Last week we were invited to the ‘Shwop Lab’ in collaboration with Marks & Spencers and London College of Fashion’s Centre For Sustainable Fashion. The purpose of the pop-up space at the Old Truman Brewery was to explore the future of fashion through a series of collaborations with the UK’s leading lights in sustainable fashion and design. The results…a collection of outfits made entirely from donated clothes and more importantly the ushering of a possible revolution in the fashion industry.

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Located in the heart of East London’s fashion forward/vintage quarter; The Shwop Shop is the brainchild of M&S and the Unity Agency who are also the geniuses behind the below installation/stunt.

I was initially drawn to the event at the prospect of witnessing stylists and designers construct outfits from donated clothes (I sometimes have trouble doing this with my own wardrobe) however I was soon pulled into the thought provoking exploration and debate about the future of sustainable fashion led by fashion visionaries including Gary Harvey, Michelle Lowe-Holder and Dr Noki and his infamous mask. The initiative which they hope will revolutionise clothes shopping and help consumers to live a more sustainable lifestyle, builds on M&S relationship with Oxfam which has seen over 10 million items donated.

My favourite looks from the night

 Is sustainable fashion important?

Will sustainable fashion ever catch on?

Fleeing from the hustle and bustle of the forever-moving rat race, Rosalind, along with her cousin Celia must seek salvation in order to avoid the prospect of Rosalind being persecuted by her wrathful uncle. Finding themselves seeking refuge in an enchanted forest, what could possibly happen? More after the break

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I felt the ensemble as per usual worked well together to bring the Shakespearean text alive. They opened the piece with a vibrant sequence of city life, which was repeated throughout the piece to break up the scenes. The staging was again in the round, which of course has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. I was really impressed with the scene whereby Rosalind and Celia read Orlando’s love notes on the various computer screens, which had been unveiled previously. This for me was a great updated way of representing the etched love notes you see written on trees. For me however, I found that the plot was confusing, and because of that I was missing out on a lot of the comedic moments. All in all I give As You Like it a 3/5.

3/5

As You Like It

Directed by Gavin Harrington-Odedra
Performed by Lazarus Theatre Company
Currently showing at The Space Theatre

Showing until 2nd June 2012

What a question, makes you wonder ey? We live in such a fast paced lifestyle in London, well I do anyway. In this age of connectedness, it’s so easy into fall into the comfortable booby trap with your day job and other projects. Once you fall into that trap, you probably won’t realise your in that situation for a whole minute. Luckily for me, I have a whole bunch of personal projects outside of work to drown myself in – photography, Y&Y, a documentary amongst other things. Even then, I still feel like I’m always working and doing the same but different things all the time!? So when was the last time I tried something new. You’ll have to hop on after the cut to find out.

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Eastpak – Website

Eastpak, the urban lifestyle brand has unveiled it’s latest campaign with it centering around the thought provoking question (see title of post, duh). We all dream about the future, make plans and promises but how many of us actually follow through with them? I’m determined to follow through with one of mine. I signed up for the 10k a few weeks back, my first ‘race’. Not really a race but you know what I mean. I’ve started training for it with 2 week intervals in between each run so far o_O going to have to sacrifice another part of my life to complete this challenge.

Satisfaction is what the EASTPAK campaign is all about; by reminding us of the things that truly inspire us and what we really live for. So my aim for the next few months is to visit as many new places as possible. In the coming few months, I have Sweden, Belgium, possibly Norway, Hawaii, LA, San Francisco and Seattle on the cards. I will bless you with the photographs, I hate to do this but ‘YOLO’. One day I’ll get to a position where I’ll be able to travel the world for a year while someone else looks after my company…. *dreams*

Have a gander at EASTPAK’s mini site – click here

Here’s a hilarious short film from a fellow East Londoner, Daniel of TKB Visuals who I met a few weeks back at VLM. This light hearted comedy film follows Tobi’s (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) epic wait for his favourite drink, Supermalt at a birthday party. Life without Supermalt makes him impatient and takes matters into his own hands, which leads him into a little bit of a pickle. See what happens on the reverse.

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TKB Visuals – Facebook | Twitter | Website | Flickr

I don’t understand people’s infatuation with Supermalt. Yang loves it, personally I think it’s quite gross! Shock horror.

Doesn’t this short remind you a little of Mr. Bean? Kiell’s faces are hilarious. Great acting and nicely captured short. Looking forward to seeing more from TKB.

Noted down this quote during a talk at a conference, it really stood out for me. Such a simple statement but a lot of us don’t really believe it. Making a difference in someone’s life doesn’t just mean giving money, we can help by giving encouragement, time, teaching, forgiving and above all, by showing some love. Think about the area you live in, the community around there, the schools you studied as a child – don’t you want to go back, share your story and possibly influence someone to better their lives? Invest a bit of time. I keep seeing tweets from people complaining about giving and not getting anything back. Selfless giving is purely about giving and expecting nothing in return. I’ll end with this quote with a line from my 14 year old cousin: Generosity is the cure to our fragile world filled with greed, ignorance and foolishness.

He’s a genius.

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Good morning! We’re back after a 2 week eargasmic hiatus – last week wasn’t one of the best music release wise and we spent a few days out of the country so missed out on a whole heap of gems. Back with six glorious songs from the past week, hop on after the cut.

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MATHAI

‘Under The Bridge (Cover)‘

If you watch reality music shows then you may know of her from the Voice USA. One of my family friends put me onto her music a week or so ago, mainly because she’s from the same part of India as us (Kerala). Her vocals wow’d me, never have I come across a fellow Malayalee with such a voice. So beautiful, the fact that she dropped out of Medical School to sing gets props from me. I know her parents must have flipped out, somebody got real bad. I’ll introduce her properly in a separate post, in the mean time – enjoy her rendition of a RHCP classic. She does it justice!

Selected by Yin

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JHENE AIKO

‘2 Seconds‘

Jhene Aiko can do no wrong in my eyes. She is sexy, she can sing and she write her own music (who could ask for more). Her mixtape ‘Sailing Soul(s)‘ still goes hard in my iTunes and now this song will be added to my most played list too. 2 Seconds is a short sensual song that sees the songstress flex her soothing vocals. This should tie her expecting fans over while she works on her debut album Souled Out.

Selected by DJB

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FLORENCE & THE MACHINE

‘Breath of Life’

I haven’t always been Florence + The Machine’s biggest fan, but a couple of tracks on their Ceremonials album – together with my sister’s unabashed devotion – have grabbed my attention. Their latest track, entitled ‘Breath of Life’, is off the Snow White and the Huntsman soundtrack (keep an eye out for my thoughts on the film coming soon) and is very much in keeping with Florence’s style. Both the vocal and musical arrangements are stellar; half the fun comes with listening to the powerful orchestra, which features rampant bass drums and sharp strings. The track is smart enough to allow the instruments a few moments to strut independently, and when Florence does join the party – backed up with an energetic choir no less – the results are special. Have a listen.

Selected by Amon

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CONOR MAYNARD

‘Drowning‘

After managing to grab the #2 spot in the charts for his debut single, Conor Maynard is back with this new cut… an R&B cut. From first listen, it’s not a recipe for a chart hit but I think he’ll gain new fans from it-  the track shows off his vocal ability a lot better than ‘can’t say no’. People might compare Conor to Justin Bieber but I think he has potential to taken serious as an artist rather than a teen bopper… To me he’s a younger Justin Timberlake. His debut album is out soon, hopefully he has been given good material, a similar direction to Timberlake’s Justified.

Selected by Yang

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GOLDEN STATE

‘Bombs ‘End This War‘

Argh! I came across this song on Tuesday and have yet to find the .mp3 for it. It’s only available on Amazon US not even iTunes or anywhere else on the internet, if you know what I’m saying. The indie rock band from LA have had their fair share of media exposure in the past year with one of the tracks being used as the theme for Royal Wedding and more recently in the finale of Gossip Girl. This particular track was used for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign song – ended up going to Number 1. Someone send me the mp3!

Selected by Yin

Living Room is a stop motion short film, created by Andeas Kaufmann- it has to be said firstly that the plot for this is so random. It’s about a group of chewing gum in an old man’s house that come alive during the night, they gather around the TV as they form a band and create a music composition… Yeah exactly, it is very bizarre but you’ll find that it’s just amazing to watch and listen to. Andreas submitted this film for his thesis; I think it’s safe to say he passed with flying colours. Watch ‘Living Room’ after the break.

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I think my earliest interest in advertising came through Nike‘s advertising, especially the football adverts. They ALWAYS go all out and this time is no exception; utilising YouTube’s clickable functionality to tell a story through ‘hidden tunnels‘ in the interactive video. The three-minute film highlights the next crop of star players coming through, like M’Vila, Gotze, Neymar as well as incorporating the young players from Nike’s scouting campaign ‘The Chance‘. Incredible – the kids must have been in dream land whilst filming this advert with footballers who have made it. Think my favourite part has to be the cameo from LeBron James who catches the ball in an Avengers Hulk-esque manner. FuelBand alert, more on the reverse.

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Nike Football – Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website

Here’s the normal version of the advert below, click here for the interactive advert.

As much as I despise Piquet for his Arsenal-Fabregas gate nonsense, the suited Barca lot top of this already exceptional advert. Pep Guardiola is a G.

A couple of days ago, you saw the collection from Black Dice, here we have the LTD Ceramic Chrono watch. LTD have only been around since 2009 and within 3 years, they have made a good impression- taking classic timepieces and upgrading them with glossy accents and bold colouring that are always trendy. More after the break

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LTD Watches

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Presenting LTD watch- launched in 2009, a fashionable unique concept in accessorizing your time keeping. Who says that exclusivity equals expensive? Who says that creativity and irreverence have to be pretentious? LTD watches are classic silhouettes are supercharged with colours and accents that embolden the traditional timepiece.  Updated seasonally to reflect trends and fashion palettes, each model is uniquely produced in a highly limited run, casebacks are individually numbered, never to be produced again.

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Limited edition, the £250 LTD Ceramic Chrono comes complete with a sapphire glass face deeming it virtually scratch resistant, a white ceramic body and bracelet with rose gold accents- this watch has luxury written all over it. Ceramic watches are a great addition to a summer look but honestly I’m not particularly crazy about this model just because white watches aren’t really my thing. Having said that, I think the mix of rose gold, white and silver to make up the chronograph display in the dial looks really cool. In comparison to Black Dice’s slick collection, this collection has got the edge on style; functionality… well I wouldn’t advise dropping it as ceramic watches were not made to be dropped!! On the plus side, the glass is fairly durable and it’s also 10ATM Water resistant. View here

Just incredible. My colleague at work put me on to photographer Romain Alary and Antoine Levi‘s project- Stenop.es. It’s done using a pinhole technique, a rather primitive technique that was once used by Renaissance painters back in the 14th century to project onto walls and paint over them. These guys simple utilise the technique to create a project from the outside on to the inside; with the two layers merging while the landscapes fill the interior’s intimacy to produce a fascinating end result that can brighten up any dull room. Beautiful, hop on after the cut to see more.

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Weirdly quite romantic! imagine this, a lil bit of R&B and food. Perfect date haha.