How to capture the zeitgeist of the current moment? You could do worse than peer into a makeshift photo studio at precisely 730pm at the old Selfridges Hotel last Thursday. Here, 300 invited denim lovers gathered, smartphones in fist, to shoot the world’s first ‘co-created and interactive denim campaign’ for Selfridges’ new Denim Studio. (more…)
Anyone for a retro mobile? Polaroids and Fujifilm Instax cameras are having a moment, and mobile phones could be next. I remember reading about the Motorola StarTAC in US Vogue in the mid-90s and being desperate for one – at the time they retailed for £1400. Fast forward a couple of decades and they’re all but extinct thanks to the all-singing-all-dancing beasts from Apple and Samsung. (more…)
The Pet Shop Boys have made a bangin’ house track for the millennial generation (I think we’re calling this EDM now, yeah?) and it’s brilliant. And they’ve used amateur footage from the raves themselves for the video.
According to the press release, the song and video (by filmmaker and photographer Joost Vandeburg) are a tribute to the way British youth in the late ’80s ‘found its own freedom with a new culture epitomised by dance music and raves’. It seems we can’t stop looking back at past times of freedom and innovation which prevents us innovating in the now. Part of the problem is that we can’t get enough of the vast mine of original material being shared online, some of it never seen before. I’m guilty as charged, I love discovering and sharing ancient pictures and footage, but I think that’s OK, I’ve done my bit of innovating. But for younger people, it’s time to step away from the nostalgic nineties, get out there, get physical and create, without endlessly looking to the past.
Some interesting info just arrived in my inbox from Debenhams on the rise of the UK ‘Prom kings’. According to Debenhams, boys are spending 24% more on Prom prepping than last year, although still not as much as girls. While Prom has been a big deal in America for, well, ever, it’s only really taken off in the UK in the last 10 years. But jeez, has it taken a long time for retailers to catch on. (more…)
