Shopping Bag greets you, and accompanying SB on this gloomsville day is a black and white checked Gianni Versace coat, labelled, double breasted, with black moulded plastic buttons. It's on the left, if that description wasn't comprehensive enough for you (see, I'm in a bullish mood today; I feel it goes with the jacket). It's a special coat though, because it once belonged to Elton John, and is, today, going to be auctioned off at the excellent Kerry Taylor Auction House (lot 1199). And if the coat that once hugged Elton John's back is your dream purchase, the beauty of this auction is that the estimated prices are actually pretty low: the High Estimate is £150.
Not for you? I don't want to hear it, because you're spoilt for choice. Do I sound brattish? Maybe that's because there's SO MUCH to buy in this auction that I'd be truly PEEVED if you stopped reading just because you're not an Elton fan.
Good day to you. Shopping Bag hopes you have not had an
interminable week. But if you have - then I have an event that might brighten the weekend that is tantalisingly beckoning.
It's a sale of products from Fine Cell Work. This is an excellent company which embroiders cushions (London skyline, left), makes rugs, quilts, and makes needlepoint all very contemporary. The difference from any other hip organisation is, though, that all the embroiderers are incarcerated.
Good day to you. This morning at 7am, Shopping Bag found herself in her garden, wrapping a dead rat in newspaper. It wasn't how I'd envisioned starting the week. Therefore this blog is just one attempt to recapture the joy of a Monday and rekindle the hope that this week does in fact hold myriad happy possibilities.
As part of this attempt, I give to you the annual RCA Secret exhibition. No, the EXHIBITION isn't a secret, because here I am telling you about it. It's no secret that it starts this Friday. And it's no secret that the exhibition is made up of lots of postcards - 2,700 in fact. What IS a secret is what artists have created those original pieces of art... until you purchase, that is.
Even with Shopping Bag's great modesty notwithstanding, this is a great tip. From this morning, until Sunday at 7pm there's a jumble sale that will justify that oft-used tag "unmissable".
For a start, if I tell you the "jumble" has been cobbled together by Gwyneth Paltrow, that'll give you an idea of what kind of event it is. Brilliantly, she's working with the excellent London charity Kids Company, which SB is a big fan of. (Here's an interview which ran in the paper during the summer with Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh).
Shopping Bag has opinions. You know this. But she is divided on the new hyped-til-it-can't-be-hyped-any-more-or-only-dogs-will-be-able-to-hear-the-fever-pitch Westfield Shopping Centre in west London. On one hand, the clamour to exalt the retail space is a bit more cheery than the clutch of "credit crunch" stories greeting us every morning, and for that it is welcomed. But on the other hand:
IT'S JUST A SHOPPING CENTRE.
I feel I need to reiterate that (albeit with capitalization, despite the connotations of madness), because even though it's new, and it looks good, and yes, it's handy too because there are a lot of shops under one roof, it is - when all is said and done - just a space that contains shops.
Did you miss all the art last weekend? Did you? Did you miss Frieze, even though it was the most publicised art fair EVER? Did you miss the FREE Art Fair where Gavin Turk gave out stickers? Did you?
If so, dearest slow-coachers, this is for you. This weekend, for the late adopters, The Affordable Art Fair is in town.
It's up and running this very second, in Battersea Park, and will keep going until Sunday evening.
In brief: everything is under £3000 (this may lead you to question the meaning of 'affordable', but SB encourages enquiring minds, so this is all part of her plan). There will be 100 galleries from all over the world
exhibiting contemporary art, so take a packed lunch: there's a LOT to see and do.
As godmother to not one but two children (yes, really: both sets of parents have not yet discerned Shopping Bag's truly ludicrous nature), I know that when you're buying a present for a newborn, it requires some SERIOUS thought.
Essentially, it's ridiculous that I've put so much brainpower into this, given that the recipients can't give their opinion, but presents for babies should be cool but not in a try-hard way, unusual without being too silly, within a budget but not within the one-play-and-it-breaks category. And never forgetting that the present is USUALLY a present-for-the-response-of-the -parent.
It is, then, with pleasure that I introduce you to 'Art for Baby'. 'Art for Baby' is a book which features the work of many a famous artist, including Damien Hirst, Bridget Riley, Julian Opie (if you liked Blur, you'll recognize his distinctive style, left), and Gary Hume.
This book sounds pretentious and, yes, it is in a way. But that pretension is undercut by the fact that all the images have been donated by the artists involved, and £1.50 of every book sold goes to the NSPCC in the UK or Children 1st in Scotland. So, you see, it is an excellent choice, demonstrating your good taste and innate benevolence in one simple gesture.
You may have noticed, discerning as you undoubtedly are, that
the term "pop up shop" has crept into our lexicon recently. It sounds extraordinarily avant garde and edgy, but at the same time manages to maintain a cosy familiarity, much like the "guerrilla" gardeners we're so fond of. But then everything needs a name, and Shopping Bag is alive to the fact that more literally accurate phrases such as "temporary shop", or "gardening secretly when you're not supposed to" don't have quite the same devil may care ring about them.
So it is with pleasure that I inform you of the existence of a new pop up shop, courtesy of the designer-producer Piet Hein Eek. Now, I like what this man does, and not just because "eek" - one of my favourite exclamations - constitutes his surname.
Good day! A very good day in fact, because I'm going to introduce you to these vintage shoe clips. Look left - red bows. Look right - red bows on shoes; shoes transformed.
Shopping Bag, for one, became a fan the second she saw this idea. It works, you see, because there's something unspeakably cool about casually clipping on a vintage something or other and 'customising' (I use this word very loosely here) the possessions you already own. It's all very now, what with no-one having any money to spend frivolously and also with 'vintage ' automatically connoting the hippest of hip. Win-win on all fronts.
Ho hum, hello people. A Monday requires at least one bright thing within its 24 hours, so let me tell you about a shop called Caravan.
Caravan is a shop of magical proportions; it's small, but seems to have a disproportionate amount of THINGS that cry out to be bought. Shopping Bag's favourite at the moment are the bunches of metal roses (in bronze or silver) - for £25 you can have an everlasting bouquet of exquisitely shaped flowers. Very striking.
The owner Emily Chalmers (who has written books, yes books, about how to make your home as fabulouso as her shop) has an eye for the unusual. Hence the life size crow (don't be scared - 'life size' for a crow, not a human) on the left makes for an ornament with a twist, and the concrete light-bulbs (right) she stocks are strangely familiar while simultaneously out of the ordinary.
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