Selfridges: Displaying The Curiosites Of The FHT Collective.

I always look forward to seeing the window displays from Selfridges, especially during Christmas. This year, the combination of electic styling and method of display from Selfridges seem to be taking inspiration from Edward Linely Sambourne's Illustrations, from Punch. Take a look for youself:

Elements from childern's stories, such as Puss in Boots are one of the main themes...

with references to Little Red Riding Hood.

F.B

Once Upon A Time...

In honour of weird and wonderful re-worked fairy tales I'd like to make a quick mention to the two authors that I consider the Queen and King of the genre.

The fantastic feminist author Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber is a wonderful collection of subversive versions of Folk and Fairy Tales including Beauty and The Beast, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood; all with a slightly sinister twist.

And the King of the genre is by far Gregory Maguire; who has reworked various stories into comic tales for adults. His best known novel is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which has been developed into a musical by the same name showing in the in London's West End.

His other work include Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, showing the sinister side of Cinderella, Lost which is written in 'the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession, with dark echoing overtones of A Christmas Carol', and Mirror Mirror giving the reader the true tale of Snow White.

V.

Call To The Wild

All this talk of enchanted forests...
Images courtesy of Chadwick Taylor, Gaskell, Willamain Somma, Yelena Yemchuk

J.

Vogue...Again!

Vogue really do seem to love a good fairytale.  They're at it again, but this time its Vogue Korea's turn in their current December issue.

Mainly inspired by the more sinister side of classic tales and contemporary Hollywood hits, can you guess which ones?

(A tad Godfather, if you ask me...)

Fairytales + celebrities = winning Vogue formula.

Check out www.style.co.kr/vogue for more whimsical (or evil) delights.

M.

Inside-Out

If 18, Stafford Terrace wasn't so perfectly preserved then I imagine it would look a little like this now... a cracked chandelier, reams of bunting, a smattering of taxidermy (much to my dismay) and perhaps a real-life horse in the front room?

Images courtesy of KnightCat

J.

Beauty, Where's Your Beast?

Cosmo Alexander

J.

Mug shot

Speaking of red shoes, remember these?

A neon-pink cupcake with silver sprinkles to the lucky one who can tell me who these belong to?

Cx

Early adopters

How could we ever forget Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton?

The Fall

The Fall is a film about a young girl in a hospital who meets a paralysed former Hollywood stuntman who is kind enough to entertain her with the most imaginative and exciting stories. The stories become darker and darker while we start question the stuntman's motifs, and we are kept fascinated by the out-of-this world visuals and settings. The film was filmed all over the world and took several years to finish because the director and producer Tarsem (who worked on Lord of the Rings) and Spike Jonze (who directed REM's Losing My Religion) refused to compromise anything, and stayed true to their vision although they ran out of funds on several occasions. I am very grateful for that as this is one of my favourite films.

Cx

Moon Crazed

Isn't Sarah Moon the most magical name? If you believe in Kabbalah it is not hard to imagine how a woman with a name like that photographs girls like these. Don't they all look like an Alice?

Cx