Hot Descendants

Do the boys from the new New Zealand label Descendant have something special to offer? We think so. Here is an outake from their recent lookbook shoot by photographer Russ Flatt and Black Fashion Director Rachael Churchward. Look out for the Descendants article in Issue 10 of Black Mag or check them right now at Wunderkammer in Ponsonby Road.

Mert & Marcus Magnificence!

Merts & Mercus catch Kate having a quiet one

Ok, so while we wait for the arrival down under of perhaps the most anticipated fashion magazine yet, Katie Grand's Love Magazine, it is interesting to read various reports on the mag coming in from overseas. Reportedly a record retail sellout in it's native London, Love Magazine appears to be a solid step forward in the direction that Grand's iconic Pop was travelling. One of the most obvious features though is the reuniting of Grand and the photographers that have helped to create her legend Mert & Marcus. So while we wait let's enjoy these two images by the M&M maestros - Kate Moss above and cover girl Beth Ditto below - we love LOVE and we haven't even seen it yet!

Chillin Cello

Tony, the chillin' cellist

On Thursday we were lucky enough to have spent a couple of hours watching the Urban Soul Orchestra and a bunch of talented locals rehearsing for that evening's People In Your Neighbourhood performance at the Transmission Room - congrats to Gareth Farry and the substantial crew involved for pulling this great idea together. The Urban Soul Orchestra is a contemporary and versatile British string ensemble that has been breaking down barriers since their legendary early performances with Soul II Soul.

A line up of USOs

As we are featuring PIYN in Issue 10 of Black, photographer Shaun Pettigrew began setting up backstage for a series of portrait shots. I got talking to Tony Wollard USO cellist who told me about (and gave me a sneak preview of) a solo cello performance he was doing this Monday night at The Pumphouse, Takapuna. Tony is an award-winning cellist who has won many prizes including first prize at the John Lil Awards and the South East Music Awards. He said he would play a piece by William Walton which was actually written for Prince Charles - as all Princes Of Wales apparently play the cello and have a piece written for them. Prince Charles has never actually resined his bow for this piece though as it lay hidden in a draw for many years, until now. Among other pieces, Charlie's will be performed for the first time ever by Tony and a selection of local cellists on Monday night. See you there...

Sneaky Squizz - Black 10

Georgia Frost by Michael Schwartz, New York - Black Issue 10

Black 10 is shaping up nicely. In New York Michael Schwartz has shot Ali Stephens for our main girl cover, Dree Hemingway and Georgia Frost (above) whilst the list of photographers who have work featured in Issue 10 is making us wish we had the time and wherewithall to pull them together for an exhibition: Robert Erdmann, Nick Knight, Gavin Watson, Michael Schwartz, Paul Empson, James Demitri, Russ Flatt, Craig Owen, Max Doyle, Derek Henderson, Shaun Pettigrew, Asha Fuller and Andre Jewell are all high quality photographers we are proud to publish.

Word Of The Week - Ululate

ululate \UL-yuh-layt; YOOL-\, intransitive verb:

To howl, as a dog or a wolf; to wail; as, ululating jackals.

She used harrowing, penetrating nasal tones and a rasp that approached Janis Joplin's double-stops; she made notes break and ululate.
-- Jon Pareles, "On the Third Day There Was Whooping and There Was Moshing", New York Times, August 18, 1998

Or perhaps:

Passing the property developers house at the cusp of dawn, the stillness of the moment was shattered. Above, behind smoked glass railings, a group of shirtless former All Blacks were ululating in unison.
-- Mark. E. Fellis Getting To Know Susan Of Herne Bay, Parnell Press 2005

Neighbourly Love

Joshua Jang is in the hood

OK. So you live in Aotearoa, Argentina or maybe Arkansas but the question remains; who are the People In Your Neighbourhood? Not sure? Well The British Council, New Zealand are and they're right into bringing the whole neighbourhood together - albeit from other sides of the world.

P.I.Y.N is a UK loves NZ loves UK love story. A meeting of musical cultures, the realisation of which will be held at the Transmission Room this Thursday - and at WOMAD in Taranaki on the weekend. P.I.Y.N is described as "a celebration of Auckland's cultural diversity through music" - and importantly - is underpinned by a unique and much-loved-in-this-neck-of-the-woods British crew. The Urban Soul Orchestra were the strings behind Soul II Soul. Say no more, you happy face excuse me, was that a thumping bass for a loving race?

Some of the diverse local talent to collaborate with the USO on both the live show and album includes; Richie Setford, Brother J, Kadambari Raghukumar, Levani Vosasi, Joshua Jang, Maite Elguetta Clavelle, Kelly Kahukiwa, Mani Fegundes, Renee Liang, Daniel Larsen, Greg Brice and more.

People In Your Neighbourhood really is a lovely potpourri of culture and sound. And it's on high rotate here at Black...

People In Your Neighbourhood
8 pm, Thursday March 12
Transmission Room
Auckland
Tickets are $20 on the door.

Alexander Wang At Workshop

Local sartorialists will be excited to hear that Alexander Wang is joining the likes of Miu Miu, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Vanessa Bruno, See by Chloe and other internationals at Workshop's Auckland stores. First up is T by Alexander Wang, a diffusion line of super soft luxury basics ranging from tank tops to t-shirt dresses in his signature languid style. Given Alexander Wang's current successes in the Northern Hemisphere collections you can expect to see the style savvy flocking to Workshop Newmarket and Workshop Vulcan Lane in the coming weeks. It's great to see the folks at RCM continuing to expand the retail offer here in Aotearoa - enriching local wardrobes in the process - by adding class labels like Alexander Wang to their excellent Workshop, Workshop Denim and Helen Cherry labels. We're all for a positive approach amidst the naysaying doom and gloom...

Mag Elvis Is Leaving The Arena

A couple of posts back we remembered Nova Magazine fondly. It would be somewhat tardy of us NOT to remember that soon, we will also be remembering Arena Magazine in the past tense after 22 years on the newstands. According to current publisher Bauer Media the iconic British monthly is set to bid farewell on March 12 and a quick glance at Arena Homme would offer some sort of explanation as to why. Offspring Homme (below) is a modern, directional, conceptual, fashion-driven and targeted tome. Arena itself (above) had simply become another mass market man mag...

Young, graceful and black

I was lucky enough last week to be present at the opening night of the latest performance by New Zealand contemporary dance saviours Black Grace, the mesmerising and powerful Gathering Clouds. Gathering Clouds is once again choreographed by Black Grace founder and internationally acclaimed choreographer Neil Ieremia, who has proved himself as one of New Zealand’s greatest living talents. Beautiful in its fury, Gathering Clouds responds to controversial claims made by economist Greg Clydesdale in which he warns that Polynesians display “significant and enduring under achievement” - a problem that he believes immigration is making worse. The piece fights back at his controversial call with a voice that is strong and proud, and the segment depicting the Dawn Raids of the 1970’s (when the homes of many Polynesian families in New Zealand were brutally raided in search of alleged “overstayers”, spawning the movement known as the The Polynesian Panthers) is particularly powerful. The production will be touring the North Island for the rest of March and into April so try and grab a performance if you can – I can guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.

Super Nova

Here at Black we like to remember and respect good magazines from days gone by - call it research. One that has popped up somewhat ubiquitously for us lately is Nova Magazine. In the 1960s Nova was the number one style bible in Britain with a fashion-leading brand legacy that lasted well into the '70s and beyond. Nova wasn't just your average light-as-Twiggy mini-skirt mag though. Nova had a voice and tackled some of the 'issues' of the time head-on. Feminism, homosexuality and racism were all addressed with serious and sometimes controversial features and if that isn't one of the best cover lines of all time (above), to illustrate the fact, then we don't know what is.

The magazine ran its natural course for 10 years until its closure in 1975. Unfortunately, IPC the publishers and owners of the masthead decided in a moment of confusion to resurrect the title in 2000. Large publishers it seems often mis-read the market, timing or even validity of magazines they launch and Nova 2000 died a year later. Best let sleeping mags lie...

Wild Weston

Aussie jeweller Matt Weston's gypsy punk creations bring out the Hunters & Collectors in us.

Describing his collections as a 'sub-cultural lost and found with a measure of subversion and a light hearted twist', Weston's innovative ideas have culminated in collaborations with Friedrich Gray and Marnie Skillings amongst others and a burgeoning reputation.


Weston is beston.

Radical, Modern and Black

Rad's black

The current cover of Black Magazine features Heather Marks wearing a Rad Hourani creation. Inside the magazine we profile the young, gifted American who is undoubtedly one of the rising stars of world fashion. Hourani's A/W 09 showing confirms that he is a master of shape and concept, is wonderfully futurist, and more than ever, is an unabashed lover of black. In a useful issue-to-issue segway, Ali Stephens (below, walking for Rad Hourani) is Issue 10's covergirl. This time though, the cover girl will be wearing Alexander Wang...


It all seems perfectly synchronistic that Rad also chose Suicide's late 70's electro gem Ghost Rider too. A man after our own heart. Here's the video on Models.com. Enjoy.

A Day In The Life Of A Little Red Wig

Model Jess Clarke redefines the term 'redhead' as photographer Russ Flatt works in the shadows

Ok. So it's Sunday and we are in the middle of 3 days of shooting fashion and beauty for Black 10 here at Kingsize Studios in Auckland. Today we are shooting a story with a couple of fabulously fuzzy wigs created by Black Hair Editor Greg Murrell and his assistant Jannine Jones - and, as is often the case when shooting wigs - it's turning into a fun day largely because the wig has taken over.

Here's some pix of the shoot in progress and some of the Black crew getting wiggy with it.

Above: Hair Editor Greg Murrell shapes things a little as Rachael Churchward looks on
Below: Editing on screen

Assistant Fashion Editor Ant Gratten does his German-Samoan candy floss imitation

Make up artist extradinaire Virgina Carde wigs wistfully

The Wiglet according to Jannine Jones

Plain wigged out Greg Murrell

Photographer Russ Flatt, always that little bit different, throws a spanner in the works...

It DOES Matter If You're Black Or White

The times they are a changin'...

Our friends at Jezebel.com have done a dandy job of calculating the diversity of models that walked the recent NY Fashion Week. In my head, they used a Chanel calculator for said sums - I mean, seriously, Chanel now does guitars, snow boards, bikes and segways (don't worry, I had to Google it too) so why not a calculator? I could think of 100 Russian mafia wives who would just adore doing their rubles to euros conversions on one, dahlllling.

Anyway.

So, 116 labels showed at NY Fashion Week, with a total of 3,697 outfits, and of these 668 - or 18% - were, to be blunt, not white. Of these models, 41% were black, 36% Asian, 22% Latina and 1% other exotic stuff.

This figure represents a 6% increase on last year, which is great news. Yay! But, according to the 2006 US census, the general population is 26% not white, so the NY runways are still lagging behind...

If Jezebel do the sums again in September, I'll give you all an update. If they don't - any volunteers? BYO Chanel.

Kia ora LV

Throw Your Hands In The Orakei Air. Photo: Norrie Montgomery

We were fortunate recently to be invited to an event called Kia Ora LV. The location said it all. Held at Orakei Marae, Tamaki Makaurau's finest piece of real estate and the ancestral home of the Ngati Whatua o Orakei, the event was a welcome to the sailors, billionaires and international Louis Vuitton folk who were in town for the recent Louis Vuitton Series by the Ngati Whatua.

It was a stellar event, not so much in a limousine and champagne way - although there was, of course, plenty of Moet et Chandon on hand - but in an inspiring melding of the world's leading luxury giant and the people of Ngati Whatua, Auckland's iwi. The powhiri, waiata and warmth of the welcome given to the global bosses of Louis Vuitton, sailors Barker, Butterworth, Coutts et al and their bosses (Larry Ellison among them) would have made most New Zealander's proud.

Photo: Norrie Montgomery

During the speeches there was talk of a long term relationship between the Ngati Whatua and the LV Series with the iwi taking an active role as the hosts and landowners of the area. Congratulations to Louis Vuitton and Ngati Whatua for creating an event that reflected the (relative) harmony of the Louis Vuitton series, and the gulf it was sailed in so well.

The Black Eye - New York Black Eye Sam Crawford

We will soon be launching The Black Eye, a Black Magazine take on street style worldwide with teams under way in NZ, Sydney, Melbourne, New York and London. We will soon add Paris, Los Angeles and other cities. As fashion week rolls on in New York our New York Black Eye Sam Crawford has been out and getting busy. Here is a sample of what you will find on The Black Eye.

FIVE Boogie Monsters From Way Back When

Lenny White and Stanley Clarke

Sick of Aunty Julie's tunes? Us too. Throw these five on at your next family do:

Bits and Pieces - Don't Stop The Music 1981

Jimmy 'Bo' Horne - Spank 1985

Uncle Louis - Full Tilt Boogie 1979

Rod - Shake It Up (Do The Boogaloo) 1980

Lenny White - Kashmir 1999

MAC Live At Fashion Weeks Here On BlackLOG

Amber D

M.A.C isn't just about make up technique and trends, the cosmetics leader is pretty hip on the technology front too. As New York Fashion Week AW 09 rolled into action this week M.A.C was there backstage with cameras and technology to keep you updated with the action behind the scenes. Utilising the Twitter.com client M.A.C's make up elite are able to post status updates fresh from all the shows in between swishing brushes backstage.

If you look to the right you will see the M.A.C team and their most recent updates. The crew are also shooting a series of clips that will publish first on Style.com then later each day at this M.A.C You Tube site. We liked this idea so much that we decided to run the M.A.C Twittering widget throughout the northern fashion week season.

Even better is the news that the lovely Amber D. (pictured above), talented M.A.C Senior Artist for NZ, will be attending Milan Fashion Week where she will be one of the 5 artists to 'tweet' during that event. Should be interesting to see who or what chirps up!

Karen Walker Fall 09 New York

How good is Karen Walker? Great, if her RTW range shown Monday at New York Fashion Week is anything to go by. Congratulations Karen, Heathermary and the crew...right up there with the best.

Top 5 songs by Manchester legends The Fall

Many reading this will have never heard of them but The Fall are a highly influential band from Manchester, England. Formed in the late 70's and still going strong, The Fall are unique. BBC DJ John Peel, himself a British music legend, loved Mark E Smith and co above all others. They were quite simply his 'favourite band'. If you get the chance, go in search...


1. New Big Prinz - Everything is here; the groove, the bounce, the hand claps, the twanging guitar and lead singer Mark E Smith at his lyrical, demanding best "Check the record, check the guy's track record, check the record, rock record. He is not appreciated. Big Priest"
2. Hit The North - One of the earliest Fall tunes and a Manchester Hall-Of-Famer. This monster Hacienda hit is a call to arms to leave grubby old London...
3. Living Too Late - when this ep came out in 1986 it included a song called Hot Aftershave Bop! The rhythm is classic Fall lilting groove.
4. Touch Sensitive - first released this decade, Touch Sensitive could have been made 30 years ago. "Hey, hey, hey, HEY" goes the chorus. So simple, so good.
5. Fifteen Ways - "There are fifteen ways to leave your man" chants Mark E Smith sounding positively upbeat about it all. "Break. Now..." and most perfectly "you gotta be cheerful hearted"

As John Peel once said "The Fall. Always different. Always the same."

Model Army - The ID multi...

Oh to have twelve covers. Just some of the latest I.D's wonderousnous...