Kingdom Of Style

1989 the number another summer...

The charming Rebekah of the splendid Fashion-Stylist tagged me to share my seven songs of summer.

As I type the rain is pissing down and the wind is howling down the chimney, but were I to hear any of the following, it would seem like summer in my head...

1. Fight the Power - Public Enemy
(Makes me think of festivals especially T in the Park)

2. Summertime - Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
(Can't argue with a feel good classic pop tune)

3. Just in Time - Frank Sinatra
( Feels like a drowsy afternoon, daydreaming)

4. Knights of The Jaguar - Rolando
( Dancing in the Campsies as the summer sun was rising. Truly truly 'a moment')

5. Daylight - Kelly Rowland
(No snobbery in The Kingdom, this is a laid back slice of modern summer)

6. Are you going with me - Pat Metheny
( For when you have been up all night, it's about 8am, lying on a sofa with someone special, talking quietly and you just start to drift into sleep. Bliss)

7. West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein
(Singing loudly, dancing madly, pretending I am both a Shark and a Jet)

Feel free to share the sound of your summer.

Right, I am off to put the central heating and a jumper on.

Queen Marie

A step too far...

Far far too far!

Sometimes I come across things on the wonderful interweb that are so wrong, that I shout NO NO NO at the screen. But when I came across Heelarious I realised I would have to call in the big guns. This calls for Sister Wolf and some extreme language - go sister!

Apparently these 'high heel crib shoes for babies' are extremely funny, completely soft, fully functional and May cause extreme smiling and hysterical laughter when in use (this is completely normal).

I gotta tell you, I'm not smiling or laughing...

Queen Marie

Bringing bathtubs back to life...

I love it when designers find another use for an object that may otherwise go to a sad end.
Here is another one.
Clever but expensive at £2620, brought to you by product designer Max McMurdo of reestore

Reestore is a line of green products based on the recycling of old home products. Taking everyday waste objects and turning them into charming yet functional pieces of furniture and accessories, Reestore attempts to “avoid traditional eco materials in favor of contemporary finishes, fabrics, and, above all, style.”

Clever and cool but I don't know how comfy it would be!

Queen Marie

A new ring in the City of Kings...

The lovely Stacey from Lapisette wrote to tell me about their new concept collection 'Form'
Each month they will create a new ring representing their idea of form and nature as one solid piece, combining intricate, organic shapes found in nature with solid sterling silver. The ring captures a stone's pure silhouette with an uninterrupted material and finish.

This is FORM ONE which will cost $275

For some reason this ring makes me think of the white city of Minas Tirith in The Lord of The Rings

Which would make it perfect for The King of Men and A Queen of the Kingdom of Style

Queen Marie

Just for the record...

We love vinyl.
We hold it in highest and eternal esteem.
But sadly we know, not everyone feels the same.
Some people even throw their old records away.
This makes us sad. But what makes us happy is when someone does something to give these poor discarded records a second lease of life.
Coming back as a cake stand! Yum Yum!

Brought to you by those clever girls at Lunacy for £30

Another super clever idea are handmade cd cases made of recycled records, made by artyfakt on etsy.
At only $52, each one is unique and I love love love them.

Strangely, I have this very Sergio Mendes record and if anyone tried to turn it into a cake plate or box, I would have them locked up in the tower so fast, their head would spin for a week. Tee Hee

Queen Marie

Every minute counts...

The last Subculture of the month is always a special one because Domsco is back in town.

To make sure that I enjoy every single dancing minute, there will be no disco naps and no resting of eyes! I plan to be down nice and early to dance away the cares of the week gone by!
Sir Samuel Beckett once said - Dance first, Think later! It's the natural order...

So make sure you dance tonight wherever you may be...

Queen Marie

Don't mess with the mafia!

Especially the Glasgow Craft Mafia!
They'll stich you up good*

Queen Michelle and I shall be in attendance today and in view of our penury will hopefully not be tempted beyond endurance. If you are in town, you too should visit!

Queen Marie

(* I was obviously channeling our dear chum enc when I made this quip)

Hiding In Plain Sight

As I have said endless times on this blog, I am a great advocate of de-prettifying. It's second nature to me to take my more feminine outfits and add a little something tougher, more masculine. One of my fall back ways of doing this was to throw my beloved old Maharishi camouflage jacket over the top.

I was a huge fan of Hardy Blechman's label and all his fabulous camouflage incarnates. As I sit in the house bored rigid today I dug out my vintage slip and leggings, that were stored in a suitcase, and popped on my camouflage jacket to nip out to the shop. I remembered just how well the clash of camo works over anything pretty.

A pleasant rediscovery indeed.

Queen Michelle

come on and touch...

The charming Jonny from Weber Shandwick got in touch a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would like to 'have a play' with the new Samsung F480 phone.
I said it would be my pleasure as I am a sucker for Samsung and all their shiny blackness

As shiny and black as my beloved tv

In the Kingdom we always say - "God is in the details"
and I have to say Samsung have paid attention to some details and seem to have totally missed others.
The box and packaging is a designers dream. The stock is GF Smith colourplan or some other delicious thing and it made opening the box a total delight. The phone itself too is a delightful little black box and the large screen bright, shiny and lovely.
This phone is packed full of gadgets, most of which I have still to use! A 5meg camera, fm radio, mp3 music player to name but a few. What makes this phone special is the touchscreen. To be perfectlty honest although the touchscreen menu functions really well, I find the scrolling through a bit jumpy and keep having to scroll back and forward until I find what I want. This could just be due to the fact that I am a bit clumsy, but practise may cure that.
I found it strange that in view of the camera function and the delicous big screen, that the phone did not come with a carrying case or pouch. I have taken to carrying mine in a little red silk pouch

Called 'Tocco' which is Italian for touch, this little phone is well worth touching up. Fnar Fnar.

Queen Marie

ps - HOLY SHAZAM BATMAN!

I forgot to mention THE BEST thing! - the phone has built in music recognition. You just record a little snippet of the song, wait a minute and up it pops with the artist and title. Sometimes even with an image! I tried it with a really old obscure DMX Krew thing and up it popped. GENIUS!!!!

Tasty Organic

Jonathan David Baker is a graduate of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and his collection for Rook Creative has been designed using recycled, organic materials. Not just any old recycled material though - Jonathan utilises sustainable materials such as tire rubber, discarded porcupine quills, paper mache and even a fox skull.

What he does with these materials is completely amazing. Very often we see recycled materials used a very gimmicky way but this is entirely more refined and the materials bare no resemblance to their origins.

I really hope we see much more of Jonathan's work in the future because it's people like him that could rebrand sustainable fashion as something luxurious and desirable.

Queen Michelle