Sublime Magazine Issue 28 | RAW

AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION FOR MEN AND WOMEN SUBLIMEMAGAZINE.COM

rio de Janeiro são Paulo Buenos aires n e w Yo r k Miami Milano

FOR CREATIVE D THINKERS AN INQUIRING MINDS

roma to k y o

ISSUE 28 2011

designed in rio de Janeiro by oskar Metsavaht. Made of fish skin, par t of a sustainabilit y project by instituto e.

SUSTAINABILITY | DESIGN | CULTURE | LIFESTYLE | FASHION | CURRENT AFFAIRS | NATURE

BIMONTHLY ISSUE 28 | 2011

RAW RADICAL ALTERNATIVE WORLD

LONNEKE ENGEL IN HER OWN VOICE

RAW

FRANCES CORNER FUR: THE REAL ISSUE

SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE WE’VE HAD AN EYEFUL THE SAVOY HOTEL LUXURY GREENS UP

UK £4.95 US$ 6.99 EU €7.99

28

LUCY SIEGLE NICELY OBSERVED LEBANON MOUNTAIN TRAIL GO THE LONG WAY

NY 97 Wooster st. - soho MiaMi 1111 LincoLn road - MiaMi Beach

sublime 28 cover.indd 1

11/07/2011 14:06

“coMinG HoMe”

H a n d w o v e n o u t d o o r f u r n i t u r e c r e at e d w i t H w e at H e r - r e s i s ta n t d e d o n f i b r e

www.dedon.de Leisure Plan · UK Sales Office & Showroom Silver Street · Stansted Mountfitchet · Essex C M 24 8 HD Tel. 00 44 1279 816001 · Fax 00 44 1279 816089 · sales@leisureplan.co.uk

sublime 28 cover.indd 2

11/07/2011 12:49

“coMinG HoMe”

Handwoven outdoor furniture created witH weatHer-resistant d e d o n f i b r e

sublime_JULY11.indd 1

11/07/2011 13:16

Thymann sublime_JULY11.indd 2

11/07/2011 13:18

sublime_JULY11.indd 3

11/07/2011 13:19

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

ISSUE 28/11

32

Special features 52 TRUTH BE TOLD

Do you really want to hurt me: has political correctness gone mad?

76 AFTER THE STORM

76

All hail the armies of relief workers who pile in in the wake of a disaster

80 against the wall

Photographer Mark Lehn documents the extreme working conditions of India’s marble mines

Columns 12 LIFE IN THE BIKE LANE

Wayne Hemingway believes that car use in Britain is rolling over

60

64

28 RISE OF THE RADICAL

Jeremy Leggett sees the more alternative options to managing society

46 MAKING LEMONADE

John Grant looks at the hidden benefits of recessionary times

86 the fur’s flying

Frances Corner Real or faux, can either ever be ethical?

Interviews 14 model behaviour

18

Lonneke Engel is using her celebrity status to spread the word about sustainable living

80

42 WHEN BUSINESS COMES NATURALLY

Sublime’s beauty editor interviews the head of Natural Empathy

60 LOVE ALL, SURF ALL A dude is born: one that’s fighting to protect the marine environment

64 THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL

Adele Bethel introduces Mirror Mirror, latest album by her band Sons & Daughters

Comment 38 DEAR LUCY …

Georgina-Kate Adams surveys the ever-changing media landscape with journalist and presenter Lucy Siegle

44 the miracle lab

Is the growing of organs artificially the ideal answer to a terrible question?

Features 18 NORTHERN SOUL

Artists respond to the challenge of climate change by seeing at first hand its effects in the Arctic

30 WATER WORK

The 2011 Foster + Partners and Architectural Association Prize is designed with Haiti in mind

32 deeper than skin

Weleda to celebrates 90 years of inner beauty

4 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 4

11/07/2011 13:27

Ad_

Welcome to

ananea Intense Experience.

Sustainable Travel.

Unforgettable nature, authentic encounters and respectful travel.

Book an unforgettable tour and learn how people in other countries live and work. Relax in one of our eco-friendly hotels – many are luxurious retreats that meet the highest standards of sustainable tourism – or take an active part and volunteer on a sustainable project, such as cheetah conservation in Namibia or teaching English at a local school in Thailand.

Download our ananea e-brochure at www.kuoni.co.uk/ananea or call 01306 871187 to speak to one of our ananea experts.

Ad_Ananea_Green_RZ_230x300.indd 1 sublime_JULY11.indd 5

28.06.1113:27 11:39 11/07/2011

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

ISSUE 28/11

48 88

48 BODY OF LIGHT

Sculptor Jaume Plensa on the invisible elements of his work

70 shit london

Patrick Dalton shows us the city we thought we knew

72 LIVING LEGENDS

Patrick Cariou goes on a photographic journey in search of Gypsy roots

98

Lifestyle 36 PLAY COOL

Sublime’s pick of the finest summer beauty and grooming essentials

40 THE GREAT UNCOOKED Is raw food better for us?

55 imogen belfield Sublime’s talent spot

72

70

56 martina spetlova Sublime’s talent spot

58 fair necessities

Sublime brings you the best of the reuser brands for a fresh summer look

67 music review

Sublime’s pick of the best

68 an african election

114

Jarreth Merz’s vivid document on the landmark 2008 Ghanaian elections

122 87 haleluja High on

style, this elegant Brussels store boasts an eclectic mix of sustainable fashion

98 THE COLOUR OF LUXURY

The newly refurbished Savoy Hotel, London is truly a breath of fresh air

126 IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS Sublime visits a luxury Spanish hotel that runs on an unusual biofuel

122 the last refuge Lebanon offers an amazing mountain trail that takes in history, crosses cultures and links villages

128

Let the fossils rest in peace Renewable energy storage gets close and personal

Fashion 88 the rehearsal Trying it on

102

DON’T LEAVE ME THIS WAY Boogie nights

114

ghost in the machine Hope on the wind

69 sublime reads

By Jon Fordham

6 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 6

11/07/2011 13:43

a

1 SMOOTH LOOK 12 SMOOTH HOURS

smooth infusion™ style-prep smoother ™ Tame frizz and defend against humidity for 12 hours – with our innovative plant infusion that creates a smooth new surface on hair. Developed with our stylists, created with respect for the earth – to care for you and the planet. * TRY IT–FOR FREE! Receive a free 3-piece sample pack by mentioning this ad at a participating salon or store.

For locations visit www.aveda.co.uk or call 0870 034 2380.

*One per guest. In participating locations only. While stocks last.

sublime_JULY11.indd 7

11/07/2011 13:51

sublime_JULY11.indd 8

11/07/2011 13:45

sublime_JULY11.indd 9

11/07/2011 13:46

section title

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

ISSUE 28/11

S-TEAM PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Damian Santamaria

EDITOR IN CHIEF Laura Santamaria

REGULAR COLUMNISTS Professor Frances Corner OBE John Grant Wayne Hemingway MBE Jeremy Leggett

CONTRIBUTORS Georgina-Kate Adams Matthew Clark Patrick Dalton Franca Davenport Caroline Davidson Jon Fordham Hanspeter Kuenzler Gabriel O’Rorke Mallory Reid Renee Yearwood

EDITORIAL TEAM Editorial assistants Zara-Jade Bestwick Steven Curtis Safeera Sarjoo Liz Schaffer Design assistant Margaret Werner

INTERNATIONAL TEAM

FASHION EDITOR

Laura Santamaria

BEAUTY EDITOR Jenny Page

STYLING

Lauraine Bailey Jordy Huinder Carlton Jones Io Takemura Hannah Wilman

PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATION Jouke Bos Patrick Cariou Juicybulldog Mark Lehn Charl Marais Jeffrey Thompson Tomaas David Wilman

Argentina: Mario Braga Australia: Peter Jones Brazil: Jose Mauricio da Silva Canada: Cynthia Holkstra Croatia: Edina Husanovic Ethiopia: Kelly Blacksten France: Yann Guitton India: Jen Marsden Japan: Io Takemura Kenya: Stewart Johnson Mexico: Adriana Gómez Silva Netherlands: Suzanna Blackmore Spain: Ana Gayo Ruiz Sweden: Kristina Lemos Switzerland: Bozena Civic Thailand: Salisa Landy USA: Jane Johnson

SUBSCRIPTIONS sublimemagazine.com

ADVERTISING Liv Foged ads@sublimemagazine.com +44 (0) 20 8374 7695

PUBLISHED BY

Sublime Magazine Ltd, 167 Southwood Lane, London N6 5TA, UK. Registered in England, company number 5497195. The Sublime name and logo are registered trademarks of Sublime magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in Sublime are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff.

ISSN 1752-251X. Printed in the UK on FSC-certfied paper. © 2011 Sublime Magazine Ltd 10 | SUBLIME

sublime_JULY11.indd 10

11/07/2011 23:04

uinder ordy H ling: J ngel os, sty neke E ouke B el: Lon her: J , mod wn tograp Neyen list’s o R Pho Judith ts: sty COVE e-up: racele d mak arlet, b hair an ana M LM Lh dress:

raw

radical alternative world

L

et’s face it: sometimes life is tough. As an American friend says, ‘Crap happens.’ From famine in Somalia and Ethiopia, to a natural disaster in Japan; social and political unrest in North Africa and economic uncertainty in Europe and the rest of the world, and the abuse of power in the media. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed, and incapable of doing anything about the situation in which we find ourselves.

How to make sense of the harsh realities that hang over us like a grey cloud? Each of us has devised a coping mechanism – or not – but the truth is, we live in a world that is not perfect, and where conflicts of interest are the order of the day.

In the following pages, what you won’t find are quick fixes or simple answers to what’s going on out there. Nor will we attempt to repackage what’s in the news. Instead, we want to provide a place of refuge where you can feel at ease; a point of calm where you may reflect, take stock and refocus.

We hope you will feel refreshed by this issue’s content, and encouraged to rediscover what’s important to you.

Keep thinking radically, acting alternatively and playing your own valuable part in transforming the world.

Laura and Damian Santamaria Editorial Directors

sublime | 11

sublime_JULY11.indd 11

11/07/2011 14:09

tell it like it is

By Wayne Hemingway

Photo Ben Schott

LIFE IN THE BIKE LANE Wayne Hemingway is co-founder of fashion label Red or Dead and Hemingway Design

The Dutch and the Danish have got it that cyclist-friendly, pedestrianised urban areas are happier, cleaner places to live. Britain, pro-car and sadly addicted to Top Gear, lags behind. but Car use in Britain is on the decline, and it’s not just that folk are being careful

P

hil Goodwin, Professor of Transport Policy at the University of the West of England, has written in Local Transport Today that fewer young people are learning to drive. Between 1992 and 2007, the number of 17- to 20-year-olds who held licences fell from 48% to 38%, and for 21- to 29-year-olds, the number fell from 75% to 66%. In addition, there has been a decline in private transport’s share of trips from 50% in 1993 to 41% in 2008. According to Lynn Sloman, Director of Transport for Quality of Life, between 2004 and 2008 car trips per person went down by 9% and car distance per person by 5%.

One seemingly obvious candidate to explain the peak in car use is the rise of the internet. Before the internet, hardly anyone worked from home.

Today, many people who have an office job work from home at least one day a week. If everyone works at home one day in five, that’s a 20% reduction in traffic. Only, it’s not that straightforward. As Goodwin points out, when a car is at home, it’s available for other members of the household to use. The net effect is still positive, but not big enough to explain peaking car use. Internet shopping has also made a small dent but, again, not big enough to explain the numbers.

My daughter is 20 and lives in south London. Of her extended group of friends, only two have driver’s licences. ‘Seeing how stressful driving can be is off-putting,’ she says. ‘Also, I know people who had a car but had to sell it because London’s so expensive.’

Recent transport policies are also having an effect. The introduction of controlled parking zones throughout most of London makes it almost impossible to find parking during the day, and the Congestion Charge zone means it’s expensive to travel through central London.

At the same time, there has been high investment in public transport – specifically rail travel.

‘From a carbon perspective, it gives us some hope,’ says Sloman.

‘Policymakers have tended to assume that it’s just not possible to change people’s travel behaviour to less carbon-intensive means of travel, but if that’s happening already, perhaps we can support that change by going with the grain of what people want to do.’

In the last century new towns, such as Redditch, were designed with drivers in mind. Increasing car use had an effect on the way cities were laid out. Small, local destinations closed and were replaced by bigger, more distant ones. Shopping centres, schools and hospitals began to be located away from the centres, so people needed cars to access them.

The $60,000 question is: will the process work in reverse? Will we see a virtuous circle of declining car use coupled with increasing use of greener modes of transport: our legs, bicycles, trams, trains and buses?

Towns such as Groningen in the Netherlands, which embraced the new urbanism and paved over the town centre, have enjoyed an environmental and economic turnaround. Sixteen years ago, a sixlane motorway ran through the centre of the town. Today, 57% of Groningen’s population travel by bicycle – the highest proportion of bicycle users in the West – and the town has seen rents climb as people clamour to live in this now sought-after place.

This summer will see South West Trains launch the UK’s first self-service bicycle rental scheme, with an innovative solar-powered dock at Guildford station. Now, passengers at the station are the first in the country to be offered one of the 80 bikes for rent through the dock scheme, as part of a strategy to promote cycling as an eco-friendly, last-mile feeder link to and from the station.

‘I don’t see any reason for assuming that the car, considered as a metal box inherent to the physical movement of one or a small number of people, is going to be the way that societies organise themselves for ever,’ says Goodwin. ‘Eating miles is not an end in itself; it’s a means of participating in activities of one sort or another.

And if there are other ways of participating that don’t eat so many miles, what’s not to like?’

What’s not to like indeed. It could be that, at last, we are coming to our senses.

Will we see a virtuous circle of declining car use coupled with increasing use of greener modes of transport: our legs, bicycles, trams, trains and buses?

Petrol prices have also had a modest impact. But petrol will have

to get a lot more expensive before people abandon their cars in significant numbers. ‘In the long run, people accommodate the rise in petrol prices by buying more economical cars,’ says David Metz, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London.

Metz and Goodwin believe that a movement called ‘new urbanism’ may partly explain the drop in car use in cities such as London. New urbanism – to cite the movement’s website – promotes the creation and restoration of walkable [sic], compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same elements as conventional developments, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, as complete communities.

‘There was a period of about 20 years when the population of London declined as people moved out to the country, to market towns,’ says Metz. ‘But that trend has gone into reverse over the past 20 years, so that now you’ve got fashionable inner-city areas, such as Hoxton and Shoreditch, which are the heart of digital enterprises.

That is all helpful in terms of becoming less car-dependent.’

12 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 12

11/07/2011 14:10

Bod

www.bodhi.uk.com

enlighten your skincare ritual Made in England

Bodhi Sublime.indd 1 sublime_JULY11.indd 13

|

For stockists: enlighten@bodhi.uk.com

23/6/11 19:12:32 11/07/2011 14:11

section title interview

model behaviour Interview Liz Schaffer Photography Jouke Bos

14 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 14

11/07/2011 14:26

interview

Being beautiful and successful comes naturally to Lonneke Engel. along with a growing number of celebrities, she’s using her creativity to encourage others on the path to a healthier way of living

L

onneke Engel is a genuine supermodel. For almost two decades the impressively versatile Dutch beauty has worked with the world’s leading photographers and designers. She’s represented everyone from Covergirl to Ralph Lauren and Chanel, since walking hand in hand with Kate Moss in her first fashion show aged 14.

Then in 2008 she became a certified health counsellor, and in the same year launched her own web-based company, Organice Your Life®, that aims to make the world a better, healthier place to be.

And if that wasn’t enough, she is involved with a range of charities, which includes ACE New York, that works with the homeless, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Engel has emerged too as the sustainability-promoting Ambassador of The Green Fashion Competition. An initiative of Amsterdam International Fashion Week (AIFW) and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the competition’s objective is to embrace and inspire a more sustainable global fashion industry. It targets young entrepreneurs, recent graduates and those looking to invigorate existing companies. Competition winners are awarded the tools – cash prizes, workshops, coaching, exposure and connection to the impressive AIFW network – necessary to launch their own environmentally conscious fashion business.

Engel opened 2011’s competition, in its second year, against the background of an awesome multimedia setting and is part of the professional jury that judges every submission. She also appeared as the face of the competition, after modelling pioneering ‘green fashion’ garments in a series of photographs by Jouke Bos. The shots have been used to publicise The Green Fashion Competition around the globe. Not someone who’d just settle for being a stunning face, Engel would much rather be working wholeheartedly to promote a healthy, sustainable future in the most original way she knows how.

Sublime: Tell us a little about your modelling background.

Lonneke Engel: I started modelling when I was 12 years old. My first

shoot internationally was with Bruce Weber, for Abercrombie & Fitch. He introduced me to Ralph Lauren, who has been using me in shoots me for over 15 years now, including a six-year exclusive contract. That’s the campaign most people would recognise me from.

S: What do you love most about your career?

LE: I love the travelling, being independent; I love feeling in charge

when I fly across the world for work by myself. And meeting so many incredible people. It is such an empowering job, if you don’t mind being alone at times.

‘Sustainability is a trend that is really about going back to basics: you know what you’re wearing, eating, playing with, who you’re working for’

sublime | 15

sublime_JULY11.indd 15

11/07/2011 14:34

interview

16 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 16

11/07/2011 14:37

Images ©Peter Stigter

interview

‘There are many areas where we can improve things.

Everybody watches fashion – it is a powerful thing.

Fashion can move people to look at other parts of their lives they might want to make more green’ S: What inspired you to become a Certified Health Counsellor?

LE: In modelling, you learn how to take care of your body and your

mind. You have to. A lot of young girls were coming to me who had issues with food, asking me for advice. I decided I had to learn more about it all before I could give them any tips. I went to the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, in New York, with people from all over the world who had the same mindset. It was very impressive, and an eye-opener for me. I realised that the best thing in the world was finding healthy ways to live my life.

S: What is the main goal of Organice Your Life®?

LE: Organice Your Life® uses the power of the celebrities you see in magazines, on TV and on the big screen to inspire people to live the healthiest, happiest and greenest possible life they can. I like to give positive news, tips and facts. I want everyone to know that each day is a day to start something new, that every little thing counts, no matter how small, towards our goal.

S: How has your experience as a model helped you to develop this particular platform?

LE: I’ve experienced so many amazing things on my travels for work,

and I wanted to share them. I started Organice Your Life® by myself.

Then more and more models and celebrities got interested, and joined me. I know a lot of people through my work, and many of them are really interesting, knowledgeable, inspiring individuals.

Now they have a voice, writing articles for Organice Your Life®!

S: What drew you to The Green Fashion Competition?

LE: I was asked to be Ambassador, as they knew that I was spending

my free time working to inspire people to live an ‘organiced’ life (a word I made up from the words ‘organic’, ‘nice’ and ‘organised’). I have been a model for over 18 years, and I am obsessed with vintage and sustainable clothing, so it was going to be a great fit!

S: Tell us a bit about your role as Ambassador with The Green Fashion Competition.

LE: I am involved every step of the way: at the beginning of the competition, to judging the submissions and presenting at the finale, at Amsterdam Fashion Week. I love it. It is important that we make the fashion industry sustainable. It is an industry that is highly polluting, and as a consumer industry, with a new collection every three months, the pollution effects have only increased. Wages for the people who make the clothes have gone down.

There are many areas where we can improve things. Everybody watches fashion; it is a powerful thing. Fashion can move people to look at other parts of their lives they might want to make more green.

Lonneke Engel and Paul Vetter (Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation) award designers Elsien Grinhuis and OAT shoes with the first and second prizes at the grand finale of The Green Fashion Competition last January

S: How important are events like The Green Fashion Competition in the fashion world?

LE: It’s good to encourage young designers with competitions like

this, where they can win a lot of money and have their own show at Amsterdam Fashion Week. Because the prizes are attractive, designers who maybe weren’t interested in producing their designs in a sustainable way are pushed to think twice about their production methods.

S: How do you feel about green fashion? Do you think there is a growing acceptance of green, or eco fashion?

LE: There didn’t use to be much choice, and green fashion was just not cool. Nowadays, big designers and fashion houses actually focus on being green; sustainable fashion has arrived. I love vintage clothing, too. Vintage is the original green fashion, and has been embraced by fashionistas. People are becoming more aware about what they consume. They want to know exactly what they are buying before purchasing or using it. Perhaps they’ll want to reuse or recycle it. I think that sustainability is a trend that is really about going back to basics: you know what you’re wearing, eating, playing with, who you’re working for. You’re being conscious about your life and the way you live it. thegreenfashioncompetition.com organiceyourlife.com

sublime | 17

sublime_JULY11.indd 17

11/07/2011 14:42

section title nature

18 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 18

11/07/2011 14:44

section nature title

Ask an artist how they find inspiration, and you’ll get as many answers as there are makers of art.

But a trip to the Arctic on a sailing ship in the company of scientists, writers and other artists? Not just inspiring, but life-changing

NORTHERN SOUL Words Liz Schaffer Photographs and quotes Matthew Clark

sublime | 19

sublime_JULY11.indd 19

11/07/2011 14:46

nature

C

reated in 2001, Cape Farewell pioneers the contemporary cultural response to climate change by uniting leading artists, writers and scientists in inimitable expeditions to the wilds of the Arctic. These voyages are designed to inspire creative works that remain heavily grounded in scientific research.

That is, they encourage artists and communicators to develop their own medium capable of explaining, on an innovative and incredibly human level, the dire reality of global climate change, while hinting at the possibility of a sustainable future.

Eclectic and diverse in experience and expertise, participating artists are personally invited to join expeditions with Cape Farewell, who work with international arts organisations and experts to identify potential voyagers. They’ve worked with everyone from the Barbican Art Gallery to Arts Council England and the Eden Project, and have released an extensive compilation of publications and resources.

As an artist-led charitable organisation, Cape Farwell also runs a series of exhibitions and events, that are often arresting, moving and inspired. Indeed, every artist that has thus far voyaged with Cape Farewell has been motivated (be it by the Arctic landscape, the gut-wrenching effects of climate change or by fellow creatives sharing their journey) to produce some form of soul-lifting or mentally stimulating work.

The most recent exhibition to emanate from a Cape Farewell voyage is High Arctic, created by United Visual Artists (UVA), which runs until 13 January 2012 at the National Maritime Museum.

UVA are a London based art and design practice known to produce works that merge sculpture, architecture, live performance, moving image and digital installation.

The setting for UVA’s installation is AD 2100, the presumed scenario that the Arctic landscape has been for ever altered. Filling the entire 820m2 gallery space, High Arctic forces us to question the world around us, and how we will remember our past when what we have to remember no longer exists.

The project is inspired by UVA founding partner Matt Clark’s travels in September 2010 to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, which lies between mainland Norway and the North Pole. During this trip, Matt encountered monochromatic rainbows, expansive tundra and sheets of ice falling from diminishing glaciers. Through an amalgamation of sound, hidden elements, constantly shifting patterns, light and sculptural forms, the installation recreates an abstracted Arctic landscape for visitors to lose themselves in – it’s a genuinely immersive, responsive environment. The poetry of Nick Drake, who travelled with Clark, is also featured.

Climate change is a real and confronting contemporary problem, yet its effects and even potential solutions are difficult to digest, suggesting that a new, cultural explanation is needed.

A single salient image, line of poetry or contrasting combination of colours on canvas may speak to us as a public in ways politics and economics never could. High Arctic is a truly spectacular background for ingenious investigation.

20 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 20

11/07/2011 15:19

section nature title

‘The experience feels like some kind of lucid dream.

There is something very magical about this part of the world; it pulls you in gradually and puts you under a spell’

sublime | 21

sublime_JULY11.indd 21

11/07/2011 15:23

nature

‘The ever-changing light and atmospherics have entranced me on a daily basis. The landscape has inspired me with its sheer scale and utter beauty’

22 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 22

11/07/2011 15:27

nature

chiefs who participated in Kayap贸 Leadership Summit, Par谩, Brazil

sublime | 23

sublime_JULY11.indd 23

11/07/2011 15:28

section title nature

24 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 24

11/07/2011 15:29

nature

‘When exploring the landscape, there is very little audible variation. You have the wind, the water and the occasional bird chirp, but this is rare’

sublime | 25

sublime_JULY11.indd 25

11/07/2011 15:30

‘s nature

‘Learning to live with new people from different backgrounds, with different opinions, in a very limited space, with limited resources, acted as the perfect metaphor for the planet’s population and energy issues … I now fully understand the point of Cape Farewell: it is a remarkable organisation, and I thank them for giving me this great experience’ Matthew Clark’s High Arctic exhibition is on at the National Maritime Museum, London from 14 July 2011 to 13 January 2012. nmm.ac.uk, capefarewell.com

26 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 26

11/07/2011 15:16

sublime_JULY11.indd 27

11/07/2011 14:57

energy challenge

RISE OF THE RADICAL

Founder and chairman of Solarcentury and SolarAid, and author of The Carbon War and Half Gone jeremyleggett.net

by Jeremy Leggett

THE TIME IS APPROACHING WHEN HANGING ON TO FAMILIAR NOTIONS OF OIL DEPENDENCY, THE BIG BOOK OF BANKING AND GROWTH AT ANY PRICE WILL NO LONGER BE WORKABLE. WE MAY BE OBLIGED TO REWRITE THE RULES – ALL OF THEM

T

hose who propose alternative ways forward for society often find that if their ideas deviate more than a few degrees from ‘business as usual’, they are dismissed as radical. If the ideas involve u-turns, then they are dubbed dangerous. But I believe that many supposedly radical ideas currently under public debate are coming close to being inescapable outcomes.

Let me illustrate my argument with alternatives being proposed first to oil dependency, second to the current banking system and third, to economic growth.

With oil dependency, the status-quo operating manual requires us to

believe that economies heavily geared to oil consumption will be fine for years to come. At least, that we have the luxury of several more decades before supply becomes tight against rising demand, requiring alternatives to oil on a large scale. But, as I have described before in my column, a growing minority of people no longer believe the comforting narrative of a far-distant peak in global oil production. We believe production will peak soon and then descend, meaning sky-high oil prices and a mad scramble to escape oil dependency.

I would argue that the rolling log of relevant events, as summarised on my website jeremyleggett.net, supports this view. For example, in June the rich nations released 60m barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles for fear of oil prices overheating.

Much of this fear centred on the fragility of supply, not least in the wake of the Arab Spring. The Economist ran a headline that read: ‘Running dry – oil production fails to keep pace with demand’. BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy had just been published, revealing that world oil consumption exceeded supply by 5m barrels a day in 2010, and that stocks were being run down. In Saudi Arabia, the head of the national electricity company warned that Saudi oil may run out by 2030 on the current trend in rising domestic oil use. The Saudis are so desperate for electricity to feed their growth that they are burning greater amounts of oil in their power plants.

of the current banking system argue that we have no choice but to bear with it, or at best bolt on a few minor adjustments.

Today we still live with the aftermath of those unregulated excesses by investment bankers: millions unemployed, and governments struggling under a legacy of debt made more awful by their push to bail out the banks because they were ‘too big to fail’. Those who advance alternatives are treated almost like a lunatic fringe. What red-blooded capitalist would want to have anything to do with banks that are servants of society, or with cooperatives, credit unions, mutuals, non-profit companies, peer-to-peer lending and those kinds of vaguely socialistic notions? The suicidally dysfunctional financial system grinds on, primed for its own destruction, I and others believe, by its own intrinsic greed and short-termism.

There are many ways the global financial house can fall. Take Greece. Banks have huge amounts locked up in the debt Greece has had to take on to keep its economy vaguely afloat. If Greece defaults on that debt, those banks will not be able to take the strain.

Governments certainly don’t have the capital to underwrite them for a second time in a decade. Here is a situation that would lead citizens to all kinds of self-starter resilience-building, from among the rubble created by their governments’ failure to take care of them.

A number of financial innovations that it would be perfectly feasible to scale up today would become the norm.

Finally, there is the question of economic

WHAT IF WE ARE CLOSE TO THE END OF GROWTH? U-TURN ALTERNATIVES WILL COME INTO THEIR OWN

If those of us who are concerned that an imminent slide in global oil

production are correct, and if the advocates of alternatives such as the tar sands and oil-from-coal prove unable to deliver, society will be forced to pursue low-carbon alternatives as a matter of emergency. Radical alternatives such as the deployment of electric vehicles, or 100% electrified transport systems, may well turn out to be unavoidable – for those who can afford cars at all.

A similar narrative applies to the banking system. Even though it came within hours of crashing the world economy in 2008, defenders

growth. Conventional wisdom holds that anyone who questions the need for economies to keep growing as a matter of course is, well, wrong. Our governments sink or swim at the ballot box on their ability to grow the national economy. Our breakfast news programmes fixate on the latest GNP figures. By common consent, growth equals more jobs and greater chances of personal prosperity, and we all want that.

But dissidents are questioning this dictum too. Investors such as Jeremy Grantham point to the mathematical impossibility of endless economic growth.

Writers like Richard Heinburg indicate the increasing resource constraints as we approach ‘peak everything’. Thinkers such as Jules Peck warn of the social harm in the quest for growth, and praise the upsides of prosperity built on well-being. Commissions such as the Stiglitz Commission and the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission pull all these arguments together in a way that, in recent years, has stimulated the first rounds of an elite debate on the very future of growth-based economics. Meanwhile, countries like Japan have of necessity managed tolerably well on no growth for years now.

What if we are close to the end of growth? Again, u-turn alternatives will come into their own, and, in any case, we may not have much say in the matter.

Herein lies the rub: the three issues I have chosen to address are linked. If you have high oil prices, you can’t service the debts that you have taken on, whether as an individual via a mortgage, a bank via leverage or a nation via a bailout. If that happens, you have an acrossthe-board collapse scenario. And then, perhaps, the social innovators will be taken seriously.

28 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 28

11/07/2011 15:00

sublime_JULY11.indd 29

11/07/2011 15:57

architecture

Water work Words Zara-Jade Bestwick

This year’s AA School and Foster + Partners Sustainability and Infrastructure Prize has been awarded to Aditya Aachi for a project that proposes a clever sanitation infrastructure to combat cholera outbreaks in Haiti

T

he Architectural Association and Foster + Partners Prize is presented annually by the Architectural Association School of Architecture to the Diploma student whose portfolio best addresses the themes of sustainability and infrastructure, and Aditya Aachi’s visionary project of Haiti Simbi Hubs hit the nail right on the head.

‘The earthquake and cholera outbreak of 2010 exposed the lack of both governmental and physical infrastructure in Haiti. The vision for this intervention is not only to create a sustainable system of public sanitation, which will be freely available to all, but also to help make sense of the largely unplanned city by making interventions that reinforce the public realm,’ Aachi comments.

After Haiti’s worst earthquake in two centuries hit just south of the

capital, Port-au-Prince in January 2010, the nation has been fighting to get back on its feet, especially after widespread cholera outbreaks claimed thousands more lives. But Aachi’s design hopes to tackle this with a network of hygiene points known as Simbi Hubs, which are planned to provide localised sanitation. Each Simbi Hub includes areas for lavatories, bathing and laundry, as well as facilities for food storage and preparation. Water and sewage are treated on site, and the hubs also address issues relating to storm drainage and earthquake safety. All the elements required to build the new infrastructure are designed to be made locally, using established craft skills.

The hubs serve as important focal points, providing each area with much-needed sanitation and helping to cultivate the area itself. With sanitation at the forefront of this design, all entrances to the hub have been built with hand- and foot-washing facilities, while toilets are located in a separate block with an anaerobic digester below. Once the waste is processed, it can be used to fertilise crops in rural areas.

The showers included in the hub play a vital role in providing an accessible cleansing platform for all to use, with processed greywater from the shower used to wash clothes in the communal washing area. A storage and washing area for people who sell fruit and vegetables is also provided, to help combat every aspect of sanitation. The central area of the hub sacrificially floods during hurricanes and extreme rainfall. The open, public area inside the hub is also an earthquake-safe zone where people can assemble in the event of future earthquakes.

Hubs will also assist in promoting reforestation, with the replanting of essential trees and other necessary vegetation, which in turn helps to prevent soil erosion in these areas. Rural hubs will help to yield food for local settlements, with excess yields taken to the city via transport links. Irrigation to crops is also provided from the excess greywater from the showers and clothes-washing facilities. Medical centres are to be housed alongside the hubs, helping to better the services and efficiency of the medical centre itself, and in turn the surrounding area. pr2011.aaschool.ac.uk/students/aditya-aachi

Port-au-Prince Infrastructural Network Hygiene hubs distributed around the city to form an infrastructural network of earthquake-safe zones Citywide view of the network, showing arrangement of wells, safe zones and catchment area for one well. The network is situated in the most dense regions of the city and where people are in most need of water.

The wells will also be the central focal point of the satellite villages, where the redundant population may be relocated.

Rural to Urban Hub Network Strategy Hub distribution, water movement, reforestation and planting strategy from rural settlements to Port-au-Prince

rural hub Housing

Community centre/clinic Arable cropland

Reforested area and orchards Pastoral farmland

Solar collection Showers

Toilets/ bio digester

Reforested area and orchards

Herbs and fragrant plants Transport links

Flood mitigation link Greywater irrigation Potable water link

Haiti has been 98% deforested, so replanting between hubs will be an important element of the project.

Reforestation prevents soil erosion in rural areas. Areas of trees close to rural settlements will yield food for the local settlement. Excess yields can be taken to the city via transport links

Crops are planted on the periphery of rural settlements to provide food for the local community. Some land is also used to rear livestock. There is a possibility of planting reed beds – a living water filter or ‘living machine’ – in these areas

The rural hub provides water and sanitation only for the self-sufficient rural community and local amenities such as toilets and showers. A town hall and medical centre are placed around the hub. It can act as an earthquakesafe zone where people can gather. The hub sacrificially floods to prevent flooding in the surrounding area

Excess greywater from showering and clothes-washing can be used to irrigate crops and the forested area surrounding the settlement

Water during flood periods will automatically filter down to the lowlands.

Transport links between the hubs also provide a chance to lay the intermediate infrastructure

30 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 30

11/07/2011 15:32

architecture

Simbi Hub Suburban context Suburban sectional perspective with water treatment programme and aluminium interventions The well and underground cistern are surrounded by public domain and service areas, a clean zone which facilitates an environment for various programmes: restaurants, medical centres, food storage and public cleanliness. The restaurants are in the clean zone, hence food prepared here should be clean and disease-free.

The public latrines separate solid and liquid waste and redirect it to reed beds and an anaerobic digester. Once the waste is processed it can be used to fertilise the crop terraces.

The medical centre holds the records of locals and is able to distribute medicines and provide areas for examination.

Storm drainage redirects water and should prevent future flooding in the city during hurricanes. The open public area is also an earthquake-safe zone where people can assemble in the event of future quakes.

The aluminium elements represent places where users are encouraged to interact with or maintain the building.

Storm drainage slows the flow of water while diverting it away from the site

Public latrines and sanitation areas

Street access exists all around the intervention so that it can be bypassed if needed

The showers have separate access from the main hub to prevent users entering without washing hands and feet. Private changing areas cater for mothers with young children

Water is provided and taken away by aluminium pipes

Communal clotheswashing area for mothers and children

Some watercollection points lead to an underground cistern

Greywater reed beds supplied via aluminium irrigation channels

Gravity moves water through stages of processing – ramps allow ease of access

Public showers and bathing facilities

Centre of hub is planted to provide shade for the public.

Some plants are fragrant. The trees shown here are date trees and palms

Lower platforms are drinking and watercollection areas

Excess water build-up is collected by bell mouth spillway

Cistern holds enough water for catchment area

Aerating and disinfecting the water provides evaporative cooling

Public cooling area using evaporative cooling

Reed bed used to filter blackwater

Restaurant cluster run by local people

Excess crop-yield storage areas

Local medical centre for treatment and distribution

Simbi Hub Urban context Section of hub in situ at downtown Port-au-Prince south market district

Here again the well and underground cistern are surrounded by public domain and service areas. The area is a clean zone, which facilitates an environment for various programmes: medical centre, food washing, storage and sale and public cleanliness.

Processed greywater from the showers can be used to wash clothes in the communal clotheswashing area – or go on to be purified for drinking.

Vendors who sell fruit and vegetables have a place to wash, store and sell their produce – this should improve the current sanitation situation.

The central area of the hub sacrificially floods during hurricanes and extreme rain. The open public area is also an earthquake-safe zone where people can take refuge if needed.

The settling tank is directly under the shower block and is the first stage of the water purification process

Creeping plants grow over the metal shading devices to provide extra shade and privacy

Shaded space.

This is the lowest point in the hub, and is imagined to be an area where users can escape from the density and noise of the city

Gutters transport rainwater run-off to the settling tank so that it can start the purification process. The gutters also move water between hubs during flooding

The Simbi water tile allows users to have a connection with the water in a way they don’t otherwise have within the hub. The water reflects the space as the tile fills and empties

The inhabitable platform is detailed to look like a body of water which can be entered. It provides shade for the space below

suburban hub

The rich planting provides shade and green pockets of space in the city. The city is lacking a public realm as the parks are used as Internally Displaced Person camps

Paddling pools allow children and adults to cool off. The water is extremely shallow, so parents can leave their children unattended

Clothes-washing areas are used for communal laundry. Parents can use this space while their children play close by

Alternative access routes to the central public space are available to allow people to get to the areas they need to as quickly as possible

Aeration process – the water is run over steps many times to aerate it – this is one of the final steps before the water is chlorinated

inner city hub

Cooled seating area. The seating is cooled by the aeration process the water goes through nearby, and by shaded elements above

Extended gallery.

This space is an extension of the classic Port-au-Prince downtown galleried building. It will allow double the number of vendors to operate in the area

Shading extends into areas of the site where conditions allow – this further extends the selling area for vendors

Wetlands/aquifer

Existing and new housing Existing and rebuilt metropolitan area

Local amenities and community buildings Reforested area and orchards

Wetlands and natural ‘living machine’ Reforested area and orchards

Reforested area and orchards

Reforested area and orchards

Solar collection Toilets/ bio digester

Small crop-planting area

Trees and planting will be fertilised using nutrient-rich sludge from the composting toilets and biodigesters.

This should solve some of the country’s serious excreta and waste-disposal problems

Suburban hubs, especially those in the mountainous areas to the south of Port-au-Prince, may be larger in volume to provide for a larger community.

They would also have a larger floodmitigation capacity, as these are the areas usually worst hit by flooding

Local amenities integrated into the urban fabric Showers

These areas have been largely destroyed, and hence the hub would provide a base to start reconstruction. The peripheral amenities around the hub will be more important in these areas, as there will be no space for large areas of arable or pastoral farming

There will be some basic crop-planting surrounding the hubs Planting trees on the slopes should make the ground more stable, but also prevent precarious structures from being built on unsafe hillsides in the future

Inner-city areas will also be replanted, and redundant land will be reclaimed as forest. Many of the areas on the periphery of metropolitan Port-au-Prince are no longer occupied postquake, and many who would return will be relocated in rural settlements. This could also provide work for the poor and unemployed who live in the periphery areas – they would be the new urban farmers

City hub modified to fit into varied urban sites

Inner-city hubs will be located among the buildings of the old city and the more recent urban sprawl. They will provide water and sanitation services and act as public spaces to replace the now non-existent public realm within the city post-quake. Services may be hosted using currently demolished buildings surrounding the hub; run-off collection being facilitated using the rubble to create gradients towards the hubs

The central congregation areas in the hub strips between hubs are planted both to provide shade and to act as way-finders between hubs

Excess water and redirected floodmitigation water collects at a new wetland area to the north of the city.

The wetlands will lie above the Plain de Sac aquifer – the main source of water to the city – and should act to replenish it. Currently the aquifer is contaminated with faeces, and could become polluted by cholera. The main excreta dump is an unlined pit above the aquifer. Introducing a wetland which is filtered and cleaned by plants such as reed beds would create a better environment

sublime | 31

sublime_JULY11.indd 31

11/07/2011 15:33

visionaries

deeper than skin Words Franca Davenport

32 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 32

11/07/2011 15:40

visionaries

This year, Weleda, the pioneering cosmetics and healthcare company will be rejoicing in nine decades of sustainable practice.

Sublime joined the celebrations at their manufacturing base in Switzerland

T

o call Weleda a pioneer in sustainability is an understatement, since the company was applying principles of social, environmental and economic responsibility years before the term was coined. One of its founders was Rudolf Steiner, who, alongside doctor Ita Wegman and chemist Oskar Schmiedel, started to create products in 1921 with the aim of promoting human health together with a respect for nature and a connection with fellow humans. As such, Weleda has a vibrant set of sustainability laurels, but ones on which it has no intention of resting.

Being a pioneer is no easy task, and maintaining pioneer status is always going to be something of a challenge. At Weleda’s anniversary event in July, its sustainability values were described as genetic, since they are the very material from which the company was created. But Weleda is aware that character relies on nurture as well as nature, and the iconic company clearly intends to evolve its sustainability genome further.

‘We are a brand that has very deep roots,’ says Mirja Kloss, Head of International Marketing for Natural and Organic Cosmetics at Weleda. ‘Since 1921, the company and its products have been developed in a visionary way, and we are keen to let people know this. At the same time, it’s important to say that we haven’t stopped developing, and we will continue to be visionary in how we evolve.’

Packaging room, Arlesheim Right Skin Food (actual packaging) has been in the brand’s range since 1926; Vintage Weleda poster Left Founders Oskar and Thekla Schmiedel

The evolutionary metaphor is rather apt for Weleda, especially since

the market in which the company operates has become much more competitive in recent years. It is unlikely that Weleda will employ any basic ‘survival of the fittest’ tactics, but it does mean that the company constantly has to evaluate its position in the marketplace.

‘This is an area about which we are having a lot of discussions,’ says Kloss. ‘There is a continuous dynamic to keep the right balance between increasing the awareness of our products without losing our individuality or our points of differentiation. It is a very challenging task, and it involves asking ourselves at every step: ‘Is this the Weleda way of doing things?’ Which in turn means reflecting on our past and our legacy.’

From its inception in 1921, Weleda has been based on Rudolf Steiner’s principle of anthroposophy. Derived from Ancient Greek, it means ‘wisdom of the human being’, and it views health as dependent on the connection between body, soul and spirit, together with our relationship to the natural world.

Weleda’s slogan ‘In harmony with nature and the human being’ is continuing evidence of this philosophy, and the manner in which the company has grown also abides by these principles: naturally,

sublime | 33

sublime_JULY11.indd 33

11/07/2011 15:41

visionaries

Weleda’s founders Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman Below Vintage mid-20th-century posters Bottom From then to now: Weleda’s original range and current facial care range

To call Weleda a groundbreaker in sustainability is an understatement … the company was applying principles of social, environmental and economic responsibility years before the term was coined

organically and connected to the ground in terms of its employees and its markets. Due to increasing demand, Weleda started to expand in 1924 and it now has a presence in over 50 countries. ‘We are a unique type of global company,’ says Kloss, ‘and we manage it by listening to people in the market, drawing on local expertise and sharing best practices.’

Although Weleda may serve a range of markets, across all of them there has been an upsurge in demand for beauty products made from natural and organic ingredients. Weleda’s cosmetics division shares the same anthroposophic principles as its pharmaceutical division, and several of its products, such as the ever-popular Skin Food, dates back to 1926.

‘Our history is very important to us,’ says Andreas Sommer, Director of the Natural and Organic Cosmetics Division at Weleda.

‘Most companies operating in this area followed a trend in the 1970s and 1980s when consumers started to become environmentally conscious. We have been doing this since the 1920s, and it was always because we wanted to rather than because we felt we should.

As such, we are looking beyond the trends.’

Despite the modern preoccupation with external beauty, Weleda

remains true to its holistic principles. From conception, each product is inspired by anthroposophy and, according to Sommer, Weleda benefits greatly from being both a pharmaceutical and a cosmetics company. ‘We are always re-evaluating what we mean by anthroposophy and holistic,’ he says. ‘We don’t want to be dogmatic about their meanings, but use them as an inspiration.

This way, we can be modern and innovative without losing our roots and our strength.’

He cites the recent pomegranate anti-ageing range as an example of how Weleda applies holistic principles to a modern product. The range contains antioxidant ingredients to fight free radicals and promote cell regeneration, but was also developed according to what inspires women in their forties and the smells and colours they prefer. ‘It works on many levels,’ he says. ‘The development process is very rigorous. It took three years to decide on pomegranate as the lead ingredient.’

Throughout Weleda’s lifetime, its notion of sustainability has also been evolving, and defining it was the theme of this year’s anniversary event. Talking to Bas Schneiders, Head of Corporate Sustainability and International Sourcing Strategy, the continuing development of sustainability at Weleda is about making the concept more meaningful. ‘Of course it is about taking care of environmental, social and economic issues,’ he says. ‘But for us it includes another dimension, that of motivating our stakeholders to go further than technical aspects such as CO2 and water, and to think about our responsibility to contribute positively to society and the environment.’

Making the concept meaningful at Weleda involves the participation of individuals at all levels of the company, including employees, suppliers and partners. It’s no coincidence that Schneiders is also responsible for sourcing, since conservation of its precious ingredients is vital to Weleda’s sustainability. As a result, it places great value on biodiversity, and its work in this area uses the concept of biodynamic agriculture.

Which is another of Rudolph Steiner’s initiatives, one that views soil, plants and animals as a self-nourishing system. At its base in Germany, Weleda has the world’s largest biodynamic medicinal herb garden, where it grows 260 plant types. It also has major gardens in Switzerland and France, and many of its subsidiaries have their own gardens, such as the 15-acre certified herb gardens in Derbyshire in the UK.

34 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 34

12/07/2011 07:24

images ©Michael Peuckert

section visionaries title

For some of the more exotic ingredients, or for those needed in larger quantities, Weleda depends on fair-trade projects around the world. There are many examples, but probably one of the most impressive is the organic lavender project in Moldova, which produces almost 600 tonnes of lavender flowers a year to yield six tonnes of oil. Weleda’s support of this project has helped regenerate the area environmentally and economically, leading to the renovation of the local school and development of a medical and social centre.

Despite the diversity of Weleda’s sustainability activities, it manages to gather them together under an overarching strategy. Last year the company outlined a five-year plan that set several targets in areas such as climate neutrality, water usage, energy efficiency, packaging and waste management. It also continued to implement a number of established standards, and to develop some of its own, to guide sustainability throughout the company.

‘Intrinsically we do a lot of good work,’ says Schneiders, ‘and standards help us to measure, report and improve this work, but Weleda has never been top-down in its approach. It is the individuals on the ground who live our values and who grow the company in the right direction.’

The use of the word ‘grow’ couldn’t be closer to its original meaning than at Weleda. Since its creation in 1921, the company has been infused with the language of nature, growth and development, but at no point does it feel intentional or staged. For want of a better word, it comes completely naturally to Weleda, and it’s clear that it not only wants to communicate with this language but to translate it meaningfully into every area and at every level of its work. Sustainability may be in the genes of Weleda but, like any good artist or linguist, it will keep on working at its natural skill to make sure it remains successful. weleda.com

Weleda’s support of the Moldova organic lavender project has helped regenerate the area environmentally and economically, leading to the renovation of the local school and development of a medical and social centre

Sustainable raw-material sourcing at Weleda: Moroccan argan trees are unique to this part of the world, which is why UNESCO has designated the region where they grow a ‘world biosphere reserve’. Weleda’s partner organisation, Sidi Yassine, a family business, obtains valuable oil from the argan kernels manually Top Two hundred Moldovan farming families are now involved in growing organic lavender since Weleda’s support started in the region in 2005

sublime | 35

sublime_JULY11.indd 35

12/07/2011 07:22

for him

PLAY COOL

36 | SUBLIME

sublime_JULY11.indd 36

INDULGE OVERHEATED, STRESSED SKIN AND HAIR WITH OUR FABULOUS SELECTION OF REFRESHING, SOOTHING TREATS – PERFECT HOLIDAY OR FESTIVAL MUST-HAVES

BEAUTY EDITOR JENNY PAGE PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID WILMAN STYLING HANNAH WILMAN

11/07/2011 16:23

for her

From bottom left

From top left

Polaar Icy Magic Instant Eye Contour Multi Energiser 5ml, £16 ultrafresh eye roll-on revives tired eyes, reduces dark circles and puffiness. Contains Siberian ginseng nivenandjoshua.co.uk

Orchard View Naturals Stay Balanced Harmonising Organic Day Cream 60ml, £11.99 luxurious, easily absorbed moisturiser for normal/ combination skin with certified-organic lavender, organic, antibacterial palmarosa and certifiedorganic bergamot ovnaturals.co.uk

Beyond Organic Skincare Hydrating Body Oil 60ml, £18.35 certifiedorganic, 100% natural easily absorbed ‘dry’ oil with toning, firming horse chestnut extract and fennel essential oil also contains powerful antioxidant seabuckthorn fruit and seed oils beyondorganicskincare.com Less is More Aloe Mint Shampoo 200ml, £22 revitalising shampoo is mild enough for every day. Contains aloe vera, highland honey and horsetail extract, with pure essential peppermint oil to tone scalp and uplift senses. All extracts are certified organic beingcontent.com Joe Grooming One 50ml, £4.96/250ml, £11 refreshing hair, body and face wash containing aloe-vera leaf juice, Japanese peppermint oil and extracts of elderflower, marshmallow, camomile, ivy and cucumber Joe Grooming Moisturiser 50ml, £4.96/250ml, £13.50 soothing aftershave and hydrating body moisturiser is rich in aloe-vera leaf juice and vitamin E, plus olive-fruit oil, witch hazel, camomile and cucumber ukstore.joegrooming.com retaW AL Fragrance Shampoo for Body and Soul 300ml, £25 concentrated hair and body wash contains organic essential oils of rosemary, lavender and tea tree blended with other plant-based ingredients.

Formulated in Japan by leading dermatologists nivenandjoshua.co.uk Kyoku for Men Water Body Wash 250ml, £17 luxurious cleanser with a light citrus scent. Contains menthol to cool and refresh, Japanese kelp to prevent loss of moisture and elasticity Kyoku for Men Pore Reducing Serum 50ml, £35 anti-inflammatory serum helps to unclog pores, reduce pore size and strengthen skin’s surface. Contains extract of Japanese rose and detoxifying Chlorella vulgaris (green algae) extract poised.co.uk Orchard View Naturals No Fuss Purifying Cleansing Lotion For Men 100ml, £10.99 light, effective cleanser packed with nutritious plant and woody essential oils – wild cedarwood, organic petitgrain, wild cypress, sweet almond oil, vitamin E and certified-organic jojoba oil ovnaturals.co.uk

La Spiezia Organic Soothing Leg & Foot Balm 100ml, £22.50 refreshing, deodorising, nourishing 100% organic balm contains chickweed, extra-virgin olive oil, peppermint and lavender.

Great for restoring cracked heels spieziaorganics.com Natural Empathy Alchemist Toner 200ml, £15 rejuvenates, primes and hydrates all skin types.

Non-drying toner contains frankincense and myrrh, aloe vera and witch hazel and a blend of aromatic plant and herb extracts naturalempathy.com Weleda Birch Cellulite Oil 100ml, £18.95 firming body oil contains birch-leaf extract, rosemary-leaf extract and oils of jojoba seed, wheatgerm and apricot kernel to give exceptional smoothness and softness to skin. 100% natural weleda.com Beyond Organic Skincare Uplifting Toner 100ml, £16.90 certified-organic, 100% natural and suitable for all skin types, toner is antiinflammatory, anti-bacterial and antiseptic yet gentle and non-drying. With extracts of rosemary, mandarin and lavender, lemon verbena and grapefruit seed beyondorganicskincare.com Elemental Herbology Moisture Milk 50ml, £40 ultra-light facial hydrator contains a powerful blend of antioxidants including green tea, acerola cherry and vitamins A, C and E, as well as other clinically proven natural actives Elemental Herbology Perfect Clarity Blemish Minimiser 2.5ml, £24 emergency spot treatment contains organic acai in a complex that has strong anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. With salicylic acid, rosemary, lavender and tea-tree oils elementalherbology.com Weleda Skin Food 75ml, £8.50 award-winning beauty classic contains camomile and rosemary-leaf extract, healing calendula and wild pansy extracts to revive and nourish tired skin. 100% natural weleda.com All products featured are paraben-free. For more information visit individual product website

SUBLIME | 37

sublime_JULY11.indd 37

11/07/2011 16:25

media debate

dear lucy ...

by Georgina-Kate Adams

Lucy Siegle doesn’t know what the ethical press is, or so she says when I use the term in the questions I put to her for this, my inaugural column, which is all about that very subject

S

urprising, you might think, for the best-known ethical journalist in the country. But perhaps her determination not to be typecast speaks loudest about the challenges this sector faces. Lucy’s preferred term is ecology, tracing her interest in the natural world back to childhood membership of the RSPB. She insists, though, that becoming a writer on ecological issues was never her master plan.

‘Some people say to me, “How did you spot this gap in the market?” Well, there wasn’t one! Initially when I wanted to do stories about green living, they’d say, “What is it? You’re mad! No one’s interested in that.” So I had to wait for the market to be there, to be ready. The market found me.’

Even so, her specialism has given her an unrivalled platform in her career,

allowing her to extend her professional commitments into presenting (BBC’s The One Show), public speaking and writing books, most recently To Die For, which goes beyond the existing debates to investigate the true cost of the fashion industry. Now here she is, sipping coffee and being invited to share her insights into the world of ethics and the media. I want to find out how she thinks the ethical media can progress, integrate and expand, and what challenges it faces. But to begin with, we talk about authenticity and integrity in journalism.

‘For me, authenticity comes from being open about who you are.

That you have the same doubts, and sometimes the same prejudices, as other people. I don’t like writers who set themselves above ordinary people, and throw down their dictates. We’re all fallible,’ she says.

For one who has come so far in her career, Lucy is refreshingly humble in her approach. ‘I’m a total research nut, but I’m not a scientist. I’m just interpreting what I think is the most likely position.

I need my readers to understand that that is where I’m coming from.

Authenticity also means being upstanding and transparent about who you work for. There are jobs that I would turn down; that I have turned down. Some columnists are paid by Exxon Mobil.’

I can’t deny Lucy’s transparency. She describes herself as a dinosaur when it comes to technology. ‘I was born and bred in print, and crossing over to television was a big eye-opener for me. Twitter and bloggers I’ve only engaged with in the last year because, to be honest,

I was a bit snobby about them. I was like, “Well, they’re not trained journalists”, but that’s not the point, is it? They can do things and get to places that maybe we can’t.’

The online format also presents a simpler, faster forum for feedback, allowing readers to have a greater personal influence on content production. For Lucy, this has always been key. Much of her work centres on the Guardian Q&A column ‘Ask Leo & Lucy’, in which she responds to wide-ranging reader questions, from ‘How green is my wine?’ to concerns about drought. ‘It has always been reader-led, and I don’t know if I could do it if it wasn’t,’ she explains.

‘The reader calls the shots.’

Working within a newspaper, Lucy gets plenty of opportunity to apply her

style to different subjects and says, ‘I like the mix of issues, but we don’t all agree. Quite often, things run counter to what I believe, somewhere else in the paper, and that’s healthy. Media that groups it all together so that every page has an ethical agenda, that’s really brave.’

Picking up a copy of Sublime magazine, she continues: ‘You have to have a very firm editorial line and a strong look. The positive thing for a magazine like this, and others, is that there is a sense of emancipation. There’s an awful lot of media around where you don’t get that, so this is very progressive.’

This seems a good time to bring up celebrities. ‘I question the need for celebrities on everything,’ Lucy says, although she herself works closely with many famous names to attract interest in the Observer Ethical Awards, which she set up six years ago. ‘There’s a difference between someone being plonked on a cover, or next to a coffee jar at a press call, wearing a green dress, and people who have invested time and energy and genuinely believe in it,’ she says.

Explaining the advantage of including well-known individuals on her judging panel, she says, ‘It’s a shorthand for me, and gives an easy buy-in for my reader. If they see Deborah Meaden or Ben Fogle sitting there they go, “Oh, we know them.”’ But, she insists, her panellists are genuine. ‘I do feel they’re quite into it. They need to be: each one of those winners will PR that award themselves, and their local press will. Colin [Firth], for example, had quite a heavy film schedule before the awards, and asked me to send him an update on all the winners because he knew he’d get asked about it.’

As we consider the challenges the media faces, moving forward, Lucy comments that: ‘There is a risk that you don’t get the dark and the light of life. You haven’t got those moments of outrage, so you have to work much harder as an editor to keep the pace going. It will create a new breed of writers who don’t just fall back on the same lazy tricks, and that’s important.’

‘For me, authenticity comes from being open about who you are …

I don’t like writers who set themselves above ordinary people, and throw down their dictates. We’re all fallible’

38 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 38

11/07/2011 16:28

breakthrough brand

Beauty Editor Favourite

ONE LOVE

m a g a z i n e

2011 Casual Volume Mascara 1 shade, £10.49

beauty history is made ... the high street has a pure new face

U

NE make-up is 98% to 100% natural, and comes in sleek, recyclable containers that won’t weigh down your bag. Eye shadows are ‘sfumato’ – softly smoky – dewy-matte or gently gleaming. Lipsticks and glosses are nourishing, and won’t look painted-on; eye pencils are subtly defining. Mineral foundations, both liquid and powder, bring a new level of luminosity. Everything is infinitely blendable, instinctively usable. Textures are velvety and impossible to apply too heavily or to get wrong. A soft, natural look enhancing your own beauty is key to this fabulous range; a stronger, smarter look can be built up with layering. Colours mirror lips, eyes and hair across all skin tones; fragrances are derived from fruits and flowers. Most products are certified organic by Ecocert; all are paraben-free. With 25 products in 148 shades, UNE might just become your one love.

Sheer Lips Balm 8 shades, £7.99

100% Mineral Foundation, 4.5g 6 shades, £9.99 bestseller

Sheer Lips Gloss 11 shades, £7.99

Glimmer Eyes Shadow 4 shades, £9.29 (with applicator) Sfumato Eyes Shadow 14 shades, £9.29 (with applicator)

Skin-Glow Foundation, 30ml 10 shades, £12.49

Healthy-Glow Mineral Powder, 7.5g 6 shades, £14.49 bestseller

Breezy Cheeks Blush 8 shades, £8.99 (with applicator)

UNE is available at Boots, Superdrug (high street and at Boots.com and superdrug.com) and at LoveLula.com.

For the complete range, visit unebeauty.com

Sfumato Eyes Pencil 12 shades, £5.29

sublime | 39

sublime_JULY11.indd 39

11/07/2011 16:35

lifestyles

THE GREAT UNCOOKED Words Liz Schaffer Illustration Zara-Jade Bestwick

PROMISING TO KNOCK YEARS OFF OUR BODIES AND KILOS FROM OUR WAISTS, ENSURE SERENITY, IMPROVE HEALTH AND BOOST ENERGY, IT’S NOT SURPRISING THAT RAW FOOD IS A RAPIDLY GROWING DIETARY TREND

40 | SUBLIME

sublime_JULY11.indd 40

11/07/2011 16:37

lifestyles

F

irst emerging in Switzerland in the 1890s, these days raw food has become less of a dietary choice and more of a philosophy, an interpretation of the way food relates to our everyday lives.

When it comes to practicality, the nutrient-rich diet simply involves dining on uncooked and unprocessed substances that aren’t heated above 46ºC – with live enzymes in food beginning to degrade at around 41ºC. Once disregarded as a fad, raw meals consist of a variously textured assortment of uncooked plant foods (such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, sprouts, seeds and seaweed) alongside eggs, fish, meat and non-pasteurised dairy products. While many of these products can be found on UK supermarket shelves, raw-food followers rely on speciality stores for more unusual pantry staples. One such store is London’s Snowsfields Wellness. Filled with exotic labels, speciality goods, a chamber of treatment rooms and products made from wheat berries, agave, maca and hazelnuts, the bright space is both inviting and quirky – much like the raw ethos itself.

WITH THE PHONE GOING EVERY FEW MINUTES, AND A STEADY STREAM OF

patrons filtering in from nearby Borough Market, Marissa-Catherine Carrarini tells me about her store, and why Londoners are going raw.

As a practitioner, Carrarini needed a workspace that was unique and more like a home than a food shop. ‘I wanted to bring in quality products that work; raw stuff that would appeal to those who didn’t know about raw food,’ explains Carrarini. ‘And I was against basic, bland packaging. I wanted stuff in Snowsfields Wellness that was a bit more unexpected and glamorous – glamorous raw.’

Carrarini is a vegan, but doesn’t follow a completely raw diet. She owns a Vitamix blender and a dehydrator but often snacks on cooked vegetables.

Still, she understands the industry and the benefits of raw. ‘We get a lot of people asking for my advice: “What do I do, what do I feed my baby?” People respond very well to the raw-food trend, there is a lot of interest. There are issues with price, but people seem interested because it’s a great product.’

Although raw-food awareness is increasing, Carrarini is surprised it hasn’t resulted in increased fruit and vegetable consumption.

In fact, rather than nuts or dried fruit, Snowsfields’s most popular products are snack bars and muesli. ‘People often say to me, “I am interested in raw food”, so I tell them fruit and vegetables and sprouts aren’t too expensive, and they’ll say, “Oh, I’m not interested in that, I’m interested in chocolate.”’ Even as a nutritionist Carrarini understands why this is the case. ‘Raw chocolate is tastier than raw sprouts.’

restaurants. I think the UK is catching up to America in its own unique way. Over here, raw is definitely a selling point. Whether people are eating more greens and sprouts in America than in the UK, I’m not sure.’

FOR THOSE NEW TO THE TREND, AND WITH A DESIRE TO TRY SOMETHING

adventurous, Carrarini recommends purple corn powder, a blend of highly nutritious, dehydrated foods such as hulled hemp seeds, goji berries and spirulina that will turn any cereal, dessert or smoothie it’s added to bright purple. Alternatively, Carley’s organic raw pecannut butter is a healthy supermarket alternative.

Nevertheless, with chocolate emerging as the most popular aspect of raw diets, it’s only fitting that Liz Bygrave be consulted. Trained as a natural-health therapist, Bygrave discovered the raw diet while travelling in Australia in 2002. During this trip she worked in exchange for food, board and a raw-food education, and embraced a diet she’d previously dismissed as ‘a bit extreme’. For Bygrave, it was difficult to ignore the benefits – increased energy and flexibility, clearer skin and a sense of calm – and her diet remains 50%–70% raw.

Bygrave has helped give the UK raw-food trend a sweet edge, which has no doubt boosted its marketability. While in Australia, she discovered the raw delicacy of dates and nut butter, but it didn’t quite satisfy her hankering for desserts. Shortly after returning from Australia, raw chocolate emerged in the UK and Bygrave began to experiment before setting up the raw-chocolate mecca Sweet Sensations. ‘I found there were lots of people with food sensitivities, or who were wanting to feed their children healthy food. That’s when I started doing workshops, and Sweet Sensations went from there.’ The company helps people from across the UK find different ways of working with chocolate and raw ingredients through recipes, dessert products and private or group workshops on chocolate bars, truffles and cakes.

RAW FOOD IS DEFINITELY UNIQUE. IT’S AS COLOURFUL AS A RETRO PUCCI PRINT, FLAVOURSOME, HEALTH-BOOSTING AND CONSTANTLY EVOLVING

A MIXTURE OF LOYAL CUSTOMERS, PASSING TOURISTS AND CURIOUS LOCALS

frequent Snowsfields Wellness. While some just want to try a raw chocolate bar en route to work, many are fascinated by the healthboosting trend. ‘We get a lot of German tourists coming in. German people seem to be very interested in raw food, and they are almost following a trail. They’ll go to Whole Foods, they’ll come to me and they’ll go to Saf. There seems to be a circuit, and we seem to be on it.’

Another country responding well to all things raw is America, where a few of Snowsfields’s products originate. ‘In New York it’s just everywhere; there are lots of vegetarian, vegan and raw-food

BYGRAVE’S RECIPES HAVE BECOME MORE

daring in recent years, making it difficult to believe she didn’t enjoy cooking as a teenager. ‘There’s something different about the way you work with raw food. Sometimes it’s easier to experiment because even if you don’t get the contents right, you can experiment and add bits. But with cooking, if you get it wrong you really do need to start again. It’s fun to make your own chocolate bars, to pour it into the mould, to freeze it and to end up with something that looks like what you can get from the shops.’

With sugar cravings catered for, Bygrave suspects the UK’s cold climate is the biggest challenge facing raw food. While she recommends making soups from gently heated vegetables – lettuce, parsley, spinach, lemon juice and chickpeas – the varied textures of cooked winter food are difficult to recreate. Although dehydrated kale with oil and salt does come close to the savoury crispiness of a weekend roast.

While it’s yet to become the UK’s most popular lifestyle trend, raw food is definitely unique. It’s as colourful as a retro Pucci print, flavoursome, health-boosting and constantly evolving. With it’s international following and respect for desserts, it will be interesting to see just how many UK houses embrace Vitamixes and uncooked broccoli in the coming years.

SUBLIME | 41

sublime_JULY11.indd 41

11/07/2011 16:39

entrepreneurs

when business comes NATURALLY Interview Jenny Page

‘Be the change’ might sound like a cliché, but it’s exactly what the Stuckeys have done in creating their own brand of pure, effective skincare

P

hilip, Beverley and Maddy Stuckey knew they made a great working team, and, like a growing number of health-conscious consumers, weren’t happy with the skincare they were using.

So they decided to make their own – something of a trend these days.

Sublime speaks to Philip Stuckey about what makes the brand special.

Sublime: What inspired you to create the Natural Empathy brand?

Philip Stuckey: There were a number of factors that were catalysts for us. First of all, we had been working together successfully as a family for the last 20 years, as owners of a technical textiles company and a fashion store, and we simply wanted to continue that trend.

Looking for a business opportunity to develop, we noticed that the natural products we bought for ourselves were not always what they appeared to be. Manufacturers were content to add a couple of natural ingredients and then claim natural credentials, which seemed wrong. Around the same time, we read some research which suggested that 60% of what goes on our skin ends up in our bloodstream, so we knew we were on to something.

We spent time with farmers locally, and with producers in rural France, to understand better the importance of provenance, and ingredient-growing and handling techniques. We discovered within us an empathy with nature, and Natural Empathy was born.

S: Who’s who in the business? Do you always agree about everything?

PS: We do have arguments sometimes, but only because we are so passionate about our business. We’ve worked together long enough, and love each other enough, to overcome any tensions quickly.

I am generally tasked with strategy, marketing and business development, Beverley with financial and supply-chain management and overall direction, while Maddy takes care of new product

42 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 42

11/07/2011 16:52

entrepreneurs development, brand development and positioning. That all sounds very demarcated, but we will roll our sleeves up and do whatever is required, including packing orders and filling bottles if necessary.

S: Tell us about production. Where is the range manufactured, and who decides what goes into the products?

PS: Producing the Natural Empathy range is not straightforward.

We work with a perfumer to blend the complex mixtures of organic essential oils that go to make the bespoke natural fragrances that grace our skin and haircare ranges.

We engaged a local Northumbrian farmer to grow and cold-press the main base oil, which is triple-filtered and extra virgin, full of omega essential fatty acids and vitamins.

Then we have special bottles and labels produced, which are made from recycled materials and have a beautiful look and feel. All of these elements come together at a converted creamery in Dorset to be blended with the other necessary natural ingredients and toxicology-tested, before returning to our store in Northumberland.

We have a small laboratory where we experiment with new ideas, and come up with what we believe to be nature’s way to healthier and more beautiful skin and hair. I am the polymer technologist of the family and more science-based, but Maddy is the creative one and Beverley keeps our feet on the ground commercially.

S: You’ve mentioned on the website that Beverley and Maddy studied skincare formulation in France. What did they take away from this time?

PS: They studied in rural south-west France, where growers have been using the same farming and harvesting techniques for generations, and still have their secrets. We liked the idea of combining old ‘lore’ with cutting-edge science, and I think we have achieved that aim.

The residential course included spending time with growers as well as formulation work in the lab, and lectures on the European legislation and controls that govern the production of skincare products.

The most important thing they learned was the power and efficacy of high-quality essential oils, and how they can be synergistically blended to great effect. They also discovered that cheap, impure essential oils were ineffective and a false economy, and that certain synthetic ingredients, such as the widely used paraben preservatives, could actually be harmful to our biology and should be avoided.

S: Do you own the rapeseed crop yourselves, or do you work in collaboration with farmers?

PS: We work with a specific farm in Northumberland, where a single

seed variety is used and the oil is extracted using techniques that maintain the nutrient content at the highest possible level.

‘we do have arguments sometimes, but only because we are so passionate about our business’ The common thread is the passion behind the producers. We can walk in the field with the farmer and chew the cud, so to speak. All of our essential oils are certified organic, and our shea butter comes from a Fairtrade source, a women’s cooperative in Africa.

Rapeseed is pretty special. First, it is important to know that you almost certainly won’t be allergic to the oil, as all the pollen is filtered out. It is transported quickly and easily into the skin, where our natural actives can do their stuff. This is not the only oil we use, though; it is combined with others, such as avocado and apricotkernel oils, to enhance the properties of the rapeseed oil.

S: Are there new products to look out for in 2011 and beyond?

PS: We have just launched our Rejuvenessence Super-natural Antiageing Serum, into which we have poured all our knowledge and every antioxidant we can think of. We believe it to be the best there is in the natural field, and so do our customers. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the serum.

S: How does Natural Empathy benefit the environment? In what ways are you an ethical company, concerned about your effect on the planet?

PS: We are concerned about how we pollute our bodies, as well as our

planet; these two things are linked. We coined the phrase ‘in tune with nature, in tune with you’ to communicate this.

We try to keep ingredient miles down by working with local growers; we only manufacture in the UK, and use recycled materials for packaging and marketing. Our entire range is vegan-registered, and there is no animal testing involved.

We also try to keep control of the provenance of our ingredients, to ensure best manufacturing practices. We also believe that certain synthetic ingredients may be linked to cancer (none of which find their way into our products), and therefore we work to support cancer charities both locally and nationally, as well as the Help for Heroes charity, which somehow just feels right. naturalempathy.com

S: Are your products organic? What else is special about the products, and what drew you to rapeseed as a skincare ingredient?

PS: Not all of our ingredients are organic because provenance is more

important, in our eyes. We work with growers that farm organically but choose not to be certified. Also some of our ingredients are wildcrafted, that is, they are harvested from their natural, wild habitat.

As new ethical entrepreneurs, the Stuckeys use local resources, are aware of the global environment in their production processes and are prepared to collaborate with provider communities in the developing world. A number of manufacturers, both from business backgrounds and start-ups, are following this fairer model

sublime | 43

sublime_JULY11.indd 43

11/07/2011 17:30

debate

The miracle lab R

egenerative medicine is fascinating. The whole Frankensteinian – for lack of a better word – nature of it is mind-boggling for the average lay person. It’s somehow slightly unbelievable, but it is the 21st century, and we are pretty much able to do whatever we want, whenever we want to. In an age of mobile technology, when we run our lives from devices we carry in our pockets, the idea of being able to construct body parts and organs artificially somehow becomes more conceivable.

The technology we use daily to make our lives easier is being surpassed by light years in the world of regenerative medicine.

Imagine being able to build up layer upon layer of cells, with the end result being a new organ!

Regenerative medicine is defined as ‘the process of creating living,

functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to damage, or congenital defects. This field holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by stimulating previously irreparable organs to heal themselves.’

What this means is that scientists are now capable of building organs using biomaterials as scaffolds for the organs, layering cells on the scaffolds to grow the organs outside of the body and then implanting them into patients who need them.

Many see this as the most tangible solution to the organ shortage problem. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are currently 111,715 candidates waiting for viable organs. Of this staggering figure, 72,389 are on the active list – the number actually eligible for an organ, according to medical criteria, should one become available. Between January and March 2011 only 6,708 transplants were carried out, an average of just over 2,000 per month. ‘On average, 20 people on this list die daily, while around 75 receive transplants.’ In the UK, NHS figures show that there are over

Imagine you’ve been put out of action by a failing organ. What would you give to get a new one?

It’s a dilemma that faces thousands of people each day. A solution now appears to be on the horizon – one that’s opening up some interesting dilemmas of its own

Words Renee Yearwood 100,000 people on the list waiting for transplants. These figures are shocking enough to convince unbelievers and sceptics to consider that there might be a need for this type of research.

At the forefront of research in the field of regenerative medicine is

Dr Anthony Atala. Dr Atala runs the world’s largest research facility in the field. He recently gave an impressive presentation at TED Talks, where he explained and demonstrated the nature of regenerative medicine. He began his presentation by saying that there is actually a major health crisis today in terms of the shortage of organs, and laid out the scope of the crisis: ‘In the last ten years, the number of patients requiring an organ has doubled, while over the same time, the actual number of transplants has barely risen.’ A statement powerful enough to make everyone sit up and listen.

One of the many highlights of Atala’s presentation was the appearance on stage of a former patient, who, at 10 years old, was one of the first beneficiaries of this type of medicine. He was a recipient of Dr Atala’s ‘bladder technique’. An artificial bladder was built using a balloon-shaped scaffold in a Petri dish. Various layers of healthy cells were placed on top of the scaffold to multiply, essentially creating a normally functioning bladder, which was then implanted, a process Atala describes as ‘very much like baking a cake’. Depending on the body parts concerned, the whole process can take between six to eight weeks – a rather attractive statistic for those in support of regenerative medicine and bioartificial organs.

This type of research is invaluable not only to those on waiting lists for organs around the world. The US Military has invested $250m into regenerative research, in the hope that soldiers returning from war who have lost limbs or been maimed in explosions might someday be able to return to some semblance of physical normality by regrowing muscle and tissue and replacing body parts.

44 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 44

11/07/2011 17:20

debate

Derived from human embryonic stem cells, precursor neural cells grow in a lab dish and generate mature neurons (red) and glial cells (green), in the lab of UW-Madison stem-cell researcher and neurodevelopmental biologist Su-Chun Zhang Photo courtesy Su-Chun Zhang, used with permission of UW-Madison University Communications

But regenerative medicine, in spite of all the positives previously mentioned, does have its critics. Its scientists have been accused of ‘playing God’, especially by religious critics and sceptics who do not believe in using harvested human cells.

It’s somewhat naive to think that, with the leaps and bounds being made in technology, we should expect science and scientists to be less proactive in solving what appears to be a worldwide issue of public health. Does this type of research push the boundaries of natural law?

Certainly it does. It might extend our life expectancy and, in the long run, lead to an increase in ageing populations, so one could argue that this type of medicine does inevitably interfere with the laws of nature. But to be denied the chance to be able to lead a long life presents another moral conundrum.

The most unsettling thing about regenerative medicine and bioartificial organs is not the idea that humans might be tampering with nature. It is the growing business that seems to be being generated as a result of research in this field. A recent report projects that ‘the global artificial-organ market value will total over $15bn in 2015, driven by an ageing population, organ transplant success, an increased waiting list for organ transplantation and a paucity of donor organs. Other growth drivers include technological advancements, insurance coverage and cost benefits.’

This, more than anything, creates the moral dilemma: to be excited at the prospect of being able to live a longer and healthier life if you happen unfortunately to be on one of those dreaded waiting lists, only to be plummeted back into certain despair when the realisation hits home that you might not be able to afford the manufactured organ that could save your life.

The most unsettling thing about regenerative medicine is not the idea that humans might be tampering with nature.

It is the growing business that seems to be being generated

The

organ

shortage

problem

is

undeniably an issue. But science and technology appear to be on track in making great strides towards providing a solution that will save lives and provide hope to those languishing on those lists that dominate the lives of so many from day to day. Surely as a society we are duty bound to support and encourage any developments that will change the lives of thousands worldwide.

The inevitable cost factor does give me second thoughts, though.

Who will be the beneficiaries in the long run? Will being wealthy increase your chances? Will those in the developing world who face exactly the same problems be priced out of the market? It’s rather ironic, as it seems as if these technological advances might be affected by some sort of natural selection after all.

oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk stemcells.wisc.edu

sublime | 45

sublime_JULY11.indd 45

11/07/2011 17:21

new culture

making lemonade

John Grant is author of The Green Marketing Manifesto and Co-opportunity. His blog is at http://greenormal.blogspot.com

by John Grant

finding yourself in the middle of a recession, with not much of an end in sight, is a sobering experience. climb off the treadmill of consumerism to refocus on what’s truly valuable, and you’ll find unlooked-for happiness

I

’ve been thinking recently about the parallels between today and 1932. I imagine that then, as now, there were plenty of headlines saying ‘the recovery’ was just around the corner, or a few more years away, but that it was on its way. Whereas the truth was, they were in for a much longer slump. Despite some of the low points of recent history – the rise of fascism, homelessness and crushing poverty – a lot of positives can be drawn from that time, too; politically, culturally, artistically and so on.

The ‘great recession’ as we call it today has followed a similar path to the 1930s, although unemployment so far is mercifully not quite as high. (‘Only’ 10% rather than 20% plus).

Interestingly, I haven’t seen any figures on underemployment; most people and companies I know are soldiering on, often busier than ever chasing what work there is, but underemployed?

The few years of slough probably

National Institute of Economic and Social Research (February 2011) The debate a few years ago was whether we could power our way out

of the green crises by building a green-powered growth economy, or whether it would be simpler, safer and saner to just slow down.

The crux of the argument against the second view was, as George Monbiot (hardly the spokesperson for freewheeler-dealer capitalism) put it: ‘A 10% annual cut in energy consumption while the infrastructure remains mostly unchanged means a 10% annual cut in total consumption: a deeper depression than the modern world has ever experienced. No political system – even an absolute monarchy – could survive an economic collapse on this scale.’

I followed that debate with huge interest. But it only occurred to me recently to pose the question the other way around. Could we use a massive medium-term economic slump to bootstrap a different way of life? In 2009, the UK economy shrank by 5%. And no, we didn’t go into a black hole of social dislocation. The new mood of thrift was cheerful if anything – nostalgic – making the most of make do and mend, growing your own veg and the joys of camping in a soggy summer. As someone who successfully gave up smoking (at last!) several years ago as a result of what I recognised even at the time was a mixed blessing – a nasty, persistent cough – I could have cottoned on sooner. The mentality is one of ‘making the most of a bad lot’ crossed with ‘making a dash for it’. Once you’ve managed for a while, you might as well keep going. Now we are stuck here in the economic slough of despond, can we start to notice it’s a blessing too?

a cushy retirement may never come. the western conomies may never recover. we don’t have anything up our sleeves ... i’m not remotely gloomy about any of that

haven’t been enough for many to readjust their worldview yet. But it is starting to sink in. The housing market, or retail spending, or affordable commodities … these may never return. A cushy retirement may never come. The Western economies may never recover. We don’t – according to the economists I had lunch with today – have anything up our sleeves. Whereas in 1932, they already knew that there was a way out, through industrial production linked to consumer spending. There may well be no way back for the Western economies – and the scary thing about Greece, and other failing economies in the news, is that they are living in our future.

I’m not remotely gloomy about any of that, though. After the scares over the last decade of climate change, ocean desertification, biodiversity loss and all the other environmental nightmare scenarios, suffering even a ‘great recession’ is more like arriving at middle age, rather distracting you from the prospect that you might die quite suddenly. If anything, it’s a relief to know that at some level this is a slowdown on that front too.

46 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 46

11/07/2011 17:22

FOR R C EATIVE D THINKERS AN INQUIRING MINDS

sooner or later you have to wonder if we have passed the equivalent of ‘eternal youth’ in our economy, with all its assumptions of immortality and limitless possibility

As I expect was the case in 1932, I reckon it is only just beginning to sink in. As all those famous retailers – Habitat, Thorntons, Oddbins, HMV, Jane Norman, Mothercare – queue up to announce store closures, or closing down altogether; as the public sector is cut drastically; and as the savings money, or house values, or ongoing work (or whatever you measure your economic security in) dwindles, sooner or later you have to wonder if we have passed the equivalent of ‘eternal youth’ in our economy, with all its assumptions of immortality and limitless possibility.

It’s disappointing to think so, but at the same time quite liberating.

Taking a long view, the thing to be in life surely is Greek, not Roman. To invest in a lasting cultural and historic legacy, and not in a frenzy of pointless acquisitions, triumphs and competition, eventually collapsing under internal contradiction and beneath that, a vacuum of sheer pointlessness. ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ Yes, they have left some lasting innovations. But in engineering, sanitation and bureaucracy, rather than the soaring heights of the Greek mind.

There’s no point today in jumping on the hedonic treadmill and working even harder. With little to gain in the short-term economy, you tend naturally think about investing time in longerterm futures – in family, education and fledgling ventures. In stuff that’s simply worthwhile and long-standing. One of the results of this great – and quite possibly irreversible – recession is that we can start to weigh the long-term value of things. To question whether we want to be Roman or Greek, or whether (the Greek question par excellence) we might just want to be ourselves.

The idea of innovation doesn’t quite do this sort of dawning

realisation justice. In some ways, innovation suggests a kind of caffeinated, sugary burst of hyperbole; the rush to get the fifth movie out in a franchise, or introduce the fifth smart-phone model – the fourth did well, but will soon become a passing fad or bore.

I’m told that Facebook has peaked and is declining fast, in the UK and US at least, and I’m hardly surprised. I’ve enjoyed some of what it’s brought into my life. But not exactly in the same lasting way as I’ve enjoyed Joyce, Pynchon or Blake, my three favourite authors. Or even in the same lasting way I enjoyed teaching my son and his best friend how to creep up on rabbits.

I don’t really have an exciting conclusion, formula or radical alternative to share here. Just a feeling – as it dawns on us that the old Indian rope-trick economy may be gone for good – that we might have the space to do something a bit more worthwhile with our lives. Still earning a livelihood, hopefully; but also mindful of our life’s work, whatever that may turn out to be.

AN INSPIRING, POSITIVE READ FOR INTELLIGENT LIFESTYLE CHOICES sublimemagaziNE.COM sublime | 47

sublime_JULY11.indd 47

11/07/2011 17:23

body of light Words Safeera Sarjoo

48 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 48

11/07/2011 17:56

photo: efraĂ­n pinto

art

jaume plensa’s work is as much about the unseen as the visible, the touchable. light and darkness, silence and sound, language and metaphor all have a place in his pieces

Jerusalem, 2006

sublime | 49

sublime_JULY11.indd 49

11/07/2011 17:56

photo © jLorne Campbell Guzelian

art

Top Jaume Plensa with Kneeling Shadow Below Twins i and ii, 2009

W

hat strikes you first about Jaume Plensa is just how humble, poetic and simple the inspirations are behind the pieces in his exhibition. Though initially you may be perplexed by what you see, you soon find yourself delving into Plensa’s mind and looking at his work with a different eye. Sublime spoke to Plensa at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where his installation is currently on display, to uncover more about the thought process behind his stunning collection.

‘Surrounded as we are by sleeping objects, it can seem as if life is a sleeping romance, but it’s for us to bring back life to those sleeping objects’

Sublime: Your work incorporates a lot of the human form. What do you find so interesting about it?

Jaume Plensa: It’s the shape I probably know better than any other.

We spend so much time in front of the mirror. First, it’s about my own body, and then the bodies of others, but in general, it’s about the body. You’ll probably notice that my body is not sexy, it’s just a human body. It’s so exciting because it’s a kind of container, and for me as a sculptor, that’s really rich in terms of concepts. It’s a container – but of what?

S: What difference do you think it makes, allowing people to be very interactive with your sculptures?

photo © gasull fotografia

JP: It’s complicated to talk about interaction because it seems that

when you say interactive, it means that something is moving. But a single piece is interactive, because you have to walk around it and discover the enigma of the piece, and often, even if a piece is less evidently interactive, it still has that quality about it.

Much of my work is trying to understand better the ideas of light and sound, concepts that are really deep inside the most classic concept of a sculpture. Many times it’s thought that sculpture relates to weight, size, scale and dimension, and this can be very boring because it’s not true. Sculpture also relates to energy, light, shadows, cold, heat – many things.

50 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 50

11/07/2011 17:54

photo © jonty wilde

art

Twenty nine Palms, 2007

At times it’s about texture: something smooth, or something more rough, yet no one talks about that. Not everything about sculpture is always visible. You don’t always have to take it in just through your eyes, but through all of your senses.

‘I dream every time I do an exhibition that people will find a place where they can encounter themselves again.

That’s the dream’

S: Why is light so important for you?

JP: Often when people talk about art or artists that I don’t like, I say that that art or artist has become monochrome. Monochrome means that he or she has been doing the same pieces for years. I’m not like that. I consider myself to be like a diamond, having plenty of facets, and depending on where the light passes through, it seems to be one or another colour. That is the beauty of a diamond. Why should my work be just one thing, and not many?

Light also means shadows. I guess I love darkness because it’s in our body. It’s a key element that’s present when anything is born – babies in the darkness of their mother, words in the darkness of our mouth and ideas in the darkness of our brain. I love that as a concept; I know it’s very poetic but I can’t imagine life in any other way. Darkness is related to life, and often when I’m talking about one thing I’m using an opposite concept. When I talk about silence, I use gongs, which are about sound.

S: Where did the idea for Jerusalem come from?

JP: I’ve always been interested in the energy of our bodies, of objects that are spread around, filling up space, but if you think a bit more about it, it is a kind of vibration. Our ideas are vibrating and filling up the space around us, even though they are invisible. Gongs and cymbals symbolise ideas pretty well because when you beat a gong, the gong starts to move and vibrate and makes a beautiful sound. As a sculptor, I think it’s a beautiful concept.

Also, you mentioned before the idea of interaction. I just lay the object down. If you decide not to beat the gong, nothing happens.

Vibration has this kind of beauty hidden within it, and it’s in your hands to awaken that object. Surrounded as we are by sleeping objects, it can seem as if life is a sleeping romance, but it’s for us to bring back life to those sleeping objects.

S: The use of words is also very important in your collection.

JP: Very important. In a couple of pieces in the show I’m using [the

Old Testament book] Song of Songs. I’m using lettering to make the scheme of the human body and mixing different alphabets and characters, different traditions and cultures. It’s a beautiful metaphor about global diversity, how we can be together with our different personalities.

S: Finally, what do you want people to take from this exhibition?

JP: I would love, and I dream every time I do an exhibition, that people will find a place where they can encounter themselves again.

That’s the dream, but I don’t know if that actually happens. The piece is there, it’s completely open, it depends on you and how you read that work, or how spiritual you are. Everyone has different tastes, but my work is trying to create a feel where you can walk around and find yourself again. That is my intention. jaumeplensa.com

Jaume Plensa is exhibiting at Yorkshire Sculpture Park until 25 September 2011

sublime | 51

sublime_JULY11.indd 51

11/07/2011 17:55

debate

democracy’s a funny thing. we all have rights that we are encouraged to stand up for, and we may revel in freedom of expression. except that the combination of those two tenets can prove explosive. what’s a right-thinking individual to do?

truth be told Words Safeera Sarjoo Illustration Jeffrey Thompson

A

s younger generations grow up to understand the world around them, it appears as though, at the same time, they develop a sense of rebellion to certain rules and boundaries.

Examples of this include testing copyright laws with the resources in place to download music without paying, and using the internet to converse, debate and express themselves freely. Bring up the topic of political correctness, and most young people are either unaware of the concept or dread the idea of being politically incorrect. But with PC being taken to new levels, maybe it’s not such a bad thing, being against the masses.

The way we use language to express ourselves is so natural we don’t give a second thought to it most of the time. Freedom of speech is recognised not only as a human right, but also as part of any democratic society. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’

Writing on the Truthout website, Robert Skidelsky explained about the

only two limitations enforced against this law. ‘The first prohibited the use of words or expressions likely to disrupt public order; the second was the law against libel. There are good grounds for both – to preserve the peace, and to protect individuals’ reputations from lies. Most free societies accept such limits as reasonable,’ he said.

If this is the case, then why do we sugar-coat our personal opinions when we have the right to express them freely? For a number of reasons. There is the fear of being judged by those who do not hold the same views, and the fact that, despite it being an opinion, there is the chance that what we think could offend the person we’re speaking to.

The positive aspect of political correctness, of course, hones in on eradicating hate speech and racism, but in the process of fighting against this, people have become somewhat sensitive. The deep

52 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 52

11/07/2011 17:59

debate

need not to offend anybody may strip away the very essence of who we are as humans; opinionated beings who question, debate and believe in ideologies that resonate with us.

Anthony Browne, author of The Retreat of Reason: Political Correctness and the Corruption of Public Debate in Modern Britain, explained to the Daily Mail five years ago that political correctness had transformed society into a form of ‘soft totalitarianism’. This in turn has led to ‘moral cowardice’ and ‘intellectual dishonesty’.

When you consider the effort we put into making sure we don’t say something out of line, or that could be misconstrued as offensive, Browne has a valid point. If we think that the celebrations held by Americans after the reported death of Osama Bin Laden were in poor taste, then we should be able to express this freely. If we believe that the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan should be put behind bars with a hefty sentence for their driving infractions, then we should say so. What you may think is an acceptable approach to voicing your opinions is actually holding back the raw truth of your feelings and giving into Browne’s theory and, in a way, censoring yourself. PC can sometimes strike a little fear into people, especially at work. Rethinking Political Correctness

by Robin J. Ely, Debra E. Meyerson and Martin N. Davidson reveals the thought processes of individuals in the workplace, and how PC can dominate your thought processes. It opens by saying: ‘A white manager fears she will be perceived as racist if she gives critical feedback to her Latino subordinate. A black engineer passed over for promotion wonders whether his race has anything to do with it, but he’s reluctant to raise his concern lest he be seen as “playing the race card”.’

People

finding

themselves

in

these

media has a lot to do with that. Despite the well-known saying never to believe everything you read, there is no doubt that the media industry serves as a huge influencer over the people who consume it. We absorb the news we see, believe that interviewees are the most credible sources, and by giving ‘the other side’ a chance to have their say, we neither question nor accuse media bodies of being biased.

After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, the popularity of the royal family was at an all-time low, and the media fed this to people.

But with the recent wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the media have clung on to the jubilation people showed throughout the wedding, and now give us close coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s every move. Instead of talking about how taxpayers are affected by both the wedding and their North American tour, the focal point is the fashion angle, with the Duchess now deemed a style icon.

During their tour of Canada, demonstrators held up banners referring

to the royals as ‘parasites’, highlighting the fact that it is costing the Canadian taxpayer to fund their visit. Their negative reaction to the couple isn’t shared with the majority, who are happy to have them visit, and so marginalises the protesters, and casts a negative light on them as they’re not conforming to how the mainstream is reacting.

Even after the horrific 9/11 attacks, the American media promoted a very patriotic sense of unity. Anyone who didn’t conform to that, or didn’t support decisions made by former president George W. Bush, were regarded as enemies of the state. His famous line ‘You’re either with us or against us’ was the foundation for several debates.

When assessing our own opinions and thoughts on various topics, individually we have views that are unlikely to change or be hindered. However, as political correctness shifts, there is the argument that it exists to serve an agenda that goes far beyond curbing racism and discrimination. People, and especially the media, have seen just how effective political correctness has been in its primary use. They’ve seen how people are scared to be labelled racist and, as a result, they use the idea of political correctness to coax people into feeling, thinking and believing things that they may not be completely comfortable with. It has also had a lasting effect in the way that it makes us think twice about what we say.

While this may not be such a bad thing, it does border on stomping on our rights if we can’t express ourselves truthfully.

the deep need not to offend anybody may strip away the very essence of who we are as humans; opinionated beings who question, debate and believe in ideologies that resonate with us

situations can be terrified even to approach the most trivial issues with others. Living in a democratic country should not mean having to censor yourself when it comes to speech and opinions. But if this is the case, then maybe we haven’t been living with democracy as we previously thought.

Even though political correctness has aimed to decrease the use of racist language and discrimination, Browne also touches on the fact that minorities sometimes use racism as an excuse, which suggests that PC has evolved into something much more negative. ‘The most overt racism, sexism and homophobia in Britain is now among the weakest groups, in ethnic minority communities, because their views are rarely challenged, as challenging them equates to oppressing them,’ he explains.

It’s also worth noting that PC consistently changes too, and the

Browne brings it back full circle to the way we live our social life, with

political correctness playing a big part. ‘By challenging the authority of teachers, it fuels poor discipline in schools, and by promoting equality over excellence, it degrades the standard of education, inflating exam grades until they become almost meaningless.’

We should be able to voice opinions that may be controversial, and be allowed the chance to explain our feelings without being accused of being something we’re not. Using political correctness as a shield not only shows an unwillingness to give people that chance, it can also be seen as a brick wall that is put up knowing very well that an opposing argument may hold more substance and meaning than what is being fed to the mainstream.

‘By closing down debates,’ Browne says, ‘it restricts the ability of society to tackle the problems that face it.’

sublime | 53

sublime_JULY11.indd 53

11/07/2011 17:59

BE PART OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. BUY AND SUBSCRIBE ONLINE TODAY. GET A FANTASTIC FREE GIFT WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE

2 YEARS

12 ISSUES

£54 MADAR A SKINCA RE SET RRP £4

0

The MÁDARA skin-care set includes Deep Purifying Foam, Balancing Toner and Moisture Fluid. It is an easy three-step daily skin-care routine, designed to cleanse and moisturise the skin.

All MÁDARA products are natural, organic and contain typical Baltic herbs and plants, which are known for their high level of active ingredients.

1 YEAR

6 ISSUES

£32 UNISEX ECO-FAC E DEEP MOIS TURE FLUID 50m l RRP £23

MÁDARA Deep Moisture Fluid contains natural ingredients from the Baltic region including linden flower, mugwort and red clover, to give you radiant, firm, well-nourished skin.

Like all MÁDARA products, Deep Moisture Fluid is free from harsh chemicals and preservatives. The fresh smell makes it truly different from other moisturisers, and suitable for both men and women.

CALL +44 (0)20 8374 7695 OR VISIT SUBLIMEMAGAZINE.COM

SUBLIME | 54

sublime_JULY11.indd 54

11/07/2011 18:03

talent spot

Imogen Belfield T

he world’s beauty can be a difficult thing to capture, but through innovation and creative thinking, contemporary artists and makers are discovering bold and exciting ways to do just that. Imogen Belfield, an experimental, hands-on jewellery designer from the heart of east London, is one such creative mind, harnessing the allure of nature and her surroundings to make work that is at once beautiful and challenging, modern yet classic, bold yet subtle. Casts are created from paper, plastics and even fruits. Delicate porcelain fragments are enrobed in the textured metals of gilded bronze, silver, steel and gold with pendants, rings and necklaces taking on an organic twist.

Inspiration for Imogen comes directly from her environment, using the city as her muse and her extensive experimentation with materials to aid her ideas. The porcelain forms nestle within the protective grip of the metal, posing a striking symmetry to the juxtaposition of the world that surrounds the human person. Each piece of porcelain hand-crafted into metal is unique and cannot be recreated, making Imogen’s work incredibly covetable.

As a jewellery graduate from the Sir John Cass School of Art, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University, Imogen is already highly acclaimed for her creations. She has won awards from the British Jewellery Association, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and South Square Trust alike, and has exhibited at the Islington Design Centre, the Structure and Function Gallery in Soho, Coutts London Jewellery Week and London Fashion Week among others, with the promise of more to come. imogenbelfield.com

sublime | 55

sublime_JULY11.indd 55

11/07/2011 18:06

talent spot

Martina Spetlova Interview Zara-Jade Bestwick Sublime: Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? Has design always been your calling?

For Martina Spetlova, there is a patchwork effect not only to her garments but to her experiences as well, from working with the likes of Giles Deacon to developing ways of generating income for the women of Pakistan. The same patchwork is mirrored throughout Spetlova’s collections, lending a playful individuality to her work, and is clearly one advantage of a resourceful mind

Martina Spetlova: I grew up in the Czech Republic, and studied

chemistry at university before moving to England. I did my BA and MA at Central Saint Martin’s, and graduated last year.

S: What does your work say about you? What do you hope to contribute?

MS: I love bold and dynamic colours and textures, which come through in all of my designs. I am trying to find my own way in sustainable design, too.

I squeal slightly at the thought of having to wear hemp clothing in order to save the planet. I’d like to show that savvy designers have managed to put a bit of chic into eco-friendly clothing. My aim is to concentrate on design, to be able to compete with non-ethical labels and not just be part of a niche ethical market.

S: We’ve heard about an amazing project you were involved with in Pakistan. Can you tell us more?

MS: I went to Pakistan three years ago, before graduating from the BA course. The project, run with the help of a local NGO, got us

56 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 56

11/07/2011 18:22

talent spot

‘I’m very handson, and I always start with the textiles and textures before developing shapes … most of all I love the freedom to be able to change details and discover new ideas while making the actual pieces’

doing workshops with women artisans from rural areas of Pakistan, to prepare them for working with European designers so that they could earn a regular and sustainable income. I travelled all over Pakistan, working with embroiderers from the south, and from the northern areas around Gilgit and Hunza. I stayed for six months, but unfortunately the project came to an end as the political situation deteriorated. I was extremely lucky to have been a part of the project at the time; it was an amazing experience that has stayed with me and influenced my work in many ways.

S: The concept of multi-wearability in your garments is fascinating – how did you come up with the idea?

MS: I used lots of zips in my textiles, and after researching and

working on shapes it was a natural progression to make the outfits modular. I loved the thought of having choices within a garment, and the opportunity to refresh it, so that whoever wears one of my garments makes it their own by adding or unzipping panels. There is an element of play and styling options, which adds to the intrigue of a piece.

S: There are so many brave, exciting aspects to your clothes. Colour, cut, materials. Where does it all come from?

MS: I spend a lot of time in the library researching my work, and

then my ideas develop by experimenting, mixing and testing the combinations of texture and colour (that’s the chemist in me!). I’m very hands-on, and I always start with the textiles and textures before developing shapes. Even though there are a lot of references I use to explain the choices I’ve made, most of all I love to be able to change details and discover new ideas while making the pieces.

S: Tell us how you’re involved in sustainability.

MS: I work with end-of-line fabrics and yarns from European mills which the industry sees as waste material, but which I am able to use for my limited-edition collections.

S: Do you find the nature of your designs lends itself well to sustainability?

MS: Since much of my work is like a patchwork of colour and texture, the limitations of using end-of-line textiles are negligible. I will always be able to find fabrics to fit my vision.

S: Who do you design for? Do you have a certain kind of person in mind?

MS: I design for myself, and what I think is interesting and haven’t seen elsewhere.

S: Have you collaborated with any other designers or companies, and if so, tell us all . . .

MS: At the moment I’m working with Atlantic Leather, who supply amazing fish leathers – a by-product of the fishing industry, and fully sustainable. In the past I’ve worked with YKK Zips, who sponsored my MA collection.

S: What’s in the pipeline for Martina Spetlova?

MS: Currently I’m focusing on next season, looking to work with a great team to create a video piece and an installation to present at London Fashion Week in September. And I’ll be showing in Paris and New York this season, which is very exciting. martinaspetlova.com

sublime | 57

sublime_JULY11.indd 57

11/07/2011 18:22

ethical trends

Edun sleeveless hoody, €320 100% organic cotton. Edun is founded on a commitment to develop trade with Africa, and to encourage others to do the same edun.com

Emma Franklin ram ring, £365 Black gold-plated ring, handcrafted by the designer using traditional techniques. emmafranklin.net Josh Jakus media pocket, $18 Grey wool felt from factory excess joshjakus.com

Assisi Leo striped tee, £35 100% organic Fairtrade-certified cotton, Soil Association certified peopletree.co.uk

FAIR NECESSITIES

By Zara-Jade Bestwick INTELLIGENT CONCEPT, SIMPLE DESIGN. NOT ONLY THE FIRST WORDS IN STYLE, BUT IN ALL OF THESE GARMENTS AS WELL. PIECES UNADULTERATED BY UNNECESSARY MESS AND FUSS, AND OF COURSE THIS APPLIES TO THEIR CREDENTIALS TOO. FORGET THE EXCESS CLUTTER AND ENJOY PURE PLEASURE Kiel Mead Lincoln ring, $75 Available in silver, gold and brass kielmead.com

Green Shoes field boots, £143 Hand-made to order.

Available in a wide range of vegan leather and colours greenshoes.co.uk

Howies Heatherwick shorts, £49 100% organic cotton twill howies.co.uk Decadorn wrap bracelet, £20 Prussian grey leather, all beads are natural haematite crystals and sterling-silver plated decadorn.bigcartel.com

FluffyCo grey woodgrain belt, $36 Genuine leather belt strap. Rough rawhide edges, finished by hand fluffyco.com

Swedish Hasbeens overnight bag, €467 Hand-made in Sweden, chrome-free and made in genuine natural-grained leather swedishhasbeens.com

58 | SUBLIME

sublime_JULY11.indd 58

11/07/2011 18:16

ethical trends French & English Confectioner’s patentleather rucksack, £165.

Expertly hand-made in a secret London workshop etsy.com

Bijou hammered wrap ring, £55, hand-made in Bijou’s shop in Churchtown of Southport bouf.com

Edun boxy cropped poplin shirt, €175 100% organic cotton edun.com

Decadorn carbon black agate crystal ring, £18 Hand-dyed natural crystal agate stone ring decadorn.bigcartel.com

Drew Perridge silver torque bracelet, £250 Hand-made in sterling silver bouf.com

Van Markoviec high-waisted striped trouser, €360 100% European biolinen vanmarkoviec.com

Sonya Kashmiri Maria belt, £105 Grey vegetable-tanned leather, chrome-free sonyakashmiri.com

Barbara i Gongini rubber necklace, €240 100% recycled rubber barbaraigongini.dk

UncommonGoods Bike Tube Travel Dopp Kit, $25 Made from repurposed mountain bike inner tubes with recycled PETE lining uncommongoods.com Swedish Hasbeens peep-toe high heel, €170 swedishhasbeens.com

SUBLIME | 59

sublime_JULY11.indd 59

11/07/2011 18:20

environment

The passionate surfer is the ultimate archetype of the free spirit. He or she conjures, too, negative images of time-wasting, drugs and ruined hair.

Today a new figure is rising from the waters: the ardent campaigner for cleaner, safer seas

LOVE ALL, SURF ALL Words Caroline Davidson

60 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 60

11/07/2011 18:23

environment

I

n the car park at Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes, north Cornwall, a couple are sitting in their car. They have got a plum spot: the only space with uninterrupted views of the beach. The only other person around is a man wearing headphones conspicuously over the hood of his jacket. He’s standing in a concrete shelter a little higher up, looking in the same direction.

Apart from these three and me, the place is deserted. The beachside café is shut, and the lights in the pub are out. There is no phone reception. On this bleak and windy winter’s day, our gaze is resolutely on the sea. High, fierce and vocal, it dominates the landscape completely.

Welcome to the Cornish Badlands. Referring to a district revered for its waves and feared for its localism, the Badlands are home to the country’s most tight-knit surfing community. At their heart is St Agnes, a long-established mining village famous for its hardy inhabitants. The waves crashing on the shoreline today may be breaking too messily to accommodate surfers, but the cove regularly bears witness to some of the most skilful wave-riding around.

Fitting, then, that the village should be the base for a group campaigning hard for the needs of surfers. That’s right: surfers have needs, and Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has been voicing them for over 20 years. Sewage is a major bugbear, but so too are toxic waste, marine litter, poor beach access and climate chaos. At the core of their rallying cry is a respect for the sea and for our coastline.

‘We wouldn’t want to identify one great challenge,’ says Hugo Tagholm, SAS’s current executive director. ‘Marine litter is the poster boy for what is happening because you can see it. It is a visual reflection of the consumer society we live in. But the impact of that society on our coastlines range far and wide.’

When SAS formed in 1990, however, there was just one thing on the

agenda: stopping the continuous spill of raw sewage into the sea.

Co-founded by Chris Hines, a dedicated Badlands surfer who had endured ‘one panty-liner in the face too many’, SAS quickly grew to a contingent of surfers ‘sick of getting sick’ by continually surfing in slicks of human excrement, tampons and condoms. With surfers regularly suffering from associated illnesses, Hines, in partnership

with Andrew Kingsley-Tubbs (Ange) and with the support of hundreds of beach-using locals, declared war on the UK’s poor sewage-treatment systems.

From the humble origins of the 28-foot caravan that Hines then called home, he and Ange wasted no time in confronting water companies with their complaint. At the time, Margaret Thatcher had said publicly that all sewage was treated before discharge. The reality, says Hines, ‘is that 400m gallons of completely crude sewage was being discharged into the sea every day’.

In their first year, Hines and Ange became shareholders of South West Water, enabling them and a group of SAS supporters to storm the company’s AGM wearing wetsuits and gas masks. With mediasavvy tactics like these, it wasn’t long before their message was heard nationally. What had started as grassroots activism – Hines’s sights were originally set on just cleaning up the seas around his local breaks in St Agnes, Chapel Porth and Porthowan – had become a campaign of national importance.

Fifteen years later, and with a membership base in its thousands, SAS was proud to have played a major part in virtually eliminating the discharge of raw sewage into our seas. The BBC had touted them as ‘some of the government’s most sophisticated environmental critics’, and in 2008 Hines was awarded an MBE for services to the environment.

Job done? Not quite. While Hines now concentrates on his newest initiative, A Grain of Sand, which seeks to drive positive change in a range of arenas, Tagholm is bringing a new dynamic to SAS. If Hines embodied its beginnings, Tagholm is the face of its now heavyweight status.

Fifteen years later, and with a membership base in its thousands, SAS was proud to have played a major part in virtually eliminating the discharge of raw sewage into our seas

sublime | 61

sublime_JULY11.indd 61

11/07/2011 18:25

environment radioactive waste or for safer shipping, are backed up with rigorous scientific evidence. But it’s stunts like dressing up as mermaids to campaign against the proliferation of tiny plastic pellets (‘mermaids’ tears’) on our beaches, and getting naked for their No Butts on the Beach campaign, that enables them to crank up the pressure.

Tagholm admits to sometimes playing on the ‘surfer’ stereotype, which assumes that all surfers do is drive around in camper vans looking for the perfect wave.

‘We can harness that perception to challenge people effectively and generate exposure for important issues. The whole environmental sector benefits from the fact that the SAS functions in a different way from other NGOs and charities. We are never afraid to challenge convention.’

That sex sells is part of SAS’s unique armoury. These days, it is not just

‘Surfing is no longer an alternative sport. Surfers are often doctors, solicitors and family people wanting to protect the environment they use and love’ Talking from the SAS base on the site of a former tin mine, Tagholm might look every bit the seasoned surfer, but his London accent betrays a more eclectic heritage. With his love of surfing matched by his verve for campaigning, he worked for the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition and ran Sarah Brown’s charity, PiggyBankKids before joining SAS is 2008. He relocated to Cornwall for the job, in a move that brought his two passions together. Hines tells me of the great respect he has for the current team, and listening to Tagholm talk nineteen to the dozen about the range of SAS campaigns in progress, there’s no doubting his foot is firmly on the pedal.

SAS may have been instrumental in improving the UK’s sewage treatment

systems, but the battle isn’t yet won. A new threat is the combined sewer overflow (CSO). Designed as an emergency outlet for sewage in the case of sudden heavy rainfall, CSOs are meant to function around three times during a bathing season. As it is, explains Tagholm, they’re probably spilling raw sewage a lot more. With 22,000 CSOs around the country, this is bad news for all water-users.

‘We realise CSOs have a place,’ says Tagholm, ‘but it’s about how often they are used, and ensuring water-users are aware of their existence and able to make informed decisions.’

Last year, the team launched a campaign demanding greater public information about CSOs and when they spill. And, true to SAS’s attention-grabbing spirit of old, they came up with an approach to capture the imagination. Challenging the Blue Flag programme, which awards beaches that comply with a range of safety and environmental criteria with a Blue Flag, an SAS Brown Flag was staked on the Blue Flag beaches with a CSO nearby whose local authorities failed to request information about spills and warn the public about them. Though the campaign was contentious, it was ultimately victorious, and from 2011 onwards Blue Flag beaches must deliver real-time notification of sewage spills.

It is this lateral, visual approach to campaigning that is so central to the success of SAS. All their campaigns, whether they’re against

surfers that SAS seeks to protect, but all recreational water-users.

Yet, rightly or wrongly, surfing is sexier than kayaking and, as such, it is vital that surfing remains the organisation’s USP. It enables them to attract youth volunteers – a group all charities and NGOs are keen to engage.

Last August, with the support of v, the national youth volunteering charity, SAS inspired over 700 young people to take part in an ambitious beach clean. Motivocean saw SAS call at 23 major UK beaches, removing more than five tonnes of beach litter. Being able to reward volunteers with surf lessons was no doubt a motivating force for many. The success of the initiative led to it being repeated this spring, as well as it being awarded an Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee.

In his book Surf Nation, Alex Wade celebrates the vigour of the surf scene around Britain and Ireland, demonstrating along the way that the sport is not the preserve of hippies and beach bums. As Tagholm is keen to get across, ‘Surfing is no longer an alternative sport. Surfers are often doctors, solicitors and family people wanting to protect the environment they use and love.’

Wade, himself a former solicitor and a current SAS board member, talks vehemently about the need to protect the seas around Britain, which, he says, ‘have some of the best waves in the world’.

Recognising the role of SAS, he says, ‘It is vitally important that surfers and other water-users should be able to enjoy the sea free of the fear of pollution.’

In their latest campaign, SAS tackles the multiplicity of issues facing the health of Britain’s oceans. With Protect Our Waves, the group is campaigning for greater awareness of the value of waves, to help ensure waves are nurtured and respected. Sometimes, at first blush, the range of uses waves have on offer might appear to be in conflict with each other. Will the Wave Hub, an offshore renewableenergy project currently being developed off the coast of Cornwall, threaten the quality of waves for surfers, for example? The answer is no, but, regardless, SAS advocates a holistic attitude. Any project that tackles climate change, that will help to prevent heavy rainfall and sewage spills, is in a surfer’s interest.

At the heart of the campaign is the conviction that waves are resources – whether as a means of harnessing energy for electricity or for providing a sense of freedom and a connection with nature.

‘A big challenge,’ says Tagholm ‘is staking the claim of surfers and convincing developers and council departments that they are important stakeholders.’ Why? ‘Because there are a finite number of surf spots in the UK, and they need protecting,’ says Tagholm unequivocally. ‘Surfing provides an exposure to the natural world, and awakens an environmental mindset. This in itself is a fantastic driver for all surfers to contribute to the continuing protection of our marine environment.’

As a membership organisation SAS relies on public support. Join for as little as £1.25 per month sas.org.uk

62 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 62

11/07/2011 18:27

sublime_JULY11.indd 63

11/07/2011 18:28

music

THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL Words Hanspeter Kuenzler

Sublime sits down with Adele Bethel, founder of Brit-punk-flavoured band Sons & Daughters, who have succeeded in marking themselves out from the teeming, talented Glasgow scene

64 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 64

11/07/2011 18:33

music

F

or a man as famously private as Bob Dylan, a remarkable number of Bob Dylan sightings have been recorded in Britain alone. There’s the time, for instance, when Bob turned up to view a house in Muswell Hill and was treated to a cuppa by the absent occupant’s mother. Then there’s the story – borne out by several witnesses – of Bob stepping out of the tube at King’s Cross and patting a busker on the head who happened to be playing a particularly obscure morsel from his oeuvre.

And there’s the story of Scottish singer-songwriter Adele Bethel sitting in her back garden with Bob, who was singing a particularly impassioned version of ‘The Times They Are A-Changing’. She woke up from her dream immediately after the line ‘Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command’. Hence the name of a band which – needless to say – sounds nothing like the Forever Touring One. Sons & Daughters were founded nearly ten years ago by Bethel, who was also singing with local heroes Arab Strap. The band then consisted of drummer David Gow, bassist Ailidh Lennon, who could also play a mean mandolin, and multi-instrumentalist Bethel.

Guitarist and co-vocalist Scott Paterson joined a little later. At first, Sons & Daughters played a raw, guitar-driven power pop with a hint of rockabilly. Their last album This Gift (2008), however, came with a shiny big Bernard Butler production.

Now, with Mirror Mirror, the band has returned to a rougher and at times even minimalist sound. While not exactly reinventing the wheel, Sons & Daughters nevertheless sound ‘different’. Different in a similar way that a plethora of other present-day Glasgow bands from Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai and Trembling Bells to ex-Delgado Emma Pollock, Zoey Van Goey and Frightened Rabbit somehow sound, subtly but indefinably different to what’s going on in the rest of the country.

Sublime: Your new album sounds very different to your last. What happened?

Adele Bethel: We just did exactly what we wanted to do. There are

some similarities with Love the Cup, the first album. This is the record I thought we were going to make the last time round, which we didn’t. It’s the record we discussed making three years ago. There was a lot of talk back then of making a really dark, almost Goth record. And then we made This Gift.

S: You used to be quite guitar-driven, and now there’s a computer edge to it, isn’t there?

AB: There is, but it’s funny because there were probably more computers used for the last record in terms of how it was produced!

Mirror Mirror was really organically made, even in the basic sense that only three vocal takes could be done because it was all recorded to tape. Scott became massively influenced by Fever Ray (Ed: the glacial, dark side-project of Karin Dreijer Anderson from Swedish electronic duo The Knife) during the period when we were writing these songs.

I’d always wanted to try something in this direction anyway. I really love Violator by Depeche Mode, a really dark record with synths.

S: Depeche Mode, Fever Ray, a sly quote from Kylie Minogue and another from Steam – what other reference points are there on your music map?

AB: Both Keith and I (Keith, aka J. D. Twitch, from Glasgow DJ duo Optimo produced the album), are massive Blondie fans. We try to outdo each other. He’s also really into The Gun Club and stuff like that. He just randomly plays us the most obscure stuff I’d never heard of. I also really like Jenny Lewis, the lighter country stuff and Stevie Nicks. And P. J. Harvey, always! There’s no one like her. She’s been a constant source of inspiration since I was a youngster, really.

Oh, and I’m a really big fan of Leonard Cohen. He’s someone I’ve always taken inspiration from. Why not? He’s the best.

sublime | 65

sublime_JULY11.indd 65

11/07/2011 18:33

music

S: Did you see him on his tour recently?

AB: I saw him twice. Once at Edinburgh Castle, which was life-

changing – I mean, he’s not like a real person to me, he has a kind of godlike status in my life. I always say that to my partner – he basically knows that Leonard Cohen is far more important in my life than him. They lit the castle in the break, and he came on and there were all these little candles right round the stage and round the castle. He did ‘Who By Fire’, and honestly, it was just jaw-dropping.

I went with Scott from the band, and he was mortified because I was shouting, ‘Marry me, Lenny!’ quite a lot. Scott would go, ‘Sit down, sit down!’ It was phenomenal, the best gig I ever saw.

to bed at night having just watched the next 9/11 documentary I’d found, and my new partner would go: ‘Oh, no, Adele! That’s why you can’t sleep! That’s why you’ve got these nightmares.’

S: Ah, if you’re into conspiracy theories, maybe you can answer me this, then – is Michael Jackson dead or not?

AB: D’you know what? We were thinking the other day: Michael

Jackson asked to be cryogenically frozen, it was a huge deal, remember? Where is he, then? He is in a cryogenic chamber! So technically he’s not dead.

S: What got you out of the writer’s block?

S: Why has it taken three years since the last album?

AB: It was gradual. Scott helped, actually. I only really got out of it by

AB: After This Gift, I felt quite disheartened by the whole industry.

going in and sitting with him. He was so supportive and so helpful.

He’d go, ‘Look, you’re sure you haven’t got anything that’s OK?’ But I’m a terrible self-critic. ‘I do, I have four bits of lyrics but they’re all shit.’ So he would sit there and sing the vocal line of gibberish. He’d go, ‘Here’s the vocal line, and we’ll just sing gibberish.’

Quite often, because his guitar is so bloody loud, I would just think while he was playing and I’d get interesting ideas from what he was singing. I did have most of the titles. I can usually think up titles quite easily and I usually do that first, as a starting-off point. It’s much easier to write a song if you have an idea of what it might be about.

I also use mind-mapping, which is what a lot of painters used to do. You draw a circle and you write one word in it, and every single thing that reminds you of that word comes out of the circle in one branch, and every word that reminds you of that comes off another.

You create a map of ideas, and you go to it and pick words randomly and put them down.

Another thing we did was we used Brian Eno’s idea of having a set of cards with cues on them. But we made our own cards instead of using his.

We were not pushed to do it, but there was a certain expectation for us to be commercially successful with the last record. It’s not that I don’t care about money. Everybody needs money to live. It’s just that it was never the reason to be in a band in the first place. Then the album came out, and it didn’t have the commercial success that a lot of people had hoped it would.

‘Mirror Mirror was really organically made, even in the basic sense that only three vocal takes could be done because it was all recorded to tape’ S: Given your attitude, did that still bother you?

AB: Maybe I felt I somehow disappointed those that had had the

expectations. The new album took a long time to make because, I think, we were really lost. I was lost, and I had terrible writer’s block, which is what ‘Ink Free’ is about. I couldn’t write anything. I didn’t even know if I wanted to. I was going through quite a hard time on a personal level. Scott and I were splitting up during the writing of it, as well. It was hard to be an ex-couple and write together when we’d always been a couple.

S: With the prospect of sharing a tour bus with the ex as well!

AB: That’s fine, actually. It was just hard initially. Scott and I are so

close that even when we split up we still lived in the same apartment for a year. He’s still one of my best friends. He’s someone I could phone at four o’clock in the morning if I was upset. We probably get on a lot better, definitely in the band, than we did when we were together. You can push each other’s buttons a bit too much.

For a while I was thinking, Oh God, I hope we don’t go the way of Fleetwood Mac, not speaking to each other but writing snide songs about each other. But it’s really not like that at all.

We’ve all been through such a lot. The band’s been together for ten years now. I’ve known them all for a long time. We always annoy each other, but we try not to. These days, we’re a bit older and a bit wiser.

S: How did you spend your time when you had writer’s block, if you weren’t writing songs and making music?

AB: Reading and attempting to get ideas. I guess I was working, in the sense that I became obsessed with conspiracy theories and serial killers. For three years I just sat and watched every single documentary on those subjects I could possibly find. I’d be going

S: You live in Glasgow. As a matter of principle?

AB: I was just thinking about this recently. I wouldn’t live in Glasgow

if my parents didn’t live there. I’m really close to my family. I need them there, they’re a great support for me. My partner, also.

He works in a record shop called Monorail Music, an absolutely fantastic independent record shop: he’d never leave it.

But we went to Crete a week ago. You can’t tell – I’m so pale and Scottish and pasty. I thought, I wanna move here! I love the Greek lifestyle and the food and the people. We genuinely looked at house prices over there! It’s something I’d like to do when I’m older. Definitely.

S: Glasgow is such a hive of musical activity, all that great stuff on the Chemikal Underground label, for instance, and so much seems to be going on. There does seem to be a common element to it all – Glasgow has its own sound, in a way – but I can’t define it. Can you help?

AB: I know what you mean. And I don’t know, either. Glasgow is a

great place to be in a band because it’s so small and everyone knows each other – everyone’s genuinely friends with each other. There’s nothing competitive in the nature of the Glasgow scene, as opposed to London, probably. There’s no outside pressure from record labels because there are barely any, apart from the Chemikal people.

Glasgow is somehow far removed from the commercialism of the industry. I can genuinely say, hand on heart, that people don’t make records to sell them or to get signed. It would be nice if it happened, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. A lot of it is down to the influence of the art school, I think. A lot of art students are in bands, and that’s a big thing, but they’re doing it purely for their own happiness.

Sons & Daughters, Mirror Mirror (Domino Records)

66 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 66

11/07/2011 18:34

music

music review

By Hanspeter Kuenzler

O

f late, reggae hasn’t had much success in reaching an audience outside the long-established centres of fandom.

While the more abstract dub experiments from the 1970s onwards continue to attract interest from all corners of the avant-garde world, vocalists of a more traditional bent have lost a large part of their international audience because of a tendency to repeat the same old riddims and lyrical themes ad nauseam.

A sad dedication to misogynist, homophobic and/or rabidly fundamentalist Rasta lyrics has also pushed reggae to the edges of popularity. Interestingly, for this male-dominated world, two of the most interesting albums of the last few years have come from women. There’s Terry Lynn’s terrific and innovative Kingston Logic, and now Hollie Cook’s Hollie Cook. Hollie is the daughter of an ex-Amazulu and an ex-Pistol whose first steps in the musical public were, tellingly, with Ari Up and the reformed Slits. Her debut album oozes class and flair. With consummate ease and great charm, she takes an old and often hackneyed sub-genre of British reggae, lovers’ rock, and, thanks also to an ace band that includes Pioneer George Dekker and Matumbi Dennis Bovell, turns it into something as fresh as a daisy and utterly relevant. Produced by Prince Fatty aka Mike Pelancoli, who once tried a similar feat with Lily Allen, from the first note of the irresistibly summery ‘Milk & Honey’ to the last twinkling of ‘Body Heat’, this is an utter delight.

Hollie Cook, Hollie Cook (Mr Bongo)

Brian Eno

Berne, Black & Cline

Other Lives

Susanne Sundfor

Drums Between the Bells is a fascinating cornucopia of ideas, thoughts and sounds from the tireless sound experimenter Eno and the poet Rick Holland.

The music ranges from spidery laptop funk to shimmering ambientscapes. Over these pieces, various voices (including a receptionist from the fitness centre Eno frequents) intone words that may or may not be taken in by the listener.

Either way, like the best of Eno’s ambient albums, Drums changes the space in which it is played to invite contemplation, thought and – more unusually in such a context – musical appreciation.

By day, guitarist Nels Cline plays with Wilco, purveyors of elegant alternative rock – which undoubtedly helps to fund his musical alter ego as a long-standing member of the small and daring community of American free improvisers.

Here, he teams up with alto saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Jim Black.

The encounter (recorded live) leads to a music that is fiercely muscular, often very loud and yet subtly lyrical.

A rewarding trip, though possibly not for the faint-hearted.

Other Lives hail from the small town of Stillwater, Oklahoma, where they have their own studio and are thus able to spend as long as they want on anything they do. Tamer Animals, their second album, comes with a wall-of-sound production that could have been orchestrated by Phil Spector, had he been a Fleet Foxes- and Sigur Rós-loving post-folkie.

A certain ramshackle quality saves the music from sounding ridiculously grandiose, and principal songwriter Jesse Tabish somehow manages to sound chirpy and melancholy at the same time.

The Norwegian singer-songwriter’s third album has been out in her native country for a while, and only now is word of its brilliance trickling over the borders. Sundfor plays various keyboards, plus vibraphone and marimba. Many other instruments are involved, ranging from lap steel guitar to viola, trombone and ‘water harp’.

In Sundfor’s hands, an orchestra never sounds bombastic; instead, her arrangements are deeply subtle and unusual, and all the more dramatic for it. ‘It’s All Gone Tomorrow’, for instance, marries luscious orchestral swirls to a dubstep-like clatter of beats.

Truly gripping stuff.

Brian Eno, Drums Between the Bells (Warp)

Berne, Black & Cline, The Veil (Cryptogramophone)

Other Lives, Tamer Animals (Play It Again Sam)

Susanne Sundfor, The Brothel (Grönland) sublime | 67

sublime_JULY11.indd 67

11/07/2011 18:38

film

An African Election

By Mallory Reid

I

n 2008, as the world watched the first-ever black candidate run for US president, Swiss-born film-maker Jarreth Merz returned to the country of his boyhood as another nation made political history.

Ghana, the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence in 1957 after only one previously peaceful transfer of power, went to the polls. Meanwhile, the world looked on at what was effectively a political barometer for democratic stability in Africa. Merz, with two camera teams, spent three months following the main contenders. Nana Afuko-Addo was a founding member of the NPP (New Patriotic Party), which hoped to retain power and continue the economic growth it had begun, and Prof. John Evans Atta Mills came from the NDC (National Democratic Congress), fighting to remain on the political landscape. From the footage, he created his unique and vibrant documentary, An African Election.

In this punchy documentary, Merz follows the high-stakes campaign (raised by the discovery of oil in 2007) through the culturally rich human landscape, from urban metropolis to remote village. Here, he discovers a turbulent country where people will wait twelve hours to exercise ‘the power of the thumb’. He captures the pride of the people and the party leaders’ larger-than-life characters, and reveals the dramatic political, social and fiscal forces at work in Ghana.

Merz’s intense film encompasses enough suspense-filled and

unpredictable twists to rival any Hollywood thriller.

It is an encounter enriched by the work of award-winning Director of Photography Topher Osborn, who completed his MFA in Cinematography at UCLA, a competitive film programme which accepts only three Directors of Photography each year. Osborn has built his reputation working with international production teams in a broad range of environments. The use of intimate, hand-held camera work, extreme close-ups and long-lens shots captures the raw documentary style of real-time events, but with clear cinematographic ambition.

The visceral auditory experience blends the clamorous hustle of the rally with a strong soundtrack replete with drumbeats, bringing a sense of danger and excitement as much akin to armed conflict as to political engagement.

A jazzy score adds to the climactic carnival atmosphere as rival parties fight and shout, while professing friendship through gritted teeth. Composer Patrick Kirst’s credits include Earth, the first documentary for Disney Nature.

Kirst also scored the short film Kavi, which won the Student Academy Award 2009, one of the highest awards for undergraduate film-makers.

An African Election is on general release in the UK from 11 November

68 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 68

11/07/2011 18:51

books

SUBLIME READS

By Jon Fordham

F

rom the tragedies of Shakespeare, to the sprawling masterpieces of 18th- and 19th-century European literature, the uncovering of truth has been a centralising theme. Abandoning the notion of absolute truth, the late 20th century brought relativism to the fore: truth has become subjective, relative to the individual. In terms of post-modern literature, complex identity has become the central cornerstone upon which this era’s novels have tended to be built.

‘Your truth is not my truth’, has become the mantra.

In the West, our experience is mediated through the lens of our technologies. The hugely influential French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, referred to that lens as the ‘simulacrum’ when he wrote about modernity, which he believed arose from the blurring of reality and unreality. Baudrillard argued that the Gulf War did not take place. Rehearsed as a wargame, the spectacle was re-enacted for

Twelve Minutes of Love by Kapka Kassabova (Portobello) £18.99 available November Tango is the world’s most passionate dance.

To the true tanguero, it is more than a dance, being akin to religion, attracting the lost, the lonely and the fanatical, with its formal rituals, sense of belonging and intensity of emotions.

Twelve Minutes of Love takes us by the hand into the very depths of a sensual, relational world where the atmosphere, the sounds and the touch involved in tango captivate us. No escapist leisure pursuit, this: by exposing the darkness within, tango takes the dancer to a place where the true, primitive drama of life pulsates through the veins.

‘Elegant, dangerous and instrumental’, tango encounters from across the world are poetically journalled by Kassabova, whose journey of the dance has taken her all over the planet. Transcending the dance itself, meaning comes from discovering oneself as in the dance troubles are expressed, dreams are realised, purposes fulfilled, relationships made. Poet and travel writer, Kassabova writes her reflections, observations and experiences in vivid, sense-enlivening prose, evoking a rich picture of life’s colours and textures. From its African roots to its sequined stars and back, from Auckland to Edinburgh, Berlin to Buenos Aires, Kassabova chases ecstasy on the dance floor, tango-style. She is hooked and, reading this, you may very well be, too.

the public as a simulation or video game through a paraphernalia of embedded journalists and missile’s-eye-view cameras. ‘The real violence was thoroughly overwritten by electronic narrative,’ Baudrillard wrote about the simulation.

Here we present three books apposite to our times where that blurring is an everyday experience. Modern technologies have very recently shown that the protests from the younger generation in the Arab world can be presented as first-hand news from mobile phones, and that surge surely cannot be stopped. However, in regimes such as Burma’s, the obfuscation of information still composes a very ‘unreal’ picture. The personalisation of the internet has created a bubble of unreality that is waiting to be popped; while the tango is celebrated not only as a dance, more as a process and a place through which to discover the raw, primitive truths of the passions locked inside us.

Everything is Broken

by Emma Larkin (Granta) £8.99 Having previously written Finding George Orwell in Burma, lived in Asia and learned the Burmese language, American Emma Larkin is well placed to write a reportage of this isolationist regime. Her focus is the authority’s alarming response to the cataclysmic cyclone that struck the delta region in 2008, killing between 150,000 and half a million people (depending on which estimate you believe). Burma’s regime refused international help in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, and broadly denied the extent of the disaster, resulting in many more thousands of Burmese dying.

The book’s title is taken from a Bob Dylan song on his album No Mercy, and the ensuing narrative, underlying which is a helpful cultural and political history of the country, reveals just that: the cold, dark heart at the centre of the regime.

Everything is Broken captures an atmosphere of smoke and mirrors that distorts reality itself, where resistance, symbolised by the testimony of Aung San Suu Kyi, involves sacrifice (and sometimes martyrdom), and where truth is pushed underground and lauded in secret. Because after all, as Larkin summarises, ‘This is a place where natural disasters don’t happen … and where the gaping misery that follows any catastrophe must be covered up and silenced.’ Elsewhere the times might be a-changing, but in Burma, despite an outward show, the present is still caught in obfuscation and propaganda.

The Filter Bubble

by Eli Pariser (Penguin) £12.99 The Internet has provided amazing opportunities to explore and learn, and to push beyond a static conception of identity. We also know it has the potential to decentralise knowledge and control. However, an increasingly dark side is emerging, an invisible revolution in how we consume information. Facebook, Google et al are engaged with monitoring our online activities to second-guess our consumer desires. Through the passing-on of information about us to companies, we are spied on, packaged up and sold down river to advertisers and marketing companies while we unknowingly click away.

Eli Paliser lays bare the implications of this process, skilfully unpacking how personalised filters can upset the human brain’s cognitive balance between strengthening existing ideas and creating new ones; how they can hinder creativity and innovation through limiting the size of the mental space in which we problem-solve; how they aren’t tuned for diversity (even 45 minutes of exposure to a different culture can boost creativity); how they take us out of ‘discovery mode’ and obstruct serendipity’s flow (the element of random chance has proven to be necessary for evolutionary innovation).

The filter bubble is here, says Pariser, and it’s defining who we are. An important, significant, must-read book.

sublime | 69

sublime_JULY11.indd 69

11/07/2011 18:44

,, urban living

‘When a man is tired of London he is tired of life’ Samuel Johnson (Deceased)

L

ondon is a fantastic city, of that there can be no doubt. Thousands of tourists have been left impressed with London this year after the spectacular pageantry of the royal wedding. Thousands more will (hopefully) after next year’s Olympic Games. In places, London can rival almost any other city on earth for architectural magnificence and historical splendour, we all know that. But that’s just one side to the city, and it’s not the city that most of us actually inhabit. On a day-to-day basis, the average Londoner will pass more fried-chicken shops than blue plaques, more kebab houses than Beefeaters (the guards at the Tower, not the chain restaurant, just in case there’s any confusion). I’m interested in this London, the side that is a little unloved, a bit badly put together, a little bit … shit.

shit london Words and photographs Patrick Dalton

I’ve been taking photographs of weird bits of street ephemera for years and have quite a collection of the stuff. I had no idea what

to do with it all, so I started a Facebook group to show off some of my odd London finds. Amazingly, people instantly ‘got it’ and began posting their own pictures. Some are real gems that I wish I’d spotted myself. If you care to look, there is a whole universe out there of poor design choices, obscure shop names, bad English, freestyle spelling, opportunistic graffiti and plain weird sights. This shit surrounds us every day, but most of us are too busy to notice it.

Be warned: once you start looking, you’ll be hooked.

I carry around a camera at all times, just in case I spot anything, but now I also make special trips to areas I haven’t been to before to try and spot new things. It’s almost like an urban safari in a way.

I’ve made special pilgrimages to exotic locations like Leyton High Road just to go and photograph a shop called ‘Peculiar Unisex Hair’.

Who wants peculiar-looking unisex hair, anyway? These trips really made me realise what an astoundingly sprawling and varied city London is. It’s been a bit like doing the Knowledge, but instead of being left with an intimate portrait of the city’s layout, I’m instead in possession of a fairly useless A to Z of chicken shops, pockets of bleakness and the best place to spot knob graffiti. What it has also given me is an appreciation of London, warts and all. It’s a national pastime to complain, and I believe I do it as much as the next man, but after spending so long traipsing the streets looking for the less-than-usual, I think we have a lot to be thankful for. London is getting better by the day, and anything that gives us reason to complain we must just consider as conversation ammunition. If we didn’t have anything to complain about we’d soon run out of things to say to each other.

Next time you’re walking down the street, keep your eyes open for this kind of thing. You’ll be surprised at how much there is out there.

I remember at the first Shit London exhibition a woman approaching me and saying, ‘You know, I used to really hate where I lived but then I joined your group and now I look around and think, “You know what … this place is great!”’ Have a look. It might make you feel better about where you live. shitlondon.co.uk

Shit London, Snapshots of a City On the Edge by Patrick Dalton is published by Portico, an imprint of Anova Books

70 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 70

11/07/2011 18:58

urban living

sublime | 71

sublime_JULY11.indd 71

12/07/2011 06:44

photography

LIVING LEGENDS Words Liz Schaffer Photographs Patrick Cariou

Gypsies have fascinated and provoked the settled community for centuries.

Patrick Cariou travelled across the globe to trace the historic journey of this separate people who stand joyously apart from mainstream society, living differently in every way from religion to family life

72 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 72

11/07/2011 19:11

photography

sublime | 73

sublime_JULY11.indd 73

11/07/2011 19:12

photography

74 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 74

11/07/2011 19:13

photography

F

rench photographer and self-taught anthropologist Patrick Cariou has an unrelenting fascination with renegades and bandits. With an uncanny ability to earn his subjects’ trust and respect, he has produced an array of award-winning documentary, portrait and fine-art photographs throughout his varied career.

In his most recent work, Gypsies, Cariou retraces in reverse a heroic, thousand-year journey completed by the ancestors of the Rom people (the Gypsies’ own term for themselves). Cariou spent over a decade venturing from Western to Eastern Europe and via the Middle East to India, the Rom people’s ancestral home.

His latest works are at once vibrant, honest and mesmerising.

They capture a truly unique and ancient group, while shedding light on their lesser-known history. Using bold colour, expansive backdrops and cluttered settings, Gypsies is the work of a man who firmly respects and understands the Rom people and the culture that defines them.

His nomadic subjects, presented in portrait and landscape photographs, live in a diverse range of circumstances – from the decadent Manouches of France to the struggling Roma of Slovakia; from model citizen to revered gangster. And while they may be an extended family, living continents apart, the Rom people contained

in Gypsies are an incredibly physically varied group. Blue-eyed Afghan communities, dark-haired children in northern Europe and families who appear to exhibit clearly their Indian heritage all appear across the book’s pages in stunningly emotive detail.

Cariou has previously compiled his work into three monographs entitled Surfers, Yes Rasta and Trenchtown Love. Like Gypsies, you can’t help but feel that his previous works too are infused with his own passion for humanity, curiosity and joie de vivre. patrickcariou.com

Gypsies by Patrick Cariou is published by powerHouse Books (rrp $45/£32.99)

sublime | 75

sublime_JULY11.indd 75

11/07/2011 19:13

world fashion

after the storm Words Georgina-Kate Adams

WHEN DISASTER STRIKES, AN EXCEPTIONAL KIND OF TRAINED, COURAGEOUS PERSON STEPS IN TO MAKE LIFE BEARABLE AGAIN

W

hen a great catastrophe occurs, be it a force of nature or a man-made conflict, the lives of those affected often grind to a complete halt. By contrast, this is also the moment when some of the most efficient, best-oiled machines in the sector spring into action: the relief charities. Their oil is the passion, hard work and dedication of the people who work for them.

It is hard to estimate how many charity workers support the global community through relief efforts and other operations, but the Aid Workers Network alone has 12,000 members. Not unlike religious clergy, these people have given their lives in the service of others, and are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to jump in.

They are not saints, but ordinary individuals like you and me. They have

families, commitments and homes that they are forced to leave behind the instant duty calls. The personal sacrifice is huge. ‘Time stood still, and sleep became a rare luxury in our lives,’ said one charity worker, who served during the floods in Pakistan.

Relief workers sensitively tackle political, social, economic and religious issues with patience and diplomacy, in order to rescue, protect and heal their global neighbours. ‘It was quite hard to gain respect as a woman in a technical role in a country where women are not generally considered to be equal to men,’ said a female charity worker of her time in Bangladesh.

They also risk their own welfare. Wikipedia has dedicated a specific entry to Attacks on Humanitarian Workers. Most recently, in 2010, it recorded the murder of ten Christian Aid workers at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yet the charity workers keep going back, showing almost unbelievable bravery and perseverance.

Sublime speaks to five relief workers who have served in the aftermath of some of the most serious disasters in recent history. It is an honour to share their stories with you.

Masatoshi Suzuki Masatoshi Suzuki is a young men’s leader in Iwaki City for Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist organisation and NGO in Japan. When the earthquake and tsunami hit this March, he overlooked his own welfare to help countless members of the community to safety

I

was about to leave home when suddenly I felt a great impact.

In that instant, water flooded in like a bomb, and my body was tossed around. The impact was so intense, as if I had been in an explosion. I can’t remember anything after that.

After a while, I regained consciousness. I survived because furniture from my house was piled up along with other rubble, and I was lying on the heap. My entire body was covered with scars and bruises. I found that my house had been swept 500 metres from its original location. The scene around me was a living hell.

I calmed the neighbours, and thought I should evacuate them to a safer place. I started walking over the piles of debris barefoot, calling out, ‘Is anyone there?’ I met a friend who told me that his grandmother was frozen with fear in the bathroom and couldn’t get out. I carried her on my back and took her to a house nearby. By then I was absolutely exhausted, but I gathered my strength because I felt I had to rescue the other people in the area. I got people to the primary school. I can’t remember how many people I assisted in this way.

Then I saw that a fire had broken out nearby, and was spreading towards us. With all the leaking cooking-gas canisters that were lying on the road, I knew that it was going to be dangerous.

It was pitch dark, but fortunately my car had drifted close by. I pulled out my helmet with a headlight on it and carried the old lady on my back to the shelter. I realised that my injured foot had begun to swell, so I went to the first-aid room to have it treated.

There I met a man who was the owner of a fish-cake company. I’ll never forget the taste of that fish cake.

All lifelines including electricity and telecommunications were down, so there was no way for me to contact the organisation. I just acted on my own. Although I was reaching my limits mentally and physically, the fact that I was able to take action to protect the people around me was definitely a result of what I had learned at Buddhist meetings and from the training I received. I feel we should foster a sense of community to strengthen ties between people. I would like to request that the government engage seriously in disaster-response measures, not only for those affected, but for the safety of the entire nation.

76 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 76

11/07/2011 19:16

fashion world

‘I feel we should foster a sense of community to strengthen ties between people’

sublime | 77

sublime_JULY11.indd 77

11/07/2011 19:17

world fashion

Christine Tokar Christine Tokar is the Africa Programmes Support Manager for the British Red Cross. She worked in Liberia, supporting refugees from Ivory Coast who fled the post-election conflict in their country at the end of 2010

a

Elizabeth Babister Elizabeth Babister is an Emergency Shelter and Reconstruction Senior Specialist for CARE International UK. She worked in Bangladesh following Cyclone Sidr, which killed 3,500 people

W

hen I arrived in Dhaka in December 2007, 2m people were displaced. Families had lost their homes and were living in tiny makeshift shelters made from tree branches, salvaged materials and sheets. A survey by the country’s accountancy institute revealed Cyclone Sidr to have caused $4.4bn worth of damage. The people who were affected most were already vulnerable; those who could afford secure housing, strong livestock and who did not own their land.

CARE targeted these families, including pregnant, lactating, elderly or disabled women. Early on there was a gap in funding for emergency shelter. Donors saw that people had built their own shelters, but unfortunately the monsoon season meant that permanent construction would not be possible for some months.

Shelter is a catalyst for recovery. Without shelter, people become sick (I didn’t realise how cold it would be at night!) and even more vulnerable, so if you help people to recover their shelter, you can keep them well and they can also recover their livelihoods.

As well as the 1.4m homes that were destroyed, 2m acres of cropland were damaged, and at least 1.25m livestock were killed by the cyclone. So as well as securing the provision of food, emergency shelter and sanitation facilities, we created livelihood activities, including work for cash. CARE Bangladesh went on to implement a $17.09m Cyclone Sidr Response Programme. This assisted over 350,000 households to recover from the devastating effects of the cyclone, and was followed by a recovery programme that included the construction of hundreds of permanent cycloneresistant houses. In terms of preparing for future natural disasters, CARE has built cyclone shelters which save millions of lives.

s we embarked on a journey through the equatorial jungle along incredibly rough roads, bumping this way and that, I found out exactly why these areas are so hard to reach. One day, we travelled for 11 hours and crossed 25 bridges to spend one hour with a community. Many of the bridges were made of fragile logs that you felt would not support a truck, and often we had to get out of our vehicle and walk over the bridge for safety, letting the car go across with just the driver inside.

We estimate that 80% of all refugees have been taken in by host communities. Some of these same Ivorian refugees hosted Liberian families at different points in the civil war. The Liberians have been very welcoming and sympathetic, as they have been through similar experiences. They understand the circumstances the refugees find themselves in.

Many Ivorians had fled their country, due to increased unrest.

In the border and transit areas, people were tired, subdued and reluctant to speak about their experiences. They were fearful of the fate of their relatives back in Ivory Coast. We provided assistance through our International Tracing and Message Service. When refugees started going into Liberia, the Red Cross made mobile phones available so that people could call and leave messages for their loved ones, reassuring them that they were safe. We noticed that knowing that their family was well allayed a lot of people’s fears, and removed a little of the emotional anxiety the whole situation had brought about.

Responding to the humanitarian crisis in Liberia was challenging, as the country doesn’t yet possess the developed infrastructure that most countries have. Difficulties will increase with the heavy rains. In April when I visited, it was a race against time to position relief stock, build latrines and distribute seeds and tools in time for the planting season. It was important that families could start growing food and begin to feed themselves.

We set up clinics and dug wells.

Yet the greatest tool for controlling disease remains education.

We have been training people to understand the importance of cleaning their jerry cans, washing their hands with soap and training them in First Aid. The Red Cross has also been working in Ivory Coast itself. Clean water and sanitation facilities have been installed for the displaced in Duékoué. But the crisis is far from over for these people, and more help is needed.

‘shelter is a catalyst for recovery. Without shelter, people become sick and even more vulnerable’

78 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 78

11/07/2011 19:26

fashion world

Bertin Meance Bertin Meance is a Programme Support Manager for HelpAge International, which focuses on the needs of the elderly in situations of extreme poverty and disaster. As a Haitian, he was on the ground when the earthquake hit his country last year

I

Caroline Nichols Caroline Nichols is a Programme Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee UK in Pakistan. She helped lead the relief effort after the devastating floods that hit the country last monsoon season

I

will never forget the days, and the dates. The first drops of rain fell on the weekend of 24 July 2010. Normally the monsoon provides a welcome relief from the heat, but that Monday the rain just didn’t stop.

Reports of mudslides and homes and bridges being washed away came pouring in. A colleague and I worked the phones all day, reviewing stock lists at warehouses. We were increasingly worried about access to clean water, food and the possible spread of disease, so getting hygiene kits into the field was our first priority. They included simple tools to clean and store water, small bottles of disinfectant, towels, oral rehydration salts (to mitigate diarrhoea and vomiting) and women’s hygiene products. Can you imagine losing all your belongings, scrambling to shelter and feeding your children and having your period all at the same time?

In those early days, everything was weather-dependent. The phone lines were terrible, and often we couldn’t move because of the flooding. Then a phone call came from a donor: ‘How can we get 100,000 halal food parcels here by the end of the week?’

That was when the scale of the disaster started to sink in.

It was four more days before some roads were deemed safe.

We got in the car and drove to the worst-affected areas. The refugee village of Aza Khel Bala was completely washed away.

People waded through the waist-high muddy water carrying their children. Then it started to rain again. People cut open feed bags and tied them to sticks to form tents. It was cold and miserable.

When we were prepping the assessment teams, someone asked what to do if they came across a body. Luckily a colleague had already got the government hotline to facilitate safe removal. The good news was that the system was working to the maximum extent it could, and has continued to do so.

Nearly a year later, we are now completing most of the early recovery programming, while at the same time actively fundraising to provide continued services and support. We’ve been doing everything we can: providing medical care, offering legal advice to the thousands who had all their documents washed away and even giving such simple but essential support as chickens, goats or seeds. One of our primary goals now is to ensure that as many people as possible are prepared, should flooding recur this summer.

was inside a building, upstairs, when the earthquake struck. I ran outside and heard a lot of cries in distant neighbourhoods.

The whole of 12 January was a nightmare, spent in the open air trying desperately to reach family and friends on the phone, and feeling the earth move from time to time under my feet.

I knew we had a major crisis. I thought of the poor construction in the slums overlooking Port-au-Prince, and saw people climbing up from the city, fearing rumours of a tsunami. After crossing into Petion-Ville, I decided I had seen enough: entire neighbourhoods destroyed, fresh dead bodies hanging from cars, even a priest trapped in his car, under a collapsed building.

Whenever we thought about emergencies in Haiti it was usually hurricanes, floods or drought, but the priority for HelpAge was the same. In emergency situations, older people have specific needs that are not always taken into consideration by humanitarian organisations. Even the general assistance programmes do not necessarily reach the elderly because of their mobility problems, and age discrimination. But the NGO community worked together to provide assistance for the victims of the earthquake, and HelpAge stayed in close communication with several NGOs to help older people access healthcare in hospitals and mobile clinics, and shelter in camps and nursing homes.

One of our best strategies was to identify healthy older people who served as ‘friends’ to the more vulnerable people in the camps. They would visit the older people regularly, and were able to inform HelpAge staff of any problem that required our attention. The deterioration of economic conditions even before the earthquake made it difficult for older people to live a decent life, and they are receiving less and less support from their children who have traditionally always cared for them.

When the earthquake happened, Haiti had not fully recovered from the damage caused by four tropical storms in a single month in 2008. But, three days after the earthquake, I was surprised to see people getting back on their feet again. Many foreigners could not understand how this was possible after such a terrible catastrophe. I have to admit that, even as a Haitian myself, I could not understand it either. Haiti has a lot to teach the world about resilience.

‘three days after the earthquake, I was surprised to see people getting back on their feet again’

sublime | 79

sublime_JULY11.indd 79

11/07/2011 19:27

reportage

used in many of the world’s greatest buildings Marble is arguably the most beautiful of the architectural media.

But there can be a heavy cost to producing this timeless, luxurious material. Photographer Mark Lehn visited the Makrana mines in India to document the extent of their worker exploitation

80 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 80

11/07/2011 19:58

reportage

against the wall Words and photographs Mark Lehn

sublime | 81

sublime_JULY11.indd 81

11/07/2011 19:59

reportage

M

akrana, the marble capital of India, is renowned for producing the fine-quality, elegant white stone similar to that which covers the Taj Mahal, one of the most recognisable buildings in the world and symbol of eternal love. In stark contrast to the beauty and positive symbolism the Taj represents, Makrana, located in Rajasthan’s Nagaur District, is a town marked by by sorrow, hardship and illegal working practices.

Makrana is home to a number of small marble mines, which are difficult to regulate. Accordingly, many fail to comply with the safety standards required by Indian law and, arguably, any moral standard for providing safety and security to their workers. Some lack any safety considerations whatsoever, with no walls between mines; no protective clothing, such as helmets, gloves and shoes; and there is often no drinking water, toilets or medical facilities available at mine sites. The very nature of mining is hazardous, but this clear disregard for safety in Makrana is perilous for workers, resulting in frequent injuries.

There are approximately three deaths per month.

As documentary photographer, I visited the marble town earlier this year. The photographs tell the harsh reality of how the marble, synonymous with grace, luxury, wealth and love, sees the light of day, with its origins in danger, poverty, religious tensions and, for many miners, a desperate struggle for survival.

82 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 82

11/07/2011 20:12

reportage

The miners engage in arduous and dangerous work, for which they earn approximately $2.50 for eight to ten hours’ labour. There are no paid days off – they must work long hours to survive in spite of injury, ill health, personal or workrelated issues. Primitive manual tools are used and hard labour is required, causing major physical and emotional stress

Ropes, instead of ladders, descend 120 metres to the base of the mine. Workers climb the ropes all day, every day wearing no protective harness. To ensure they receive their meagre wage, they must work in all weather conditions. Risk of injury is further increased in wet weather, as the rope can become slippery, causing workers to fall

sublime | 83

sublime_JULY11.indd 83

11/07/2011 20:11

reportage

A woman, eight months pregnant – her husband was injured in the mine and is now severely brain-damaged – has to go to work in the mine.

With no compensation or benefits paid out to her for her husband’s on-the-job injury, she must now work even harder to support her family, to ensure they have enough money for basic needs such as food and shelter

Families may be unable to survive on one income, and sometimes women lose their husbands to this dangerous occupation.

The women themselves may be forced to work in the mines. They earn around $1.15 a day, and are not entitled to any kind of paid leave, including maternity leave

Mark Lehn is a Canadian photographer based in Perth, Australia.

He spends his time travelling the world to document stories for Unicef and Saint Johns Ambulance among others marklehn.com 84 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 84

11/07/2011 20:21

reportage

With no childcare facilities offered, women are often forced to bring their children to work, where they too are exposed to the dangers associated with the mine. Some reports claim that children also work in the mines, for less than $1 a day, in extremely dangerous conditions

sublime | 85

sublime_JULY11.indd 85

11/07/2011 20:22

sustainable fashion

The fur’s flying

by Frances Corner

Designers are working with animal pelts again, both real and faux. With demand high, now that farming conditions are better than they ever were and the manmade version is so good – what’s the problem?

W

hy are fur sales rising? The case against fur was made so strongly in the 1980s that many people in the fashion industry wondered if it could ever make a comeback, particularly as technology was producing faux fur that no longer looked cheap and nasty but could easily be mistaken for the ‘real thing’. Yet this realism itself could be part of the reason for fur’s quiet reacceptance.

That, combined with the effect of the vintage revival, and the campaign by fur producers to make the environmental case for their industry, has succeeded in undermining the case against fur.

Of course, Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s declaration that fur was back, and Naomi Campbell – an icon of the anti-fur campaign – deciding to model fur again, demonstrated that fashion is fickle and that the campaign was just another trend.

For me, fur goes to the heart of any personal and ethical thoughts we might have about our clothes, but it is not a black and white issue, and certainly provokes raw emotions.

Stroking a pet rabbit or cat reveals that fur has wonderful qualities. It is soft and luxurious, with the ability to keep us warm in ways that synthetic fabrics cannot. At the moment, many designers are enjoying playing with fur, and faux fur, on the catwalk. Add the growing fashion and designer markets in China and Russia, where wearing fur is culturally and practically acceptable, and it is little wonder that demand for fur is on the increase.

Professor Frances Corner OBE is Head of College at the London College of Fashion

real material, or style it in such a way that it in turn appears faux.

Little wonder that the consumer can’t think straight.

With worldwide sales of fur totalling $13bn in 2008, the industry has undertaken a concerted campaign to show how production methods have improved. A number of furriers, notably in Scandinavia, Greenland, Russia and Iceland, where fur has always been a practical and necessary item of clothing, have worked to improve the living conditions of the animals and their means of death. They assure consumers that of all the animals we kill for our personal use, these have the best conditions. The animals used in the production of leather bags or shoes, or even some meat cuts, will have had far worse living and endof-life conditions than those reared for their pelts. Additionally, the farmers and workers involved with the skinning and treating of the pelts will have better wages and living conditions.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s declaration that fur was back, and Naomi Campbell – an icon of the anti-fur campaign – deciding to model fur again, demonstrated that fashion is fickle and that the campaign was just another trend

Vintage fur and faux fur have certainly confused the debate. Vintage

fur is deemed acceptable, as the animal was culled in the past. The garment can be reworked and restyled, so it seems more ethical and is equated with recycling. Ultimately fur is biodegradable in ways that fabric manufactured using fossil fuels is not.

Nevertheless, the quality of faux fur has improved significantly. As Karl Lagerfeld said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar: ‘The material is beautiful, and new in a way, because it was not that perfect before … now the technology has advanced so much that you can hardly tell fake fur from the real thing.’ Many designers have used faux fur, which has made fur as a whole more acceptable. The blurring of the boundaries with fur are made more complex when designers dye the

If we are to question seriously the

morals of skin production, we need to be honest and question the means of production behind whatever goods we buy.

The issue of animal husbandry is not the only factor in the fur debate.

Apart from the water and chemicals used in the treatment of the pelts, there are questions of energy use, and much is made of this on both sides of the debate. The American Fur Commission says it takes one gallon of oil to make just three fake-fur jackets, while a study by the University of Michigan concluded that the energy needed to produce a real fur coat from ranch-raised animal skins is 20 times that required for a fake product. Some anti-fur campaigners also make the case that the products applied to pelts to stop them rotting renders them no longer biodegradable.

It appears that it is impossible to look at all the facts and come to a rational decision, as they are so contradictory.

Focusing on fur in isolation neglects the bigger picture surrounding the fashion industry. Whether it is water consumption in cotton production, labour conditions, pollutants or the treatment of animals, we must put pressure on the industry to take responsibility for how products are sourced and manufactured.

Fashion should not come at any cost. When you consider the efforts many of us make to look after our own skin, we should be sure that we are happy with what we place to next to it.

86 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 86

11/07/2011 20:24

ethical stores

HAleluja

by Zara-Jade Bestwick

Sustainable fashion comes centre-stage thanks to Haleluja, the destination store for lovers of both great style and the environment

H

aleluja is clean, pure and unadulterated – and that’s without even mentioning the clothes. Brought to us

by Sonja Noël, owner of fashion stalwart Stijl, Haleluja is located at the heart of Belgium’s beautiful capital, Brussels, on the Rue Antoine Dansaert, and is fast becoming the messiah of the city’s sustainable scene. Immaculate lines of mirror and glass allow the very notion of Haleluja to appear transparent; nothing is hidden, and the garments are allowed to be honest about themselves.

Based on the concept of marrying the once opposing fields of

ecology and fashion, Haleluja selects its collections first for their beauty and style, and then for the genuinely intelligent design which seems more and more to be an integral part of sustainable fashion. The selected collections must be environmentally sustainable, but designers are approaching this in a variety of ways. Some focus on using pure materials such as organic cotton, wild silk, wool, soya and milk, with no chemical treatment involved. Others construct their pieces from recycled garments, textiles and other materials. All are manufactured using environment-friendly production techniques, helping to affirm that the marriage of sustainability and fashion is a fruitful one at that.

The range is wide. There are the innovative designs of Freitag and Christopher Raeburn, who construct sleek, utilitarian bags and garments from reappropriated materials such as truck tarps that spent their first life on the road, or upcycled fabrics that were once parachutes. Then there’s the simplicity of the great cut and quality materials of Elementum, and Isée by Fleur Tang. Haleluja’s carefully considered collections provide nothing less than the answer to the prayers of the style-conscious who are also environmentally aware. haleluja.be

sublime | 87

sublime_JULY11.indd 87

11/07/2011 20:25

Zach Neckpiece, James Hock; recycled Lee shirt, Beyond Retro; shorts, Kathy Lam Sara (left) Halter neck belt, Rachel Freire; skirt, Wei-Chen Jenn Lee

fashion

88 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 88

11/07/2011 20:28

section fashion title

the Rehearsal Photography Charl Marais Styling Lauraine Bailey

sublime | 89

sublime_JULY11.indd 89

11/07/2011 21:00

Dress, Ming Fung Choi; shoes, Natacha Marro

fashion

90 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 90

11/07/2011 20:41

Jordan Skirt, Kathy Lam; belt, Traid (Camden); jeans, Wrangler Zach Skirt, Kathy Lam; jeans, Oxfam

fashion

sublime | 91

sublime_JULY11.indd 91

11/07/2011 20:42

Shirt, Wrangler; recycled Levi’s bag, Traid ‘remade’ (Brixton); shorts, Kathy Lam

fashion

92 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 92

11/07/2011 20:44

Jacket, Wei-Chen Jenn Lee; neckpiece (worn as bodice), Nicol DeNoir; underwear, model’s own

fashion

sublime | 93

sublime_JULY11.indd 93

11/07/2011 20:47

Neckpiece, Rachel Freire; jeans, stylist’s own; all shoes, Natacha Marro

fashion

94 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 94

11/07/2011 20:50

Bum bag, LCDB; skirt, Beyond Retro; jeans, Wrangler; recycled Timberland boots, Traid (Hammersmith)

fashion

sublime | 95

sublime_JULY11.indd 95

11/07/2011 20:50

Jordan Neckpiece, Ming Fung Choi; jeans, Wrangler Sara Waistcoat, Khrysalis Couture; top, stylist’s own; denim skirt, Beyond Retro

fashion

96 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 96

11/07/2011 20:54

Jordan belt, shorts & shoes, Traid stores Sara top & shorts, Beyond Retro; shoes, Natacha Marro Zach shirt, Wrangler; belt & jeans, Traid (Camden); recycled Timberland shoes, (Hammersmith)

fashion

Photographer Charl Marais Fashion Lauraine Bailey Hair Elle B Make-up Melanie Szabo using Nars & MAC Cosmetics Fashion assistants Nicola Desnoes & Rochelle Mullings Models Zach & Jordan Stenmark @ Premier / Sara @ Next Model Management Special thanks to Richard Taylor @ The Furniture Cave, 533 Kings Road, SW10

sublime_JULY11.indd 97

sublime | 97

11/07/2011 20:54

landmarks

The Savoy Hotel is synonymous throughout the world with limitless comfort and elegance.

Throughout history too, the creativity, innovation and influence the hotel enjoys has equally no bounds.

Especially since it’s opened it’s new green chapter

THE COLOUR OF LUXURY Words Zara-Jade Bestwick

98 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 98

11/07/2011 21:04

landmarks

T

oday, The Savoy has recaptured the spirit of pioneering innovation its founder, Richard d’Oyly carte once showed when he built the hotel, which has been turned into a model of smart energy use and now it even employs possibly the world’s first green butler.

Grand designs

The Savoy Hotel takes its name from the Count of Savoy, who was gifted the land in 1246 by Henry III. But the land on which The Savoy stands has seen multiple transformations right up to the present day, the most radical of which occurred over 100 years ago.

Victorian England and the influence of the Belle Époque saw great leaps made towards the ease of living we take for granted today, and provided the catalyst for a more accessible link between lifestyle and luxury. In 1881, Richard D’Oyly Carte, a notable talent agent, chose the Strand, London location for his new theatre for the staging of the famous operettas written by his good friends W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. With the profits from the tremendous success of these operettas, The Savoy Hotel was later built next to the theatre and opened, five years after construction began, in 1889.

Innovations in technology

With The Savoy Theatre being the first entirely electrically lit public building in the world, The Savoy Hotel was sure to follow suit, and did so, becoming the first hotel to be lit throughout by electric light.

Innovation continued apace with the first electric lifts installed, dreamily nicknamed ‘ascending rooms’. Next, the convenience of guests was assured when they were connected by speaking tube across the hotel to the valet, maid, floor waiter and to other parts of the hotel.

Later developments revolved around what we see today as fundamentals in hygiene and health, as The Savoy became the first hotel to provide most of its rooms with a private bathroom, en suite.

This in turn became an icon for luxury living known as the ‘Savoy bathroom’, famous for its cascading shower and quick-fill bath.

The Savoy was the first hotel with air-conditioning, steam-heating and soundproofed windows in the rooms. Twenty-four-hour room service, with telephones in every bathroom, were other additions.

The expansion of the hotel in 1904 saw the installation within The Savoy of Britain’s first serviced apartments, with access to all the hotel’s existing amenities.

New modern cuisine

Under the management of one of the world’s most famous names in the hotel industry, César Ritz, Auguste Escoffier was appointed to run the Savoy kitchens, and was later described as one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine.

Escoffier created many famous recipes and dishes, the most renowned of which was Melba Toast, made for Dame Nellie Melba who, at the time, was on a diet and would not enjoy a dish of Pêches Melba.

The Savoy’s great American Bar is credited for the popularisation of cocktails throughout Europe. Harry Craddock, an acclaimed bartender of the Roaring Twenties, was appointed head barman at

sublime | 99

sublime_JULY11.indd 99

11/07/2011 21:06

landmarks The Savoy and compiled and published The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, which is still in print today and is highly regarded and used throughout the industry. Craddock is also thought to have invented the cocktails White Lady and the illustrious Dry Martini.

Creative connections

A hub for creativity and talent, The Savoy has proved itself to be a draw for many influential artists. Impressionism drew inspiration from the great balconies of The Savoy that overlook the River Thames, with both Monet and Whistler using the vistas for their works depicting various parts of London, most famously Monet’s Waterloo Bridge. Oscar Wilde experienced all The Savoy had to offer while staying there with his good friend Lord Alfred Douglas, the consequences of which later led to his imprisonment for ‘resisting everything but temptation’.

Later, the age of jazz was welcomed with open arms, and the hotel invited top musicians from across America to play for swinging audiences. With the installation of a hydraulic system, the dance floor was raised as, figuratively speaking, was the roof, with cabaret acts performing for the delight of guests.

Global influence

Power and influence sit alongside creativity and innovation, and what better way to publicise what’s new than by entertaining royalty and famous politicians. The Savoy was a favourite haunt of Winston Churchill, who regularly lunched with his Cabinet at the hotel during the Second World War, and attended his dining club, The Other Club, which has always met at The Savoy, until his death in 1965. Princess Elizabeth was first seen with Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in public at a Savoy reception, after George VI became the first reigning monarch to dine in any hotel when he attended a private dinner at the Savoy.

With royalty and politicians sampling all the delights, other infamous names followed, revelling in the good taste and luxury that innovation at The Savoy had made possible. Influence provided an important platform from which the innovations that few were lucky to sample could later be developed and delivered to a population longing to try out the same elaborate conveniences which we now see as standard necessities and are present in most Western homes.

A New era

Influence provided an important platform from which the innovations that few were lucky to sample could later be developed and delivered to a population longing to try out the same elaborate conveniences

After closing its doors in 2007, The Savoy underwent one of the most ambitious restorations ever seen in British history. Three years of restoration work, including a significant investment in cuttingedge environmental technology, has seen the rebirth of The Savoy, reopened in October 2010, fresh and ready for a new chapter. The introduction of The Elements Stay Package is helping to highlight the new technological advances at the hotel, and provides a personal way to make staying at The Savoy as minimally costly to the environment as possible.

How do they do it?

Installation of a 500kWh combined heat and power plant has seen a reduction in the hotel’s reliance on the National Grid by approximately 50%. Resourcefully, the energy thrown out by the engine is used as the hotel’s primary heating source. In the same industrious vein, a refrigeration plant with a heat exchanger is able to reclaim the exhaust heat from all kitchen appliances and to channel this into pre-heating the hotel’s domestic water supply.

Waste not, want not where food is concerned: all food scraps and florists’ debris are diverted from landfill and are instead directed into a renewable-energy programme that allows one man’s trash to become another man’s electricity. It is estimated that the equivalent energy generated provides sufficient power to light 20% of the hotel’s From top Savoy court 1929, Ascending Rooms 1926, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip 1946, American Bar 1931

100 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 100

11/07/2011 21:13

Images © Fairmont / Savoy

guest rooms. Following the same principle, an Oilsense Programme turns waste cooking oil into biodiesel, which is quickly becoming a more viable option all round to fossil fuels.

With all of these systems in place, generating new energy from waste, a 24-hour, energy-consumption monitoring system has been established to ensure that no more energy than is needed is used, while smart thermostats in all bedrooms and suites are designed to control lighting and room temperature. Natural ventilation is used wherever possible to regulate the temperature inside rooms. Along with these effective measures, all windows in guest rooms and public areas are double-glazed, and windows in all south-facing rooms are covered with a solar, heat-reflective film.

Environment-conscious cuisine

Fully organic breakfast and dinner menus specially created and prepared by Executive Sous Chef Michael Stenekes are available for guests to sample. These include a little extra flavour from The Savoy’s very own herb garden, which was created in partnership with the management team of Westminster’s Victoria Embankment Gardens, utilising an underdeveloped area of land to support the Mayor’s Capital Growth Campaign to grow more food in the city.

Conscious of the creativity of previous decades, new 100% biodynamic cocktails have been formulated to rival the compromising creations of the past. All the fruits and herbs for the cocktails were sourced for these new competitors by Patrick Brockman of Perry Court Farm in Canterbury, and have been masterfully concocted by Justin Darnes into a different kind of thought-provoking cocktail.

The bigger picture

All staff at The Savoy play a vital role in keeping this well-oiled machine running as greenly as possible, and go through in-depth training to ensure this. Those staff who wish to become more directly involved with the good practices of The Savoy are encouraged to join the hotel’s Green Team, which currently numbers 31 members across all departments, helping to promote initiatives such as Thames21, which has already seen Savoy volunteers remove tonnes of litter from a stretch of foreshore lying directly opposite the hotel.

A specially trained green butler is on hand to offer expertise on environmentally sound city venues, and to help guests plan daily excursions, such as a three-hour sustainable walking tour, which is included as part of the Elements Stay Package and is available for any guests to book separately. The London Green Experience Map was launched from The Savoy in February 2011 as a collaboration between The Savoy, VisitEngland and GreenTraveller.com, and brings together those top green businesses that demonstrate a commitment to and passion for incorporating excellent green practices.

Cocktail hour ‘I love the idea of cocktails with a conscience!

Having all the produce in front of me, the beautiful champagne from Fleury, acquired from Vintage Roots Ltd, and the fresh, sweet flesh of the kiwis seemed an ideal match for a summer Bellini-style cocktail. I used biodynamic sugar and kiwis to make a jam, carefully removing just the flesh, not the seeds, from the kiwis. I decided that, as we had sourced plenty of biodynamic lemons and mint, I would make a mint and lemon sorbet to be served alongside the cocktail, and the Sublime was born!’ Justin Darnes

fairmont.com/savoy

Clearing up the Thames ‘The subject of sustainability offers a huge range of opportunities for businesses. At The Savoy, we are determined to embrace the concept fully through the implementation of creative and innovative programmes that continue to help the hotel reduce its carbon footprint year on year.

The Savoy is successfully changing perceptions by showing that luxury and sustainability can go hand in hand, without compromising the guest experience. The unique, creative and innovative initiatives we operate only enhance guests’ experience, and we have received some great feedback’ Debra Patterson, Environmental Ambassador

All staff at The Savoy play a vital role in keeping this well-oiled machine running as greenly as possible, and go through in-depth training to ensure this

From top Savoy court today, Green butler Nicolas Olliver, Boiler room, Metering room, American Bar today sublime | 101

sublime_JULY11.indd 101

11/07/2011 21:15

fashion

102 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 102

11/07/2011 21:20

fashion

don’t leave me this way Photography Tomaas Styling Carlton Jones

sublime | 103

sublime_JULY11.indd 103

11/07/2011 21:21

fashion

This page and previous Him Sweater vest and cotton short, General Idea printed tank, Burkman Bros chain, Enrique Muthuan bracelet, Malandrino sunglasses, Christian Roth Her Silk pleated jacket and harem pant, Jean Paul Gaultier hat, Patricia Underwood shoes, Sergio Rossi earrings, Ben Amun rings, Stephen Dweck

104 | SUBLIME

sublime_JULY11.indd 104

11/07/2011 21:27

fashion

Chiffon blouse and silk pant, Rubin Chapelle bracelet and necklace, Malandrino ring, David Yurman bangles, Stephen Dweck

SUBLIME | 105

sublime_JULY11.indd 105

11/07/2011 21:30

fashion

Leather shirt, Costume Homme jewelry, Hugo Boss

106 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 106

11/07/2011 21:41

fashion

grey silk dress with lace trim, and clutch, Malandrino ring, Stephen Dweck earring, Lariucci

sublime | 107

sublime_JULY11.indd 107

11/07/2011 21:42

fashion

denim blazer, General Idea vintage tank, Levis side buttoned jeans, Ministry patriot boot, Floresheim By Duckie Brown socks, Falke sunglasses, Christian Roth

108 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 108

11/07/2011 21:45

fashion

cut out sweater and wide legged wool pant, Malandrino silk tube, Rubin Chapelle earrings, Lariucci ring, Stephen Dweck

sublime | 109

sublime_JULY11.indd 109

11/07/2011 21:46

fashion

Shirt with rope belt, General Idea slant pocket pant, Ermenegildo Zegna shoes, Billy Reid

110 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 110

11/07/2011 21:50

section fashion title

Stone lace t-shirt and short, Irwin & Jordan sequined beret, Malandrino earrings, Lariucci bracelets, Stephen Dweck

sublime | 111

sublime_JULY11.indd 111

11/07/2011 21:52

fashion

Her Turquoise silk dress, Fendi earring and bracelet, Stephen Dweck bracelets, Ben Amun His Vest and pants, General Idea Swarovsky beaded T-shirt, Ministry belt, Jean Paul Gaultier sunglasses, Christian Roth cuff, David Yurman

112 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 112

11/07/2011 21:55

fashion

Photographer TOMAAS Photographer assistant Kosuke Furukawa Stylist Carlton Jones Stylist assistants Kyndal Depass and Larrell Jones Make-up artist Fiona Thatcher for Make Up For Ever Hair stylist Seiji Uehara Post production Elena Levenets Models Lisette & Adam Wallace from Ford Models Special thanks to ‘District 36’ in NYC

sublime | 113

sublime_JULY11.indd 113

11/07/2011 21:56

fashion

Ghost in the Machine Photography Juicybulldog Styling Io Takemura

114 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 114

11/07/2011 21:58

fashion

sublime | 115

sublime_JULY11.indd 115

11/07/2011 22:00

fashion

‘Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner’ Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981)

116 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 116

11/07/2011 22:05

fashion

This page Dress, Eri Matsui shoes, Somarta Ă— Noritaka Tatehana Left Necklace and earring, Yoshiko Creation dress, Androgyne

sublime | 117

sublime_JULY11.indd 117

11/07/2011 22:06

fashion

This page Top and skirt, Nozomi Ishiguro coat, Christian Dada Right Dress, Tabasco by m.OSADA short jacket, Nozomi Ishiguro bracelet, Metal Jacket

118 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 118

11/07/2011 22:08

fashion

sublime | 119

sublime_JULY11.indd 119

11/07/2011 22:09

fashion

This page Dress, Nocturne #23/RE.BIRTH skirt, Christian Dada belt, People Tree studs belt and cuffs, Metal Jacket Right Shirt and skirt, Somarta necklace, People Tree ring, Yoshiko Creation belt, Metal Jacket shoes, Androgyne

Photography Juicybulldog Styling Io Takemura Hair Hori at S14 Make-up Yashiko Kawashima at S14 Photographer’s assistant Hayato Chaki Models Maaya at Donna Models Stockists Androgyne androgyne.jp Christian Dada Sian PR +81 (0)3 6662 5525 Eri Matsui Japan erimatsui.com Metal Jacket metaljacketleathers.com Nocturne #23/RE.BIRTH +81 (0)3 6452 3987 Nozomi Ishiguro web.me.com/nozomi.ishiguro People Tree peopletree.ne.jp SOMARTA Esteem Press esteem.jp Tabasco by m.OSADA tabasco_by.mo@mac.com Yoshiko Creation +81 (0)3 6452 3987

120 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 120

11/07/2011 22:12

fashion

sublime | 121

sublime_JULY11.indd 121

11/07/2011 22:14

places

After the violence, heartbreak and upheaval that was for decades almost synonymous with Lebanon, some of its great cultural and natural resources are being thoughtfully drawn together to form, quite literally, a pathway into the future

122 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 122

11/07/2011 22:25

places

I

t’s not surprising that Lebanon has been the site of so much historical dispute. This small slip of a country along the Mediterranean coast boasts great natural beauty, and is rich with much-coveted resources.

But instead of allowing these just to provoke envy, a recent initiative is using one of Lebanon’s most stunning features to inspire responsible tourism and bring communities together .

The Lebanon Mountain Trail (LMT) runs like a backbone from AlQbaiyat in the north to Marjaayoun in the south, covering 440km (273 miles) in total and taking in more than 75 towns and villages.

The idea for the trail came from a group of people who were passionate about their country’s natural and cultural heritage, and who could see the potential for responsible tourism to protect this legacy.

‘The rise of ecotourism as a post-conflict recreational industry in Lebanon intrigued us,’ says Karim El-Jisr, president of the LMT Association. ‘And since many of us were keen hikers, a trail seemed the natural way to develop the possibility.’

The idea was brought under the wing of the international development organisation ECODIT, and in 2007 the LMT received $3.3m of funding from USAID. The trail was partly inspired by the Appalachian Trail that runs from Georgia to Maine and, although the LMT’s scope is smaller in distance than its American counterpart, it is no less ambitious. It is divided into 26 sections, each of which can be completed in one day and finishes at a village or town where walkers can stay overnight.

‘History is very much part of the LMT,’ says Karim. ‘It’s totally inseparable

from our landscape, and our intent was to capture as many attractions as possible to showcase the best of rural Lebanon. We didn’t invent the trails – they have always been there – but we did put it together and connect the dots.’

In terms of organising the trek, there are several options. Those with the confidence and the experience can walk independently with the help of the excellent – and waterproof – maps provided by LMT. The trail is signposted and, in the eventuality of getting lost, the renowned hospitality of the Lebanese should put any wayward hiker on the right track.

There are also several ecotour operators who organise excursions along the LMT, which can include activities such as snowshoeing, rock-climbing and caving. Lastly, the more bespoke option is to hire a local guide and choose where you go and stay.

the last refuge Words Franca Davenport

sublime | 123

sublime_JULY11.indd 123

11/07/2011 22:26

places

‘The rise of ecotourism as a post-conflict recreational industry in Lebanon intrigued us’

We took the latter option, and decided to walk one of the most reputedly beautiful sections through the Qadisha Valley, which is part of a World Heritage Site. On the way north we stopped for a warm-up on the Baskinta Literary Trail, which is about 50km from Beirut. This was originally created as a ‘mini-trail’ to test the concept of the LMT, and connects the homes and resting places of revered authors for whom the region was a creative retreat.

As you walk the terraced hillsides, it’s easy to see why so many writers have chosen to live in this area. Not only is the landscape inspirational, but so too is the ever-changing light that fills the valleys. It’s difficult for words to do it justice, which is probably why so many writers have tried to capture the beauty of the place in their poetry and prose.

Having soaked up the literary credentials of Baskinta, we moved further north to begin our five-day trek from Ehden, which is home to one of Lebanon’s largest nature reserves. At altitudes of up to 1,900km, much of the reserve is under snow until spring, which accentuates the vivid greens of the cedars. Since we were trekking before the start of the season, there was little noise apart from the drips of melting snow, and little company apart from whatever animals were leaving their tracks. The reserve has a high biodiversity, with more than 35 different species of tree, as well as wildcats, eagles and wolves.

Heading out from the reserve, the trail follows a ridge from where the view illustrates a well-known feature of Lebanon: that you can ski in the mountains in the morning and swim in the sea in the afternoon.

On one side there is a stunning view of the snow-covered peaks, while on the other, the Mediterranean shimmers beyond Tripoli.

From these heady heights the trail descends into the Qadisha Valley and, after winding through oak and walnut forests, it reaches the monastery of Mar Antonios. Built into the rock face, the towering construction is Maronite, a form of Catholicism and also the main religion in northern Lebanon, with Islam being the predominant religion in the south. The valley is also known as the Holy Valley and, at regular intervals, there are monasteries, hermitages and cave chapels cut from the rock.

The depth of the valley is breathtaking, emphasised by the rock faces

that soar to the sky, their tops clustered with villages. Its geography allows you to be remote yet connected, tucked away in the land so that you remain hidden, but with a sense of nature and community surrounding you. It’s one of those magical places where you can feel alone but not lonely.

Climbing up from the valley is difficult. Not only because the road is steep, but also because it means leaving the seclusion of Qadisha.

The trail winds to the town of Bcharre, from where you can truly appreciate the valley’s depths. Looking down, it’s difficult to see any obvious signs of life, or even hear the river that cuts so effectively through the rock face.

Top Khalil Gibran museum, Bcharre Left Trek to Qadisha valley Previous spread Mar Antonios monastery 124 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 124

11/07/2011 22:42

places

Left Baker making manakish Top Bcharre Below Cave chapel

Compared to the valley, Bcharre is a lively place, both in terms of culture and winter sports. It is the birthplace of Khalil Gibran, author of The Prophet, and is located close to the Cedars, one of Lebanon’s best-known ski resorts. After a night in Bcharre, we set off through the terraced orchards around the town that, during the summer months, brim with apricots, plums, apples and pomegranates. At times we were in the snowline, and then the trail dropped into Lebanon’s oldest village of Hadath el Jebbe, near the top of the valley, where we could peer down to where we had been just two days previously.

Our trek lasted six days in total but, for all the right reasons, it seemed longer, and I can only imagine that walking the full 440km must feel almost epic. Every year the LMT organises a ‘walk-through’ of the complete trail, which is well attended by foreign and Lebanese hikers.

Some walk the whole length, while others join for sections. According to Karim, to get the most out of the experience you need to hike for at least three days. ‘Then you really get into the right mindset,’ he says, ‘where you detach yourself, switch off your phone and enjoy the pace of the mountains where the rhythm is centred around walking, eating and sleeping.’

The depth of the valley is breathtaking, emphasised by the rock faces that soar to the sky, their tops clustered with villages

As well as connecting the paths, the LMT has funded the refurbishment

and establishment of many local guesthouses, the building of cultural centres and the restoration of historic buildings. ‘The idea is to connect communities and protect public goods,’ says Karim. ‘Lebanon is a small country, but it has a lot of invisible lines. The trail crosses these lines and brings people together from different religions and cultures.’

But the trail cannot maintain itself, and there is a need for further support. Waste management is a problem in some sections, and the constant building of houses and roads, unhindered by planning laws, can cause difficulties. ‘We still have a long way to go on the infrastructure side,’ says Karim. ‘There’s a lot of encroachment from new buildings, and the trail itself is fragile. The money has allowed us to invest in restoring historic buildings and town squares, and we hope that these will be the building blocks on the trail.’

In the future the LMT plans to strengthen its relationship with local municipalities and NGOs, as well as to launch a school programme called ‘A Trail for Every Classroom’, which will use the LMT as an educational resource.

With these plans in mind, there’s little doubt the LMT has the potential to fulfil the many dimensions of sustainability. With its focus on the enduring feature of the mountains, it will hopefully achieve the balance of sustaining future resources while protecting its past. In these difficult times, let’s hope it has the long-term support to do just that. lebanontrail.org

sublime | 125

sublime_JULY11.indd 125

11/07/2011 22:43

section title places

It’s the Little things Words Gabriel O’Rorke

Sun, sand, sea … and stones. Olive stones. Barceló La Bobadilla is one of a kind; a luxury hotel that’s making use of local waste to heat its water and power its aircon

M

ade up of a cluster of whitewashed buildings with terracotta roofs, Barceló La Bobadilla looks like any traditional Andalucian village. It is in fact a smart hotel, complete with three restaurants, a huge outdoor pool and private chapel. But it’s not just any high-end hideaway. La Bobadilla is pioneering sustainability in the hotel industry: it is the first luxury hotel to instal a biomass boiler, which converts olive stones into a source of clean energy.

Making the most of the 1,000-acre olive grove on which it sits, La Bobadilla not only harvests the olives to be turned into the regions’ famous ‘liquid gold‘ (olive oil), but also shreds the olive stones to use as fuel for its boiler. The hotel’s heating, air-conditioning and hot water are all powered this way. Proving both sustainable and economical, the boiler has reduced annual CO2 emissions by 80% and cut fuel costs by 40%.

In terms of design, Granada-born architect Jesús del Valle blended the region’s eclectic influences when he created La Bobadilla. Though only 25 years old, the hotel has an historic feeling: brick arches replicate Córdoba’s Great Mosque, and cobbled streets lead you past the chapel (which is unconsecrated and a popular venue for civil wedding ceremonies) to sunny courtyards where guests eat, drink and play cards.

The inside is decorated with tiled patios, carved wooden balconies and ornamental fountains. As in traditional Moorish palaces, La Bobadilla has so many fountains that you hear the trickle of water almost everywhere you go. All 70 rooms are individually decorated in a simple, rustic style, with balconies overlooking the olive groves, oak trees and, on a clear day, the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

126 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 126

11/07/2011 22:49

section places title

La Bobadilla is the first luxury hotel to install a biomass boiler, which converts olive stones into a source of clean energy

Just below the main cluster of buildings lies an oasis dotted with palm trees and home to a 1,500 square-metre swimming pool. The amount of space and number of activities on offer add to the selfcontained nature of La Bobadilla. Within easy reach of Malaga, Granada, Córdoba and Seville, it is well situated as a base to explore the region, but it is also a fantastic destination in its own right.

There are 25km of sandy tracks for walking (guests can bring dogs), riding, cycling and quad-biking, as well as tennis and badminton courts, an 18-hole golf course and a turtle pond where children can learn to fish. The stable has six Andalucian horses and two ponies (in a different league to the standard plodding hire horse), which you can ride accompanied or unaccompanied.

‘The horses know their way,’ said the head groom when I asked if people

Olive oil is being used to fuel 15 power stations across the region, generating enough bioenergy to sustain 250,000 homes a year. Scientists from Seville and Malaga have patented a biodegradable plastic made simply from tomato skins

got lost when they went out alone. It’s all under control. There are even separate paths so that those travelling on four legs are not spooked by those on four wheels. And, if you’re not a speed fiend, there are plenty of laid-back options such as archery, table tennis, lying by the pool or a trip to the spa.

Although situated in the main building, the spa is an antidote to the hotel’s traditional architecture and rustic style. Floor-to-ceiling windows set a modern tone, and it has all the latest gadgets including a cross-current swimming pool (heated courtesy of the olive stones), a ‘dynamic pool’ with hydro jets to massage your back and shoulders, a Turkish steam bath, Finnish sauna and a Scottish shower.

The latter is to blame for the sporadic squeals that come from the shower area: what starts off as a warm rain shower trickles to a halt before firing cold water at you from every angle. At least there are heated deckchairs to recover in afterwards.

In terms of treatments, you can take your pick of facials, massages, manicures, pedicures and depilation. The bamboo massage is particularly exotic: best compared to a pizza base being flattened with a rolling pin, it is effective and soothing, but don’t expect the impossible – a bamboo pole won’t make you as thin as a pizza base.

Speaking of food, the eco trend continues in La Finca Restaurant, which serves Andalucian haute cuisine in an atmospheric, darkbeamed room. The delicacy here is the world’s only organically farmed caviar, which is called Riofrío, and is farmed just 10km away.

One of the greenest regions in Europe, Andalucia is dotted with solar panels and wind farms, but the latest sustainable innovations seem to be coming from its staple foodstuffs. Olive oil is being used to fuel 15 power stations across the region, generating enough bioenergy to sustain 250,000 homes a year. Scientists from Seville and Malaga have patented a biodegradable plastic made simply from tomato skins. At present, 99.5% of Spain’s oil and natural gas is imported, so there is still plenty of room for green expansion, but other countries could do well to follow where Spain is leading. barcelolabobadilla.com, monarch.co.uk

sublime | 127

sublime_JULY11.indd 127

11/07/2011 22:50

images: Steffen Jaenicke

good brands

with their innovative design nd pioneering technology, Berlin-based company Younicos prove that green energy supply is readily at hand

F

let the fossils rest in peace

Words Liz Schaffer

orged in 2008, Younicos is made up of a 40-person team who happily admit that they ‘burn for green energy’, and are working towards a world where all energy produced is CO2free and renewable. Believing in storage selling rather than story telling, the company is driven by the power of their ideas and obvious environmental passion. They therefore develop network solutions and storage systems for stable, cost-effective and safe electricity supply for regenerative energy sources. One of their current proposals (which is championed by CEO Alexander Voight, and reflects the company’s energy outlook) is that with proper storage and software, smart eco grids, rather than a larger national grid, could manage the flow of renewables and ideally make them as reliable as fossil fuels.

Arguing that islands with several thousand inhabitants have the potential to function on renewable energy, the team has built a test energy supply to a full-scale island with 1,500 inhabitants. Their findings could be applied to larger islands and help the company develop ideas concerning grid control and energy management that can be used across the world. As Voigt explains, ‘the goal was to find markets where we can compete on the basis of today’s numbers on cost basis with the traditional way to produce energy with our future energy system only based on wind solar and energy storage.’

On a noticeably smaller scale, Younicos also produce compact storage

units, such as the Yill mobile energy storage unit that was unveiled during Milan Design Week 2011. Conceived by designer Werner Aisslinger, the device converts the modern mobile workspace into an environmentally stable zone by supplying it with two to three days’ worth of energy (300 Watts of electricity). This energy, which is released sustainably and only where it’s needed, can be gathered from renewable resources with the device encouraging users to disconnect from conventional power grids. With Brant Richards of Younicos explaining that the ‘core of Younicos’ vision is to enable a 100% renewable energy system,’ it’s clear that even Yill is a key part of the energy solution. Indeed, ‘if you want to come up to 100% renewable, you have to get rid of coal and nuclear. But for the renewables to replace them, you have to increase the capacity of storage. Only then you can throw out your old fossil systems,’ says Younicos CTO Clemens Triebel.

In many ways, though, Younicos is still trading in ideas. For them it’s not about selling thousands of units (although understandably they wouldn’t mind this outcome) but about inspiring the public and putting a positive image on renewables, batteries and storage systems – exactly what we need if we plan on a CO2-free future.

While the Younicos team may seem slightly alternative, the possibilities they represent and the technology they are unlocking suggests a greener future is infinitely closer than we expected. younicos.com

128 | sublime

sublime_JULY11.indd 128

11/07/2011 22:51

“coMinG HoMe”

H a n d w o v e n o u t d o o r f u r n i t u r e c r e at e d w i t H w e at H e r - r e s i s ta n t d e d o n f i b r e

www.dedon.de Leisure Plan · UK Sales Office & Showroom Silver Street · Stansted Mountfitchet · Essex C M 24 8 HD Tel. 00 44 1279 816001 · Fax 00 44 1279 816089 · sales@leisureplan.co.uk

sublime 28 cover.indd 2

11/07/2011 12:49

AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION FOR MEN AND WOMEN SUBLIMEMAGAZINE.COM

rio de Janeiro são Paulo Buenos aires n e w Yo r k Miami Milano

FOR CREATIVE D THINKERS AN INQUIRING MINDS

roma to k y o

ISSUE 28 2011

designed in rio de Janeiro by oskar Metsavaht. Made of fish skin, par t of a sustainabilit y project by instituto e.

SUSTAINABILITY | DESIGN | CULTURE | LIFESTYLE | FASHION | CURRENT AFFAIRS | NATURE

BIMONTHLY ISSUE 28 | 2011

RAW RADICAL ALTERNATIVE WORLD

LONNEKE ENGEL IN HER OWN VOICE

RAW

FRANCES CORNER FUR: THE REAL ISSUE

SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE WE’VE HAD AN EYEFUL THE SAVOY HOTEL LUXURY GREENS UP

UK £4.95 US$ 6.99 EU €7.99

28

LUCY SIEGLE NICELY OBSERVED LEBANON MOUNTAIN TRAIL GO THE LONG WAY

NY 97 Wooster st. - soho MiaMi 1111 LincoLn road - MiaMi Beach

sublime 28 cover.indd 1

11/07/2011 14:06