TREND I-SPY

There's no doubt about it, The Rolling Stones plus their wives, ex-wives, girlfriends and children, are having a moment. Recently released, a fascinating documentary called Stones In Exile, about the making of the the band's much-lauded 1972 album, 'Exile On Main Street' . In the spring of 1971 the band reluctantly departed the UK to escape being taxed up to 98% of their income. They took up residence in France. Keith Richards , Anita Pallenberg and their son Marlon settled at a villa called Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer and this became the venue for the recording of much of the album. In the documentary photographer, Dominique Tarlé, recounts that he went to the villa for the afternoon and ended up being invited to stay on and take photos, which he did, for six months! Speaking to the New York Times, Tarlé recalled, “A carnival of characters paraded through: Terry Southern, Gram Parsons, John Lennon, even a tribal band from Bengal… dope dealers fr...

L-R Isabella Blow, The Alexander's Issie Rose, Alexander McQueen Hilary Alexander from The UK's Daily Telegraph has reported the following, "A beautiful rose, a coral peach floribunda, became a dual fashion memento at (this year's) Hampton Court Palace Flower Show . The rose was specially selected by the British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, before his untimely death earlier this year, to honour his mentor, the late Isabella Blow. Lee McQueen personally chose the rose, now named "Alexander's Issie", to pay tribute to his close friend, the international style icon and former fashion editor of Tatler, who committed suicide in 2007. "Alexander’s Issie" was presented to Blow’s sister, Julia Delves Broughton. Lee McQueen had been due to attend the show to see the rose launched, in honour of the woman who had bought his entire Central St Martins graduate fashion collection and championed his early career on the British fashion stage. Julia D...

Cheryl Cole and Victoria Beckham, Germany 2006 W.A.G.S. - The massive celebrity status bestowed upon the wives and girlfriends of the country's top footballers is a particularly British phenomenon. During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, England's WAGS caused such a commotion they were blamed for distracting England's players and causing the team's early exit from the tournament. For the 2010 World Cup, England's manager, Fabio Capello, restricted the amount of time players could spend with family to such an extent that the WAGS stayed home in The UK when the team flew off to South Africa. As England's subsequent performance could only be described as lackluster, who or what will Capello find to blame this time?? Hello Magazine, Spring 2010 A guide to recognizing the WAGS 1. Victoria Beckham The WAG previously known as Posh Spice needs no introduction. After husband David was side-lined earlier in the year with a foot injury Mrs Becks received major respect fo...

George Best, 22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005 Sometimes it feels slightly bizarre to live in the only country on the entire planet whose menfolk don't live and die by their allegiance to a football club, like living life in a parallel universe, one that worships different gods as part of a very different religion. It's definitely worth reading Nick Hornby's autobiographical Fever Pitch about the author's undying love for Arsenal F.C. to get an idea of how intrinsically essential the game is to understanding British culture. It's not that I care so much about The Beautiful Game itself, back in my day, it was a boys-only affair. I went to an all-girls' school and played vicious games of netball (a sort of basketball) and hockey (on a field) during the winter months. Added to the fact that my local team, Northampton Town, (nicknamed The Cobblers), were notorious for two reasons. The first was for going from the 4th to the 1st division and back down to the 4th in c...

Derek Lam S2010 This post is for those of you who think that directional runway trends don't make it on to the street. Here in New York City we were barely into the warmer weeks of Spring when the streets started to swarm with young women who had seemingly forgotten to wear pants. Of course, followers-of-fashion and trend-know-it-alls knew what was up as this no-pants look has been shown on many runways over the past few seasons. Dolce & Gabbana S2010 Chanel S2010 Last November, Carine Roitfeld's son, Vladimir Restoin Roitfield, presented artist Nicolas Pol's exhibition, The Martus Maw . Not to be upstaged, even by her own flesh and blood, the French Vogue doyenne went to the opening sans culotte. If Vladimir was mortified at the sight of his mother showing up in something resembling Spanx under see-through black lace I guess we'll never know. Carine Roitfeld in Dolce & Gabbana, Nov 09 And then of course there's GaGa, who never misses an opport...

Bathroom, Central State Hospital, Milledgeville, GA. (taken of photo at Clic with my i-Phone) Last Thursday night, my intrepid gallery-hopping gang of five and I left the opening of the must-see exhibit at hous projects, The Naked Truth in search of pizza and literally stumbled across another reception just winding down at Clic bookstore on Centre Street. Recently I have been rather obsessed with the beauty to be found in decayed and dilapidated matter, both natural and man-made. It feels timely, as part of the agri-tecture trend that I've been noticing recently. I fell instantly in love with the images on the walls at Clic of abandoned mental health hospitals. They're taken from a book of photographs by Christopher Payne called, Asylum, Inside the Closed World of Mental Hospitals. I shot the one above of a bathroom with my i-Phone. I love the vines crawling down the walls inside. Norwich State Hospital , Preston, Conn. Yankton State Hospital, Yankton, S.D. Sprin...