Amelia’s Magazine | The London Fashion Week Virgin: Estethica Review

Illustration by Avril Kelly http://cargocollective.com/avrilkelly

There’s something about coming out of the Tube in an area you’ve never been to before. I realise this is an extremely London-centric point, order but bear with me – when you find yourself spat out onto a brand new street it’s like discovering a different city. But then you look up and see the familiar roundel and you know that yes, it’s still London. It’s interesting how so many of us seem to come to London to experience its variety, only to entrench ourselves in one specific part of the city. Some (who, me?) may even develop a few prejudices about certain other parts of the city too, as if London were some sort of microcosm of the world … Oh actually that last bit’s about right, isn’t it. ‘There is in London all that life can afford,’ Samuel Johnson famously said, and it’s very true. But still, going all the way to Clapham on a Saturday morning? SOUTH London? Really!

But last weekend I went to Clapham for the very first time, because that’s where the Papered Parlour is and I’d been looking forward to their silversmithing class for weeks. I resurfaced from the Tube at Clapham Common, curiously peeking around while the nice man with the coffee cart ground beans from scratch to make my espresso. The Papered Parlour is just up the road, hidden behind a plain door in a side street. Claire and Louise, the workshop’s founders, weren’t there, but my fellow would-be smithers and I were welcomed by Hana and our teacher, Caren Hartley.

Upcycled jewellery by Madi http://www.madiillustration.co.uk

Jewellery upcycling, or recycling of old items, was the theme for last Saturday’s seminar. We each poured out our bags of old, neglected jewellery, hoping Caren would be able to help us make something usable out of it. I’d brought two rings I was hoping to fix, having broken both of them within weeks of each other after having worn them every day for years. I’d also brought some broken brooches my grandma had given me, as well as a few other pieces I weren’t wearing. Having just told the group we could not use heat on any item that wasn’t pure silver or gold, Caren shook her head at my beloved moonstone ring. ‘You can’t heat anything with a gemstone as it will break,’ Caren said. Araldite glue it is, then.

My mother’s old floral pendant also got the brush-off from Caren: ‘That’s pewter, it would melt before you could do anything with it.’ This is the main danger when working with old jewellery, as you haven’t made it yourself and hence you can’t be completely sure about the metal composition. Caren studied the pendant, curved and prone to annoying swinging, concluding: ‘You could flatten it, with the mallet.’ Mallet! I was expecting delicate tools, tiny adjustments and boiling frustration, but it turns out silversmithing includes plenty of hammer action.

Caren Hartley

The next few hours went by in a flash. After my mallet fun I got the little pliers and snippers, changing the broken grandma brooches into pendants. Rough edges were smoothed down with the metal files – silver is quite soft when you’re working with it. Silversmithing is also a surprisingly dirty activity, with the suds from my hands running black as I washed before the cake break. It can be dangerous too – judging by the fact they made us sign some sort of release before letting us use the saw.

Make do and mend by Naomi Law http://www.nimlawdraws.co.uk

Halfway through the day we were introduced to the blowtorch, used not only to join pieces of metal together but also to prepare silver to be worked on. Heating up the metal to reach ‘the cherry red temperature’ loosens the molecules within the silver, Caren explained, meaning you can work on it. My main task with the blowtorch was to mend my ring, a little lady who wraps her legs around your finger. I’d got the ring half price at a craft fair nearly ten years ago, and worn it every day until the poor girl broke her leg about two years ago. High street silversmiths didn’t seem very keen on sorting this for me though, and now that I’ve seen how it’s done I can see why: it’s fiddly.

I put on the leather apron and the protective goggles, ready for the big moment. ‘Now, angle the flame away from me, as I will be holding the leg piece,’ Caren said as I lit the torch, wondering if she gets paid extra if a student maims her. But as the little lady turned cherry under the blue flame, everyone’s digits remained intact and the leg was back where it belonged. Okay, so it sticks out a bit more than it did before, but a little tap of the hammer and Bob’s your uncle.

Caren and Eva by Avril Kelly http://cargocollective.com/avrilkelly

Detail

I left the Papered Parlour with eight new pieces of jewellery, having altered or mended old things I either couldn’t or wouldn’t wear. My hands were aching as I counted up change for another espresso from the cart, about to go back to the familiar side of the river. As I stood on the platform waiting for my train, I absent-mindedly ran my thumb along the lady-ring. She’s back, and I fixed her all by myself.

Result

The Papered Parlour is in Clapham: 7 Prescott Place, London SW4 6BS. For more information about the spring workshop schedule see our listing – there are more silversmithing workshops to come, plus printmaking, sewing, photography, quilting and how to make your own shoes. Also, the Papered Parlour is putting on two mini-festivals at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green this spring: ‘Ethical fashion in the age of austerity’ tonight (3 March) and ‘It’s your write!’ next month (7 April) – for more detail see our listing here.


Illustration by Avril Kelly

There’s something about coming out of the Tube in an area you’ve never been to before. I realise this is an extremely London-centric point, treat but bear with me – when you find yourself spat out onto a brand new street it’s like discovering a different city. But then you look up and see the familiar roundel and you know that yes, buy it’s still London. It’s interesting how so many of us seem to come to London to experience its variety, only to entrench ourselves in one specific part of the city. Some (who, me?) may even develop a few prejudices about certain other parts of the city too, as if London were some sort of microcosm of the world … Oh actually that last bit’s about right, isn’t it. ‘There is in London all that life can afford,’ Samuel Johnson famously said, and it’s very true. But still, going all the way to Clapham on a Saturday morning? SOUTH London? Really!

But last weekend I went to Clapham for the very first time, because that’s where the Papered Parlour is and I’d been looking forward to their silversmithing class for weeks. I resurfaced from the Tube at Clapham Common, curiously peeking around while the nice man with the coffee cart ground beans from scratch to make my espresso. The Papered Parlour is just up the road, hidden behind a plain door in a side street. Claire and Louise, the workshop’s founders, weren’t there, but my fellow would-be smithers and I were welcomed by Hana and our teacher, Caren Hartley.


Upcycled jewellery by Madi

Jewellery upcycling, or recycling of old items, was the theme for last Saturday’s seminar. We each poured out our bags of old, neglected jewellery, hoping Caren would be able to help us make something usable out of it. I’d brought two rings I was hoping to fix, having broken both of them within weeks of each other after having worn them every day for years. I’d also brought some broken brooches my grandma had given me, as well as a few other pieces I weren’t wearing. Having just told the group we could not use heat on any item that wasn’t pure silver or gold, Caren shook her head at my beloved moonstone ring. ‘You can’t heat anything with a gemstone as it will break,’ Caren said. Araldite glue it is, then.

My mother’s old floral pendant also got the brush-off from Caren: ‘That’s pewter, it would melt before you could do anything with it.’ This is the main danger when working with old jewellery, as you haven’t made it yourself and hence you can’t be completely sure about the metal composition. Caren studied the pendant, curved and prone to annoying swinging, concluding: ‘You could flatten it, with the mallet.’ Mallet! I was expecting delicate tools, tiny adjustments and boiling frustration, but it turns out silversmithing includes plenty of hammer action.


Caren Hartley

The next few hours went by in a flash. After my mallet fun I got the little pliers and snippers, changing the broken grandma brooches into pendants. Rough edges were smoothed down with the metal files – silver is quite soft when you’re working with it. Silversmithing is also a surprisingly dirty activity, with the suds from my hands running black as I washed before the cake break. It can be dangerous too – judging by the fact they made us sign some sort of release before letting us use the saw.


The blue flame by Naomi Law

Halfway through the day we were introduced to the blowtorch, used not only to join pieces of metal together but also to prepare silver to be worked on. Heating up the metal to reach ‘the cherry red temperature’ loosens the molecules within the silver, Caren explained, meaning you can work on it. My main task with the blowtorch was to mend my ring, a little lady who wraps her legs around your finger. I’d got the ring half price at a craft fair nearly ten years ago, and worn it every day until the poor girl broke her leg about two years ago. High street silversmiths didn’t seem very keen on sorting this for me though, and now that I’ve seen how it’s done I can see why: it’s fiddly.

I put on the leather apron and the protective goggles, ready for the big moment. ‘Now, angle the flame away from me, as I will be holding the leg piece,’ Caren said as I lit the torch, wondering if she gets paid extra if a student maims her. But as the little lady turned cherry under the blue flame, everyone’s digits remained intact and the leg was back where it belonged. Okay, so it sticks out a bit more than it did before, but a little tap of the hammer and Bob’s your uncle.


Caren and Eva by Avril Kelly

I left the Papered Parlour with eight new pieces of jewellery, having altered or mended old things I either couldn’t or wouldn’t wear. My hands were aching as I counted up change for another espresso from the cart, about to go back to the familiar side of the river. As I stood on the platform waiting for my train, I absent-mindedly ran my thumb along the lady-ring. She’s back, and I fixed her all by myself.


Result

The Papered Parlour is in Clapham: 7 Prescott Place, London SW4 6BS. For more information about the spring workshop schedule see our listing – there are more silversmithing workshops to come, plus printmaking, sewing, photography, quilting and how to make your own shoes. Also, the Papered Parlour is putting on two mini-festivals at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green this spring: ‘Ethical fashion in the age of austerity’ tonight (3 March) and ‘It’s your write!’ next month (7 April) – for more detail see our listing here.

My first experience of London Fashion Week was less in at the deep end with the big kids, click and more of a splash about in the shallow end with armbands on. And actually, I found it a rather favourable place in which to position myself.

My task was to skulk around the Estethica and Ecoluxe show rooms and report back on some of my favourite designs, a task I undertook with gusto. Anyone who reads my personal blog will know that I adore beautiful ethically made clothes. So I jumped/squealed at the chance to meet some of the designers and see the clothes up close. I have been watching the rise and shine of some of the new ethical designers with interest, having been introduced to many of them via Amelia’s book (which of course you have bought, yes? Yes?)

My first hurdle in getting to Estethica involved ‘borrowing’ a friends pass and hoping that no one would look at the name on the badge and question my gender when I beeped in. I was a tad nervous approaching Somerset House, but was buoyed on by ‘West End Girls’ which popped onto shuffle at the most opportune moment for the final bit of the walk. I bloody love it when shuffle gets it right. So it was with a strut that I entered Somerset house aided by the Pet Shop Boys, my trusty Spanx and one too many soya latte’s.

My second hurdle was actually finding the room. Directions typically included: “You’re in entirely the wrong place. You need to turn round, go back downstairs and outside, then enter through one of two doors, left again….” I think I went cross eyed. It was located in a particularly awkward spot, which was a shame as the rooms contained some marvellous work. But the getting lost, trekking up and down stairs and being stomped on by lethal platform wedges was worth it. The quality of some of the designs was inspiring and innovative, easily rivalling their ‘non ethical’ neighbours.

I had kind of hoped that I’d be able to blend in with the crowd, take notes and snap pictures before skulking on, but I quickly realised that this would be nigh on impossible.  I soon found myself confabulating with some of the friendly designers and PR people. I was repeatedly asked if I had a card. I didn’t. Rookie error. Lesson learned for next time.  Stall holders craned to read my badge as I smiled sheepishly and surreptitiously covered it with my scarf. I was nervous so wondered around with a slightly creepy perma-grin, but thankfully most of the participants had heard of Amelia’s Magazine so far from being rebuffed, I had a very warm welcome. PHEW.

Ok- on to the clothes. I met lot of lovely people and saw some beautifully crafted clothes, but here are just a few of my favourites.

The jewellery of Little Glass Clementine caught my eye before I had even entered the room, and like a magpie, I was beckoned in by it. Necklaces are made from a marvellous concoction of found objects; from bird skulls and bottle tops, to bath plugs and plastic toys.  They are totally unique, slightly mad (in the bestest of ways) and utterly covetable. Little Glass Clementine is featured in Amelia’s book. See an extract of the interview here .

Goodone pulled me in next, with their soft jersey bodycon dresses and thick woollen belts that begged to be handled. I loved the combination of figure hugging dresses with drapey, overized pieces too, all made from recycled, end of roll and salvaged materials. Feminine yet bolshy. Ace. Goodone are featured in Amelia’s book, see an extract of the interview here:


Illustration by Natasha Thompson

There is something irresistible to me about Joanna Cave’s delicate filigree jewellery. Inspired by ballet and old Art Nouveau costumes, the pieces are delicate and girly yet dramatic and bold. They are made from recycled sterling silver, ethically sourced pearls and vintage ribbon. Joanna cave jewellery is featured in Amelia’s book, see an extract of the interview here:

Actualy, I was pretty spoiled on the jewellery front. Kumvana Gomani uses old bottles and recycled aluminium to create gorgeous long necklaces and pretty earings.


Illustration by Alison Day

The North Circular, an ethical knitwear company, inhabited the corner of one of the rooms, filling it with an impressive alluring installation involving a huge bundle of sheeps wool and TV’s. Apparently the video was showing a piece called ‘metamorphosis’ with Lily Cole in it, but I managed to miss it. Truthfully, muted colours are not my thing, but the pieces were luxurious to feel and beautifully crafted, using British ethically sourced wool.


Illustration by Alison Haines

I loved this bright Pink Ciel dress. Just the right balance of smart and sexy.  All Ciel fabrics are carefully sourced to be as ethical as possible. Sarah Ratty, the founder of Ciel and chair of the Ethical fashion Forum was warm and friendly, and a long time friend of Amelia’s Magazine. She is featured in Amelia’s book, you can read an extract of her interview here.

Illustration by Avril kelly

I have to say that, despite the fact that the person in the stall seemed too busy to talk, I fell in love with Max Jenny. My favourite pieces were their colourful cape’s, for the following reasons.  They are waterproof; this satisfies my northern fell-walking roots. They are capes; this satisfies my Drama Queen roots. Amazingly their products are made from recycled PET bottles, which satisfies my inner hippie. Tick, tick. tick. MaxJenny is featured in Amelia’s Compedium of Fashion Illustration.


Illustration by Matilde Sazio

Lu Flux’s designs also caught my eye. I have always loved their use of colour and therefore loved this colourful leather rucksack. By working with salvaged, vintage and organic fabrics, that combine pleats, knitting and patchwork, the collection makes something new out of something old. .Lu Flux is featured in Amelia’s Compedium of Fashion Illustration. You can read an extract of their interview here.


Photograph by Damian Ucieda Cortes

Tara St James made use of copper pipe work in her gorgeous, chunky jewellery, and I also loved the blanket capes too. Chic and snuggley. Good for campsites and cocktails, bonus.


Photograph by Lauren Bilanko

And then I was out the door again, navigating Somerset House’s warren like corridors. I presumed I’d be surrounded by long legged, anorexic, bitchy looking women. I did see some ultra skinny, unhealthy looking people, which will always sadden me, but there were also plenty of healthy looking amazingly dressed people there too. In fact, I enjoyed the London Fashion Week street style stuff as much as the main show photo’s (perhaps sacrilegious?). But what really struck me was that people were, well, NICE. And mostly normal. Which I have to say I wasn’t expecting.

Next up, I’ll be reviewing Ecoluxe. You can buy Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (featuring the very best in ethical fashion design) RIGHT HERE.

Categories ,4 Equal Sides, ,ACOFI, ,Alison Day, ,Alison Haines, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Avril Kelly, ,ciel, ,Ecoluxe, ,estethica, ,esthetica, ,goodone, ,Hannah Bullivant, ,Joanna Cave, ,Kumvana Gomani, ,lfw, ,Lily Cole, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,London Fashion Week, ,Lu Flux, ,Matilde Sazio, ,Max Jenny, ,Maxjenny, ,Natasha Thompson, ,pet shop boys, ,Somerset House, ,Soya Latte, ,Spanks, ,Tara St James, ,The North Circular

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Amelia’s Magazine | The London Fashion Week Virgin: Estethica Review

My first experience of London Fashion Week was less in at the deep end with the big kids, and more of a splash about in the shallow end with armbands on. And actually, I found it a rather favourable place in which to position myself.

My task was to skulk around the Estethica and Ecoluxe show rooms and report back on some of my favourite designs, a task I undertook with gusto. Anyone who reads my personal blog will know that I adore beautiful ethically made clothes. So I jumped/squealed at the chance to meet some of the designers and see the clothes up close. I have been watching the rise and shine of some of the new ethical designers with interest, having been introduced to many of them via Amelia’s book (which of course you have bought, yes? Yes?)

My first hurdle in getting to Estethica involved ‘borrowing’ a friends pass and hoping that no one would look at the name on the badge and question my gender when I beeped in. I was a tad nervous approaching Somerset House, but was buoyed on by ‘West End Girls’ which popped onto shuffle at the most opportune moment for the final bit of the walk. I bloody love it when shuffle gets it right. So it was with a strut that I entered Somerset house aided by the Pet Shop Boys, my trusty Spanx and one too many soya latte’s.

My second hurdle was actually finding the room. Directions typically included: “You’re in entirely the wrong place. You need to turn round, go back downstairs and outside, then enter through one of two doors, left again….” I think I went cross eyed. It was located in a particularly awkward spot, which was a shame as the rooms contained some marvellous work. But the getting lost, trekking up and down stairs and being stomped on by lethal platform wedges was worth it. The quality of some of the designs was inspiring and innovative, easily rivalling their ‘non ethical’ neighbours.

I had kind of hoped that I’d be able to blend in with the crowd, take notes and snap pictures before skulking on, but I quickly realised that this would be nigh on impossible.  I soon found myself confabulating with some of the friendly designers and PR people. I was repeatedly asked if I had a card. I didn’t. Rookie error. Lesson learned for next time.  Stall holders craned to read my badge as I smiled sheepishly and surreptitiously covered it with my scarf. I was nervous so wondered around with a slightly creepy perma-grin, but thankfully most of the participants had heard of Amelia’s Magazine so far from being rebuffed, I had a very warm welcome. PHEW.

Ok- on to the clothes. I met lot of lovely people and saw some beautifully crafted clothes, but here are just a few of my favourites.

The jewellery of Little Glass Clementine caught my eye before I had even entered the room, and like a magpie, I was beckoned in by it. Necklaces are made from a marvellous concoction of found objects; from bird skulls and bottle tops, to bath plugs and plastic toys.  They are totally unique, slightly mad (in the bestest of ways) and utterly covetable. Little Glass Clementine is featured in Amelia’s book. See an extract of the interview here .

Goodone pulled me in next, with their soft jersey bodycon dresses and thick woollen belts that begged to be handled. I loved the combination of figure hugging dresses with drapey, overized pieces too, all made from recycled, end of roll and salvaged materials. Feminine yet bolshy. Ace. Goodone are featured in Amelia’s book, see an extract of the interview here:


Illustration by Natasha Thompson

There is something irresistible to me about Joanna Cave’s delicate filigree jewellery. Inspired by ballet and old Art Nouveau costumes, the pieces are delicate and girly yet dramatic and bold. They are made from recycled sterling silver, ethically sourced pearls and vintage ribbon. Joanna cave jewellery is featured in Amelia’s book, see an extract of the interview here:

Actualy, I was pretty spoiled on the jewellery front. Kumvana Gomani uses old bottles and recycled aluminium to create gorgeous long necklaces and pretty earings.


Illustration by Alison Day

The North Circular, an ethical knitwear company, inhabited the corner of one of the rooms, filling it with an impressive alluring installation involving a huge bundle of sheeps wool and TV’s. Apparently the video was showing a piece called ‘metamorphosis’ with Lily Cole in it, but I managed to miss it. Truthfully, muted colours are not my thing, but the pieces were luxurious to feel and beautifully crafted, using British ethically sourced wool.


Illustration by Alison Haines

I loved this bright Pink Ciel dress. Just the right balance of smart and sexy.  All Ciel fabrics are carefully sourced to be as ethical as possible. Sarah Ratty, the founder of Ciel and chair of the Ethical fashion Forum was warm and friendly, and a long time friend of Amelia’s Magazine. She is featured in Amelia’s book, you can read an extract of her interview here.

Illustration by Avril kelly

I have to say that, despite the fact that the person in the stall seemed too busy to talk, I fell in love with Max Jenny. My favourite pieces were their colourful cape’s, for the following reasons.  They are waterproof; this satisfies my northern fell-walking roots. They are capes; this satisfies my Drama Queen roots. Amazingly their products are made from recycled PET bottles, which satisfies my inner hippie. Tick, tick. tick. MaxJenny is featured in Amelia’s Compedium of Fashion Illustration.


Illustration by Matilde Sazio

Lu Flux’s designs also caught my eye. I have always loved their use of colour and therefore loved this colourful leather rucksack. By working with salvaged, vintage and organic fabrics, that combine pleats, knitting and patchwork, the collection makes something new out of something old. .Lu Flux is featured in Amelia’s Compedium of Fashion Illustration. You can read an extract of their interview here.


Photograph by Damian Ucieda Cortes

Tara St James made use of copper pipe work in her gorgeous, chunky jewellery, and I also loved the blanket capes too. Chic and snuggley. Good for campsites and cocktails, bonus.


Photograph by Lauren Bilanko

And then I was out the door again, navigating Somerset House’s warren like corridors. I presumed I’d be surrounded by long legged, anorexic, bitchy looking women. I did see some ultra skinny, unhealthy looking people, which will always sadden me, but there were also plenty of healthy looking amazingly dressed people there too. In fact, I enjoyed the London Fashion Week street style stuff as much as the main show photo’s (perhaps sacrilegious?). But what really struck me was that people were, well, NICE. And mostly normal. Which I have to say I wasn’t expecting.

Next up, I’ll be reviewing Ecoluxe. You can buy Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (featuring the very best in ethical fashion design) RIGHT HERE.

Categories ,4 Equal Sides, ,ACOFI, ,Alison Day, ,Alison Haines, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Avril Kelly, ,ciel, ,Ecoluxe, ,estethica, ,esthetica, ,goodone, ,Hannah Bullivant, ,Joanna Cave, ,Kumvana Gomani, ,lfw, ,Lily Cole, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,London Fashion Week, ,Lu Flux, ,Matilde Sazio, ,Max Jenny, ,Maxjenny, ,Natasha Thompson, ,pet shop boys, ,Somerset House, ,Soya Latte, ,Spanks, ,Tara St James, ,The North Circular

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Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2011 Esthetica Review


Illustration by Annejkh Carson
Partimi Dress by Joana Faria
Partimi by Joana Faria.

I probably shouldn’t do this because I actually don’t believe the ghettoisation of ethical designers is a particularly good thing, more about but for ease of storytelling in the grand scheme of things it makes sense to cover the interesting stuff I came across at Esthetica altogether. This is by no means all the stuff I loved, purchase but I’ll be covering others in my upcoming book Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (with an ethical bent) so for now I’ll just stick to a few that may not have been covered on this blog before….

Martina Spetlova
The Centre for Sustainable Fashion were promoting the work of Martina Spetlova, prescription another MA graduate of Central Saint Martins who has a first degree in chemistry and has set up a fair trade embroidery network between women in Pakistan and designers in the UK. She creates clothes made of interchangeable panels and her recent collection features some interesting garments sponsored by waste from the YKK zip company. She is currently building relationships with mills to use more end of line products that are well suited to the small runs of high end designers, but I do wonder what happens once all that waste has been scooped up.

Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Octavi Navarro - Martina Spetlova
Martina Spetlova by Octavi Navarro.

Little Glass Clementine
I was really pleased to see my friend Clemmie from Little Glass Clementine exhibiting at Esthetica for the first time. We’ve covered Clemmie before, both for her work drawing attention to the imperilled island of Tuvalu and for her beautifully made jewellery.

LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine

I feel quite proud that her necklaces, constructed from found objects and lovingly sourced vintage items, are now finding a much wider audience. Read an interview with her here.

LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine
LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine
All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Sägen
Over in the Scandinavian corner I was most intrigued to discover the finely detailed work of Sägen, also showing at Esthetica for the first time. This is upcycling at it’s best – taking shards of old porcelain and reinvigorating them for a new life as a piece of delightful one off jewellery.

Somerset House SS2011 Sagen

Choose from twee rose patterns or more modern classic Scandinavian leaf designs, all set in nickel free silver. One massive downside: the website does not seem to cater to the English speaking customer, so one can only hope some UK based buyers have bought into the range.

sagen-katie-harnett
Sägen by Katie Harnett.

Nina Dolcetti
I tried on a pair of Nina Dolcetti bouncy platform shoes at Esthetica, and instantly fell in love… perhaps I could even ride a bike in a pair of these?? Inexplicably the head designer is not called Nina Dolcetti. Elisalex de Castro Peake is a Cordwainers graduate who launched her first upcycled shoe in September 2008 and the brand name Nina Dolcetti – meaning Little Sweets – comes from a combination of her nickname and her grandmother’s maiden name.

Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti
Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti
Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti

All shoes are made in a small factory run factory in East London from off cuts and pre-consumer waste, and she utilises only vegetable tanned leather and sustainably sourced cork and wood. So want a pair to bounce around in, but they’re a leetle bit pricey for me. Well worth it if you earn a decent wage though: I urge you to check them out.

LFW-Nina Dolcetti by Chris Morris
Nina Dolcetti by Chris Morris.

Partimi and Joanna Cave
I love Partimi‘s clean simple designs. Designer Eleanor Dorrien-Smith named her label after the architectural term parti, meaning the conceptual starting point for a project, and she makes beautiful wearable dresses adorned with simple graphic prints.

emma_block_partimi
Partimi by Emma Block.

This season she paid homage to costumes from Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes that her mother had collected at auction. I particularly loved her collaboration with ethical jewellery designer Joanna Cave, and am lusting after a pair of graphic cut out dangly earrings.

LFW SS2011 Partimi
Partimi Long dress by Joana Faria
Partimi earing by Joana Faria
Partimi by Joana Faria.

Oria
This jewellery range is the baby of creative duo Tania Kowalski and Synnove Saelthun, who have worked in the jewellery industry for a combined 25 years. Increasingly concerned wih the social and environmental impact of mining they created Oria in 2007 with an intention to make the supply chain transparent.

Somerset House SS2011 Oria

They source from fair-trade companies, all materials are traceable to point of origin and then the jewellery is made in their London studio. I love the delicate dangly cutout earrings featuring bees and birds.

Oria by Faye West
Oria by Faye West.

Michelle Lowe-Holder
I knew Michelle Lowe-Holder as a clothing designer, but after a break from the industry she’s decided to make a come back as an accessory designer. This was prompted by the realisation that she was always most interested in the details so she decided to be more sustainable and make use of the oodles of waste fabric from old collections – that she still has lying around in her studio – to create some stunning accessories: giant arm, neck and leg pieces are stacked to create dramatic silhouettes.

LFW SS2011 Michelle Lowe-Holder
LFW SS2011 Michelle Lowe-Holder
Michelle Lowe by Michelle Urvall Nyrén
Michelle Lowe-Holder by Michelle Urvall Nyrén.

From Somewhere
From Somewhere has been upcycling waste luxury materials since 1997, and as a bastion of sustainable fashion it was to designer Orsola de Castro that the BFC came when they wanted to set up Esthetica in 2006.

LFW SS2011 Orsola From Somewhere
Orsola de Castro.

This season she has been working with offcuts from Speedo to create a lovely limited edition capsule collection.

speedo_by Alia Gargum
Speedo From Somewhere collaboration by Alia Gargum.

Made
Having just returned from a Fashion Business Club get together with the unexpectedly lucid Laura Bailey I thought I would also mention Made, a jewellery brand “by the people for the people” that is reasonably well known thanks to some high profile branding and wide distribution. They are big on their “designer” collaborations, though not designers I’ve ever heard of: since when was Laura Bailey a jewellery designer anyway? Boy do I want her job. I’m not a massive fan of a lot of their stuff (looks wise), but they do undeniably good things by providing trade for impoverished communities in Africa.

made by natsuki otani
Made by Natsuki Otani.

Categories ,Alia Gargum, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Centre for Sustainable Fashion, ,Cordwainers, ,Ecofashion, ,Elisalex de Castro Peake, ,Emma Block, ,esthetica, ,ethical design, ,Fashion Business Club, ,Faye West, ,From Somewhere, ,jewellery, ,Joanna Cave, ,Katie Harnett, ,Laura Bailey, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,MADE, ,Martina Spetlova, ,Michelle Lowe-Holder, ,Michelle Urvall Nyrén, ,Nina Dolcetti, ,Octavi Navarro, ,Oria, ,Orsola De Castro, ,Partimi, ,recycling, ,Sägen Butik, ,scandinavia, ,shoes, ,Speedo, ,sustainability, ,Synnove Saelthun, ,Tania Kowalski, ,Tuvalu, ,Upcycling, ,YKK

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Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2011 Esthetica Review


Illustration by Annejkh Carson
Partimi Dress by Joana Faria
Partimi by Joana Faria.

I probably shouldn’t do this because I actually don’t believe the ghettoisation of ethical designers is a particularly good thing, more about but for ease of storytelling in the grand scheme of things it makes sense to cover the interesting stuff I came across at Esthetica altogether. This is by no means all the stuff I loved, purchase but I’ll be covering others in my upcoming book Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (with an ethical bent) so for now I’ll just stick to a few that may not have been covered on this blog before….

Martina Spetlova
The Centre for Sustainable Fashion were promoting the work of Martina Spetlova, prescription another MA graduate of Central Saint Martins who has a first degree in chemistry and has set up a fair trade embroidery network between women in Pakistan and designers in the UK. She creates clothes made of interchangeable panels and her recent collection features some interesting garments sponsored by waste from the YKK zip company. She is currently building relationships with mills to use more end of line products that are well suited to the small runs of high end designers, but I do wonder what happens once all that waste has been scooped up.

Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Somerset House SS2011 Martina Spetlova
Octavi Navarro - Martina Spetlova
Martina Spetlova by Octavi Navarro.

Little Glass Clementine
I was really pleased to see my friend Clemmie from Little Glass Clementine exhibiting at Esthetica for the first time. We’ve covered Clemmie before, both for her work drawing attention to the imperilled island of Tuvalu and for her beautifully made jewellery.

LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine

I feel quite proud that her necklaces, constructed from found objects and lovingly sourced vintage items, are now finding a much wider audience. Read an interview with her here.

LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine
LFW SS2011 Little Glass Clementine
All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Sägen
Over in the Scandinavian corner I was most intrigued to discover the finely detailed work of Sägen, also showing at Esthetica for the first time. This is upcycling at it’s best – taking shards of old porcelain and reinvigorating them for a new life as a piece of delightful one off jewellery.

Somerset House SS2011 Sagen

Choose from twee rose patterns or more modern classic Scandinavian leaf designs, all set in nickel free silver. One massive downside: the website does not seem to cater to the English speaking customer, so one can only hope some UK based buyers have bought into the range.

sagen-katie-harnett
Sägen by Katie Harnett.

Nina Dolcetti
I tried on a pair of Nina Dolcetti bouncy platform shoes at Esthetica, and instantly fell in love… perhaps I could even ride a bike in a pair of these?? Inexplicably the head designer is not called Nina Dolcetti. Elisalex de Castro Peake is a Cordwainers graduate who launched her first upcycled shoe in September 2008 and the brand name Nina Dolcetti – meaning Little Sweets – comes from a combination of her nickname and her grandmother’s maiden name.

Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti
Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti
Somerset House SS2011 nina dolcetti

All shoes are made in a small factory run factory in East London from off cuts and pre-consumer waste, and she utilises only vegetable tanned leather and sustainably sourced cork and wood. So want a pair to bounce around in, but they’re a leetle bit pricey for me. Well worth it if you earn a decent wage though: I urge you to check them out.

LFW-Nina Dolcetti by Chris Morris
Nina Dolcetti by Chris Morris.

Partimi and Joanna Cave
I love Partimi‘s clean simple designs. Designer Eleanor Dorrien-Smith named her label after the architectural term parti, meaning the conceptual starting point for a project, and she makes beautiful wearable dresses adorned with simple graphic prints.

emma_block_partimi
Partimi by Emma Block.

This season she paid homage to costumes from Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes that her mother had collected at auction. I particularly loved her collaboration with ethical jewellery designer Joanna Cave, and am lusting after a pair of graphic cut out dangly earrings.

LFW SS2011 Partimi
Partimi Long dress by Joana Faria
Partimi earing by Joana Faria
Partimi by Joana Faria.

Oria
This jewellery range is the baby of creative duo Tania Kowalski and Synnove Saelthun, who have worked in the jewellery industry for a combined 25 years. Increasingly concerned wih the social and environmental impact of mining they created Oria in 2007 with an intention to make the supply chain transparent.

Somerset House SS2011 Oria

They source from fair-trade companies, all materials are traceable to point of origin and then the jewellery is made in their London studio. I love the delicate dangly cutout earrings featuring bees and birds.

Oria by Faye West
Oria by Faye West.

Michelle Lowe-Holder
I knew Michelle Lowe-Holder as a clothing designer, but after a break from the industry she’s decided to make a come back as an accessory designer. This was prompted by the realisation that she was always most interested in the details so she decided to be more sustainable and make use of the oodles of waste fabric from old collections – that she still has lying around in her studio – to create some stunning accessories: giant arm, neck and leg pieces are stacked to create dramatic silhouettes.

LFW SS2011 Michelle Lowe-Holder
LFW SS2011 Michelle Lowe-Holder
Michelle Lowe by Michelle Urvall Nyrén
Michelle Lowe-Holder by Michelle Urvall Nyrén.

From Somewhere
From Somewhere has been upcycling waste luxury materials since 1997, and as a bastion of sustainable fashion it was to designer Orsola de Castro that the BFC came when they wanted to set up Esthetica in 2006.

LFW SS2011 Orsola From Somewhere
Orsola de Castro.

This season she has been working with offcuts from Speedo to create a lovely limited edition capsule collection.

speedo_by Alia Gargum
Speedo From Somewhere collaboration by Alia Gargum.

Made
Having just returned from a Fashion Business Club get together with the unexpectedly lucid Laura Bailey I thought I would also mention Made, a jewellery brand “by the people for the people” that is reasonably well known thanks to some high profile branding and wide distribution. They are big on their “designer” collaborations, though not designers I’ve ever heard of: since when was Laura Bailey a jewellery designer anyway? Boy do I want her job. I’m not a massive fan of a lot of their stuff (looks wise), but they do undeniably good things by providing trade for impoverished communities in Africa.

made by natsuki otani
Made by Natsuki Otani.

Categories ,Alia Gargum, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Centre for Sustainable Fashion, ,Cordwainers, ,Ecofashion, ,Elisalex de Castro Peake, ,Emma Block, ,esthetica, ,ethical design, ,Fashion Business Club, ,Faye West, ,From Somewhere, ,jewellery, ,Joanna Cave, ,Katie Harnett, ,Laura Bailey, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,MADE, ,Martina Spetlova, ,Michelle Lowe-Holder, ,Michelle Urvall Nyrén, ,Nina Dolcetti, ,Octavi Navarro, ,Oria, ,Orsola De Castro, ,Partimi, ,recycling, ,Sägen Butik, ,scandinavia, ,shoes, ,Speedo, ,sustainability, ,Synnove Saelthun, ,Tania Kowalski, ,Tuvalu, ,Upcycling, ,YKK

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Amelia’s Magazine | Little Glass Clementine: an interview with luxury recycled jewellery designer Clementine James

Little Glass Clementine by Lesley Barnes
Little Glass Clementine by Lesley Barnes.

Why the name?
I made up the name when I was at my family home on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, shop shop where I collect endless pieces of sea polished glass from the beach. I combined that with my first name Clementine because I thought it was kind of sweet.

Where do you work from?
I used to live and work on a little leaking narrow boat by Springfield Park in north London. But I now have a proper studio in Dalston with a big work desk. Makes life a little easier – less rocking!

You aren’t a trained jewellery designer, mind so what prompted you to start Little Glass Clementine?
I taught myself to make jewellery so that I could support myself through my degree at SOAS, where I studied Anthropology and World Religions, and I ran stalls at the markets in Portobello and Camden for the best part of three years. Then I became busy restoring gypsy caravans and being a climate activist, but now I am in love with the discovery of beautiful antiques and unusual stones that I transform into sculptural necklaces. I quickly realised that my market is high-end, where my statement necklaces will be recognised as art.

How does showing at Estethica compare with working on a market stall?
It’s a bit like being back in the market, bantering with passers by, drinking coffee and chatting about my jewels. But with a few distinctive differences; there is no reggae playing, I’m not freezing cold, and my prices and pieces have changed – quite dramatically.

How do you put each necklace together?
I arrange all the components on an old piece of black velvet, making compositions out of the different objects and gems until I am satisfied. Then I start weaving them all together and hope very much I can recreate what I had when I laid them out. I only use wire and I never glue or make holes in the objects – so there is always a period while I’m working where everything looks like a big entangled mess. Strangely enough I am never convinced that a necklace is right until about five minutes before it is finished – when suddenly one stone, broach or button will bring the whole thing together…

Read the rest of this interview with Little Glass Clementine in Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, alongside interviews with 44 other ethical fashion designers and 30 fabulous fashion illustrators. You can buy the book here.

Categories ,ACOFI, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Anthropology, ,camden, ,Clementine James, ,Climate Activism, ,Climate Change, ,dalston, ,Eco fashion, ,estethica, ,Ethical Fashion, ,Houseboat, ,Lesley Barnes, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,Mull of Kintyre, ,Portobello, ,scotland, ,SOAS, ,Springfield Park, ,World Religions

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Amelia’s Magazine | Little Glass Clementine jewellery

visit this site ‘Times New Roman’, adiposity ‘Bitstream Charter’, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;”>Climate Camp meeting at the Voldparken school, Copenhagen

Climate Camp meeting at the Voldparken school, Copenhagen

I was always going to go to Copenhagen. 27 hours on a coach? Nah, didn’t phase me. And anyway I lucked out and got on the one with a loo and a dvd player… okay so the former was a sloshpit of doom and we had no dvds, but it was an auspicious start to my journey.

Climate Camp meets at Embankment to get on the coaches to Copenhagen

Climate Camp meets at Embankment to get on the coaches to Copenhagen

Now, what should you absolutely not do on a trip to the Cop 15 summit protests? Eat a McDonalds? Confess that actually, you’ll be flying home, because you’re a journalist who *absolutely* has to file a story before the weekend? Surreptitiously read Heat magazine in the ferry terminal sweetie shop? All of this happened on our trip to Copenhagen. You’ll be glad to hear (maybe) that I was only implicated in the latter offence, along with several other ladies who would prefer to remain anonymous.

Climate Campers pretending not to read Heat at Dover

Climate Campers pretending not to read Heat at Dover

The thing is, we climate activists have a very dull reputation to live up to – what with most people believing we’re just a smelly do-gooding bunch of un-fun loving “hedge monkeys“. But actually, we’re not. My friends from Climate Camp are for the most part an amusing gang to hang around with. And so am I. Hopefully. You see, we’re not here to push austerity, hardship, denial. That way failure lies – no one is going to change their ways if this is the story that we tell the world. It’s really important that actually, moving into a new way of life is more appealing. And the way we do that is by living it. How? Well, that’s a whole other blog. For now the point is that we laugh at ourselves quite a lot.

the Climate Camp coach. a bus load of fun, honest

The Climate Camp coach. A bus load of fun, honest.

German sandwiches. Very good. The cheese ones that is.

German sandwiches. Very good. The cheese ones that is.

So yes, back to the coach. Which is hardly a good way to back up this motive, surely? Maybe not. The coach ride was marginally uncomfortable, we got hardly any serious sleep (I snored – sorry Murray, my neighbour on the outward bound journey) and don’t even get me started on the trip back. BUT for me there were quite a few plusses. We got to see a German carpenter, a young man dressed in full traditional regalia, waiting to hitch a ride at a service station in the early hours of the morning.

a German carpenter boy trying to find a lift at a service station

A German carpenter boy trying to find a lift at a service station. This outfit is for real. At 5am

And we got to marvel at the miles and miles of beautiful wind farms on the border between Germany and Denmark. Even our coach drivers were impressed by the sight of them, elegantly swooping across the sky way above our heads. “Yeah, but I’m not giving up my car. And anyway, why didn’t you lot just fly? It’s way cheaper, quicker and easier.” Yes, erm. But, against the odds, it was actually a laugh and gave us time to form a sense of camaraderie with the people around us – most people didn’t know each other (I think I talked most of the way). Of course there was a certain sense of self-righteousness in travelling this way but it my point is it wasn’t as bad as you might think, especially when we took a short cut and managed to avoid the lengthy searches at the border that we had feared, which meant we steamed ahead of the other two Climate Camp coaches (who said our competitive spirit was dead?)

Why, I think I'll have an ice-cream with my coffee. For breakfast in December.

Why, I think I’ll have an ice-cream with my coffee. For breakfast. In December.

There was also, of course, a palpable sense of anticipation, for none of us had a clue where we were going to stay, or really what we would be doing, once we reached Copenhagen. But the kind of impromptu planning that would have my mother in an absolute tizz suits us activists, probably because we’re used to walking into situations that we have little control over, and of which we have no idea of the outcome. As we bowled along the motorway our sporadic contacts in Denmark informed us that we might be staying in a huge cold warehouse that was housing hundreds, had no heating and one toilet.  And which had just been the subject of a police raid. Then we heard word that there was in fact nowhere for us to stay. Still we remained calm. I’m sure that much of this confidence had to do with the fact of being with so many like-minded people, and the knowledge that we are good at acting as a community that looks after each other.

Voldparken School, Copenhagen. so sexy.

Voldparken school, Copenhagen. So sexy

Of course, our home was magically sorted out just as we arrived in Copenhagen and we were swiftly taken to the huge Voldparken elementary school that is the centre of a large suburban housing estate. (warning: I am about to go an architectural digression) Built in 1957, it has been moth-balled since 2008, which left me wondering where on earth the local children are now being educated. Needless to say I was immediately in love, modernist architecture being my absolute favourite. Now, unlike us the Danes build for cold weather so that every exit to the exterior is buffered by a well-insulated antechamber. Through the first chamber you come straight into a distinctive central hallway bounded by lilac pillars and bold staircases surrounded by galleries – this would be where we would hold our daily meetings. Behind the main building is a large play area and other buildings, including a big sports hall and large communal showers (with lovely hot pressured water, much better than any shower I ever have in London) I could talk at length about how beautiful the Voldparken is to a geek like me, but I’ll stop here, since this is a blog about climate and activism and exciting things like that. You can see a tour of the accommodation on my qik video stream here.

the main hallway at Voldparken school, Copenhagen

The main hallway at Voldparken school, Copenhagen

Sharing 18 to a room we laid our sleeping bags out within the carefully masked out fire lines and marvelled at the generosity of the massively overstretched Danish activists who had worked so hard to sort this out with the City Council. There was one downside, however, which was that fire regulations meant we weren’t allowed to cook in the school. Of course, we easily got around this by boiling lots of kettles and skipping food that could be eaten without heating up (Denmark is something else for skipping – the quality was out of this world, sooooo much yummy pastries and bread)

the play area behind the main building at Voldparken after a sprinkling of snow

The play area behind the main building at Voldparken after a sprinkling of snow. You can see people heading for the portaloos!

the room where I slept, laid out like a sausage, with 17 other people.

The room where I slept, laid out like a sausage, with 17 other people. It wasn’t exactly luxury, but I liked it, being a social bean (and used to slumming it) Plus I had two lovely thick thermarests to soften the floor.

eating skipped food at the Voldparken school. YUM!

Eating skipped food at the Voldparken school after a long cold day on the streets. Yum!

It wasn’t long before we had boarded a bus into town, which delivered us straight into the belly of the beast, the Hopenhagen display, sponsored by the likes of Coca-Cola and Siemens, glowing like an alien installation beneath a huge McDonalds advert. Greenwash anyone? Open mouthed we walked past brilliant green boxes of nothing very much except hot air, and stood gawping under the giant balloon. (Why?) From there we went in search of food, coming across the bizarre spectacle of a “Klima Camp” in the central shopping district – a small group of friendly scouts heating marshmallows over braziers. Quite a contrast to the jamboree down the road.

Hopenhagen Greenwash in the centre of Copenhagen

Hopenhagen Greenwash in the centre of Copenhagen

ooh, is it an alien spaceship? No, it's HOPENHAGEN, here to save the world with corporate sponsorship

Ooh, is it an alien spaceship? No, it’s HOPENHAGEN, here to save the world with corporate sponsorship

Hopenhagen advertising EVERYWHERE. some say it looks very similar to the Climate Camp poster for 2009...

Hopenhagen adverts EVERYWHERE. some say it looks very similar to the Climate Camp poster for 2009…

Klima Camp - Danish scouts camped out in central Copenhagen!

Klima Camp – Danish scouts camped out on the flagstones in central Copenhagen!

Via the freezing docks we had soon found our way down to Freetown Christiania, which is a well known autonomous community that is a haven for alternative thinking and thereby a fitting place for the Climate Bottom alternative Climate Summit, held inside a big top tent. Inside we found warmth, hot vegan slop and familiar faces – for many Climate Campers were already in Copenhagen, and spread out around crash spaces throughout the city.

graffiti on the walls in Christiania

Graffiti on the walls in Christiania. Next to this was an incongruous and very chic restaurant – gentrification has started.

still find it very hard to reconcile this peaceful space with the knowledge that only a few days later the Danish police carried out a completely disproportionate tear gas attack on a bunch of activists who were enjoying a drink and a boogie after a speech by Naomi Klein. Designed to demoralise and fracture our networks, it certainly left a lot of people with their first experience of the sheer panic that tear gas can cause in a confined “safe” space. Luckily I had left a few hours earlier, but as news of the attack twittered its way to me I lay awake through the night worrying about my fellow roomies, many of whom had been detained and some of whom did not return until the morning.

cooking for lots of people in Christiania

Cooking in huge vats for lots of people in Christiania

Watch this space: second installment coming soon, featuring talk of the actions I got involved in and possibly a bit more on the analysis front…

viagra 100mg ‘Times New Roman’, ‘Bitstream Charter’, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;”>Climate Camp meeting at the Voldparken school, Copenhagen

Climate Camp meeting at the Voldparken school, Copenhagen

I was always going to go to Copenhagen. 27 hours on a coach? Nah, didn’t phase me. And anyway I lucked out and got on the one with a loo and a dvd player… okay so the former was a sloshpit of doom and we had no dvds, but it was an auspicious start to my journey.

Climate Camp meets at Embankment to get on the coaches to Copenhagen

Climate Camp meets at Embankment to get on the coaches to Copenhagen

Now, what should you absolutely not do on a trip to the Cop 15 summit protests? Eat a McDonalds? Confess that actually, you’ll be flying home, because you’re a journalist who *absolutely* has to file a story before the weekend? Surreptitiously read Heat magazine in the ferry terminal sweetie shop? All of this happened on our trip to Copenhagen. You’ll be glad to hear (maybe) that I was only implicated in the latter offence, along with several other ladies who would prefer to remain anonymous.

Climate Campers pretending not to read Heat at Dover

Climate Campers pretending not to read Heat at Dover

The thing is, we climate activists have a very dull reputation to live up to – what with most people believing we’re just a smelly do-gooding bunch of un-fun loving “hedge monkeys“. But actually, we’re not. My friends from Climate Camp are for the most part an amusing gang to hang around with. And so am I. Hopefully. You see, we’re not here to push austerity, hardship, denial. That way failure lies – no one is going to change their ways if this is the story that we tell the world. It’s really important that actually, moving into a new way of life is more appealing. And the way we do that is by living it. How? Well, that’s a whole other blog. For now the point is that we laugh at ourselves quite a lot.

the Climate Camp coach. a bus load of fun, honest

The Climate Camp coach. A bus load of fun, honest.

German sandwiches. Very good. The cheese ones that is.

German sandwiches. Very good. The cheese ones that is.

So yes, back to the coach. Which is hardly a good way to back up this motive, surely? Maybe not. The coach ride was marginally uncomfortable, we got hardly any serious sleep (I snored – sorry Murray, my neighbour on the outward bound journey) and don’t even get me started on the trip back. BUT for me there were quite a few plusses. We got to see a German carpenter, a young man dressed in full traditional regalia, waiting to hitch a ride at a service station in the early hours of the morning.

a German carpenter boy trying to find a lift at a service station

A German carpenter boy trying to find a lift at a service station. This outfit is for real. At 5am

And we got to marvel at the miles and miles of beautiful wind farms on the border between Germany and Denmark. Even our coach drivers were impressed by the sight of them, elegantly swooping across the sky way above our heads. “Yeah, but I’m not giving up my car. And anyway, why didn’t you lot just fly? It’s way cheaper, quicker and easier.” Yes, erm. But, against the odds, it was actually a laugh and gave us time to form a sense of camaraderie with the people around us – most people didn’t know each other (I think I talked most of the way). Of course there was a certain sense of self-righteousness in travelling this way but it my point is it wasn’t as bad as you might think, especially when we took a short cut and managed to avoid the lengthy searches at the border that we had feared, which meant we steamed ahead of the other two Climate Camp coaches (who said our competitive spirit was dead?)

Why, I think I'll have an ice-cream with my coffee. For breakfast in December.

Why, I think I’ll have an ice-cream with my coffee. For breakfast. In December.

There was also, of course, a palpable sense of anticipation, for none of us had a clue where we were going to stay, or really what we would be doing, once we reached Copenhagen. But the kind of impromptu planning that would have my mother in an absolute tizz suits us activists, probably because we’re used to walking into situations that we have little control over, and of which we have no idea of the outcome. As we bowled along the motorway our sporadic contacts in Denmark informed us that we might be staying in a huge cold warehouse that was housing hundreds, had no heating and one toilet.  And which had just been the subject of a police raid. Then we heard word that there was in fact nowhere for us to stay. Still we remained calm. I’m sure that much of this confidence had to do with the fact of being with so many like-minded people, and the knowledge that we are good at acting as a community that looks after each other.

Voldparken School, Copenhagen. so sexy.

Voldparken school, Copenhagen. So sexy

Of course, our home was magically sorted out just as we arrived in Copenhagen and we were swiftly taken to the huge Voldparken elementary school that is the centre of a large suburban housing estate. (warning: I am about to go an architectural digression) Built in 1957, it has been moth-balled since 2008, which left me wondering where on earth the local children are now being educated. Needless to say I was immediately in love, modernist architecture being my absolute favourite. Now, unlike us the Danes build for cold weather so that every exit to the exterior is buffered by a well-insulated antechamber. Through the first chamber you come straight into a distinctive central hallway bounded by lilac pillars and bold staircases surrounded by galleries – this would be where we would hold our daily meetings. Behind the main building is a large play area and other buildings, including a big sports hall and large communal showers (with lovely hot pressured water, much better than any shower I ever have in London) I could talk at length about how beautiful the Voldparken is to a geek like me, but I’ll stop here, since this is a blog about climate and activism and exciting things like that. You can see a tour of the accommodation on my qik video stream here.

the main hallway at Voldparken school, Copenhagen

The main hallway at Voldparken school, Copenhagen

Sharing 18 to a room we laid our sleeping bags out within the carefully masked out fire lines and marvelled at the generosity of the massively overstretched Danish activists who had worked so hard to sort this out with the City Council. There was one downside, however, which was that fire regulations meant we weren’t allowed to cook in the school. Of course, we easily got around this by boiling lots of kettles and skipping food that could be eaten without heating up (Denmark is something else for skipping – the quality was out of this world, sooooo much yummy pastries and bread)

the play area behind the main building at Voldparken after a sprinkling of snow

The play area behind the main building at Voldparken after a sprinkling of snow. You can see people heading for the portaloos!

the room where I slept, laid out like a sausage, with 17 other people.

The room where I slept, laid out like a sausage, with 17 other people. It wasn’t exactly luxury, but I liked it, being a social bean (and used to slumming it) Plus I had two lovely thick thermarests to soften the floor.

eating skipped food at the Voldparken school. YUM!

Eating skipped food at the Voldparken school after a long cold day on the streets. Yum!

It wasn’t long before we had boarded a bus into town, which delivered us straight into the belly of the beast, the Hopenhagen display, sponsored by the likes of Coca-Cola and Siemens, glowing like an alien installation beneath a huge McDonalds advert. Greenwash anyone? Open mouthed we walked past brilliant green boxes of nothing very much except hot air, and stood gawping under the giant balloon. (Why?) From there we went in search of food, coming across the bizarre spectacle of a “Klima Camp” in the central shopping district – a small group of friendly scouts heating marshmallows over braziers. Quite a contrast to the jamboree down the road.

Hopenhagen Greenwash in the centre of Copenhagen

Hopenhagen Greenwash in the centre of Copenhagen

ooh, is it an alien spaceship? No, it's HOPENHAGEN, here to save the world with corporate sponsorship

Ooh, is it an alien spaceship? No, it’s HOPENHAGEN, here to save the world with corporate sponsorship

Hopenhagen advertising EVERYWHERE. some say it looks very similar to the Climate Camp poster for 2009...

Hopenhagen adverts EVERYWHERE. some say it looks very similar to the Climate Camp poster for 2009…

Klima Camp - Danish scouts camped out in central Copenhagen!

Klima Camp – Danish scouts camped out on the flagstones in central Copenhagen!

Via the freezing docks we had soon found our way down to Freetown Christiania, which is a well known autonomous community that is a haven for alternative thinking and thereby a fitting place for the Climate Bottom alternative Climate Summit, held inside a big top tent. Inside we found warmth, hot vegan slop and familiar faces – for many Climate Campers were already in Copenhagen, and spread out around crash spaces throughout the city.

graffiti on the walls in Christiania

Graffiti on the walls in Christiania. Next to this was an incongruous and very chic restaurant – gentrification has started.

still find it very hard to reconcile this peaceful space with the knowledge that only a few days later the Danish police carried out a completely disproportionate tear gas attack on a bunch of activists who were enjoying a drink and a boogie after a speech by Naomi Klein. Designed to demoralise and fracture our networks, it certainly left a lot of people with their first experience of the sheer panic that tear gas can cause in a confined “safe” space. Luckily I had left a few hours earlier, but as news of the attack twittered its way to me I lay awake through the night worrying about my fellow roomies, many of whom had been detained and some of whom did not return until the morning.

cooking for lots of people in Christiania

Cooking in huge vats for lots of people in Christiania

Watch this space: second installment coming soon, featuring talk of the actions I got involved in and possibly a bit more on the analysis front…

Little Glass Clementine cottongold
Images throughout courtesy of Little Glass Clementine.

The jewellery designer Little Glass Clementine is enough to melt the heart of any eco-conscious fashionista, more about the innocence in its name alone summarising the beauty of the designs– jewellery with soul. The ethos for these designs is simple; naturally sourced materials used to maximum effect to create intricate necklaces and exquisite hair pieces. The brainchild behind this brand that can regress even the most mature person to ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ in child-like wonder, hospital is Clementine James, cheap or Clemmie. Many Amelia’s readers will recognise Clementine from the earth section of our magazine as she was interviewed last year about her time spent in the remote location of Tuvalu in the South Pacific. A self taught jeweller Clementine has been skilfully making and selling her creations since the tender age of 16. Her aim is to tell a story with recycled materials stumbled upon to create something new by transforming the old so memories can live on.

Little Glass Clementine

Clemmie describes her sourced materials through a set of findings: “A ring from a love affair, a pebble from a Scottish shore, a button from a grandmother’s box, gems from India, a single earring, jewels from a charity shop, junk from a boot fair, lace from an antique market, fabric from an old coat, and pearls from the sea.” These individual items work together to create the ultimate in reclaimed possessions, and comprise the perfect accessories to make even the most ordinary outfit look both unique and interesting.

Little Glass Clementine golden park

Clementine has exhibited in galleries and boutiques in both London and Edinburgh and has sold in a plethora of shops, markets and even Brighton beach! For me the best thing about the designs in the brands back catalogue is the inspiration they can ignite for others. Whether it’s the urge to buy a Little Glass Clementine necklace, to revisit old memories or to get crafty with the pliers, there’s something about Clementine James that can make anyone feel inclined to be creative and eco-friendly.

Categories ,brighton, ,Clementine James, ,Ella Okore, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,Tuvalu

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Amelia’s Magazine | Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration is OUT NOW!

Willow candle by daria hlazatova
Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

I don’t know what it is about candles that gets me so excited. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I love beautiful smells. My house may be a mess but I quite often spritz my office with a sweetly scented room spray or light a candle to imbue a relaxing mood. I think that this is the nub of what is so brilliant about candles, generic link especially the really high quality ones that contain high quantities of essential oils – they are the simplest way to create a delightfully relaxing and cosy feeling within a space.

willow organics candle

And of course Christmas is all about candles. Since I lived in Sweden as a little girl my family has had a tradition of lighting advent candles during the month of December – and whilst I don’t spend much time at my parent’s home anymore, look I always look forward to candlelit dinners when I return for Christmas. Candles impart a certain cosiness which the Danish call “hygge” – and during these bitterly cold dark winter months is most sorely appreciated.

Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova
Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

This year my favourite discovery is the Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle. It comes beautifully presented in a beribboned fold out box and utilises the naturally healing and calming effects of precious oils that have been synonymous with Christmas since biblical times.

Willow candle box
willow candle box open

From the wonderful scents to the gold leaf that floats glittering in the top of the wax, information pills it doesn’t get more christmassy than this. The Willow Organic shop in Kings Road, Chelsea is open until the 23rd December, so there’s still time to grab a fabulous Christmas candle before the big day.

Cire_Trudon_by_Megan_Piontkowski
Cire Trudon by Megan Piontkowski.

Earlier this year I discovered the French Cire Trudon brand, which has been in operation in various guises since 1643. Alongside very high quality candles presented in beautiful glass pots with heraldic shields, they also produce stunning room sprays in statement bottles and a boxed set containing a room spray, candle and illustrated fairy tale – the idea being to encourage children to enjoy evocative scents from a very young age. Not for the hard up these boxed sets don’t come cheap, but I love the idea and the illustrated booklets are a delight.

Sinbad the Sailor - Fairy Tale Box - Cire Trudon

Recently discovered: the Albam independent menswear clothing store in Spitalfields stocks three yummy varieties of candle, my favourite being the figgy one. When I went in they were also testing out a new scent called Library, which was suitably masculine. Unfortunately I don’t think you can buy these online but it’s definitely worth taking a trip down to this great little store.

Spitalfields Candle Co by ellie sutton
Spitalfields Candle Co and Tocca candles by Ellie Sutton.

There is also the Spitalfields Candle Co. which uses sustainably sourced soya wax in all candles. It was hard to choose my favourite from such a yummy range only briefly sniffed in the Inspitalfields gift store, but I think it has to be Lemon Verbena – I just love that clean bright scent.

Diptyque Candle - The Cloud Commission
Diptyque Candle by The Cloud Commission.

Tocca are a high end scent company that stock in Liberty – I particularly like the sound of the Bianca candle which contains Green Tea and Lemon. Each year the Parisian brand Diptyque creates a special Christmas range, in beautifully decorated coloured glass jars. The Orange Epicee sounds yummy, as does the Canelle.

Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins
Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins.

Lastly but no means least Jo Malone offers incredibly classy scents, all tastefully presented in cream boxes with crisp branding. The limited edition Pine & Eucalyptus Collection sounds glorious, and how about a giant candle with not one but four wicks to make a major statement?

Right, I’m off to get on with my present wrapping by the scent of my Willow Organic candle. Have a glorious Christmas everyone.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-cover

So, pills the book is finally here! You can find it at Tate Modern, about it Magma, Design Museum, Serpentine Gallery, Tatty Devine, Cornerhouse, Arnolfini and many other good independent book stores across the UK and by early 2011 around the world.

Tatty Devine Amelia's Compendium
Harriet of Tatty Devine takes receipt of her copies of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration.

Amelia's Compendium Magma
On the shelves of Magma.

Or you can buy it online here for a reduced price and receive 12 unique Amelia’s Magazine postcards, plus a selection of bookmarks. This offer is EXCLUSIVE to my website. You can’t get these postcards anywhere else!

Amelia's Compendium postcards
Postcards come free with all orders of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration made through this website.

The following up and coming fashion illustrators feature in Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration:
Abigail Daker, Abby Wright, Amy Martino, Andrea Peterson, Aniela Murphy, Antonia Parker, Bex Glover, Emma Block, Erica Sharp, Faye West, Gemma Milly, Jennifer Costello, Jenny Robins, Jo Cheung, Joana Faria, June Chanpoomidole, Katherine Tromans, Katie Harnett, Kellie Black, Krister Selin, Lesley Barnes, Lisa Stannard, Michelle Urvall Nyren, Naomi Law, Natasha Thompson, Natsuki Otani, Rachel de Ste Croix, Yelena Bryksenkova, Zarina Liew & Gareth A Hopkins.

And…. the book features interviews with the following ethical fashion designers:
123 Bethnal Green Road, Ada Zanditon, Andrea Crews, Anja Hynynen, Beautiful Soul, By Stamo, Camilla Norrback, Christopher Raeburn, Ciel, Dem Collective, Edun, Emesha, Emma Ware, Fifi Bijoux, From Somewhere, Goodone, Gossypium, Henrietta Ludgate, Hetty Rose, Howies, Ivana Basilotta, Izzy Lane, Joanna Cave, Junky Styling, Little Glass Clementine, Lu Flux, Martina Spetlova, Maxjenny, Michelle Lowe-Holder, Minna, Nancy Dee, Nina Dolcetti, Noir, Noki, Oria, Partimi, People Tree, Pia Anjou, Prophetik, Romina Karamanea, Sägen, Satoshi Date, Tara Starlet, Ute Decker & Wilfried Pletzinger

Below are some pages from inside the book – which is the usual riot of colour and pattern for which I have become known. You can also watch a flick video of the book on the website of my international distributor Idea Books here.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-From Somewhere
From Somewhere illustrated by Rachel de Ste Croix.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-By Stamo
By Stamo illustrated by Krister Selin.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Christopher Raeburn
Christopher Raeburn illustrated by Gemma Milly.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Edun
Edun illustrated by Katherine Tromans.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Dem Collective
Dem Collective illustrated by Michelle Urvall Nyren.

Amelia's Compendium Aniela Murphy
Aniela Murphy’s pages in the content proofs.

Amelia's Compendium Antonia Parker
Antonia Parker’s pages in the content proofs.

Please note that I will not be posting any orders out until the 4th January 2011. Have a very merry Christmas!

Categories ,123, ,123 Bethnal Green Road, ,Abby Wright, ,Abigail Daker, ,Ada Zanditon, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Amy Martino, ,Andrea Crews, ,Andrea Peterson, ,Aniela Murphy, ,Anja Hynynen, ,Antonia Parker, ,arnolfini, ,Beautiful Soul, ,Bex Glover, ,book, ,Book shop, ,Bookstores, ,By Stamo, ,Camilla Norrback, ,Christopher Raeburn, ,ciel, ,Cornerhouse, ,Dem Collective, ,Design Museum, ,Eco fashion, ,Edun, ,Emesha, ,Emma Block, ,Emma Ware, ,Erica Sharp, ,Ethical Fashion Design, ,Fashion Illustration, ,Faye West, ,Fifi Bijoux, ,From Somewhere, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,Gemma Milly, ,goodone, ,gossypium, ,Henrietta Ludgate, ,Hetty Rose, ,howies, ,Idea Books, ,illustration, ,Ivana Basilotta, ,Izzy Lane, ,Jennifer Costello, ,Jenny Robins, ,Jo Cheung, ,Joana Faria, ,Joanna Cave, ,June Chanpoomidole, ,Junky Styling, ,Katherine Tromans, ,Katie Harnett, ,Kellie Black, ,Krister Selin, ,Lesley Barnes, ,Lisa Stannard, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,Lu Flux, ,Magma, ,Martina Spetlova, ,Maxjenny, ,Michelle Lowe-Holder, ,Michelle Urvall Nyrén, ,Minna, ,Nancy Dee, ,Naomi Law, ,Natasha Thompson, ,Natsuki Otani, ,Nina Dolcetti, ,noir, ,Noki, ,Oria, ,Partimi, ,People Tree, ,Pia Anjou, ,Prophetik, ,Rachel De Ste. Croix, ,Romina Karamanea, ,Sägen, ,Satoshi Date, ,Serpentine Gallery, ,Tara Starlet, ,Tate Modern, ,Tatty Devine, ,Ute Decker, ,Wilfried Pletzinger, ,Yelena Bryksenkova, ,Zarina Liew

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Amelia’s Magazine | Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration is OUT NOW!

Willow candle by daria hlazatova
Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

I don’t know what it is about candles that gets me so excited. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I love beautiful smells. My house may be a mess but I quite often spritz my office with a sweetly scented room spray or light a candle to imbue a relaxing mood. I think that this is the nub of what is so brilliant about candles, generic link especially the really high quality ones that contain high quantities of essential oils – they are the simplest way to create a delightfully relaxing and cosy feeling within a space.

willow organics candle

And of course Christmas is all about candles. Since I lived in Sweden as a little girl my family has had a tradition of lighting advent candles during the month of December – and whilst I don’t spend much time at my parent’s home anymore, look I always look forward to candlelit dinners when I return for Christmas. Candles impart a certain cosiness which the Danish call “hygge” – and during these bitterly cold dark winter months is most sorely appreciated.

Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova
Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

This year my favourite discovery is the Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle. It comes beautifully presented in a beribboned fold out box and utilises the naturally healing and calming effects of precious oils that have been synonymous with Christmas since biblical times.

Willow candle box
willow candle box open

From the wonderful scents to the gold leaf that floats glittering in the top of the wax, information pills it doesn’t get more christmassy than this. The Willow Organic shop in Kings Road, Chelsea is open until the 23rd December, so there’s still time to grab a fabulous Christmas candle before the big day.

Cire_Trudon_by_Megan_Piontkowski
Cire Trudon by Megan Piontkowski.

Earlier this year I discovered the French Cire Trudon brand, which has been in operation in various guises since 1643. Alongside very high quality candles presented in beautiful glass pots with heraldic shields, they also produce stunning room sprays in statement bottles and a boxed set containing a room spray, candle and illustrated fairy tale – the idea being to encourage children to enjoy evocative scents from a very young age. Not for the hard up these boxed sets don’t come cheap, but I love the idea and the illustrated booklets are a delight.

Sinbad the Sailor - Fairy Tale Box - Cire Trudon

Recently discovered: the Albam independent menswear clothing store in Spitalfields stocks three yummy varieties of candle, my favourite being the figgy one. When I went in they were also testing out a new scent called Library, which was suitably masculine. Unfortunately I don’t think you can buy these online but it’s definitely worth taking a trip down to this great little store.

Spitalfields Candle Co by ellie sutton
Spitalfields Candle Co and Tocca candles by Ellie Sutton.

There is also the Spitalfields Candle Co. which uses sustainably sourced soya wax in all candles. It was hard to choose my favourite from such a yummy range only briefly sniffed in the Inspitalfields gift store, but I think it has to be Lemon Verbena – I just love that clean bright scent.

Diptyque Candle - The Cloud Commission
Diptyque Candle by The Cloud Commission.

Tocca are a high end scent company that stock in Liberty – I particularly like the sound of the Bianca candle which contains Green Tea and Lemon. Each year the Parisian brand Diptyque creates a special Christmas range, in beautifully decorated coloured glass jars. The Orange Epicee sounds yummy, as does the Canelle.

Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins
Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins.

Lastly but no means least Jo Malone offers incredibly classy scents, all tastefully presented in cream boxes with crisp branding. The limited edition Pine & Eucalyptus Collection sounds glorious, and how about a giant candle with not one but four wicks to make a major statement?

Right, I’m off to get on with my present wrapping by the scent of my Willow Organic candle. Have a glorious Christmas everyone.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-cover

So, pills the book is finally here! You can find it at Tate Modern, about it Magma, Design Museum, Serpentine Gallery, Tatty Devine, Cornerhouse, Arnolfini and many other good independent book stores across the UK and by early 2011 around the world.

Tatty Devine Amelia's Compendium
Harriet of Tatty Devine takes receipt of her copies of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration.

Amelia's Compendium Magma
On the shelves of Magma.

Or you can buy it online here for a reduced price and receive 12 unique Amelia’s Magazine postcards, plus a selection of bookmarks. This offer is EXCLUSIVE to my website. You can’t get these postcards anywhere else!

Amelia's Compendium postcards
Postcards come free with all orders of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration made through this website.

The following up and coming fashion illustrators feature in Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration:
Abigail Daker, Abby Wright, Amy Martino, Andrea Peterson, Aniela Murphy, Antonia Parker, Bex Glover, Emma Block, Erica Sharp, Faye West, Gemma Milly, Jennifer Costello, Jenny Robins, Jo Cheung, Joana Faria, June Chanpoomidole, Katherine Tromans, Katie Harnett, Kellie Black, Krister Selin, Lesley Barnes, Lisa Stannard, Michelle Urvall Nyren, Naomi Law, Natasha Thompson, Natsuki Otani, Rachel de Ste Croix, Yelena Bryksenkova, Zarina Liew & Gareth A Hopkins.

And…. the book features interviews with the following ethical fashion designers:
123 Bethnal Green Road, Ada Zanditon, Andrea Crews, Anja Hynynen, Beautiful Soul, By Stamo, Camilla Norrback, Christopher Raeburn, Ciel, Dem Collective, Edun, Emesha, Emma Ware, Fifi Bijoux, From Somewhere, Goodone, Gossypium, Henrietta Ludgate, Hetty Rose, Howies, Ivana Basilotta, Izzy Lane, Joanna Cave, Junky Styling, Little Glass Clementine, Lu Flux, Martina Spetlova, Maxjenny, Michelle Lowe-Holder, Minna, Nancy Dee, Nina Dolcetti, Noir, Noki, Oria, Partimi, People Tree, Pia Anjou, Prophetik, Romina Karamanea, Sägen, Satoshi Date, Tara Starlet, Ute Decker & Wilfried Pletzinger

Below are some pages from inside the book – which is the usual riot of colour and pattern for which I have become known. You can also watch a flick video of the book on the website of my international distributor Idea Books here.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-From Somewhere
From Somewhere illustrated by Rachel de Ste Croix.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-By Stamo
By Stamo illustrated by Krister Selin.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Christopher Raeburn
Christopher Raeburn illustrated by Gemma Milly.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Edun
Edun illustrated by Katherine Tromans.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion-sm-Dem Collective
Dem Collective illustrated by Michelle Urvall Nyren.

Amelia's Compendium Aniela Murphy
Aniela Murphy’s pages in the content proofs.

Amelia's Compendium Antonia Parker
Antonia Parker’s pages in the content proofs.

Please note that I will not be posting any orders out until the 4th January 2011. Have a very merry Christmas!

Categories ,123, ,123 Bethnal Green Road, ,Abby Wright, ,Abigail Daker, ,Ada Zanditon, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Amy Martino, ,Andrea Crews, ,Andrea Peterson, ,Aniela Murphy, ,Anja Hynynen, ,Antonia Parker, ,arnolfini, ,Beautiful Soul, ,Bex Glover, ,book, ,Book shop, ,Bookstores, ,By Stamo, ,Camilla Norrback, ,Christopher Raeburn, ,ciel, ,Cornerhouse, ,Dem Collective, ,Design Museum, ,Eco fashion, ,Edun, ,Emesha, ,Emma Block, ,Emma Ware, ,Erica Sharp, ,Ethical Fashion Design, ,Fashion Illustration, ,Faye West, ,Fifi Bijoux, ,From Somewhere, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,Gemma Milly, ,goodone, ,gossypium, ,Henrietta Ludgate, ,Hetty Rose, ,howies, ,Idea Books, ,illustration, ,Ivana Basilotta, ,Izzy Lane, ,Jennifer Costello, ,Jenny Robins, ,Jo Cheung, ,Joana Faria, ,Joanna Cave, ,June Chanpoomidole, ,Junky Styling, ,Katherine Tromans, ,Katie Harnett, ,Kellie Black, ,Krister Selin, ,Lesley Barnes, ,Lisa Stannard, ,Little Glass Clementine, ,Lu Flux, ,Magma, ,Martina Spetlova, ,Maxjenny, ,Michelle Lowe-Holder, ,Michelle Urvall Nyrén, ,Minna, ,Nancy Dee, ,Naomi Law, ,Natasha Thompson, ,Natsuki Otani, ,Nina Dolcetti, ,noir, ,Noki, ,Oria, ,Partimi, ,People Tree, ,Pia Anjou, ,Prophetik, ,Rachel De Ste. Croix, ,Romina Karamanea, ,Sägen, ,Satoshi Date, ,Serpentine Gallery, ,Tara Starlet, ,Tate Modern, ,Tatty Devine, ,Ute Decker, ,Wilfried Pletzinger, ,Yelena Bryksenkova, ,Zarina Liew

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Hero: Clemmie James

When you think of the humble pom-pom you think of children’s clothes, order buy of gigantic sombreros for tourists, generic unsightly snow boots and poodles with dodgy haircuts. Experimenting with pom-poms always seemed to be a bit like tequila shots – one was fun, two was adventurous, any more was way overboard and enough to make you gag.
NOT ANY MORE! Somebody somewhere decided it was time to wrench those pom-poms from the cheerleader’s sweaty grasp and boom! Stick them in the right places and we’re in love – and it turns out you can have hundreds of them!

pompom14.jpg

pompom16.jpg

They might have come to our attention bobbling out all over the catwalks in fashion week and with the high street following suit, but this is a look that could be even cheaper for the creative recessionistas amongst you. Make your own! Check it.
If you ever find yourself sat staring into space on the tube, you could be churning out a whole lot of pom-poms instead. Worn the right way I think it’s a really easy and fun accessory to jazz up an outfit– this cute Peter Jensen ring as a prime example:

pompom12.jpg

We’ve seen some girls wearing them in their hair, which make a nice woolly alternative to bows, and of course the contentious scrunchie.

pompom15.jpg

BIGGER:

pompom13.jpg

BIGGEST:

pompom10.jpg

THE KITCHEN SINK:

pompom11.jpg

Don’t be wearing those in the cinema mind you.

It’s amazing that something so simple has been culturally reinterpreted so often over the course of history. That might sound grand but something that’s gone from dangling off the edges of sun hats in Central America, to being mass marketed to children all over the world to making on the Paris catwalks is pretty unique. Yikes, Pom Pom international even reckons they can promote world peace. Maybe that’s one tequila too many. Sporting them could almost seem a throwback to childhood, a fashion revival harking back to the days of hats and mittens (I’d like to say ‘and snow and toboggans’ but let’s face it, it doesn’t snow THAT often).
The last thing we can learn about pom-poms is from cheerleaders everywhere, who if nothing else, seem mind-bogglingly happy. Why? POM-POMS!
“At a T-cross-section go to the left. On your left hand you will see a hill. At the end of the hill, tadalafil on the top, this you will see a green cottage. That is where you can find me. If I am not there I might be outside doing some experiments.”
jansen1.jpg
Holland’s answer to a modern day Darwin, Theo Jansen has spent the last 19 years playing god and taking evolution into his own hands. An arrogant way to spend the best part of two decades you might say, but not when you see what incredible results this passing of time has produced. Jansen’s kinetic creature creations exist in a carefully crafted overlap of art and engineering.
jansen2.jpg
From a physics background to a study of painting via an interest in aeronautics and robotics Jansen arrived at 1990 with a thirst for breathing autonomous life into mechanical sculpture. What started as a highly technical computer animation program is now only reliant on the power of the wind with no machine assistance and only minimal human input required, and even that Jansen hopes to eventually phase out.
jansen3.jpg
My personal attraction to what Jansen does comes from my deep seated loathing of plastic waste, which he cleverly conquers by incorporating discarded plastic bottles as part of a complicated wind energy storage system and he sources metres and metres and metres of yellow plastic tubing- 375 tubes per animal to be exact- to create the skeletons for his beautiful monsters.
jansen4.jpg
He claims he started to use the plastic tubing because it was unbelievably cheap and readily available although he quickly discovered that a more perfect material for the project would be hard to find as they are both flexible and multifunctional. He draws comparisons between the plastic required in his art and the protein required for life forms. “in nature, everything is almost made of protein and you have various uses of protein; you can make nails, hair, skin and bones. There’s a lot of variety in what you can do with just one material and this is what I try to do as well.”
jansen5.jpg
The heads of his giant beings act as sails, directing the intricate frames to glide gracefully across the nearby beaches to Jansen’s home and laboratory. The insect-like wings catch gusts of wind and propel the body forward. When there is no wind not even for ready money, the stored energy in the belly of the beasts can be utilized.
jansen6.jpg
Jansen’s vision is of a landscape populated by herds of these sculptures taking on entire lives of their own. The versions of models that made it into existence have raced and won survival of the fittest contests through his computer program and having studied these ‘winners’ Jansen designed creatures so developed they are even capable of self preservation, burrowing themselves in the sand when the gusts are too powerful for them to use constructively.
jansen8.jpg
His imagination like his Strandbeests (literally translated as ‘Beach Animal) is an ever evolving self perfecting organ. He envisions a point at which he will release his creations ‘into the wild’, which he speaks about in the same loving tone you would expect from a parent preparing their nest to be flown by their offspring. “I imagine that two animals will meet each other and compare their qualities in some way; have a demonstration somewhere on how they run and how fast they can run and also do some quality comparison on how they survive the winds. And the one with the better quality kills the other one and gives the other its own genetic code. There could be 30 animals on the beach, running around all the time, copying genetic codes. And then it would go on without me.” It’s not so far fetched after all to consider what Jansen does as god-like. He plainly and rather humbly philosophizes, “I try to remake nature with the idea that while doing this you will uncover the secrets of life and that you will meet the same problems as the real creator,” he added. Theo Jansen is simply a genius though his genius is far from simple. Amen.

It has been a while since I have found a political party that I feel that I can get behind. Politics seem to have descended into a misguided mess. Anytime I read about a Tory or Labour MP, more about it is usually because of a scandal. What is going on environmentally and economically seems to play second fiddle to infighting and lies. Meanwhile, living in East London, I have become friends with a couple of people who are involved in the Hackney Green Party. They don’t seem to lie, or cheat, or claim expenses – this is a party that I can support! I wanted to find out more about them, so I sat down for a cup of tea with Matt Hanley, who is the Green candidate for Stoke Newington Central.

Jessy%20P.everything_is_connected-artwork1.jpg
Illustration by Jessica Pemberton

I really liked the political broadcast; I thought it was very astute. The message is not that we have to step outside of our comfortable lives, but that the Green Party are the only political group who can deal with the contemporary and current issues that the world is facing; both politically and environmentally.

We have changed in almost a 180-degree way, twenty years ago the stereotype was beards, sandals, pipes, hemp clothes, it was almost like lecturing the public – it was unsophisticated. Twenty years ago was what, 1989? Scientists for the first time had come to an agreement that climate change was happening, and that it appeared to be man made. I guess when that news was first out there; people were like ‘look, its GOT to change’. Now we are a bit savvier. We have to present policies which are palatable to the voting public; there is no point in standing on the side lines and finger wagging, if we present a policy which will save money but drive down carbon emissions – that is what we are all about. I see the environment agenda of the Green Party very much subset of our core goal, which is social justice. Everything we do, we put the welfare of the human being at the very core. If they are not benefiting from our policies then… I don’t want to know…. that is what the Green Party stands for. So we work for human rights, LGBT rights, promoting the local economy, promoting local business, right though to reducing carbon emissions, they are all under this umbrella of social justice. We are providing a very electable platform, which will improve people’s lives. We are a very well run political party with extremely good innovative ideas to get ourselves out of this economic mess and we are also challenging climate change and enabling our communities to do the same and preparing ourselves for peak oil.

There have been a many protests organised recently, a lot of people who have never protested before are taking to the streets. What is the Green Party’s stance on direct action?

We are the political wing of the New Social Movement; we are the only party who advocate non-violent direct action. The Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, is probably the only leader with a criminal record, she has been arrested at a nuclear base up in Scotland. We support legitimate protest. There is a place for the protesting, and a place for the parliamentary process. So we are the elected wing of the protest movement.

Aaron%20_time_for_change_final_2.jpg
Illustration by Aarron Taylor

Other parties don’t like their protesters do they?

Absolutely not, they just want you to nod along. Like good citizens, nod along like The Churchill Dog! (Laughs)

For people who have only heard of Hackney and have not been here, the first words that would come to mind would not be “sustainability”, “communities” or “grow your own”, but plenty of people are living by these ideals here and there is actually quite a healthy sized green movement in Hackney….

There is a massive opportunity for a green movement here, and massive support for us. It is unbelievable. In the last elections, the Greens reached second or third in every single ward in Hackney.

And you have a good relationship with Transition Town Hackney as well?

Yes, but they are completely different organisations. The Transition Town movement doesn’t want to be in the thrall of the political party. We definitely support the parties and their principles. We are all about a localised economy, we should be able to feed ourselves, produce our own energy, and I should be able to send my kid to the local school. The Transition Town model is about preparing for the onslaught of climate change and equipping communities for that transition, and that is also what the Greens are all about.

Can you see Hackney functioning well under a Green Party council?

Absolutely! They are doing it in Lewisham at the moment, which is a similar demography. They are doing all these fantastic things, for example, they have set a system up where you can go to the library and hire energy reading meters which you can take home and fix into your energy meter and this allows you to do an audit of your energy usage. I definitely want to see this launched in Hackney. It’s an innovative, creative way of thinking. It’s about putting sustainability at the core of everything, which also saves lots and lots of money!

I see The Green Party as being very accessible to young people as well.

The average age of people joining is mid to late 20′s. They are not wedded to 20th century politics, a lot of older labour supporters can’t bring themselves to leave. We have the same agenda that Labour did, back when they were good Labour. Only we can add the environmental agenda. We stand up for peace. We stand up for nuclear disarmament, no other party does that. We want public services to stay public. We want to renationalise the railways – the cost of rail tickets hits young people very, very hard. Younger people can see that we are standing up to big businesses, supporting local shops, and standing up for individuals. We have a whole plethora of progressive policies……..

Aaron%20capitalist_final.jpg
Illustration by Aarron Taylor

And also The Green Party a very media savvy bunch – you are on Facebook, you organise lots of activities….

Absolutely! In fact next week we are going paintballing – ‘Paintballing for Peace’

(Laughs) What other way is there to find peace?

(Laughs), and we are going on a Hackney Greens bike ride down to Brighton, we are organising a summer solstice away down to the coast. And we go on alternative pub-crawls. (Laughs)

Speaking of young people, Matt, you are 30 years old and you are standing for Stoke Newington Council for next May. What prompted this move?

I don’t like politicians – they are all the same, especially with what is going on with news about their expenses at the moment.
Working for the Green Party, and seeing the good that they are doing, I thought, you have to step up. I know that I can do a good job. Labour are failing miserably both in Hackney and in the country. The Conservatives are the same, the Liberal Democrats are no different, and so as a Green, you just have to step up.

What will you do if you won and had the power to implement any idea? What’s the first thing that you would do?

Free insulation! It’s a scheme that stems from European legislation, which states that energy companies are obliged to give a certain percentage to energy efficiency schemes. But the councils have to apply for that. The Green Party in Kirklees is on the local council, so every single person in Kirklees gets free insulation. It drives down energy costs, and drives down the carbon emissions and creates local jobs, so it’s a win win situation. Why every single council on the country is getting on this I don’t know. It saves everyone money, make peoples homes warmer, make them healthier – it stops people going to NHS with colds and flu and also reinvigorates the local economy by producing jobs. It creates a programme of very sustainable jobs. We tried to implement it before, but the Labour Councellors called it ‘daft’, dismissed it out of hand and didn’t give a reason beyond that!

That doesn’t make any sense!

The Labour and Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats are on the wrong side of history, but there is a new movement, and it takes into account the Green Party, Transition Town and Friends Of The Earth…. Amnesty International, trade unions, CND etc and all these community grass routes organisations. This is a wonderful new social movement that can be called green with a small g and is a new paradigm of social and political engagement…. this is what the 21st Century is coming to now, but the three big parties are still clinging onto the coat tails of 20th Century ideology. This whole new multifaceted social movement (of which the Green Party are the political wing) is the new politics of the 21st century.

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Illustration by Faye Katirai

Can you tell us the best changes that we can make to our lives to make our world more sustainable?

Number one is vote Green! Although I don’t want to lecture people about being ” eco trendy”. Eco trendiness and eco consumption is not going to sort this mess out. We need strong government action to allow this country to change to a sustainable economy. But back to things that you can do as an individual: don’t use your car as much. Don’t eat as much meat. Cut down, you don’t have to stop eating meat completely, just don’t buy from supermarkets. Stop shopping at supermarkets altogether, because that is killing the environment, and your local towns. Support your local shops instead.

Wise words! Thanks Matt.
While the rest of us spent the winter windblown and wet-toed, viagra knitwear designer Craig Lawrence was dreaming of a resort escape, prostate with all the bells and whistles. And what hard earned sunburn doesn’t deserve to be soothed by an embarrassingly oversized tropical drink with all the tacky accoutrements. And ‘splash’ inspiration is born! Those fanciful toxic colored fishbowls of liquor with their cascading garnishes were all the visual inspiration Craig needed to create his first collection since graduating from St.Martins last July. Knitted up with satin ribbons and swirling metal yarn, the knitwear newcomer’s sugar sweet confections made it to Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s runways and onto the lips of the fashion heavies.

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I understand sweets and cocktails were the inspirations for your recent collection. What are some of your favorites?
After my degree collection for St.Martins I needed a bit of time to catch my breath so when I started designing again it was winter…cold and grey. I was eating sweets in my studio and daydreaming of beaches and tropical drinks. Some of my favorite things are peach daiquiris, parma violets. My favorite sweet is probably chewy toffee and favorite drink is that fizzy orange drink irn-bru.
What do you recall as the first piece of knitwear you ever made?
A wooly, salmon colored scarf that I actually lost on the train. That and an awful grey ruched square-shaped polyester thing I had to make for my A levels.
If given the chance to collaborate with anyone who would you have in mind?
I’ve always thought of doing pieces for a more theatrical environment. I would love to work with Slava Snowshow.

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You recently worked with stylist Katie Shillingford on a shoot for your recent collection. There’s so much movement in those images which really brings your knits to life, how did you manage to capture that?
I’d wanted dancing and movement but the studios’ ceilings were too low and they were all too expensive. So we brought a 9 ft family size trampoline to a rooftop overlooking the city and had the girls bouncing up and down on it. A bit risky actually as there was really not much there to stop them from going over if we weren’t careful. We did the hair and make up at home with the help of my boyfriend and flatmates, one of which is a model, which definitely helps when you need someone for fittings.
Did you start out interested in knit or did you find your way to it while studying fashion?
Actually, I wanted to do menswear while I was at London College of Fashion, by the time I got to St.Martins they encouraged me to do knit because they saw that all my stuff to that point had been designed in jersey. And I loved the chunky quality of knit.

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I hear you managed to do the impossible and actually design 6 seasons of knitwear for Gareth Pugh, while doing your BA, AND working a retail job once a week. How were you able to do that and how many of yourself did you have to clone?
I was in school at the time and had knitted a scarf for a friend who’s flatmate wore it on a date with Gareth, who mentioned he was looking for a knitwear designer. He got in touch and said he needed to have pieces made up in a week. So it was all quite fast. All that while doing my BA degree and working in the stock room at John Lewis on Saturday mornings, sometimes having to be there at 6 am. You get used to not sleeping.
And a year after graduating you were showing at Vauxhall Fashion Scout?
My PR agency BLOW called me up a week before the show and said they had an opening for me, so I made up some accessories and a few pieces to fill out the collection I’d been working on. I was given a team of hair and make up artists and we were off.

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Which comes first for you, the yarn or the garment?
Usually the textiles come first for me. I’ve learned alot about them along the way, like for example needing to use a flat knit for tight fitting garments.
Are there any textiles, practical or not that you’re really keen to use?
I’d like to do something with little leather strips or pvc something shiny and bright. Maybe even strips of diamante.
What is one of the more random things you’ve used to knit with?
You know those yellow rubber gloves used for washing up/ i found a guy in Dalston Market selling a gaint roll of it and bought it. I cut it up into tiny little strips and started knitting it up but as a garment it was incredibly heavy and totally unweareble.
Could you give us a peek into the inspirations for your next collection?
At the moment I’m interested in accessories, chenille, and fireworks!
Look out! That is some recipe. Craig Lawrence wants to expand our minds and preconceptions, to push knitwear into places we’d least expect it. Can’t wait to see what Molotov cocktail awaits us next season!

Prepare yourself for copious amounts of black eye liner as this week sees us take an awe-inspiring look at one of London’s fashion firmament Hannah Marshall. A rapidly establishing icon Marshall has been injecting a healthy dose of rock and roll back onto our catwalks since her break through debut in 2007.

I tracked down Hannah to find out more about this talented lady

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How are you doing? It’s a lovely sunny day in London; hope your enjoying the sunshine?

I have escaped from London to work from home today in the beautiful Essex countryside; the weather is beautiful here too.

Take me through life since you’re A/W 09 collection showcased at London Fashion Week?

The Autumn/Winter 2009 collection ‘Armour’ was shown at London Fashion Week as part of the New Generation exhibition sponsored by Top Shop. In addition, store I did my first presentation at the On|Off space with Ipso Facto in the Science Museum. The collection was also shown in Paris and New York and there has been a very positive reaction with UK and International press and buyers alike. Since fashion week, ed I have started working on more music collaborations, approved which is really exciting.

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Your one of the few designers I have come across that you really get the sense that your personal style plays prominence in your designs, would you agree?

I think it’s important to practice what you preach, and at the end of the day I am designing what I want to wear, that I believe isn’t out there already. I am obsessed with black, shoulder pads and eyebrows. My brand is an extension of me and my aesthetic and vision, which is about empowering women through clothing.

Every girl needs her staple black dress, for me anyway there is a sort of salvation and self-assurance in black clothing, would you agree?

When I design, I design in black. It’s the strongest and most powerful colour there is. Black is the perfect tone to create bold and interesting silhouettes with. For me, the iconic Little Black dress is the epitome of timeless clothing and is the wardrobe staple that is exudes a powerful elegance, authority and quiet confidence. When I launched my label in 2007, I just showed 12 black dresses – for me, a black dress is all you need.

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What would you say stimulates you to create your collections?

This season the Hannah Marshall woman wears her own suit of armour. Her body is encased in steel line panels, protected with angular breastplates, concealed with pronounced contours and shielded with moulded hips. This body armour concept allows pieces to offer the illusion of strength and lend the wearer a sense of security.

My design philosophy stems from my continuing obsession with the human form and bodily contours, resulting in carefully orchestrated designs that fit to perfection, inspired insect exoskeletons references such as the beetle’s armoured shell, mimicked through protective interconnecting segments. Black takes the main stage once again, in contrasting and tactile fabrics to create a second skin concealing what lies beneath. The introduction of caviar- look stingray, luxurious stretch velvet and taught elastic is added to my ritual butter soft leathers and lustrous stretch silks

I know it’s a generic question, but which designers out their would you
pinpoint as inspirations?

I am obsessed by Thierry Mugler and the super tailored, sexy designs from the 80′s period. I love the minimalism of Jill Sander in the 90′s and appreciate the sculptural shapes from Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto.

You utilise black very heavily within your work, would you say “black is
the new black?’

Always – black is irreplaceable and will always be around throughout each season.

I know you’re enthused by music, you recently used Ipso Facto as muses for you’re A/W 09 collection, which other bands blast out of your headphones?

Ipso Facto of course, as well as The Kills, Iggy Pop, Skunk Anansie, The Black Keys, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Florence & The Machine, Prince, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Nirvana, Siouxie & The Banshees, and more…

If you could work with any iconic figure from the past, who would you choose any why?

Cristobal Balenciaga – pure genius.

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Do you have any advice for budding designers eager to break into the fashion sphere?

Believe in yourself, otherwise how can you expect others too. Also, I would advise any young designers to get a mentor and do their ground work.

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The more that I delve into the world of Hannah Marshall the further in awe I become. Marshall creates collections that are not merely appreciated as catwalk objects, she creates pieces that tap into every woman’s subconscious. Her Designs follow a distinctive aesthetic, beautifully crafted with architectural precision but with a sensibility that just screams wearability.

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I think on a subconscious level we are all black aficionados, when your endlessly trawling the deepest realms of the wardrobe on those bleary eyed mornings, what brings us the utmost in self-assurance and feistiness? Without a doubt it is the quintessential little black dress that consoles all dilemmas. Its been engrained into our sub conscious, think avante garde, think Audrey Hepburn. The back dress prevails time, it still retains the same stylish potency now as ever. Regardless of occasion Its my one true ally admist the abysses of print and colour that can often just make the head spin. Blacks connotates effortless dominance, sexiness and style.

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So watch out world we have a new queen of darkness on our hands!

(images supplied by Victor De Mello)

It’s such a beautifully simple idea that you can’t believe you didn’t think of it first.

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A is for ‘Alternative Accomodation’ by Zoe Campagna

Take 26 photographers all with first names beginning with unique letters of the alphabet running from a to z. Get them to each to submit a brief with key words running from, site yep you guessed it, sildenafil a to z, corresponding with the letter their name begins with. Make it both ongoing and international running over one year and several continents and voila! You have the most interesting collaborative project since Miranda July’s learning to love you more.

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R is for ‘Reverse’ by Yong Hun Kim

That gives you a whopping 676 photographs and a whole lot of talent. With the project only just completed from ‘Alternative Accommodation’ to ‘Zigzag’, the project is hoping to exhibit here in London and bag themselves a book deal. I took some time out with project curator, photographer representing ‘S’ and artist responsible for the project brief ‘Stop a Stranger’ Stuart Pilkington and had a bit of Q and A.

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C is for ‘Chaos’ by Ed Maynard

Hello Stuart, how are you doing?

Not too bad thanks Alice.

How long was it between dreaming up the Alphabet Project and its actualization?

Do you know I can’t really recall now. It’s only since late 2007 that I’ve started to get off my backside and actualize anything at all. I think the idea may have been brewing for quite some time – maybe even a couple of years.
Eventually I sat down and created a basic site for the project and then posted the concept on a few sites like craigslist and Facebook to see if it connected with anybody. This was in late 2007. I didn’t really hear anything from anybody until January 2008 when an Australian photographer called Paula Bollers e-mailed me and said she was interested. She also sent the idea to some people she knew who then started to contact me. Until then I was about to abandon the idea but this was the catalyst I needed and I haven’t looked back since.

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F is for ‘Funny’ by Frank Gross

How was the project put together? Did you find photographers or did they find you? Was there a criteria for choosing artists, such as previously unpublished?

I used a variety of methods to track down the remaining photographers. Some of the people I knew namely John Wilson and Emli Bendixen. I asked if they wanted to be involved and they both said ‘yes’. Emli suggested some other photographers like Rachel Bevis and Burak Cingi and I’m very glad they all came on board – some great British talent.
I also started to contact photographers who had joined some groups I had set up on Facebook to celebrate the work of Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld. I started to look for photographers who use a variety of disciplines like Lomo, art photography, fashion photography, large format, polaroid etc. I also consciously started to look for people from all over the world.

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M is for ‘Memory’ by Rachel Bevis

Was it your intention to be a multinational project or was that pure chance from who got involved?

Not originally but when I started to enrol people from various corners of the world the more this idea excited me. Part of the concept is to do with interpretation, with people’s individual responses, and I realised that if I had photographers from different countries and different disciplines then the variety of images would be all the more exciting.

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V is for ‘Voracious’ by Stuart Pilkington

Do you have photography on your walls at home? Is it your own, people you know or that of renowned photographers?

Funnily enough I am painting my rooms white at the moment and I don’t have any pictures on my wall at all but I hope to have a couple of large William Eggleston prints soon and some prints from 20×200. I also would like to rotate images from a number of the photographers I have been working with.

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I is for ‘Idiocy’ by Andrew Ward

How do the response photographers work? Do they respond to all 26 projects or individual briefs that they are interested in?

Okay so originally the Alphabet Project was going to involve just 26 photographers, all with a first name beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet. However, I soon realised that a year is a long time for 26 people to remain committed so I needed to have another set of 26 photographers, similarly with first names beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet, in case anyone needed to pull out. I called this group of 26 photographers ‘responding’ purely because the only difference between them and the original 26 was that they didn’t set a task, they purely responded to each task set. The only requirement for all photographers involved was that they completed all 26 tasks by the end of the year.

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J is for ‘Just by Radiohead’ by Emli Bendixen

Which brief took you the longest to come up with an idea for? Which did you know straight away?

To be honest I am the least imaginative when it comes to photography. This is probably one of the reasons I am moving away from creating images to being an art photography curator. An assignment was set like ‘broken’ and ‘thrill’ and I could only think of the most obvious responses whereas the other photographers came up with the most ingenious and leftfield images. Some of them were surreal, some of them incredibly clever and funny. I really enjoyed seeing what they came up with each fortnight.

Who or where or what would be your dream subject to photograph?

I want to get out into the great landscapes of the US with my Wista 5×4 – to photograph places described in books such as ‘Moon Palace’ by Paul Auster and ‘Walden’ by Henry David Thoreau. There’s something that really appeals to me about epic spaces.

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Z is for ‘Zigzag’ by Hind Mezaina

After the book what are your plans for the Alphabet Project? What personal projects are you working on?

I am currently exploring avenues and looking for venues/galleries in London. Currently I am curating a couple of other projects by the name of 12 Faces, and the 50 States Project, (50statesproject.net). These are both ideas that evolved out of the Alphabet Project. I also have a number of other projects in mind and one I’m very excited about which will take place in 2010.

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N is for ‘Nightscape’ by Geoff Ward

Finally, who would play you in a film of your life?

I think either Richard Kiel, (the chap who played Jaws in ‘Moonraker’), or Hervé Villechaize, (the midget who played Tattoo in ‘Fantasy Island’).

Nice! Thanks for your time Stuart, and best of luck.

Viva le Collaboration I say.

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P is for ‘Phenomenon’ by Dirk Such

(Thumbnail: K is for ‘Kitchen’ by Kristal Armendariz)
Paris- based Nelson (JB Devay, cialis 40mg Gregory Kowalski, cialis 40mg David Nichols and Thomas Pirot) are four dashing purveyors of technical trick-clickery, information pills instrument swingers and moody wordsmiths all finished off with a dash French cool. Their new wave vibe skitters from a Factory Records vibe to the spooky storminess of the early Animal Collective records. They are refreshingly unique for a band that emerged from a Paris scene awash with mini Pierre Dohertys and wannabe Carl Berets. Nelson are never afraid to experiment with genre and technique creating an intelligent type of music, songs that are both danceable and deep; like bopping around a copy of Sartre.
I ate their tortilla chips and spoke to them about making the channel crossing to the notorious London gig circuit, cultural perceptions of French music and having Berlusconi over for dinner, we laughed a lot. From this I can whole-heartedly conclude that you should embrace a new entente cordiale because they’re ferrying over to start a revolution…

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JB Devay: Hello, nice to meet you, we are Nelson from Paris…How did you manage to be here?
My parents made love 23 years ago…
(laughter)
JB: That’s disgusting…I don’t talk to girls who speak like this.
(laughter)
I apologise, so you guys have been playing a lot of gigs in London this week (93 Feet East, Old Blue Last, Buffalo Bar), I was wondering if you could tell me about how you view the differences between the Paris music scene and the London one?
Gregory Kowalski: The thing is we are playing in clubs in London, and from what we see in clubs for 3 or 4 years is that London bands are not really original, in Paris they’re used to be this rock scene that started 4 years ago but now it’s kind of quiet.
Thomas Pirot: I would say that London has lots of bands, so there are a lot of bad bands.
I guess what I always noticed was that the Paris scene is smaller…
David Nichols: Yeah, definitely, but it’s more diverse than the London scene, we haven’t seen too much of the rest of England yet. In Paris there was this thing that bubbled up 4 years ago, with new bands and bands that hadn’t otherwise had a chance to play, now that’s quietened down; there are the bands that stopped and bands that have moved onto a more professional career.

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Ok, you were saying that when you come here you play clubs; do you all think that it’s hard for continental bands to make it here? or maybe that there’s a stigma attatched to being a French band? I think people have really specific preconceptions of “French Music”
Thomas: I think so maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but now because of the Parisian scene; that’s kind of changing, there seems to be some more open-minded feeling.
Gregory: Many people we meet after gigs say “oh a French rock band there is something sexy about that”.
(laughter)
David: We’ve reaped a lot of benefit from the electro scene; like Justice and Ed Banger, I mean we’re not at all part of that scene, but for the first time in January we weren’t just another French band, people were asking if we knew Justice also the French Revolution nights at 93 Feet East have done a lot for (hammy French accent) ze freeench cauuzzze!
Gregory: Are you German?
David: Ja.
(laughter)
JB: The change will definitely happen when we have one big French rock band breaking through….

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I think Ed Banger is important, even if you’re not affiliated with it because it encourages a two-way cultural export, where as before it was uniquely British bands being exported to France, now French music is cool again in the British public eye…
I was going to ask you why you sing with an English accent?

David: JB doesn’t…he created his own brand of accent.
Gregory: It’s just the music we grew up listening to.
JB: Yeah like Ed Banger, Daft Punk, Phoenix
(laughter)
David: It’s really just the accents each of us naturally have when we sing.
Thomas: Plus we have our very own English teacher. (points to David)
You mean David, who learnt English when he was at school with Justice and Air, right?
(laughter)

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So I was reading about your influences, a lot of them are cinematic or literary; how do you think that affects your music?
David: Well it’s all things that have touched us personally, things that we’ve connected with in all sorts of art…
JB: I think at the end we’re all trying to say the same thing…I don’t see such a big difference between music, art or literature; it’s all a different way to express emotions. I can talk to James Salter or a guy making movies like I would to another musician.
Gregory: It’s all the same artistic world.

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Hmmm, with regards to your literary influences and as well as English being your second language- do you think that affects how you approach song-writing? When I write in French my writing voice totally changes…
Thomas: I think it’s easier to express yourself in another language, there’s a distance.
Gregory: You can play with something when you don’t really know the rules; it’s a nice game, you have weird images going together even if its not really proper; I think it works.
I guess it’s the Nabokovian thing of collecting words by their shapes and sounds and not by their meaning, it’s interesting in terms of abstraction but also creates a new intimacy with language; I can see that in your lyrics…
Gregory: Definitely, our first album (Revolving Doors) was definitely about collecting words this way, but now, with the second we are trying more to tell stories.
David: Now we know how to collect words by shapes and sounds; it’s naturally part of our writing process to do it and now we know how to do that, we can now focus on writing stories…but we still have the sense of “I like that word there and how it sounds, so I’ll put it there and the story will fit round it”
Thomas: It’s because naturally our lyrics come from yaourt…
Yoghurt?!
(laughter)
Gregory: It’s Franglais!
David: Yaourt is French for when you don’t know the words but sing something anyway…
Like Goobledigook?
David: Yeah! Once you find the rhythm of sounds and structure, then you find the words to fit.
Thomas: Words always come with the music and sound, never before.

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Cool, there’s a sense of fluidity about how you work, not only with lyrics and working in the studio but also with not really having assigned positions within the band, you all swap instruments- is this fluidity important to you?
Gregory: Yes, definitely.

So what’s coming up for you guys in the future?
JB Devay: A gig in two hours.
(laughter)
Gregory: Then back to Paris for drinks with Daft Punk and Justice!
(laughter)
David: I have a dinner with Air!
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Well, you won’t have much to eat then will you?
(laughter)
That’s a good one- I’ll put that in!

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Finally, if you had to have 5 people over for dinner who would you choose?

JB: Clint Eastwood for me.
Thomas: Matt Berninger. (singer of The National)
Gregory: (something that sounds like Evita)
Evita?!
Gregory: No, Avey Tare.
Oh Avey Tare! (singer of Animal Collective) nice choice!
Gregory: Berlusconi as well actually, he’d be an interesting guy…
He could do a pasta!
(laughter)
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Scarlett Johansson
(sounds of masculine approval)
David: I’d say Woody Allen.
Who’d do the washing up?
David: Probably me.
Gregory: I’d do it with Scarlett Johansson…
I bet you would!

Nelson’s debut album Revolving Doors is available now on Ctrl Alt Del Records (UK) and Diamondtraxx (France).
They play The Luminaire on 30th May.
Photos of Nelson playing at the Centre Pompidou appear courtesy of Julien Courmont
Awesome backdrops (in photos) by Ahonen & Lamberg

We normally post our listings on a Monday, viagra but there are quite a few events going on this Bank Holiday Weekend that we wanted to share with you.

First of all, sale who has not seen a screening of “The Age of Stupid” yet? If you haven’t, then there are plenty of opportunities on Friday night, thanks to the numerous places which will be taking part in the genius ‘Indie Screenings’.

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If you need more of an incentive, anyone who comes along to the 7.30pm screenings across the country will get to watch an additional webcast as well. The Age Of Stupid have teamed up with the Royal Society of the Arts to bring you an exclusive live webcast. Directly after screenings finish across the width and breadth of the UK at 9PM, they will go live from London with an interactive web panel beaming directly to anyone holding an event. On the panel they’ll be joined by:
 Franny Armstrong (Director of The Age of Stupid, McLibel and Drowned Out) ?- George Monbiot (Prolific climate change journalist and author of HEAT)?- Sir Nicholas Stern (Author of the Stern review and economist)?- Dr Richard Betts (Head of climate impacts at the MET office)?- Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, Vice-President of the Maldives  

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Have a look at the Age Of Stupid website to see where these screenings are place. One particular screening which has piqued our interest is going to be held at the fabulously named Stoke Newington International Airport (needless to say, not a real airport), but “a performance and rehearsal venue where extremely interesting people get up to brilliant things.”The film will be shown in order to raise money for the Nottingham thought criminals, so come along and bring all your mates. It’s a great little venue, and all money taken on the door will be split between them and those naughty people what thought about possibly maybe conspiring to do nothing.

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Illustration by Bryony Lloyd

Those who follow this blog will hopefully know a little about the wonderful work that Transition Towns are doing. This weekend they are holding a conference which will last from May 22 -May 24. If you want one of these places please call Kristin on 07950542351. Places cost £85 which gives you access to the full smogasbord including workshops, open spaces, evening events, entertainment & lunch. It promises to be a wonderful weekend. Take a look at the programme for the full picture
 
The conference programme has been announced. It’s a packed schedule, with workshops happening throughout the weekend covering every aspect of Transition. Here is a list of what to expect. 
Here’s the full list:
 
Saturday Morning
Energy Descent Planning
Growing Communities
Oil, Climate & Money
Learning >From Coin Street Community Builders
Constellations: a Practical Experience
Creative Environmental Education
The Transition Guide to Working With Your Local Council
Ensuring & Maximising Diversity in Transition
Transition Training & Consulting: who we are and what we do
Can Britain Feed Itself? Bringing GIS Mapping to the Question
Crowdfunding & Fundraising
 
Saturday Afternoon
Local Currencies
The Transition Guide to Food
Wha’s Like Us? The Scottish Experience
Climate Change Goes Critical
The Work That Reconnects
Harmony Singing
Wild Food & Wildlife Walk
Turning The Corner
Transition Training & Consulting: working with businesses & organisations
Animate Earth
Economics Crash Course
 
Sunday Morning
Food EDAPs
Weaving Magic
Making The Most of The Media
Transition Web Project Bringing Transition Together
Conflict Resolution & Communication
The Heart & Soul of Transition
Energy Descent Planning for Transport: The Oxford Example
Personal Resilience
Asking the Elders
Transition Timeline
Wild Economics: Wolves, Resilience & Spirit

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Illustration by Fay Katirai

The Transition website also lists places to stay if you are coming from out of town, so you will not be stuck for a place to stay.

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Elsewhere, Rootstock and Radical Routes are holding a free one day conference and workshop which includes a talk by the key note speaker, Marsh Farm’s Glenn Jenkins, who will be asking “How can we protect our remaining social and economic resources from the convulsions of capitalism?” The event will be on Saturday at the Conway Hall in Holburn, London. Radical Routes is a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change. The network is made up mainly of housing co-ops of various sizes (none with more than 16 members), a few workers co-ops and a couple of social centres.
Four times a year, the member co-ops get together at “gatherings”. These weekend events have a social function, but are also the places at which all important decisions are taken. They are open meetings and anyone is welcome to attend.
The event will run from 10 am – 6pm. But it doesn’t finish then! Afterwards, Radical Routes will be throwing a party to celebrate their 21st birthday. Music and entertainment will be provided by Attila the Stockbroker, a performance and punk rock poet, as well as David Rovics, Babar Luck, Clayton Blizzard and Smokey Bastard. Food will be provided by The Anarchist Teapot Kitchen Collective from Brighton and Veggies Catering Campaign from Nottingham.
Tickets for the evening’s party are £8.00/£4.00 concs or if you include food, £11.00/£6.00 concs. Tickets can be booked by calling 0113 262 4408 or emailing bookings@radicalroutes.org.uk
Who are Worried about Satan? Worried about Satan are a duo based in Leeds comprising of Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale who produce atmospheric soundscaping far in advanced of their relatively young age.

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Their live shows are an incredible, prescription blistering assault on the senses that leave you whimpering in the corner like a kid who’s lost his blankie. On receiving their new album ‘Arrivals’, I have to admit I was more than a little concerned. I couldn’t really imagine how they’d be able to match this on stage furore on record. Yet, no sooner had the disc started spinning when my worries disappeared in the fug of a post rock, techno wrestling match. The despair, the fear and the power  is as prevalent here as it ever has been on the stage. Nothing compromised, nothing lost.

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Each track builds up to an almost unbearable hiatus. One part electronic, another part rock with some mind melting jungle beats on the side. It shares a little with Dub step hero Burial, if I had to name anyone, who they have shared a studio with. The mixture is balanced out perfectly with an accompaniment from some rather unusual spoken word samples from Patricia Hearst amongst others; altogether creating a sound that is both ethereal and heart wrenching. It was like being hit over the head with twenty chairs and then pile driven into a concrete canvas. But I’d do it again I tell you, again.

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The album is now due to be released at the end of May on Gizeh Records.

Andy Council and Amelia’s Magazine are old friends. Mr Council penned some superb illustrations for us back in the day and since then has gone on to produce some of the hottest material to be had on the British graphic art scene.

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When it comes to parallels the man himself cites the work of cult comic book illustrator/hero Geoff Darrow and the sublime master of anime Miyazaki, side effects but for me Council’s style can’t be described as anything other than a true one off. The intricacy with which he renders his visual feasts is phenomenal, unhealthy and catches both the eye and the imagination.

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Those of you lucky enough to reside in Bristol may have come across local resident Council’s window work, though his artwork that graces everything from posters and flyers to skate decks and murals can be found the country over. He is also one seventh of a new collective calling themselves Boys Who Draw.

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He was kind enough to indulge me and my love of quirky quick-fire questions, the results of which can be found below.

Which illustrator or graphic artist do you most admire and why?

There are so many illustrators whose work I admire. I really admire the work of my friend Mr Jago as he has gone really painterly and expressive with his work. I wasn’t sure if I should say that as he doesn’t like me saying and got a bit funny about it before!

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Poster/flyer for Play It By Ear Club

Which band past or present would provide the soundtrack to a film of your life?

Sonic Youth I guess – they are my favourite band and have been the background music to most of my life. Funnily enough though, for key moments in my life like my wedding day and when I found out my partner was pregnant I have had Guns and Roses songs in my head. I’m not really a big fan of the Gunners.

Tell us something about Andy Council we might not already know.
I own a Taxidermy duck called Stufty.

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Album Cover Art for Earmint

What is your pub quiz specialist subject?

Cryptozoology. Anything to do with Bigfoot, Nessie and other creatures that might not actually exist.

If you hadn’t become an illustrator and all round cool dude, what would you be doing now?

I don’t think I ever got round to becoming a cool dude. I would probably be a paleontologist.

If you could travel back or forward in time to any era, where would you go?

I would of course go back to the time of the Dinosaurs!

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What single piece of modern technology could you not bear to live without?

My computer and the internet. I’m totally addicted to it, which is why I don’t have it at my art studio so I can actually get some work done!

What or who is your nemesis?

Static.

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What is your guilty pleasure?

Eating custard slices. My partner caught me in the centre of Bristol once eating one and it was all over my face. This was in the early stages of our relationship and amazingly she has stayed with me.

I say ‘Falloumi’, you say…?

I would say that surely you mean halloumi, the squeaky salty cheese that is great served with roast veg. (I actually mean the falafel halloumi wrap cross breed that we here at Amelia Towers boldly invented as a lunch favourite last week. Moving on.)

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If you were taking Amelia’s Magazine out for a night in Bristol, where would we go?

I think I would start off at an exhibition opening in a squatted space such as the Emporium on Stokes Croft. Would then go onto to a local pubs such as the Bell where all the local Street Artists hang out. Quick stop off for some nasty chips at Ritas and then on to either The Star and Garter for some late night dub and drinking or The Black Swan for Dub Step, bon fire and carnage. Hmmm, I actually quite like staying in and looking after the little un these days.

What advice would you give up and coming illustrators?

The usual thing of keeping at it and relentlessly promoting your work I guess. Other than that, I would say it’s really good to get your work up on walls, windows or wherever it can be seen large by the public.

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Who would be your top 5 dream dinner guests? Who would do the washing up?

The Beast of Bodmin, Skeletor, Richard Angwin (BBC west local weather man), Godzilla and the queen who can do the washing up if she hasn’t escaped being eaten by my chum from Bodmin.

Andy Council, we salute you. Would you have him round for dinner?
Thanks to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s utterly perfect bit of cinema, for sale Amelie, this you’re probably more likely to associate Yann Tiersen with Place de la Concorde in Paris than with Concorde2 in Brighton. But he has travelled north, and I have travelled south to converge on this charmingly dark and sweaty rock venue for the unveiling of his new material. The new album, Dust Lane, will be released later this year, and Brighton is getting an earful tonight.

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After some encouragement from the crowd, the band emerges and grabs their instruments. Already, I’m suspecting this is not going to sound quite how the Amelie Crowd expect. There are three guitarists, two with electrics, pedals all over the floor, I think I saw a violin, but nobody’s holding it and, woe is me, there isn’t an accordion anywhere in sight. They’re planning to rock us, aren’t they? Oh hang on, maybe not. All starts with an ambient drone, and suddenly two of them grab melodicas. Phew! It’s gentle, poetic, soothing, evocative. It is the Yann we know and love… for about a minute and a half. Then Yann looks at his colleagues authoritatively, drops the melodica and starts thrashing out a 5/8 guitar riff with a harsh aggressive sound. The whole band explodes in, following his beat tight as hell, and with no embellishment. Thrash, thrash, it just gets bigger and more and more epic, Suddenly the drummer derails into an even-numbered beat while everyone else remains the same, which results in brain-freeze for one lady in the front row. Yann is clearly not one to be pigeonholed, and this sounds more like mid-career Tortoise turned up to eleven.

I can’t help but wonder if some have come here just because of the Amelie-link. There are people who watch that film every day, you know? What are they thinking now?

Sure enough, I turn around to see a couple of skinny Brighton boys sucking their thumbs and clinging onto favourite teddies for consolation. A dozen soppy-faced girls weep into Cath Kidston hankies, for they could not possibly meet Mr. Right here, with this soundtrack. And it’s only the first song.

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Nevertheless, everyone else seems pleased. Raw power, thick sound, and tight band. Yann seems pleased, too. He walks his asymmetrical 38-year-old mild-mannered French grin up to the mic. “Cheers”, he says then nervously scuttles off to be a band-leader. “Un-Deux-Trois-Allez-Oop”, it’s all-rocking pacy stuff for the first four or five songs, but with a fair few changes of mood. Sometimes it feels like the moments on Serge Gainsbourg’s Jane B. album which chug-chug along beneath manly utterances, and sometimes the whole band is singing in unison, alongside bulbous synth eternities and roaringly full guitars, like a crescendo in an epic prog-rock stadium-filler by Yes. There’s also a vaguely detached feel to some of it, which reminded me of Air’s 10,000hz Legend album – it’s a simulation of a rock band, an effect that’s been layered in there to satisfy a composer’s whim.

But the thing that really shook the crowd was an Earth-shattering rumbling apex of a full-on rocker, which died out as Yann picked up that violin. He lilted and scribbled and finally picked out a lick motif. It’s a few minutes of violin soloing that brings the whole room to a standstill, the moment of reassurance that entry-fees were worth it, the rush of blood to the heart. It’s the first time that his dexterous skills are laid bare, and as the song returns to full band chugger, he’s still licking it, and everyone is in love with him.

There is a lot of moving around onstage. The only one who sat still was the drummer, as one guitarist also played a synth, the other also played a microphone with some effects and read a book, the bassist had his melodica, the keyboardist also played ukelele, and Yann himself was all over everything (except for his poor, neglected accordion). At one point, I was sure that the second electric guitarist had switched to some new-fangled wind instrument, only for the lighting system to settle down to reveal that he was, in fact, just swigging some Evian.

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One of the most memorable songs was We’ll Still Be There At The End. This was a repeated vocal à la full band, with driving chord changes which hints at the Pixies with an evangelical grandeur, perhaps a whiff of Arcade Fire. After a while this breaks down to a frenzied twiddle on a machine that sounded like a cross between a Kaosspad and a Tardis. This is new ground for a lot of people here tonight.

But is the Frenchman protesting too much? The only dose of familiar that we got was the second, and final, encore, which after about thirty-two bars I realised was La Valse D’Amelie. That sweet chord progression was buried in there somewhere amidst a swirl of firebreathing synths and competing guitars. I had to ask myself if he was playing it hatefully, parodying it. It all left me with more questions than I arrived with. I didn’t go to Brighton in the hope of hearing Amelie hits, but because I knew enough of Tiersen’s work to respect him as a master of delicate, poly-instrument, emotional beauty. But, having mastered that, he seems bored of it. On the day that Dust Lane is released, we’ll see one of two possibilities. Either he’s desperately trying to sound utterly unlike “the Amelie guy” and losing his heart, or he still is a master, who has moved into new terrain of power instead of tenderness. It’s very difficult to say because his music has never been about catchy melodies, or hooky songs – not a gig poster-boy for noobs. And one obvious difference is that on an album, it will be possible for him to play all the instruments at once. So for the gig to feel unbalanced, in that there was too much of four guitarists chugging in tandem and not enough of virtuoso expressive instrument loving, may not bode badly for the album.
But the old fanbase will have to reassess Mr. Tiersen’s repertoire, and make a little room for their new moshy friends in the crowd. Amelie herself may have to replace her stupid grin with a rock-pout, and start chugging the Gauloises.

M. Tiersen has not only the obligatory myspace, but also the hoity-professional dedicated website. Be Intrigued!

Editor’s Note: What have you guys thought of our French Revolution recently? Kitsune, The Do, Nelson, and now Yann- Pretty exciting isn’t it?

Monday 25th May

Permaculture Design Course – The Urban Edge
Venue: ‘Waterside Centre’, information pills

9am -5pm
Stonebridge Lock, troche
Tottenham Marshes
Date: Monday 25 May 2009 to Friday 26 Jun 2009
Description: Located on the real urban edge, this participatory and practical course offers a range of learning opportunities, with hands on development and design of this exciting site, within the basin of the River Lea. This non residential course is run from 25-29th and May 22nd-26 June 2009
Contacts: Marianne
londoncourses@naturewise.org.uk
?Web Address: www.naturewise.org.uk

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Tuesday 26th May

International Court for the Environment
6pm
Herbert Smith,
Exchange House,
Primrose Street,
Broadgate, EC2, London

Discussion about the feasibility of pressing the case for a court. Info: Environment Court/ icecoalition@googlemail.com/ 7466 3285/ 7374 8000/07973 770942

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Ilustration by Cocacolagirlie at Deviant Art

Wednesday 27th May

Green Left – Eco Socialism

7pm
Housmans Bookshop?
5 Caledonian Road
?LONDON,?England
?N1 9DX,?UK
Tel 020 7837 4473 ?Fax 0870 706 6035
shop@housmans.com

Green Left is an eco-socialist, anti-capitalist current within the Green Party, which started in June 2006 when 36 Green Party members agreed its launch statement (the Headcorn Declaration).?? Sarah Farrow, Green Left co-convenor said then: “Activists in the Green Party have founded Green Left because many Greens believe the only path to an ecological, economically and socially just and peaceful society has to be based on an anti-capitalist political agenda.”??This evening guests from Green Left will be discussing their agenda, and launching a new pamphlet on the issues at hand.

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Thursday 28th May

Taking Root – The Vision of Wangari Maathai

Amnesty International Centre
The Human Rights Action Centre,
17-25 New Inn Yard
EC2, London
Info: 7033 1500/ 7033 1664/ sct@amnesty.org.uk

The Green Belt Movement and Amnesty International are proud to present the UK premier of ‘Taking Root – The Vision of Wangari Maathai’.
‘Taking Root’ tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with a panel led by Wangari Maathai and including the film maker Lisa Merton and IIED Director Camilla Toulmin.
A suggested donation of £10 is kindly requested on the door. All donations will go towards the work of The Green Belt Movement.
To reserve a copy of ‘The Challenge for Africa’ at RRP £20.00 (hardback) or ‘Unbowed’ at RRP £8.99 (paperback), please e-mail The Green Belt Movement at gbmi@greenbeltmovement.org.

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Illustration by Lea Jaffey

Saturday 30th May
11am to 5pm
Economic and Environmental Recovery: from Downturn to Steady State. Creating a better world to recover from the credit crunch and the nature crunch

Cecil Sharpe House,
2 Regents Park Road,
Camden, London
NW1 7AY. Nearest Tube: Camden Town
With Fritjof Capra, Physicist and systems theorist, director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy in California; Ann Pettifor, Editor of The Real World Economic Outlook, Satish Kumar,
Editor of Resurgence Magazine.
Organised by Resurgence Magazine, Schumacher College, The Temenos Academy, The  Scientific l & Medical Network  & The Gaia Foundation.
Tickets: £25.00, Concessions £15.00
 RSVP: Peter Lang, Resurgence Events Director at peterlang@resurgence.org  020 8809 2391. www.resurgence.org

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Illustration by Lea Jaffy

Sunday 31st May
CLIMATE CHANGE – PEAK OIL

Date: Sunday 31 May 2009 ?Time: 10am – 5.00pm
Bonnington Centre,
11 Vauxhall Grove,
Vauxhall, London SW8 1TD
Description: LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY, EXTREMES OF WEALTH AND POVERTY and now FINANCIAL WOBBLES AS WELL!
WHAT IS GOING ON? AND HOW CAN WE HANDLE IT?

Not just in our minds but in our hearts and feelings.
Come and find out how we can move from a way of life devoted to consumption, greed, exploitation and endless economic growth – until it fails! TO A truly life sustaining one.
Joanna Macy’s “Work that Reconnects” offers a safe space to ground our feelings and access our power in nourishing, inspiring, uplifting and energising ways.
Contacts: Places are limited: please contact Jim Scott on 020 7640 0492 as soon as possible
E-mail: saveourworld@ntlworld.com
?Web Address: http//:www.save-our-world.org.uk
A geezer called Art Buchwald once observed that nostalgia was a misconceived notion that “yesterday was better than today”. Post Bush-adminstration, approved mid-swine flu, this web the commencement of the recession – you don’t even need no rose-tinted specs to see that yesterday quite frankly delivers a swift sucker punch into the sorry face of today. Inevitably, people everywhere are starting to get nostalgic for the 90s.

A while ago I came across a hoody on the Face Hunter and within ten minutes I had tracked down it down as coming from CTRL, a Helsinki based range that came into the world as a skate brand. Skateboarding seems very much the preserve of the 90s, and it’s tempting to euphemise those chilled out dudes with the beanies, baggy jeans and zoots in their back pockets, and I love how CTRL roots itself in this vibe but given way to a more playful and fashionable edge. Taking the philosophy of one of the best parts of street culture and giving its wearers a positive voice that can speak even from the way we look, it’s a brand that feeds back into the subculture it borrowed from in the first place.
Set up by two pals back in the halcyon days of 1995, CTRL started life making t-shirts, and gradually has expanded to produce all sorts, the best being some ruddy ace cardigans that you’ll look sharp in even if you’re not zooming up and down halfpipes in your spare time. They’ve even got a womenswear range going on, despite their art director Freeman confessing (in true skater style) to not knowing very much about girls.

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They’re some really vibrant, unabashedly boisterous statement pieces that might well alarm the conservative in you, but are ultimately indicative of an enjoyment of life – urban life in particular – that might have got abstracted somewhere along the way.
Recent flick and 90s nostalgia fest The Wackness makes life’s dopeness its hero, and that philosophy seems strongly eminent with CTRL, a philosophy that could be learnt from the grunge kids of yesterday and couldn’t be more perfectly timed. There’s got to be room for that in your cupboard.

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Freeman calls their clothing as representative of the individual “speaking with a megaphone and the top three stairs of the pyramid”. He has also spoken out about a desire to support Greenpeace, Amnesty International and other causes to prove that street culture can be a viable beneficiary source to others, not just to itself. So it ain’t just a bunch of pesky kids with low slung trousers, no sir – it understands that fashion can be about who you are and where you’re from, a street mantra because community is a paramount idea. Street culture and skate culture aren’t dirty concepts for Freeman like they are for the frenzied tabloids, they can be places of community that breed mutual respect for your peers, something that’s deeply ingrained.

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They got some pretty fine threads too. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

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What do you guys think? Has CTRL successfully made the transition from skaters to the masses?

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Clementine James in Tuvalu.

I met up with Clemmie James at Coffee@ on Brick Lane. Until recently, more about she was about as far away from this part of noisy, this site urban East London as you can possibly get. For just over a month, she was living on the small island of Tuvalu, nestled in the South Pacific. I had read her blog about her time and experiences on the island, and was keen to learn more. Before she could describe her time on the island, I waxed lyrical about a relatively similar experience of my four month stay on a small Hawaiian island called Kauai which was fiercely independent. Remembering the beauty of the light, the sound of the sea, the stunning landscape and the kindness of the people, I was alarmed to hear Clemmie’s description of an island which is being directly affected by climate change, to the extent that many are describing the situation as a ‘calamity’. She explained that the highest point of the island is less than five meters above sea level, so is already at risk from flooding. However, this defenseless little island’s problems keep getting worse; Clemmie explained;” During the WWII the Americans dug up large parts of the island of Funafuti. They used this ‘earth’ to fill out the centre of the island to build a runway in their fight against the Japanese. As a result, large pits called the ‘taisala’s’ have been left. As the island is so low, they are filled with sea water from the ground and consequently increase and decrease according to the tides. It is these that often flood.”

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Furthermore, these landfills also get treated as waste depositories for all of the islanders rubbish. And as Clemmie explains; the effects of global warming are changing the eco structure of the sea, which is (in)directly having an impact on the amount of unrecyclable rubbish that fills these holes. “The temperature of the sea has risen to the extent that the coral reef is dying, and as a result of this, the fish have nothing to feed on so are dying or swimming away. The islanders are fishermen. This is the way that they have always lived. With no fish to catch they have to resort to eating imported tinned and processed food – and everything has to be imported to Tuvalu. Then they throw the empty cans into these landfills, which compounds the situation.” Put in layman’s terms: the island is in danger of sinking under the weight of itself, estimates say that it could take as little as 25 years for this to occur. While this situation is dire, there are also issues which are running parallel; socioeconomic issues which are directly affecting the islanders. For example, the rise in consumption of processed food has led to a rise in obesity and diabetes. While this may not seem as much of an emergency, in their own way they are equally as devastating, and make no mistake, they are most definitely linked.

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I asked if all the islanders are unanimously in agreement that it is climate change which is affecting their world, and what they are going to do about it. “They are a predominantly Christian population, who believe in the story of Noah and the Great Flood. The Bible says that God has told them that there will never be another flood, so they feel that whatever happens to the island, God will protect them”. A comforting thought, but a realistic one? I’m not so sure. Astutely acknowledging that to overwhelm a religious island with scientific facts and figures is counterproductive, Clemmie assures me that there are people and groups on the island who are very aware of what is realistically going to happen to the island, but are still respectful of the islanders cherished religious beliefs. I wondered aloud “but essentially, if this island is sinking, isn’t the best option just to evacuate the islanders?” “If you were told some bad news, would you just accept it, or would you fight it, and do everything in your power to change the outcome to a positive one?”, replied Clemmie. “there is an organisation that already exists on the island that will do everything in its power to keep the Tuvaluans on the island, and to make sure that the island and it’s inhabitants survive. Appropriately, the organisations name is called ‘Alofa Tuvalu: Small Is Beautiful’

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So what can we do? And what about those who would say that the situation of a tiny island in the middle of the vast Pacific ocean is not their problem? “Essentially, the island is a microcosm of the problems that we are facing in the UK, and Europe, and the rest of the world. If it comes to the time that nothing has been done and Tuvalu disappears into the sea then Britain won’t be far behind. And that is a very frightening thought.” Whilst on the island, Clemmie started Climate Friend, an idea that will aim to establish a link and dialogue between the children and teenagers on the island and young people in Britain. “It would establish solidarity and grassroots links’ she explained to me, “we need young people to explain to each other how they are being affected by climate change.” Clemmie and I shared the opinion that the beauty of youth is that their thoughts are unfettered by the harsh angles of life. When something is wrong, they simply believe that it should be put right, whereas two adults in dialogue are usually influenced by outside factors.

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With a backround in art, Clemmie also hopes to create an inter-active instillation to take to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in Dec 2009. She showed me pictures of the islanders holding cards which are posing questions about climate change and their island to the outside world. These images may form part of the instillation. In each picture, no matter how serious the question, the islanders are smiling. “Even when they are facing catastrophe they are positive” I remarked. Clemmie agreed “They are not an aggressive nation, they are so polite and kind. Being demanding is just not in their nature”.

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I know that I want to do all I can to help Clemmie. She wants to help these islanders find their voice, and make it heard. Regardless of the outcome (although, for all our sakes I hope that it is a positive one), the people of Tuvalu are dealing with the impact and repercussions of the Western worlds over consumption; the least that we can do is hear what they have to say. Do our readers have any suggestions or thoughts on how Climate Friend can develop? If so then get in touch.

Categories ,activism, ,Clementine James, ,Climate Change, ,copenhagen, ,earth, ,ecology, ,Little Glass Clementine

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