Category: British
Minted x
It’s what you need when the temperature drops below freezing and the dark nights draw in…
Because Shrimps is the hot chocolate, woolly socks, slightly eccentric hygge of the winter fashion world.
(All pics Shrimp)
Distinctive and dotty with a taste for fun, it’s a bright, cuddly light.
Laters, Kate x
Smoking x
Remember Granby? They haven’t stopped evolving since winning the Turner Prize last year. Even better, much of what they do totally feeds into the Future Candy trend – that perfect sweet spot of imperfection.
These are their unique ceramic tiles created by smoking in a BBQ for 12 hours with sawdust, newspaper and banana skins.
The effect is tantalising, like you’ve taken something light and let it go daaaaaark.
Thank goodness for moral depravity.
Laters, Kate x
Rejina Pyo x
There’s a quiet freshness about Rejina Pyo’s clothes.
She says herself ‘When it comes to clothes, I prefer a subtler approach and an element of surprise’.
With that in mind she resists the temptation for disposable, seasonal pieces.
Which makes her clothes familiar yet special.
Less is more: It’s feeding into my subconscious.
Laters, Kate x
Toolally ho ho ho..
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn. So says Gore Vidal. And Mags from Toolally jewellery…
Her pieces are handcrafted in her Yorkshire studio and designed to make maximum impact.
They are the perfect partner if you want your clothes to simmer gently and your bling to take all the limelight.
I never thought I’d find perspex to be so attractive again, but these blaze the line between cool retro and hot modern.
I smell a trend.
Laters, Kate x
New Weave x
The summer has broken here with a bang; I think we’re having the full whack of autumn rains today. We walked into school, avoiding some of the puddles and laughing at everyone gridlocked in their cars, all nicely showered but still afraid of water! It was chaos.
It’s brought fall dressing to a head though, and there’s nowhere better for browsing transitional classics than Toast. This group of clothes is from their OAS range, which stands for Ordinary Attire Studio and are also the three letters at the heart of Toast.
The design aesthetic of simplicity, durability and wearability at it’s core.
It’s workwear reinterpreted for easy workday wear in the modern world.
It’s everything you want in your wardrobe really.
Laters, Kate x
The Palace x
Yesterday I went with the lovely Galliana to Buckingham Palace. As you do. The only downside was we were there only as ticket wielding plebs. But we still had the chance to admire the ornate state rooms and look out over the beautiful 39 acre garden in the centre of London.
But the highlight was the exhibition of the 90 years of style from the Queen’s wardrobe amounting to eighty outfits and 62 iconic hats.
It was a lesson in the diplomacy of fashion: Made for a reason, for a specific person with a unique job using colours to be seen with subtle emblems and signs to flatter the right people in the right places – like the incorporation of the colours of a national flag for a tour abroad. There was thought, care and attention to detail and whilst fashion was was there, it wasn’t fashion for fashions sake.
It really was the best of British. The collection is on till Oct 2 and is well worth a visit.
(You can also have tea by the lawn afterwards…)
Laters, Kate x
Haunted x
Hunter, an authentic British heritage brand beloved of the posh, festival goers and anyone inbetween: It’s the mainstream label with proper appeal and sits on it’s tartan wingback armchair like a curled, sleeping cat.
There’s much to love: simplicity, versatility, a sense of tradition mixed with a slick, modern attitude.
And yet I have a gripe (I suspect it’s to do with old age)
Take a product like a mac or a wellington boot (both things Hunters do particularly well). Part of their appeal is their adaptability and flexibility…so why do their products have to be divided ‘mens’ ‘womens’ ‘girls’ and ‘boys’? Why this continual need to introduce psychological barriers to choice?
I’m starting to think that the division of the sexes is a background noise that all too often we just accept and that it’s insidious reach starts when are children and impressionable: Boys uniform, girls uniform, pretty school shoes for the girls, practical ones for the boys, netball for the girls, rugby for the boys. And I can see the result of this in all the adults associated with school: The parents that are class reps for the school?…all women. The contact emails for playdates?..are for all the women – even if they work full time as well. If a child was sick..the school would phone the mother regardless of whether she was the main breadwinner or not. Pick up and drop off? This is more mixed..but it’s certainly not equal.
If we want true liberty of thought and equal treatment of the sexes then little things like unnecessary labels really do need to matter. And Fashion (with a capital ‘f’) is in the perfect place to take the first steps forward.
Laters, Kate x
The Essex Taj Mahal x
Grayson Perry
When was the last time you were touched by someone so brilliant they made your head start sub-dividing?
Stand back and welcome previous Turner Prize winner and national gem, Grayson Perry and his new project, a House for Essex: a collaboration with Charles Holland and the architecture studio FAT. Built in Wrabness this huge marmite piece of art is a monumental shrine to a completely fictional character, a lady called Julie May Cope and is dedicated to the ‘Single mums of Dagenham, hairdressers in Colchester and the landscape and history of Essex’. The house holds testament to Perry’s visions of Julie’s life, through her birth in Canvey Island in 1953 to her two marriages, her children, her work all the way to her sudden death at the hands of a pizza delivery moped on Colchester High Street at the premature age of 61.
On the outside there’s a shining copper roof and 1924 glazed terracotta sigils of St jules.
Inside, the main room is in the style of a chapel to pay homage to the life of an ordinary woman.
There are biographical tapestries and pictures over the ceilings with snap shots of her history.
In pride of place and hanging as a chandelier is the very moped that killed her.
Upstairs, the two bedrooms are dedicated to her two marriages..the second of which was a story of true, tender love which permeates through the whole building and draws it together.
Kitsch, ebullient and eccentric it may be, but the joy of Perry is that in his work, as in his life, he describes the truth as he sees it. Underneath the undeniable humour, there’s a deeper, thicker message running through. This is a celebration of a modesty of aspiration and acquisitions that uses high art to pay homage to the notion of hard work and normality. It’s one mans couture shrine to the silver linings and special moments that bless every single life, no matter how hard or down trodden. Which ties up nicely with why it was commissioned in the first place: It’s part of philosopher and critic Alain de bottom’s (great name hashtag-childish-sense-of-humour) Living Architecture programme to allow members of the public – that’s you and me – to stay in buildings by world class contemporary designers. Click here for more details for your own personal taste of Julie’s life.
Imagine…a weekend away…here??
Laters, Kate x
Le Shopping..
Shopping in Brighton is a smorgasbord of instant gratification.
With Delicacies round every corner.
I found my Vintage 501’s at Dirty Harrys on Sydney Road..great selection, impeccable service..and all 3 pairs (!) (one shorter to roll, one in dark navy *rather lush* and one long pair)..came to the grand sum of £35!
So I added in a pair of battered cowboy boots..
And a beautiful vintage silk kimono from Wolf and Gypsy (well worth a visit).
much cake and tea was had in celebration.
After which The Husband wanted to buy me this.
I wanted to buy him this…
My favourite place for lunch or High Tea..not posh, just warm, genuine and eccentric.
With doughnuts the size of cannonballs. Who could resist?
And these catseye sunnies somehow just purred their way into my possession..
Just the perfect place, with the perfect company to gently put the world to rights.
Can I go again?
Laters, Kate x
Dismaland
Dismaland: Because this was a highlight last year..brings back a few memories…
Dismaland:The temporary art project set up by the street artist Banksy in an abandoned lido in the quietly rotting seaside town of Weston Super Mare. Banksy writes in his opening welcome: ‘Bertolt Brecht once said ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it’. Which is fine, but what if you’re in a hall of mirrors and the giant hammer is made of foam? This is the question raised by Dismaland Bemusement Park’.
And so it begins…
Birthed from the detritus of Disney, with bored attendants, patches of weeds and artistic despair, this decaying edifice to humanity is set on a 2.5 acre site with works from more than 50 artists from 17 different countries. It’s an instagramer’s delight, a visual sensation and a walk on the whacky, dark, black side.
A play on double standards starts immediately, from the genuine bag search on the street (anarchy has it’s place, no spray cans allowed here) to the fabricated threat of Bill Barminksi’s cardboard screening room. What’s real and what isn’t?
Inside it’s hard to know where to look first..the children slide riot van?
The sadistic carousel? Tesco would be so pleased..
Or the Big Rig jig, defying explanation or gravity.
There are traditional stalls – each with their own unique twist.
Knock the anvil over – with a ping pong ball and yay! you win the anvil! Hit the anvil and you win a red bracelet that reads ‘this is a meaningless bracelet’. Didn’t stop me wanting one. And then you ask yourself why even attempt the futile? Except we did. And failed.
Or maybe hooking a duck from the muck has a greater chance of success – except the punters have run off with all the ducks – and it’s all for a paper fishfinger in a bag..
Dominating the park is the dilapidated fairytale castle of broken dreams. ‘Step inside’, say the downcast attendants, ‘See how it really feels to be a princess’..
Through the darkness is the car-crash of Cinderella’s coach, her dying body illuminated by the flashes of pap’s cameras. We’re looking at them, looking at us..feeding us, feeding them..
Sometimes it’s the smaller, allegedly quieter stuff that catches the eye..
Sometimes the message is so strong to the extent you feel sleazy and ambushed with dirty fluids. This isn’t a place that brands itself on palatable.
The art wants you to look, not just spectate. to take part and not just consume..which is a line that is all too easily crossed. How many people are there walking around with the balloons stating ‘I am an imbecile’? Or actually taking selfies in the selfie hole?
Did these people really understand what they were doing? Did they nod sagely knowing they were doing this ironically? But then their ignorance becomes part of the point.
This isn’t a place for children despite there being works designed with them in mind..like the depressed, drunk Mr Rainbow puffing fumes over his tired playground..
Or The Husband’s favourite: Pocket Money Loans
Where the devil was in the detail.
Take a seat in a stripey deckchair and watch Punch and Judy landing a punch with a Jimmy Savile themed show..
Put up your feet at the Jeffrey Archer memorial pit fire. He’s still alive but a book of his dies every day.
Come into one of three galleries to wander round at your leisure. Meet the baby in the vending machine, covered in logos by Dietrich Wegner, guaranteed to make you ponder life.
Meet Jessica Harrison’s distortion of suburban tranquility.
Wonder if Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene is her real name or is just another trick of the mind. The art – tapestries made with power tools, certainly had a kick.
Banksy has pulled it off: It’s hard to be underground when you’re hailed as a national treasure by the very people you want to vilify, but that’s part of the conundrum that makes Banksy’s Dismaland so very special – it’s a spoof on the British holiday by the sea – take it seriously and you miss the point, and yet it quietly smiles through blackened teeth and grittily mocks: don’t understand this at your peril…
Impeccably crafted and precision cut, deeply unsettling yet strangely entertaining it’s so good, it can’t be legal..and probably isn’t.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 