Down the rabbit hole – a Sixties fashion story

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end!…Our Alice in Wonderland fell down the rabbit hole and encountered a bunny girl, a mad hatter, a cat woman and a beauty queen – in a world inspired by Sixties vintage.

Read the story »

Twenties key style elements: fashion meets leisure

Think Twenties fashion and plenty comes to mind: short, fringed dresses in loose fitting, sensuous fabrics, silhouetting willowy, boyish bodies. Cloche hats covered bobbed hair and framed flirtatious eyes and narrow, knowing brows. It was a time for Bright Young Things, a new partying set free to be young and frivolous and to Charleston ‘til their legs buckled.

The flavours of the age were expressed in fashion, and the Twenties had plenty to offer to the young, impetuous and anxious to experience a new world now emerging from The Great War. Rosie Cowling has this story.

Read the story »

Storm Thorgerson: Right but Wrong – new exhibition on the cutting edge album artist

From Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath to Megadeath, Muse to the Mars Volta, the Idea Generation Gallery presents a retrospective of one of the greatest album artists of all time. The art of Storm Thorgerson is as famous as the music it accompanies. As a childhood friend of the founding members of Pink Floyd, he went on to become their designer-in-chief, creating a string of eye catching designs including Atom Heart Mother, Wish You Were Here and The Division Bell.
Read the story »

Flapper invasion in Manchester: we went to the Charleston flashmob

It’s Saturday afternoon in Manchester and shopping area Piccadilly Gardens is teeming with shoppers and pedestrians going about their business. A man in a velvet frock coat casually sets down a stereo by a grassy verge and presses play. ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ by big band legend Louis Prima is soon blaring from the speakers.

Two smartly dressed folks begin to spontaneously dance the Charleston and then, as if by magic, other couples appear from the crowd and start to join them. Before long a synchronised routine is being played out in full of view of the amused onlookers. Liz Kenny reports from Manchester’s Charleston flashmob.

Read the story »

Berlin for vintage film enthusiats

Vintage film enthusiasts have a number of notable sights to explore in Berlin, after all the city was once the film capital of Europe. Our Berlin correspondent Holly  has found the perfect sights for old-school movie lovers.
Read the story »