Topshop NYC in 24 Hours

Have you ever wondered what Kate Moss was really like underneath all that glitz and fame? Well you will get a chance to find out in a riveting documentary that shows the chaotic build up to the opening of Topshop store in New York. Moss opened the New York branch of the hipper than hip shop in April to much fanfare and media hype. The programme also features Topshop boss, Phillip Green and it shows the manic preparations that took place in order to get the huge US flagship store ready to open on time. You get to see a la Moss in her real form, laughing, joking and taking the piss out of herself. I know we have reality shows coming out of our ears but you have to admit that this one looks a bit special.

I love this picture of her, I think the outfit she is wearing is really glamorous; the dress is very sexy with the split at the side but the leather jacket adds a new twist and makes it it look funky. Love her or hate her, Kate certainly knows how to put an outfit together. I am also loving the British references painted on the box with the Union Jack crown.

You can check out a preview of the show here.

You can catch Topshop NYC in 24 Hours on MTV One on 19 July at 9pm.

Twenties Girl

With the success of her novel turned film, Confessions of a Shopaholic you would think that Sophia Kinsella would decamp to a beach somewhere exotic and live the life of riley. But oh no, this determined Ms is back at work and has a new book out called Twenties Girl. The story is about Lara whose life is in a bit of a mess, what with a floundering business and a business partner/best friend who has gone AWOL. To top that off she has just been dumped by her boyfriend - yes life really sucks for poor Lara. So when she is visited by the ghost of her great aunt, Sadie life seems to take a turn for the better. Sadie is a glamorous all dancing Charleston lady who lives life to the full and adds a lot of fun and delight into her niece’s life. However, Sadie has one request – that Lara will help her to look for her long lost necklace. As a big time Sophie Kinsella fan, I am quite looking forward to this book but what made it stand out to me is the marketing strategy. I think it is so cool that Transworld Publishers have decided to use the book trailer (read my blog post about book trailers here) to promote the title. The quirky little video uses wonderful animation with a voiceover from the protagonist set to Charleston music. I really love the images of the book pages flicking over. Great use of viral marketing.

We Love Magazines

I am still reeling over the demise of Vibe magazine. Although we are in the midst of a recession and magazine galores have been falling to the wayside, I just assumed that Vibe's corporate investment would ride them through. Obviously not, as news broke last week that the publication would be folding due to lack of revenue. I used to buy Vibe between 1995 and 1999 because to me it was a magazine that simply celebrated and embraced Black urban culture. Yes we had magazines like Echoes, Blues and Soul and Essence but no one did it like Vibe. The format of it alone stood out; it was bigger, bolder and simply better than the rest with it's sexy covers, catchy headlines and well written features. I stopped buying the magazine because I felt that it had lost its way and was not delivering what it started out to. Vibe became a saturated pop magazine with very badly thought out features and scandalous covers. For all that, one thing that you cannot take away from the publication is the passion of the editorial staff and the hours they put in to get the magazine out each month.

Passion is a vital ingredient that is needed in the magazine land. It is what gets you though those early mornings when you need to go across town to do an interview and those late evenings when you need to proof read layouts. We Love Magazines is Colophon2007's love letter to all the magazines they love in the form of a book. It takes a good look at the magazine industry by profiling some of the best magazines in the world. Whether they are mainstreams produced by massive publishing houses or tiny niche titles made by small indies, they are all here. Topics that are covered are the changes in design, advertising, distribution models and creating a great editorial concept.


We Love Magazines was published in conjunction with Colophon2007 which is a two day extravaganza that celebrates the creativity and energy of magazines. The event takes place every year in Luxembourg and features talks, seminars, portfolio shows and conferences about the medium. The last event was in March this year and was attended by 2,000 magazine peeps. Colophon2010 will take place next year and looks to be bigger and better and I plan to be there. There is also another book dedicated to magazines called We Make Magazines: Inside the Independents which features over 100 independent magazines from around the world. There are interviews with founders of some of the titles, quirky Q&As and wonderful imagery of the publications. Both books are collectors items for magazine geeks or anyone working in the industry and I love them dearly. You can buy both books at amazon.

Check out the video for the Colophon2009 event below.



You can watch the full movie here.

Retro Review: Some Kind of Wonderful

With his love of art, a part time job in a gas station and a tomgirl for a best friend, Keith Nelson played by Eric Stoltz is the school social outcast. In a teen culture where looks and money are considered high importance, Keith's working class roots do not cut it at his clique high school. So he spends his time with his best mate Watts played by Mary Stuart Masterson, a sassy lass whose activities include playing drums and spouting feminist rhetoric. However, Keith and Watts are broken out of their solitary existence when he falls for Amanda Jones played by Lea Thompson. Amanda is a gorgeous IT girl who rolls with the popular crowd and is also dating one of the richest guys at school. When Amanda breaks up with her boyfriend Keith takes this chance to ask her out on a date. Unknown to Keith, Watts is secretly in love with him but nevertheless helps him with his plan to woo Amanda.

Some Kind of Wonderful is produced by the legendary John Hughes who brought us The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty In Pink and Sixteen Candles so I had very high expectations before watching it. I can safely say I was not disappointed and Some Kind of Wonderful was a great film to watch. The storyline is not the most original but the script and dialogue makes up for it. Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson and Lea Thompson put in fantastic performances and really gel in this movie. I admit that Mary Stuart Masterson's character, Watts does steal the limelight with all her wise cracks and sarcastic comments but Lea Thompson brings a lot of warmth to a character that you are just yearning to hate. Amanda may be popular and beautiful but her embarrassment of her working class roots demonstrates that things that look perfect on the outside are not always so. Eric Stoltz is great as the guy who does not fit in, this is a little unconvincing in the looks department but he plays the part very well.

This film is a gender revised version of Pretty in Pink which was made a year earlier but with the ending that John Hughes - along with many others - wanted. You see the suits at the films studio pressurised John Hughes into changing the ending of Pretty in Pink so Molly Ringwald's character would end up with McCarthy when he really wanted Ringwald to end up with Cryer's character. So apparently John Hughes wrote this film in response with the ending he really wanted. He did a really good job as I much prefer this version which is uplifting and really celebrates teenage years while Pretty in Pink was somewhat depressing. This film was well received by the critics but did not do that great at the box offices.

Images taken by moviegoods.com

Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion

If the documentary, The September Issue is anything to go by, Anna Wintour is not an easy lady to please. So it is interesting to read her complimentary words in the forward for Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion. I came across this book in a post by The Capitol Fashionista and having written a blog post on stylists a few months back I was piqued with interest so I decided to check it out. The book does not just cover stylists who dress the rich and famous; it goes much deeper than that. It looks at characters who have created some of the most powerful images in magazines, fashion shows, TV and advertising. Stylist is full of image makers, editors, taste formers and visual provocators.

16 top stylists are featured in this whopper of a coffee book and were selected by editors of style.com because of their original ideas and iconic status. The lucky 16 are Polly Mellen, Camilla Nickerson, Carine Roitfeld, Grace Coddington, Karl Templar, Alex White, Melanie Ward, Joe Zee, Brana Wolf, Andrea Lieberman, Paul Cavaco, Venetia Scott, Tonne Goodman, Lori Goldstein, Edward Enninful and Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele. Stylist is written by Sarah Mower, contributing editor of Vogue (recently appointed ambassador for new talent by the British Fashion Council) and really goes into the nitty gritty work of the stylist but it is presented in a way that is beautiful and ever so glamorous. Between 16 and 20 pages are devoted to each personality with photo spreads of their work displayed as well as images of the stylist and a mini bio. This book is a must have for anyone who is passionate about fashion.

Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion is available to buy at amazon.

It's a Mad Mad World

When I am feeling down and need a bit of cheering up I log onto Mad News and it never fails to make me laugh. Founded in 2008 by former freelance journo, Janice Spence, this witty blog gives us the skinny on the Black entertainment scene. While some entertainment websites just publish breaking stories as they see them, Mad News goes the extra mile by taking an observational slant that inspires debate. She must be doing something right because after five months of its inception, Mad News was number 258 on the Black blogger ranking list. A prolific character on twitter, when she is not finding stories for Mad News Janice works in the healthcare communications industry. All this makes Janice one busy lady so I was delighted when she took time out to fill me in Mad News and other ventures.

What made you start blogging?
Necole Bitchie, Concrete Loop and Bossip are the blogs that inspired me the most to first start blogging back in 2006. I loved what they were doing. So one day I logged into my MySpace account (which I set up in 2004 but totally ignored up until this point) and decided to turn the blog feature into a news source. I began posting entertainment news stories on a daily basis and to my surprise managed to build up a huge following. Then in 2008 I decided it was time to set up a blog site as a separate entity away from MySpace, and Mad News was born.

Describe the concept behind Mad News.
The concept behind Mad News is more than just about providing visitors with the latest in entertainment news, music news and gossip. It’s to also give those who don’t know much about events happening outside their own waters, an insight in to what’s happening socially, culturally, politically in the UK and worldwide.

How do you think bloggers have made an impact on the media?
Bloggers have impacted the media immensely, to the point where prominent news organisations now look to them for scoops, particularly from within the world of entertainment. Blogs offer minute by minute news updates/coverage and are usually the first to receive major scoops. The print media seem to be relying more and more on the blogs to provide leads and news stories. I always pick up The London Paper on my way home from work in the evenings and it’s obvious that the editorial staff spend part of the day scanning the blogs for news and the latest photographs of celebs. Bossip and TMZ are clearly favourites (lol). Also such is the impact that there’s a real fear the print media could soon become obsolete.

What do you do when you are not working on your blog?
I hold down a 9-5 job, read trashy novels, watch TV and wonder why British television has just become a sea of tired “reality” shows. I also socialize with friends.

Describe a typical day in the life of Janice Spence.
A typical day involves fulfilling my 9-5 editorial duties by assisting a team of medical writers, researching and collecting medical material online and at the library, and when I get home I search for material for Mad News and update it then.

You always seem to be on top of the entertainment news, where do you source your stories from?
The London Paper, The Metro, The London Lite, The Mirror, BBC News. The Guardian, The Times Online, The Daily Mail, DigitalSpy.com, Rhymeswithsnitch.blogspot.com, Gyantunplugged.com and the new love of my life Twitter.

What are your favourite glossy magazines?
I haven’t purchased a glossy magazine in over a year. But I used to always pick up the Queen of gloss mags OK Magazine, and I know that this may not necessarily be considered a ‘glossy’, but Closer magazine for the sheer comedy value.

Name five blogs that you read religiously
Rhymes With Snitch, The Gossip Jacker, Gyant Unplugged, The Musings of Ondo Lady, and The Cocoa Diaries.

How do you see Mad News evolving over the next two years?
I would like to see Mad News evolve in to becoming the UK’s answer to TMZ, which has steadily become the number 1 news source on the Internet and has now branched off in to television. I would like for Mad News to achieve that level of success and recognition, BUT Mad News will be less intrusive, less intent on destroying pretentious celebrity’s life (but who sort of deserves it) lol and more responsible with regards to content. I don’t want to spend my days worrying and losing hair over lawsuits.