Fur Coat, No Knickers

You may remember that I speculated a while back about what Karen Elson and Raquel Zimmerman were dancing to in the Lanvin AW11 advert. Well, our prayers have been answered. I was wrong, but it’s OK because the results are pretty awesome anyway.

Look out for Alber making a cameo right out at the end.

Boys dancing can be awkward.

[Via FTape]

“There was a story going round about young cowboys in Mexico that love nothing more than wearing glittery clothes and really pointy cowboy boots whilst dancing to a particular strain of tribal dance music…”

And so it begins.

Cowboys. Sequins. Line-dancing. The latest Scene@ gang from the Swatch MTV portfolio is right up my street – rhinestone cowboys, some might say.

The Tribal Cowboys are a gang of young men from San Luis in Northern Mexico who have given local ranch style a rather flamboyant twist and spend their time choreographing group dances to impress the ladies. Swit fucking swoo!

You may have noticed (how could you not) that the gents express their, ahem, masculinity, through rather long shoes – which the local ladies allegedly eye up before deciding whether a hombre is worth her time. Hot. A lot of time and effort goes in to making said shoes – find out more about Brando, who specialises in making them, here.

Despite first impressions, the Tribal Cowboys actually don’t jig around to Billy Ray Cyrus and Bill Bader.  According to DJ Otto, one of the scene’s most celebrated DJs, the music is the result of fusing musical influences. He says: “I was born listening to tropical music. Then, when I was 17 I moved to Monterrey and in Monterrey I started getting into techno and minimal music.” Check out the video below to hear the music, see the boots, and enjoy the chaps getting dancey.

“We aren’t handsome, but we are fashionable.” If that isn’t a life lesson to live by then I don’t know what is.

Notes on a Sacandal by Valerie Vargas

The Rotters’ Club by Han van der Sluys

The Accidental by Judd Ripley

I’m the kind of mug that rebuys duplicate copies of my favourite books just because they’ve been tarted up with a limited edition cover. Recent additions include Eley Kishimoto’s re-imagining of Good Behaviour and, obviously, Penguin’s gold embossed editions of Fitzgerald’s finest works.

The latest book re-branding I’ve spotted is Penguin’s Ink project, which sees six British novels given an update from a selection of tattoo artists. Penguin launched the project in the US last year, and now it’s our turn to see some ink-inspired illustration. Unfortunately none of the books are favourites that I want more than two copies of, but they still look nice eh?

[Via Stylist where you can see the rest of the series too.] 

I think everyone on Twitter has been enamoured with the fabulous Worn Journal‘s mega Clueless outfit compilation today and why not, it’s awesome. Clueless, Craft and Heathers for ever and ever, amen.

As if by some magical coincidence, today ASOS added this yellow checked pleated mini skirt and matching rucksack. You can’t say they don’t have their collective digital finger [it looks like this] on the pulse.

 

If you’re into Sheffield, design, or both, you should totally read this Guardian article about Urban Splash’s overhaul of Park Hill flats – complete with a lasting, neon tribute to the most romantic bit of graffiti ever done.

I have to be careful with novelty clothing – my fashion sense teeters perilously close to the brink of weird art teacher as it is and one wrong move with a misplaced brooch or excessive pattern could see me free-falling at speed in to the unfortunate ’I'm mad me’/patterned tights brigade.

That said, I bought these lobster/shrimp/scorpion earrings last week from Topshop. They have a really authentically vintage feel to them, I think, through the pavé setting in the tail and neck and dull-gold detailing.

It’s love, and they almost make up for the other lobster item which I dream of… this Anthropologie dress from years back which I still get giddy about when I see people wearing in the street. That’s another eBay saved search right there, FYI.

And cue…

A few more pictures from Vanity Fair‘s WE shoot.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned, because I assumed everyone knew, that the costumes are by Arianne Phillips who also worked her magic on Walk the Line and A Single Man.

This shoot took place at glorious West Wycombe Park, home of the Hellfire Club.

[Pictures via Fashionising]

After the last few days of doom, disturbance and yoof-baiting, it was nice to be sent the latest dispatch from the Swatch MTV Playground project which just so happens to celebrate vibrant, youthful, inner-city sights, scenes and sounds from across the world.

As with the rest of the Swatch and MTV Playground project – and in keeping with MTV’s pop culture heritage and Swatch’s dedication to diverse reference points – the latest footage highlights the importance of music in influencing style and identity. If you visit the Scene@ section of the website you can find out more about underground music scenes around the world, but here are a couple of interesting scenes that I rather like the like of.

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Jerk chicken, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Cool Jerk, Doing The Jerk… While the term ‘jerk’ may have originally been thrown around as an insult, most things related to jerk are good in my book these days. The jerk was a 1960s dance craze, popularised in the Capitols’ hit Cool Jerk, but as with most things from ye olde days it’s been given a fresh new twist.

Reinvented for the 00s in California, jerking has since made a splash in Switzerland – of all places. I’m meeting up with my Swiss pals tomorrow and I’ll certainly be challenging her to a jerk off based on this video of the Swiss Jerks – a colourful, vibrant community of dancers who you can see in action above.

The other scene of interest is – prepare yourself – Brum and Bass. I mean… As I couldn’t love Birmingham more, it goes and develops a scene with a hilarious pun too. Only bettered by the whole Pontefract/Ponte Carlo thing.

Birmingham has (apparently) one of the biggest bass-based music scenes in the county (so I’m told, I can’t even pretend to have a clue about such things) and Swatch and MTV recently paid them a visit to find out more – see what they discovered in the video above.

I love the look of this scene – lots of Carhartt and Dickies and vintage Americana sportswear. And there was me thinking that heavy metal was the most stylish genre to emerge from the Black Country. Check out a streetstyle gallery here!