Portrait of the week: Backyard Bill

A large number of new self-labelled street style photographers have emerged overnight and decided that it is their responsibility to start blogs. Enough cash to pay for a decent camera and the illusion of action will not teach you how to take a good picture. Blogs are extraordinarily self-centred organisms and so many of us are too ready to believe that they can produce beautiful and inspiring images of stylish people on the streets of Paris, London, New York and Tokyo. There should be a manual to help would be Sartorialists understand that it’s not as simple as it seems and that a successful outcome will not always miraculously materialize. In fact, most of the time it doesn’t and leaves no impact on the overall tone of blog culture. Our appetite for pictures of real girls and boys with a natural fashion presence keeps growing and encourages a flow of frustrating third-rate photography. How to deal with stuff on the internet is up to each individual and the weight we give it but the self-confidence and boastfulness of various “style” photographers is becoming almost insufferable. I’ve noticed a pattern repeating itself continuously in the past few months: the blogosphere is slowly turning into a land of photographers with a complacent sense of superiority and not living up to their own promise. Where will it all end? Obviously I should simply ignore the dull offenders and stop being so hostile but it’s not as easy as it seems when you’re constantly searching for fresh inspiration. For one irresistible and thrilling blog there are ten crap ones! It’s tiresome.
But I’m happy to report that occasionally I will find an individual devoted to producing interesting and beautiful work. I first came across Bill Gentle’s photography early last year while exploring his girlfriend’s wonderful blog. Immediate merciful relief! With Backyard Bill, Gentle has updated the idea of street style photography and has created a compelling inventory of intensely poetic images of stylish boys and girls in intriguing locations. His vision is truly original and his blog is simply one of the best of its kind. Every time he updates it I know that I’m going to be taken on a little captivating adventure and I won’t be able to let go. I admire the meticulously observed stylistic details, the soft and flattering light, impeccable technical abilities, the sense of authenticity and intimacy, the depths of introspection attributed to personal mementoes like a car, a bicycle, a garden or a chair. His images are modern love tokens, responses of the photographer to his subjects. He doesn’t just focus on the clothes but heightens the magic with a sense of contemporary immediacy.

All pictures courtesy of Backyard Bill

A fashion affair

Today WWD announced that Sharon Wauchob had been named creative director of Edun. My first reaction was to laugh and think that there had been a mistake, a fundamental misunderstanding. Wauchob is a designer with ambition. She has travelled the fashion ladder slowly but in the past couple of years it has become clear that she could fight her corner with strength and excellence. Her spring 2010 collection was beautiful and embraced a dark romanticism with its skilful embroidered lace, silk and slouchy drapes. I question the logic of these two names joining forces, they’re lengths apart. It is predictable from the Edun angle and definitely suits its agenda but it’s a somewhat unpredictable move for Wauchob. Edun is more about slightly boring ecological and sustainable clothing than inspiring contemporary style, a sort of social experiment with no edge that has not been much in evidence on the hard terrain of the fashion world. Is Wauchob the saviour?

Postcards from Paris

The second part of our holiday was spent in Paris. Ten days in one of the world’s most photogenic cities! We normally spend a lot of time seeing friends, which is inevitable since so many of them either travel to France at the same time as we do or simply live there. This time we decided to manage our time more carefully and punctuated our days with small adventures across Paris, experiencing the city like tourists. Despite the freezing cold and motivated by the fact that we had a car at our disposal we explored the empty Jardins de Bagatelle on New Year’s Day and admired the peacocks, took pictures of the skyline from the highest point of the Buttes Chaumont, spent hours at the Porte de Vanves market and bought six small porcelain birds from the seventies for €15, visited the ingeniously structured Le Corbusier house in Poissy (something of an anomaly in that area since it is now surrounded by council blocks), we also watched old films at our local cinema club, resented the huge crowds at the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise and spent evenings eating and walking the dramatically lit streets. And of course all hell broke loose when the sales started on the 6th of January! We started to shop tentatively and soon got caught in a whirlwind of enthusiasm and I’m not sure that the evidence of my over-spending should be shown here. I do have a penchant for shoes but this is a fashion blog after all…

All pictures and collages by July Stars

Normandy

I have just returned from a Christmas holiday divided into two. The first part was spent in a manor near Pont-l'Évêque, Normandy. We left London in the snow and arrived at the Eurotunnel believing that we would be able to catch our train without any problems. The Eurostar had been making headlines with its vain endeavours to reestablish transport as normal following the 18th December debacle, but when I checked Eurotunnel’s website on the morning of our departure no delays were announced. In our clearly optimistic and festive mood we sleepwalked toward disaster: 5 hours in the cold before we could embark with the car. A farce. But I had my sister and her zeal for entertainment to keep me company. We gossiped and talked about various subjects such as international affairs, the environment and … I’m joking! The global picture is more “sex, music, food”, Avatar and fighting over my husband’s iPhone to play a Parra game. By the time we’d all finished dissecting the latest Hollywood blockbuster (my sister wants to live on Pandora and hold hands with fluorescent crusty Camden Town dreadlocked creatures in a trance, my husband took a keen interest in the blue cat girl and I laughed at all the hippie crap) we’d arrived! We had a magical time. Good food, which is what France does best, walks in the countryside, mini explorations of Deauville and Trouville, Scrabble, roaring fires and great books.

Journal Standard Luxe

My appetite for fashion was satisfied last week. Where? In Paris. A paradox in my mind since I see this city as one of the most romantic places in the world, populated by effortlessly beautiful girls with whom you could fall in love at first sight, hauntingly perfect architecture, food that thrills me, good old-fashioned cafes with obscure corners and the best jazz clubs but a somewhat homogenous street style. I always admire the aesthetics of the French. They always manage to look mysterious and elegant with logical fluidity but there is often an ingredient missing: a touch of individuality, cool unevenness and bold ideas. I spend a lot of time in Paris and felt incredibly lucky when I discovered the Journal Standard Luxe boutique at 10-12 Rue de Montpensier. The Japanese brand, which opened its first shop in the capital three months ago, captures a very different mood and contrasts with the other boutiques in the area (Acne, Colette, Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, Kitsuné and the luxury names dotting Rue Saint-Honoré). The autumn winter collection maintains a hearteningly high standard and is infused with a discreet “workwear” charm I couldn’t help admiring. The room was filled with amazing pieces and a wonderful array of textures from denim to cashmere. The colour palette is exquisite and subtle varying from beige, browns, bluey-grey, fawn, white, creams and the most incredible vintage denim blue wash. I didn’t have time to ask the rep office what exactly is the concept at the root of this quirky brand but its delicate sensibility immediately seduced me. The people behind Journal Standard Luxe have made something unusual and extremely cool. The selection captivated me and I wondered whether I could justify buying a pair of dungarees, oversized boyfriend jeans, a hat, hooded sweatshirt and poncho. The answer was no since I had already purchased a pair of Pierre Hardy wedges, APC gladiator shoes and a fur coat but I still came out with the most amazing light-washed denim shirt. The quality is quite frankly superior to a lot of other brands out there at the moment but then again you wouldn’t expect less from a Japanese brand used to catering for its own demanding market. I’m still intrigued as to why the brand chose Paris for its first European venture instead of London, a place where Journal Standard Luxe would immediately be well received and successful, but the location in Palais Royal is ravishing. I have to thank the wonderful Mina and Noriko for answering my incessant questions and the lovely Keiko for letting me take a picture of her!

PS: the catalogues are stunning but available in limited editions only.
Journal Standard Luxe, 11-12 Galerie de Montpensier, 75001 Paris

All pictures in the collage are mine.
All other pictures courtesy of Journal Standard Luxe.