NEWS
Letter from the Editors
4 UPFRONT 12 TAX CREDIT
LIFE & STYLE
11 CUCUMBERS 18 BREAST CANCER 26 SINGLE MOTHERS 44 GRAFFITI 46 SEX PAGE
Hello from the team at LOVE LONDON!
FASHION FIX
7 STREET-FASHION 8 SELFRIDGES 17 LILY COLE 20 DAHLIA SISTERS 23 HOT OR NOT?
CULTURE & FOOD
14 30 32 33 40 42 43
UPCOMING ARTISTS FILM DIRECTOR INTERVIEW BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL FILM REVIEWS GLOBAL FOOD JAMIE OLIVER REVIEW RESTAURANT REVIEW
MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE
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24 CLUBBING 34 LONDON’S MUSIC SCENE 37 LONDON vs. MANCHESTER 38 BACKSTAGE WITH THE MOONJETS
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elcome to the first issue of Love London magazine! Our magazine is designed for the typical Londoner as a guide to their very own capital of residence. Delve in to find information on everything London, from fashion and music to arts and entertainment. Our aim is to supply you with the low down on exclusive events happening across the city, giving you the opportunity to grab the best seats in the house before the tourist rush. Catch up on news and relate to other Londoners in our real life section, or bag the hottest styles fresh from the streets of the most stylish city in the world. If arts and entertainment is your thing, our culture and reviews section will provide you with the best reading material for your morning commute. Discover which bars and clubs suit your style and where to head for a night of wining and dining after a hard days work. We hope you enjoy our magazine!
Rebecca Easton and Roseanne Cox
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Up and coming artist
Heather Moore is one of the many up and coming artists in London. She lives, breathes and eats art, and is very determined to succeed with her inspired art works. By Hodan Jamal ell me about yourself; your name,
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age and about you in general? “My name is Heather Moore and I am a 38-year old art student. I originally come from Port Glasgow, on the West Coast of Scotland, but have been living in London for 14 years with my partner and their 18 year old daughter.” Heather came late to creating art, having attended university and worked in the automotive and engineering sector for most of her career. Then she had the ‘misfortune’ of falling ill and having to give up her job. She recuperated at home and was forced to spend long periods of time in bed, so she learned to use Adobe Photoshop to create artwork. Heather says “I couldn’t really draw at this stage, so I decided to take an evening painting class at college, then found myself enrolling for an entry level art course full time and was quickly put into an intermediate class. Now I’m studying an HND and will be applying for second year at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, later this year.” What medium do you use? I mainly use acrylic paints, solely because they dry quickly. My preference is oil paints in terms of quality and depth and their ability to blend is second to none. The downside is that they take a long time to dry, and being in college I have so many projects on the go that there simply isn’t enough time to allow for their use. Also, you have to develop patience when using oils, whereas acrylics allow you to work much faster. In addition to acrylics, I work with a variety of other media which makes for interesting work surfaces and helps bring my work come to life. Who influences your art? So many people!, My partner Joseph is, and always has been, my muse. I bounce all my ideas off him. I come up with ideas and pitch them to him, and he returns with things that I might not think of. I might completely disagree with what he says, but he always takes me to where I want to go. Basically I think aloud and won’t shut up until he gives me his input. He gets peace and quiet in return… for a while. It’s a symbiotic relationship. As for artists, I think there’s a revolving door which sees many people go through it, and it really depends on which projects I’m working on. My studies push me
towards artists I normally wouldn’t think of or necessarily like, which gives me a greater appreciation for the artist and their work. At the moment, I’m researching ToulouseLautrec, JMW Turner, Edward Hopper and Robert Rauschenberg – artists I had never been particularly drawn to – but they are a huge influence on my current work and I now have a greater understanding of them. I take what I can from them, and move onto the next project. What kind of art do you paint? I paint mainly representational, semiabstract or expressionist art but because I’m still learning, I’ve yet to find my oeuvre. I want to make art that people can see many things in and I don’t want to make it too obvious to the viewer. I like ambiguity in my work; I like it when people say, ‘I see …’, or ‘it looks like a…’. I don’t mind if it’s not what I was thinking when I made the painting. I think that it is half the fun of looking at art, and half the fun of making it. My art changes most of the time and it makes me think about other ideas. I like when that happens because it makes me think further and Far left: ‘Visage/Bowie’ inspired painting by Heather. Right top: by Heather Moore, based on “sunrise with sea monsters” by Turner. Bottom left: by Heather Moore, based on David Hockneys “Pool series.”
broader then what I already had in mind. Who, to you, is the most influential artist of the 20th century? Giving this a lot of thought, I have always been torn between two people: Damien Hirst and Banksy. I came down on the side of Banksy, as I think he is invading pop culture on a massive scale. I know he’s not the first street artist, and many will say there are better, but I think he is ‘on message’ and says many of the things we are all thinking. What I think attracts people to Banksy is the fact that his work is so subversive yet accessible, and he himself is such an enigma. He is a paradox of the “cult of personality”; everyone knows who he is, yet they have no idea who he is! He’s a little bit dangerous; he’s the masked antihero ‘dirtying’ up our streets, and society loves anti-heroes. Street Art is reaching mass audiences because of Banksy, and this is why I picked him over Hirst. I don’t believe Hirst’s work is as accessible to those outside of the art community. What inspires you when you are painting? It might sound clichéd but I draw inspiration from everywhere - I think it’s integral to being an artist. Everywhere you look, everything you see has the potential to be
translated, whether it’s texture, pattern, shape or colour. I don’t necessarily look at an object and say ‘that’s a window’. I look at it and say, ‘what do I see when I look through the window?’, ‘what colours do I see?’, or ‘what if I moved the window to where you would least expect it?’. Words are another source of inspiration. I ‘mindmap’ a word, making a visual thesaurus, to see where that word could take me. This is a journey in itself. Where would you like to see your work someday when you’ve become successful? Whilst the idea of seeing my work in the Tate or the Louvre would be amazing, I honestly don’t mind where it is. My local hospital had a gallery where the students from the local art school would get to display their work and I have many memories of hours spent walking the corridors admiring their paintings. In fact, it is from there that I really developed my appreciation of art. If I were able to display my work in such a place and it brought happiness to just one person then I’d be just as happy. Hopefully I will soon be the next big artist everyone talks about.
“I want to make art that people can see many things in.”
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It’s a shoe story baby, just say yes September saw the opening of Selfridges’ new shoe department -the largest in Europe. How will this transform Harry Gordon Selfridges’ flagship store? By Emily Bonner.
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elfridges has long been famed for its window displays and they’ve lived up to that reputation. Each window contains a fantastic exhibit to showcase the veritable feast of footwear. A pink dishwasher has been turned in to the shoe of the moment -the clog- pale blue Dust busters (?) masquerading as a pair of vertigo inducing Alexander McQueen’s. The remaining windows have a fairytale feel to them; the Wicked Witch trapped under a house, flailing legs with ruby red slippers on the end. Exploding out of the back wall is the hand of the Yeti grabbing mannequins in furry boots through a snowy terrain. The shoe galleries (located on the 2nd floor) is a 35,000 sq ft area of shoe pleasure, designed by architect Jamie Fobert. The shoe concessions begin at high-street and go to high-end. Topshop, Dune and All Saints are at the front of the floor which then leads off on to rooms containing Chanel, Louboution, Vivienne Westwood and Jimmy Choo (to name just a few.) To promote the opening, a temporary booth complete with a velvet curtain for privacy has been erected. On entering the booth you are given the option of pressing two buttons. The right is a button to press for a set of four photos with your desired shoe(s) and on the left, an option to tell your own shoe story which is what a host of designers, bloggers and celebrities alike have also done (although they didn’t have to sit in the somewhat cramped booth to do so.) I chose to take the Guissepe Zanotti Comet shoes-which cost a whopping £750- in to the booth. The court shoes are adorned with scarlet crystals. Very Dorothy. As the shots were taken, I had one thought; I don’t think
rooms for French, German and American customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. In an interview with The Milwaukee Journal in 1932 Selfridge described himself as “pretty much the wild and untamed man from the wild and untamed west when I came to London from Chicago more than a quarter of a century ago. And for me to introduce American business methods to Londoners was regarded as no less than an intrusion.” Although he had amassed a considerable personal fortune, he felt that it was London that made him from a man in to a gentleman and not even he could predict how substantial his impact would be on British retailing, even to this day.
The ‘shoe galleries’ is a 35,000 sq ft area of shoe pleasure
we’re in Kansas anymore Toto. The photo’s look great as they beautifully lit, plus they’re yours to keep as a souvenir. The shoe department even has its own mascot- the Shoeperhero. His costume was designed by Philip Treacy for the campaign shot by Bruce Weber. His ‘about-me’ section on the website notes that ‘in any shoe crisis he’ll come to your rescue when you don’t know who else to turn to.’ This kind of inventive marketing ploy dates back to the opening of Selfridges in 1909. The man behind the store was astute marketing mogul, Harry Gordon Selfridge
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who encouraged the concept of shopping for pleasure rather than utility.
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n 1906, Selfridge- who hailed from a wealthy family in the USA- took a trip to London. He left feeling somewhat unimpressed with the quality of the established British department stores and made the decision to spend around £400,000 of his own money in building his own shop in Oxford Street. The new store, Selfridges, opened to the public on March 15, 1909. It set new standards for the retailing business, which it still does. Promotion through paid
advertising was almost unheard of in England before this and the window displays were and still are a great talking point as well as a way of free advertising. The layouts of the shop floors were arranged so that the merchandise could be made more accessible to customers, giving them the chance to touch and peruse at leisure. The staff in the store were trained to always be on hand to assist customers, but not too forcefully- ‘can I help you?.’ In the shop there were also chic restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception
The story of Selfridge however, does not end happily. He lost almost all of his money after the great depression and died alone in Putney. The only record of the man behind the legend is a small blue plaque on his former residence in Berkeley Square as a small but respectful commemoration of the great man. Yet his legacy lives on in the Flagship Selfridges department store in Oxford st which is still going strong after all these years, so much so that it has now expanded to Manchester and Birmingham. For the man who is famed for supposedly coining the phrase ‘the customer is always right’, the stores continued success shows that his legacy lives on. Pictures; (main photgraph) a cross dressing Dorothy complete with ruby red slippers, (top right) the stiletto with flashing lights, (middle right) the pink dishwasher clog, (bottom right) A giant trainer covered in lightbulbs, (bottom left) the ‘dustbuster’ McQueen style shoes.
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Street style Walking through London, you’ll notice that no two people are dressed the same. Love London scouts some of the city’s most stylish residents. E.B INDIE LOOK
BOHO STYLE
TYPICAL STUDENT
ETHNIC CHIC
BEN: 20, from Berkshire
UGNI: 18, originally from
HARRY: 21, from Stoke-On-
TANZI: 19, from South
wears T-shirt and hoodie by
Lithuania but currently living
Trent wears jacket by Bar-
Wales wears ASOS cardi-
American Apparel, jacket
in Essex, wears jumpsuit
bour, hoodie from JD sports,
gan, T-shirt from Marks and
vintage, jeans and boots by
by Serendipity and lace-up
jeans by Urban Outifitters
Spencers H&M jodhpurs and
All Saints.
boots from Office.
and shoes by Vans.
Topshop shoes.
Why this look works:
Why this look works:
Why this look works: It
Why this look works: Her
The pattern on his t-shirt
The paisley patterned
used to be that Barbour was
cardigan is bang on trend
brings vibrancy to what
jumpsuit proves that fashion
just for farmers but lately the
with the knitted-by-your-
would otherwise be a plain
can be functional as it’s a lot
bramd has become a hit with
gran feel plus A/W hottest
outfit. The layering on top
easier to navigate London on
trend-conscious city dwell-
colour - Camel. The shoes
creates bulk which contrasts
a bike when in trousers. The
ers. The smartness of the
are majorly covetable; clog
with his skinny jeans and the
boots toughen up the look,
jacket contrasts his ripped
with brown leather, studding,
biker boots are very much
making it more edgy than
jeans and of course Vans are
and feathers, although I’d be
up-to-date.
romantic boho.
a design classic.
worried about rain.
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Up-front
On yer bike
Ever had to be somewhere in London and the nearest underground station is 15 minutes away? Instead of having to walk that distance, you can now easily get on a bicycle and give yourself some spare time. At the moment you can only get a ‘Boris bike’ from the stations when you are a member. This is an easy process. Wait for the keys to arrive in the mail and you can get going. Soon casual use will be available as well, which allows you to pay immediately at the docking station. The price depends on how you use the bike. The first 30 minutes of every journey are free. You just have to pay the access fee of £1 for 24 hours.The bikes are pretty easy to use, a bit heavy and the saddle is slightly uncomfortable but besides that it’s perfect for a short ride. So if you’re comfortable with cycling in the busy traffic, hop on the Boris bike! C.B
Gold standard
Go glam with this ‘gold beaded chiffon collar’, an accessory to see you through winter. It can dress up jeans or is perfect with that LBD. By Freedom at Topshop, £40. D.B
Three floors of affordable cutting edge fashion, new designers, catwalk inspired looks and accessories make the store a
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
phenomenon.
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eleased two years ago, it seems us Londoners are only just discovering this gem of a book. By the same author of ‘The Kite Runner’, Hosseini produces yet another must read. The twists and turns of the plot, the poetic tint to his writing, and the emotional convulsions he is able to evoke within the reader really does make ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ one of the most accredited books of it’s decade. The story follows two Afghan women whose lives unexpectedly interconnect,
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he heart of London is the underground.The oyster card
2. URBAN OUTFITTERS The brand may hail from America but its London stores
and bind together in a small village in Kabul, which later becomes victimised
have a homely feel and whiff of
through war. Tragedy brings the women together, and they both fall into the hands
Cool Britannia. Urban Outfit-
of an ethnic Pashtun, who favors the idea that women are nothing more than dis-
ters brings to you a range in
carded possessions. The book gives an insight into the
homewares, accessories and
cultural and religious differences of Afghanistan’s past
fashion suited for every occa-
and present – the tragedies, the expectations and the
sion.
poverty suffered by not only women, but both sexes. c.g
3.RIVER ISLAND
was introduced in 2003 and has
The Palace of Illusions -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The unique ability to translate
become the London commuter’s
Divakaruni is a magician when it comes to telling
catwalk trends into wearable
passport around London, making it cheaper for the public to travel around. Buy it for £3 from any London underground station or newsagents with the oyster card
a story, with her addictive writing and absolutely charming wit, she has you hooked on her book from the first page. This is a very different version of the great Indian epic. She has brought a beautiful love story to life in this book, the love that Draupadi has
sign and top it up when needed. Once you swipe your
for Karna, who is suppose to be the bravest and most
oyster card you have to deal with crowded platforms,
handsome, but has no real family. S.M
unpredictable smells first thing in the morning, but at least you can save some money. A.A
Palmers tea shop
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1.TOPSHOP
Who’s reading what
London underground is your oyster
Located in one of London’s most diverse areas; Camden. Palmer’s pet store was previously actually the world’s first scientific zoo. It still has the same front which advertises “MONKEYS, TALKING PARROTS, REGENT PET STORES, NATURALISTS.” The entrance has a very cute little seating area with small white tables and chairs. It can be very useful if you are smoker since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007.
Top shops on Oxford Street
The interior is very fresh and most of their furniture has been bought from charity or vintage shops. The left wall is covered with mirrors and the whole place has a“homely atmosphere”. They have over 40 different kinds of teas such as; Mango Sunrise, Ginsengs Guardian Blend, Regents Park and Adventure along with many others and cost just £1.90. They also have a selection of cakes and cookies to accompany your cuppa. So come down to Palmers Tea Shop, 35-37 Camden Street,Parkway NW2. H.J
and affordable clothing explains why it’s the main name sponsor of Graduate Fashion week.
4.NEW LOOK This shop does a fine job of keeping cash-strapped fashionista’s happy. C.K
Gauguin exhibition That Tate Modern gallery is showing one of the most important artists in the world. Paul Gauguin has been a legend and very important in western culture and this is the first comprehensive overview since 1965. His paintings are quite magical and we get the chance to really see and scrutinise his work, as they look so fresh. What we see is the hero of modern art. Today, some see Gauguin’s painting as paedophilic as he painted half naked young girls, but it was in context for his time. He also had a passion for landscapes. The exhibition covers everything from his time in Tahiti from 1899 when he painted one of his most famous paintings called “Manao tupapau”. Every room of the Gauguin exhibition has its own story. His painting is astonishing and is a beacon of modern art history. H.J
Gauguin Tate Modern 30 September 2010 until16 January 2011 Bankside, London SE1, 020 78878752 www.tate.org.uk/britain
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