POP 221 Friday, 5 February 2010

Todays POP is Becky, writing from Hong Kong in a room with hourly rates.

I got up to so much wild and wonderful in Hong Kong its hard to know where to start. On my first night I attended Supersonic (run by Iain Brand ) http://www.supersonic-hk.com/ where i met some of the city’s coolest movers and shakers. Designers, artists, poets, DJ’s, and a 20 strong Chinese mod squad who all arrived in dramatic succession on their Lambrettas. The monthly night has a special treat lined up for the 6th of March though… Mani from the Stone Roses will be DJ’ing!!!! Dirty ,dark and with lots of boys with good hair…we pulled down the shutters and danced until the morning fish markets opened. It was such a blast to the start of a trip, meeting people and learning all the hidden gems from the locals. That and dancing like i was in a field, alone, naked.

The next day the super friendly Supersonic crowd introduced me to a young woman that they thought i should get to know. Carmen Chan is a name it seems we should all be watching. At 15 years old Carmen is making a limited edition run of her “Horse” table for GOD (Goods Of Desire http://www.god.com.hk/index.php ) which she plans to sell in February of this year. POP thinks she’s ACE. We think you would be mental not to invest. Carmen Chan as the next Marc Newson? Watch this space.

POP: Carmen what’s the name of your table?

Carmen: “horse”, so close to naming it “rider” though. But I thought that that might be too…dirty.

POP: what is it made from? how did you visualise its conception?

Carmen: It is made from laminated plywood and composites. I had a bit of a tunnel effect vision thing when I saw this guy squatting. He wasn’t particularly attractive or anything…but his legs made a really cool shape, with some really sexy curves. And then I

POP 220 Thursday, 4 February 2010

Today’s POP is Abbey Lee. Or Richard Prince. You choose.

The video you’re seeing above this post is both a sneak peek from the new issue - hitting the streets next week - and the first motion segment POP has ever produced. Be sure to stay tuned for more.

POP 219 Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Today’s Pop is Isabelle who once again wondered what’s real and what’s not when she was last in New York…

My visit to the Arts Current Institute on W 27th St highlighted my current fantasy mode by looking at the pieces of Conceptual Art Photographer Elisabeth Molin who just opened her first debut show ‘Gaps’ in the Americas.

Ever since E started exploring alternative realities, her perception of the world and what is happening in our lives has come up with paused narratives in a surreal yet very hands - on portrayal of things. She is joking, tricking and humouring us in her work; but what she does best is elucidating on her own version of the real.

The photography that she produces is a collection of propositions, all testing the potential of everyday life, the surreal, the absurd and the logical state of mind within them.

Hurry (until February 18th) and you can see some of her favourite pieces like the bronze lion chewing on a bloody bone or a dead soldier laying at the foot of a war memorial in London as she has brought her work from the East Coast to our very shore (ditch) at the Sample 10 Exhibit at the Printspace on 74 Kingsland Road, E2.

POP 218 Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Today’s POP is Max. The sneaky buggar walked the streets of London yesterday with the new POP issue in his bag. The issue doesn’t come out till next week.

PALACE IS ACE!

Medusa schmuster, who doesn’t like a rip-off? Thats why love love these t-shirts from ice-cold-cool new British skate label PALACE. The brainchild of Lev Tanju, the label was formed on the back of the Palace Waywards Boys Club skate crew. Wearing this particular print, entitled ‘VERSAFE’ we like to think gives one the air of a classy swimming pool attendant, or perhaps even professional skateboarder for that matter. Snaking their way out of legendary London skate shop Slam City Skates, Palace have enlisted the skills of artist Fergadelic and photographer Will Bankhead on a selection of t-shirts and decks. I think Gianni would approve. Probs.

http://www.palaceskateboards.com/

POP 217 Monday, 1 February 2010

Today’s Pop is Whitelightning. If you’ve ever questioned your make-up skills, this won’t help. Be sure to click on pic to see the animation.

POP 216 Weekend, 31 January 2010

This weekend’s Pop is Zana. Her claim to faim is GarbageDress.com, but beyond that she gives us the best crap ever. She might call it garbage - we call it inspiration…

New Shoes, Brooklyn Fire Escape

POP 215 Friday, 29 January 2010

Today’s POP is Ryan. He’s one of our closest compeers. Just ahead of our own Augmented Issue, he’s came up with this. Click on it to see the animation…

POP 214 Thursday, 28 January 2010

Today’s POP is Dasha. If you’ve wondered what she’s been up to, this’ll shed some light…

Hanging out at Shamrock tattoo

The guy in the middle is Mark Mahoney, genius tattoo artist. Last night Shamrock tattoo on Sunset Blvd hosted a party for ‘Visionaire’ issue “2010″ which I was one of the curators for.

We could all use a little shamrock in our lives!

POP 213 Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Today’s POP is Mad Max: kaledioscopic picture phone postcard poster part II. This time Paris. Again, click on ‘read more’ to see all the pics…

PAAARP IT’S PARIS!

Paris was cooler than Ross Kemp’s head on a windy day. Forget the Left bank, we need to contact Barclays bank and take out a loan so we can buy ALL of this A/W 2010 menswear. Continuing our top 5 countdown like crazy Jimmy Saville at the end of those old TOTP’s you sometimes see on BBC2, we’d like to point out our Paris highlights if you don’t mind? Thank you.

1. LOUIS VUITTON; Grown up and looking good, Louis Vuitton’s collection of oversized shirts, sheepskin jackets and clogged boots (YES!) just felt RIGHT. Plus the hand painted bags by German artist Christian Schoeler were simply beautiful. This is a stick up, we want it ALL!

2. COMME DES GARCONS; Comme on in, the waters fine! We love Comme, and this was a collection that continued our infatuation. Boys with wet matted hair wearing tweed lifejackets underneath heavy suiting with shorts layered over trousers and re-enforced neon shoes stomped down the tight runway. Then came the big fake fur jackets, and we wet ourselves with excitement.

3. RAF SIMONS; Yes yes yes PLEASE. Skirts for men ( more than a trend now, just a fact, in fact, in a few years time everyones gonna be wearing them, including everyones DAD, it’s coming on that strong. Fact ), spliced trench coats and modernist blocks of colour made us feel all happy inside.

4. YSL; Started with a specially made Bruce Weber film, which featured all sorts of nudity and Bruce Weber beautiful-ness, followed by a grey-heavy collection that was far from dull. Stefano Pilati took inspiration from pleats in the YSL archive and incorporated them into an utterly modern collection that embraced heritage and said hello to the future at the same time. YSL also introduced a new range of wardrobe staples at their Paris showroom, including some of the best flight jackets we’ve ever seen. Nice one Stefano!

5. RICK OWENS; Saving the best till last, Rick Owens rocked, shocked and was haaauuurt! (hot). Featuring the best Bowie soundtrack of the week ( FYI; Bowie featured on nearly every other show soundtrack ), snakeskin wedge boots, really really long gloves, gold, an amazing croc skin jacket, and some of the scariest casting of the week, everyone was really pleased that they’d come to see the show, and left feeling really happy about life and all that. In fact we looked a bit like the bloke in the Valentines poster below.

Other PARIS highlights included hanging out with Zinedine Zidane at the lovely Y-3 presentation, getting SCARED by the INCREDIBLE George Condo masks at Adam Kimmel’s casino themed hang-out, listening to the soundtrack at DRIES VAN NOTEN bouncing out of the hand-held sound systems clutched by the models, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER’S heavy hitting boxer based show, the centerpiece of which was a boxing ring featuring two tattooed ladies kickboxing; INCREDIBLE, Walter Van Bierendonk’s statement show ‘LOVE = WAR ON HATE’, with some stunning 3-D animal based corsets and massive oversized hats by Stephen Jones, GENIUS, fur and feathers at Ann Demeulemeester, LANVIN, LANVIN, LANVIN, LANVIN, LANVIN, LANVIN, Roland Moret’s first foray into menswear, called ‘Mr’ (it’s his initials backwards, geddit?), featuring some great fabrics and some seriously clever cutting, the boots at Stone Island, even better boots at DUNHILL, a wicked stone flint circular catwalk at Dior homme, with some really great MASSIVE coats, and Sherlock Holmes-goes to the orient based madness at John Galliano, the casting at Paul Smith, from young hippies to old skinheads, all plucked from the streets and casting calls by POP favourite Mr Ronald Dick.. Phew!

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