Liberty x Hermès

London’s Regent Street just got a new pop up-flash shop (whatever you want to call it) which is open from September 7 to October 18. On sale are the limited edition Liberty and Hermès printed scarfs and ties.

The scarfs feature classic Liberty micro floral patterns with a Hermès”™ ‘Ex Libris’ design dropped on top. All that comes in the finest cotton.

Needless to say, Mary and myself really want such a limited collabo scraf.

Mary’s favourite

Proddy’s favourite

Pictures from the opening party.

Thanks Mary.

Hats: An Anthology

Stephen Jones, the renowned milliner, has an anthology of his work coming up at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The show runs from February 24 to May 31.

For the occasion SJ has designed a paper hat. You can download the step-by-step instructions (pdf file) from the V&A website.

Watch the interview & documentary below. It’s brilliant, with behind the scenes in the workrooms and examples of his work done for Boy George, Visage, Princess Diana, Dior, Comme des Garcons, you name them.

Earlier: Stephen Jones perfume

Proddy’s ABC of Online Shopping

As you may or may not know, living in Canada sometimes feels a little bit like living in a fashion desert. After 3 years in Toronto, I have turned it into a virtue. After hours, days, months on the interwebz, I have found my favourite online stores. Of course, I had to select the shops based on their Bernhard Willhelm and Martin Margiela availability.

The list below will give you an unparalleled view on the websites I spend most of my time at. Click. Click. Click. Shopping Cart. Cart. Cart. Buy. Bought. Bought.
And when you find yourself buying from the stores, just think of it as your own personal economy stimulus plan.
Pump the money back into the financial system!

# B Store
Mary introduced me to b-store. We met up in London and paid the b a visit. It was such a pleasurable experience, because the Bernhard truck had just unloaded a couple of Muumuus (pictured above & below). After leaving London, I called Kirk & Matthew a week later and ordered another BW fix. Brilliant service & always some hot shit to look at.

# Corner, The
A sister site to yoox.com, The Corner sells the most recent menswear collections. I’m still not sure why they don’t ship to Canada (yoox.com does). I sent them an email once a month asking about shipment to Toronto but to no avail. I hate them a little bit. What I usually do is get my order shipped to Germany and a friend has to FedEx it to my place.
Another weird thing is that some of the labels are available in European countries but not in the US, for instance Bernhard. So make sure you select different countries to get the whole experience. Make it work.
It looks like they will be getting Walter van Beirendonck for summer. Bernhard, Margiela, Raf Simons, Viktor & Rolf are already there.

# Doshaburi
One of my favourites. Doshaburi is from Japan and they have a shop in Barcelona, where they ship from. When I went to the store last summer, there was always a very friendly Japanese woman working there, helping me with my hysterical questions. One of the best Bernhard Willhelm (men’s only) sites, they carry so many more exciting designers, it would take me months to list them all. Last time I ordered, I got a Bernhard poster / look book thing with my sweater. Amazing. Buy something now!

# Far Fetched
One stop for 20 shops in old Europe. Haven’t gotten anything fetched yet. Can’t be long. B Store is part of Far Fetch, too, so you can actually shop with them twice. Neat.

# Fatal
I love Fatal, based in Minneapolis of all places, but have to say their sale is not the best. Most of the clothing gets reduced by 30% only. But who cares? I got my beautiful & humongous Bernhard pot scarf (picture above & below), that I wore as a dress from them.

# Good Hood
I haven’t personally ordered anything from Good Hood, but I like their site and selections. That’s easy, because there are a couple of Bernhard women’s dresses that I would like to get my mittens on.

# Kron Kron
From Reykjavik. In the summer, they had wonderful dip dye Bernhard dresses. They are sold out now & I can’t wait for the new deliveries. Click them daily.

# Oki Ni
They have some Margiela, Raf Simons etc. The current specialty is the Opening Ceremony Collection by Wong Kar Wai. Get yourself some film shirts.

# Reborn
Based in the old town of Montreal, this is the only Canadian store on the list. Birgit and myself stopped by the lovely store last year & threw some serious dough at the welcoming sales people. My favourites lines here are Bless & Zibskov. Mary loves herself some Complex Geometries. Reborn also has the Six Scents perfume collection; therefore they are the only place in Canada where you can get Wicken 3000.

# Seven
The Bernhard usually sells out pretty quick at this New York store. If you want a specific piece, you need to call them around the time when the new collections arrive and get pictures sent BEFORE they post them to the website. Otherwise, the best stuff is already gone. You snooze, you loose.

# 10 Corso Como
I can’t wait from 10 Corso Como to open their online boutique. Comme des Garcons galore. Went to their shop a couple of years ago, when I was in Tokyo. I want to go again, right NOW.

I haven’t included eluxury.com in the list above as they only ship within the US and you have to use an US credit card. Thank you very much. However, I have to admit, that I ordered a MMM necklace from them last year, and had to use a service company from Florida that bought it on my behalf and forwarded the precious metal to me. There is always a way to get the item you need!

Apart from all the online stores, I can recommend randomly calling Margiela boutiques around the world to ask about products you really need. For instance, my dear friend Mary Messhausen loves the diamond necklace, bracelet and ring (pictured below)! Call them NOW.
I personally like to chat with Colin from the NYC Margiela boutique. He is very friendly and last time I was at the store, his arm was broken, which added some extra cute clumsiness.

Back when I lived in Germany, I only shopped at Heimat. If you’re ever in Cologne, you have to pay them a visit. Andy and Andreas are in charge of my favourite store in Germany & they publish the amazing Mode Depesche, for whom I did an interview with Jean-Paul Lespagnard and other articles.

So now, keep the economy going and buy. bought. bought.

London Interviews

# Interview recorded with Viktor & Rolf during the final week of their exhibition at London’s Barbican Gallery: Inside the House of Viktor & Rolf

# Interviews with Head of Press and In-house Architect of Maison Martin Margiela at the opening of the new London boutique. There was a strict “no face photography” policy at the event.

21 Nights

When I attended a couple of Prince concerts last year, I was hoping for a live album. Especially of the aftershows that took place at a smaller venue at the O2 Arena in London. And in October, a little bit over a year later, this is what’s happening.

Prince and photographer Randee St. Nicolas are releasing 21 Nights, a book of photographs spanning his London residency, including poetry, lyrics and “Indigo Night,” a CD–available only with the book–capturing Prince’s live after-show sessions.

Update: Tracklist of the CD
Pictures: Housequake (click for additional pictures)

21 Nights

Prince completed his 21 nights in London tonight.
Footage from the final night and from a show at the beginning of August.

Whatsthenameofthistown

On my last night in the UK, Prince played the aftershow. I’m stoked.

The concert started with band member Shelby J. on lead vocals for a good half hour, performing covers. The opening song being Honky Tonk Woman, during which Prince struts on stage, wearing a light yellow suit with a hood attached to the jacket, gold chains, black hair band. He’s orchestrating the band, who seemed to be in a playful mood.

After a short break, Prince takes over the vocals and sings a couple of songs from his most recent album before launching into such classics as When U Were Mine and a rock version of Anotherloverholenyohead with pieces of Rock Lobster thrown in. The first encore is 3121, which sounds so much better live.

After another encore, I took the boat back to the West End.
I’m now on my way to the airport for my flight to T.O.
Prince is playing six more nights in London.

Prince Weekends

Last weekend Toffi and I went to the big arena Prince show. It seemed like it was sold out, around 20000 people. The stage in form of his trademark symbol is set up in the middle of the venue. We were in the fifth row directly at the point of the symbol.
I was especially happy to hear Controversy and If I Was Your Girlfriend. During 1999 Prince, to make the audience sing along, jokingly asks: What’s the name of this song?

Even more exciting than the big show are his aftershows. During his 21 nights in London, an aftershow is happing every night, although it is not announced whether or not he’ll be there.

He played the aftershow last Friday, so Toffi and I had the feeling he would not play the aftershow on Saturday. He didn’t. His band played and there are great musicians but the jazztrumentals were kind of heavy on us.

To make sure I would get another Prince filled aftershow, I bought tickets for 3 shows that are happening before I go back to Toronto. The first was this Friday. Again jazzstrumentals only. No Prince.

Finally, yesterday night, Prince and the band performed. They came on stage at 1 am and rocked the house from the very first minute. The audience was on a very high energy level too, singing along for most of the songs. They played a few cover versions, including What Have You Done For Me Lately by Janet.

For the encore Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas joined the band. Too soon, the house lights went on, the dj started playing again. About 5 minutes later, half of the audience had already left, people are screamingly running back to the stage: Prince and the band are back.
They launch into a guitar heavy version of Redhead Stepchild, an unreleased song that Prince had written for his former protege Tamar. At this point the audience went totally nuts, jumping up and down during the whole song, singing the refrain.

Wish me luck for this Thursday night, my last aftershow (for now).

Earlier:
A Night In London
On Prince Concerts

A Night in London

I leave my place at around 9 to walk to the cinema to see The Godfather of Disco (trailer) at its UK premiere. As I arrive at the venue I see Mel Cheren head into the theatre. And just by chance I sit right next to him during the screening. The film is loosely based on Mel’s autobiography and features lots of interviews. Apart from Mel’s story, I found the interviews with Junior Vasquez (of all people) and Kevin Hedge of Blaze (he cute) most interesting. Also, it was very sad to see some of speeches that were held during Larry Levan’s funeral service.
After the documentary, I said hi to Mel and the director, Gene Graham. Now, let’s hope they’re getting some good distribution for the movie, that you can see it.

Then I rushed across town to get to the Prince afterparty. As Toffi is coming over next weekend and we’re heading to a Prince concert, I didn’t want to spoil the big arena experience and decided not to go to one of the main shows before. Although, Prince does not perform at every afterparty, I was very optimistic.

So, I get there at a quarter to one. 15 minutes later Prince hits the stage. Dressed in a red suit, red hat with big red feathers on top. His keyboard is set up in the middle of the stage and he starts with two Stevie Wonder cover versions, Superstition and Higher Ground, before moving on to A Love Bizarre. The audience goes crazy. He does back up vocals for Marva King on the Chaka Khan cover of Sweet Thing. Then, The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.
Most of the songs feature saxophone solos by Maceo Parker, of James Brown and Parliament/George Clinton fame.

The whole atmosphere on stage is quite relaxed. At one point Prince sings:
“Learn to work the toilet seat – If it’s up – Put it down” (from the new song, The Rules)
And gets the audience to repeat the lines.

A couple of classic covers follow, like Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). Prince and the band leave the stage at 2:30 am.

Just one more thing, when he first got on stage, I thought he had scarfed his face just like in the old days. That would have been the icing on the cake.

Watch this site as it turns into a Prince fan page.

Orange Coke

As you may have noticed, once in a while, I like to bring you news from the amazing world of fizzy drinks. So, one of the first things I discovered in London is Coca-Cola with Orange. The limited edition fizzy in the orange bottle just caught my attention. So yummy.

Now, I can’t wait for Fanta with caffeine in a brown bottle.
Somehow, I can’t stop thinking about Mezzo Mix. Anyhow, I’d rather have Coca Cola with Orange. It isn’t limited for no reason, right?

While I’m at it, I’m still wondering why Pepsi Cucumber was launched in Japan only. I think it would go perfectly with British Cucumber Sandwiches.