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It's summertime and time for tea. Because that is what British folk do best. We make sandwiches in tiny little triangles and science has proven that they really do taste better cut into triangles rather than squares. What could be nicer than slices of home baked cake or scones served with hot tea from china cups. And while we're on the subject, why does my tea taste better from a bone china cup than a big chunky Starbucks goblet? Who doesn't love tea on the lawn or lounging around the garden with the scent of those fine English roses wafting by. It's about the luxury of time and formality....not for me grabbing a coffee to go from a cardboard cup and drinking through those skinny little holes. The chink of a teaspoon against china is a quintessentially English invention. Best accompanied by a radio playing something chilled (Paul Weller or Air is good), a sunny day (or just rain free) and sticking to the British feel, a little light sexual innuendo won't go a miss!! Pip Pip x

Prints For Pleasure.....the allure of mass produced 60's art.
What is good taste anyway? It's a question you ask of other people but never of yourself. Yet when I am accused by others of having art which is in 'bad taste' I revel in this postmodern pigeon hole. Is the fact that my beloved 'weeping boy' or JH Lynch dusky maidens, were in the mid 20th century widely purchased by the general public justification that they are indeed worthy of being called 'art'. Or are we venturing into the snobbery of the art critic who deems the public 'en masse' to be devoid of taste, class and artistic knowledge and therefore groups any mass produced artwork (particularly 60's Boots prints) so loved by Mr and Mrs Average as equally devoid of artistic merit.
My love of the 60's mass market art began during childhood trips to my Auntie Iris's house in Middlesbrough during the Athena print age of the early 1980's. A small council terraced house on a 60's social housing development in the North East of England. Yet the associations I have with that house are of cobbled sunsoaked Spanish streets, Mexican senoritas sultry and sensual with the dark tanned skin only just becoming a reality for the package holiday Brits off to Fuengerola half board for two weeks. The availability of affordable air travel in the 1950's saw the first wave of foreign influences in our homes. The ceramics printed with Parisienne ladies and poodles, the Spaghetti Bolognase in the kitchen and the further extremes of the Vesta ready made curry all filtered through to the British sitting room. Artists reflected the aspirations and imagination of the time with themes to complement. Spanish dancers wild and passionate, Mediterranean girls with peasants clothing but come to bed eyes draped accross woodland foliage. The smell of the exotic hung in the air around the terraced drab brick streets of Britain. Art itself had evolved from merely technical representations of humans and animals. Impressionism and modernism had debunked the myth that great art was all about faithfully recreating an image in an almost photographic quality. Children took on the exaggerrated characteristics of larger heads and wide almost sorrowful eyes.
Animals too were treated to the same emotions with the cute wide eyed gaze and cocked head, appealing to a rather more tongue in cheek side of us. Urban legend has it that the sad children brought bad luck into the house and many 'Crying Boy's' sadly came to an end in council tips. Of course, fashions change but the themes of the 60's, The Med, gypsy dancers, ballerinas and poodles softened through the sexually charged 70's into the more moody Sarah Moon girls and graphic abstracts. The accessibility of art was the key to it's success. Woolworths and Boots were the galleries of the day selling the 'Wings of Love' print by Stephen Pearson to those wishing to adorn the living room with a taste of the exotic. The 1980's saw the poster generation emerge. Less formal then their parents wooden or plastic framed prints the Athena movement brought style to those who hankered after a similar aspirational theme but with a more crisp feel. Black ash and chrome shiny minimal frames surrounded bright designs featuring sports cars, cocktails and red stiletto's a plenty. Colours were dramatic and often were the main impact in the print....who can forget the red lips around the melting telephone? Another golden age for mass produced art had arrived and my admiration for both the modern minimal airbrush images of the 80's as well as the camp emotion of 60's mass produced art had me hooked. For any lover of art the picture is only the catylist for the emotions it produces and for me those feelings are of Britishness, of working class values, of suburban aspirations and dreams and warm cups of tea with a T.V dinner.

Some thoughts on British style

While the sun is out the best and the bad of the Brits fashion arsenal is on full inspection. Like it or not there is flesh people, in some cases lots of it. Here's a thought, why not drop subjects in the national curriculum like Religious Education (too many variations) and replace with some classic stylist advice. Lesson one: for those who lack a toned tummy, probably best NOT to wear a skin tight see through lightweight T shirt and low slung jeans.....thing is, if you've got a muffin top at the tender age of sixteen.....you've got a lot of fashion tuition to cram in for the rest of your twenties and thirties!!
Lesson Two - sportswear (except for vintage 80's Football Hooligan casual chic which looks mint on those with a more far left wing political leaning) belongs in a sporting arena, a gym, leisure centre or organised sporting endeavour. Juicy Couture apparel is an oxymoron of velveteen standards. Not only would it look out of place on a treadmill, neither does it ever look stylish in the shopping mall. Don't even get me started on the Ugg's.
Hey, to cut the kids some slack maybe style comes with age. Perhaps as one grows into their own skin they become a rounder person fashion wise. A lifetime of teenage fashion faux pas can provide a solid foundation for an adulthood of adoring glances and "I love your frock, shirt, shoes, boob tube!!" Delete as appropriate.
Theres one sure fire rule to follow in fashion: If it's not IN fashion, you can't be OUT of fashion.
Sway to your own beat brothers and sisters. Wear what you think looks the business....because if you're feeling it.....you're swaggering with style conviction.
Go out and play!!!