The theatre is a wonderful place, a house of strange enchantment, a temple of illusion – Noel Coward Encounters in the Archive: Harry Payne as a clown, late 19th century, ©Victoria and Albert Museum,...
Members of the Bauhaus Theatre Workshop on the roof of the Bauhaus in Dessau, 1927/8 My own great impression of Schlemmer’s stage work was to see and experience his magic of transforming dancer...
Chanel S/S 12 catwalk from Fashion Editor at Large In civilisations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates. – Michel ...
Jantzen centenary, from Americana Classic Vintage Though my swimming has earned me a goodly fortune I am still looking for my chest of gold in a cool dripping sea cave, though a professional mermaid ...
Well whaddaya know, we’ve only gone and got nominated for the Rising Star Sony Award for our radio show, Peppermint Candy on Jazz FM! This is very, very exciting, as the Sonys are basically the...
[Talkies] are spoiling the oldest art in the world – the art of pantomime. They are ruining the great beauty of silence. - Charlie Chaplin to Motion Picture Magazine, 1929 In the wake of the...
For A/W 2012 I was reporting for Fashion156. Here are my highlights; click through to see my reviews. Temperley London Paul Smith Bora Aksu PPQ Georgia Hardinge Aquascutum Tagged: A/W 2012, A/W 2012 ...
Not content with reporting from the shows this London Fashion Week, I also contributed to a BBC article on history’s most shocking fashion trends, and I was asked to appear on BBC Breakfast New...
This season I’ll be fighting my way to the FROW whilst reporting from London Fashion Week for Fashion156. For constant updates from the Fashion156 team take a look at the Collections page. Happ...
Vogue Italia, April 2007, starring Karen Elson and shot by Steven Meisel Grimaldi is dead and hath left no peer. We fear with him the spirit of pantomime has disappeared. - Il...
Every politician has to decide how much he or she is prepared to change manner and appearance for the sake of the media. It may sound grittily honourable to refuse to make any concessions, but such a...
I would be lying if I were to say that the news of Pat Butcher’s imminent death didn’t mildly upset me. While I must confess to not having watched EastEnders for years, there was once a t...
Issue 9 of Fire and Knives Food Quarterly is out now! Among other things you can find an article I wrote on one of my favourite subjects: FRUIT in film and fashion. There’s no better way to get...
STOP PRESS! Those of you who know me IRL (or indeed, follow me on Twitter) will understand I have a mild (read: major) obsession with nail art. I go some way towards sating my hunger for coloured ker...
Karl Lagerfeld with Elena Glurdjidze of the English National Ballet in the Dying Swan costume he created for her. From Coco Chanel blog As noted in my recent interview with Jayne Pierson, ballet is e...
Jayne Pierson and Derek Lawlor S/S 2012, ‘Mobius Strip’ from Planet Notion There’s a way to express a concept really clearly through visuals, through film, through performing arts, ...
An American in Paris (1951) There is more to the movie musical than just a series of particularly happy memories. It’s one of the few peculiarly American art forms and, at its best, it certainl...
Throughout summer it has been difficult to ignore the prolific Chinoiserie trend in stores and magazines, kick-started by the opulent Louis Vuitton show and merged effortlessly into autumn by Paul Sm...
Picture taken by Burgerac Burgers are enjoying a well-deserved moment in the sun. With the success of Hawksmoor and pop up events like Burger Monday, it seems that people aren’t afraid to be ca...
London chic is masculine: women’s fashion is considered an optional extra, a lesser art that should not be allowed to take centre stage – French Vogue, 1938 Stylist magazine ‘Androg...
Still from ‘Pyjama Peeps’ found at British Pathé, 1921 The seaside became the world’s most glamorous stage on which all who visited it could play whatever role they fancied for a brief sp...
Consumers have not been told effectively enough that they have huge power and that purchasing and shopping involve a moral choice – Anita Roddick Much as I’m a fan of Charlie Brooker I fo...
19 magazine fashion story shot by John Bishop, from 70s Style & Design by Dominic Lutyens and Kirsty Hislop Among the trends buyers expect to see gracing the runways in New York during the next w...
Louis Vuitton advertising campaign S/S 2011 We arrived at something which I would compare to the Eiffel Tower lighting up every hour on the hour. Something of artifice that is just so gorgeous, and g...
Fashion fades, style is eternal – Yves Saint Laurent Olympic posters The 1932 Los Angeles summer Olympics sparked a trend for Olympic colours on items from bead necklaces to Bakelite bangles (centre)...
Fashion fades, style is eternal – Yves Saint Laurent Pake Muu: In the 1930s Chinese and Japanese tailors arrived in Hawaii, mixing details of Far Eastern dress with traditional Hawaiian Kapa clothing...
The curse of this thing is the Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier eaters than anyone else? – Criticism to the British Board of Film Censors on viewing Dracula (1958) Horror has cre...
Fashion fades, style is eternal – Yves Saint Laurent In times of economic crisis, the two ‘luxury’ items which flourish in the womens sector are lipstick and jewellery. With that in mind, the collect...
Wallis Simpson on her wedding day to the Duke of Windsor (1937); Dior pre-fall A/W 2011 collection designed by John Galliano and inspired by Wallis Simpson I’m not a beautiful woman, I’m ...
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