Dunedin, the model factory...

We've said before here on Blacklog that Ali McD is a scouting/casting genius and today's email from the southern model maven reiterates that. In such a small city she still manages to find world-class models on the street, in the malls and the supermarkets of a city about the same size as Cambridge (UK) and Cole Hillman: age 21, height 6ft has it all...bring it on Ali you legend you...

At last!

For some time now Auckland has lacked a bar/restaurant/cafe/watering hole that you can pop into after work and snack on a good sized meal, created on the barbecue, alongside a quality beer or wine that doesn't break the bank. Enter Ponsonby Social Club on a Tuesday or a Sunday. The Barbie is set up in the courtyard and manned by a quality barbecurist (is there such a word?) and for only $7.50 you can tuck into a scrumptious (above) roll/bap with sausages from Westmere Butchery and salad. The menu on those days is built around the barbie and is all super affordable. Fill the gap? You bet. Perfecto!

Reason To Believe

We've recently re-discovered Bruce Springsteen's magnum opus Nebraska. The album was recorded by Springsteen and the E Street Band but it was deemed that Bruce's original demo tapes; folk music with little more than guitar and harmonica, loads of passion and a fine voice was better. What an inspired choice. The Boss, irrespective of his hanky pants and bad dance moves can write a tune or two, and on this album virtually every track's a winner in a gentle, folksy-rock way. A twist in the tale is that during the recording of the demos Springsteen heard the seminal electronica of Martin Rev and Alan Vega's Suicide who, alongside Kraftwerk are the underground Godfathers of the genre, and State Trouper is an obvious homage to Frankie Teardrop. Country fans will love the eponymous Nebraska, Atlantic City and Reason To Believe. Nebraska was recorded on a Portastudio which made a small recording apparatus renaissance in the early eighties and it lends an intimacy that most modern folk bards would die for. Pure song writing at its best.

banana milkshake

I've been obsessed with banana milkshakes lately. They are so easy to whip up and they make the perfect cold and refreshing sweet treat. My simple recipe involves a blender and some delicious ingredients:

1 banana

1 cup of milk

1 scoop of good vanilla ice cream

1 tablespoon of honey

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Black 12: Masha and more

Issue 12 of Black Magazine is well under way with a number of shoots in production or completed and the editorial template well advanced. In Sydney, two of Australia's finest fashion stylists, David Bonney and Paul Bui will each be contributing to Black for the first time. In London Robert Erdmann has completed his first shoot for 12, this one a cutting-edge beauty shoot with Katie Felstead, Kirsten Piggott and Lyndall Mansfield. In Paris Paul Empson, June Nakamoto and crew have just shot Masha Novoselova (above) for Issue 12. Masha appeared in a single shot in Black 9 as a model in Karen Walker's New York Fashion Week show of that season. She is well established, is known for her "lips and body" and in recent times has amassed a plethora of commercial editorial and campaigns but she was perfectly in synch with Paul's requirement for this editorial. Paul casually described the shoot as "off the hook" and given the quality of our Paris team's past three shoots that's saying something...

Flickring Nick

Here's our photo of the week by Nick Weihe which we found at COACD. He takes photos of the things we all do; family, friends, animals, bikes, skies, hedges, rivers...and does it well.

Get on the ModaCYCLE

Karen Walker S/S 2010 Image: Frida Henry

ModaCYCLE is an international fashion site which offers alternative coverage of developing and established designers from around the world, including our own Karen Walker (above). The site has been created by a group of fashion photographers who "wanted more out of the industry in which they work" and showcases a high standard of catwalk photography. Editor Charles Beckwith is well aware of the bunfight photographers experience on the podium at the end of a runway when 200 snappers are vying for the same space and in many cases, the same shot, and encourages his team to think outside the square. A good example of this thinking can be seen in Sandy Ramirez's capture of the Argentinian showcase at this season's New York Fashion Week. Ramirez used a Sigma DP-2, a camera "half the size of a fist" which produces images "big enough to print on a door." The image below is from that showcase and features fashion by Benito Fernandez. It's refreshing to see thinking outside the very small square of the catwalk photographer's podium...

Tree People!

I wandered in to Wunderkammer yesterday to congratulate them on the fantastic black metal Christmas tree they had erected across the road. So metallic, so black, so curious, so Wunderkammer. Of course, it wasn't them. Telecom it seems have erected the tree. It was not designed as I was told on the street by an overseas artist but by local artist David Eversfield and team and there are now two of them, one in Auckland and one in Wellington. Endearingly, it is surrounded by four red phone booths that kids can go into and call Santa. How cool is that?

Dear fabulous tree creators, I have returned home tonight to discover that the tree was installed at Vic Park last year and is indeed a thing of beauty at nights as the clip below shows. Please accept my apologies and thanks for brightening up the Christmas season with your art.

Grant

so many boots, so little feet

i have been on an endless search for shoes for my birthday since before my birthday, which was 3 weeks ago mind you. i finally finally finally have a pair!
i thought i would like these guys but after trying them on, not so much...

(the one above courtesy of polyvore...)


but like i said, they just didn't work right once on. if you have small ankles, you just look as though you're wearing gardening boots or some weird cowboy boot slippers.

but alas! these beauties brightened my day


pour la victoire "malena" boots

Workshop & Helen Cherry store opening show pics

As mentioned in the post below Workshop & Helen Cherry opened their new store at 74 Macelvie Street, Ponsonby last Friday night. It was a swell party and featured a show of new seasons Workshop Denim and Helen Cherry. We're big fans of both ranges. The Helen Cherry range is one of her best yet and Chris Cherry is pushing the denim strongly...love the denim shirts..all pictures by Olivia Hemus.

Hunterman From The Hills...

Image: Go Go Paris

...well mountainous Switzerland anyway. Swiss national Yvan Rodic started the Face Hunter blog in Paris but has since travelled the world covering street fashion from his new base in London. Face Hunter is wildly successful as a style report and broadly admired as there is no doubt the man takes a mean street pic and has an eagle eye for personal expression, oh, and he's in Auckland this week as a guest of Designer Direction and Plaything/Slam X Hype. If you don't get along to the invites-only gig and want something more than the online experience then the good news is that Thames & Hudson will be releasing a 320 page book (above) of Yvan's fashion vision in March 2010...Eye candy for the style hungry indeed.

finally saw the avedon exhibit at moma yesterday. followed by delicious oysters, champagne and cheese goodness.

this was my favorite photograph there, though i cannot for the life of me remember the writer's name... i want to say ____ hood (?)


this was my second favorite... "drifter"




and of course the classics...

elise daniels 1948 wearing a beautiful balenciaga suit


my icon, brigette bardot

the other day i went to the barney's 40% off sale. i saw the most amazing balenciaga corduroy wide-leg trousers. i fell in love with them! but they only had the size smaller than i wear. as luck would have it, i happened to be browsing the internet for a comparable pair of pants and i stumbled upon these beauties



almost identical and for only $40. ann taylor loft. who would have thought that that website would have such cute pants. crazy

Beam Me Into Ponsonby

Tonight, we were fortunate to be able to help Workshop Denim & Helen Cherry open their new store in Mackelvie Street, Ponsonby, and celebrate a new era for the iconic New Zealand fashion labels in Auckland's new fashion centrality, Ponsonby Road. The venue is not short on size or stature and resonates all that is good about both brands and their collaborative history. The work of artist Martin Popplewell is ubiquitous, with a substantial painting on the building's exterior, features and finishing around the room, a hand-painted Workshop logo on the building's facade, and a to-die-for rug near the changing rooms - all extending a love affair with collaborative art projects that has spanned three decades for founders Chris & Helen Cherry. Embellishing the family name tonight was head music man Dylan Cherry and his friend Jake and a bunch of hard-working staff and crew who have put in long hours of effort to ensure that this is the ultimate local store for the brand. Perfect then, that tonight should also signal the arrival of another new partnership, with one of the world's great car companies, BMW. The picture above was taken yesterday, of Helen alighting her new BMW in a pair of Alexander Wang's - which of course are only available at Workshop & Helen Cherry...more pics of the night to come.

Daul Kim

It's weird to think that the beautiful girl we're all going to be seeing for the next 3 months on the cover of Russh magazine is no longer with us. Daul Kim apparently committed suicide in Paris yesterday at the age of 20. How incredibly sad.

Love Want More

Tonight in Sydney, Imogene Barron and Bec Parsons release the second of their Love Want "self-published creations." This time they have joined forces with Bartolomeo Celestino and art director supreme Jonathan Zawada to take the whole shebang to a new level. Other contributions or appearances come from Ben Sullivan (with whom Barron teamed for the current issue of Black), stylist Talvin Charter, creative of many talents Axel Moline and the fabulous Hannah Holman (above) whom we are sure you know by now. Hopefully Love Want will be available in Aotearoa soon but in the meantime as their strapline says "Love Want leaves you wanting more."