' I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.'



22/03/2015

Clothsurgeon: Contemporary Street Style Gets a Sartorial Facelift





Offering both ready-to-wear collections and bespoke individual creations, from a signature bomber jacket to timeless suits, Clothsurgeon produces stunningly innovative, totally wearable clothing, every piece of which is a must-have wardrobe essential.

 Visionary designer, Rav Matharu, splices the aesthetics of the streetwear scene in which he began with the bespoke silhouettes and sumptuous, premium fabrics of London’s Saville Row, to give our everyday staples a devastatingly stylish nip and tuck.

The founder of the London-based Luxury British menswear label broke the internet late last year when he unveiled a reconstructed ‘SweatSUIT’ he made from four pairs of Nike sweatpants to wear to one of the classic brand’s exclusive events. With requests now pouring in, Rav has since customised other bespoke, unofficial Nike one-offs, including a single breasted over coat made from running jackets and a two piece sweatpant biker jacket ensemble.

Clothsurgeon’s SS15 collection, ‘La Ravolution Sorrealiste’, draws inspiration from the uncanny forms and contours found in the works of artists such as Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Man Ray. Award-winning American rapper, Big Sea, sports some of the brand’s latest creations on the cover of his new album ‘Dark Sky Paradise’, released in a few days’ time.

Our diagnosis? This bold menswear brand is incurably redefining the wardrobe of the modern, style-conscious man.

To find out more about Clothsurgeon, visit the official website here.

Photos from Clothsurgeon

20/03/2015

‘Day Became as Night’ – The Solar Eclipse in Myth and Days Gone By


Across the UK today thousands of people looked to the skies to catch a hopeful glimpse of a partial solar eclipse; the first such occurrence seen by the nation since back in 1999. And we weren’t disappointed.


Much of the cloud that had been predicted broke and onlookers were rewarded with the breath-taking and eerie site as the path of the moon’s orbit crossed between earth and the sun and sent us into temporary twilight. Those who were stuck inside and missed it needn’t worry – you only have to wait a mere 75 years to see the next one here again.

Further up the northern hemisphere in Svalbard, where hotels have been booked up specifically for this occasion since as far back as 2008, the obscuration of the sun was total, and the islands were plunged into utter darkness. 



The word ‘eclipse’ itself actually derives from the Greek ekleipein, literally meaning ‘to abandon’, since the sun seemingly appears to forsake the sky. With this in mind, it’s easy to see how ancient cultures across the globe created all manner of myths and legends as they sought to explain an event which even today – despite our scientific understanding – cannot fail but to fill us with awe and a certain vague sense of dread, as daylight is momentarily extinguished.

Though they had a great knowledge of the heavens, the Inca people of South America were surprisingly unable to predict eclipses, so when one took place they became understandably distressed. They feared that Inti, the Sun God (and second only in importance to the Creator God himself), was displeased and had hidden his life-giving light from them. Although the Inca rarely practised human sacrifice, such anxious times often demanded it, in their eyes, along with offerings of food, livestock and gold, in an attempt to appease the god.


According to Hindu belief, the sun is devoured by the demon Rahu during a solar eclipse. It is said that he once tried to drink sacred nectar that would make him immortal, but the sun and moon quickly realised his plan and alerted the god Vishnu, who lopped off the demon’s head just as he had begun to drink. Since the nectar didn’t get any further than his throat, only his head became immortal, and floated off into the sky. Ever since, he has vengefully chased the sun and moon and manages to swallow them from time to time, but they always re-emerge from his severed throat.

The ancient Chinese, on the other hand, believed that it was a dragon consuming the sun when an eclipse occurred and so would shout and bang whatever they could get their hands on to frighten off the creature.

Viking Mythology predicted that Ragnarök (the apocalypse) would be brought about when two monstrous wolves devoured the sun and moon, so a solar eclipse undoubtedly had them worrying that the end of the world had arrived.

Whatever was thought to be their cause throughout the ages, eclipses have almost always been seen as ill omens. Various early historical accounts tell of one total solar eclipse that took place during a 6th century battle in the long drawn out between the Lydians and Medes. As fighting commenced, ‘day was suddenly turned into night’; both armies ceased their combat out of fear and became anxious to agree a treaty of peace.


Supernatural association with the phenomenon still exists even to this day. Some people maintain the romantic notion that certain significant cosmic events appear to be inexplicably connected to the life of King Richard III, whose body is to be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral this weekend after being discovered buried beneath what is now a car park in the city. On the day of his wife’s death in March 1485, a great eclipse of the sun took place; several days after Richard’s defeat at the Battle of Bosworth that same year, a partial lunar eclipse or “Blood Moon” would have shone down as his corpse lay on humiliating display, naked and bound, beneath the arches of a nearby church. Numerous fervent Ricardians see this latest solar eclipse, only a few days before his reburial, as the final celestial sign to coincide with important events relating to the life of the last Plantagenet king.

As well as the solar eclipse, today also marks the Spring Equinox, exactly halfway between the longest and shortest days of the year, when the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun’s rays, and day and night are of equal length. What’s more, the moon will be orbiting at its closest point to our planet, appearing much larger than normal as what’s known as a Super Moon. 

The rare coinciding of these three celestial events could be seen by the superstitious as a portentous sign of change, of new beginnings. Whatever the case, however, it is a day to make each one of us pause and be reminded of the many wonders of the universe we live in.


(Image 1 © Sarah Deboe 2015; Image 2; Image 3&4 taken from De aetatibus mundi imagines by Francisco de Holande; Image 5 Das Wunderzeichenbuch (The Book of Miracles), 1552. )


19/03/2015

'Mes photos de Kairouan' - beautiful 1950s snapshots of a timeless holy city


Rummaging around for unusual ephemera in a charity shop recently, I came across a handful of mid-twentieth century travel photo sets, some colourised, some in black and white, each bundled up in its own eye-catching slip case envelope. Among them was a set entitled Mes photos de Kairouan containing around a dozen beautiful and fascinating images of the historic Tunisian city in question, taken during the 1950s by a Parisian photography company.  I was captivated and needed to find out more! 

The historic city of Kairouan is one of the holiest cities in Islam and its ‘old city’ quarter, a labyrinth of winding streets and minarets, is home to the masterpiece of Maghreban architecture, the Great Mosque, as well as the Mosque of the Three Doors, which is the most ancient known example of a sculpted Muslim art façade still in existence. From the 9th to the 11th century, when the city was in its prime, The Great Mosque was a place of both religion and knowledge, a key, bustling centre of learning filled with scholars from across the Arab and Islamic world exploring spiritual thought and the sciences. In the 1980s, Kairouan’s rich architectural heritage resulted in it being deservedly (and thankfully) inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.


The photographs I found are snapshots of a city that has changed little neither before nor since they were taken; this timelessness is silently preserved in their striking black and white.  One image in particular is especially haunting. In the deserted, sunlit courtyard of the Great Mosque, stand two isolated figures: one, dressed all in black, is stood in the angular shadow of a building; the other, all in white and cloaked, is stood apart, nearer to the camera, in a somehow paler wall of shade. Both face us head on, yet both faces are obscured.  The resulting image is unequivocally eerie. Its human subjects were probably unintentional and almost certainly unwanted, but they nevertheless help create an evocative piece of art.

So, be always on the lookout for those small, easily overlooked mementos of the past – you never know what you’ll discover.

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