Before I start I must apologise for my lack of blogging over the last month!  The reason for my absence is that I have just bought a new home and for the past few weeks I have been knee high in paint, flooring, wallpaper, plaster and moving boxes. I mean don't get me wrong as much as the last few weeks have been an amazing and memorable experience, I have missed you guys and the blog terribly and I promise I won’t go anywhere for a while again without posting! Bible!  

It’s because of this I have decided to take on a bit of help with DiscoFashionArt and this summer I have taken on my first Intern.  Mica (read all about our fab newbie in her previous post!) a 2^nd year fashion styling and promotion student and all round gorgeous gal will be posting alongside myself for the next few months so I hope you enjoy her contribution!

So back to business. I have been inundated with emails about all things Disco, Fashion and Art that have been going on in our beautiful city over the past few week so I’ll try and cram everything in!

I received an email this week from the beautiful Emma Hill, editor of His and Hers magazine and PR guru, inviting me to the Pan Am this coming Friday night for an evening with the fabulous MD Productions.

Pan Am will play host to ‘Crazy Right Now’, a night devoted to Beyoncé, the Queen of Pop. The popular Albert Dock bar and restaurant has joined forces with MD Productions, a mould-breaking Liverpool based dance troupe fetaured in Britains got talent, to dazzle customers with show-stopping performances by some of the region’s most talented singers, dancers and musicians, plus stunning costumes and visual effects.

I am particularly excited for the costumes!!

Tickets have been selling fast for ‘Crazy Right Now’ and organisers are expecting the evening to be a sell-out.

The team at Pan Am are no strangers to exclusive events, having hosted the likes of the MTV European Music Awards and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year after-show party, and are looking forward to paying homage to Beyoncé for one ultra-glamorous evening.

‘Crazy Right Now’ will be the first in a series of monthly events by MD Productions which will take place at Pan Am at the end of every month.

The second in this exciting series of events will be ‘A Night with Gatsby’, which will give guests at Pan Am the opportunity to take a step back in time and immerse themselves in 1920s style glamour with the help of MD Productions’ unforgettable performances, plus period costumes and decor on Friday 27^th June.

I will be there tomorrow night, camera and cocktail in hand, capturing all of your gorgeous outfits and the show itself for the blog!

Tickets for ‘Crazy Right Now’ on 30^th May and ‘A Night with Gatsby’ on 27^th June cost just £10 for the performance only (which starts at 8pm) or £30 for your ticket, plus a three-course dinner and the best seats in the house (dining from 7pm).

For reservations, call: 0151 702 5831, www.panambarliverpool.co.uk 

See you there!

Well, it’s my pleasure to announce the next, exclusive, tid bit of glorious information from a good friend of mine Jamie who has recently become involved in his friend Annelouise Smiths fabulous new company, from Liverpool, called The Hippy Club! Granted this is more of a beauty post, but I do think your bohemian fashion bunnies are going to love it! 

The Hippy Club is a REVOLUTIONARY Hair Extension brand like no other on Mother Earth.

Inspired by the original laid back Californian hippy lifestyle in which the brand was founded, The Hippy Club’s genuine 100% natural human Hair Extensions exude quality and wearability, creating an effortlessly chic look that is California cool.

Now shipping internationally to a growing list of professional salons and outlets, their premium hair extensions let you transform your look into boho-chic or a bohemian beach honey digging her toes in the golden sand. 

The hair comes in three different collections all available in a range of colours.

Freedom

Freedom is inspired by the sun-kissed, Californian blonde hippy-look of the 1960s/70s. Carefree, whimsical and captures light in its tones like magic, and a dream to style.

Rebellion

Rebellion is a revolutionary hair extension developed especially for unruly, wavy, curly and coarse-textured hair. With its dry texture and natural flowing movement, Rebellion has a mind of its own – just like your own wavy and curly hair!

Tribe

Tribe is inspired by the Native Goddess look with dark glass-like finishes and deep tones that captivate the eyes and soul. Tribe is powerful.

I for one am extremely excited about the brand and the gap it will be filling in the market. I have never been a fan of hair extensions as I think that unless they cost the price of a small car they tend to be quite fake and nasty looking and none really cater for curly hair like mine. The Hippy Club however are definitely not fake nor nasty looking and cater for all hair types. The extensions don't need to be blew dry they have an untouched, bohemian style, making them easy to handle and are extremely natural. I shall definitely be investing in the Rebellion line for the summer! I shall update you with my progress on the blog!

Good luck to my delectable friend Jamie, Annelouise and all the dudes over at The Hippy Club, I am sending you and your new fantastic venture all the love and light in the cosmos and thank you so much for my barefoot sandals, they are DIVINE, I shall be wearing them all summer (photos soon I promise, I'm getting a fresh pedi in the morning!).

Find more details at
www.hippyclub.co.uk

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There has been loads going on in Warehouse in Liverpool One over the past few weeks including a stellar event last Saturday.  The store got their customers in the mood for summer with their Warehouse weekender event.  DJ Mark Armstrong provided a delicious summer soundtrack for Warehouse customers whilst they shopped the latest Grazia Edit, which I may add is incredible. Warehouse's Spring Summer 2014 collection is rife with hot, catwalk inspired pieces you should get your peepers acquainted with if you haven't already. Customers also got to customise a pair of warehouse sunglasses in store, theirs to keep with every purchase!

The team at Warehouse Liverpool One are fantastic and have a great Instagram and Twitter account you should follow for details of offers, promotions and discounts and also fabulous outfit ideas.

https://twitter.com/L1_Warehouse

I hope to be working with the team in Liverpool One soon so keep your eyes peeled for details.

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My friends over at the Met Quarter informed me last week of the relaunch of their new, prestigious, Gieves & Hawkes store.  The brand are proudly celebrating the opening of their new store with an increased floor space and more prominent position within the Metquarter. The store follows the new design principles of the brand developed by creative director Jason Basmajian inconjunction with interior designer Teresa Hastings. Featuring a chic colour scheme of tonal greys, smoked oak flooring and hand cast brass rails the look of the new store is both modern and understatedly luxurious.  I highly recommend a visit!  

The store is now the perfect environment to shop for the best in men's tailoring and refined casual wear. 

The brands spring summer 2014 collection is inspired by the traditions of bespoke but is firmly contemporary in its mix of sartorial, military and sportswear styles.

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Oh my days these Topshop designer collections get better each time! The highstreet legend has now teamed up with London fashion favourite and genius Ashish for a holiday inspired beachwear collection.

I love Ashish simply because his clothes are FUN and extremely expressive. He is usually the king of sequins and I am a little saddened at the lack of them in the collection but it has all the other usual stampings of the designers kooky design ethic so I wasn't sad for long! I will definitely be indulging in that back pack if I can get my hands on one!

DFA LOVES!!!!

Last week I received a fabulous email from team over at Tate Liverpool about an exciting and important new exhibition opening in June.  

Mondrian and his Studios

Tate Liverpool

6 June – 5 October 2014 

£10.00/£7.50 

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was one of the most important contributors to the development of abstract art at the beginning of the 20th century. Mondrian and his Studios, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the artist’s death, will provide new insights into the artist’s practice, his relationship with architecture and urbanism, and his contribution to the development of modern thought.  The exhibition will present the largest number of neo-plastic paintings by Mondrian ever assembled in the UK, with some never before seen in this country, as well as a life size reconstruction of his Paris studio that will allow visitors to physically inhabit a replica of the unique environment the artist created.

Mondrian and his Studios considers not only his importance in the field of abstraction, but also the complex relationship between his artworks and the space around them.  The exhibition will focus on this connection between painting and architecture after Mondrian's move to Paris in 1911, with a reconstruction of his studio at 26 Rue du Départ, Paris being a major highlight of the display.  Mondrian’s studios in Amsterdam, Paris and New York all represented an ideal viewing space, described by the art historian Yve-Alain Bois as “an experimental expansion of the work and the condition for its accomplishment”.  Each studio reflected different stages of the painter’s way of thinking and of his intentions: the studios themselves form a distinct strand of his work, alongside his painting and writing.   

Drawings from Mondrian’s 1914 series Pier and Ocean will have particular resonance in Liverpool as they will be presented for visitors alongside the stunning views of the River Mersey seen from Tate Liverpool’s fourth floor riverside galleries.  In the series, Mondrian investigates the surface of the sea and its plastic qualities, which led him to develop his abstract vocabulary: his drawings of the ocean and church facades helped him formulate the grid that became his signature abstract style. Significantly, Mondrian left Europe for New York on board the Cunard White Star Lines ship Samaria which departed from this point in Liverpool on 23 September 1940.

The exhibition will also investigate Mondrian’s broader relationship with architecture and urbanism, particularly through a comparison of his earlier Parisian works and those made in the frenetic modern cityscape of New York.  Many of Mondrian’s best-known neo-plastic works will be exhibited: his own abstract painting style comprising straight lines and clearly defined primary colours, embraced by the Dutch avant-garde movement De Stjil of which Mondrian was a founder.  This includes the painting No. VI / Composition No.II 1920 which can be clearly seen hanging on the wall above a doorway in two photographs taken of his studio at 26 Rue du Départ in the mid 1920s, and is now part of the Tate collection.

  

This exhibition has been part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and has been programmed to open in time for the launch of the UK's International Festival for Business in Liverpool in 2014. Mondrian and his Studios and Nasreen Mohamedi feature in the cultural strand of the Festival programme and support the city's ambition to attract a wider and more diverse audience.

Mondrian and his Studios is curated by Francesco Manacorda, Artistic Director, Tate Liverpool with Dr Michael White, Reader in History of Art at the University of York, and Eleanor Clayton, Assistant Curator, Tate Liverpool. 

I shall bring you all the details from the press day later this month!

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Finally, I have also been invited down to the Albert dock to preview Dazzle Ship - one of the key Biennial public art projects, co-commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool and 14-18 NOW WW1 Centenary Art Commission. 

The Birkenhead based shipping company Cammell Laird are creating the design by renowned artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, which will 'dazzle' the Edmund Gardner (situated in dry dock adjacent to Liverpool's Albert Dock) in the manner of the 'dazzle' camourflage technique used on ships during the First World War.

Cammell Laird carried out the technique during that time on over 300 ships including battleships, cruisers, submarines and merchant ships.

The technique uses bold colour and patterns painted onto the ship, to create optical distortions that made it difficult to calculate the course the ship was travelling.  

This project is due to be completed and open to the public in June but I will be popping over for a sneaky look soon and will bring you all the details. 

 The artist Carlos Cruz-Diez

Examples of his work

Check out the Blog this weekend for my interview with fellow Liverpool Fashion Blogger Laure McBride from

{pictures from Circus, Jak & Jil, Tate Liverpool, Topshop, Warehouse Liverpool One, The Hippy Club, Gieves and Hawkes and Liverpool Biennial, Mondrian}

'Hi all!!!!!

Firstly I would like to introduce myself, I’m Mica mentioned in Claire’s previous post and I am over the moon to say I will be interning with Disco Fashion Art throughout the summer!!

This is my first ever blog post so as you can imagine I am super nervous but super excited!!

So a bit about me… I am a student at the University of Central Lancashire but I am Liverpool born.  I am currently completing and also thoroughly loving my second year of a full time Fashion Promotion with Styling BA (Hons) course.  I am also an aspiring stylist and hope to make this my full time career when I leave University but most of all and most importantly I LOVE FASHION!

I have an eclectic fashion sense and therefore I have many favourite designers; Chanel is an all-time favourite and always will be, the house produce the most amazing catwalk shows and fantastical clothes!  I also love Yohji Yamomoto and his deliberate over use of black clothes. I mean everyone loves black clothes, but he manages to put them together in a unique way that makes them anything but morbid. I also love his use of layering, he manages to put garments together in a unique way like only he could. I also love Givenchy.  Ricardo Tisci’s collections are very chic with an urban, modern yet elegant twist. One last favourite is Balmain. I love, love, love all of  Olivier Rousteing’s collections they never fail to amaze and capture me, from the shape to the silhouettes to the patterns there’s nothing I don’t love about them. The list could go on and on to be fair!

So that’s me! For now!

I am really excited to be joining the blog and posting throughout Spring/ Summer and I really hope you all enjoy my contribution!!!' 

Speak to you all soon

Mica xx

I have bought and moved into a new casa this month and so have been crazy loco busy but I am back to blogging this week with some fabulous fashion news from our beautiful city and beyond.

 

Missed you guys didnt I!