>> Comme des Garçons for H&M – a comment

The buzz was that of all fashion happenings – a queue of it-bags-clad girls at the door, that tingle of anticipation in the air, champagne and canapés, a dj-set, and PR girls running around everywhere and guarding the goodie bags with a broad but fierce this-is-not-for-you smile on their faces (the bags only contained a – very heavy! – copy of GQ and a 30ml bottle of the new H&M+Comme des Carçons fragrance, I really don’t know what the fuss was about). The Comme des Carçons for H&M collection was being unveiled at London flagship store in Regent Street and, short of limoes and a red carpet, the setting was that of a big event. And there we were:

>> Comme des Garçons for H&M – preview!

So I’ve just received my invitation for the Comme des Garcons and H&M event on 12th November, when Rei Kawakubo’s creation for the Swedish fashion giant will finally be unveiled. And I also have some preview pictures of the capsule collection, which sees the avant-garde Japanese designer engage in a collaboration with H&M after predecessors such as Viktor&Rolf, Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld and iconic Finnish house Marimekko.

Now, do you remember the hype about the Marimekko collection a few months ago? I certainly do, as I also bagged myself a couple of pieces! But now, after having seen the preview pictures for the new CdG designs, I’m wondering: am I that excited again? Has Ms. Kawakubo really showed us what she can do this time? And what is it with the polka dots??? No, seriously.

>> london windows: selfridges – october 2008

I know it’s me, it must be just me, but I don’t really get the windows in Selfridges this month.

Don’t get me wrong: they’re as beautiful as ever.

>> afroreggae @ barbican

I love black rhythms, and only one month after the great fun at Notting Hill Carnival, I once again found myself boogieing in London to some great musicians and irresistible beats. This time it was only slightly more civilized, as the venue were not the streets of West London, but the Afroreggae show in an auditorium at the Barbican. The music programme at Barbican always offers great quality and diversity, and they have been hosting the wonderful and colorful Brazilian Afroreggae crew for a number of years already.

>> london windows: selfridges – august 2008

Japanese mangas meet Nu Rave at Selfridges this month. The windows are a neon feast of structures of fluo tubes and plexiglas cubes in violently bright blues, pinks and yellows. The mannequins are playfully wearing giant-sized cardboard accessories, and amusing plastic animals that seem to have come straight out of a Japanese cartoon share the space with them in the windows.

>> london windows: selfridges – july 2008

Frozen Symphony, an eye-catching installation by Aishleen Lester, is on display this month at Selfridges.  The installation is hosted in The Wonder Windows, the space that since the beginning of the year has been dedicated to showing the work of up-and-coming artists who, in the words of the store’s creative concept manager Rebecca Bateman, “otherwise may not have been able to find such a high-profile space”.

>> london windows: selfridges – may 2008

Very colorful windows in Selfridges this month, with a sports theme.

Or rather, a fantasy sport theme. Mannequins are all donning Vespa helmets for protection, but they don’t actually seem fazed that they are floating about as if in a lunar module. Although they are employing some rather futuristic devices (in the way that Leonardo’s projects were ingeniously futuristic), it all looks like a whole lotta fun, and not a don’t-try-this-at-home advertisement for extreme outdoor activities. Along with windsurf sails and inflatable dinghies (here comes the summer!), it’s all a fabulous jumping and flying with the aid of spring-propelled seats, giant winged turbines, 3-wheeled pods and flying umbrellas.

Always worth a good half-hour stop on the Oxford Street pavement.

>> wails and violins – a silver mount zion orchestra @ scala

This above is meant for their music to speak for itself. Watch the video before you read the post.

>> exactitudes – a visual tribes encyclopedia

As a fashion theory student at university years ago, I soon became acquainted with the works of social anthropologist Ted Polhemus. His thorough and unique approach has since the mid-1970’s set a milestone in the observation of streetstyle, urban tribes, underground cultures from an image/dress code point of view.

A meticulously detailed visual update to his works comes at the hands of Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek and their imposing oeuvre Exactitudes, which is now showing at Selfridges in London.

[image via exactitudes.com]

>> london windows: harvey nichols – march 2008

The HN windows this month are undoubtedly eye-catching, if a little overwhelming. As usual, it’s all about the installation and very little about the clothes – but this time round one has to look really hard to actually spot the mannequins hanging somewhere in there.

The theme is a “fluo waterworld” full of gigantic neon-shaded starfish and jellyfish, where the mid-air dummies are probably intended to be floating, and the waves are big iridescent strips of cellophane.