The Summer of Fun

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Finally! The weather is getting warmer and it just means more time chilling with friends and having a good time. It’s so weird to think that it’s been almost a year since the summer games that rocked London during the summer of 2012. That was such a wicked time that it totally reminds just how amazing those few months can be. It’s almost too much of an overused cliche, but there’s definitely the potential to make every summer better than the one before, but we can’t get over how many scandals seem to emerge, especially surrounding the footballers who grace our screens every other summer with the Euros and the World Cup, and it’s not just the players who are overcome with publicity; the London escorts who they entertain also get a mention now and then. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this in itself, the majority of them are married and it sends out a  bad message to those that look up to them as role models.

summer-fun

It’s not just about the bad stuff they do, though, it’s the illegal bits as well that can really start to grate after a while. What is it with the rich and famous thinking they are above the law in terms of drink driving and speed limits? It can be a smack in the face for us mere mortals when they walk away from the courts, scott free. Thankfully there seems to be better judgement from those with the gavel, recently, when it comes to sentencing those that have broken the law. Who can forget about one fifth of Girls Aloud, Sarah Harding, who was recently banned from driving for six months after she was found guilty of talking on her mobile whilst driving. Given that it was her fourth offence, she was immediately disqualified and faced fines of around £600. For a woman who probably spends that much on a haircut or a handbag, it doesn’t seem like too much of a reach for her, despite her lawyer trying to tell the court that she couldn’t possibly be expected to get public transport because of who she is, meaning she would get constantly harassed. Not being funny, but she was in a girl band, she didn’t discover the cure for cancer. Give us a break.

When the majority of us are making cutbacks in our lives thanks to the seemingly never-ending recession, it doesn’t do much for our empathy when you’re faced with celebrities with a ‘woah is me’ attitude, who don’t like being in the spotlight and resent all that money they have, you just want to shake them and make them get a clue.

The Wang Incantation

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A wedding is always going to be a costly event, with the dress playing a pivotal role. Vera Wang, a designer known for her haute couture bridal gowns and dresses, has an elite clientele who have adored her collections for years. Working as senior fashion editor at U.S Vogue for 16 years, she gained experience and her name was established before leaving to set up her bridal design company. Setting up stores in her hometown of New York, she expanded to her parents’ birthplace, Shanghai, China, and several other places across the world.

Vera Wang wedding dress

Entrepreneurial Thinking?

Unfortunately, Vera Wang has recently come under scrutiny for charging a ridiculous £300 fee to her customers, just to try on her precious threads. Despite the steep charge, the Shanghai store has received much interest, and brides are booking months in advance to try on their dream dress. With 10 million Chinese couples marrying every year in a country where the wedding industry is worth a remarkable £8.5 billion, it is no surprise Wang is using her entrepreneurial way of thinking. Brides are usually offered champagne, chocolates and flattery when going for their trying on sessions in search of the perfect dress. But Wang doesn’t indulge her clients in over the top services; for her it is all about the dress, the craftsmanship, the design, and most importantly, the fit. It’s a pretty smart way of thinking in order to protect her precious designs but for how long will people pay the price? (Before purchasing the dream dress)…

 

Practice or Pleasure

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There’s little in life more beautiful than Debussy’s plus que lente. Despite not being one of his more celebrated works, it is perhaps his most brilliant. Claire de Lune may be a twinkling beauty, that perfectly captures the peaceful mystery of the moon but it is plus que lente that really epitomises the artist’s style and unbelievable talent. Translating to more than slow, or as slow possible, its perfectly imperfect shifts between tempo, tone and range speak of a swirling maelstrom of love and life, of passion and emotion, embroiled in the shroud of a piano keys.

Or perhaps Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, the iconic golden rendering of a couple in love is deserving of the crown. It too conjures images and feeling beyond the ken of mere paint and metallic leaf. It is a truly touching masterpiece, a universal embodiment of this most profound and base of feelings. Just as splendid is its wonderful play of colour and light, its perfect contrast within the harmony. The gold is rich, warm, and inviting and yet gaudy and overindulgent. It creates an ambiguity with the subject matter but more importantly it is sensational to look at it. Few would argue that is one of the most striking pieces on display today.

The Kiss (Der Kuß) by Gustav Klimt

 

Is it enough? Can a work simply be beautiful? Is that the purpose of art? The question is one that has enthralled theorists for centuries, with answers ranging from purely aesthetical persuasions to one in which subtext is everything. Everyone has their own opinion, and debate rages.

At first, it seems obvious. Art is about being visually attractive, that’s what it does. Unless you’re a high end fashion designer, you don’t wear clothes that provide some sort of meta criticism of the discipline, you wear what looks good. The same goes for art right? Well, ask yourself, would you be happy to wear a shirt glorifying a hideous dictator, as long as the colours were pretty? If you said no, why not; could it be that the message matters after all?

Do artists have a responsibility then, to educate, to challenge and to oppose? Perhaps beauty is not enough, and music and art should carry deeper meaning.

 

Horsemeat and You

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There’s been enough coverage of the whole horse meat scandal. It was a heinous crime misleading the public like that and hopefully the authorities will take the necessary action. There will certainly be a lot of public stigma towards all the guilty parties and, if nothing else, it will certainly make sure that some punishment is doled out. Even so, the rolling coverage and the reaction, blown out of proportion by various media outlets, was insane.

The real crime, of course, was the mass deception of the public by corporate monsters. It’s hardly a new occurrence but, just as the expenses scandal brought politician’s ire for the masses to light, this too reveals just how little company’s care about their customer’s well being. They are the very essence of unfettered capitalism. Without wanting to get all student-in-a-coffee-shop-with-a-battered-copy-of-Marx-and-a-Camus-novel, rampant commercialism isn’t great for the consumer. Sure they get a lot of choice, but ethics get swept away by the tide of cash. Greedy supermarkets and chains were happy to overlook discretions in order to get the best prices, regardless of the repugnant implications.

Horse meat at the market

We should use this as an incentive to say: “no, I will not be treated this way.” This is the time to take a long hard look at what the chains provide and think about whether it’s really worth it. Wouldn’t you rather have beef from a butcher? That way, you know its been ethically sourced. There’s none of this duplicity and confusion over where your meat has originated from. Good butchers will have visited their suppliers before taking them on to the books, so there’s little chance of lies being told somewhere along the chain. Most butchers will get their meat from farms as well, so those worried about the ethics of free range and organic produce can rest assured that these animals have been kept in good conditions, treated fairly and slaughtered painlessly, with as least distress as possible.

The meat is so very much better. This might seem like a bit of an exaggeration or an urban legend, after all what does giving a chicken a bit more space to move around have to do with how it tastes? A lot, actually, because it changes its muscular structure, makes it leaner and has other subtle effects. More importantly, it normally means that it will have been fed something other than the typical muck normally given to chickens. Corn feeding is common in free range rearing, which tends to produce a darker meat, full of flavour and nutrition. Most barn-reared and caged hens are fed hormones, boosting their growth and weight. That might allow the company to make a quick buck, but the difference it makes to the taste is noticeable. It might cost more to buy meat sourced in this way, but at least you won’t be taking any chances. Cooking without meat 2 or 3 times a week is often enough to make up the difference.

Put simply, you can feed an awful corporate machine that mistreats animals and doesn’t care about consumers in order to get a worse product, or you can buy ethically sourced meat that feeds a family business and tastes delicious. Your choice.

Stop the Presses

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The press will be regulated, that is the resounding message coming out from all 3 of the major parties after a landmark agreement was reached in the late hours of Sunday the 17th of March. There had been widespread concern among the public that the Leveson enquiry would lead to little change, and journalists would be let off the hook after looking a bit contrite for a while.

Now however, it seems certain that the press will undergo a major shakeup, with increased pressure applied to them by an external body. The measures have been forced in after certain members of the press had been shown to systematically abuse the current model of regulation. An ethical standard of journalism, effectively run in house has long been the main factor keeping it under control, but the shocking discoveries made in the phone hacking scandal revealed that this was just an illusion. The press hasn’t been keeping itself in check at all, just hiding its antics from the people it was exploiting.

What does this mean?

Stop the presses

  • A royal charter will be drawn up, with an entrenched system of policy. In practical terms, this should protect measures from being abused by governments and politicians looking to exert their influence over the members of the press.
  • Those on the panel will most likely be drawn from the industry, but the panel itself will be independent for any other institution. The powers of veto once proposed have not made it through, which means that neither politicians, nor the papers themselves will be able to apply much pressure to who sits on the panel. In theory at least.
  • The code of conduct that is written by the press will be regulated by this panel. Although they will set their own rules, once the papers have declared them, they will be held to them by an independent body.

Is this a good thing?

It depends on what side you’re on. In general terms, yes. The newspapers wield vast, if diminishing, power over the public consciousness. Allowing them to work unregulated is insane, especially given the exclusive nature of the press structure, so something had to be done. The issue is whether or not this regulation is going to interrupt the role of the press as the free critics of the country’s issues. Hopefully, the entrenched system will prevent politics from dominating the equation, but there will definitely be a lot more pressure from the government. The public must not allow their dismay at what a select group has done to undermine all the good that the responsible members of the press provide on a regular basis. If public opinion stays hostile, politicians could take this change to dismantle much of the media that threatens them, and once it’s gone, there’s little chance of ever getting it back.

Glamolash !

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Girls, the time has now come. We can ditch the false eyelashes and the coats of mascara we all so carefully apply every day. A product has hit the shelves that promises to do exactly what it says on the tin. The hair restorer is meant to thicken lashes like it does for bald men. The product that has now gone global sold 10,000 tubes in the first month of release. Glamolash is the ultimate mascara product and an absolute must in the make-up bag.

The ‘false-lash’ look took over many years ago, with thanks to celebrities such as Cheryl Cole and the Towie girls. But now it seems many are over this look as it can create the ‘butterfly effect’, which is now classed as too down market. Make-up artists to the A-list stars insist the oversaturation of false lashes in today’s beauty market has now run dry. They are now very unappealing for the red carpet and rather than widening small eyes, it can have an adverse effect, making them look heavy, aged and tacky. Instead, celebrities are now making the most of their natural assets and opting for the natural look. Mascara can work wonders if you chose the right one and don’t end up overloading on the coats, ending up creating the dreaded spider eye.

Glamolash!

Glamolash!

Glamolash may not be an instant fix like a mascara, but it is a long term treatment that has delivered remarkable results. You start to recognise results in two weeks due to its sacred ingredients, SymPeptide and Vitamin B5, which promotes natural hair growth and strength, locking on to each individual hair shaft to increase thickness and help them appear glossier. The UK market for eyelash products is estimated at around £110 million a year. For most women, the wide-eyed look is a must and many say a mascara is number one in their make up bag. These mirror the soaring sales of anti-ageing creams and moisturisers that trick us into believing eternal youth is just around the corner.

Unfortunately for some women, mascaras can cause itching or severe irritation to the eye. Every woman knows not to use a mascara for more than 3 months, and the plumping action before applying is a definite no go. The more air getting trapped into the tube means more room for bacteria which can cause very sore eyes. The serum full of natural wonders provides an easy, safe treatment to achieve the full, volumised and fluttery lashes you’ve always wanted…the natural way.

The Great Gatsby Teaser

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It was set to be a grand opening for the box office at Christmas 2012, but the producers kept teasing us and pushed the release date back until Spring 2013. It has recently been announced that Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the world’s most important cinema showcase. An event that isn’t to be missed.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan

The eagerly anticipated film, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 hit novel, will have its 3D premiere in May, two years after it was filmed. Featuring an all star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, it also stars Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan. Luhrmann’s eccentric taste in films means he has a lot to live up to and so far, the trailer has reeled many of us in. It seems it will match or even possibly beat the famous Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet.

The novel is known for its beautiful and poignant passages about the glamour of the roaring 1920’s. It is the cautionary tale about the American dream and how a fantasy isn’t what it seems. The film is released 13th May 2013 and will be one not to forget.

Is Cara A Copy Kate?

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Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne

With the fashion weeks taking over the fashion capitals across the world this last month, it isn’t any wonder Kate Moss has her back up about the younger models strutting their stuff along her famous catwalk. Cara Delevingne has certainly made her name in the industry, and bagged her first Vogue front cover just before the fashion madness begun. It seems from the latest images in the press, whatever Kate has done, Cara is trying to top it.

A model’s career is always a time bomb. No one ever knows how long it is going to last. They end up having a long shelf life and not many make it for a long period of time. New looks arise, the designers get bored, and much like the cycle of fashion, new looks are being created over and over. The models are recycled just like the clothes. Kate Moss has her spectacular chiseled cheekbones and slim figure to thank for her success and people can’t get enough of her. It seems the designers and photographers want to suck her up at any opportunity and even after her drug scandal, many who dropped her soon came crawling back. Kate Moss is indestructible in the fashion world and will be an icon for centuries to come. Some of her biggest endorsement deals have been with Longchamp, Mango, Rimmel, Burberry, Chanel, Roberto Cavalli and many more. She is the world’s most prolific Vogue cover girl with 30 British covers, 16 Paris covers and 5 for the U.S Vogue. Cara may have landed her first but she has a long way to go in order to compete with Miss Moss.

Moss was discovered in 1988 at the age of 14 by Sarah Doukas, the founder of Storm Model Management at JFK airport in New York City after a family holiday in the Bahamas. There has been no stopping her since and the onetime bad girl supermodel is the second highest paid model in the world and not far behind number one, Giselle Bundchen. Miss Delevingne, a private school girl from Chelsea has everything Moss did. The 20 year old has exploded onto the fashion scene and everyone is captivated by her face-pulling quirkiness and almighty strut. Cara is everything Kate once was and is clearly getting all the attention that goes with it.

We can’t blame Kate for feeling a tad rattled by the new arrival threatening to take her crown, but no model could ever match the success of Kate, surely?