Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Pump it Up

Posted on: June 13th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Clare Finney on the rise and rise of the ballet flat, and the arrival of Pretty Ballerinas
 

They don’t look like the sort of shoes that would inspire controversy. In fact they almost seem designed to avoid it. Yet if there’s one emotion the soft, sweet ballet pumps being sold in St Martins Courtyard have never inspired, it’s indifference.

 For one thing they’re flat, a concession to comfort that seemed almost blasphemous in the days of yore. Even now, shoe height has the power to spark controversy: witness the unions’ insistence that high heels be banned in the workplace, or the furore sparked by a former MP’s rant against flats.

 Yet the gradual rise of the pump can actually be traced as far back as revolutionary French, when the Napoleonic Code of 1803 banned women from wearing high heels due to their connotations of aristocracy and pretension, which hadn’t been helped by Marie Antoinette wearing a pair to her execution. Only when the Victorians started fetishising woman’s ankles did heels become fashionable once more.

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Breaking Arts

Posted on: June 12th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

A new exhibition at the Tristan Bates Theatre explores the concept of failed relationships and their ruins through an eclectic collection of love tokens from around the world.

A garden gnome. A mobile phone. A ceramic baking bowl for making bread. On their own the tokens of relationships past are devoid of meaning, significant only to the couples who once cherished them. Put them and their story into the aptly named ‘Museum of Broken Relationships’ however, and these seemingly disparate mementos assume an extraordinary power to intrigue, amuse and disturb.

Take the Divorce Day Mad Dwarf for example: one former couple’s eerie garden gnome  that became a marital missile when their relationship hit rocky ground. “It was a long loop, drawing an arc of time” writes Ljubljana, the divorcee behind the dwarf’s untimely demise, “and this short long arc defined the end of love.” That this end was a bitter one is clear enough from the dwarf’s face: his nose and ears are missing and his forehead is splitting. Yet while most of us can recall a relationship in which such violence was, if not actually executed then at least vividly imagined, The Museum of Broken Relationships is collective proof that there is more to a break up than vengeance.

A lovingly handcrafted casket topped with an old photo pays tribute to a 25-year long marriage that left Jelka with “two sons, a lot of memories and this box”. A fluorescent pair of boxers are there, alongside the label – “A size too small… but I didn’t mind at all”.

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Maid in Britain

Posted on: March 30th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Mark Maidment, creative director of Ben Sherman,  talks about shirts, suits and being first down the pub

How long have you been at Ben Sherman?

I’ve been here eight years. It’s a long time isn’t it? A brand goes through all sorts of phases and when I came on board the brand name had started dipping, which was very sad – but now I look out there and I think there’s nothing as exciting as Ben Sherman right now. We’re a brand that’s coming back up from a lull; we’re halfway back up the mountain.

You’ve certainly come a long way since the button down shirt of yore. How did you engineer the transition from shirt staple to lifestyle brand?

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Hive Mentality

Posted on: March 27th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Clare Finney meets Melvita founder Bernard Chevilliat – a man who moved from bee-keeping to beauty products, and made it seem like an entirely natural career path

What a difference a word makes. Take a tub of yellowish, ‘natural’ smelling cream, add the label ‘organic’ and an eye-watering price tag, and you can almost guarantee you’ll find gullible consumers queuing up to grab a quick fix for that common irritant – a conscience. It’s become the hallmark of a health fanatic, a byword for beauty – but just what does the word ‘organic’ actually mean?

Not a lot, apparently – at least not in the context of the British beauty industry. While organic food producers in Britain are accredited by the Soil Association and regulated by DEFRA, with cosmetics there is no one governing the use of the word. In the past, this has led to legions of so-called ‘organic’ labels jumping on the ginseng train. Yet for French label Melvita of St Martin’s Courtyard, being “resolutely organic” isn’t just clever marketing. It’s their raison d’etre.

“Every single product carries the Ecocert logo, a standard our founder actually helped establish,” Simon, Melvita’s brand manager, tells me proudly. “Ecocert is a French organic certification organisation, responsible for 80 countries across the world – so while in the UK it’s still a very grey area, this logo certifies that we really are organic”.

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Sweet Smell of Success

Posted on: March 15th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Jean Paul Aubin parvu learns the way of the florist at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers

Say it with flowers. How many men have chanted this mantra only to then buy the last bunch of weeds left wilting on the petrol station forecourt? Well I like to be different, which is why I’ve entered The Covent Garden Academy of Flowers. But I’m not here to buy from the ground floor shop. I want to learn how to create my own display – and that kind of floral alchemy happens downstairs.

I am welcomed by the principal, Gillian Wheeler, who shows me around her spacious classroom. There are bucket loads of fresh flowers and foliage down one end and ornate vases standing to attention here and there. On shelves live countless flower design books and there’s even a music system. I’ve definitely come to the right place.

Five lovely lasses are sat around one of the workbenches. I plonk myself down and discover that they are spending the week here on a bespoke flower design course. Eleanor runs The Angels, a Harrogate based company specialising in stylish events. She and her two colleagues want to extend their knowledge about flower design, thereby pushing the boundaries of what they can create for their clients. The other two ladies are Eleanor’s best clients, who are along for the ride. They also happen to be mother and daughter – though they could easily pass for sisters.

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