Friday 9th March: The W Project "WOW" at KKOutlet

Yesterday the world celebrated International Women's Day and The W Project marked the occasion for a second year running with a group exhibition of artists and designers. Rather than a large gallery showing various different media, the theme was a more specific request and result. Loren Platt and Teo Connor asked 85 female creatives to visually communicate "words of wisdom" on a postcard and mail it to the same address. All of the envelopes and additional correspondence have been catalogued with the final A5 work put on display at KKOutlet in Hoxton. Here are just some of the assorted treats with inspiring sentiments inscribed in a full spectrum of materials from tapestry cross-stitch to type-writer font.

The exhibition runs all weekend so make sure you visit Hoxton to have a look at contributions from a pool of London's hottest talent ........... who just happen to be women.

inc. postcards top to bottom: Chrissie Abbott, Nina Chanel Abney, Zakee Shariff, Gemma Shiel, Lakwena Maciver, Shaz Madani, Genevieve Gauckler, Sarah Bagner, Elisha Smith-Leverock, Morag Myerscough, Rosy Nicholas, Melanie Crete, Alex Cunningham, Grace Ladoja, Quentin Jones, Suzi Kemp, Charlotte Hanlon, Shaniqwa Jarvis, Rhonda Drakeford, Safia El Dabi, Sara El Dabi, Loren Fillis, Emily Forgot, Poppy Chancellor, Fred Butler, Anna Lomax, Margot Bowman, Josephine Chime

Keep up to date with all the events organised by TheWProject throughout the rest of the year here ........... inc. Anna Lomax Words workshop for school children today.

• KK OUTLET |
• 42 Hoxton Square |
• London |
• N1 6PB

Thurs 8th March: Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern

To mark International Women's Day I'm devoting today's post to a great inspiration - Yayoi Kusama. I travelled from Tate to Tate yesterday along the Thames on the special river boat service that links the two museums. If anyone hasn't done this yet, I recommend seeing the buildings of embankment this way.............. and I highly recommend the current two shows.

Here are snaps from around the Yayoi Kusama retrospective which shows the rich and varied back catalog of her drawing, mark-making, painting, sculpture, collage, costumes, fashion, videos, writing and installations. As you journey around the chronological collection of her works, you also follow the journey of her life relocating from Japan to the USA and back again. The highlight for me was her time in NYC exhibiting alongside the Pop artists and shooting film of her "orgies" of celebrating dots. Its free, liberating and joyous - I wish I could make work like this............who knows, lets see what happens next season........... Somerset House could do with some naturist hippies running around sticking polkadots on anything that moves.......

For more info and ticket booking, go here.

Weds 7th March: Paris Fashion Week - Yang Du

The animals went in two by two .......horrah, horrah .........the animals went in two by two down the runway for Yang Du......... horrah horrah! To fit to the Noah's Ark theme of Yang's AW12 collection, the models were cast in pairs and choreographed to walk with their partner like the creatures depicted in their pictorial cashmere knits. The girls had block colour warpaint makeup akin to jungle birds and carried leather accessories like this gorgeous pink owl satchel. The looks were separated with intermissions of performance by Ryan Styles who was teamed up with Yang Du on a collaborative initiative set in place by On/Off. You can see Ryan above in a zebra jersey, during one such monologue before the final group dance with confetti canons that glittered the floor for the finale. Since I first saw Yang's work at her CSM MA show in 2008, I have wanted a piece of the soft graphic gorgeousness and only wish I could have kept hold of the dress I wore for The Telegraph........... so I had a go at trying out her new ginormous giraffe and hippo rucksacks just incase.......... which you can see over on my Tumblr. All styling by Kim Howells which you can also check out on her Tumblr..........

Tues 6th March: Charlie Le Mindu's "Charl’ De jouy" AW fashion film by Zoe Hitchen Part 2

Here are Zoe's photos from the premiere party at Le Trianon showing herself and the designer with his Charlie's Angels dancers moonlighting for the night from the Parisian institution Crazy Horse. Zoe also stands here with with Craig Lawrence, who dressed her for the occasion in one of his new AW12 Swarovski yarn dresses straight off the rail from The London Showrooms. If you are still in Paris, be sure to check out Charlie's collection at his showroom and for those further afield online, check out Zoe's back catalogue of films here.