Topshop Window.

Little celebration party for two, outside Topshop. Ruairi and I went to take pictures in the night of my window, it was fun. The window is up untill the end of the week so if you are passing Oxford circus go press your nose up to the glass and have a look.

Lauren Likes

Jo Ratcliffe. A LOT.

padding and stuffing

Another week another project or two under our belts. Earlier in the week we met our good friend Sarah Fotheringham and made some more headway with a little film we are concocting between us. Lauren and I filled our suitcases and wheelie trollies and dragged them to Sarah's and built yet another Mexican inspired scenario.
Keep your eyes peeled for more on this shortly!
Also I have been finishing my props for the Topshop window. I install it on tuesday night. I have had help from a great assistant called Dion and Ruairi's long arms came in handy with the boards and reams of fabric. I'm quite pleased with how it looks, since the bloke in my local upholstery shop did a lot of tutting, umming and erring and made me feel slightly inadequate. My mum did point out that he had probably taking a good couple of years to learn how to do it and I was going in there expecting to be told how to do it in two days! If any real upholsters are reading I'm sorry if I have butchered the job in hand! I can't wait untill it's all in the window and I can stop thinking about it anymore!

A General Tip-off.

Today proved that I should never dress too fancy when I don't know where my day might take me. My soft new black jazz pumps and sparkly gold jumper wouldn't be my normal choice of outfit for skip-raiding but when you get a tip-off like we did, I'm not one to give a shit about breaking a nail or similar (actually funnily enough Anna did break one today on our mission). So we found a skip of mannequins...Or more like a skip of many ideas and dreams that awill finally come to life. Funnily enough Nick at YCN had tipped us off earlier about a project through YCN which sounds RATHER exciting. If you're reading this Nick...are you thinking what we're thinking? Mannequin legs? Maybe not but oh well. So yeah by the time I got home very late tonight, I looked slightly suspicious carrying various limbs and packaged heads into my house in the pouring rain...I am now utterly bedraggled and in need of my bed, which I can confidently say I will not be sharing with a mannequin or two, like those freaky doll-lovers. I gave them the sofa. Oh dear. a shock for the household when they awake too. I just hope the film 'Mannequin' wasn't based on a true story...

I ♡ COFFEE

So today, after my 10 o'clock meeting, I totally like followed my soul (those of you that have seen that old Glastonbury documentary from the 70s will understand). I found myself wandering through the Brunswick Centre, only to find myself in Space NK, curiously searching for the ultimate scent. I found the Marc Jacobs perfume I have been looking for since one particularly fruity experience in Sephora in San-Francisco exactly a year ago. I also discovered today that the reason I haven't been able to find this truly wonderous scent is because the packaging I remembered was that of the same 'Marc Jacobs' perfume but in a limited edition bottle. Bloody hell, I mean how to confuse a girl. Anyway I also chanced-upon (for my other, unperfumed arm) a lovely new perfume by Chloé which smells like the most comforting, homely, freshly-washed linen. Wow. I thought after the recent Androgyny Perfume editorial commission, I would be perfumed out but it appears not. Totally seduced by the bottles too.

I have to say that I fought against my yearning urges and didn't buy either as I felt compelled to to continue walking. My journey was not over. I walked to Covent Garden and perused a while until I found myself in one of my favourite places in the entire world; The Monmouth Coffee Company.




My love affair with this beautiful, beautiful place began four years ago when I was working for Robert Cary-Williams above the fragrant Neal's Yard Dairy, around the corner. In between sewing over-sized Turkish Trousers and lengths of tu-tu, sequinning yards of material and hanging acres or dyed-fabric down the rickety stairwell to dry, I would grab snatches of idle time to sit and enjoy a fine cup of coffee. From moments of nutty mature cheddar and rustic rosemary and raisin bread (Neals Yard) to the quiet, wooden cubby-holes in Monmouth, these moments were precious. Until now my affair has been somewhat disregarded. I think this might be due to to the fact that I overdosed on the stuff, both in my moments out of the studio and in the endless cafetieres of the stuff we consumed in the studio. I now cannot drink caffeinated coffee bacause it sends me completely loopy.

When I walked through the door today, I realised what had been missing from my life; Coffee, freshly ground coffee. Fruity coffee. Sweet coffee. Nutty coffee. Brasilian coffee. Ethiopian coffee...Real, proper, well good coffee. I also realised that my feet had taken me in this direction because freshly-ground coffee is after-all, my favouritest scent in the entire world. I literally can't get enough of it. I would actually snort it if I wasn't so concerned about the effects of the caffeine. Choosing a decaf Sumatran filter coffee (cos it just wasn't about getting freaky), I hid in one of the booths re-engrossed myself in my book and took a little moment out of my day. It was great. I enjoyed every second of it. Bring on a Marc-Jacobs/Chloe perfume collaboration - 'Essence de coffee fraîche'. I would actually bathe myself in the stuff.



The only think that slightly ruined my non-caffeinated high was the depressing walk through the subway to Tottenham Court Road Station, on my way home. What a grim little place that is. Someone please...PLEASE sort it out?! Give it some love? Tear youself away from budgeting millions for the Olympics to stop those rank little icicles of London scum from dripping on our heads as we walk under the MOST CENTRAL PART OF LONDON! Seriously. It has been years, YEARS. It's not good.

We Love Don't Panic.

Serious, my good friend Seun interviewed us last week. He told us about the Don't Panic Momiji competition they are running in conjunction with Selfridges. Design a toy and win to have three of your dolls released via the store internationally in Autumn! Great. the competition runs until March. Better get designing ladies and gents.
go to Don't Panic website and have a gander.

Homerton

Well, busy times. Today I have been on a shoot with the photographer Darren Smith. We were enjoying the delights of powder paint and the dizzy heights of Homerton roof tops. Everyone involved was lovely, and I got to meet a great stylist called Celia Arias from my ends. New Cross massive!






Very interested to see what the images look like. The clothes were fantastic. Glamourous, sexy and modern. Lots of leather and some amazing glittery and oversized accessories. Feeling it.

GeT iNsPiReD - Yayoi Kusama and Hew Locke

If you haven't been to a good exhibition in London recently, I seriously suggest you head down to the Victoria Miro Gallery on Wharf Street, N1 (Just off City Road) to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition.

I have been a MASSIVE fan of Yayoi Kusama since her show at the Serpentine Gallery back in 2000. She has a condition which causes patterns to continue off the surface where they exist and engulf the surrounding space. Much of her work explores this hallucinogenic effect. Not only is the exhibiton worth a vist but the Victoria Miro Gallery is such a beautiful space, airy and light with a lovely outdoor area:





Alternatively go and see the Hew Locke show, How do you want me? at the Hales Gallery in the Tea building on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road. Anna and I were also lucky enough to have our very own private view of the exhibition before the actual Private View took place. His work is very Political and heavily adorned with all sorts of symbolic objects. Many of which are very kitsch, gold, plastic and right up our street. It had a good write-up in Grafik Magazine this month too:



On our way home we had to do a bit of prop collecting in Clerkenwell and we bumped into a funny chap and his life size puppet entourage. It was for an advert apparently but I didn't quite catch which one. Prize for the first person to notice it on telly. Check out the magic hour light. My favourite as I am sure anyone who follows this blog has gathered by now!