music

Can Ladbroke Hall turn Notting Hill into an art destination?



Michele Lamy and Loïc Le Gaillard at Ladbroke Hall by Tom Jamieson for FT

“We want to use the language of a foundation or a museum; moving away from the idea of being a gallery. I want everybody to feel they can come in and educate themselves about design. We want diversity, not only in the artists that we work with but the people that visit us, whether that’s a local school or someone from fashion, the arts or design. We’ve been very successful as a business and now want to give back. We’re seeding things here – we’re not sure what, but we know something beautiful will grow.”
Loïc Le Gaillard, Financial Times

News just in: Ladbroke Grove is getting a very zhuzhy arts hub for SS23. (more…)



Quote of the day: Michael Bise on 90s Gap



Gap quote Michael Bise

“Being at Gap in 1998 and 1999 was like being Tina Turner at the 1985 Grammys. She won everything that year. She was the most celebrated. The most eyes were on her. Everyone was looking at her and following her every move. And that’s what it was like at Gap.” (more…)



In praise of the cultural oral history



oral history

Never met an oral history I didn’t love.

Oral histories are the perfect format book for the time poor. You can open at any page and learn something or entertain yourself in five minutes flat. I first got hooked in the early 90s, starting with Days in the Life* (Jonathon Green’s seminal deep dive into London’s 60s counterculture), swiftly followed by his equally brilliant It: Sex Since the Sixties* (more 60s rompage) and later, Them: Voices from the Immigrant Community in Contemporary Britain*, a fascinating investigation into British immigrant life (Green mentioned recently that he’s planning an update, which is amazing news). (more…)



The Culture of fashion: an oral history of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette



Sofia Coppola Marie Antoinette

Can you believe that Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette film is 15 years old this year? It’s such a fantastic piece of cinema and Vogue thinks so too. It has managed to compile an astonishingly lengthy oral history speaking to the actors, music consultants, costume designers and even Thierry Boutemy, the famous Belgian florist, breaking down every element of inspiration, technical specs and – of course – fashion detail in this over-one-hour long read. (more…)