Category: Rants and Raves

Seeing in Plain Sight

Camila Batmanghelidjh 'Haven' her office in South East London. 28.1.2015 Items > Felt tips - I absolutely love felt tips. Since I was a child I used to constantly draw with them and now I use it with the kids during therapy but also to sign all our letters of thanks to donors. I sign every letter personally because for me it's so important to honour the people who have contributed to Kids Company from the smallest donations to the largest ones. There is a lady called Ann who is, sadly, now very ill and dying of cancer. We never met before until November 2014. But every year she's been sending me boxes of felt tips as Christmas presents. I cannot tell you how happy they made me. It was as if from a distance someone had understood how much I loved felt tips! > My table of trinkets - I make sure that I have lots of bits and pieces on my table for the kids to play with when they're talking about difficult and traumatic things which make them feel ashamed. They like to look at something else and avoid eye contact to minimise humiliation. I have trains, aeroplanes and tiny cars as well as bits for teenagers. I always keep real candles. The children love it and it's as if the room gets replenished through the flicker of the flame. Sometimes children want to take away something from the table forever to keep. They also bring me things to add to the table. > My duck pond - The duck pond was created by a little girl called Ariana. She and other kids bring me plastic ducks. I use it for family therapy sessions when children want to show me what's going on in their families or children's homes. > Sculpture of me in the bath smoking a spliff - Over 80% of the children who come to our street-level centres arrive addicted to drugs. Many of them were given substances when they were very young children by their own family members. I keep telling them they have to give up taking drugs and I chase them down with drug tests. You could say I'm relentless about it. So, as a reveng

Having returned from a cosseted haven like Port Eliot where people were free to dress in a riot of colour without fear of judgement, you might think seeing Camila Batmanghelidhjih plastered all over the newspapers and websites, and now on this blog might be a pleasing  sight.  Except Batmanghelidhjih, the Iranian-born British philanthropist, is in the… Continue reading Seeing in Plain Sight

Conversations about the New

At Pitti Uomo in Florence, you almost get battered with brands that constantly talk up their “timeless”, “classic” and “well-crafted” credentials.  It’s evident everywhere you go in many of the tradeshow’s booths and on the men that stalk around Fortezza Basso.  Therefore when Thomas Tait was deep in discussion with Pitti over a year and a half ago to be… Continue reading Conversations about the New

Future Maison

>> I’ve been on a vintage Courrèges fixation for a while now, which means I should be jumping for joy over the recent news that present day Courrèges, under ownership of former ad execs Jacques Bungert and Frédéric Torloting, will be revived under the creative direction of Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, who had their own label Coperni Femme.… Continue reading Future Maison

Let Them Save Knits

I first learnt the term fashion “cabbage” from that tell-all guilty pleasure read ‘Fashion Babylon’ by Imogen Edward-Jones.  She described “cabbage” as rejected goods from a manufacturer.  They’re also more commonly known as seconds.  Anything made in excess or with any vague defects might be classified as seconds.  What happens to those seconds is a bit of… Continue reading Let Them Save Knits