Hi. Bye.

Guys,
Just a quick note to let you know I won't posting until June as I have a major exam on Wednesday, and then I'm busy moving out to go home for the summer. More regular posting will resume after that, also Sex and the City is out on Wednesday, which I will be interested in seeing even though Carrie annoys the shit out of me.

I know the teacup feature is on Thursday, but you know what? I drink tea on Sundays too. Shocking, I know.
This week's is by Ree Jin Lee, an illustrator and ceramics designer who has created this rather minimal tea-cup and saucer which I love (gosh, I bandy the word 'love' around so freely on my blog, it feels like the 60s and the word has lost all meaning, maybe I'll try some substitutes when I return).


Also, a song. Cover of the song "How Deep is Your Love" by The Bird & The Bee, which I prefer to the original. And not just because the original was sung by The Bee Gees, who also gave us the disco-dancefloor, mood-killer that was "Stayin' Alive" (I checked, they definately used the apostrophe instead of a 'g'. Way to be cool guys). On that note of sarcasm, "I'm outtie" (Tai, Clueless, 1995....I'm a veritable hotbed of pop culture references today!) because my Consumer Culture and Advertising revision/procrastination isn't going to do itself.

Love and abuse,
Meg!

EDIT: I just saw the guy who lives across from me naked, don't people have any good-old fashioned inhibitions anymore?

Labels: design, music, notes of absence, pop culture, tea-cups

10 comments

Sugar and Spice...


When looking at Audrey Kawasaki's work, I can't help but think of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme about boys and girls, which couldn't be more apt in some parts, and more wrong in others. Audrey Kawasaki (I'm probably going to keep typing out her full name because I like the name Audrey) paints on the somewhat unusual canvas of wood using oil and graphite, and the results are completely breathtaking. Inspired by manga and Art Noveau, her paintings occasionally evoke somewhat mixed feelings because they bind together the innocent and the sexual; enigmatic, ethereal women with 'come-hither' eyes frolic around in slightly surreal environments (bugs, animal skeletons and sea creatures are aplenty but appearances from men are somewhat limited). The eyes are what initially draw you further into the pictures; they might be bedroom eyes, but there's also something quite mournful there, while the detailing is also second-to-none. You can follow her process in her journal.

Labels: art, artists

16 comments

Like a tall glass of...vodka?

Apparently these ads for Icelandic vodka, Reyka have been around for a while but I've only just found them and I think they're very cool. I always find that ads for alcohol can go three ways; there's the very dramatic ones (Guiness, Smirnoff), the slightly 'sluttish' ones where a woman wearing barely anything will make eyes at a narcassistic poseur in a nightclub (Barcardi), or the vaguely amusing ones which rely on sexism, stereotypes and typical blokeish behaviour (WKD, any English beer ad).
Reyka's ads feature a slightly sheepish girl with an excellent accent and cute clothes, in an animated world. Not much else to say except, they're different and I like them.

Labels: adverts

2 comments

Sunstroke mentality...

I don't know whether the gorgeous weather has made me go a bit mentally squiffy, but I am having the weirdest style moments.
I've been looking at this one-piece (!) bodysuit by Gorman and thinking, "You know what? I actually sort of like it better than their other clothes." Their other clothes incidentally, are also really nice.


And in other clothes news I never thought I'd type, I'm jonesing for a pair of harem pants. Yeah.
While Elfenkleid's SS collection confirmed that I do actually quite like harem pants, I've actually started thinking about buying a pair, and wearing them. The blue and black ones below are from UO, but there's a grey silk pair at Topshop which I am also lusting after...maybe if I buy them in 3 colours I'll get over this strange phase?

Labels: designers, labels, random musings, style

5 comments

What big eyes you have...

For those of you who thought that snowglobes were all about pretty scenery, snowmen, glitter or the Eiffel Tower, prepare to stand corrected. Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz create deliciously dark miniature scenarios which will probably dissuade the most annoyingly precocious child from trying to shake them up. If you liked Fargo, you will probably enjoy the fantastical imagery of the duo, who capture the all too realistic emotions of fear, alienation and futility in a medium which is normally associated with very different feelings; nostalgia, love etc. The ordinarily magical winter landscape becomes a desolate, bleak space where it seems Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz are making really quite relevant comments about contemporary life and human nature, and I'll tell you now that "The Nursery" scares the bejesus out of me.

Labels: design, designers

9 comments

Hello? Oh...

It's music day, and I've picked out some of my favourite tunes of late, some mellow and some perfect for those days when you feel like dancing up a storm in your bedroom (yeah, I know you're not as cool as you'd like to think you are).

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star Essential, every music collection requires some Mazzy Star.
Thursday - Asobi Seksu

How You Survived The War - The Weepies The Weepies are new to me, but they're pretty good. Very chill, melodic indie-pop.

Skinny Love - Bon Iver I told you that men with gorgeous voices make my knees go weak and Bon Iver is no exception.

You Drift Away - The Postmarks Easy on the ears (and good studying music!)

Lullabies - Headlights

Kill! Kill! Kill! - The Pierces ...Yeah, I think that is a ukelele but I still like it.

In My Room - The Last Shadow Puppets Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of The Rascals get fancy with a string orchestra arranged by Owen Pallett from Arcade Fire, with those credentials, who needs my thoughts?...You do =) It's a good album, reminds me of James Bond...if he was from up North.

How Now - The Jealous Girlfriends Take it. Take it. Take it. This song has been on rrrepeat since I first heard it. Catchy as hell, and so freaking danceable! These guys are going places, and fast.

You and Me Song - The Wannadies Sugar-coated nostalgia, the best kind, no?

Breathe Me - Sia (Four Tet Remix)

Labels: music, music monday

4 comments

Studying has a bad rep....

Labels: notes of absence

16 comments

Fashion in Motion...

So about a month or so ago, Debonair made a list of the "Movies that Impacted the Fashion World" and while I agree with most of their choices, I have a few of my own...
Debonair's List (partial, in no particular order):
1. A Clockwork Orange - Definitive Punk
Combat boots, bowler hats, braces and exaggerated eye-makeup, the 'droogs' may have been delinquents but they were also well-dressed, dandy delinquents with lawless attitudes that put the Sex Pistols to shame later in the 60s.

Jean Paul Gaultier's Autumn - Winter '08/9 menswear collection sees the return of the Alex DeLarge influence (stylewise only hopefully).2. American Gigolo - American Sportswear
Julian Kaye was preppy elegance personified and tied up with a lavish Armani bow. He wasn't a likeable character but an undeniably smooth, charismatic fashionplate. Could anyone take their eyes off him?....I still can't - he is too, too lovely - I have a feeling that I should attempt to stop subjecting him to my examination but if men can look, I'm all in favour for the Female Gaze too!

3. Annie Hall - Androgyny baby!
Long before there was Agy, there was Annie. Played by Diane Keaton, Annie Hall is the heroine of the only Woody Allen film I can stand, and that is partly because of the style embraced by the eccentric Annie. With her waistcoats, ties and what are now termed as 'boyfriend' trousers, Keaton was partly at the forefront of a huge fashion movement that exists today. I say partly, because I mostly credit the androgynous look to Yves Saint Laurent who created the "Le Smoking" tuxedo, which was an incredibly influential and important design. But in films, Annie Hall covered that base.

Tom Ford for YSL Spring - Summer '04. I find it weird that Tom Ford even designed for YSL just a few years ago. I think it's because Stefano Pilati's most recent collection was so perfect that I am distinctly underwhelmed by Tom Ford's sunglass and perfume collection. Did anyone else think that Ford was going to come back with something more incredible than a bunch of sexist, racy ads and an accessories collection?...He doesn't have anything to prove, his stint at YSL speaks for itself, but still I'm hoping that Hedi Slimane is working on something more....KA-POW!-like compared to Ford's return to fashion.

4. North By Northwest - Cary Grant aka Suave, Elegant Bachelor-type
Cary Grant is immaculate in this timeless, single-breasted grey suit. I don't need to say anything more, except that if you're sitting here wondering why Cary Grant is on this list, you need to watch more pre-1970's cinema (especially Hitchcock).


5. Pulp Fiction - minimal chic
Who hasn't watched Pulp Fiction and wished they were either Uma Thurman dancing with effortless cool in a 50's style restaurant, or Sam L. Jackson in a clean black suit with a skinny black tie, being a badass in general? No-one.




My Continuing List:
6. Wes Anderson - the vintage-styled eccentrics
Speaking from a biased viewpoint as a 'bit' of a Wes Anderson fan, I think he created a distinct style in the genre he works within (the indie flick). From the fur-clad Margot Tenenbaum, to the Whitman brothers, to Max Fischer, the characters are the epitome of upper-middle class bohemia; the sort of people who own expensive, well-made clothing but rather than buying it new, it actually belonged to some deceased relative who dropped dead of scarlet fever in Papua New Guinea.



7. Breakfast at Tiffanys - chic femme
Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn and THAT Givenchy dress, amongst some other gorgeous outfits, and Fred Baby (Paul Varjak) wearing some rather dashing, spiffy suits.




Drop-waisted, flapper dresses, big floppy hats and love-stricken dandies.

9. Rebel Without A Cause - the original teen
Leather jackets, dirty jeans, and reckless attitudes, somehow binge-drinking is somewhat less rebellious than James Dean racing towards the edge of a cliff.

10. Clueless - the preppy teen
Plaid skirts, headbands, knee-socks and mary-jane's. Before there was Blair Waldorf, there was Cher Horowitz...in Alaia. Meanwhile, Dan Humphrey...I mean Josh and the other male characters were mooching around in shirts over band tees, like guys who like Marky-Mark.


Also duly noted, but not elaborated upon because I am tired:
The Thomas Crown Affair (original with Steve McQueen)
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Fifth Element
Goldfinger

Labels: designers, films, style

14 comments

Super-zero...

I'm not doing a rundown of this year's Met Ball. You've seen the pictures, and let's face it, it was a shambolic affair. The only one who seemed to have made a real effort was Christina Ricci, who looked incredible, while Katie Holmes actually made me retreat to a corner of my bedroom to weep for half-an-hour. She took the superhero theme a little too literally in a red leather dress and bright blue patent shoes. And if ever there was anymore proof that they should wrestle Ms.Wintour's crown from her...

I actually thought the "Superheroes: Fashion or Fantasy" exhibition was a lot more interesting and worthy of attention. The exhibition is based around the idea of superheroes as classic examples of how fashion and clothing has the ability to transcend the idea of fixed identities and bodies, and instead transform them into empowered, fantasy figures.

Labels: design, designers, famous-types, films, happenings, pop culture, style

11 comments

T is for Thursday's

Lady Astor: Mister Churchill, if I were your wife, I'd put poison in your tea.

Winston Churchill: Madam, were I your husband, I would surely drink it.

Labels: design, t is for thursdays, tea-cups

3 comments

Binding Faith...

If Herve Leger's a little out of your budget, check out Harlan Bel. The bandage dresses and the floaty pleated skirts make my little heart beat super fast, while the muted greys paired with the electric blue is almost too perfect.

Labels: design, designers, style

4 comments

Music Monday...

Alright, it's that time of the week again where I share my music loves du jour...or in this case, music loves in the last year or so. It's French-Finnish duo The Dø (pronounced 'doh'), singer Olivia B.Merilahti sounds like the love-child of PJ Harvey and Karen O with her languid, too-cool-for-school wailing, laid over rhythms and melodies which draw influences from all over the place. They switch from indie-pop melodies to hip-hop beats and rap effortlessly, binding genres in way that is impossible for most bands. I saw them live last year and if you get a chance to see them, do, they put on an excellent show!

The Dø - A Mouthful - full zipped album

Or some single songs if you want to try them out before snagging the album
On My Shoulder
The Bridge is Broken
Tammie
Queen Dot Kong
Unsassi Laulelet

PS. Costume Institute Ball tonight!

Labels: loves, music, music monday

3 comments

Slumbering Beasts....

Bêtes de mode (Beasts of Fashion) was one of the projects undertaken by the French design duo Helmo; Thomas Couderc and Clement Vauchez. A collection of 13 portraits which were displayed in the Galeries Lafayette in 2006, which sees the superimposition of humans and animals in different colours to produce a gorgeous effect of the two as one. The installation used projection lights in blue and red, so the picture you saw depended on which light was shining at the time. The pictures have been really cleverly put together according to shape and texture, and there's something utterly mesmerizing about them.

Labels: art, design, photography, style

8 comments

Through the looking glass...

Curtain-twitchers beware. After seeing Gregory Crewdson's photographs, you might think twice before spying on your neighbours for fear of what you might see. Crewdson's interest lies predominately within the American suburbs and small-town life, and what lies beneath the surface of the seemingly ordinary. His photos initially might make you think they're stills from a David Lynch film, but they're actually the results of highly-elaborate staged set productions.

Crewdson examines the backdrop of American life at twilight and at night - hours when the strings tying down the cover of normalcy come undone, and the fantastical emerges with the darker side of suburbia.The eerie images are so enthralling and unsettling because of the disturbing events which take place in such familiar settings. When I first saw them, my mind immediately went to Edward Hopper's paintings of American life, and the alienated drifters that featured in them. Crewdson's photographs also seem to uncover the stifled feelings of the people occupying these spaces of everyday banality, and are additionally intriguing because while they seem filmic, there's no narrative grounding these images implying a past and a future, instead there is a suspended moment of possibility.

Currently exhibiting at White Cube until May 28.

Labels: art, films, photography

2 comments

Only 6 Quirks...?

I've been tagged by Romeika at A Room of One's Own to do the 6 Quirks list, which requires me to write about 6 unspectacular quirks of mine (the title IS pretty self-explanatory).

1. I like to fall asleep listening to something, it doesn't matter whether it's music or something else. Lately, I've been listening to Stephen Fry's podgrams. Stephen Fry = Genius

2. I like peeling things; fruit, wallpaper, sellotape, stickers, nail varnish if you're really careful....

3. I can't dance. My body and my mind just can't synchronise, so I flail. Literally.

4. The thought of being pregnant repulses me because it reminds me of Alien.

5. I suffer from Visual Food Desire (this is not a real syndrome), where I see food and instantly want it. For example, when I watched Lucky Number Slevin, all they ate was PB & J sandwiches, so I wanted (and had) PB & J sandwiches. Or when my flatmate is eating chicken soup, I'll want chicken soup even if a few minutes beforehand I wanted lasagne because that's what I saw my other flatmate having. So I try and keep different eating hours to them in order to be happy with what I am eating.

6. I hate having my picture taken, so when other people try to take my picture, I either make a ridiculous fake face so they'll trash the picture, hide my face with anything around (see profile picture) or look down/away. No-one ever looks like their picture anyway.

And if you haven't done this, then consider yourself tagged (I'm not very good at re-tagging am I? Must try harder in the future.)
2 comments

T is for Thursday's...

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take MORE than nothing."
"Nobody asked YOUR opinion," said Alice.
"Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked triumphantly.
Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question.

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 6

Labels: books, design, designers, t is for thursdays, tea-cups

5 comments

I take thee, Elfenkleid...

No, I'm not announcing any upcoming nuptials between me and any one of my numerous loves (tea, chunky heels, sushi etc), it seemed an apt title considering the contents of this post, which I fear is going to leave the impression that I am a romantic (I am a bit, but I am a cynical romantic). It's all Elfenkleid's fault anyway, which by-the-by, is not the name of a Tolkien character as one of my friends thought, but the name of the Viennese label designed by Annette Prechtl and Sandra Thaler. I fell head over heels for these guys back in autumn '06 when I was a fresh-faced (read: grubby) kid off to my first year at uni. I initially thought it would be the fickle sort of affection which I am most prone to, however, after spring '07, I knew it was bigger than that. This was Love with a capital 'L'.

Elfenkleid really is my clothing soulmate though; really clean, unfussy designs with immaculately thought-out construction, use of materials and colour palettes.

Autumn-Winter 07/08

Spring-Summer 08
They also recently launched a wedding collection (perfect timing considering we're approaching wedding season) which you should really consider if you're getting married. OR if like me, you're averse to the idea of marriage, then you could wear one around Britain's numerous National Trust estates, and pretend you're in a period drama - I'd give my left arm for a day in the gunmetal dress or the dress with the white blazer (fictional location: Pemberley - home of Darcy....hmmm, think Jane Austen would have approved of the women's blazer).

And I'll confess now that while I've been typing up this post, I've actually been listening to two of my cheesy, secret 'guilty pleasure' songs (the kind you have on your ipod and listen to all the time but pretend you don't):
Aubrey - Bread
She - Elvis Costello
...I know. Don't judge me, I'm only human guys, and I like pretending I'm in an early 90's Richard Curtis movie sometimes.

Labels: designers, labels, music, random musings, style

5 comments

I'm Meg, a Media and Cultural Studies graduate with a love for all things postmodern / Roland Barthes / technocultural theory / ambient/minimal electronica and modern classical music / photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Eve Arnold and Cecil Beaton / paintings by Miro, Kandinsky, Edward Hopper and Tamara de Lempicka / books by Haruki Murakami, Dorothy Whipple, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Jasper Fforde / poetry by Robert Browning and e.e. cummings / collecting vintage cocktail dresses / Audrey Tatou and Winona Ryder
I also have an almost ridiculous obsession with murder mysteries (especially Agatha Christie's Miss Marple) and offices (this means reading novels and watching films and tv shows set in offices, as well as spending hours studying various office spaces online in real firms around the world - it's sick, I know).



Contact me: megtheapathist@googlemail.com
I don't advertise on my blog, if this changes, I will update this page to notify anyone interested in advertising.

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