A fierce fashion week...

A curiously fierce, fetish inspired trend at London Fashion Week indicates that leather body armour, studded corsetry and heavy duty headgear will be appearing in our wardrobes by next spring.

Meantime, one of the fiercest looks I spotted amongst visitors to the exhibition came from fashion blogger Prince Cassius, whose gravity defying hair grows ever higher.











Stylist Leo’s outfit was a little less fierce, but he still seemed to be attracting a lot of attention. I loved his dark red tasseled slippers.








ShopCurious was pleased to see that there was plenty of arty, old school style on show.











As for the weird warrior style stuff, I wonder how many of us will actually wear these sorts of accessories…

Will you?

PS See more of Somerset House in my post at The Dabbler.

Earth, wind, fire and sunshine

Do you remember? Actually, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but my previous encounter with Earth Wind and Fire around a year ago, as recorded here at the ShopCurious blog. I mentioned then that I was a bit of a groupie fan. Well, imagine how excited I was to be not just seeing a live performance, but actually meeting members of the band in Spain this year.

Except I didn’t realize it wasn’t that Earth Wind and Fire...



It was the Earth Wind and Fire Experience, courtesy of the Al McKay Allstars.

In case you haven’t heard of Al McKay (pictured with me right), he’s one of the original members of the band – in fact he was with them for eight years/seven albums, and he was a co-writer of some of their best known hits – including, as it happens, September.

Around a decade ago, Al put together a group of 14 hand picked musicians to form a new band that now tours the world, ‘bringing back to audiences the real musical experience of Earth Wind and Fire.’

And they do not disappoint. I danced (crazily) throughout the whole concert, which was held in the tennis courts at Marbella’s Puente Romano Hotel...














Excuse the hackneyed expression, but it was a pretty damned awesome old school Experience. And a real privilege to literally rub shoulders with such a musically talented bunch of guys.

Oh, and please accept my apologies for ruining a lovely photograph of fabulously falsetto-voiced Tim Owens, with my scary flashbulb eyes and dance-damp hair (…eeek!)

Will you?

PS See more of the concert here - including the rest of the brilliant sax solo by Ed Wynne.

Capital of vintage soul

I’ve been immersed in music lately. Soul music in particular. Funnily enough, I found a photograph of the Soul Immersions dive boat that was used by the press at Antigua Race Week when I was writing my latest post for The Dabbler - the name seems curiously appropriate...

Anyway, I was totally won over by the Soul Revue at Vintage 2011 last weekend.






Ex-Rose Royce diva Gwen Dickey’s rendition of Love Don’t Live Hear Anymore was outstanding. And Percy Sledge’s performance of Lighter Shade of Pale was sublime – though a curious fact is that even he doesn’t know what the song's title actually means.










Then there was the Average White Band’s brilliant Hamish Stuart, who’s composed so many amazing tracks, mostly for other (more famous) artists… And the Flirtations’ shimmering rainbow dresses certainly added to the flavour of the ‘70s vintage soul vibe.
























I’ve also discovered a fantastic new radio station recently. The Soul of London plays, as the name suggests, soul – along with R&B, funk, gospel and even a little bit of reggae. They seem to get the balance of old school and new stuff just about right – and they’ve got a great website too, with a useful selection of videos.

Talking of which, here’s a ShopCurious recording from the Vintage soul revue of Gwen Dickey singing Wishing on a Star.

Are you?

Trophy style

This week at The Dabbler, I travel back to the 1980s for some old school, trophy style. Preppy blazers and sporty attire were first popularized by Fred Perry, Lacoste and Ralph Lauren – and have recently been revived by the likes of Abercrombie and Fitch, Jack Wills and J Crew. Next season we'll be seeing a lot more preppy blazers on the catwalk, in the shops and generally around the streets.






But will the new preppy menswear trend mark a return to the rules of the old establishment, or is 'trophy dressing' just a curious reflection of the current craze for collecting sporting memorabilia?

Originally, trophies were won through academic achievement, or sporting prowess, though these days you can buy most things - including these curiously quirky, ready-mounted hunting trophies from ShopCurious (perfect for an arty arrangement on the wall of your ski chalet).








Funny how curiosities of nature, like animal skulls, have suddenly become desirable as as decorative works of art.

By the way, do you have any sporting trophies - genuine, or purchased.

Do you?

Back to school with DIY design

Talking of DIY design, there’s a bit of The Dabbler in everyone…

I even created a few unique accessories myself, which I upcycled from vintage remnants, pieces of broken jewellery, bits of haberdashery and natural curiosities.

My curious sideways sashes, available from ShopCurious, are based on old school style memorabilia - of the type hitherto worn by team captains, form leaders, winners and holders of responsibility.

Please bear in mind that my previous experience consists purely of school needlework lessons, which were spent sewing my name onto science overalls, aprons and oversized gym knickers. Curiously appropriate, as one of the big trends at the moment relates to treasured memories and objects from childhood.

By the way, the picture above of girls (before my time) doing handstands in the gym is from my old school, which celebrated its 50th anniversary recently...

I think it's about time big knickers made a comeback,

Do you?