Sun May 1st: Andrew Logan's Alternative Wedding Reception

Kim and I had the luckiest experience to visit Andrew Logan's home for his "Alternative Wedding Reception Party" - complete with guest appearance from the Queen herself (hmm hmm) which was hilarious. I have seen many photos of the incredible glass building in Bermondsey designed by his architect partner Michael and always wondered what it would be like to visit. The futuristic structure is like a botanist's dream full with greenery and a slice of heaven on earth for magpie eyes like mine, walls dripping with his mirror mosaics. Andrew has not just filled the space with sculptures and hung his giant artworks but in addition literally covered vast surface areas with site specific shiny tiling - for instance every square inch of a bathroom is mirrored. Cases are full of his earrings, cuffs, bracelets and brooches like a candy store full of miniature meteorites that have almost fallen off the grand scale cosmos of works. Massive portraits of icons jigsaw the orange and coral pink painted walls which lead out onto the gigantic glass house structure. I would love to go back again in the daylight to witness sunbeams streaming in and reflecting off all the iridescent facets. It would also be nice to have another chance to photograph everything as I was so overwhelmed on this occasion to know where to start ........... this is just a tiny glimpse into the vast wonderland of magic and tranquility. I can't think of a more idyllic interior design destination .......... except that of the heavenly threeASFOUR silver loft in NYC which shares a very similar quality but a whole transatlantic ocean away ..............

Saturday April 30th: Saam Farahmand and Nova Dando at Land Of Kings

I kick started the bank holiday weekend with a gorgeous dinner at Josephine Chime's Sit Down Affair on Kingsland Road and then joined the Dalston festival "Land Of Kings" for a dance around Dalston. The two day event opens up venues around the district for special interactive art and music sessions. The Arcola Theatre opened up its new space to a scheme headed by music video director Saam Farahmand and his video portrait project. On Thursday night he set up the filming booth to record each person at the party dancing to a tune of thier choice. All of these tracks would then be collated and handed over to 2manydj's who would then play the same venue the following night, mixing this set-list governed by The Land Of Kings revellers. To accompany the audio, Saam's portraits would be projected above the dj duo. Here is a snap of Grace from Patternity in her own clip which was showing on Thursday night as an indication of how the final result would look after your very own intimate experience in front of the lens. I selected "Groove Is In The Heart" by Dee Lite for my track and waited for my number to be called and head into the blue box to dance my little heart out. As I am strangely shy character I think I spent the majority of the time with my back to the camera so Ive got no idea how it turned out!!!! Here is Nova Dando who was dj'ing the night and helping out her freind Saam orchestrate this complex system......... you can see the soundcheck from her own snap here. Saam is one of London's most in demand directors having worked with Nova on various videos for The Klaxons, Mark Ronson, Hercules & Love Affair and Simian Mobile Disco. He has a particularly long lasting relationship with Soulwax having followed them on tour to create the official fly on the wall documentary "Part of the Weekend Never Dies" which captured 120 live shows. Saam teamed up with Absolut Vodko in order to bring the latest installment to The "Land Of Kings" festival to record a snapshot of the current Dalston scene and its escalating hybrid night life............

(photos: Nova by Nova, David Bradley and freind, the number board, Grace Patternity video portrait, Saam and Soulwax soundcheck by Nova)

Friday April 29th: The Flower Appreciation Society

On the day of the Royal Wedding I bring you a floral tribute ..............
............ in the guise of a creative duo known as "The Flower Appreciation Society". Ellie and Anna came together through their shared passion for all things flora having originally studied illustration and textile design. They have turned their flair for colour and line in composition to arranging flowers for a variety of different purposes. Here are some shots taken during the preparatory work for YCN's Ideas Illustrated project Relocate.
"We relocated our society into another society, The Paddington Bowling Society, taking the Flower Appreciation Society ON TOUR." Their trademark tactile quirky aesthetic comes from using exclusively English seasonal flowers with festoons of foliage to balance the blooms.
The beautiful flower hat here was constructed for the front cover of Upstyler magazine ..................... a potential style suggestion for the Royal Bride to wear on her departure after the party perhaps? I would liked to have seen Kate carry a Flower Appreciation Society bouquet to match the stunning McQueen dress!
To see more from "not your average florists", head over to their site.

Weds 27th April: "ThreeDee" at Jaguar Shoes Collective

The latest exhibition to take over the walls at Shoreditch destination "Jaguar Shoes" is "ThreeDee" - a group show of new talent's work printed in 3D. The illustration and graphic design translated in wall sized images, screen prints, animations and sculptures have also been produced in a limited edition 3D booklet in sister store No-one. Whether you make it down to Jaguar Shoes or just look at the prints, you'll need a pair of 3D specs ........... I particularly love the larger than life version made for the show by Kyle Bean. For the opening night everyone was handed a pair along with some 3D theme cocktails ........ the photos from the night can also be seen to full effect in the same way. Here you can see curator Vickie Hayward (center) who I asked what inspired the ambitious idea:


"I had wanted to produce a show in anaglyph for a few years but hadn't quite found the right person to approach. So when I was looking for new artists to join our collective this year it seemed like the perfect match. 3D connotes a futuristic notion and we hope that many of them will become part of our forthcoming exhibitions and products. The brief also meant that the artists could produce the work they wanted to and the end result would still a work as a complete and coherent product."

Above you can see highlights of work by Rosy Nicholas, Paul Parker, Toby Evans, .......the complete list of other artists participating is Annu Kilpelainen, Audrey Roger, Christopher Wright, Kyle Bean, Liam Sparkes, Nicos Livesey, Matthew Bromley, Rob Whoriskey , Sam Coldy and Tim Ryan.

DreamBagsJaguarShoes, 32-34 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DA +44 (0) 20 7729 5830

All Photos: Jeff Metal

Weds 27th April: RIP Poly Styrene

It was so surreal to find out news of Poly Styrene's passing yesterday, especially as I have recently been enjoying her latest release "Virtual Boyfriend" ......... infact April 26th was the release of "Generation Indigo" in the US. Even more strange the fact my Blackberry I was reading the tweeter announcements from has a photo of my Germ Free Adolescents record as the screen saver.
We all know what a loss this is so I won't write anything too much but instead Ive included clips of an insightful recent interview, my favourite song and a live performance I found recommended on a friend's Facebook.......... and here is their summation which is a very succinct true thought........

"RIP poly styrene one of the most important artists & songwriters ever...........totally unprecedented and inspired"

Read a full length article over on The Guardian.

Tues 26th April: Through The Keyhole with Piers Atkinson

Who could possibly live in a house like thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis?

Lets look at the evidence.......
..........framed fashion illustrations, piles of fashion magazines, occasional glittered Andrew Logan ornaments, sequined Ashish curtain, feather boas and dismembered Barbie dolls, wigs and hats from world travels............. and of course archive pieces from the designer's own collection .............. it's Piers Atkinson!!

I love any excuse to nip round to Piers place to get lost in looking though his Kate Bush records, resource of brilliant books, original Zandra Rhodes artwork adorning the walls and general collections of international nik naks. This weekend I got the chance to snap a slice of the atmosphere and asked Piers to explain a couple of his incredible possessions.......

"The amazing Betsy Johnson illustration is by David Downton who gave it to me as a gift - thrilling! He did it for The Daily I did at London Fashion Week.
The Divine photo was a gift from my friend Michael whose friend took it - it was one of the last shots of Divine x"

This time I couldn't help try to capture myself with the moustache on his mirror........ which is more difficult than you might think! The other self portrait here is from last week when Piers generously gifted me one of his past season head pieces with pink blossom and chop sticks.

Its difficult to keep up with amount of press that Piers is getting at the moment between editorials and profiles between the various Vogues ........... with the added bonus of a walking and talking ambassador of Anna Dello Russo who is now synonymous with sporting a trademark pair of cherries......... check out her site for pages of pictures of her wearing every conceivable fruit and sparkling slogans .........



Recent shot in W Magazine - by SØlve SundsbØ, Styled by Lori Goldstein

Monday 25th April: Things that make me go ooooooh

Here is a little breakdown of what Ive been enjoying recently ............ babies, birthdays, kalaiedoscopic colours and kitsch things, cakes, cats.......... in no particular order

(Some of these images are from my Twitter timeline which I take spontaneously .......... follow me here to keep up to date with the cosmic chaos)