December 2009
47 posts
Crazy for Coco
Here at Sketchbook, illustration is one of our passions. Taking us back to the roots of what we love, design and illustration is where the creative process begins. So you can imagine our excitement when flicking through the stylish pages of Vogue, Nylon and Elle to name a few, we discovered the illustrative ladies and fantastical musings of designer/illustrator COCO, otherwise known as Parisian...
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An Arty, Carnaby Christmas
The evolution of the shoe is an interesting one. A shoe is no longer simply a shell to protect the foot; it’s become an art form in its own right. Never was this truer than with creative cordwainers SWEAR, whose smart and playful designs have attracted artists, musicians and actors alike.
SWEAR is no ordinary shoe shop. Although you’re unlikely to find the latest artistic endeavour in your local...
Nowhere Boy
Rushing from Notting hill, I was attempting to make Regent Street for half six to witness JEFFERSON HACK and SAM TAYLOR WOOD discussing her new film NOWHERE BOY - the artist turned director’s depiction of John Lennon’s teenage years. During rush hour this was no easy task to complete in the half an hour I had allocated as a desperate attempt for Sketchbook to glimpse one of our favourite editors...
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5 Minutes with Designer Viking Wong
Despite only graduating from LCF this summer, designer VIKING WONG is already onto creating his second collection in time for London Fashion Week. In between this, Christmas and interviewing interns, Viking spared us some of his time to meet up with our writer NATALIE MILLER where they spoke about his new collection, his love for Brazil and the contents of his sketchbook.
So tell us about your...
Evie Wyld's After The Fire
It’s certainly been a good month for EVIE WYLD- early this December she won the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys prize for her debut novel, ‘After the Fire, A Still Small Voice’, defeating opponents including ARAVIND ADIGA (The White Tiger) and NGOZI ADICHIE (Half Of A Yellow Sun). Evie, who lives in South East London, is reassuringly down to earth, claiming that her recent success is...
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Welcome to the Little Shop of Horrors...
…where eccentricities and esoteric objects are the norm. A shop so densely filled with Victorian taxidermy, animals floating in jars of liquid, shrunken skulls and violated stuffed animals that even the shopkeepers still stumble upon unseen items.
The Little Shop of Horrors is run by VIKTOR WYND and SUZETTE FIELD as the latest installation of THE LAST TUESDAY SOCIETY, a ‘pataphysical’...
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Tour de Force Interview
Camille Roman is a graduate of womenswear at Central St. Martins. She cut her teeth in the studios of Zac Posen, Lanvin and Johnny Loves Rosie before setting up her own label Tour de Force in 2008. This year she won ‘Who wants to be a Millin-aire ’ organized by the website Queens-hat.com and exhibited with On|Off at London Fashion Week. Next season she shall be presenting an installation of...
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Kristie and Coralie's Christmas Cooler
A few weeks ago I was investigating an event down at the TRUMAN BREWERY where a pop up Christmas Emporium was taking place. I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Coralie there who introduced me to a table full of fun festive activities to join in with such as card making and bauble painting. I was very happy to hear whilst indulging in a conversation about things to do around London this Christmas...
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Rodarte, Tavi and Target team up with great...
When blogger Tavi Gevinson of Style Rookie was asked by Target and Rodarte to introduce their new upcoming collaboration through a video montage, it was no surprise that a video emerged that not only highlighted the Rodarte sisters new collection but also Tavi herself.
The video just goes to show what great access Tavi has in the fashion world through various short clips of interviews with...
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Dual Purpose at the Assembly
“Dual purpose” can be somewhat of a dirty word in the design industry. Frequently conjuring up images of nonsensical late night shopping channel adverts and baffling design hybrids, take, for instance, Thirst Aid’s Beer Hat. A globally recognised drinking cap, symbolic of sports fans, fraternity high-jinks and stag weekends, the functionality of this dual purpose object perfectly...
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Design Real at the Serpentine Gallery
This month, London’s Serpentine Gallery plays host to Design Real, an exhibition of mass produced objects that, as decided by the curator, KONSTANTIN GRCIC, are not only effectively fulfilling their purpose but “the purpose itself has to be good”. With eco-friendliness and social positivity both central concerns of the twenty-first century product designer, Design Real aims not...
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A Glug of Christmas Cheer
Specifically earmarking an event as a ‘networking event’ is enough to make even the most socially adept clam up like…well, a clam. Maybe it’s the risk of breaching social etiquette, maybe it’s the fact you don’t have business cards, maybe it’s just plain boredom - many networking events can leave you with a ‘why did I bother’ feeling.
But GLUG is different. As a ‘notworking’ event - ah, how I love...
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Susie Bubble at SHOWstudio!
Our first issue cover girl, Dazed Digital Commissioning Editor and fashion blogger SUSIE ‘STYLE BUBBLE’ LAU, made an appearance at SHOWstudio earlier today. We thought it only appropriate to give such an occasion its own blog post, so here it is.
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A little bit more SHOWstudio Live: i-D’s 100...
To continue our coverage of NICK KNIGHT’S SHOWstudio 100 Portraits for i-D magazine, here are some of the latest shots we’ve gathered over the last few days from Somerset House. For those of you that couldn’t make it to Nick Knight’s book signing in Selfridges yesterday, you can catch a little glimpse of him below. Enjoy.
ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELY
COLE MOHR
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The Harry and Kiki Effect
There are two art students at Chelsea College of Art who are far from the stereotype of lazy students. Alongside their studies, they’ve managed to find the time to confront the key issue facing today’s art graduates: what now? By convincing players in the art world to award four Chelsea graduates studio space or funded shows, HARRY MAJOR and KIKI CLAXTON help to set up artists in this notoriously...
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Interview with Photographer Alexander James
Alexander James has recently relocated from Australia to the UK and has been shooting for over twenty years as a commercial advertising and fine art photographer with past clients including Samsung, Versace, Shangri-la, and Ermenegildo Zegna to name a few.
He has had his work featured in Qvest Magazine, Creative Review, Designscene, Design Week and Schon Magazine.
What is interesting about...
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Painting these Hospital Walls: Will Alsop
Few architects divide public opinion like WILL ALSOP, the voice of radical dissent in contemporary architecture. At his new show of painting in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital we talked to the Sterling prize-winner about ugly hospitals, lies and how he isn’t a conceptual architect.
So the title of your exhibition is ‘A Sense of Enquiry’. Where did you get the name?
Well, you’ve got to call it...
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Bringing 90s New York to Regent Street
Maybe it’s the stylist within me or the aspiring photographer (my mother will tell you it’s simply my love of being around pretty clothes but is that a crime? I think not) but I love assisting at photo shoots. So when I got the chance to watch SHANIQWA JARVIS shoot an editorial for VICE MAGAZINE I was over the moon. It was at the Heritage Suite at Liberty’s and it was a small intimate shoot. While...
Casting with Twenty8Twelve
Castings are the equivalent of auditions, except you’re not required to perform but rather be the perfect coathanger. They can be anywhere from a designer’s studio to a magazine’s office and you have to be dressed to suit the client. The Twenty8Twelve casting was no different, held at their studios just above Edgware Road, the casting was thankfully not a one hour go-see. On...
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The Art of the Trench
Burberry is a company who, despite being 153 years old, has been on top of all the digital and social media resources that are available in order to remain relevant to their customers, an oldie but a goody as I like to call them. They tick all the boxes: Facebook fan page with over 700,000 fans, check; Youtube account with video coverage and behind the scenes footage from LFW, check; a Twitter...
Robinson Pfeffer
En route to a fashion press day and lost in Arnold Circus, Ben Depinoy - the sweetest French boy this side of the channel rescued me! Walking the remaining half of the circle I had just attempted, Ben lifted the strangely dry December afternoon by informing me he had left his final year of university to work at Robinson Pfeffer PR agency- it was at this point I knew there were good things ahead....
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Forget Me Not
‘Salut monsieur, j’aime cette empreinte dans la peinture’ ‘I love the print in that painting’ said Coco as she took the floor of the ‘Louvre’scanning every historical line in the aged canvases, fierce fully shackled to the wall in ‘attention’.
Twenty- eight year old COCO, a communications consultant for wherever fashion required her, held a deep love for the finest of arts. Studying...
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Losing The Plot
Distantly squinting through the turgid rims of her metallic red spectacles, LISA PRINCE had an epiphany. Amongst the multitude of grey distortion appeared an apparition of beauty. Who knew numbers could stimulate such fascination that resulted in creativity, style and elegance?
Collaborating commodity and beauty collection ‘The Plot Jewellery’ transpired, the noticeable piece from...
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School's out - The Lesson of Shamim Sarif
Fascism is an education. Or should I say that education is fascist for educationalists who don’t teach us what to think, they teach us how to think. In this way all social institutions are pedagogical processes whereby our masters are responsible for closing the gap between knowledge and ignorance, between human and animal. What the master owns then is the ‘knowledge of our ignorance’ and in order...
Lyndon's Stitch and Beads in Notting Hill
I couldn’t help but fall in love with this sewing shop on my lunch break today. So many beautiful colours of ribbons and beads! I bought some thick red and white gingham ribbon to wrap christmas presents with. Perfect.
Lyndon’s Stitch and Beads, 197 Portobello Road, London W11 2ED
Text: BETHAN THOMAS
Photography: CIARA BOYLAN
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Climatic Changes: Amelia’s Anthology of...
Illustration is good, climate change is very bad. So what happens when you put both of these into one book? And right in time to coincide with HOPENHAGEN, the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen?
We caught up with AMELIA GREGORY - of the very beautiful Amelia’s Magazine fame - at the launch of her new book, The Anthology of Illustration, which does exactly that.
We’re here for the launch of...
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Breakfast at the Connaught
This morning at the Connaught Hotel, saw the launch of NICKY HAMBLETON JONES’ eyewear range. Never one to miss out on a meal, we headed down to the Champagne breakfast to take a look at the new range. We sat down to a delicious breakfast of croissants, pan au chocolat’s, fruit kebabs, yogurts and a big cup of tea (no champagne for us at such an hour) while Nicky floated around...
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Giles Duley Photography exhibition: 'One Second of...
‘One Second of Light’ is GILES DULEY’S first UK solo show, and The Coningsby Gallery (situated off Tottenham Court Road) is the perfect little gallery space to hold his beautiful photographs.
When I spoke to him on the night, he said how he had gone to the gallery to hang his work and it somehow managed to work from the first time – the frames spaced perfectly. This falling into place seems to...
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Milan Diaries
Milan Diaries
New Yorker Aniv Von Borche invited Sketchbook’s Victoria Aitchison to Milan, Italy for his first solo show as part of the event ‘Backstage’ in Milan. The Italian version of Vauxhall Fashion Scout chooses a selection of five new designers to each showcase a small collection at the Fiat Executive Lounge.
Day 1
Arriving in Milan I was excited to see the sun was out (I’m from...
Russell Russell Russell
We just love our feature writer Russell’s clothes and cant stop wanting to show you!
The brave man stepped out of the house yesterday, braving the December winds without a coat - why you might ask? We think it might of been the price of fashion in order to show off his lovely ensemble.
Check out his delectable choice of adornment for his long writing fingers too…
Model RUSSELL...
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Stalking Strangers with Sophie Calle
‘Talking to Strangers’ is a fitting name for SOPHIE CALLE’S latest exhibition. On a chilly afternoon at the Whitechapel Gallery, her ‘Take Care of Yourself’ installation gave me my first encounter with Calle’s strangers. The infamous piece was born from a need for salvation: after being dumped by email, Calle asked various women to dissect the text, signed off by her ex with a callous ‘take care...
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SHOWstudio Live Studio Part VII: I-D’s 100...
As Magritte may have once said about me (but probably not), ‘Ceci n’est pas un écrivain de la mode’. I can write about art, but not fashion. I like clothes, obviously, but I’d draw a blank if you were to ask me about Alexander McQueen’s latest collection. Which is why I was a little baffled when I was asked to check out SHOWstudio’s live photoshoot for I-D magazine. To celebrate the magazine’s...
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An Evening At The Dorchester With Alexandra Wood...
When someone says charity auction, the words, wool, Gordon Brown, and shaving don’t tend to spring to mind first, but on this particular night at The Dorchester Hotel in London, these three words were some of the winning elements of a charity auction held by ALEXANDRA WOOD, bespoke tailor of SAVILE ROW. Sketchbook Features Editor Luma Bashmi and myself ventured out into the cold on Wednesday night...
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Architectural Punch Bowl for 25,000
Tonight will mark the opening of the Architectural Punch Bowl, basically a huge punch bowl of a specially concocted Courvoisier punch recipe enough to serve over 25,000 people (Now that’s a party!). This architectural structure has been created by the famous architectural jelly mongers SAM BOMPAS and HARRY PARR, and Blur’s ALEX JAMES will be toasting the first glass of this special brew....
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Supermarket Sarah at Biscuit Building
At 6.03 pm sharp I ran out from work, making note of the fact that I had exactly 27 minutes to get from Sketchbook studios in Notting Hill to Old Street station where I was meeting Nedim, one of our star photographers. We were on our way to the launch exhibition party of SUPERMARKET SARAH and as much as I had looked at the online boutique beforehand, after its debut appearance on Style...
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The Tea Box
It’s a surreal moment. I’m standing in a wooden pulpit holding a microphone, in the rather lovely Tea Box, a tea house in Richmond. I’m about to deliver fifteen minutes of stand-up to a group of people who haven’t been drinking beer, and I wonder if beer is a prerequisite for appreciating my set. But the room is warm and the people friendly; I sense I won’t be needing...
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Russell Arkinstall: A man of wisdom, class and...
The basic description of Russell is, he is tall, with dark hair, often wears skinny jeans and lace up boots, is a Sketchbook features writer, has so far, interviewed PRINCE PELAYO and TAVI, has terrible taste in film, when he tweeted that Paranormal Activity was good well we all turned a blind eye, but all in all he is, well… quite simply… brilliant! Especially his style, we cant help...
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Abu Dhabi: Setting the pace of Art in the Middle...
When asked to pinpoint the arts centre of the Middle East, most people would opt for the United Arab Emirates, and more specifically, Dubai. As the commercial and economic nucleus of the region, the city has seen a massive influx of galleries and has played host to a vast art fair. Art Dubai has been present for the previous four years but has yet to steal the limelight against other fairs in the...
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Nylon Japan: Features Fashion Editor Kristin Knox
As always the team here at Sketchbook like to stay on top of the fashion world, by going to events, networking and of-course reading through magazines- No its not just an excuse to skive off work, its called market research!- We just received a copy of Nylon with news that our beloved fashion editor Kristin Knox was featured in it.
As well as the issue having some amazing shoots, the feature on...
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Autumnal Rise with Maria Luisa Hernandez
Due to the insane amount of traffic that day I was running quite late to the home/studio of MARIA LUISA HERNANDEZ for the intimate reception she was having, showcasing some of her recent artwork. I eventually arrive at Maria’s apartment, slightly flustered and disheveled, but as soon as I walk in I was glad I made it - better late than never, right?
I walk around the apartment feeding my eyes...
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Spotted at Abu Dhabi Art
Damascus was once known for its skilled glass-blowers, but the changing face of the city means this ancient craft is in real danger of being lost. One of the few workshops in operation is that of Saudi designer AHMAD ANGAWI, who at 26 years old puts a fresh spin on traditional methods. As the son of world-renowned architect Sami M. Angawi, Ahmad asserts that his father is responsible for his...
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5 Minutes with Flora Rogers
Illustrator Flora Rogers recently began a project, collecting empty vintage tins which she has filled with her own illustrations. Here she speaks to us about her attention to detail, her love of vintage markets and the element of surprise.
Where do you find your tins?
I like to go foraging for my tins at vintage/antique markets, car boot sales, charity shops; eBay is also really good for a...
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A Day at the Ole' Truman Brewery
Many things pop up at Christmas time: for instance, your overdraft, the hairs on your arm every time you hear those god awful Christmas songs- you know, the same ones every year!- But last weekend, the mundane and tedious parts of the fact that once again Christmas has just come round all too quickly, were a thing of the past.
The Truman Brewery known for holding quirky and edgy exhibitions and...
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The Softness of Concrete City
Photographer CHUN P LIN recently embarked on a project exploring the ‘contrast between the coldness of Concrete City and the softness of our minds.’ The dancers represent the inner struggle of people who live in the city. The people who wake up, work and go home, day after day. ‘They struggle, they enjoy, they survive.’
Photographer CHUN P LIN
Patricia Nicolas - Accessory Designer
The Nicolas family has been designing jewelry in Spain since 1945, so it was inevitable that the Spanish born Patricia Nicolas would follow in her family’s footsteps and start her own label. Since moving to London to finish her studies at Central St. Martins her label received recognition from celebrities and artists alike. Fashion stylist and writer NIRA AMER visited Patricia at her studio and...