Andre's back!

I'm very pleased to report that Obey is now instore!! Wait 'til you see the jewelry! The t shirts are, as usual, the best, softest cotton AND bearing the art of Shepard Fairey, who's prints might be out of the league of some of you, but at £35 for a t shirt, you can take your art for a walk instead of hiding it indoors. Anyone new to my blog or indeed who hasn't heard of Obey or Fairey might want to scroll down the left hand side and find all related blogs so you know what I'm banging on about...at the very least you've got to watch my "Obey Women" film which features madame's ladies in a lot of the new styles we now have instore.
Also, go and visit our friends at Obey http://www.obeyclothing.co.uk/ for more info.

Here are a few shots taken on the day of the shoot...




Madame xx

For future presentation....

I haven't finished editing my movie but I decided to do a trailer and finish it over the weekend.....! What a week! Obey asked me to art direct a shoot of their spring/summer 08 womenswear with my "girls" which we did on Tuesday and then I got to take a peek at the work in progress of Shepard Fairey's Nineteeneightyfouria show at the Truman Brewery AND I went to the preview last night...the gallery space is IMMENSE, the show is AMAZING and there's not many artists who could make such a dramatic impression on a place of that scale. Seriously people, you have got to go to this show...i'll tell you more later but i'm just about to run out of the door to go to the official opening...as I said, here's a preview:


madame x

Countdown.....

Can't believe it's almost November already!!! And yes, Guy Fawkes night is exciting - especially since I plan to go to Lewes near Brighton with my sister because they know how to burn an effigy there!! In fact, as you can see from these pictures, in my family we've already started the Halloween celebrations, my friend Laurence threw a voodoo Halloween party on Sunday which was fantastic!!





But I digress....the OTHER reason to get excited is Shepard Fairey's exhibition at the Truman Brewery starting 2nd November which you have GOT to go to!!!

I've been banging on about Fairey and Obey on this blog for quite some time now. You probably know his work but didn't realise who was behind it. You've probably seen Andre the Giant all over the world in sticker form or on billboards or on t shirts and wondered who made them or what they meant....or some of the more thought provoking layered pieces that look like peeling Soviet revolutionary posters. You may have even bought a "Make Art Not War" t shirt from this very shop just because you liked the sentiment and thought nothing more of it.....now is the time to brush up on your Fairey! Here's a little clip of the artist talking about his work:

Anyway, his first solo show in London is a date for the diary...there's so much more to tell so check the blog for regular updates on the Obey phenomenan!

Madame x

Scrambled Head and The Lost Society

Not sure why but I feel like my brain's been whisked briskly with a fork....or something...I keep putting things down then forgetting where, and I've got a ton of things to do, but it's that one step forward two steps back thing going on......

So I think I'll just post some pics from the last couple of weeks in no particular order. There's been lots going on, celebrations, birthday parties, my boys turned five, Nick turned forty...but still undresses in public with the vigour and vim of a teenager...

Sonja took all the photos except this one which I love because Sonja and I look like very expensive dominatrix's..

It was upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood and very victorian sitting room...

and the impromptu photo-session was a right laugh.
I also went to Ronnie Scott's for the first time to see Jimmy Scott with Nick which was wonderful...at least it was in the second set when we asked to be moved as we noticed some people left and promptly got seated at the very front! So that's my Ronnie Scott's tip...lie in wait for the early leavers! Suddenly we were on intimate terms with Jimmy and he seemed to be singing to us alone...Motherless Child made me well up indeed, such a beautiful voice out of such a frail frame, in fact he really is delicate, can't stand to sing anymore......GO AND SEE HIM IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE!!!! If you don't Nick'll have something to say about it!!!

Our friend Emma Forrest came by the other day out of the blue which was a lovely surprise! Haven't seen her for what seems like years, we've spent some wonderful times in LA at the Formosa or just hanging out at magic hour, shopping at Trashy Lingerie, getting tattoos, in fact we all shared a hotel room once rather memorably.....Anyhoo, she used to live in London and used to come to the first Shop where we met when she was barely out of her teens and a rather accomplished rock n roll writer, following the Manic Street Preachers and Wu Tang Clan amongst others. Now she's a screenwriter in Hollywood if you please and about to have her FOURTH novel published, called Damage Control - out soon!!!

Here she is getting into a bit of Andre the Giant.

Duke and Joe turned 5 last weekend which would have been more fun if we weren't indoors due to the freezing cold and flash flooding! However James kindly lent his house and we had a party all the same, picnic and pass the parcel on the kitchen floor....probably still covered in glitter thanks to Joe and his glitter wand!

Duke made his share of mess with the water-filled canary warbler!

I like those Antony Gormley figures on Waterloo bridge and the south bank, they look lonely, sad, optimistic or post-apocalyptic depending on your mood as you walk by or trundle past on the bus....they're quite friendly too, Nathaniel struck up an interesting conversation on the way home the other night.....


Next Thursday do come to the Lost Society in Clapham for an evening chock-full of entertainment! Not only are the wonderful All About Eve Babitz playing but Kevin Rowlands is djing along with Paul Gorman, Max and Pippa, should be marvellous! Get your glad rags on and come south of the river, this bar is fast becoming THE place to hang out!


see you there!
madame xxx

The Art Blog....

What an exciting day for madame!

There was a spring in my step this morning on my way to work as I was DYING to see my new Obey installation in the dressing room!!!!! As my bad luck would have it I was over in the office with Emma doing those pesky VAT returns when Simon from Obey turned up to surprise me with his paste bucket, Andre the Giant and wallpaper!!!! (I know his tricks, he figured I'd be on his case with my camera, documenting his progress every step of the way - AND HE'D BE RIGHT!!! He's a bit like me, i.e.camera-shy!)

Here's just a detail, but the best thing about it is that it's on the inside of the dressing room door so is a treat for those who enter there to try on the delights we have on offer! I thought we needed a figure in there, just for scale you understand, never let it be said that I'm self-obsessed!

Cos clearly I'm NOT, just wanted you to see how thrilled I am - A big thankyou to Obey!!!!!

Talking of art, has it escaped your notice that there's art history being made next door upstairs at Maison Bertaux??!! Matthew Buckham's show has only been open since 28th March but what a HIT!!!
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/emerging_artist_of_the_week/Tania has transformed into art agent extraordinaire, whisking the great and good of the acting and art-worlds around the upstairs tearoom, only to leave a coffee and pastry later proud owners of a painting from art's next big thing! Sorry to name-drop but you know Turner prizewinner Jeremy Deller? Well he bought this one:

Bernard Hill and Duncan Roy (director of the remake of Dorian Grey) have bought and I saw Ralph Fiennes having a butchers yesterday, whether it was at the art or the other goodies on offer I'm not sure....!!

Teach Your Children is my favourite.
How wonderful, not only is Maison Bertaux now a boutique, it's an art gallery as well!
(Enquiries re Matthew's work to Tania Wade 07985 395079)

So you can feed your mind, your tummy and your insatiable shopping habit all under one roof!!! Doesn't get much better than that does it? See you soon friends,

madame xxx

Deep breath...........

I always leave it until I've got SO MUCH TO SAY!!! Must post more regularly but where the f*** did April go???!!!! My life is flashing by like a speeded up recap on America's Next Top Model....without any top models!!!!

A week or so ago, Obey took the other shop for a couple of press days and made it look GREAT! When I went down to visit Gordon in between appointments I was so impressed! Made me nostalgic for the old gaff even though I love my new life as resident madame. It was also a great opportunity to look at the A/W Obey again, really looking forward to getting that gear in....

Been putting up bunkbeds in the boys room and unearthed a load of old photo albums and found another Obey shot, this time when Max and I were in Japan, must be at least 8 years ago...!

I think the next pic was taken on the same outing and I thought I'd throw it in to make sure you're concentrating....

Dean Chalkley, rock n roll photographer came to visit the other day, he's shooting a Levi's lookbook and on the lookout for "manly cowboys and vintage-faced girls" between the ages of 20-30 who can give good bombshell and would like to come to a casting tomorrow (4th May)! If you think you've got it going on why don't you email nina1cowan@hotmail.com and shake out your denims and slap on a bit of slap for Levi's!
Here's Dean giving good geezer, he's djing in southend-on-sea on Sunday night and when I've finished writing this I'd better try to sort out a hotel....

Then Mark and Jason drove by...they must have started on the Gumball Rally by now....in the red and blue g wizzes which looked so cute parked next to each other. The traffic wardens just wanted to ask them about the crazy little cars, unusually friendly for once....

My sister Sally and Ben McLaughlin the artist who she met in India and I went for a slightly boozy lunch on Monday at The Boot and Flogger which of course I've written about here before and is one of my favourite old boozers (the old boozers old boozer!) It's perfect for a long lunch actually because they only stay open until about 8pm, being peopled by quite alot of city types, politicians and the like who like their lunches long and liquid but perhaps an early night, probably nodding off during Newsnight... We laughed alot, particularly when Ben did an impression of a nun on iron supplement - you see this is funny because my sister's writing her doctorate on GM foods, particularly rice and one field of research is these nuns in the Philippines who get iron supplemented rice and can be observed I suppose because they don't get out much - anyhoo it was a bit like the Terminator singing "a wil o the wisp, a flibberdigibbit, a clown...." and you probably had to be there..........

Then a spot of "modelling" on Tuesday night (who said my life's not like ANTM?!) at the Cochrane Theatre for Paul Gorman's Clash Culture presentation where the women who designed the stage/street clothes the Clash wore from the late 70's to Combat Rock talked through some of the surviving outfits. Michon and Kolowska read from their diaries written at the time when they were late teens caught up in the Clash mania, sewing outfits right up until the minute before the boys ran out on stage, which was great.

Nathaniel got to wear one of the original t shirts made for the security guards at Clash concerts, this is him getting into character: "Thug Mrs"

Here's Jen from the Priscilla's and the other guys in the very recognisable zippy primary against black outfits..

Then Bernie Rhodes, notorious Clash manager got up on stage to make a "five minute statement" which ran on much longer and veered between moments of hilarious clarity, to a fashion audience primarily "I'm surprised to see you all here, I thought you'd all be at Topshop!" and great glimpses of a heady insane time, to slightly directionless rants about how we're all on the Titanic but he's good friends with Scorcese who wants to document his life....and in many ways we ARE on the Titanic metaphorically speaking.....Anyhoo, he calls himself a Punk Philosopher and he's right enough....

I love those situations when there's a polite yet terrified silence.....time to sink some free booze and sigh with relief afterwards....

Last thing to mention which I'm so excited about it that I've managed to lay my hands on some original 70's t shirt transfers which are amaaaaazing! So if you come and leaf through the file I've got some fantastic ones, these are two of my favourites, both featuring apples, but one with a glamour model pouting within it and the other with the tag "taken" attached. I've got some plain tshirts so you can choose the one you want and I can have it ready in a day or two for collection, or indeed if you have a garment you want the transfer to be put onto we can do that too!!! £39.95 with a t-shirt, £20 without.


I've got more of some than others and it's a case of while stocks last, but do come down and have a look....madame xxx

Part 2: Obey history, Obey future....

So now to what else I've been up to this week....I went out to vist with Simon and Gordon at the Obey HQ which is a log cabin by the side of a lake (!) in a secret location! Seriously it was pretty amazing, Simon even warned me against high heels, and if you know me that's quite an extreme request! "A bit boggy" he said so I decided against suede stilettos and plumped for the eley kishimoto converse which've seen many a boggy patch....
Now, if you've been paying attention to the blog I've told you about Shepard Fairey before....he of the Obey and Andre the Giant phenomenon, which began in the late 80's on a whim to make a sticker and is now HUGE! In fact, you've probably seen his artwork even if you didn't know who the artist was, here's just a few of the pictures i've taken over the years of Obey sightings in New York....



We've been selling the women's Obey here in the cake shop, and i went to look at AW 07, imagine if this was the view out of your office window btw.....

There's a little white aeroplane in the middle of the picture taking off but you can't hear a thing, it's so ridiculously idyllic there! And a farm next door!!! Whatever next!

I was loving the collection OMG there's tattoed ladies, Obey wallpaper prints, leopard lined hoodies and the most cooolest jewelry you've ever seen, not to mention jeans to rival Cheap Monday....I've already got mine on order, yipeeee!!
This is Simon who's in charge....
....who gave up trying to dodge my camera!
And Gordon, who didn't mind at all, look how busy he is!

In the summer they go wakeboarding at lunchtime for goodness sake and hang out at the clubhouse....this is surely living! When I got back to my soho basement with no discernable fresh air and pored over the amazing book of Shepard's work "Supply and Demand"- which i'll let you have a look at if you come down to the cake shop - i thought I need to get out more, but at least i'm going to the seaside for my mum's birthday this weekend, AND my sister's back from the Philippines, AND I'm going to see Eagles of Death Metal in Southsea!!!!! Wooooo Hooooo!!! Anyway this is me enjoying the book back in Soho, I think this is going to be a big year for Fairey and you heard it here first........madame xxxx

OBEY - PEACE!!!

Shepard Fairey from Obey has been in London recently and he did this piece in Soho next to the Windmill Club which is so great, I always associate Obey sightings with New York but i love having one of his pieces just round the corner here now. It's wierd because it must've been about 1991 when someone first gave me an Andre the Giant sticker, i was hanging around a studio on Denmark St with Rokeby, i think just smoking weed which shows you it must've been ages ago cos i hate the stuff now, and another guy i met who was american had this little pile of stickers and he gave me some to spread the word....it was just this really compelling image in black and white, quite crudely done, but i thought it was great, and becuase i used to spend alot of time in New York then, i started seeing his artwork every time i went, and always had my picture taken next to it and looked out for his art pieces which got ever huger as the time went on.....I'll try to dig out some of the pictures to post up here. Anyway, when Simon from Obey offered us to sell the t-shirts i was super-thrilled and this is just a little history lesson way of telling you that on Friday we'll be getting some new Obey t's for Shop at Maison Bertaux, i'm trying to get some of the men's too but they're a bit scarce we might have to wait til early next year...sorry boys, but anyway i'll let you know on friday what we've got - CAN'T WAIT!!!! pippa xxxxx