photo essay: Ethiopia street style

In Ethiopia it's all about statement hats and very short shorts. there's also a penchant for vintage, and the trend for distressed denim seems to be rearing it's head. a comeback? bold colours and patches, clever use of pleats and drapes, ethiopia is on the blood raw cutting edge of contemporary style.
















photos by adam

summer sound:

stress:

there will be book

photo essay: shitvogue

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in an effort to a)combat the problem of dog shit in the street, and b) be more environmentally friendly, i have been recycling my neighbours' old copy of american vogue on my twice-daily double dog walk forays. i think the results are surprisingly pleasing considering the subject matter, and also pack a strong environmentally conscious/political statement about the female beauty myth punch. it'll be a new craze: shitvogue.

hello, let's introduce ourselves

we are adam and antonio. and we look like this.

photo essay: halloween sleeveface

ok, pretty straight-forward. rita and i in barcelona, bored and a little tipsy on halloween with a camera and an eclectic collection of records...

here's me with peggy lee and her giant freak hand.

me and adam ant.

rita does a highly convincing nancy sinatra...

and lou reed.

i always wanted to be bowie. this was my moment.

suzanne vega...

rita does marvin

and then someone called astrud gilberto.

and now i'm the world famous jaques brel...

and bruce "the bruce" springsteen.

a rather hairy arm-pitted patty smith featuring rita...

being replaced by "olivia" (who knows)...

and ultimately the singer from a band called "berlin love life".

and that, my friends, is that.

i am white people

there are two reasons why i like stuff white people like. well, roughly two. it's funny. it is also brilliantly true, and describes me and all my friends. and maybe it's a test, like the hipster thing... like, it's ok if you are self-aware... maybe? 

i particularly enjoy this (yes, renee, i am thinking of ou reading your adbusters on a fashion shoot....)

i love ted

a talk on photography given by the editor of national geographic (who is actually very slightly irritating). have a look, then, if you fancy, browse ted talks in general which are bloody brilliant. 

also, the economist the you wish could be your dad, hans rosling, gives us an insight into how statistics can challenge our perceptions of poverty. this is really, really fucking cool. 

go hans!

abu dhabi

photo essay: mozambique street style

maputo, mozambique. they may be poor - just 46% of kids get a primary education, and the average life expectancy is around 40 - but that doesn't stop them from having some hot fashionability. here are a few of our favourites:

just look at the shoulders on that. this outfit may have that "just thrown together" look, but it's actually very clever. as every mother knows, a heady mix of patterns and colours will disguise any cooking stains. 

asymmetric shorts. fuck yeah. 

the beady eyed amongst you may have noticed that this is not, in fact, an actual woman. still, the fact that someone dressed her up in a fetching shell suit top and sun hat, PLUS bothered to accessorize her with a tray and a bottle of gin to create that shagged-out-eighties-prostitute-waitress-on-a-break look impressed us greatly. 

bold colours, little hats. all good for this season. the totally non-threatening military look is back, for sure. maybe. 

this lady lives in a 400 room luxury hotel which was abandoned in 1963 when mozambique went all to shit, and is now inhabited by around 2500 mozambican squatters. it has a court, a market, a cinema and a dancehall, but no running water and only car batteries for electricity. she started trying to tell us about it all but we were just like "damn, bitch, you got some hot styles!"

In blatant contradiction of the dressed down casualness of the last decade or so, some people still wake up and choose to keep the spirit of gentleman's tailoring alive. Next time you throw on a t shirt and jeans, think of this guy and make an effort. If he can, living on a dollar a day, and with literally no access to vogue homme, then so can you. 

this season's must have accessory?

all clothes models' own. all pictures by adam or antonio. 

obrigado e boa noite

i am officailly leaving portugal! here are a selection of things i will miss (not including of course my friends):

carne de porco a alentejana (pork, AND clams. genius)

walking over this bridge with miga to the park and seeing beautiful porto

going to this beach, even in winter

bookshops that look like this

drinking these on very, very hot days. particularly on roof tops.

and some other stuff too!

i like very much the nature

spring has sprung and i'm feeling just wonderful. excited about the future and generally optimistic. i'm thinking about lots of new projects, including a new photo essay i've started, as well as a few top secret things. 

i thought you might enjoy this video from yeasayer, called 'wait for the summer'.

summer holidays

well, thanks for voting. as always, i take your opinions very seriously, so somewhere else it is. mozambique to be exact. for five weeks over july and august. thanks for the help!

a foray into arts and crafts

i was asked to do something on a small canvas for a charity exhibition recently. as i don't make art, i wondered what to do, and in the end i deceided to get a "lenço do namorado" (lover's hankerchief) made. traditionally, illiterate fishermens' wives embroider love poems for their husbands in fishing villages here in northern portugal (specifically in viana de castelo). for non-portuguese speakers, the last line of the poem translates as "i like you".