Busted!

Our fashion patrol swung into action early this morning. We were shocked and appalled at the state of Capetonian style at the bottom of Kloof and Orange. Take that perp!!!!

Fashion Violation

Have been itching to do a campaign like this for a while. From tomorrow we'll have chicks in catsuits out on the streets of Cape Town issuing these to badly dressed people. All part of a fashion festival we've helped put together for Cavendish Square.

The Mickey Munden empire expands

Mickey's t-shirts are apparently selling like hotcakes these days... Stockists now include Big Blue, Carnival and Scar. And he looks good in a frock. Does this puppy have it all or what?

Undersound

Via PSFK (and a whole bunch of other blogs). Alot of London stories floating around at the moment... sorry about that. Anyway this is a cool idea (whether we'll see it in action is another thing). A bunch of boffins have plans to build a music network on to the tube system which allows users to upload and download tracks/audio files as they travel around the city. The project is called Undersound. Nice idea, the lack of any public transport system whatsoever in South Africa might prove to be a local hinderance. hum.

New Wave of New Rave

My clubland spies in the UK are reporting a rather dubious sounding rave revival hitting town led by bands such as the Klaxons, Shit Disco and New Young Pony Club. Ironically its about 18 years since Rave first appeared, which is just about long enough for a generation that's not experienced the real thing to emerge and re-invent it (see the new wave revival). Lets face it ravers, in hindsight, weren't exactly the most sartorially informed youth subculture ever and most people involved at the time deny being that into it. Doubts that the new rave movement was started by a bunch of indie bands that couldn't get gigs without a media endorsed bandwagon are yet to be confirmed. Meanwhile in the London fashion scene there are disturbing signs that it might make a cross over - get your kit here.

The wee people

I've commented before that Londoners may have too much time on their hands to think up stuff like this... The latest post-modern art pranks to hit the big grime is the little people art project. Visit the site for lots more... a winner!

Last Night's Party

Nope nothing to do with my social life but if you wanted to know what the kids were wearing in New York last night visit Last night's party . The site is a photo blog from the states that has been picking up a good, or is that rather infamous, reputation for capturing New York's party kids at play. Luckily, unlike my experience of nightlife, every party is full of happy, well-dressed, beautiful people.

The truth about ipods

Hmm for such a sexy product the story behind the ipod is a lot duller than you'd expect. Wired have an interesting article looking back at the development of the must-have gadget of the noughties. I half expected for it to have come rising from the lake in the hand of a arthurian maiden whilst Steve Jobs was out walking one day. The truth is slightly more pedestrian maybe.

Fashion goes La La

La la land gets it's turn on the fashion week carousel this week: the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week squeals into town. Whilst cynics might dismiss it as a glorified shopping outing for Paris Hilton, many argue that its the LAs schlebs behind the wheel of fashion these days. Although i'm not sure how much credibility the LA Times is helping with by describing the "hottest ticket" as the launch of Justin Timberlake's new fashion line "William Rast" (which isn't on the official schedule). I can just picture him in the back of tour bus figuring playing with patterns and a pair of scissors! Just in case you're still interested you can follow it here.

Obey Giant

I've been a fan of Obey Giant for a while but hadn't realised that it/they/he had a cool website. Obey Giant started off, as far as I know, as global street poster campaign that merged an obsession with Andre the Giant and communist-era propganda design. It was kind of like an ultra-hip advertising campaign for a product that doesn't exist. Like the work of Banksy it combines a sharp and subversive sense of humour with some serious design skills. It's worth a look round the Obey Giant site just to check out the work but you can also buy posters online which is tempting despite the pitiful state of the Rand at the moment. sigh.

Flash clubbing hits London's Liverpool Street station

I've always been suspicious that the kids back home had too much time on their hands. Whilst previous generations have taken to the street to protest against Fascism, Nuclear Weapons and Bypasses through Sussex, the latest "hilarious" hi-jinxs of London's urban youth involve descending on a location armed with an ipods for a mobile clubbing session. Just another example of technology empowering people to carry out completely pointless activities in new and random ways! Kerrrazzzy

Up the Balkans!

The Balkans sadly have a bit of an image problem as a hotbed of trigger happy loons that started World War 1* and a civil war in the last century. Happily the tide of popular opinion is turning and the world is starting to learn the true nature of the Balkan folk as the no 1 party people on the planet. Doing their own bit for the cause are the guys behind Balkanolgy: South Africa's largest (and only) Balkan party. They promise us a heady blend of Balkan beats, goats, tubas, clairvoyants, real life farmers and the chance to win a Baby Transkei Dwarf Pig. Takes place at the Tafelberg Tavern, Hope Street on Friday October 27th. Top marks for complete randomness it'll probably be huge!

* a bold statement of dubious historial accuracy

Cafe Creme is the new Apple Cinnamon!

Via Fashion.psfk: Start planning your Spring 07 wardrobe now! the Pantone institute have delivered the word on the forthcoming seasons palette after rigourous analysis of the catwalk trends at New York Fashion Week. And they should know they invented colours! Basically you do not want to be getting off the plane at NYC without having read this... Get it here.

Unwired Magazine to launch in November

Continuing in the Wired theme. ITWeb is launching an imaginatively titled consumer tech magazine called Unwired in November according to BizCommunity. This is what they say about it:


"Unwired will address all digital lifestyle aspects applicable to the growing number of people in the 18 and 38 age group, who have enthusiastically taken up applications like instant messaging, pod casting, blogging and voice over Internet. They are at the cutting edge of technology and influence product development, features, work styles and trends. The magazine will provide for consumers' digital lifestyle needs and will give marketers new, one of a kind access to this influential group of people."

To infinity and beyond

Coolhunting's latest video visit's Wired Magazine's NextFest in New York. It features the wide-eyed edtor of the magazine doing a quick walkthrough of the techno-fair. Reminds me of a rule we had back in London that you can measure how cool an event is by the number of Japanese kids down the front. This is pretty damn cool. Features some slight scary looking chic-bots, a door that morphs to your body size and the future rulers of the universeVirgin Galactic.

Oops

Ok nothing to do with PR whatsoever... this little pic was snapped in the street next to ours at the weekend and demonstrates how local residents are dealing with the limited parking space in Tamboerskloof....

Bet you didn't know that Tamboerskloof has its own web portal. Fascinating stuff.

Dubious fashion brand link-up of the day

I have to admire Stella's straight face as she talks about designing a current account card for private bank Coutts & Co. I'm all for linking designers with brands (in a clever way) but occasionally I think some of these deals are a bridge too far. For example the Julien Macdonald deoderant for Sure that appeared on my desk a while back (although it is wonderful to tell people that i'm wearing Julien Macdonald on my pits). Call me a jaded cynic but I am a bit dubious over whether Stella actually went anywhere near the design for the card. What next Alexander McQueen's personal pension scheme? Tom Ford's mortgage plan? Pur-lease!

From Vogue: NOW that's shopping in style. Private bank Coutts & Co has commissioned Stella McCartney to design its latest current account card – following a design for the Coutts World super premium card by Ozwald Boateng in 2004. The design, we're told "combines the intricacies found on banknotes and on the Coutts cheque book with aspects of the British countryside". A translucent Coutts signature can also been seen when the card is held up to the light - in a reference to the watermark on a banknote. "It was refreshing to be asked by Coutts to design something I have never done before," said Stella. "It is a design area that has been overlooked in the past and it's about time you get to spend your hard earned money with an account card that looks good!" Sarah Deaves, chief executive of Coutts & Co, is clearly thrilled with the new appointment, too. "We are very excited to be working with Stella McCartney who has brought imagination and creativity to a key component of our current account," she said. "The new card has been designed to complement our "famous" Coutts cheque book – we hope that our clients will enjoy using it!"

Pervepaper

Back in the day wallpaper used to be such an everyday kind of word... about up there on the richter scale of excitement with watching paint dry and waiting for kettles to boil. These days you're probably talking about some fancy-schmancy coffee table magazine or this kind of thing: a new wallpaper brand Paper Voyeur. The boys at Ded (possibly Sheffield's greatest design agency) have come up with some great hipster wallpaper - with a tasteful erotic twist. Just the kind of stuff you'll love if you've just opened up an upmarket lingerie boutique or have an understanding girlfriend. And to think these guys used to make those Bored of the Beckhams t-shirts - they've leapt from Heat to Elle Decoration in a single bound.

What to wear to Paris Fashion Week

I get it, a cross between the kids from fame and a 2003 Hoxton slutette... how chic

From Fashion Wire Daily

If you happen to be wearing leggings in Paris and you're attending a fashion show, you'll probably have your picture taken. I've never seen a trend that's so overdone and omnipresent get this much attention from the fashion crowd, who are supposed to be trendsetters and not trend followers... It's a silhouette, however, that admittedly does look great with the super clunky, wicked platform shoes or ankle boots that are also big in Paris this week. Add to that poofy skirts and short cropped jackets and messy I-can't-be-bothered hair, preferably dirty blonde, and you've got the Paris fashion week look in the bag.

The Neighbourhood Goods Market

What If The World continue in their mission to make Cape Town a 30-something hipster paradise. And as loathe to cover something after the Cape Times has as I am The Neighbourhood Goods Market deserves a special mention. The market is in The Old Biscuit Factory in Woodstock. One is almost tempted to insinuate that the WITW boys are in league with the local estate agents in a wicked conspiracy to replace the current population of hoodlums, tick addicts and decent working class folk with magazine stylists, interior designers and couples that met at advertising agency drinks evenings. The area is recieving some serious gentrification (and associated house price creep) and The Neighbourhood Goods Market is possibly just the tipping point needed to turn the postcode into a Capetonian Yuppy paradise. As well as organic food, falafel stores, screenprinted t-shirts, kooky art exhibits and "I love boobies" baby grows, the market also wins bonus points over similar 1st world urban hipster hangouts, such as London's Spitalfields, with the ready availability of local wine (you can rent a glass to accompany you around the stands). Judging by the hordes of goofy-smiled urbanites after just a month in action, the Neighbourhood Goods Market is set to become a serious weekend institution!

Newsflash: PR is the devil's work

Most PR agencies in SA do measure coverage achieved by how much the advertising space would cost. However only heard of one agency that thought it was a good idea to issue a press release to the media harping on how much free coverage they'd manage to hoodwink. I shall have to add it to my list of things not to do with my spare office time - rather colour code the sample rail or something more useful and less dangerous. Like everyone needs an excuse to hate PR's even more than they do already. Doh!

Almost as interesting is the amount of interest it stirred on an obscure corner of Moneyweb.

"Advertising value equivalency? Before passing the barf bag, remember that society gets the media it deserves. So when image peddlers openly boast of “PR credibility” without fear of ridicule, something is clearly amiss. If embedded allies are any yardstick, sections of South African media are even sicker than pessimists fear.' 100m worth of deception.

National Novel Writing Month

If only I didn't have 3 gazillion press releases to write i'd probably enter. Top marks for Exclusive Books on Kloof Street for bringing this to my attention. The shop assistant deserves special bonus points for not only being the funkiest lookin chick in a kind of "whatulookinat" don't giveafrickindamn kind of way on Kloof but also commenting on my over-priced Dazed & Confused purchase "what's made of Gold or something?". Go Girl!

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2005, we had over 59,000 participants. Nearly 10,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

The Popular Front is Away

Well not really true but he was on holiday... now he's back and got lots of work-type things to do before he gets round to updating me. pah...