissy-kissy, champagne-and-red-carpet, fashion week soiree and a scuzzy East London beer-fest, the scuzzy option wins every time. London does ‘gritty’ much more convincingly than posh somehow. Matt Irwin’s private view for his Punk Perfect Awful exhibition was just that – messy, gritty, noisy and silly (Like, hello, what was Geri Halliwell doing there?!). Fashion-wise, it was a complete fur-fest, accompanied by short skirts, fancy tights plus a smattering of distressed, nay, distraught denim. Excellent!
Oh, and I had a lovely chat with nail artist Sophy Robson about the second coming of the long nail. Yep, talons are back! Check her blog here…
One of my favorite photographers, Matt Irwin is having an exhibition opening on Friday and by Googling it I just found out he has a blog as well. And it’s not one of those irksome vanity blogs with only a couple of posts a month, it’s full of Vogue shoot outtakes, music snippets (New Order – woo hoo!) and random commentary. (Actually, February’s content is a bit sparse – must have been a jetsetty month – but January is chock-full.)
A few weeks ago I had a meeting with a photographer who was bemoaning the state of the magazine industry. “No one has any money, they’re all slashing their budgets, it’s a nightmare,” he droned. Oh dear, I thought. It wasn’t news of course, I know many magazines are so skint they are hardly doing any shoots, but buying in pictures from their sister editions in the US. Dire. So today I brightened when I bought the March issue of UK Harpers’ Bazaar. Bloody hell, I could hardly pick it up. It’s huge – not only thick (360 pages) but supersized, almost as big as W. And the content this month is great – Roisin Murphy’s fashion picks, a scrap-book style catwalk roundup, interviews with Sofia Coppola and Luella Bartley and a profile of YSL.
The fashion shoots aren’t my bag (way too grown up) but I did like the Balmain dress with the nomad headscarves and the girl with the naughty cigarette.
To me the supersizing is a good move. If the offline magazine industry is seriously threatened by online publications then this sends out a clear message – “We’re significant and we’re here to stay”. Amen to that.
Kanye West and krew cavorting in Paris at Comme Des Garcons courtesy of Jak&Jil.com. “I have to say that Kanye is very warm and friendly when it comes to his fans at fashion week. He’ll always make time to stop for a photo or conversation with any one of [his] fans. What a good sport.”
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