Browsing Tag

London

Design

Mary Quant at the V&A

The hot fashion ticket in London this year is the Dior exhibition at the V&A, but I when I was looking for somewhere for a Birthday treat for my Mum, the quieter and smaller Mary Quant retrospective stood out to me as the one to book.

I didn’t know much about Mary Quant – and I was really pleasantly surprised how much more to her story there was than just the famous Sixties miniskirt. In fact, the show content is broader than just that period – covering from about 1955 to 1975 – and featuring fashion, make-up – and my personal favourite, the Daisy dolls.

Quant moved into the toy market in 1973 with Daisy, the ‘best-dressed doll in the world’. This enabled the next generation to connect with her brand, buying miniature versions of the designs for the jet-setting, independent doll. The launch at the Harrogate Toy Fair featured models dancing down the catwalk wearing life-size versions of Daisy’s wardrobe.

I loved these brightly coloured swinging rain capes – which came in yellow, pale pink, hot pink and orange. I’d wear one of these now.

Quant designed a range of these bold rain capes for Alligator Rainwear in a rainbow of the season’s ‘snappiest shades’. The paired-back and fun design in showerproof cotton canvas features slash pockets, a central zip front, metal studs and Quant’s signature colour contrast top stitching at the hem. The advertising proclaimed ‘Quant girls take shelter under this swinging cape’.

And getting a glimpse behind the scenes at the creative process was great – this storyboard featuring Quant’s make up products is ace.

At the heart of this collection though, are the stories of the women who wore Quant’s clothes – which were fun, accessible and gender-boundary pushing – at a time when women couldn’t even wear trousers into a restaurant. A lot of the pieces were sourced from the public, via a call-out from the V&A last year and there’s a charming video display of personal photographs and snippets about the pieces, from people that bought them, or their families.

The exhibition runs until February next year – so there’s plenty of time to go and see it. I’d highly recommend you do 🙂

15th June 2019
Play

Summer fun

“Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;
Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night…”

It really feels like the weather has turned, and Autumn is on its way but it’s only the end of August. I’m hoping for a late surge of sunshine into September, although I’ll (hopefully) be getting my Vitamin D top-up next month with two holidays planned.

Before the weather turned though, I’ve managed to fit in some fun things this Summer. A  trip to the theatre to see Chicago, starring Martin Kemp, was probably the surprise hit. I think you can always tell a good theatre experience when you don’t notice the time to the interval or the end, or the tiny seats; and I never expected it to be so good.

We were lucky enough to be in the second row, and my 14-year old self was loving it! All the performers were brilliant, the musical raced along and all too soon it was over. I always think that I don’t really like musical theatre that much, and then love it when I’m there.

I also got to go to Secret Cinema for the first time. It’s pretty safe to give the venue away now, as the run of Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet finished on Saturday.

Staged in Gunnersbury Park, this was the largest event that the company had put on, so it probably wasn’t very representative of many of the others before it. We were told to meet at Acton Town tube station, wearing our ‘Montague’ colours of blue and white, and themed as per the film. We also had to take with us various items, such as a mask and a peace offering.

Luckily, we had a perfect Summer evening – not too hot and sweaty and amazingly, no rain. We got there about 6.45 and having learned our Montague dance moves we wandered round, getting cocktails and food from the many bars and stalls and enjoying a gospel choir, a dance-off and a rave in a petrol station. All great fun and really well done. Then at 9 it was time to take to the picnic blankets and chill out and watch the film. I won’t give too much away, but there always seemed to be something going on and it was great fun.

I’d like to try one of the indoor events – while we were lucky with the weather, it wouldn’t have been half as fun if it had rained – there was literally no cover anywhere – and the venue did feel just a little on the too-large size for the amount of people. That said, the festival vibe was fun and you ddin’t have to queue too long for anything. It was nice to get dressed up in the theme and I’d urge anyone going to do this to get into the spirit of it, but it’s also great that it wasn’t full-on fancy dress – you can get as dressed up as you feel comfortable with.

In between the theatre and the cinema, I also went camping for the work weekend away. I really don’t like camping, and this didn’t do much to change my opinion about the tents and the nature bit, but it was fun and we did have a lovely afternoon tea and got to shoot some clay pigeons.

Roll on September, my favourite month…

 

27th August 2018
Design

McQueen

A bit late on this one, but I couldn’t let it pass. Of course I was going to go and see the film and I expected to be dazzled to see the seminal catwalk shows on the big screen. What I didn’t expect was just how brilliant, immersive and emotional the whole (almost) 2 hours would be. The footage from the Highland Rape, Voss and the Spring 1999 No 13 show are stunning. Kate Moss as a hologram, Plato’s Atlantis. I want to watch it again, right now.

Such a fierce talent.

24th July 2018
Design

Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics

You’ve only got a few weeks left to see one of the best exhibitions in London this year.

Hope to Nope at the Design Museum is stunning. It explores the intersections between design, technology, politics and protest over the last 10 years, and traces how graphic design and technology have become such powerful forms of protest.

The range of materials, formats and subject matter is vast – with work from established designers such as Shepherd Fairey to grass roots messages and campaigns about Grenfell, the events in Catalonia and feminism in China.

There’s a quote in a recent review in The Guardian that I thought particularly apt: “As you drift through the space, one of the overriding themes is quite how powerless the traditional tools of professionalised design and marketing now appear to be in contrast to the DIY alternatives, whether they be pasted on the wall or shared on Facebook.”

Go see it. Seriously. Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics is on until 12 August.

And if you fancy making an afternoon of it, pick up the Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier show on the ground floor. The Museum has a joint ticket price and it’s well worth seeing while you are there.

15th July 2018
Design

Sunday Morning Farringdon Road

I’ve worked in and around Farringdon on and off since 1999, and I’ve long loved a painting by East London Artist Cecil Osborne. I’ve spent an unfeasibly long time trying to work out where the view it depicts through this open window, on a road I now know so well, is.

I find that it’s very easy to get lost in this picture. I’m drawn in by the warm, restricted palette of browns and reds, the absence of people and the stories behind the doors of the shops and dwellings. An early morning in 1929.

Cecil Osborne was a self-taught artist who was part of a fascinating 1920’s art collective called The East London Group, which featured working class male and female artists of the east end. Born out of an art club in Bethnal Green, the artists mostly came from all walks of local life and captured street scenes of the local areas. They exhibited and enjoyed popularity in the 1930’s, but post-war that popularity waned until an exhibition in 2014 brought them some overdue recognition:

“The Group painted the East End’s streets, alleys, mills, factories, pubs and churches with the same fascination that other artists have for the English countryside. The streets, in their paintings, look interesting, like places you want to see…and this without prettifying the essential industrial, poor reality. This is the real accomplishment. Somehow the character of the area, the vibrancy of its community, is communicated through these representations of its buildings.

Partly this is achieved by the flat colour and the way they all seem to have of capturing light. It suggests, to me at least, a parallel with that other great painter of the built environment, the American artist Edward Hopper.”

– John Rees

Osborne’s painting pre-dates Edward Hopper’s by a year, and it is the only one of his available in a public collection, owned by the Brighton and Hove Museum.

It’s said that the East London Group’s artists were able to see beauty in the most unlikely subjects, bringing ‘a warm feeling to their art which is transmitted to the viewer’. There are many parralels to me with the modern street photographers, who still find the east end such fertile creative ground.

As well as painting, members of the East London Group also made a documentary film, advertising posters for Shell and Phyllis Bray painted large murals which are now at Queen Mary, University of London.

I’m very excited to learn, through researching for this blog, that ‘Sunday Morning Farringdon Road’ lives not too far from me in Brighton and I’m definitely going to take a trip to visit it in person, if it is on display.

There’s lots of fascinating material about the East London Group:

The East London Group and their Contemporaries

The famed painters who vanished into obscurity

Cecil Osborne’s Lost Murals Rediscovered

I’m definitely keen to find out more about these artists. But this morning, I’ll just keep losing myself in Osborne’s best-known work.

 

20th May 2018
Play, Travel

Top 10 Cosmo’s of 2018…so far

Anyone who knows me knows that the Cosmopolitan is unashamedly my favourite cocktail. As we’re coming to the halfway point of the year, I’ve rounded up the best Cosmo’s from 2018 – so far. Conveniently, it makes a nice neat list of 10 – though these are in no particular order, they’re all great 🙂

Forever linked with the 90’s and Sex and the City, the Cosmo dates back much further, with its roots in a 1930’s confection featuring gin, instead of vodka. There are mentions of it in the 1970’s in America, before it was popularised by SJP and the gang. The International Bartenders Association quotes the recipe as:

  • 4 cl Citron Vodka
  • 1.5 cl Cointreau
  • 3 cl Cranberry juice
  • 1.5 cl Fresh lime juice

Shake all ingredients in cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a large cocktail glass, garnish with lime slice…and voila. They also very sensibly catagorise it as an ‘All Day Cocktail‘. I’m not arguing with that!

Hakkasan, London W1

The Cosmopolitan at Hakkasan was stop-you-in-your-tracks-knock-your-socks-off-good. More than good, it was the best Cosmo I’ve had in years. A stand-out cocktail and a lovely bar to drink it at. Followed by some Michelin Starred Chinese nibbles.

Trocadero Playa, Marbella

Cocktail on the beach at sunset, perfect. Nicely balanced and a good size. Usual routine is to drop the bags off and head out for one of these on arrival.

Artesian Bar, the Langham Hotel, London W1

Well earned cocktail after a busy days shopping in London. Lovely unusual glasses. Quite red in colour but perfectly balanced.

Purobeach, Marbella

Beach club perfection – and huge too! Perfect to sip while listening to some Balearic beats and chilling out. Look at that for a holiday cocktail 🙂

Chilli Pickle, Brighton

Ordered off-menu and this wonderful restaurant made me my favourite cocktail. Lovely as a pre-curser to an Indian feast.

Charlotte St Hotel, London W1

One of London’s classic hotel bars, as expected they do an excellent Cosmo (and a great Old Fashioned too).

Mayfair Hotel, London W1

Again, excellent hotel cocktail bar – great place for meeting friends. In fact, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one I obviously took from their website!

Nobu, London W1

These slip down incredibly well with a selection of Japanese food. Had a few more in the bar downstairs after too.

Malmaison, LondonEC1

Much better in the upstairs bar than the downstairs one, but still a good shout for a cocktail in EC1.

Iberica, London EC1

Cocktails and tapas…yum.

Any must-drink Cosmo recommendations for me?

 

 

14th May 2018
Live, Play

Oh Hai

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I wrote anything – 3 months! I’m feeling very rusty. It’s not that my ramblings cover anything particularly earth-shattering, it’s more that it is a stark reminder to myself of how long it is since I sat down with some time to spare and created something. It’s about the same amount of time since I picked up my camera, so I definitely need to get back into the habit.

There’s way too much to catch up on all in one go, so I might save the big things for posts of their own. But a whistle-stop tour of the past 3 months includes Christmas parties, Christmas lunches and a Christmas break to Marbella.

There have been some fun days and fun nights out, some cosy days and cosy nights in, my first bottomless brunch, my 4-year anniversary at work, and of course, some cocktails. There also seems to have been quite a lot of rain.

It’s been extraordinarily busy at work, but I’m hoping to get a little bit more organised and carve out some time again for doing the things I love. This quick post is dipping my toe back in, and reminding myself. It’s always easier when the weather is better, and at least coming into March we know that Spring is on the way. Just this really cold snap to get through first!

 

25th February 2018
Live

Confetti

Shot of the Summer. Caught offhand on the Kings Road, coming out of Chelsea Registry Office. She look so happy, and the colours are so vivid. I wish I’d been quick enough to take more than one shot.

 

25th September 2017
Design

California: Designing freedom

California is one of my favourite places on the planet and when I saw this exhibition advertised, I was very keen to go and to understand more about how it came to have such a powerful influence on contemporary design. Not only that, I’d not yet been to the new Design Museum in Kensington, so it was being able to combine both, along with it being my Mother-in-Law’s Birthday that provided the perfect prompting for a day out.

The exhibition explores the ideas around how 60’s counterculture of surfers, feminists, gay and black activists and hippies all influenced the California design movement that has developed into Silicon Valley tech culture. It makes a bold point about how this has had such an effect on all of our lives that it means that we are now all, in some ways, now Californians.

The artefacts on show – which open with a shining sun and include films, magazine covers, posters, hardware, physical items, virtual reality, skateboards and acid tabs are grouped in 5 ‘zones’, all underpinned by the ‘freedom’ theme:

  • Go where you want
  • See what you want
  • Say what you want
  • Make what you want
  • Join what you want

The exhibition doesn’t cover the usual territory that predecessors have – mid-century modernism; rather picking up in the ’60’s and coming right through to the present – and the near/now future, including the self-driving car. It’s packed with brilliant things to look at, read and imerse in. To be honest, the original concept paintings from Blade Runner are a highlight, and pretty much worth going to the show just for those.

I loved, loved, loved this exhibition.

We also took the opportunity to have a mooch round the Design Museum – which, actually was a bit unimpressive. There’s some lovely things, but it all seems very crammed in. They’ve given so much space over to the atrium/centre of the building, that it feels like the exhibits are secondary, which is a real shame. However, I loved seeing these typographical design systems for Britain’s roads, and the beautiful Kohnioor font from the Indian Type Foundry.

We lunched after at The Bluebird cafe in Chelsea. There were martini’s, obvs.

The ‘California: Designing Freedom’ show at the Design Museum runs until 15 October 2017, so there’s still time to take in the California vibe. To purchase tickets, visit the Design Museum’s website.

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25th August 2017