FRIDAY CATCH UP + FILM CLUB

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Bethan is out and about in the countryside today working with a brand, while I am off on my first trip to The Hay Festival with Mary who is speaking there tomorrow, (5.30pm at Barclays Pavilion if you're interested). She is presenting, in my humble opinion, her best lecture on the true nature of value in modern British society. I never fail to be moved and inspired by it. This afternoon I'm booked in to see Andrew Marr speak, followed by my secret intellectual crush Alain de Botton presenting short "How To" lectures from his School of Life series.

This follows an inspiring night with Ari Seth Cohen and his bevy of couture clad, peacockishly glam grandmas to launch his Advanced Style book, a spin off from his fabulously original blog of the same name. It was fab to see Sasha (Liberty London Girl) and her mother, Victoria; Navaz (Disney Roller Girl), Fred (Fred Butler Style), Allison (Thats Not My Age) at the launch which was at Mary's House of Fraser store on Oxford Street. Photos and chat with Ari to come. In the meantime, I wanted to share this truly awesome and inspirational fashion film from Nowness.com by Santiago and Mauricio Sierra with you.

Have a happy weekend!



THIS IS A TEASER..FOR THE FULL FILM GO HERE (Via Nowness.com)

She’s Electric

Santiago and Mauricio Hit the Gas in Their High-Speed Neon Short

Pop photography and filmmaking siblings Santiago and Mauricio Sierra take us on a high-octane night ride starring a vamped-up Alana Zimmer in their latest short, She’s Electric. Looking back on growing up in the 80s, the brothers drew inspiration from Japanese anime, Atari video games and Disneyland’s Space Mountain attraction to create the retro imagery. “We remembered watching ET and Back to the Future, and when our dad got the first Mac,” says Santiago. “It was an interesting time where new technology was shaping the vision of the future.” Previously creating color-bursting fashion shoots and sparkling campaigns for the likes of Interview magazine and Dior, Santiago and Mauricio cast otherworldly Canadian model Zimmer as their “perfect future 80s character” to sport the head-turning spring/summer beauty looks from makeup artist Romy Soleimani. “What we do isn’t film, it’s images in motion. It’s the new photography,” explains Santiago of their post-production-heavy technique. Adds Mauricio: “People can recreate entire universes out of nothing, and that’s one of the things we love to play with.”

(nowness.com) 

ADVANCED STYLE: ARI SETH COHEN NEEDS YOUR HELP

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

"Queen of Accessories" is one of the ladies featured on Ari Seth Cohen's Advanced Style blog 

In a world with no shortage of street style blogs, Ari Seth Cohen's Advanced Style stands out as being properly unique, inspirational and unfalteringly fabulous. Why? Because his subjects are the grande dames of the world- they are fearless and confident dressers and utterly defy any of the fading into the background stdreotypes often associated with the more mature members of the population. No matter what your age, this is a site which will always bring a smile to your face and fresh ideas to the way you think about your style.

Ari's book, released this week (image from advancedstyle.blogspot.co.uk)

This week, Cohen has released a book based on his blog. On 7th June, Ari will be in London where the one and only Mary Portas will host the UK launch party at her store in House of Fraser on Oxford Street. We were excited to hear word that an Advanced Style film is also in the offing- it looks set to be the much craved sort-of-sequel to the brilliant Bill Cunningham documentary. However, Ari and his filmmaker friend Lina Plioplyte need your help to finish the documentary they've spent two years creating. They've taken to Kickstarter, the site where creative projects can showcase to attract funding, because they need our help to get the film through the last stages of production. Here at FEAL, we believe it would be a travesty for the footage Ari and Lina have gathered to go unshared so we urge you to give a few spare pennies towards the Advanced Style piggy bank. In return, you'll get what we're sure will be a highly entertaining and inspiring look at the women we probably all aspire to become one day.

GREAT ADVANCED STYLE QUOTES:

"Women see me and they say, 'I want to dress a little more fun!'"

"You can break the rules once in a while, I'm not ready for a convent"

"Young women, you're going to be an old woman some day, don't worry about it!"

Look at Ari and Lina's taster....