It seems that rock ‘n’ roll and hot beverages do unlikely bedfellows make. A bizarre proliferation of reggae artists, indie musicians, film directors and electronic DJs are ditching the decks and taking to java, in a bid to perfect their own brand of the jumping bean.

David Lynch, whose debut solo album Crazy Clown Time (2011) was released to mixed critical acclaim, has famously launched his own brand of David Lynch coffee, which was available for a short time through Amazon and is now available on a specialist website. Having sampled it personally at the Twin Peaks UK festival, I can confirm it’s strong but delicious, especially how Lynch’s suave coffee-loving hero Special Agent Cooper loves to drink it: “Black as midnight on a moonless night”. David Lynch is not the first or the last muso to take his inspiration to the world of caffeinated drinks. Take American indie singer Will Oldham (a.k.a Bonnie Prince Billy), who launched his own limited edition Kona coffee, available through his label Drag City, and promised overtones of “chocolate, leather, and non-wacky tobaccy”. Prince Billy joins Wilco, who have their own approved coffee brand, and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, who is launching his own coffee brand after his girlfriend gave him a coffee roasting course as a present: “I have beans that I like”, he’s stated in interview.

Bob Marley’s son Rohan has been trading off his father’s fame with his own coffee brand Marley Coffee, part of the Jammin Java corporation, which features such flavours as “Mystic Morning, “Buffalo Soldier”, “Lively Up!” and “One Love”, and their new, lightly roasted blend “Get Up, Stand Up”. This is not the first time Marley’s name’s been used to endorse a relaxing beverage: Marley’s Mellow Mood, created in partnership with Marley’s family, offers “natural relaxation beverages” (read tea) to “soothe the mind”.

So whether you like tea mystical or electronic (British DJ and artist Mr. Scruff has his own organic English Breakfast blend, and a “Big Chill” tea, which encourages you to “Big up your tent!”), there’s something for everyone.  However, wannabe rock star baristas beware. Hindsight suggests you’re best sticking to the java and steering clear of the teashop, after that 90’s vegan rock star Moby set up TeaNY, a tea café in New York City’s Lower East Side in 2002 that set on fire in 2009.

Celebrity-endorsed coffees are not unusual in a world where 50 Cent has his own Vitamin water, you can drink Danny DeVito’s limoncello (and listen to the song, sung by the great man himself, which goes: “Danny DeVito’s Limoncello, it’s a taste delight from this famous fellow/ It’s so very nice, perfect served cold on ice/ The finest summer drink from Italy”) and rev up on Steven Seagal’s Lightning Bolt (or not). Targeting the ever-booming coffee market is wise, and benefits from the appearance of seeming cultured, bourgeois and stylish. Coffee also remains a small, economic and affordable treat in times of economic strife. So take a leaf from Special Agent Cooper’s book in Twin Peaks: “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee”.

For more info on David Lynch Coffee go to www.davidlynchcoffee.co.uk or for Mr Scruff tea see www.makeusabrew.com

words Sophia Satchell Baeza

If you’re a singer, artist or band starting out and you’re looking for that helping hand to lift you onto that important next level then this music competition is for you. Unsigned Only looks the real deal and has been set up by the same team behind the International Songwriting Competition. It’s aimed at solo artists, bands and singers who are not signed to a major label or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or imprints. To try and put it in a nutshell they are looking for outstanding, creative talent whether they are a newcomer or a veteran, raw or polished. A hidden gem just waiting to be discovered.

When we were approached about being involved we were fully behind it and ended up as media sponsor. The winners will each receive prize money of $5000 but that is only the start of it. This music competition has some serious weight behind it. The judging panel includes such luminaries as Cyndi Lauper; Robert Smith (The Cure); Kelly Clarkson, & the producer Steve Lillywhite. But on top of that and for the first time ever winners will get direct input, advice and mentoring from some of the most powerful and knowledgeable figures in the music industry right now. Some of the mentors they have signed up are impressive and include Monte Lipman (President of Universal Republic); Pete Ganbarg (Executive Vice President/Head of A&R, Atlantic Records); David Wolter (Senior VP of A&R, RCA Records) and the list goes on and on.

If that sounds like you then take a look on the website for further information on how to take the next step forward. The deadline is fast approaching on March 5th 20102. All entries must be original music except for the Vocal Performance category which accepts original or cover songs. Judging criteria in the Vocal Performance category will be based solely on the quality of the vocals, thereby allowing singers who do not write their own songs the opportunity to enter.

For entry and general information on this music competition please go to http://www.unsignedonly.com

This energy ball of a song from the band Shrag spits and snarls and flares its nostrils as it heads towards you to bite you on the neck. ‘Tendons on the Night’ has all the style, swagger and attitude you need and expect for that much needed kick up the pants in these oh so gloomy times.  It’s powerful, strong and sassy featuring twin vocals as one man and one woman pack all the urgency they can muster into their own throaty athletics.

Nice video too to back it up. Like a cross between X Factor and the Olympics a line of voyeuristic judges watch a girl perform before them. This starts as pure athletics but descends into dirty dancing as desperation and the will to succeed kicks in. But this lady is no doormat as the finale suggests. ‘Tendons in the Night’ is the sound of a band hitting their groove with aplomb. Shrag describe the song as “a voyeuristic ode to the pursuit of gymnastic perfection, but we doubt very much it will be sanctioned by the IOC.”

For more on the band and this underground music video go to www.myspace.com/shrag

A photograph captures a mere moment in time. What are the secrets behind a feigned smile or a flirtatious glance in an unfitting direction? Why are there flowers on the mantelpiece? Who is that woman? Why is she crying? In some cases we don’t know how a photograph came to look as it does and what confluence of events brought people together to pass in front of a camera shutter for a brief moment, before moving off into immortality, leaving behind an indelible footprint of a set of circumstances, which to them were everything, but to us are a mystery. We can imagine though and we can guess.

A forgotten photograph lies discarded. Robert Leeming conjures up his version of the story that lies behind the image in this short fiction.

New York – New Year’s Eve – 1967

1

“Behold the customary loves and friendships,” Michael flipped over the page, “I am he who kisses his comrade lightly on the lips at parting, and I am one who is kissed in return.” He threw the book onto a chair. “Am I ignorant not to get,” Michael leaned over the back of the sofa to gain a better view of the cover, “Walt Whitman, because I don’t get Walt Whitman?”

Sally, his girlfriend of three years shouted from the bathroom, “That’s natural, you’re a student doctor, if you liked Walt Whitman there would be something quite wrong.” Their flat was a mêlée of the scientific and the artistic. She was a painter turned waitress who had filled the room with half finished canvases and sketch books while his medical journals and texts were left to take up any remaining space.

“I don’t like that comment,” he yelled back, “if I wanted to get Walt Whitman I would, I like poetry, when I’m in that kind of a mood.” Michael reached for his grey overcoat and mumbled underneath his breath, “I’m just not often in that kind of a mood.”

Sally, girlish and twenty-five walked in, her blonde hair tied back, she was wearing trousers beneath a brown coat, trousers like her hero Katharine Hepburn and trousers, more realistically, because it was freezing outside. “What time are we meeting Archie and Margo,” she asked, “are we meeting them in town?”

Michael had sat down again and was mired in her book. “I introduce that new American salute, behold love choked, correct, polite, always suspicious,” he read aloud. “Always suspicious, does Walt Whitman know something I don’t?” Sally was used to his delaying tactics, Michael hated New Year and she knew it. “Come on,” she asked again, “when are we meeting Archie and Margo?”

He stood up and fastened the buttons on his coat, “I think I’m going to introduce a new American salute, something rude and distasteful, something Walt Whitman would love.”

“What time are we meeting them, we’re meeting them in town, aren’t we? Aren’t we?” Margo paused for an answer and stared into a large mirror covered in old tickets and playbills, lipstick red messages and bright reminders scrawled on the glass for memories sake. “Aren’t we?” she shouted again.

Archie appeared in the doorway a dark trench coat folded over one arm, he looked younger than he was and still had possession of a roundish baby-face.“You’re a Virgo aren’t you Margo?” Archie asked, “A Virgo?”

“Oh, Jesus, not again,” Margo replied, eyeing his reflected image in the mirror, “What time are we meeting Michael and Sally, Archie?”

“Only I was talking to one of my hippie friends today,” Archie continued, ignoring her question, fiddling with the cufflink on his left sleeve, “well I say hippie, no, he is a hippie, and he said that Uranus and Pluto, you know the planets?”

Margo spun around from the mirror to face him and shouted, “What time are we meeting Michael and Sally, Archie, stop fucking around?”

“Oh come on Margo, the planets,” Archie said, glancing upwards, “Uranus and Pluto, they’re going to be in direct conjunction, happens once every oh, thousand years.” Archie stretched his left arm into his coat and made for the coffee table and a bowl of fresh fruit resting on top of an old and curling copy of Vanity Fair.

“This apple, Uranus, stands for rebellion, vicious rebellion, ironically enough against power,” he leant down to pick up an orange, “and this orange, although it is exactly the same size as exhibit A, is Pluto, stands for empowerment and the radical, Karl Marx and long hair and Jefferson Airplane and things like that.” Margo rolled her eyes and picked up a glass of red wine resting on top of the wooden mantelpiece, she was ready to go, her coat was on, with its fur cuffs and collar, real fur, she was the type.

“They’re both going to mirror each other, this year, in your sign, Virgo, you are a Virgo, right, Margo? Margo?!” She failed to reply and stared at Archie. “And you know what that means don’t you, when this apple and this orange meet, collide even?” He stood, holding the fruit aloft, hopefully awaiting an answer.

“Fuck you Archie,” she said, in desperation, finishing the wine in a gulp, “I’m going.”

“It means revolution and crisis and riots and bomb squads and misery, that’s what it means,” he sank into the easy chair, creasing his coat in the process, “and you want to go out and celebrate, to whoop it up, to toast our own imminent demise,” he jumped upwards so his knees were digging into the dark leather, his feet facing outwards, his front against the leather back, balancing precariously, “oh Margo,” he laughed, “you’re so reckless!”

2

They had known each other for a year, Michael, still at college and about to return for his final months before he took up residence at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, had rented a small flat on the East Side with Sally. Theirs had been a powerful affair to begin with, but it had levelled out and settled into the mundane perhaps a little too quickly. Archie and Margo were new acquaintances, thrown together as squash doubles and yet to reach the level of fully fledged friends. They were a little further down the path, both had jobs, Margo a secretary and Archie a rising star at an IRS office downtown. She was content, he was not content, she was happy with simplicity, he wanted more and exercised his energies on hopeless hobbies and wild schemes which always came to nothing. The two couples were friends because they were there, because friends were hard to come by and acquaintances old or new were always easier to keep than dispel. There was no inherent attraction.

“Don’t get Archie started on facts, useless facts I might add, we’ve already had the progressions of the cosmos acted out tonight, he doesn’t need the encouragement,” Margo shouted, guffawing at the end of the sentence. The four were having dinner at a restaurant before heading to Times Square for the New Year celebrations.

“The stars? Oh I love the stars?” Sally replied. She had opinions on everything and liked to express them, it was an unlikely mix him and her, too much chaos facing too much practicality.

“Not the science though darling, not the science,” Michael said, taking a sip of his wine.

“Michael’s into science, the clinical appraisals of things,” Sally added, “he is going to be a doctor soon after all,” she placed a hand on his knee under the table, “aren’t you?” He failed to reply but Sally continued, “No, I tend to hope there is a little bit of mystery in things, that everything can’t be summed up in boring chemicals and equations and particles and physics.”

Michael rolled his eyes, “She likes the horoscopes in the Post too, everything has been in the horoscopes hasn’t it, Sally?” She glared at him.

Margo who could sense trouble at a moment’s notice, but tended to like to dabble in it once spotted, changed the subject immediately, “Where’s the food? This is what happens when you don’t go to a top tier restaurant.”

“This is what happens when you eat out on New Year’s Eve,” Archie insisted forcefully, eyeing the peripheries of the room.

“I’m going to become one of those ladies who lunch,” Margo announced, ignoring Archie’s complaints, “at the Colony Club, with the Duchess of Windsor, I’ll go there in my pill box hat, pay over the odds and eat nothing.” Allowing her meddling nature to get the better of her Margo launched back into the previous conversation, “Hey, that’s what you were talking about earlier,” trying to disguise her poison with enlightenment, “wasn’t it Archie, horoscopes, tonight, wasn’t it?”

“Well,” Archie started, thrilled to get a shot at his pet subject, “I’m not usually one for predictions, but.”

”I like to think back to what I was doing this time last year,” Margo interrupted, shrilly regaining control after seeing Michael squirming in his seat, “and to try and figure out if I’m any more content now, than I was then.”

“I’m content,” Sally said almost innocently; she looked to Michael for support.

“What were we doing this time last year?” He asked her, turning in his seat to look into her eyes, trying to dodge the issue.

“We were with Alvy and Kate, here, don’t you remember, in New York?”

“I think I’m content,” Archie said to Margo, as Sally fiddled with her knife and fork, still unused.

“She’s pregnant you know now, Kate, she’s pregnant,” Sally whispered, looking up from the table.

Michael was surprised, “Pregnant, Kate and Alvy, it’s funny, they never seemed that close.”

“If you’re content, then I’m content,” Margo replied, placing her head on Archie’s shoulder.

“Well, I’m content up to a point, Margo, content up to a point,” he ventured, stiffening in his chair.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snarled, her body snapping upwards like a dreadnought aligning its guns for battle. “Well, this is no time for complacency after all, is it?” Archie chuckled into her face, before bracing himself for the immanent bombardment.

“Everyone should just concentrate on trying to be happy,” Michael announced idealistically to the whole table. It was a sarcastic comment on his part, something which he wouldn’t normally have said, but he could sense an argument brewing and he loved to be outrageous under such circumstances. In reality happiness didn’t really figure on his radar, only survival.

Sally laughed, “Unlikely doctors orders those,” she said irately, “coming from you.” A waiter, his arms covered in plates piled high with steaming food caught their eyes and came within millimetres of their table, before changing his course.

Michael looked at his watch wondering how long it was worth waiting before casting a complaint.

“Are you trying to say you’re not happy Michael, are trying to say you’re not…” Sally started, before Archie, in full flight, moved his arm forward and almost knocked a glass of water into her lap. Sally stopped, acknowledging the near miss, while Archie continued, “Content, the world isn’t content Margo, this is going to be a hell of a year, I’m wise to be cautious.”

Michael seeing the mistake tapped Archie on the forearm, “Excuse me” he said, failing to get his attention, “excuse me,” he repeated.

“What?” Archie responded indignantly, he hated being interrupted.

“Will you calm down, you almost drenched us!”

Archie scowled, he hadn’t noticed, “Sorry,” he said curtly before resuming his lecture to Margo.

“I just can’t believe that Kate is pregnant,” Michael said, sitting back, changing the subject, in an attempt to calm down, “Alvy struggled to walk in a straight line, never mind get someone pregnant, but then again I suppose it doesn’t take too much, does it?”

Another waiter dressed in black and white appeared on the horizon catching their eyes.­­­­­ “Are you trying to say you’re not content Michael,” Sally pressed, “are you content?”

“I’m perfectly happy with me and you Margo,” Archie continued, summing up, “perfectly happy, I’m talking about Pluto and Uranus, Pluto and Uranus, rebellion and.”

“Walt Whitman,” Michael shouted over everybody, “has anybody read Walt Whitman?”

3

“What do you do with it, come on, you must know, what do you do with it?” In the crush to leave the Square Archie had found a blue plastic cavalry horn lying in a gutter, a novelty, a year’s end souvenir a man with a wooden wagon had been selling on 53rd Street along with a pile of Richard Nixon masks and some spinning bow ties.

“You put it to your lips and you blow,” Sally replied, sliding her arm underneath Archie’s as they walked. The couples had changed places, mixed in the crush by accident largely. Nevertheless the drink had loosened the ties of their traditional symmetry, so they were content, for the time being, to be in different company.

“They’re having quite a time back there by the sounds of it,” Michael said to Margo, they were quite a few paces in front of the others and Michael was walking briskly, trying to reach the subway and home in the quickest possible time, such was his desperation for the evening to end.

“Why are you even with her?” Margo drawled, she was drunk, ever-so, a combination of wine at dinner and numerous bottles, plastic cups and communal gulps of liquor in the street. “Why are you even with her?” Margo repeated, “You’ve hardly said a nice word all night.”

Michael bristled with an increasing level of contempt, he hated questions, he hated personal questions in particular, but he felt a little more at ease than he would have normally knowing this conversation would be expunged from memory by alcohol come the morning. “She’s probably on my side, I just hate rolling through the motions,” he explained, quietly.

Margo blatantly wasn’t listening, her concentration was focused on walking, but she managed to mumble, “Why don’t you just be nice,” as Michael moved on ahead to reach the subway.

“Michael you’re a fine man but you’re a dullard, you need some life breathing into you, I want you to have this,” Archie thrust the blue novelty trumpet towards Michael’s grey raincoat as he arrived at the station, swaying slightly as he did so, the drink hindering his balance, yet making his confidence bulletproof. “Blow in it once in a while,” Archie daringly continued, “it might make you feel better.” Archie and Sally, still arm in arm for balances sake if nothing else, giggled, as Michael took the horn.

“Come on Sally, you’re drunk,” Michael said, holding out his hand, hoping she’d clasp it, but he put it down again before she had the chance.

“Aren’t you a little drunky too Mickey,” she laughed, “oh don’t tell me, you’re a student doctor, someone might be giving birth,” she started shouting, “if anyone’s giving birth around the block Michael will help you,” she gasped for breath, “he’s not drunk!”

Michael closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, pinching the middle of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, “Come on, I think it’s time for us to go.”

He waved Archie and Sally into the subway first and followed with Margo towards the metal escalators which led to the tunnels. “Are we home,” Margo slurred, suddenly springing from her drunken stupor, barley able to put one foot in front of the other.

The escalators had stopped, it was late, but despite the likelihood that the last train had already gone Archie and Sally tentatively set off down the metal steps one at a time. At the bottom Archie’s legs gave way and he sank to the floor, taking Sally with him, slipping into a mess of cigarette butts and colourful streamers. “I’m gone,” he sighed, as he fell towards Sally’s shoulder and she rested her head on the back of his neck.

Seeing the obstruction Michael sank backwards too, in an almost hopeless gesture, giving up to the metal grate below him. Margo followed, the floor being the best place for her. She nestled her head into Michael’s shoulder and said to him, her eyes closed and barley conscious, “Archie,” she sniffed, “stop being a bastard to Michael for God’s sake, he’s only trying his best.”

Michael placed a gentle arm around her shoulder and balanced the blue horn on the step in front. “Behold the customary loves and friendships,” he said to himself.

“What?” Margo whispered.

“Walt Whitman.”

Margo raised her head for a moment captivated by his words, “Bullshit,” she muttered, before slipping back into drunkenness.

“I’m so gone,” Archie repeated lower down the stairwell, “so gone.” He coughed, “You know Pluto and Uranus, rebellion and,” Archie searched for the words and then raised his voice when he had found them, “misery, well,” he paused for breath, “they’re going to collide.” He moved his head towards her elbow and then back up again, yawning, “It’s going to be big trouble.”

Sally fading into sleep just about heard,” You never said,” she objected, “you should have said.”

Archie smiled, finally comfortable, the left side of his face warm against her coat, “Well,” he replied, “everyone’s got the right to be happy, don’t they?”

Short Fiction by Robert Leeming

We love a sense of mystery and intrigue here at Flux and Transformativa delivers (or refuses to deliver) that in spades. All we know about Transformitva is in that fact he is just one man, born in Brazil, now lives in London and that this is his first public release. None of the usual hype and name dropping on their press release and just one slightly blurred image where you can’t make out the person involved plus the following quote.

“All that is solid melts into air”
Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto

This is a fresh but risky approach to modern promotion that we heartily approve of. He and his label are taking a gamble of course on their opening gambit, their barnstorming remix, nay re-imagining of the classic track Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. They think that this will do all their talking for them and we agree. This outrageous blast of energy and noise destroys then resurrects the much loved track in such a way that in our minds it fully respects and pays homage to the anger and passion that helped craft the original. Listen for yourself though below and make up your own mind. A travesty or a triumph? Let us know what you think.

Antwerp has for a long time had significant impact on fashion, with the Antwerp 6 dominating our wardrobes and publications across the world.

Now it is RA, an Antwerp based boutique come exhibition space, which is impacting on the fashion world. The opening of the RA Paris satelite this month has seen a new RA space host the launch of Serkan Cura’s spring/summer12 Haute Couture collection. Florence Storey spoke to Serkan about Haute Couture and his work with RA.

Romain Brau and Anna Kushnernova are responsible for this bohemian inspired original concept and it is from this pair that the store takes its name.

RA Antwerp has supported emerging fashion and artistic talent in Belgium and is now aiming to do the same in Paris. As a luxury boutique it stocks an eclectic selection of new designers from Meadham Kirchhoff to Serkan Cura and plush vintage offerings from Alaïa to Chanel.

It will play host to a number of events including readings, performance art as well as intimate fashion shows and it is this “salon” ambiance and theatrical experience that is said to evoke the spirit and passion of the city of light.

In addition to the store opening RA showed Serkan Cura’s spring/summer12 Haute Couture collection. Cura has a striking pedigree studying fashion at the Royal Academy of Antwerp and then working for Jean-Paul Gaultier and Corset maker Mr. Pearl.

A newcomer on the Couture scene, Serkan Cura presented a collection that showcased his skill with corsetry and focused on sheer fabrics, tulle and various plumage from small white feathers to multi-coloured tropical wings.

We managed to gain a little more insight in to the designer, his work and showing at the RA grand opening in Paris.

Florence Storey: What is the inspiration behind the collection?

Serkan Cura: The main inspiration behind the collection was a September day at the beach in Ostende, Belgium. Tendency grayish, foam and sand. All the collection is a kind of second skin for women…

FS: What was it like working at Gautier?

SC: It was an extraordinary experience. Working with “l’enfant terrible de la mode” and realizing all his wishes was very enriching.

FS: Do you think your time working there and with other brands has shaped you as a designer?

SC: No. I’m born to become a designer and to work in Haute Couture. I was always fascinated by this world and those skills in disappearance.

FS: Why did you decide to show at the RA opening in Paris?

SC: The show at RA was an idea between me and the team of RA. Showing the new generation of Haute Couture in a new store in Paris was a great idea to promote an accessible Haute Couture collection.

FS: what role do you think a show has in delivering your message as a designer?

SC: For me, a show has to create emotions and dreams to everybody.

FS: If you could pick a favourite collection (apart from your own) from this season what would it be?

SC: Joker!

FS: Paris or Antwerp

SC: Paris of course!

by Florence Storey 

RA is at RA bvba Kloosterstraat 13 2000 Antwerp, and now at RA Paris, 14 rue de la Corderie Paris 75003. See www.ra13.be or www.facebook.com/ra13.be for more information.

Quiet perfection and sealed lips has been the guiding mantra of Anderson and Sheppard, the Savile Row tailor to virtually every renowned dandy of the past one hundred years. Their style of cut, the quintessentially elegant English drape, “the natural look, the sloped shoulder, the limp silhouette,” has graced the backs of many a bon viveur from the dashing Rudolph Valentino to the debonair Cary Grant. It is a style, said Charles Bryant, a former managing director of the company, for “men who want to look right without giving the appearance of having studied their clothes.” For that is the first and foremost rule of male elegance, “the minute a man is overdressed, he is badly dressed.”

The steady and introverted nature of Anderson and Sheppard has seen a degree of outward change since Anda Rowland, the daughter of the famous tycoon Roland “Tiny” Rowland, took over the reins of the business in 2004. Although she bristles at the term “changes” and prefers to label them “re-arrangements”, the cosmetic alterations to the shop have nevertheless been noteworthy. The firm which once nearly sued Sir Ralph Richardson for noting in a theatre programme that he was outfitted by A&S, such was their distaste for publicity at the time, recently took the step of setting up a web-site and published a luxurious book detailing the shop’s history. The cutting room, filled with beautifully dressed gentlemen addressing each other always as Mister as they attend to their work, has, after decades of secrecy, been opened to public view for the first time. And in a move which sparked predictions of the immanent doom of bespoke tailoring, the company ditched its Savile Row address for a less forbidding home around the corner on Old Burlington Street. “In prestige terms,” says Anda, “we’re nearly 105 now, we don’t need the address anymore, the reputation can take a move a couple of hundred metres away.”

It is a reputation which has more than its fair share of glamorous lustre, a glimpse through the pages of their old order books will see grand names such as Lord Olivier, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. and Fred Astaire reoccurring, while a thumb through a more recent volume features names like Bryan Ferry and designers Tom Ford and Calvin Klein. Prince Charles is also a committed customer.

A&S has always attracted a creative crowd, “The more traditional firms didn’t take an interest in actors, they didn’t really want that kind of trade,” Anda says. The appeal of the A&S cut lies principally in the freedom of movement their suits allow to an actor, a photographer or dancer, whose profession is dependent upon movement but also on sartorial sophistication. “We have a very distinctive cut,” Anda adds, “which is the soft natural shoulder and the high armhole, the sleeve itself is bigger than the armhole, which necessitates that it is sewn in by hand, all of this means the clothes actually stay on your back when you’re moving around, so if you are an actor, or if you’re Fred Astaire, the suit moves with you and you don’t need to think about where the shoulder pad is going.”

The English drape was a cut developed by Frederick Scholte, the mentor of Peter Gustaf Anderson, the co-founder of A&S. Scholte was a student of military tailoring, but worked at softening the strict and tight silhouette of uniform, the constructed chest, the nipped in waist, into something lighter and more delicate. Scholte found a sartorial soul mate in Prince Edward, later the Duke of Windsor, who is considered by many to have been the best attired man ever to grace the planet. Tired of frock coats and the stiffness of military attire the forward thinking prince demanded clothes he could breathe in and became the chief exponent of Scholte’s graceful design. The wearer has to have a degree of flamboyance though to carry the style off, he has to fill the space and look the part and be in possession of the necessary confidence and swagger in order that the man wears the suit and the suit doesn’t wear the man.

Despite the exterior face-lift the bespoke craft remains entirely unaltered from Per Anderson’s day. The same set of 27 measurements, twenty for the jacket and seven for the trousers, are taken from every customer and the quality of the materials used is also as high as it has always been, with one fine specimen of Peruvian cloth, being proudly shown off by the firm’s current MD and head cutter John Hitchcock, costing £1000 a foot, although most of the materials are generally sourced from the North West of England. There is very little snobbery involved either, the customer tends to get what the customer wants, without a raised eyebrow in sight when a skull and crossbows lining is requested or a loud Hermes pattern, in an attempt to express a bright sense of individualism.

Of course a shop bought suit, even from a leading house, would often be cheaper than an A&S number, their standard lounge suit generally checks in at the £3000 mark, increasing in expense the more bells and whistles you add. Anda extols the virtues of bespoke by comparing the craft to watchmaking, “You can have a beautiful watch,” she says, “and someone mentions ‘oh my Swatch cost £12,’ well of course it did and it performs the same function, but you will not be enjoying it in the same way, or be able to hand it down to your grandchildren and beyond, you just don’t have the same relationship with it, plus it doesn’t look as good.”

Old Burlington Street has done nothing to blunt the potency of the brand, despite the financial rigours the world is suffering and with big spending distinctly out of fashion; profits at A&S are up, news that is not necessarily replicated over on the Row. People are still willing to spend megabucks on products they perceive to be quality, but the quality has to be provable; something A&S can do with panache. Anda describes her customer as the sartorial equivalent of the wine connoisseur “who wants to go all the way and visit the vineyard.” And the customers do range from different parts of society, from the moneyed gentry who order sixty suits at a time, to the London taxi driver who has spent a lifetime saving up.

A spike in interest in men’s elegance has also been noted by A&S, after the Italian dominated 80’s and the dress down 90’s there has finally been a “perking up,” says Anda, in male style, complimented by a new found love of bright colour, “After years of casual Fridays, people have finally had it with all that dullness,” she adds. The prominence given to sharp suits in the popular television show Mad Men also has its part to play in the renaissance, the 60’s style pocket square and PT-109 tie clips being in particular vogue at the moment. It’s always been that way for men though, who tend to base their style on dead icons. “It’s similar to women’s fashion,” Anda says, “they use a lot of very young girls in advertising and when anyone questions it they say ‘well women don’t want to look like their seventy five year old mothers, they want to look like their daughters,’ but with a man he generally wants to look like his hero, and his hero, more often than not, is probably dead because he’s a 1930’s guy, or he’s much older and he’s Clint Eastwood, but they tend to be from an era gone by, and that works for men in a way that models don’t, men like to see the clothes on a real body.”

“The whole point of Anderson and Sheppard,” wrote Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, “is to make suits, overcoats and other garments that conform to an individual like nothing else in this life.” Fashions rise and wane but elegance is a constant. When The Beatles sang on the Savile Row rooftop of Apple Corps in 1969, bemused gentlemen and colourful Carnaby Street hipsters gazed upwards in front of the old Anderson and Sheppard door. Brash and beautiful as it was that scene came and went, but Scholte and Anderson, Windsor and Astaire, still live and breathe in silhouette and shadow over at 32, Old Burlington Street to this very day.

Read more about Anderson & Sheppard at www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk

Fashion article written by Robert Leeming

We get to see so many boring videos and hear so many dull as dishwater tracks, I hate to say, here at Flux. So when we get to see a video by Studio Fünf based around the story of a guy dressed up as a Polar Bear trying to escape from a boring costume party then we danced a merry jig around the office. The music that accompanies the visuals is the best kind of undergound music, Polar Bear by duo Composer is a skull pummelling electronic buzz-drill of a tune with vocals that seem to ricochet across the precise and minimal melody lines. This is a track from the album The Edges of the World by Composer, the story of a cosmic appealing underground party in an abandoned factory revived by cosmic lights. We like it. Hope you do too.

Composer “Polar Bear” from InFine Music on Vimeo.

Polar Bear by Composer is the best kind of underground music and is out now on InFiné http://composer.infine-music.com/

Saint Valentine’s Day should be about sweet-nothings whispered in the ears of doe-eyed lovers and a celebration of that crazy little thing called love but let’s face it; if you get more than a fistful of flowers, an extra ‘X’ on the end of your morning text and a Moonpig greetings card this year, you’ll be doing better than the rest of us.

Fear not however, as the British Library is here to satisfy your carnal needs with their latest, lyrical literature, Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, composed and edited by the Curator of Early Modern Historical Manuscripts, Andrea Clarke, who explains that, “in an age of emails, tweets and texted ‘I luv u’s’, Love Letters invites us into a privileged realm and reminds us why the written word is so special”.

Peel back the cover to reveal a myriad of pages awash with dancing words, dipping and diving, intertwining, to display a delightful, transcription of twenty-five love letters, resurrected by the kiss of life, from the Library’s very own collection; spanning from 168 BC right up to the Twentieth Century. Any who cast their lusting gaze over the publication and flick through its amour-drenched pages will be treated to an intimate peek into the emotions and desires of icons including Anne Boleyn, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens; stripping raw the utmost clandestine infatuations of Charlotte Brontë, Horatio Lord Nelson and Henry VIII.

Nostalgic portraits punctuate this scattering of scribbling, breathing visual stimulation into a delving exposition of lovers over the decades, laying bare, “every shade of love” for you to explore, to your hearts content. From the bittersweet, 50,000-word strong declaration of emotional hardship from Charles Dickens, to the tattered remains of Brontë’s heart-pourings, documenting her scandalous captivation with her Professor Héger and the previously unpublished, post-childbirth letter, from Marvyn Peake to his wife, declaring his deep, un-ending adoration for her. To Cathleen Nesbitt, Rupert Brookes also exclaims, “I will kiss you till I kill you”.

So how about an evening spent amidst smudgey candlelight, perusing the pages of Love Letters? It’s sure to beat witnessing a sniveling Rachel McAdams moping over Ryan Gosling in a re-run of The Notebook, is it not? Put the ice cream down, the DVD back in its box and pick up your copy of Love Letters from the British Library shop (www.bl.uk/shop) or visit the website for more information.

For more information visit www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event127223.html

Book Feature by Stephanie Whalley

On the surface, the area around Waterloo station might not seem like such a strange or dark place. However, upon looking hard enough, a bizarre current is noticeable, pulsating through the streets; the remnants of cardboard-city tucked away in the subways, free-runners prancing about the rooftops and, deep underground, a cavernous space dripping with history, silently gathering dust beneath the relentless tumult of the city. This space, The Old Vic Tunnels, is perhaps Waterloo’s best kept secret, and is currently being transformed by producer Tim Wilson, founder of Heritage Arts Company, and his team to become the venue for VAULT, a three week London arts festival brimming with exciting events where opera, film, theatre, music, dance, partying and comedy are transformed into unexpected and intriguing new forms. I met with Tim for a cup of tea to find out about his inspiration behind the project.

Surrounded by countless teapots and cups, Tim shakes my hand apologising for his paint-stained fingers. ‘Took some time off for some graffiti!’ he says, laughing. ‘Haha, no, just been spending the morning spray-painting ‘VAULT’ on the back of t-shirts.’ He smiles and sips his tea, leaving slight black fingerprints on everything he touches. Tim’s excitement for the opening of VAULT is clear as we discuss what the audience might expect from it. ‘Oh you’re going to have a great time!’ he says when I tell him I’ll be going to one of the ‘Hammer’ film-screenings, ‘the cinema’s probably one of the most terrifying tiny little spaces to watch a horror film! The Flicker Club’s gimmick is the reconnecting of films with their literary origins. They have a personality connected with the film you’re watching reading from the source-text at the beginning. Adds a bit of spice to the whole film-going experience.’

Most of the events in VAULT seem to reinvent genres in this manner, or old works, such as Silent Opera’s silent-disco inspired production of La Boheme, The Kindle Theatre’s re-telling of Clytemnestra through heavy-metal and Rollmop’s digital story-telling event. ‘There’s something great about combining the old and new.’ Tim says, taking the teaspoons on the table and rearranging them in a diagram ‘Old work, new work,’ he says pointing to one spoon, ‘and old audiences and new audiences’, pointing to another. ‘This bit’s really tough: new audiences with new work, but this bit…’ Tim points to where the spoons cross, ‘is what we’re doing: new readings of old work, so everyone knows what we’re talking about.’

I ask him about the festival evoking darkness and horror and he replies ‘Being underground in the tunnels does evoke some sort of darkness. In these sealed industrial zones, there’s a sense of the walls closing in… It’s a brilliant sort of place to be making anything. The space makes things seem more sharply and precisely defined. It’s a wonderfully immersive environment. I think to read it as horror is the first of many layers,’ Tim says thoughtfully. ‘I was watching the Kindle Theatre’s Furies’ rehearsal yesterday and there’s this heartbreaking moment where one of the characters sings ‘my love is lost forever’; she’s on her knees, and at the end of the song a train came over and it sounded like her heartbeat! It was one of those electrifying coincidences where I thought, I hope that’ll happen for every show! That it’ll fit in in that perfect, unpredictable way.’

Before parting, Tim gives me a tour of the tunnels, leading me through the impressively expansive main space, the cinema where rows of velvet chairs are gathered under a low-arching, brick ceiling and the pink-draped set of the Silent Opera. We shuffle through piles of autumn leaves in another space filled with trees and eventually emerge back out onto the streets of London. Before saying goodbye, I ask Tim what type of audience he thinks VAULT will appeal to and he cheerfully says ‘If I was going to bracket them, I’d say, um… humans! I know it’s a cliché to say this, but there really is something for everyone.’

The VAULT London arts festival takes place from the 9th to the 26th February at Waterloo’s Old Vic Tunnels. For more information visit http://www.thevaultfestival.com/

words Claire Hazelton

Moombahton as a musical form is in an interesting place. It’s well known in certain circles but outside that to many it’s a complete unknown. So what exactly is Moombahton? Imagine you have a cauldron where you’re allowed to chuck in titbits of what you fancy to make that special musical brew. This could be anything from hip-hop, dancehall, soul, bangrah, arabcore through to reggaeton. The end result could be more than the sum of it parts or a right dogs dinner. Lots of freedom yes, but great only in the right hands.

In this case the right hands belong to Sarah Young a well respected DJ and ambassador for the form. Sarah’s first gig saw her up alongside Chipmunk and Natty, she has gone on to become an international turntable star playing nights in Holland, Lithuania, New York and Paris. As well as DJing she has got to work with artists, producers and DJs such as Donaeo, Mz Bratt, Mistajam, Toddla t, Swindle, Jammer, j2k and Redlight and hosts a weekly show on nasty.fm. The respected street fashion brand WeSC has got together with Sarah and a CD released called Moombahton Queen which is meant as an introduction to the world of 108 bpm. This free CD will be available in selected WeSC stores across the UK and features remixes and original work from some of the top names in Moombahton and global bass. We spoke to Sarah about the about the release of the CD and what it might mean for Moombahton as a musical force.

You studied song writing, vocal training and production. How did you end up being a DJ of global bass?

I studied that when I was very young though like 12 at the ACM, at that age you don’t know what you wanna do and being a “pop star” seemed to be the fashionable thing to aspire to, but I was never on that vibe. I left 6th form and went to Uni ( London College of Fashion) but it felt like I had a massive void in my life without the music. I drummed from when I was 7 so DJ-ing was just something natural that I slipped into. It just made sense and was a great way to utilise my love of sound.

How did you first come across Moombahton as a form yourself?

I say this in every interview but it always seems to get twisted. As a DJ I started properly getting weekly gigs at 18, started out playing grime and then moved into reggae, reggaeton and through my connection with Holland the bigger housey-er Dutch sounds. So from day one I always liked to experiment mixing Dutch House and the more off beat Latin sounds – which is essentially Moombahton. Now a genius called Dave Nada invented Moombahton and people seem to get it twisted that I claim I did it before him. Not the case at all. I just grew up around this kinda sound so when I started actually getting paid for gigs I used that time and I experimented. So one day I was on the blogs and going around u-stream and found this new genre called “Moombahton” I hit up Dave on Twitter wanted to know more and rest is history!

How do you think it will catch on with a UK audience?

Ooooof… the problem with UK music, especially what they call urban music is that way too many cats use it to rep their postcodes. Local music is valuable, It’s community music, but it never gets out to the wider society. Global bass is for everyone. It’s non exclusive to race, nationality or postcode. It transcends all that . That’s what I love about it. You can have an 18 year old dude who loves grime but you can play a kuduro joint or Moombahton track too and they can catch a vibe. Moom and all subsequent genres are ultimately hybrids taking influences from everything from hip-hop to bhangra, so it just translates. People who say they “don’t like Moombahton” don’t like music. Because moom is everyman’s music. It’s like a mash up and blend of all your favourite genres and depending on your preference you can find a producer or sub genre that fits. So the UK audience just has to wait and be open!

What is it about Moombahton that inspires you?

That even though its 108-12 it can still get a crowd of 5000 hyper and off their heads.

When WeSC approached you about doing a free Moombahton CD what did you think?

Woo hoo! I was like ‘this is a great way to get Moombahton into the UK mainstream!’

What’s a stand-out track for you personally?

Cabo blanco “unthinkable” remix. A perfect example of a perfect Moombahton remix, something you could play in a top 40 club and have no complaints but be sneaky and give the crowd a music education without them knowing it! It just takes one remix to convert a crowd to a new genre, trust. If they know the chorus or vocal sample for instance, it makes them feel they can access it, and that feeling of non exclusivity ( i.e being able to sing or “mmmm” along) is sooo important for the growth of new music!

What do you hope people will get from this CD?

An education of the genre and a sense of its variety.

What do you think the future is for Moombahton as a form? How will it evolve?

I get this question a lot and I really think the key is having moom and global bass producers keep pumping out original tracks. The genre is flooded with remixes and edits. The more original stuff the more likely we are of getting for instance a categorised “Moombahton” section of itunes, beatport etc like official recognition that this is a real genre and not just a dirty mongrel. I also think the future of it is radio support. Big radio stations in the UK and abroad like Hot 97, Radio 1, Kiss. If they get on board then it’ll be gravy. In terms of it evolving, I’ve got my first EP coming out around March and I’m getting a few grime MC’s to spit over a few tracks. This cross genre collaborations are really the key to development and progress.

To listen to the mix for yourself simply click on http://soundcloud.com/sarah-young-1

CD released and available in WeSC stores nationwide – for more information on WeSC go to www.wesc.com

Are you and your partner in-sync? You’ll have to be careful how you put this to your loved one but Durex have come up with a nifty little online Facebook game, In Sync, that shows up just how well you match up.

Get on the your decks alongside your partner to speed up or slow down and see just how well you move and groove together. The two turntables play well-known tracks that need to be sped up or slowed down in order to hear them correctly. Hold the track in-sync for 10 seconds you prove your “virtual connection” and head to the next level.

You can win some rather special prizes too including entry tickets to the VIP launch party at exclusive London club The Box headlined by DJs Annie Mac and Scott Mills. The event is happening on the 28th of February and is already creating a lot of noise on Twitter. You have to win tickets for this event though as it’s strictly invite-only.

The Box is a seriously glamorous place graced by the likes of Kate Moss, Kelly Brook, Mark Ronson, Lily Cole and even royals Prince Harry and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Right now The Box is one of London’s hottest tickets.

This promises to be the a night of mystery and decadence with cocktails flowing, sultry performances and plenty of surprises in store.

To play and win tickets go to http://on.fb.me/zOK019

Are you feeling butterflies in your tummy on this most special of days? A little love sick? So you want to let that certain someone know just how you feel about them. Well you could get down on one knee or put it in a song and serenade your love when she or he gets home from work tonight.

Or you could send a Love Note through your smartphone to that very special person in your life. In the spirit of love, Samsung GALAXY Note have teamed up with Touchnote to deliver a free, printed Love Note postcard to your special someone via http://galaxylovenote.com

The GALAXY Love Note website allows users to create, share and send their own personalised “Love Note” via Facebook, Twitter and Touchnote’s physical postcards.

The idea has been launched to highlight the new Galaxy Note which is a step up from your usual smartphone. It’s designed to be the ultimate on-the-go device. You can use it as a smartphone but also it has all the capabilities of a tablet. A large & immersive screen gives you access to features normally only found only on tablets including the S Pen advanced pen input technology.

For more information visit www.samsung.com

Indomitable Flux writer Charlotte Davey braved the frenzied chaos that is London Fashion Week to bring us the best and most inspiring of the Spring Summer 2012 collections on display. Sorting the wheat from the chafe was no mean feat but after a bit of brutal editing here is our final selection. Our next 2012 collection to feature is Christopher Kane.

The SS12 2012 collection by Christopher Kane’s went down an absolute storm with every fashion editor in the land. Inspired by a picture of girls in council estate bedrooms, with peeling stickers adorning the walls, proving that inspiration can come in the most unlikely places, Kane presented a chic, laid back, effortless woman. The collection was positive, light, with brocade embellishment, appliquéd flowers and sequin trim, and also showed his collaboration with J Brand, which featured denim cut offs with floral designs. The whole show proved that Christopher Kane is a totally original designer, and a true asset to London fashion.

The element that really stood out for this collection was the relaxed attitude Kane had. There was no elaborate couture or costume stylization; a completely wearable collection that is sure to see itself across the nation this Summer.

words Charlotte Davey

David Shrigley’s crude, childlike renderings are humorous, memorable, and often unnerving. Famous for his stick figures set against satirical text, this year The Hayward Gallery is showcasing all of Shrigley’s diverse talents in this major London art show. The playful exhibition, Brain Activity, includes sculptures, animations, paintings and sounds from throughout the career of one of Britain’s most surprising cult success stories.

Shrigley likes to play on the element of surprise – to shock at first glance. But in this London art show, visitors will be surprised before they even reach the exhibition space. Stepping into the lift, the audio starts, a soft and gravelly American, dripping with sincerity: “Do you remember way back when, in the old days, when we were both monkeys swinging around in the trees and you’d let me pick the fleas off you and I’d eat them? I loved that”.

Shrigley wasn’t always tipped for success in the creative industries. As he told the show’s curator Cliff Lauson: “At art school I wasn’t particularly seen as being a high-flyer”. But, beating the doubters, he came to the fore in the late 90s. His books are bestsellers, and his wit and style have heavily influenced pop-culture, as well as countless contemporary artists.

Even if you know David Shrigley intimately, you won’t have seen many of the weird and wonderful creations in Brain Activity. The 43-year-old artist made a number of new works for the show. A Very Large Cup of Tea, among them, nicely complements a drawing in another room stating, in his iconic block capitals: ‘A CUP OF TEA WILL RESTORE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH’.

Shrigley is heralded as one of the most humorous artists of our time; this humour is expressed in his subject matter and his rendering. ‘Stick Figures Having Sex on Car Hood’, is a car hood, minus the car underneath, with steel stick figures on top representing as well as stick figures ‘humanly’ can, the sexual act. The hood, pathetically lying on the floor, mocks Hollywood-style sex scenes enacted on car bonnets, while the stick figures themselves are laughably sexless.

He likes to take the piss, and to piss people off. In one room is a collection of 116 drawings; as visitors take their time to examine the pictures, the sound of his animation ‘Ones’ rattles in the background. A long finger-nailed hand picks up a cup with a die, shakes it, drops the die, and rolls a one. Over, and over again it rolls a one: like he has a fetish for failure.

The exhibition is made for the space, and takes full advantage of it. An expansive but concrete-heavy view of London is interrupted by 3D letters on the Brutalist balcony saying ‘LOOK AT THIS’. Faced with a hellish collection of black steel insects, autonomous hands, and unidentified orbs filling the end of a white room, the visitor can exit stage right, through a square hole in the wall.

Exhibition spaces have been adorned by around 7,000 of Shrigley’s drawings, but this is the first major UK retrospective where all of his creations have come to life. It is a small but perfectly formed, carefully curated exhibition which sticks its nose up at culture and convention, and bids a warm welcome to the surreal, the sinister and even, now and again, the abject.

This London art show continues until Sunday 13th May, tickets £8/£6. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

words Joanna Eckersley

Sun Sun Sun is the essence of the day as Tom Ford Private Blend sees the arrival of its newest connoiseur perfume. Lavendar Palm aims to capture the sparkling vitality of a relaxed, refined vision of California.

So no images of a downtown LA, steaming twenty lane highways, or Beverley Hills excesses here. Think more sparkling sunlight, expansive coastlines and natural blossoms. California Dreaming here we come.

The Tom Ford Private Blend Collection is a range of exclusive fragrances, that evoke classic journeys, and traditional atmospheres with names like Bois Marocain, Arabian Wood and Italian Cypress. Launched in 2007 with an original 12 Eau de Parfum bottles, the range has extended since then. It is neither male nor female, focussing on ethereal, intense luxury for the true fragrance junky.

Lavendar Palm combines the bright flash of Lavandin and the herbal tones of Lavendar Absolute, with citrusy lemon and bergamot for a shot of brilliance. The long lasting low end is warm with Benzoin, Tonka Bean, Olibanum and Green Moss. It’s a subtle, relaxed scent that wafts back at you through the day in a dreamy, sundrenched vibey way. This is no old-aunt-Lavendar - more sun in a bottle, seductive and exhilarating.

The Tom Ford Private Blend packaging is unchanged – straight from the parfumer’s apothecary, with dark brown glass in a weighty 50ml flacon, or superb 250ml decanter.

Tom Ford Private Blend Lavendar Palm (£120 (50ml) and £270 (250ml) is available at Harvey Nichols, Leeds from February 2012.

Intrepid Flux writer Charlotte Davey braved the frenzied chaos that is London Fashion Week to bring us the best and most inspiring of the Spring Summer 2012 collections on display. Sorting the wheat from the chafe was no mean feat but after a bit of brutal editing here is our final selection. Next up is Unique.

Topshop was back in the abandoned Eurostar terminal, as Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, Pixie Geldof, Jefferson Hack, Olivia Palermo, and many more came were among those that made the trek south of the River Thames. The invitations had been photos of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and as The Bangles ‘Walk Like and Eqyptian’ was turned up, opening the show, the theme was well and truly set. There were Pharaonic references aplenty, as models slinked down the runway with gold painted hair, sporting hieroglyphic and gold snake adorned outfits. Then, as Jay-Z replaced The Bangles, the show became more of a 90s hip-hop Eqypt. The collection was very sports-wear, with hoodies, track pants, and plenty of gold bling. Silhouettes also reflected a 90s sporty motif, with oversized bomber jackets on skinny legs. Definitely one trend to watch came in the form of the gold ‘flatforms’, sure to be making the rounds this Spring.

If the pretty ice cream outfits are not for you, then this trend should see you through Spring Summer 2012. We’ve certainly never been more excited to walk like an Egyptian than this achingly cool 90s hip-hop Topshop version.

See www.topshop.com for more details

words Charlotte Davey

Intrepid Flux writer Charlotte Davey braved the frenzied chaos that is London Fashion Week to bring us the best and most inspiring of the Spring Summer 2012 collections on display. Sorting the wheat from the chafe was no mean feat but after a bit of brutal editing here is our final selection. Next up is Mulberry.

Hill, Mulberry’s creative director, found inspiration in an array of British institutions for the S/S12 collection, from sport-street wear and rain, to Skittles. The show opened anticipating the inevitable; models wore macs and waterproofs, but in optimistic shades of sunshine yellow and grass green. There was an emphasis on colour-blocking, in Skittle shades of green, orange, and pink, alluding to a youthful charm. Far from being childlike, though, silhouettes were slick and sophisticated with floor length, flowing skirts and ladylike scoop neck tops. There were also matching patent Alexa bags in the bright hues. The colour palette was also accented with buttery light tan leather skirts and cropped jackets and there was an athletic twist with the introduction of drawstring ties and baseball-cut tees.

The bright colors later mellowed down into prints and lace in oatmeal and cream shades for the latter half of the show. Lace, knee-length skirts and cropped jackets had the perfect amount of ladylike looks, combined with graphic prints. Lace also popped on its own in a long, three-quarter-sleeves, lean, floor-length dress, with occasional crystal embellishings. The simple color palette blended in casual pieces, displayed on hooded sweaters, gym shorts and one-piece jumpers.

Mulberry, known for its classic satchels, also introduced the new Travel collection on the runway, which included a boxy camera bag; perfect for the model and photographer!

See www.mulberry.com for full details on the Spring Summer 2012 collection

words Charlotte Davey

We’re all in need of some assistance to bring us out of the dark days of winter. And now spring is in sight we’re looking for some serious regeneration. And why not look to one of the best in the business with their scientific and innovative underwate approach to luxury skincare.

Creme de la Mer is a brand well known for the success of its skincare regimes. The famous elixir is based on aerospace physicist, Dr. Max Huber’s experiments to come up with a treatment to improve the appearance of his scars from a lab accident. His twelve year experiment resulted in his pioneering formulae based on sea kelp and bio-fermentation.

The Creme de la Mer range is perhaps overshadowed by the famous Creme de la Mer Moisturising Cream, which might make you overlook the rest of what is a fabulous luxury skincare range – especially if you’ve tried the cream and found it too heavy. You may think this is a range for older skin, but in fact there is a wealth of product on offer here, all created using the Creme de la Mer principles, with the core moisturising products going from the cream to lighter gels and lotions so that there is something for every age and skin type. Then there are serums, infusions and concentrates. Not to mention the skincolour cosmetics collection that we’ve tried out and are well worth a look. And if you fancy a trial, your nearest counter are happy to talk you through the products, en song with all the luxury brands.

For a pretty instant skincare boost, a great starting point is the Creme de la Mer Regenerating Serum. An extreme powerhouse that diminishes the appearance of lines, wrinkles and pores. The serum uses the brand’s lauded Miracle Broth with the Marine Peptide Ferment and the Regenerating Ferment. It gives the skin a more lifted look while helping to diminish the appearance of lines and wrinkles, revealing a beautiful, refreshed look.

Plus if you feel like you deserve a treat for Valentines, or just to stave off the last days of cold cold winter, the Creme de la Mer luxurious lip balm is currently available in some gorgeously cute packaging in stores!

Creme de la Mer is available at counters in Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and House of Frase nationwide.  The Creme de la Mer lip balm is £37 and Regenerating Serum is £158.

My hair is my pride and joy. I wear it like a mane. Sometimes I like to wrap it round myself so it completely envelops my body. Sometimes my hair shouts and screams – expressing what’s inside me. I love my hair and my hair loves me. Beauty Photography from Haley Ballard.

Photography Haley Ballard www.haleyballard.com
Makeup Glenna Franklin Marilyn Ballard Artists www.marilynballard.com
Hair Shinya Nakagawa www.shinyanyc.com
Model Aleksandra at Fenton Moon Media
Location Studio P New York, NY www.pokform.com/studiop

Chen Man is one of the leading photographers of her generation. For a decade now she has led the way with some inspiring images for both magazines and leading international brands. Her striking and powerful photography has graced the pages of Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue. When we were asked if we would like to  be media partner for her first UK solo photography exhibition we were more than happy to oblige.

She began her career whilst still a student at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Art photographing the front cover of lifestyle magazine Vision. The images she produced punctured the conservatism of China’s media industry at the time and captured the spirit of creativity that was driving a new generation of artists and designers. She has won high profile campaigns for some of the world’s leading lifestyle brands including Mercedes Benz, Adidas, Gucci, Nike and Motorola.

Chen Man’s rich and powerful images pack a real punch and she goes all out to grab the attention of her audience. She creates fantastical illusions and uses many different techniques and a vast array of influences to realise her visions including street culture, animation, sci-fi manga and pop references. Her images themselves have become the object of desire and are valued by collectors world-wide. Her photographs are anything but naturalistic being repeatedly reworked and heavily manipulated with a complex series of post production techniques. This is reality but magnified – a hyper-real, lifestyle world of dreamlike proportions.

It is no surprise that Chen Man’s rise to prominence has coincided with emergence of a consumer culture in China and the desire for luxury consumer goods. Her images are all about desire. She understands our hopes and dreams and shines them back at us.

You can see the photography exhibition from 10 February to 7 April 2012 at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester. See www.chinese-arts-centre.org & www.chenmaner.com

This is another classic Hammer romp through history with Oliver Reed at his mischievous best in this slightly off kilter role. Reed plays Eli Khan, a rebel tribesman in this classic British film set in the Indian desert whist the country is still under the iron grip of British rule.

A mixed race lieutenant, Robert Case (played by Ronald Lewis), is unjustly unfairly discharged from the British Army and is taken under the wing of Reed’s band of brigands in their fight for freedom from the British yoke. They capture a foreign journalist and Case spills the beans on the false accusations against him instigated by the racism of his commanding officers. Eventually though, after a fierce battle, the British regain control and beat back Reed and his rebel army. Case is viciously shot by the brutal Colonel Drewe (played by Duncan Lamont), his former accuser. The journalist though who has witnessed the whole sorry saga returns home to Blighty where he tells the world the true story of the brigand of Kandahar.

Thanks to Studio Canal who are re-releasing the classic Britsh film we have 10 copies to give away to readers. To win a copy please email editorial@fluxmagazine.com and let us know the name of the actor who plays the character Robert Case.

The Brigand of Kandahar is out now on DVD

BlackBerry launched BBM Music at the end of last year for their smartphone users, and here’s the premise. It’s almost like a pyramid scheme for music sharing where no one is at the top.

You get to choose 50 of your favourite tracks to have on your BBM Music playlist. And the choice will include music from all the major labels so Universal, Sony Music, Warner and EMI. All your friends who subscribe also get to choose 50 tracks. But the great bit comes when you realise you get access to all your friends’ tracks.

So the more friends you have, the more tracks you can access. You can imagine building a musical network of literally thousands of tracks. You get to show off your own musical credentials.  Plus get a peek into what your friends and peers are listening to. Like a window into their own personal mixtapes. A brilliant way to expand your own musical landscape with a bit of musical stalking!

You can comment on tracks on your friends playlist, and you can also keep your own playlist fresh and happening by swapping in up to 25 new tracks each month. So you get a kind of evolving community library shared through BBM. A social music-sharing pick and mix

As well as being able to monitor how many friends have listened to your tracks, users can even comment on friend’s songs playlists adding another truly social element to the service. BBM Music subscribers will be able to listen to tracks from friends’ profiles on-the-go, as music can be cached to BlackBerry smartphones for offline listening. 

With over 45 million users worldwide, BBM is already a powerful social networking tool, and the creation of BBM Music adds a new, entirely musical, level. OK – it would be good to see some independents added to the label list at a later date maybe BlackBerry – but the labels included already offer an amazing range of music for all tastes. Begin spreading your musical universe right here!

For more information about BBM Music visit www.BlackBerry.com/bbmmusic.

This video gives us a glimpse behind the scenes in the making of the intricate and powerful new animation created by the seriously talented designer Kyle Bean for Peugeot’s Just Add Fuel. The campaign is directed by Joseph Mann with animation gurus BlinkInk brought into the fold to bring their masterly touch to the finished product.

Together they have created a whole world entirely made from paper. Using stop frame animation this world is brought to life to invite you into the Peugeot world. A world where the normal day to day stresses of running a car fall away.

The idea is that owning and driving a Peugeot is a relaxing and pleasurable experience. This is what they call Drive away Happy. If you recognise the voice over that’s the unmistakable tones of John Simm who’s been brought in to front the ad campaign. The finished animation is outstanding and this clip shows us how this world was given life by the creatives involved.

The most famous thing about French tennis shoe brand Spring Court is the really rather impressive fact that John Lennon got married in a pair! Now for Spring Summer 12, they collaborate with Still Good for a range for Colette.

From their launch back in 1936, Spring Court revolutionised tennis with their natural ventilation and casual styling. A sport footwear staple, the shoes have been picked up by all the best menswear retailers from Oi Polloi to Good Hood. Plus the brand has collaborated with the likes of Comme Des Garcons to give some idea of the credentials.

For the Spring Court x Still Good collaboration, they have produced a limited edition of 100 red and 100 blue fabric tennis shoes. Still Good - the new urban men’s fashion brand – have designed a main body made of chambray from Japan combined with leather nubuck used on the heel and the stripe covering the inside edges. Each shoe comes with 3 pairs of laces: brown, navy and white for the blue model ; navy, red and white for the red one.

Finally, and testament to the attention to detail of Still Good designer, Clement Taverniti, a special eyelet marks the shoe’s ground – brown for the blue model and navy for the red one.

The Spring Court x Still Good collaboration will be available in early March at Colette (Paris). See www.still-good.com, www.springcourt.fr and www.colette.fr.

Oliver Reed gives a characteristically big performance in this historical romp based around the English Civil War. Reed plays Captain Sylvester a willing, grinning cohort to his Roundhead boss Colonel Judd also played with vigour and swagger by that old stalwart of British film, Lionel Jeffries.

Under orders Reed captures the King and takes him hostage. It is then up to a brave band of local loyalists led by the dashing Scarlet Blade to rescue the king and thwart the dastardly duo of Judd & Sylvester. The love interest is Claire, Judd’s daughter who has loyalist sympathies. She falls for the charms of The Scarlet Blade much to the bitter wrath of Sylvester who had his eyes on her for himself. This is a Hammer historical romp so don’t expect historical accuracy. It’s all great fun though and the powerful screen presence and obvious charisma of Oliver Reed steals the show.

Thanks to Studio Canal who are re-releasing this great British film we have 10 to give away to readers. To win a copy please email editorial@fluxmagazine.com and let us know the name of inimitable actor who plays Captain Sylvester.

The Scarlet Blade is out now on DVD.

December 2011 saw house of iconic French shoe design, Christian Louboutin, open its first Manchester based boutique. Housed on the first floor of Manchester’s premium lifestyle retailer, Harvey Nichols, the Christian Louboutin store & boutique stands as the labels first store outside London and 48th store worldwide.

The store will be launching with its Spring Summer 2012 pre collection, consisting of both women’s shoes and bags, with men’s styles continuing to be available from the dedicated men’s area, located on the second floor. The collection is arguably not for the faint (fashion) hearted, with the designer taking inspiration from the 1940′s right through to the 1970′s to create statement making footwear and accessories that proudly proclaim “I never said I was shy!”

For Louboutin, S/S 12 seems to be a juxtaposition of eclectic and class, with the more sleek and subtle designs being matched in their beauty by the more quirky and whimsical. For the girls, highlights of the collection include; candy coloured block heels that are loud and proud with plenty of stomp, fanciful peep toes adorned heel to toe in haberdashery and jewel encrusted courts.

Whilst for the men, Spring Summer offers them grown up loafers dressed with regal crests and fringing, to ghetto fab goes glam in the form of fun sneakers, with an edge of blinging embellishment and rhinestones galore. Louboutin’s signature spikes and studs also make an appearance, forcing their way onto handbags and loafers, doubling as a weapon and adding a tough “don’t mess with me” edge.

The year 2012 also marks an important point of the brand’s history; their 20th anniversary. The milestone will be commemorated throughout the year with various celebratory projects and initiatives including a retrospective exhibition at London’s prestigious Design Museum.

For more information on the Christian Louboutin Store please visit: www.christanlouboutin.com

By Anna Westerman

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards arts awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Accessories Designer of the Year is The Indra.

“All The Indra Millinery bespoke hats are designed and fabricated by the artist, Indra Lowenstein aka international multi-disciplinary artist “The Indra”.

Formally trained in numerous art forms, Indra brings an uncommon and courageous eye to the traditional art of hat-making. From fine art to club fetish, She draws on a variety of creative sources to fabricate her arresting designs.

Using old-world techniques of model millinery and blocking, Indra takes great pride in her craftsmanship. Creating original whimsical designs with an affectionate nod to the past, while also placing a bold foot in the future, Indra’s millinery is always a conversation piece.

Each hat is hand-made by the designer herself, using only the finest natural materials: feathers, 22k gold leaf, sterling silver, vintage African trade beads, jewels, pearls, the Akoya and Abalone buttons, antique brooches, and Edwardian and Victorian buttons and pins.

Featured in galleries and couture salons, Indra’s work includes approximately 50 one-of-a-kind hats a year. She is also available for commissioned works.”

For more information on the RAWards arts awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards arts awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Visual Artist of the Year is Lawren Alice.

“My canvas is the living, breathing human body and the paints that I use are a water-based cake makeup specifically designed for safe use on the skin. Body painting, in contrast to traditional acrylic or oil painting, has to be done as fast as possible – painted with both grace and speed without compromising quality. Body painting doesn’t allow me the luxury to set my work down for extended periods of time and come back to it at a later date. My time limitations weigh on the shoulders of my canvas (quite literally) and because time is of the essence, every stroke and line I paint is applied with confidence and intention. Aside from the fact that my canvas is a moving, living thing I need to make sure is hydrated, rested and happy, I also need to make sure that my work is photographed before it’s all washed away at the end of the day.

Body painting, in contrast to other traditional painting, is a whole different beast and due to it’s short lived shelf life, must be photographed to record its extremely temporary existence. Most of my work has been photographed by my long-time friend and owner of Gallery ML, Noah Musher. Together we work as a team where his role as a photographer is absolutely necessary in preserving my work. Once the body painting image has been shot, the final edited piece then goes to print where it’s made into limited edition signed giclee prints stretched onto canvas.”

For more information on the RAWards arts awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Drive, Nicholas Winding Refn’s minimalist action movie about a stunt driver (Ryan Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver, feels like a film out of time. Its methodical pacing, neon-soaked vision of L.A. and electronic soundtrack give it the feel of a lost Michael Mann film and it’s easy to see why the film received such a mixed response from audiences on its theatrical release. Anyone expecting Fast Five would be sorely disappointed by its lack of traditional spectacle in favour of a slow, chaste love affair between Driver and his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan), broken up by scenes of startlingly brutal violence.

Whilst the look and sound of the film recall the 1980s, the story itself riffs on cinematic stories that go much further back. The idea of a man without a past entering the lives of ordinary people in order to help them is reminiscent of a thousand Westerns, though the film specifically recalls Shane, and Refn’s decision to use images of cars and action movies hearkens back to films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which took American iconography and used it to explore deeper, more existential themes.

Yet Refn is very much a genre director, so whilst he explores the nature of heroism fairy tales, he never forgets to make an entertaining, sharp thriller. The slowly winding tension of watching Driver get inexorably drawn into the life of Irene and her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) until he is forced to help them take on the criminals who threaten their lives is masterfully down. It builds to a fever pitch before quite literally exploding halfway through, after which the tone changes from one of brooding, inescapable menace to one of manic intensity. The final half an hour or so, in which Driver finally transforms into the sort of hero that he only pretends to be in his day job, is relentless in its sense of unfolding disaster, as all the various players are drawn into conflict and blood flows freely.

It’s also the last part of the film that Albert Brooks truly shines as Bernie, the former gangster who is reluctantly drawn into the mess surrounding Driver, Irene and Bernie’s partner, Nino (Ron Perlman). There’s something monstrous yet deeply human about Bernie. He’s a man who didn’t ask to be involved and isn’t happy about the things that he has to do, but once he is forced into action he does them with a ruthless efficiency that belies his affable demeanour. It’s a great performance, and Brooks’ recent Oscar snub will be remembered down the years as one of the great Academy injustices, as will the lack of recognition for the film itself, which is a truly astonishing, compelling piece of work.

Extras: An annoyingly thin amount of extras consisting mainly of TV spots and trailers, but amongst these is a very lively and informative Q & A with Refn which was conducted on the same day of his infamous appearance on BBC Breakfast. Refn offers a lot of insights into the production of the film and his influences, as well as his general approach to violence in film. It’s a terrific feature that almost makes up for the lack of anything else.

Drive is out on DVD now. See Drive trailer and features at www.drive-movie.com

words Edwin Davies

*Sponsored Post*

Imagine. A night of your dreams. A special event meant for you. A night that money can’t buy. You can’t buy tickets for this night. You can’t blag your way past the well dressed bouncers guarding the doors. This is a Blackberry event.

Welcome to the world of Blackberry PLUS 5. We like this sense of mystery and intrigue from Blackberry. Teasing us with secrets is not your usual way of marketing and marks a shift into new territory. Take a peek at the video. This will give you a flavour of what lies in store. All we’re allowed to say is that this is no ordinary night out.

So you want in? How do you get yourself and your friends into such an event? This extra special Blackberry event could be within your grasp. Once you’ve checked out the video all you have to do is apply and cross your fingers. Good luck.

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Performing Artist of the Year is Electriq Dance.

Electriq is one giant surprise. On one end, it has skinny white girls grooving to hip hop, while on the other end, a semi-professional body builder who dances contemporary and jazz. Electriq performs anything from theatre jazz to contemporary funk, all with a common thread: hip hop. Our dances are eccentric, quirky, and dramatic, while at the same time always exuding gritty qualities of urban dance. Aaron Gordon, artistic director of Electriq, strives to keep his choreography accessible to non-dancers by stressing theatricality, storyline and performance quality above all else. Recently Sony recording artist, Oh Land, picked up on his youtube page (see below) and has since promoted his work several times via Facebook and Twitter. Like a volt of electricity, Electriq will shock you out of conventional dance expectations just enough to keep you curiously yearning for more. To book Electriq or separately hire Aaron Gordon, send a message to Electriq’s facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/ElectriqDance

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Fashion Designer of the year is Mariel Rojo.

Mariel Rojo was born on January 3rd, 1988 in Guadalajara, Mexico. At a young age she had a passion for design and fashion. As she grew up she began taking her ambitions for design more seriously. At 20 years of age she gathered what little money she had left and moved to Europe to jumpstart her education towards the world of fashion design. There she studied at Instituto Europeo di Design in Barcelona, Spain. She spent the next 3 years (2008-2011) there refining her knowledge and skills, but it was in not easy. And out of everything she learned from her time at school, her most valuable lesson was the realization that fashion design is merely art and she herself was an artist. Rojo has said many times before “My passion is to create with fabrics, textures, volumes, silhouettes…fashion is creation!” And her work certainly reflects this ideal. Each of her pieces is an amalgamation of style and imagination pieced together by immense skill and an eye for detail. She admits that her greatest ideas come to her when she sleeps – “frequently, My best inspiration comes right from my dreams at night. But in a way I am always dreaming. It is like living my dream, awake.” Mariel Rojo sees herself as a humble artist who is merely transforming her thoughts into something beautiful everyone can wear. Women’s sensuality, her strength and beauty are qualities that she wants to represent in her clothing. She makes clothes for determined women, art lovers who never forget about their feminine side.

“Theres no limits for art and imagination”- Mariel Rojo

Favorite designers: Alexander McQueen, Margiela, Gabrielle Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli.

Favorite artistic movements: Surrealism, Romanticism, Minimalism.

Where you can find my work?

www.marielrojo.com

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Makeup Artist of the Year is Alan Anderson of Colorado Skin Works.

My name is Alan Anderson. I live in Denver, Colorado and I am a career firefighter/paramedic, yet I do face and body art every chance I get. Whether I am creating monsters, various characters, or simply making someone feel beautiful, my reward is always the reaction on my subject’s face when they look into the mirror after I am done.

I’ve been using the Halloween season as a chance to pull out my makeup and create something wild for years. It wasn’t until Halloween 2008 that a friend of mine asked if I would do their make-up for a costume contest. I thought it was so strange to turn the brush around, and paint another person! However from that day on, I never looked back.

In 2010 I started body painting. I enjoy doing both face and body art now to explore my creative side. I have learnt how to portray what is in my imagination. Besides attending a few seminars, I am self-taught and self-motivated. My passion for this art has encompassed me – I find inspiration to create around every corner during each day. No one is born with these skills. We were all created equal. You just simply have to have passion for something, and then the discipline to study it.

I am unarguably my toughest critic. This is what pushes me to create and push myself every time I pick up the brush. I also strongly believe that teaching others your craft is vital. Sharing that knowledge only makes each artist strive to reach farther. I love creating looks that make people smile, or even shriek with fear. It is the number one thing that keeps me motivated.

Please check out more of my work at www.ColoradoSkinWorks.com

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. Musicians of the Year are the band Glass Battles

Prosthetic monster claws, bandit masks, and sound sensitive lights are all things you’llcurrently find in Glass Battles’ rehearsal space. “Our practice space has become the creative wheelhouse for everything on our band’s roster”, chuckles Albert James, one fifth, and guitarist of the electronic-rock outfit based in Los Angeles. Ash Black, GB’s bassist also adds, “We definitely have a blast but we also treat this as professionally as you’d treat any career endeavor. That includes everything from lighting to costumes during rehearsal.” Black is referring to Tanya Dahl, who, with Sean Augustine comprises vocals for the band. Joshua Paris rounds out the lineup as their drummer.  All five are also the producer/songwriters for Glass Battles, a rarity for many musical projects. “It’s important for all of us to have an equal hand in our musical success”, says Paris. “The genres we represent bring something unique and fresh to the table. We want to keep everyone on their toes with us.”

If you’ve heard the tracks GB has circulating, you’d understand. Their music comprises of synth-driven rock music; a nod to the sound that made the 80’s so iconic, but with a clear foot in the future of pop music’s door.  “We’ve garnered an incredible response from our first handful of shows, and it’s been an intense learning experience. It’s surreal to see the way our progress is already changing the way we do everything. A lot of hard work’s gone into this and we’ve made a lot of sacrifices, so we’re grateful and excited. 2012 will be big.” So far Dahl seems to be right; the band just won the national honor of ‘Band of the Year’ for RAWartists, culminating in a performance at the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood in mid-January. Augustine smiles and agrees. “It’s a thrilling time to be a fledgling band like us. The [music] industry is changing in a lot of different ways and we definitely plan to be one of the largely influential changes. I’m not sure if everyone knows what they’re in for just yet, but it’s going to be great.”

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. RAW Hairstylist of the Year is Kimmi Le.

I am Kimmi Le and I work at Studio 4 Salon in Newport Beach, CA as a hairstylist, makeup artist, and an educator. I also work on an artistic team as a senior artistic director/team member, and I love freelancing on photo shoots and fashion shows as much as I can.

Beginning cosmetology school in 1998, I was working in a salon by the end of 1999. During school, I was a freelance artist for hair and makeup on photo shoots, weddings, and fashion shows and carried that with me when I began working in the salon and haven’t left the industry. Something I thought I wanted to be introduced me to what I love to do. With these creative outlets in salon and out, I’ve always loved working on any type of style and keep challenging myself to be able to work with every style but I must say avant garde is definitely where my heart and soul is. I love working on period pieces as well. I’ll take things that feel familiar and completely twist them into something you’ve never seen before. When people see a collection I’ve done, I want them to feel like they know where my story is coming from but at the same time discover something completely new.

Throughout my career I have had work published in magazines and books and aspire to keep doing so as much as I can. I’was part of an amazing artistic team from 2004-2010 and we were nominated numerous times for Team of the Year for the North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA). In 2007, I took home Avant Garde Hairstylist of the Year for the North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA). This year, in 2011, I received the Orange County, CA Hairstylist of the Year Award from RAWartists.org which took me into their finals and winning RAWartists’ National Hairstylist of the 2011.

My inspiration comes from everywhere. I have a true passion and love for fashion, art, and music which is where most of my inspiration comes from but also use my personal experiences to inspire me. Always trying to explore to take inspiration from every nook and cranny. I love what I do in the salon everyday because I make people feel better about themselves and bring beauty into their lives. When you feel good about yourself, you exude happiness, confidence, and positivity. However, freelancing keeps me passionate because it’s thinking outside of the box. It’s how I express myself and my creativity. I love to inspire and always be inspired.

At this link below you can follow me as I give out beauty tips and tricks and see most of my work as a hairstylist and makeup artist:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kimmi-Le-Hair-Makeup/159254560798558

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand to push them onto the next stage. Winners were awarded with career boosting prizes like boutique placement, gallery placement and life changing consultations. The Photographer of the Year is Jeff Blucher.

J

eff Blucher continues to define his artistic expression through his own balance of calculation and experimentation. He photographs the world around him with intention, creating images that have meaning, beauty, and thought behind them. He is primarily self-taught. His work has been featured in several exhibits, both local and national, including the 2011 Lensbaby Be Seen in DC exhibit. His piece “Gasworks Calisthenics” was featured in Issue 26 of JPG magazine, and Jeff was selected as the 2011 RAW Photographer of the Year.

Jeff enjoys using a variety of cameras and techniques, both film and digital, and has a love for the surprising nuances that can be found in a vintage camera, or even a plastic “toy” camera. He does his own processing and enjoys spending rainy evenings with a fresh roll of film in the darkroom in his home. For subject matter, Jeff often chooses natural subjects, and enjoys creating images that show the juxtaposition of man and nature. He is forever enticed by his love of capturing images on film, and his work is characterized by depth, interest, and the hint of story.

He was born in upstate New York’s Saratoga Springs and then lived in Southern California for several years and now finds himself at home in Seattle, Washington. Jeff lives with his wife and their two young daughters. As a family they often take photographic day trips, exploring forests, coast, mountains, villages, and cities. They hold a deep fondness for these “picture takes” (as his youngest calls them) and are always eager to discover and capture the next great image. Say hello if you spot them around Seattle. Jeff is the one with his camera in one hand and his coffee in the other.

For more information on the RAWards creative industry awards go to www.RAWartists.org

British-Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah’s independent film The Nine Muses is a thoughtful, poetic piece of cinema that explores the immigrant experience of Post War Britain.

Using literary works including Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ as backdrop and inspiration The Nine Muses portrays what it was like back then for people on the move from the far corners of the world toward their shared destination, a Britain still recovering from the ravages of war. The film combines original archive material including newsreels with recently shot imagery from the cold wilds of Alaska. The imagery in places is stunning and lives up to the heavyweight quotes and ambitious concept. It ponders about who we are and where we’re heading in a more globalised culture as well as shining a light on Britain’s not so distant past.

The Nine Muses is showing at the ICA www.ica.org.uk/?lid=31250

The footage of the dramatic sinking of the Costa Concordia and the loss of life brings mental images flooding back of that almost mythic sinking of RMS Titanic back in 1912. The same pictures come to mind of party going passengers suddenly plunged into cold, dark, unforgiving waters.

The Titanic story shook the world then and it still has a power over us today. It was the maiden voyage of what was supposed to be the grandest (and unsinkable) ship ever built. Many of the passengers were on their way to a brand new life in what was then known as the new world. Then there was the grandeur of the palatial public rooms. The class ridden arrangements which meant many of the lower status passengers nerve got toe see the splendour. That was set aside for the privileged few. All these facts combine to create the myth and legend that the Titanic story became.

One man happened to be on board and armed with his camera collected some rare images of that maiden voyage. That man was Father Francis (Frank) Browne a Jesuit priest who produced this remarkable chronicle. The only reason we can now see these images was because Browne’s Jesuit superior ordered his disembarkation in Dublin. An American millionaire had offered to pay for the New York leg for Browne but luckily for him and for us Dublin was as far as he got. After the tragedy in April 1912, Browne’s photographs appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world, as the sole visual chronicle of the Titanic’s passage from Southampton to Ireland before its doomed voyage to New York.

The Bridgeman Art Library, the world’s leading source of fine art, cultural and historical images available for reproduction, has just now been given the important role of representing the Father Browne Photographic Collection, a valuable chronicle of life onboard the Titanic before tragedy struck 100 years ago.

Father Browne’s negatives lay forgotten for 25 years after his death in 1960. It was by chance that a fellow priest discovered Browne’s amazing collection in a large metal trunk and brought the negatives to the attention of the London Sunday Times, who dubbed them “the photographic equivalent to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

The Father Browne Photographic Collection contains his thought provoking series that begins with images at Waterloo Station with the departure of the “Titanic Special” then onto the activities of passengers and crew aboard the ship, It is some of the more day to day images of passengers enjoying themselves on board that are the most evocative. As is the image of he anchor being raised from the water for the final time and the last known shot of the Titanic as she left port for New York and to meet its fate.

For more information on Bridgeman Art visit www.bridgemanart.com

When we were asked to be a part of this music show on Channel 4 we hesitated for a moment or two.  It’s one thing us interviewing bands and such but a totally different scenario when the tables are turned. (yes I know a taste of our own medicine and all that). Anyway seen as though we always have our eyes peeled on Channel 4 plus we liked to idea of the show we sheepishly jumped at the chance.

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Curated by Lyle & Scott’ is a series of gigs taking place across the country and filmed for Channel 4 featuring the very best in emerging talent including Kyla La Grange, Chad Valley and Disclosure, Spector and Theme Park. Presented by Will Best this latest episode tonight – (19th January 12.45 am Channel 4) comes from The Deaf Institute in Manchester where US act Hooray For Earth and soul singer Alex Clare are the headliners.

http://www.lyleandscott.com/cbls

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/curated-by-lyle-and-scott

This is a tale that chimes with our times. Leonardo V has created The Road, a fashion shoot influenced by the book and film of the same name. Order has broken down. Humanity is in crisis. The familiar and comforting elements of our civilisation are all in ruin. Pockets of survivors exist amongst the chaos. They have only their wits about them now to stay alive in this anarchic and dangerous new world.

Photography and styling by Leonardo V  – www.leonardovecchiarelli.com

Make-up by Claudia Malavasi

Hair by  Simona Ricci

Models -  Enok @ urban Milan & Sara @ Next Milan

Photography assistants -  Ilan ,  Elia Spielberg, Michele Colonnelli

Stylist Assistant – Sarah Wagner

Make-up assistant – Irine Copperfield

The growing internationalisation of art and the arts industry takes another stride forward with the opening of White Cube Hong Kong. This is a major move by the gallery brand adding to their existing three London gallery spaces (pictured): Hoxton Square in East London, Masons Yard in St. James’s and Bermondsey Street in South London. Since its original launch in 1993, the gallery has exhibited the works of many of the worlds’ greatist living artists and has done much to promote some of the big hitters of recent contemporary British art.

White Cube owner Jay Jopling is following on from the lead taken by that powerhouse of the art world Larry Gagosian, who launched his first Asian gallery in Hong Kong early last year. White Cube, the British art gallery and one of the world’s leading galleries specialising in contemporary art, today announced that the highly anticipated debut of its first overseas gallery will open to the public on March 2, 2012 in the heart of Hong Kong’s Central district.

Those old stalwarts of British Art namely Gilbert and George will present the inaugural show. The premier of their latest art exhibition ‘London Pictures’ sees the largest series of work by the artists to date. The mischievous duo, a walking, talking art brand in themselves will be attending the opening. The exhibition will run until May 5, 2012.

“Gilbert and George are among the most highly regarded contemporary artists in the world and we are extremely proud to open this new venture in Hong Kong with such an important group of pictures”  said Graham Steele, Director, White Cube Asia.

It will be interesting to see how the White Cube’s sensational style of British Art goes down with a Chinese audience and the growing number of wealthy collectors.

White Cube will open to the public with the Gilbert and George show ‘London Picturess’ on Friday 2nd March. For more information visit www.whitecube.com

This latest London art show by the artist Toby Ziegler deals with memory. It is a striking and unnerving set of images and sculpture that conjure up emotions and nostalgia for memories, people and places that were never really ours in the first place. So they appear at once familiar yet unsettling.

In an age of digital reproduction they play with ideas of memory and how these perceptions can play tricks on us and even deceive us. The images are reproduced, repainted, re-imagined several times over so as to appear degraded  – ghostlike. And as with real memories they become just interpretations, fleeting yet burnt into our memory banks at a certain point in time.

Both the sculptures and paintings begin life as with found images. These can be archaelogists’ grainy photographs of Palaeolithic stone carvings or low resolutions jpegs of Flemish Old Master paintings serving as motifs, they seem to refer back to a past in which painting and sculpture functioned as both parable and symbol. These original images are then inverted, desaturated, fragmented and then rendered in translucent oil paint on aluminium panels. They appear like an after-image, bleached and emptied of content by over-exposure. Figuration is further obscured by layers of painted geometric gesture: an arrangement of air-brushed blobs, which appear almost to float in front of the picture.

The sculptures go through a similar transformation. This begins once the flat source image is redrawn as a three dimensional model. This redrawing is carried out in a purposefully approximate way and the sculptures are then fabricated in oxidised aluminium, which forms a hollow metal skin. These works also question memory and our interpretations of reality. We constantly question and reinterpret what we consider to be the real world until the very idea of authenticity loses its meaning.

This London art show runs from 20 January to 25 February 2012 at Simon Lee
12 Berkeley Street, London, w1j 8dt – simonleegallery.com

Waiting for that telephone to ring. All glammed up with no place to go. Got myself all sexy and sassy and I’ve locked down my garb. Why no call? I’m sure I left the right number. Got the apartment all fresh and shiny. Counting down the seconds. Just need that phone to ring…

New Fashion Shoot from Armando Branco

Styling Concept: Mai Accord

Photography: Armando Branco.com

Styling: Mai accord

Hair & Make-up: Zuzanna @ Colourfool Agency

Model: Tirza via Mai Accord

If you’re a sneakerhead you’ll no doubt go all dewy eyed at the news of this new PUMA release. The secretive organisation otherwise known as The PUMA Shadow Society have announced that the third and final drop of their series will be the classic GTX States.

This now classic suede sneak has been reinvented and revived for a new era with the new PUMA GTX States. A Goretex tab secured onto the side of the tongue badge highlights this brilliant winterised twist on the iconic suede sneaker. The PUMA Shadow Society is a tight knit, diverse group of characters drawn from all over the world. Taste makers and PUMA afficionados alike, the Shadow Society are authorities in the sneaker game and, through this project, have set out to redefine the meaning of sneaker ‘co-lab’. The PUMA Shadow Society were given creative control; dictating the colours, materials and degrees of branding throughout the pack.

Given its history ‘The State’ was the ideal candidate and silhouette to receive the Shadow Society treatment. Adored around the world back in the 80s but so sweetly UK specific, the PUMA Suede become the ‘it’ shoe on the hip hop scene in New York City. As the music moved across the pond, the style did too. Over here in dear old Blighty it was aptly re-christened ‘The State’ after its birthplace, the shoe was adopted by both UK trainer connoisseurs and football fans on the terraces.

The reissue pays painstaking attention to detail and premium execution. The colourways are spot on, the accuracy uncanny and the 40 plus years of international sneaker heritage unmistakable. So what happens now to the Shadow Society themselves – are they to be disbanded? I’m missing them already.

The last of the three Puma Shadow Society drops sees sizes starting in a UK6 and is available in select sneaker boutiques in a town near you.

For more information on the new Puma GTX and The PUMA Shadow Society visit http://www.puma.com/news/puma-gtx-states

Perhaps better known as a street skate clothing company KR3W do a natty line in slick leather boots for men who like their feet adorned in a boot made of quality leather but with that street edge still unashamedly on show.

These boots from KR3W are made for walking & lounging as well as a spot of luxury skating it has to be said. Made from the finest quality leather and suede there is a nice variety to choose from – The KR3W Jefferson has a great silhouette and comes over as a military influenced boot finished in soft, top notch leather with a street edge sole and feels great to wear. The KR3W Lincoln is a moccasin inspired boot and features black waxed suede leather uppers complete with tassels. The KR3W Franklin is a step way beyond your usual skate sneak – premium suede leather from your soles to your ankles and a rear zip give this sneaker-boot a style that is a perfect hybrid between a skate shoe and a combat boot.

For more information on KR3W visit http://kr3wdenim.com/collections/index.php?sbx=seasons.fall-2011.footwear

A wishlist of super good looking trainers, classy not kooky, sleek black and stand out would get you these Deep Black high top trainers – absolute beauties from M by Monderer.

The range is all black leather, stitched and eyes to the n-th degree to give a look that is pure understated darkness. These are great in our opinion for those who would love nothing more than to splurge on Yohji or Rick Owens footwear – but with a price tag way below those megaliths of cool, these are just fine. Monderer have been producing their sneaker line since 2006, and the results are always creative, high end and cast an eye to the handcrafted traditions of the main footwear line.

The stand out ‘Wild’ style is a wonderful high top all in Deepest Black with padded ankle support, leather uppers, suede toes and white rubber double stitched soles.

To get hold of a pair of M by Monderer high top trainers, see the Monderer online shop at www.ambazad.com, or visit the Paris stores at 2, place Michel Debré (Quarter of St Germain des Près) and 22, rue des Francs Bourgeois (Quarter of the Marais).

Manchester prides itself on its colourful musical history, which has helped to create a strong musical identity for the city. However, over the last few years, Manchester has been home to the development of some interesting acts that you might not automatically link with the city. Flux Magazine has selected three acts from a new Manchester underground music scene that are challenging ideas of genre, gaining a global following and creating truly forward thinking music. We also interviewed Miles Whittaker from Demdike Stare to uncover some of the more intriguing corners of Manchester’s music scene.

Holy Other

Holy Other is a producer who recently returned to his hometown of Manchester. He has been signed to Tri Angle Records, which is one of most intriguing records labels of the moment. The label is home to other talented artists, such as Balam Acab and How to Dress Well.

The music being released on this label has been associated with the witch house scene. However, releases this year have shown individual qualities that have moved beyond these definitions of genre.

Holy Other’s hidden identity seems to be reflected in his enigmatic music, which uses elements of witch house, 2-step, downtempo and R&B.

However, Holy Other has said that his music is basically pop. Through integrating other elements into a pop format, he has opened up the pop song to form something challenging, haunting and ultimately beautiful.

With U, his recent EP, takes pulsing R&B beats, strange electronica, melancholic vocals, and brings them together within a pop format. Holy Other’s music seems alien to Manchester’s underground music scene. Thankfully, it seems alien to pretty much everywhere.

WU LYF

Even their name provokes questions. According to the band, it is pronounced “Woo Life” and it stands for “World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation”. The band is made up of four members from Rusholme in Manchester and was formed in 2008.

The band has refused interviews and not released much information to the press. WU LYF’s debut album Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, released this year, revealed an intriguing talent lurked behind the hype.

The album was recorded in St Peter’s Church in Ancoats. It is a record filled with huge guitar riffs, rolling drums, emotive organs and anthemic chants. It feels like a celebration of its own ambition and scale.

The record took indie rock and made it into something much bigger. They describe their music as “heavy pop”, which demonstrates a band attempting to form their own musical vocabulary.

Demdike Stare

Demdike Stare is an experimental project from Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty. Miles Whittaker has released records with Modern Love as MLZ, and as one half of Pendle Coven. Sean Canty is a record collector, and has worked with the likes of Finders Keepers.

The Demdike Stare project marries an interest in a wide range of musical influences with Lancastrian occultism. Taking elements from a variety of genres, Demdike Stare create music that builds mood, atmosphere and tension, to mesmerising effect.

Over the last few years, the pair has been releasing fascinating work through Modern Love in Manchester, which has been gaining critical praise and a cult following from listeners around the world.

I met up with Miles Whittaker in a Lancastrian pub near the base of Pendle Hill, which proved to be the perfect setting to discuss music, Manchester and Madvillain.

Miles seems to be a very passionate person. Whilst talking, he apologises for his energetic manner. I reply that he just seems passionate about music. He seems pleased and agrees with this description.

In discussing the critical acclaim that Demdike Stare is receiving, Miles doesn’t seem motivated by the reactions of others. He explains: “Sean and I write music for ourselves, because we weren’t hearing exactly what we wanted. That might sound selfish somehow, but it is a good form of selfish.”

I enquire about the pagan imagery used for the project. Miles tells me: “Demdike Stare songs and names are from the things we listen to, read and watch. Everything stems from what we take in.” He gives the example of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which has been referenced in their music.

Miles uses the term “hybrid” music, which he further explains. “Sean and I are all about hybrid music. You may be listening to a psych-rock release, which is really famous for a certain track, and then you could check the B-side and you find the track that doesn’t fit the description of psych-rock, but is something almost out of place. We try and listen to everything as we always want to be surprised, to find something different or overlooked.”

When we approach genre, Miles clarifies this not to be a concern of Demdike Stare. He explains: “The music is raw. It is not done for anything but mood and atmosphere. The aim is to generate a certain atmosphere, or mood.”

The initial idea for Demdike Stare was to act as a soundtrack for an imagined horror film, allowing them to move away from the restrictions of genres and to concentrate on creating mood. Miles highlights: “On our first releases, they’re very disparate; a drone track, an ambient track, a techno track, which gave us an almost complete sense of freedom with where we could go from there. There are no limits.”

Sitting under the shadow of Pendle Hill, I enquire about their use of Lancastrian occultism. “I have grown up with the mystique of that occult,” he says. I ask what elements of Lancashire are reflected in their music. “Darkness, claustrophobia, coldness, bleakness,” he says, “I’m a firm believer that life is dark and difficult, as well as beautiful, and maybe we felt it wasn’t referenced enough, and we’re not afraid to go there.”

He argues that we are all influenced by our surroundings. “Culture is everywhere,” he explains, “you only have to go up on to the moors around here and there is the bleakness that I think is inherent in our music.”

We approach the topic of Manchester, home to Sean and their record label Modern Love. “Modern Love are our best friends, the whole label ethic is based around friendship, but we don’t relate much to Manchester as a scene. We don’t run label nights or anything local. It’s more just a physical base.” Miles, who splits his time between Burnley and Berlin, then talks about the UK in general: “It is very competitive in the UK; you are on your own. British culture is not that great with outsiders, it can be construed as almost isolationist. However, that can breed creativity as you just get on with what you want to do, rather than worry about other people.”

Miles then comments that Manchester is experiencing some change. “Manchester never had any really good venues, now it is starting to get more, such as Soup Kitchen, Islington Mill and the Bohemian Grove nights, which are becoming good bases for local promoters to expand and highlight the scene.”

I ask Miles what advice he would give to new experimental artists. “Send it to the right places,” he replies, “probably the best producers are all in their bedrooms. Some people just get lucky by being connected, but otherwise it’s a hard world to break into.”

We discuss the creative process behind Demdike Stare. “The point is just to do it and not to think about it too much,” explains Miles.

I enquire if he feels pressure to make a better record with each release. The passion flairs up in Miles again as he explains: “No… we want to challenge people in some ways. We want them to not like it, to make it more difficult, not extreme, but just more us. Why should we give a fuck about what people want? If you want something easy to digest… go and watch the X Factor. I don’t care if we never put out another record; it’s not about that. It’s about enjoying what you love doing and not getting sidetracked by anything else. As soon as you worry about what people want, you’ve changed the reasons why you started doing it in the first place.”

Miles excitedly remembers something: “It’s like that Madvillain lyric: ‘That which is perfect is finished’.” The music of Demdike Stare seems to be in a constant state of renewal. When discussing music, Miles explains: “We use the words ‘mature’ or ‘immature’. We don’t say anything is good or bad, that is a form of prejudice, and also judgemental, which no one really has the right to be about any art form.”

Throughout the interview, Miles expresses his music as an opposition to prejudice. It appears that Miles and Sean do not want to restrict themselves to one musical genre and discriminate other genres on these terms. Instead, they want to celebrate the differences found in music. “Sean said it is all about the identity, our identity, and we have stayed true to that. It’s all about wanting to find new music, which just inspires us to write more ourselves,” Miles concludes.

Through rejecting the limitations of genre, Demdike Stare can be seen as a project that celebrates what is ultimately fascinating about music: the endless possibilities of sound.

words Matthew Kinlin

French director Michel Hazanavicius is a master at mimicking the works of others; his two hilarious OSS 117 films skewer the silliness of spy movies by recreating their style and tone, whilst throwing a healthy dose of modern absurdity into the mix to create films that feel  like undiscovered gems and very fresh, irreverent modern works. With his latest film, The Artist, Hazanavicius reaches for something grander by using the style of silent cinema to create a funny, touching and thoroughly charming romance that doubles-up as a tribute to the earliest days of Hollywood. The Artist Review is by Edwin Davies.

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The story begins in 1927, and George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is one of the biggest stars of silent cinema. As he is preparing his next film he meets Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), an aspiring actress who gets a part as a dancer who shares only one scene with Valentin. Despite their lack of time together, there is an obvious connection between the two, but one that can’t lead to anything because Valentin is married. However, their paths cross and recross over the next five years as the birth of sound causes Valentin’s star to wane and Miller’s to rise, gradually growing from being an extra to a marquee name.

The plot of The Artist may sound familiar – it’s basically Singin’ In The Rain (without the singin’, or most of the rain) by way of A Star Is Born – but that doesn’t diminish its power to move and astound, which comes largely from the film actually being silent, rather than a sound film about silent film. Freed of dialogue, the film relies upon the beautifully expressive faces of Dujardin and Bejo, as well as fine supporting turns by James Cromwell and John Goodman as a chaffeur and a movie executive, respectively, to convey the emotions of the story. The joy of the film lies in its purely visual nature, which hearkens back to the earliest days of cinema in a way that never feels affected or forced.

Hazanavicius uses the film to explore a deep and profound love for cinema that prevents the film from being a mere formalist experiment. The word best describes the film is “joy”, and that sense of wonder and excitement at the possibilities of cinema as a romantic, escapist form can be found in every frame of The Artist. It taps directly into the elemental feeling of awe that makes film such a vivid and exciting medium, and the sense of fun that runs throughout, both in the moments when the film gently mocks the conventions of silent film and the moments when it embraces them fully, is intoxicating.

Nowhere is this more true than in a scene in which Peppy discovers an old film reel that Valentin has held on to for years and years. As she looks through the frames and discovers what is on the reel, both the love between the characters and the love between Hazanavicius and the art of cinema itself collide, celebrating the way in which a series of images can capture something, freezing it in time so that it can be enjoyed forever. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then The Artist is about as sincere and beautiful a tribute to the power of film as you are likely to see. It’s just sheer joy from start to finish, and a remarkable, beautiful film about the remarkable beauty of cinema.

If you liked The Artist review the film is out now in cinemas nationwide

words Edwin Davies