GARMSVILLE: March 2009

Archive for March 2009

Exclusive News: PRESENT LONDON Summer 09

Tuesday, 31 March 2009 Comments Off

A brand new concept store is about to arrive in London, launched by two very familiar names. Eddie Prendergast and Steve Davies are busy putting the finishing touches to PRESENT LONDON, the store-come-gallery space in Shoreditch.

It will feature menswear from around the world and contemporary art; here the focus is set firmly on directional style and away from transient trends. Over the past few months they have been travelling the world acquiring an exclusive selection of clothes and accessories.

Before we started off on this thing, I wasn’t sure what we’d find. To be honest I had my doubts that there was anything left out there to be discovered – but it was really inspiring. I think people are going to be pretty surprised when we open, explains Eddie, who, as part of The 'Duffer' of St George, was instrumental in introducing brands like Red Wing, Carhartt, Penfield and Evisu into the UK as well as the repositioning of brands like Smedley, Trickers and Macintosh. Over the years they were also early champions of young British designers such as YMC, 6876 and Patrick Cox.

While both Eddie and Steve are reluctant to reveal which labels or looks the new concept store will carry first, we can be sure that, coming from two of the UK’s most progressive and influential style merchants, PRESENT LONDON will be a space certainly worth watching.

image: unveiling this summer;

Ben Eine gives a fresh coat to the new menswear location

PRESENT LONDON

140 Shoreditch High Street,

London.

Umbro's Own Goal?

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Rewind to Sunday: A day after the England match and the accompanying launch of the fantastic new kit; these huge images of fans are plastered on the wall outside Umbro's media hub in Shoreditch.

Anything but subtle, these ads could be criticised as looking like a poor man's Benetton campaign.

Each image concentrates on a particular social group: the white females, the blacks, the white males and the Asians...

Maybe the apparent demarcation in these rather obvious images makes more sense as magazine ads, intended for specialist publications.

Or perhaps Umbro decided - at the expense of producing something visually more adventurous - to give racism the red card and let it be known that an England shirt is for everyone...Rather than an own goal, maybe Umbro have scored a major point against those who would like to think otherwise...

Lost Again

Monday, 30 March 2009 Comments Off

We live in truly interesting times...

...Saw this sign on my way to the office the other morning...

...Then saw this one-man street market on the way back...

I remember back in '88 seeing rows and rows of cardboard boxes outside shops and in doorways as I travelled from the West End on the clubbers night bus home...It took me a couple of weeks to realise that these boxes were occupied by people - homeless people.

Although this time 'round our fates are in the hands of a (New) Labour government, our elected representatives still prefer to bail out big businesses (banks) rather than support the people who are really suffering. The lost of dignity starts when you witness such blatant injustice on your own doorstep and realise you're powerless to do anything about it...

That Pesky Meerkat

Sunday, 29 March 2009 Comments Off

The comparethemarket.com ads, about competitive car insurance deals and featuring Aleksandr the meerkat are too amazing for words... not sure how or why, but every time these ads appear on TV, I find myself laughing - out loud usually...no matter how many times I've seen them.

(don't even look same!)

On almost every level, it's a whole mass of wrongness; the cliched Russian accent and mispronunciation, the ancestral home, the velvet gown and cravat, the animated puppet (yes it's an animation) - it's all totally nonsensical...and maybe that's why it works. I've even gone on the web site - comparethemeerkat.com and his facebook page - now that's a world all it's own too.

I guess, for all my enthusiasm for Aleksandr and his ads, the joke is really on me; first, I'm not (as you may have guessed) a meerkat and secondly, I don't need car insurance. I can't even drive...

But no matter how funny he is, you can be sure there are some folks out there who are just as frustrated by comparethemarket.com as Aleksandr Orlov professes to be. Price-comparison service, confused.com have recently hired ad agency Farm to look after their creative side. They're also increasing last years ad spend from £16 million to £25 million for this year and have created their own character - Confucius - in a bid to gain market share and maybe outshine that pesky kat.

www.comparethemeerkat.com

A Sense Of Doubt

Thursday, 26 March 2009 Comments Off

I keep thinking of that Bowie track, Sense Of Doubt - it's on the Heroes album. It's a gothic instrumental, a dark, brooding piece of electronica before the term electronica became a sub-genre of dance music.

Appreantly Bowie and Eno deveopled the song by using Eno's Oblique Stratergies, an aid for people confronted with a creative impass. Eno came up with the idea with artist Peter Schmidt and produced the first of these card sets in 1975. There's been four more editions since then. The one I use was produced in 1996, in conjunction with the Norton Family.

This is how it works; you pick a card, any card and take it's advice accordingly. The cards feature such pearls as: Give way to your worst impulse...Your mistake was a hidden intention... Ask your body...

As they explain about the process in the earlier editions, They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case, the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident.

Not final, plus new ideas equals a sense of doubt. It's my nature to think in ever-changing, polemic terms. Take Garmsville; one minute I decide it's all about style - culture means nothing, it's just a context I can use to highlight stuff I like...Then the next minute it's all about culture - style is meaningless, just a device I can use to explore things which are really important to me in the world.

I'm sure there's a middle ground - somewhere. Maybe I'll land (or fall) on it at some point, but 'til then, to quote The Great Bard, I feel like a feather to every wind that blows, except it only blows in two opposing directions, so maybe the Shakespeare quote ain't so great after all, nonsense even...Ah, and there I go again. I bet Bowie never had this in mind when he wrote that song.

Exclusive News: The Hide Out Store Stays Open

Wednesday, 25 March 2009 Comments Off

So far it's been one of those years when good news has been in short supply, but here's some news that bucks the trend. The Hide Out, the store run by global garms legend Michael Kopelman, is staying open. The scheduled closure was due to the planned demolition of its West Soho premises. This has just been abandoned by the landlords - supposedly as a result of the adverse economic climate.

With his distribution company Gimme 5, through the store Hit & Run and then through The Hide Out, over the years Kopelman has helped launch and curate the growth of an inordinate number of high-end streetwear brands. These brands include names such as Headporter, Ice Cream/Billionaire Boys Club, Stussy, Supreme, Visvim, Neighbourhood, A Bathing Ape, W) Taps, Hysteric Glamour, Rockers and aNYthing; an impressive track record proving that despite the ebb and flow of trends, there's still no substitute for good taste.

Although a number of brands once featured exclusively behind the doors of The Hide Out are now available elsewhere, it would be a mistake to underestimate Kopelmans' indefatigable ability to introduce the next coolest thing.

The Hide Out Store,

7 Upper St James Street,

Sky The Triples with James Stewart Junior

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 Comments Off

It's like BMX racing, only with engines, a bit more glamour and this larger- than-life character called James 'Bubba' Stewart Junior.

As a kid I loved Speedway, the bikes looked beautiful, all lean and sleek...But Supercross has the added element of a ridiculously unpredictable track, with the kind of jumps and hair bends that make it one of the fasted growing sports around.

James Stewart Junior is the exciting, Florida based, star of the sport. It's not unusual to hear the Supercross commentators say, Stewart wins every race, just as he looks like falling off his bike or stalling in a ditch. Last year, in the Motorcross division, he became the second person ever to win 24 out of 24 races.

He just launched his new website, JS7, which features an insight into his home my roots are still in Florida, he says, just bigger now, a look at his bike and his passion for miming to Rick James records... playing music keeps me grounded when I don't want to sky the triples, he says on his blog.

American basketball changed from being a niche sport into a game with huge cultural impact within the space of a decade; I suspect the same may one day be true of Supercross.

They may have to give the wardrobe a bit of a rethink, however...which is perhaps where Nike come in. Stewart joined their 6.0 team just a couple of weeks ago.

check him out on js7.com

Paul Weller & The Birth Of French Ivy

Monday, 23 March 2009 Comments Off

We blinked and it was gone, a style moment which whistled by before we had time to really give it much thought. In Japan however, despite being the invention of a boy from Woking and his mate Mick Talbot from Wimbledon it took shape, form and was named French Ivy.

With the first Style Council release, Cafe Bleu, Weller's musical perspective became pan-European and more soulful...Marvin Gaye inspired love songs about walking by the Seine and sitting in coffee shops.

While many second-generation mods felt betrayed and remained true to their stay-press trousers and skinny ties, with the Style Council, Weller's fashion sense also had a major overhaul; bowling shoes were replaced with Dexter loafers, lambs wool crew neck sweaters took the place of cotton V necks...

Weller's style evolved quickly, combining modernist, jazz and occasionally casual references, influencing and being influenced by the likes of the 80's jazz scene, the acid jazz scene and the British soul boy as well.

But in Japan, where the band toured for the first time in 1984, it was the cue of those initial releases which gave birth to a style and a language of dress called French Ivy.

While it's a style which is look-related not brand-related, today the idea of French Ivy resonates with brands like J.M. Weston, APC, Agnes B, Lacoste and Saint James in France and with Ships, Edifice, Beams and even Uniform Experiment in Japan.

Why Americans Are Mad About Mad Men

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What it does best is recreate the Sixties with a glamour and gloss we'd all like to have experienced. Picture postcard perfect, everyone looks immaculate; even the lift attendants. What Mad Men fails to do is cut through it's own slick exterior in a way which makes it anything more than a serialised Kodachrome trip into the past.

But perhaps that's the point and in some ways the source of it's success. Very much like the plethora of Victorian and period dramas produced by the dozen in the UK, Mad Men is a kind of cultural group hug for a country in desperate need of reassurance.

To a contemporary American audience confronted by huge social and economic challenges, that the issues the Mad Men characters confront seem dated, and their world-view outmoded is as much a part of the shows attraction as the slick suits and Brylcreem haircuts. Mad Men is a rose tinted time machine; a sugar-coated reminder of the challenges America once faced and how they survived them ...in style.

I Stand Corrected: Vampire Weekend & Talking Heads

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It's now obvious to me that Vampire Weekend are not direct descendants of British pop band Haircut One Hundred. Son-in-laws perhaps, but that's about as far as it goes. No, the musical and stylistic mantle they carry is that of Talking Heads...that pop-punk, art funk band from the mid-70's and 80's, who - with the help of Brian Eno and the likes of Bernie Worrell - made club music an intellectual exercise.

Sonically The Heads, like VW today were totally unafraid to wrap their three chords around black music: cue their version of Al Greens Take Me To The River and Track 1, side 1 of the 1979 LP Fear Of Music, IZIMBRA. This latter track, produced by Eno helped inform everything Talking Heads did subsequent to that LP...from The Tom Tom Club to David Byrnes and Enos' collab, My Life In the Bush of Ghosts and beyond...The words Casual as a cardigan, willfully optimistic, ultratuneful and surprisingly danceable, used by Rolling Stone t0 describe Vampire Weekends debut LP last year could easily be attributed to much of the Heads post Fear Of material.

Stylistically too, The Heads and the Vampires share a strong family resemblance; just check out the Ivy League Dropout look they mastered back in the mid 70's. They were proud of their geek sensibility and bookish back-ground. Supporting The Ramones, they shunned the black jeans and biker jackets of their punk contemporaries and took to the stage of a cramped CGBG's in creased apolo shirts and worn down corduroys. Reviewing their debut LP they were described at the time as the great Ivy League hope of pop music by Stephen Demorest in Rolling Stone Magazine. Over thirty years later, that hope lives on in the rather considered, slightly shabby chic of Vampire Weekend.

With hits like Once In A Lifetime and Road To Nowhere, the more popular the Heads became, the more larger-than-life and less populist became their wardrobe; it'll be interesting to see if Vampire Weekend follow...suit.

Matty Small: Found Artist

Thursday, 19 March 2009 Comments Off

In Shoreditch, you never know what's around the corner. Take this afternoon, for example, when I found this artist painting in the Black Rat Gallery, working on his forthcoming exhibition.

My name's Matt Small, he says…No, no street name, I'm not a street artist - calling me Matty Small is about the closest you'll get to a street name for me. While his work - essentially portraiture - is a million miles away from the ubiquitous world of urban art, it does take it's cue from the street. I don't know the people I paint, he explains, I take their pictures and work from there...it's quite impressionistic in that way. Not only are the people found, but the materials he paints on are too - car bonnets...bits of wood...the remnant of a printing machine - all get redefined by Matts gaze. Somehow these materials with their varying sizes and surfaces become transformed and almost secondary to the visual impact of the portrait. You kind of have to walk around a bit and really look at the pieces - eventually the different elements give themselves up, he says.

Like classic portraiture, these studies are to be lived with; gaining resonance through familiarity and time. As a contemporary body of work, they also relate to very modern issues; The work looks at young people, people who ordinarily get dismissed in society - often seen as threatening...a lot of negativity gets projected onto them...This show is a response to that...It's called Youngstarrs. In a way, the blasts of colour ask us to look beyond these negative projections.

It's stylish and in many ways quite cool and yet has a truly powerful emotional charge; I wanted to document my own findings. As if I hadn't taken up enough of his time, I ask Matt if I could take his picture. Why not, he replies, I can't really say no since so much of my work is based on taking pictures of other people.

Matthew Small

Youngstarrs
March 26 - April 17
The Black Rat Press

83 Rivington Street EC2

The Great Pretenders

Tuesday, 17 March 2009 Comments Off

Ralph Lifshitz and John Leibowitz; two New Yorkers with more than an appetite for cool ties in common.

While the likes of J Press, Brooks Brothers and LL Bean can talk for days about heritage, tradition and even innovation, Ralph Lauren, for all its aspirational values is still rooted in fiction not fact. Who better then to dress the host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart? There he is, decked out each evening in Black Label, discussing the political topics of the day, happily blurring reality with total absurdity.

Like its 90's equivalent Politically Incorrect, it's cool and urbane; unlike its sharp-witted predecessor it has an archness that comes with being a product of this decades post-post modernity. We know it's not real and we appreciate it all the more for that fact; indeed its conscious lack of authenticity gives it creative license to take the kind of liberties programms with an apparent duty to the truth could never dream of.

Put in this context, Jon Stewarts' affinity for the ultimate make-believe brand makes perfect sense. Like The Daily Show, that the Polo brands are rooted in one mans fantasy allows the brand creative flights which the more traditional Ivy based brands could never as easily justify. As with The Daily Show, the Polo brands work because they are free from the burden of legitimacy allowing them to be more responsive to their audience - many of whom share the same outsider values as themselves. The result? Both the brand and the show exercise an influence over their respective industries, often compelling their more legit neighbours to follow while they lead.

Hence Stewart recent criticism of Jim Cramer and fellow financial pundits has resulted in news rooms all over the world asking the same questions; if these guys are supposed to be experts, how come they never saw this economic mess coming years ago? How come they never took the banks and big businesses to task when they face their execs each day on screen? And whose side are the experts on anyway? It’s not the first time the great pretenders have served the establishment a reality check; it probably wont be the last.

Time For A Dress-watch

Sunday, 15 March 2009 Comments Off

On a popularity scale of 1 to 10, this watch doesn't even register. It's more frill than function - a Brooks Brothers dress-watch which has a number of alternative plaid straps and is anything but rugged. There was a time when a dress-watch made more of a tasteful statement than a military, diving or pilots watch for example - but these days the reverse seems true.

It might have something to do with our appetite for super masculine apparel, but it may also have a little to do with our societies gadget fixation. Dress-watches are meant to look pretty and / or expensive - neither of which are considered particularly cool these days. Today most of us like to know our watch can do stuff way beyond the accurate display of time. Perhaps, that's one reason why G Shock, with one of the greatest brand comebacks of the past ten years is so popular; even if you're not sure what it's functions actually are, you know it's got plenty.

With the advent of iPhones and Blackberrys, the dress-watch - a thing of pure and shameless decoration - may yet be due for a comeback of it's own.

The Black Rock Continuum Continues

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Alongside George Clinton, Bad Brains, Living Colour, Keziah Jones, Greg Tate, Basement 5, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and the rest, we have to add Death, the Detroit based rock band who, during their short life-span released just one single - Politicians In My Eyes. They released the single independently, pressing only 500 (now very valuable) copies back in 1975. To many, their sound and attitude makes them protopunk rockers - a musical and cultural link between fellow Detroit bands MC5 and The Stooges and the punk bands of the late 70's. The trio of brothers in fact shared the same recording studio as George Clinton and The Dramatics (What You See Is What You Get).

It's tempting to place Death in a pre-punk context - The Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk reads the headline in today's New York Times. It's an angle which will broaden the appeal of their album (out last month) to a contemporary record buying audience. But, it's maybe more poignant to see them as part of a continuing struggle for cultural territory in a society which - despite all the evidence - prefers to see black and rock as two terms which will forever be mutually exclusive or, at best, an unprecedented act of transgression on the part of the musicians who make it.

http://www.dragcity.com/mp3/DEATH_Politicians.mp3

Death 'For The World To See' Lp at dragcity.com

Paul Bradshaw: Artist

Saturday, 14 March 2009 Comments Off

From a purely graphic-design point of view you can easily rate Straight No Chaser alongside other seminal publications like Emigre, Re, Grand Royale and Nest Magazine.

But have you ever wondered how Straight No Chaser ended looking so good? While Ian Swifty Swifty first came to the fore through working under Neville Brody at The Face, the visual language he created for Chaser was really what set him apart from the rest. The photography - with the likes of Jonathan Oppong Wiafe, Peter Williams and Chris Clunn also gave the publication a quality which made it compelling even if you didn't know your two-step from your dub-step. Then there was the Gallery, a regular double page spread where commissioned guest artists paid tribute to their personal music hero's. Over its 20 or so years, the magazine featured work by the likes of The Os Gemeos Brothers, Oscar Wilson, Ian Wright and Dave Kinsey.

But the key to all this, the over-arching vision from which the Chaser ideology came belongs to Paul Bradshaw - the SNC's publisher and editor. Although I've known him for over two decades, even before he launched Chaser, it wasn't until yesterday that I discovered his secret art background. Yeah, that's why I originally came to London...he said, pointing out two Coxon Sound inspired pieces...to study visual art. It turns out that - with a respectful nod to Stanley Spencer and the social realists - he studied at Cheltenham College Of Art & Design. That Bradshaw is in fact an artist, goes a long way to explain the powerful visual investment in SNC. I bet, as Michael Caine would say, not a lot of people know that.

large canvas session scene and Coxon Sound King Of Dub Rock Part 2 original cover artwork both by Paul Bradshaw

Bumps For Joy

Wednesday, 11 March 2009 Comments Off

Although I've decided to work a beard right now, using these trusty vintage clippers for the job, my war with shaving bumps is almost completely won. In the bathroom, I look at the shelf full of expensive and intricate treatments, gels and ointments: and with no help from you guys, I think to myself.

It wasn't until I was trying out a new barber (Chris Super Cut had retired and gone back to Cyprus) that I made a life-changing discovery.

You want me to shave you, too? Said the new barber, having just cut my hair.

No, I can't shave, I said. Shaving bumps.

But I shave you properly, he said, in a strong Polish accent.

Nah, I'll still come up in bumps - I've tried everything, I replied.

It's not my place, he said, but have you tried toothpaste?

Toothpaste?

Yes. Just put it on your face and leave it for a while. Bumps will go.

Not quite sure what properties toothpaste - plain, household toothpaste - has that makes it so effective, but, to my surprise (read joy) after a few days of rubbing the stuff into my face and leaving it overnight, I could see, feel and touch the difference.

One thing those dermatology experts in those stoosh department stores with their scientifically advanced skin treatments for men wont tell you about is the healing power of toothpaste. It takes a local barber to pass on that particular gem.

A Brooks Brothers seersucker and gingham combo, please

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Brooks Brothers do a Benetton this summer and make Uniqlo look decidedly conservative in the process.

If you've heard the whole world talking about how seersucker, which is a seasonal staple for most of us, is a new trend for this summer, blame it on Thom Browne; I do. His Black Fleece seersucker suits a few seasons back seem to have propelled the classic fabric out of the closet marked standard summerwear and onto the pages of glossy Sunday Supplements and such-like.

And as if that wasn't enough, Brooks Brothers have gone and made a big thing out their new collection of gingham shirts.

They've introduced 10 colour ways. The button down shirts also feature the Golden Fleece logo on the left breast. Not only that, but they're telling everyone about it on their website!

It's as if they're trying to reclaim the sartorial references the likes of relative upstarts such as Supreme, Stussy, Neighbourhood, BAPE and even Uniqlo have been eager to occupy...

Whatever the case, trend or no trend, the staple diet of choice this summer will be a seersucker jacket & gingham shirt combo in a mix of assorted flavours...So sweet, you can almost taste it.

(But let's try and keep it under our check madras hats for now, eh?)

www.brooksbrothers.com

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