Mr. Kanye West: Original College Dropout

Now i ain't saying he's no fab rapper but he ain't rapping about his love of art???!!!

Kanye West has been in the UK for this Glow In The Dark Tour, yesterday he graced Birmingham. His futuristic theme has been eminent since his smashits "Spaceship" and more recently "Stronger", in true West form Stronger sampled Daftpunk infused with his own flair collided to create a cult track. His spaceship crashes and so the concert begins. The concert saw West show a side unknown to his fans; budding actor and art school drop out! West showed his acting tendancies as he played along with the skit of being stranded on a desserted planet with spaceship;Jane (what a name Kanye?!). Loved the impressionist piece when he was having an imaginary fight with a space dinasour! But it was his passionate talk/key note speech on cencert set designs, which blew me away (aside from the music-of course). West during his acknowledgements enthused about the value and importance of set designs for concerts. He mentioned how the graphics rolling on the back screen had been hand painted including the "sky" and "clouds". He also touched on references of favourite movies as a child that inspired his set design. He bigged up all the artists out there and as a art school drop out himself admired them for their work and passion, espcially toward Popart. Mr. West we like this intriguing side to you, but don't let the other sides fade away; like your strong sense of style. Where were the snazzy outfits?!

It's LBD time

Although it's a generic Christmas fashion theme; the LDB is a classic. French Connection have a section dedicated to LDB ranging from; sparkle, one shoulder, frill tiered, tulip and lace. My fav is this frill hem LDB; very Holly Golightly.

£90 French Connection

Black Essentials (black-essentials.com) has a permenant collection of LBDs but it's a shame they haven't made a song and dance over displaying them.

But don't fear, Net-a-Porter is here, their chic editorial, mag-like portfolio of the LBD is very seductive. Check it out; net-a-porter.com

Happy Birthday Prince

As the Prince of Wales is about to turn 60, the BBC honour him with a candid documentary, Charles at 60; the Passionate Prince. The balanced juxaposition between his passion of gardening at his residence Highgrove and his hands on ethic through his various charitable work. The man behind the title at the age of 60 is very much laid back but still seemlessly passionate about city regeneration, helping the environment, organic farming to international relations. This insightful film manages to capture humour; the quick dialogue between father and son as Prince William is being honoured, or agitation as the helicopters furiously do their rounds during Charles' video interview. My personal favourite was the 'black spider memo'- what a delightful way of practising business in the era of hyper technology. Happy 60th.

P.S. My brother made it in the background of a shoot in the documentary.

500 Miles of Teamwork

The young women of the charity organisation, BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar-Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) are raising health and fitness awareness by launching a monumental and exciting fundraising campaign in the form of a 500-mile cycle challenge. This event to be held on 30 August 2008 will provide a unique opportunity for the BAPS Leicester women’s youth wing to raise essential funds for the forthcoming BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (temple) & Cultural Complex. BAPS, a socio-spiritual care organisation is committed to promoting social cohesion and harmony. BAPS Leicester has been based at St. James Street for over three decades and will now develop a new mandir within the heart of the Leicester’s Indian community.

A fundraising campaign with a difference…

The two-fold campaign is to propel health and fitness awareness within the community and raise funds towards sports equipment and recreational activities for the new Mandir & cultural complex. The challenge also includes a target of £5,000, which is to be collectively raised by the young women. The challenge involves two months of rigorous training where the young women have been meeting in their respective areas and cycling together in a local park. The very foundation of the challenge is designed to drive teamwork and solidarity amongst the participants. These training sessions are intended to boost teamwork and motivation between the girls, as is sharing the 500 miles and target of funds to be raised.

Leicester City Council has strongly promoted numerous initiatives to encourage cycling and fully supports this challenge. The Cyclists Touring Club (CTC) – The Cycling Champions, UK’s National Cyclists organisation has kindly donated bicycles, helmets, mile counters and a great deal of advice and support to this event and the BAPS organisation.

The day of the cycle challenge will have a strong focus on health awareness; this will include stalls from charities such as Diabetes UK, The British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer Care UK and Asthma UK. The Right Worshipful, the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Councillor Mrs Manjula Sood will launch the event at St Margaret’s Pastures Sports Centre.

Priya Palan, a 20 year old Art student and a participant, expressed how, “Finding the balance between living a busy student lifestyle, being an active individual and managing my diabetes can be tough. Given the opportunity to be involved in an event that is not only good for my health but a great chance to encourage others to understand how important it is to maintain good health makes this event extremely valuable for the entire Asian community”.

Visit www.justgiving.com/bapscyclechallenge to offer your support.

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Remember when you wanted something so much but couldn't afford it so you painted a picture of it? No i don't remember doing that either, but Christine and Justin a couple in New York do that. Their website Wants For Sale illustrates paintings the couple paint in hope for the genuine object in exchange. So you can have their cartoon style painting of a slice of pizza if you buy them a slice of pizza in return. Sometimes you may not need to buy them something for the painting, for example a painting of a "good joke" will require you to simply tell them a good joke. This is such a wacky idea but the couple have collected a fair amount of cool stuff.
Take a look: Wantsforsale.com

StyleSpotting: Summer Translated

A few tips on how to create summer looks off the runway.

Alber Elbaz created a ruffled electric blue one shoulder dress for Lanvin S/S 08 this can be translated with Topshop's ruffled bib top, £25. Topshop.com

Amanda Wakeley for her S/S 08 collection designed some floaty shaded maxi dresses, this can be translated with the shaded halter neck dress from French Connection, £75. Frenchconnection.com

StyleSpotting: Cartooning Around

Graphic Tees have have certainly become very popular. With it's youthful energy, graphic tees range from bizzare shapes to famous cartoon chracters. An online store that does them particularly well is Lazy Oaf. Lazy Oaf was established in 2001 by designer Gemma Shiel who describes the fast growing company as an "illustrative style that is likely to make you smile and sometimes spontaneously dance with joy". The cute and girly cartoonlike illustrations evoke such an innocence.

Sailor T-Shirt £25

Sonia Rykiel's Spring/Summer 08 collection uses this cartoonlike graphic print and the designer is of course known for her upbeat tone and models dancing down the runway.

Sonia Rykiel Spring/Summer 2008 Collection

So dance and be graphic with your tees this summer with the help of Lazyoaf.co.uk.

Check out these other sites for similar funky tees.Truffleshuffle.co.uk Spunky.co.uk Noflysonus.com