TFE is a London-based culture blog and covering the best in fashion music and art. We love creativity.

Lavinia Darling

Base

Dan

Just Me

March baby

LAVINIA DARLING

BASE

JUST ME

MARCH BABY

For all you art lovers, Mount Street Galleries is now home to a new exhibition of a variety of works from the UK and the US. The exhibition looks at the relationship between the art capitals New York and London and the role Bristol is playing as a newcomer, it features work from Andy Warhol as well a Damien Hirst... check out http://www.londonnewyorkbristol.com/ for more info...

Labels: Check it, For you artsy folk

Labels: Check it

Celebrating unique cultures of the world, Adidas' collection features a line of trainers and clothing made out of fabrics sourced from Asia, USA, England and Japan. Often at least partially handmade, the traditional fabrics bring an old world feel to classic adidas looks.
This time they stop in Africa with their gazelles. They Use Vlisco, a dutch based design company, that hasnt been used for 160 years. Adidas brings it back to show that it was leading purveyor of Central and Western Africa.
I'm not a really a fan of the Adidas Gazelles and initially I was'nt too sure about these, but they've grown on me.

So..is it Fly or Die??





Check out the rest on dunk.com.cn





I know I'm really late with this but Patricia Field, SATCs' award winning designer, has agreed to create a limited range of her signature clothes for Marks & Spencer.
M&S is preparing itself for a stampede of fans wanting to buy out her trademark frocks for about £95.

Field, who also designed for The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty, agreed to a deal after months of secret talks with M&S. Now she intends to bring New York style to the British High Street.

The collection of 35 'must-have' pieces will go on sale from October. It is likely to cause as big a stir as the launch of Stella McCartney's collection for H&M three years ago. So expect cat-fights, people queuing over night and babies falling out of prams *sighs*.

Labels: Oh really?

Our favourite 'Black boy' Bashy not only has the leading track off the Adulthood soundtrack but he was also the music supervisor for the entire project!

'I was like brapp! Black boys up in this...'

Director Noel Clarke sought after Bashy after picking up his 'Chupa Cups' mixtape and noticed that a few of the tracks contained sample quotes from the first Kidulthood film.
'Kidulthood to Adulthood' is available to download everywhere from 30/06/08 and the original soundtrack is available from 16/06/08. Check out the film too, which is released next Friday.

Labels: Check it, Fly boy news, Loves it

It been a while since I posted something about my hubby :-) So here's his new video featuring Nikki Jean. I like it but I was hoping his next release would be the controversial 'Little Weapon'.
What do you think of it?

Labels: Check it, U heard it here first

So Mr Odom (aka: Bad #7) and Hollywood sneaker & streetwear brand UNDEFEATED teamed up to tell the world about the Celtics via UNDFTD’s new “Boston Sucks/Team Odom” shirt.” Available now online for a $20 (£10) at the UNDFTD shop, get yours today and prove that you were on the winning side [Insert evil laugh here!]

Labels: Loves it, Winner

Pharrell is featured in the Converse campaign to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Chuck Taylor.
Go to Converse.com and download a free song produced by The Neptunes featuring Santogold & Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.

Labels: Check it

While browsing fly boy Stryder's blog, I came across a moving piece by the actor Lennie James and had to repost it, here is his open letter to the young men of Britain.

To whom it may concern,

My name is Lennie James. I am a 42-year-old father of three. I grew up in south-west London. I was brought up by a single mother. I was orphaned at 10, lived in a kids' home until I was 15 and was then fostered. I tell you this not to claim any special knowledge of how you've grown, but to explain how I have, and from where I draw my understanding.

I want to talk to you about the knife you're carrying in your belt or pocket or shoe. The one you got from your mum's kitchen or ordered online or robbed out of the camping shop. The knife you tell yourself you carry for protection, because you never know who else has got one.

I want to talk to you about what that knife will do for you. If you carry it, the chances are you will be called on to use it. It is a deadly weapon, so if you use it the chances are you will kill with it. So after you've killed with it, after you've seen how little force it takes for sharpened steel to puncture flesh. After your mates have run away from the boy you've left bleeding. When you're looking for somewhere to dash the blade, and lighter fluid to burn your clothes. When your blood is burning in your veins and your heart is beating out of your chest to where you want to puke or cry, but can't coz you're toughing it out for your boyz. When you are bang smack in the middle of 'Did you see that!' and 'Oh, Jesus Christ!' here's who to blame...

Blame the boy you just left for dead. Blame him for not believing you when you told him you were a bigger man than him. Blame him for not backing down when you made your chest broad, bounced into him and told him about your knife and how you would use it. Blame him for calling you on and making you prove yourself. Tell yourself if he had just freed up his phone or not cut his eyes at you like he did, he wouldn't be choking on his blood and crying for his mum.

Then blame your mum. When the police are banging down her door looking for you, or she hears the whispers behind the 'wall of silence', tell her it's all her fault for being worthless. Cuss her out for having kids when she was nothing but a kid herself, or for picking some drug or some man over you again and again. Even if she only had you and devoted herself to you, even if she is a great mum, blame her anyway. Blame her for not being around more to make sure you took the chances she was out working her fingers to the bone to give you.

When you're done with her, blame the man she picked to make you with. Blame him for being less than half the man he should have been. When he comes to bail you out and starts running you down for the terrible thing you've done, tell him straight: 'I did what I did coz you didn't do what you should have done.' Even if he did right; respected your mother, worked to provide for his family financially and spiritually, taught you right from wrong and drummed it home everyday... Even if he nurtured you as best he could, blame him for the generation of men he comes from.

The one that allowed an adolescent definition of manhood to become so dominant. The one that measures a man by how many babymothers he has wrangling his offspring, or by how 'bad' his reputation is on the streets of whatever couple of square miles he chooses to call his 'ends'.

Damn them for letting you believe that respect is to be found with gun in hand or knife in pocket. Damn them and everyone who feeds the myth of these gangsters, villains, thieves and hustlers. Anyone who makes them heroes while damning hard-working, educated, honest men as weak, sell-outs or pussies.

If you are black, blame white people for the history of indignities they heaped on you and yours. For the humiliation of having to go cap-in-hand or get down on bended knee or having to burn shit down before you are afforded something so basically fundamental as equality. If you are white, blame black folk and Muslims for taking all your excuses. Failing that, blame a class system that keeps you poor and ignorant so the 'uppers' and 'middles' can feel better about themselves.

You have good reason to blame them all. I wouldn't be you growing up now for love nor money. Your generation has so little room to manoeuvre. We had more space to step around the bullshit. We weren't excluded at the rate you lot are. Teachers hadn't given up or lost their authority over us. They still tried to protect and guide us even through our most disruptive years.

The police stopped and searched us, but we fought that right out of their hands - we hoped into extinction. But they want to bring back that abusive practice. They are still hooked on punishment rather than prevention. They seem ignorant to the fact that they are feeding you acceptance of an already prevalent gang mentality. As far as you can see, the police are not protecting and serving you, they are coming at you like just another street gang trying to boss your postcode.

When I was where you are now, generations of state agencies, social services, policy-makers and politicians had not abdicated all responsibility for me. We weren't left to our own devices like you have been. Is it any wonder that you end up expressing yourself in such a violently pathetic way?

We should be ashamed. I am. You have shamed us into a desperate need to do something about ourselves. We have collectively failed you and we should take all the blame that is ours for that... but so should you.

I blame you. I blame you because as a generation you are selfish, self-centred and have little or no empathy for anyone but yourselves. You are politically stunted and socially irresponsible and... you scare us. What scares us most is that you would rather die than learn. Your only salvation may be that still most of you aren't playing it out dirty. The vast majority of young men, even with all that is stacked against them, are finding their way around the crap. The boy you will kill, should you continue to carry that knife, almost certainly had the same collective failures testing him. He probably felt no less abandoned and no less scared. He also, almost certainly, wasn't carrying a knife.

Whatever it seems like, whatever you've read, whatever you tell yourself about protection being your reason, statistics show the life you take will be that of an unarmed person. That is what that knife will do for you. It will make you escalate a situation to where it is needed. It will give you a misguided sense of confidence. It will make you the aggressor. That knife will make you use it. It will bring you nothing worth having. There is no respect there. The street may give you some passing recognition, but any name you think you might make will soon be forgotten.

Your victim will be remembered long after you. Name me one of the boys who killed Stephen Lawrence. Once you've bloodied that knife you may as well be dead because you'll be buried for 10 to 20 years. Banged up for that long, only a fool would look back and think it was worth it. You'll be nothing more than a sad, unwanted, unnecessary statistic.

If you were mine, this is what I would tell you. I would make myself a big enough man to beg. I'd get down on bended knees if I had to. I would beg you to take that knife out of your pocket and leave it at home. I would tell you that I know you are scared and lost and that I know the risks involved in what I'm asking you to do. I know that what we could step around, you have to walk through, and that there is always some fool who isn't going to make it any other way but the wrong way. I'm just begging you not to be that fool.

Be a better man than that. Let the story they tell of you be that you exceeded expectations... that you didn't drown. Don't spend your days looking to be a 'bad-man' - try to be a good one. Our biggest failure is that our actions have left you not knowing how precious you are. We have left you unaware of your worth to us. You are precious to us. Give yourself the chance to grow enough to understand why.

Be safe.
Lennie James

Labels: Wake Up, Winner

The designs are definitely eye catching with new ranges and colours to come. Check out the www.myspace.com/benjart for more info on how to get your hands on one.



The Tate Museum has a fab show 'Street Art' on display at the moment. The museum has invited six artists with roots in graffiti including Brasil’s OS GEMEOS and NUNCA, France’s JR, Italy’s BLU, NYC’s FAILE, and Barcelona’s SIXEART to embellish the building’s massive facade and partake in a group exhibition that will remain on display until August 25th.





And my personal favourite...


Here is a short video of the incredible artist JR detailing his exploits wrapping buildings around town with his signature gigantic black & white imagery…

Labels: For you artsy folk, Me likey, Winner

Labels: Check it, Me likey

Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter III' drops today...and am I they only one who is irritated by LLoyd's hair?? 'I'm not hating I'm just sayin' lol

Labels: Watch my feet..

Topshop are well known for having designer collections, the latest is Danielle Scutt, a fellow Londoner who brings with her underground cred. Scutt has focused on denim for the ten-piece range of high-waisted miniskirts and micro-biker jackets (available now), saying she was inspired by the way the fabric can unite subcultures and generations.
Topman, meanwhile, has unveiled its Classic Sunglasses project for summer, following last year's White Shirt Project. Designers getting shady are Kim Jones, Bernhard Willhelm, 0044, Oliver Spencer and Linda Farrow (who, in addition to being the manufacturers of the collaboration, designed their own frames). Take your pick from a futuristic aviator (Jones), a classic wayfarer (Spencer) or something more indescribable (Willhelm), all available online now.
And for our friends across the pond, Topshop/Topman have confirmed they will open their first store on U.S. soil in September, at 480 Broadway.

Labels: Check it, Fly girl news

British designer Paul Smith is backing the work of fashion students in Nottingham by offering a chance to take part in an exchange program with two top Japanese design institutes.
Smith has organised scholarships at the Bunka Women's University and Musashino Art University in Tokyo for the best talent at Nottingham Trent.
As well as offering UK students the chance to work in Japan, the scheme will also see young designers from Tokyo granted a place on the Nottingham MA program.

"I am very pleased to be in a position where I can give what is hopefully an exciting opportunity to students...I think one of the most important experiences in life is travel, and the way this can open your eyes to the world. It certainly has been one of mine," -Smith

Labels: Oh really?

I'm still pissed! :-(





I'm not sure if I would rock these myself, but don't you just love the studded texture?
Created purely to intimidate your the vandal collection, these are set for UK release later in the month.

Pic Via Hypebeast

Labels: Watch my feet..

Labels: Check it

As part of Immortal Technique's 'Guerilla Incursion into Europe' Tour there will be one concert in London this Wednesday. If you've seen I.T. perform live before...you know that this is a show not to miss. He is one of the few artists with the raw ability to electrify an audience.
Scheduled for over 1hr, he's set to perform tracks from his soon to be released album 'The 3rd World: 24th June'
Technique will be supported by his DJ, GI Joe & Da Circle, as well as UK support provided by Skinny Man, Triple Darkness and DJ 279.

Labels: Check it, Its showtime

One of the world's most influential fashion designers, Yves Saint Laurent, died at his home in Paris on Sunday at the age of 71.

During his prolific career, which spanned nearly five decades, the Algerian-born designer became known for his ability to provide women chic and wearable styles.

One of his most memorable creations was the tuxedo for women, known as Le Smoking, which was first introduced in 1966 and worn by Lauren Bacall, Betty Catroux and Lou Lou de la Falaise among others.



"Fashion isn't just to decorate women, but to reassure them, give them confidence." - Saint Laurent in January 2002

Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta, Yohji Yamamoto and Vera Wang are just a few of the major names in fashion that have publicly paid tribute to the iconic designer.

Yves Saint Laurent is now being spearheaded creatively by Stefano Pilati and Naomi Campbell will be the face of the brand's autumn/winter 2008-9 campaign.

Attorney Street

Being a girl

BNTL

Dnae Genes

Mad News

Mister Cee

NBFG

Raw Dawg

DJ Josey Rebelle

Kashiro Collective

Too Much Posse

The Whorington

Mike Schreiber

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Coding/Design: Yours-Tragically