The End of the World...Armageddon Style. A Blog-back to M from Bitching and Junkfood:

Bitching and Junkfood's latest post has got me all het up about the end of the world in 2012 and to be honest I'm rather looking forward to it! For me it just seems like yet another excuse to get dressed up... And one thing's for sure: if Armageddon really is coming, I want to make sure I'm wearing the right gear. From the graduate catwalks to East End clubs and streets I've been noticing a huge trend in looks with a Armageddon/Apocalypse theme. These are some of the looks I reckon we should all be rocking when the big meteorite says 'ta-ta' to style-kind as we know it...



Above: Simon Shilton, RCA Graduate collection

Protection: hard as nails...

Psychologically speaking this is the denial stage of Armageddon chic. Instead of facing up to certain doom, people are trying to save themselves with protective gear: spikes, armour, anything they can to fight back against the threat of annihilation. Offence is the best form of defence!



Above right: clubber at kinbaku event in Bethnal Green's Resistance Gallery.



Taking cover

So, you've worn your spikes and you've put up a good fight. But now the end of the world is getting ever nearer and there's no point in struggling...What do you do? If you can't beat 'em: hide! Here, the threat of imminent apocalypse has people heading for the covers: blankets, shawls and layered coats. It ties in with another of my favourite looks of now: homeless chic. Colours are generally muted: naturals, greys and blacks and materials are usually natural too: wool, leather sometimes mixed with metallics. This is the part of the apocalypse trend that fashion forecasters WGSN have been focusing on with their Earthbound trend report...




Above: Jasper Sinchai Chadrapajong's RCA Graduate Collection

Below: Jason Mui, Nottingham Trent University Graduate Collection





Above left: old Indian guy on bus takes cover under his shawl.



Above left: Protester at G20 Bank demonstration
Above right: Clubber at Caligula 1st night

Dreadlocks: Cave Life takes it's toll

With the world's salons flattened and Aveda haircare all but a distant memory we'll be embracing dreadlocks as the low-maintenance hair style of the future. As M pointed out in her post it's not just the Hackney Wickers who already sporting dreads in preparation. I spotted these hot cavegirls around Brick Lane daytime and nighttime over the last few weeks...





Creative Scavenging - sticks and stones and animals

These looks street looks I saw recently also hit the Armageddon trend. This is about scavenging anything we need which can help us in the post apocalyptic world: crystals, bits of computers, tools and animals...





Where are the animals? I reckon fur and feathers is such an important part of this trend, I'll be doing a separate post on this tomorrow. Check then for more Mad Max looks with just a little lux coming through...

MAW Vs Bitching and Junkfood Blog off: No bare faced cheek! Men in makeup

Part 1 of a bitch-fest-blog-off with M of Bitching and Junkfood...Starting today M and I are blogging on the keys trends emerging from London's highly directional underground club scene. These guys don't follow fashion, they tell it where to go and they make it happen. Let the bitching commence...



Above: Alexandra Moon-Age (left): 'Dem Bitches stole my facepaint!' to LCF student buddies.

Men in makeup: hardly a new thing...back in the post-disco daze queens were kitting themselves out in face colour and straight guys were borrowing the ladeez makeup whether the women liked it or not.



Above: Claudio Claystl and mates get creative and just a little deranged with their colourful box of tricks. The face colour feeds through to their outfits which mix textures, patterns and colours.

But in recent years blokes, especially straight-ish ones pretty much forgot about makeup and despite market developments like Gaultier launching his own range specifically for men, a quick trackback of the celluloid archives of Boombox et al shows us that colourful faces were the exception rather than the norm...until now.



Above: tireless DJ and sometimes accessories designer Jun Shimbo with his signature liner. The success of Jun's look has inspired me to steal this lately but I struggle to achieve his subtlety...

Below: These two LCF student have been sporting mind blowing face adornments over recent weeks. Their ability to create such drama while restricting themselves so often to a monochrome pallet shows just how inventive these guys are...





With the huge early 80s - early 90s revival, especially new romanticism, and the more gender-bending lens we've slapped onto nu-disco this year, makeup, facepaint and full-on facial accessories have become just another expected part of the look rather than a focus in themselves. From Jon Shimbo's trademark subtle black eye liner to these dramatic examples of facial art, the most directional individuals will rarely venture out with barefaced cheek...



Above: Love this look though I prefer even darker and more defined around the eyes so it really looks like a mask. A poster on the wall in the old Ghetto inspired me to try it a couple of years ago and I've gone back to it recently. It's fairly easy to achieve with masking tape. For a non-run effect apply Screenface's Luxe Creme Liner with a wet brush.



Above/below: Don't leave home without it....Men's makeup ain't the drama it once was. It's just as much an ordinary part of the outfit as the boots on yer feet.





Above/below (Andrew Carbery-Row): glam punk...at Dan Lismore's night, Slave to Fashion every Saturday at Beach Blanket Babylon, Shoreditch.




Camp Vamps at Dalston Superstore (above) and Slave to Fashion (below - Alejandro Gocast)





Above: another subtle look
Below: Gage...awesome.



BITCH THAT MARION!!!!

On ManAboutWorld's side of the MAW Vs Bitching and Junkfood slate...

Sex in the Churchyard

Above: Leo (left) and Jim

Leo Belicha and Jim Warboy’s new all-night, every Friday club Caligula became my end of the week hangout joint when it opened in June. Pretty much whatever else I do on a Friday I usually pass by there for a couple of hours between midnight and 4am. The tunes are fairly eclectic: last week Jim was dropping some great bassy Italo but there are always a team if guest DJs playing anything from Kylie and Beyonce to new electro.



Above: Gabriel Gettman (left) and Bunny Clarke

The crowd’s pretty eclectic too: a polysexual mix of all 18-48 year olds from all walks of life. Leo and Jim are keen for it to be a meeting place. They’ve left the restaurant tables and chairs so their punters have plenty of room to take those looks they’ve been giving each other on the dance floor a stage further and get to know each other a little better. Leo actually cites one of his aims as providing a place where people can have sex. I’ve already seen some couples roll out the doors and take advantage of The Bathhouse’s secluded churchyard location to help Leo achieve this goal.



But despite Leo’s disdain for overly posey tamely-mannered party-goers (‘come and trash your Margiela’ he enthuses us in his invites), the place has also been attracting more than it’s fair share of fashion-conscious dressers. Of these, over the past few weeks, I’ve been most excited by the creations of Gabriel and Bunny. This creative couple have been taking my breath away with their outfits which mix designer with home-made items.



The small glimpse into their lives afforded by the exchange of a few words in noisy places and scanning their facebook pages has got my wondering how these creations come about…Are they a super-rich aristocratic couple who live in some far off castle and employ a team of minions to craft their outfits, descending on EC1 each week on their horse drawn carriages? Are they fashion sorcerers who spend their weeks dreaming up new spells to stitch together fresh outfits leaving us spellbound each week? Do they float down on a cloud, fly in on their brooms or are they teleported from some far off fashion-forward planet to show us the future?

I’ll be finding out the answer to these and other questions when I catch up with them for an interview soon. Also, look out for interviews with Jim, Leo and the other drivers of my favourite East London trashpoints on Bitching and Junk Food soon...

Meantime, here are a few more shots from the last few weeks at Caligula.



Above: Brazilian DJ Lara Gerin is expected back in the DJ cage in September.
Below: I love Gage's eclectic looks: industrial/post apocalypse meets bondage softened down with occasional womenswear accessories.





Above: (from Left) performer/artist Alex Moon-Age in a characteristically colourful and retro outfit. LCF and CSM students are tirelessly coming up with highly original home-customised creations and are not afraid to use their faces as canvases.
Below: Jim Warboy flicks Jodie Harsh's switches.





Above: A well wrapped and layered reveller smiles with his Victorian-inspired kitout.
Below: These guys also make me trip with their dramatic outfits. A mature balance of 60s left-bank and Magic Circle theatricals. (From left: Noah Crutchfield, Kosmo Sang and Lash Day)



Below: Occasional door whore James Ng drapes uses lots of draping of colourful flags to give an original spin on the Japanese black draping trend.



On the slate...

Women's fashion: A New Hope

In response to my recent blog entry about the excitement around men's fashion and the moans about Women's fashion, many of my friends asked when will we see Women's fashion take off again. Will things ever feel exciting and new again or are we bound to a future of tedious revival and uninspired retro looks?

My answer? 'Ask not what fashion can do for you but what you can do for fashion.' Don't wait for cues from the catwalk or magazines before getting creative and experimenting with new looks. If we are in a time of creative lull, seize the opportunity and use it to out-shine your sisters by being avant-garde! The lady pictured here at the Caligula opening party a few weeks ago is tipping her hat to a few current trends like the Japanese and especially Comme de Garcons-inspired black layering/draping and the stocking/semi-leggings. But, like Richard Shoyemi in my previous post, she adds so much of her own character, largely through the drama of accessories like her cropped leather gloves and monochrome feathered hat, that her look is full of hope of a new fashion direction not mourning over the current supposed lull.



Just as I applaud men who take advantage of the tradition for safe menswear by sticking two fingers up at it and pushing the expected, right now I'd love to see fewer women moaning about the state of their fashion and trailblazing new looks which are there for the taking. This isn't the worst time for women's fashion, this is the best time. If you're bored with the looks 'on offer' reject them, create your own avant-garde and bask in the glory of the spotlight that will shine on you.



Japanese black draping trend as shown by stylist with Eton Group, Hiro (above) and 2nd year LCF student, Tomi



On the slate...