Friday 8th Jan 10: The 90's Are Vintage w/ WorkIt

I try to mix things up a bit on this blog so that it doesn't get too repetitive with my favourite things........but I just can't help myself when its something I'm passionate about and secondly when the story unfolds as amazingly as this.  Ive been covering the WorkIt enterprise since its inception and watching the empire evolve and blossom ever since.  So it was quite a momentous occasion for the crew to decamp from Dalston over to the Wonder Room at Selfridges.  Rory, Sara and Loren were commissioned by Linda Hewston to design T-Shirts as part of the new concept "The 90's Are Vintage".  As the store was spun some classic Whitney anthems, Linda told me how lovely the team had been to collaborate with.........at which point I looked over and the girls were dancing some Sascha Fierce moves behind the decks.  I never thought I would find myself grinding to Snoop on the shop floor of Selfridges but there you have it............they know how to WorkIt!  The t-shirt comes in 3 versions and have been hand screen printed by a friend in a limited run of 75 pieces.  

Keep your eye on their blog to see what else they have up their Versace sleeve............especially for interviews including a delve into the 90's Jamaican dancehall scene with photographer Wayne Tippetts.
(photos top to bottom:  Sara El Dabi & Loren Platt, the t's ......as worn by Renee Rose-Ann Yearwood & Charlene Davies, Rosy Nicholas, Andrew Ibi in an amazing Stephen Jones hat, Shingai Shoniwa & Nasrin Jean Baptiste)

The store also has MAJOR original garms courtesy of Rellik including Pam Hogg and Vivienne Westwood which I will investigate furthur so watch this space.........

2009 In Picture Postcards - Man Like Me

"i always thought going on holiday meant you had to go abroad but when i went to the lake district it kind of hit home that England is pretty beautiful and i haven't seen hardly any of it. I was probably feeling at one with nature when this was taken not realising quite how chavy i looked." Man Like Me, Musician

2009 In Picture Postcards - Patrick Wolf

"2009 for me was more about struggle than anything. Laughter and optimism being the conqueror over recession and depression. The picture of me on the scooter was taken by my violinist Victoria.  It was the last day of tour and ive spent 2009 getting sober and getting my head straight, so last day of tour we got hammered on the beach down in melbourne and i'm sure we've all been there, sometimes you just want to get sexy with an automobile!  (this picture just makes me laugh.. I was literally pissing myself with laughter as i posed for this picture!)"

"I thought 2009 had an absolute terrifying excess of celebrity culture. People like gordon brown from the sun and all this tabloid culture I have become a lot more sensitive to and disgusted by as I get older. As I got more confident and proud of my sexuality last year I become more aware of subliminal homophobia within the media and too misogyny"

"Another huge moment was my american tour where I became obsessed with CHOLAS and decided I would love to adopt a mexican baby one day. I am definitely part mexican somehow. This is a picture of me with the cholas on my photo booth." 

 "Also i included a picture of my stage plot from my palladium show and a picture you sent me from latitude as these were two big memorable show moments for me this year. 

The whole of 2009 was sometimes a tough fight for many of my friends but I think we came out winning, as what I learned in 2009 is all we ever really need to survive is the love of our friends and a little love in our hearts to give
something positive to the world. of our friends and enough love to give. Money comes and goes as does celebrity and vanity.
Here's to the next decade being more about humanity and less fame fame fame bullshit culture! x"

Patrick Wolf, Musician

2009 In Picture Postcards - Lacey

"Traveling through France with my husband in our seventies Fiat Camper van last summer. 

Eating lots of lovely food and drinking lots of wine. Heaven."

Lacey, Photographer

2009 In Picture Postcards - Thomas Cooksey

"This is from a shoot when I was assisting Mariano Vivanco and we went to the dry lakes in LA.  It was such a clear expanse, I'd never seen such an unrelenting view of the horizon. It was one if the first times I really felt very lucky to be doing the job I was and how incredible its was to be in places so very different to home." 

Thomas Cooksey  , Photographer

2009 In Picture Postcards - Anna Murray

" Jellies in New York: one of my favorite patterned finds from around the world this year - and let's face it - when you see just one jelly it's good enough but a whole supermarket shelf full of them is something else................
I also love this of some chairs we threw in a pool in Barcelona and some random toys we got from a car boot sale! " 

Anna Murray, Creative director Patternity 

2009 In Picture Postcards - Susanna Lau a.k.a Susie Bubble

"This is a cheesy snapshot of me in front of the big bronze Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong where I'm from.  It's not that I've never been there.  I think I must have been there a dozen times.  But it is one of my favourite places in Hong Kong.  a) There's a big giant bronze Buddha and b) the vegetarian restaurant in the monastery is really really good!"

Susanna Lau, Fashion Editor

(Susie Bubble)

2009 In Picture Postcards - Aleksandra Olenska

"Somewhere between a lake and a forest- midnight styling and laughing on a cold Summers night in Sweden!"
Freedom, friends and photographs..."

Aleksandra Olenska, Fashion Editor

(I would like to add this picture as it is Lina's favourite)

(photos: Lina Scheynius)

2009 In Picture Postcards - Lazy Oaf

"SO I have picked My Trip to Pictoplasma Berlin In march 2009. This is an annual Character convention, where everything has a face and people talk about drawing and creating characters. The city is also filled with pop up  exhibitions all over Berlin, my idea of heaven. I love Berlin too and went with two of my favourite people Chris Knight from Concrete Hermit and Ian Stevenson. The trip was a hallucinogenic journey minus the drugs everywhere you turned there was some creature looming over you. There was much beer swilling, food eating, and I met a barman who was a German double of Keanu Reeves from the Bill and Ted era."

Gemma Shiel, Lazy Oaf

2009 In Picture Postcards - Ben Dunbar-Brunton

"I have chosen a snap of a men's hairdressers from a trip to Italy in June for its gratuitous aesthetic. I find serenity in a banal location with strong linear components and restricted pallet. The shadow of the lettering on the blind is quite beautiful, the only curves in this image are typographic."

Ben Dunbar-Brunton, Photographer

2009 In Picture Postcards - The Broken Hearts

"These images sum up the extremes of the gigs we've played throughout 2009. From millionaire's weddings in Cyprus, to the Ritz in Moscow on Christmas Day, it's been quite an eventful year! We're hoping that 2010 will be no less exciting." 

The Broken Hearts

http://twitter.com/BrokenHeartsDJs

2009 In Picture Postcards - Bishi

"I've got the perfect image. It's of the picture fron my gig at Melbourne Town Hall with Cameron Carpenter. I'm infront of a 30ft organ. It looks like I'm in a Masonic temple."

Bishi, Musician

Photo: Susan Slaymaker

2009 In Picture Postcards - Laura Bradley

"One of the best things I discovered this year was ornamental cabbages (variety of Kale) for my window box. I bought these 6 from Columbia Road in November. They are very hardy and I love the way the colours have changed over time. 2009 was a year of many changes for me."

Laura Bradley, i-D online editor

2009 In Picture Postcards - Ben Canares

"For me it was my first ever Chanel show in Paris this Sept...I was so grateful to have a seated ticket and to just be there! The show was mania like a Madonna show with everyone smiling so hard at 10am on a wet grey AM in Paris!"

Ben Canares, Stylist

2009 In Picture Postcards - Rachel Gilman

"My favorite moment of 2009 is pretty much summed up by this photo of a tarantula by the front door of my parent's house. It was in August when I flew to Arizona for two weeks to see my family and hang with our six dogs and green parrot. My Mom and I enjoyed being creeped out by a very large tarantula who liked to crawl by our front door and we would open the door very slowly when exiting the house so as not to smoosh the big hairy spider. Family is everything to me and I am a huge homebody, so summers in Arizona mean swimming in a pool in the middle of the desert and coming across all kinds of creatures that my parents taught me to respect. We had lazy desert days and family, hot weather and the swimming pool is my idea of heaven. The tarantula was so much fun to have hanging with us (outside, of course.)"

Rachel Gilman, Jeweller

2009 In Picture Postcards - Neel Morley

"i was having a rest and when i opened my eyes all these guys were crowding around me..obviously i said ..quick take a photo!!!"

Neel Morley, Legend

2009 In Picture Postcards - Supermarket Sarah

"The mother and baby is unknown. My boyfriend and I were just strolling along the promenade taking pictures spontaneously  in all directions from the hip and managed to capture this beautiful moment in this beautiful light on a perfect  August evening in the south of Spain. "

SupermarketSarah

2009 In Picture Postcards - Rachel Khoo

"here's one of my favourites......... it's nowhere particularly exotic, just where I live, Paris........ a concert I catered for.  Only a metro ride across town watching Beirut play to an audience squashed into someone's front room was definitely a breathtaking 2009 moment."

Rachel Khoo, Food Creative

Friday Jan 1st 2010: 2009 In Picture Postcards, 1st Pit Stop Petra Storrs

One of my favourite things when I was a kid was the "Uncle Travelling Mack" skit on Fraggle Rock.  They would read out the postcards from his travels with a hilarious picture of him in the middle of an 8th wonder with some outrageous anecdote.  So in the same vein I have had in10  contributors fave shots of their fave moment from their fave place to sum up their year..............first off the New Year starting block is my latest featured artist Petra Storrs......

"an amazing plaster elephant which was outside the Mellisa Shoe Company in Brazil Sao Paulo which I saw when I was there visiting Liria Pristine"

Petra Storrs, Art Director

Thurs Dec 31st: Magical New Year from ThreeASFOUR

Adi, Ange, Gabi