Another Cinema trip for Rhi and her younger sister Livvy - last weekend we caught up with Gothic director extraordinaire Tim Burton's adaptation of the 1960s series, Dark Shadows, , and once again Rhi found herself completely distracted from the film thanks to the fashion fest throughout the film (She makes a habit of this, see: Hunger Games vs Devil Wears Prada) ...
Well known is the dream team of Depp & Burton, the pair have been knocking all other movies off the top of my favourites lists with each new release for as long as I can remember. However, I always get most excited when reading that my most admired costume designer of all time, oscar winning Colleen Atwood, has once again been drafted in to dress the characters in Burton's films (a la Edward Scissor Hands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland, Big Fish & Sweeney Todd - not to mention her work outside of Burton's films in Chicago, Lemony Snicket and Memoirs of a Geisha - to name but a few). I don't think I have mentioned before, but while at London College of Fashion I had aspirations of working in Costume Design for film, so Atwood is somewhat of a heroine of mine, I get a little fangirly over her fantastical creations - so please bear with me!
The 1970s setting really worked so well with Burton's style of contrasting riotous colour with darkness, with costume and set design - like Edward Scissor Hands and his gothic figure standing out against the candy coloured suburban backdrop. Apparently the vast majority of the costumes were purposely created for the film - with a few vintage finds thrown in for authenticity (I spy original Ossie Clark on HBC in one of those promo pics, actually let out a squeal when I saw it!). Highlights above include: Victoia's capelet (swoon!); Eva Green in that jaw dropping red number (I could turn...); Chloe Moretz in the most amazing array of print dresses (especially that bib fronted one, want it and/or need it!); Michelle Pfeiffer's Karen Carpenter via Morticia Addams looks (apparently inspired by a David Bailey book entitled 'The Birth of Cool' - currently going for £300 on amazon, who wants to get me an early extravagant birthday present...?); Helena Bonham Carter's blouses with pinafore ensembles paired with an orange wig and huge sunglasses (essential due to her characters perpetual state of 'hungover') and, of course, in any incarnation or costume - Johnny Depp. Dish.
No film set in the 70s would be complete without a sensational retrospective soundtrack - Danny Elfman (another regular Burton collaborator) writes yet another amazing score that sits alongside some truly great classics - and a performance by Alice Cooper ("the ugliest woman I have ever seen" according to Barnabas Collins, Depp's character). So I shall leave you with the Moody Blue's 1967 hit 'Knights in White Satin' - the opening track from the film.
So need to buy original Dark Shadows (the Barnabas Collins episodes) DVD, if only the full series was available in the UK! Feeling the need to revisit other supernatural families of the 60s - might be a good time to stock up on The Munsters and The Addams Family too, gosh don't get me started on the their iconic costuming as well, jeepers! Feeling my inner teenage goth creeping out!
Hooray, it's Friday once more & we have a long bank holiday weekend in front of us! Rhi will be returning to Twee Towers with Little M later today after their week trip to Scotland! In fact, my bestie better hurry on home before I get too used to this solitary lady of the manor thing... not sure how much you'll appreciate by new routine of prancing around, singing at the top of my lungs before bedtime, Rhi!?
I know it's nothing new but I've been on a bit of a Beatles musical pilgrimage again this week. With James heading up to Liverpool to start rehearsals for his next little run of gigs, we've been dreaming about moving up there, laughing at John & Paul's supressed giggles in this video, and we finally got round to uploading the videos we recorded at the Paul McCartney gigwe went to in December!
Therefore, it was only apt that today's Friday Flicks featured the 1965 classic, HELP! Just a tip - the whole movie is available to watch on youtube if you fancy a watch. In the meantime, i'll leave you with the song, 'The Night Before' which features on the album Help and our own recording of Elenor Rigby!
Apologies, video quality isn't great but who cares, it's Macca... singing Elenor Rigby!
If there's one thing to be thankful of during these relentless April Showers, it's the momentary flickers of sunshine that creates the most amazing double rainbows (...oh my gawwwd) across the sky! Situated quite high up on a hill with rolling fields in front of us, we get a pretty good view up here at Twee Towers.
This week, James & I have had the Twee Towers record player spinning with all things rainbow too! After up all my plays on Spotify, I decided to take the plunge and bought The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger's album.
The GOASTT are Sean Lennon and his beautiful girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. The particular track, 'Rainbows in Gasoline' took a while to grow on me, offering moments of optimism, quickly down played by striking minor notes and melancholy lyrics. The lyrics are inquisitive, psychedelic to the point of bordering on nonsensical.
Whilst the album itself, is at times upbeat (as a listener, you almost feel like your interrupting playful moments between the couple), I absolutely adore the acoustic versions of these songs. Recorded in the couple's home studio, the duets are melodic dreams, and usually accompanied by an array of fancy dress get-up...
If you enjoyed these tracks, take a listen to Schrodinger's Cat too - the chorus takes you in directions that you didn't think you were going to go, just too lovely!
Spotting a double rainbow calls for double the musical rainbow treats, right? We've also been listening to this on repeat...
"She comes in colours everywhere, she combs her hair, she's like a rainbow..."
Much love,
Lauren xx
PS. You still have a chance to win a selection of Twee Treats in our One Year Giveaway ♥
Groomed by the Jack White school of monochrome & mystique, The Black Belles are an all-girl, 60s garage inspired quartet formed in Nashville.
With a bewitching goth aesthetic of wide brimmed hats, matching pale complexions and shrouded in black lace, the first reason we love them is because they have clearly taken tips from our halloween style.
The second reason has to be for their interesting back bio, or lack of, veiled in mystery, the only thing we've been able to find out about them is that they were allegedly all kicked out of girl scouts for poisoning cookies. We're not sure we believe this but we like a band who's a bit bad ass.
Most of all we just love their authentic nod to the dark side of the sixties, championing the roughness of fuzz, analogue & layered with screeching organs.
We're loving their fabulous cover of The Knickerbockers' hit, Lies... Enjoy!
It's been a quite a while since we gave you a tour around Twee Towers, so we thought that it was high time that we shared some more of the art that we have hanging around! We've recently added new prints to our studio by English illustrator, Alan Aldridge.
For those who haven't heard of Aldridge, he was one of the key graphic designers of the mid-century and during the Sixties & Seventies it would have been an extremely difficult mission to escape his kaleidoscopic, vaudervillic (is that a word? if not, it's being coined right now) creations. His CV is simply ridiculous; he was made Art Director of Penguin books, bringing surreal, pyschedelic sensibilities to their Science Fiction titles, he famously won a drawing competition with a slightly manical Savildor Dali whilst waiting an airport, and to top it all off, designed artwork and lyric books for the likes of The Beatles, The Who & The Rolling Stones. Phew.
We first discovered Aldridge's work a few years back upon buying The Beatles' illustrated lyrics book (if you don't own, you must!) and recently, Lauren invested in The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes as a gift for James' Christmas, completely unselfishly we might add.
His style is an illustration of the Sixties, defining the age through an LSD fuelled carnival of surrealism, imagined dystopias and fantastical explosions of colour! Leading visually rather than textually, Aldridge's work tells a multitude of stories. It takes intertextuality to the extreme, toying with perspective and layering reference over reference, to the point where it bends your mind and hurts your eyes. At once, both graphically bold and artfully intricate. Just how we like our art!
So yeah, it's safe to say that we successfully brightened up & revitalised our studio with a little help from Aldridge's prints, and just in time for Twee Towers' year anniversary!
Roll up, roll up... we have some wondrous musical marvels to share with you today, with a selection of numbers chosen by Andy Crofts of UK band The Moons. The Rope mixes are, a host of playlists inspired by a love of the Hitchcock film of the same name, loaded with an unhinged array of dark delights to excite the minds of a listener with a penchant for the weird & wonderful.
Notably, the concept of the playlist itself, eerily mirrors the prolonged, suspenseful shots used by Hitchcock to draw the audience into an abyss of double meanings and a vortex of timbre.
With each individual mix devoted to exploring a different musical point of view, from the R&B driven Worlds of Wonder, to the blissful echoes of Late Night Smoke Rings, begging the listener to turn off their mind, relax and float down stream. A lovely modern day homage to the wonders of mid-century pirate radio... without the adverts!
It's seldom that we get to hear music choices from a plethora of our favourite artists, all under one roof. However, in his Circus on Mars, Andy has rounded up tracks from musical friends to bring you the ultimate, guest playlist!
As well as choices from Andy Crofts, this playlist features additional great guest choices from the likes of James Buckley, The Horrors, Paul Weller, The Coral, Richard Hawley, Miles Kane, The Charlatans, The Stone Roses, Ocean Colour Scene and The Sundowners! Click on the playlist for the full track listing.
At the age of 10, in our year 6 leavers assembly, we each took it in turns to take to the mike and naively declare what we would like to be when we were older. At that time I had become disenchanted by dreams of being a ballet dancer and with my mum persuading me that being a Spice Girl wasn't a feasible career choice, I had to give up the ghost on that one too. If there's one thing you should know about my mama, it's that during the 90s, she had a serious gripe with the Spice Girls. Only after years of guilt-tripping about the time she persuaded by to buy an Oasis album with my birthday money, rather than the girl power gift to mankind, did I receive my first SG album... at the age of 17). So thus, upon reaching double figures, imagining faraway lands and glamourous outfits, I decided I was ready to take on the world and announced that I was going to be a an air hostess...
As I got a little older, and my interests in the arts grew, I am sad to say that the dream never materialised. I also realised that I'd be rubbish in an emergency and would get bored of serving tiny cans of pop and snacksize pringles to disgruntled and nervous passengers very quickly. It did, however fuel a ebullient interest in the wonderful, winged catwalk that existed in our skies in the Sixties & Seventies.
With the world literally at their feet, the stewardess of the sixties were noted for their notorious glamour; their lives were made up of fabulous tales of mischevious romances with the elite (as well as the Captains!), and discreetly sipping champagne, 30,000 feet over the Atlantic. At that time, the position of an air stewardess was up their with supermodels & actress'.
Berets and stripes for the French airlines!
The girls were expected to have wit, personality and education and above all, great legs. After the stuffiness of the fifties, airlines went to town in the sixties and fashion began to dominate the skies. With regards to the uniform, conservative blacks and blues were dropped in favour of mesmerising concoctions of eye popping colour blocking, micro minis and even an appearance from the go-go boot! The hostess themselves were marketed as flawless, vivacious pinups, perfectly preened and wonderfully modelled outside the aircraft for press shoots like synchronised swimmers.
Emilio Pucca spearheaded the modernisation of Braniff Airways with their 'End of a plain plane' campaign by using bright geometric shapes, cheeky advertising & the creation of the incredible 'bubble helmet', a charming piece of sixties PVC designed to protect the steward's hair from wind and rain!
Don't you just wish you could have been there!?
And to leave you with something apt for our ventures into the skies today... the lovely, Thunderclap Newman's 'Something in the Air'... enjoy!
As the Spring season draws in, there is nothing better than getting up early on a Sunday morning and going for a meander around a flea market. One of the must-do's on the agenda of Lola & James' Berlin adventure was getting to one of the hugely popular flea markets that were littered around the City. After checking out a few online first, they opted for the Arkonaplatz market, located in the Mitte district, advertised as a haven for fans of Sixties & Seventies. Nom.
The problem is, with the warmer weather also comes the larger crowd and the competition to bag yourself exquisite antiques and beautiful bargains heats up! At this time of year you need a plan as well as a good eye and it's also easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast array of knick-knacks on offer. So today we are sharing our top tips, that will hopefully help you have a successful trip around the flea-markets and as girls that love shopping, we like to think we know a thing or two...
1. Arrive early - we're starting with an obvious one, it goes without saying. Not only are you putting yourself in the same privileged position as the rest of the savvy, flea-market frequenters to bag the bargains first, but it's also wise to be careful of item hoppers - a self-penned term ;)! That is, vendors browsing around the market early on, buying items and selling it on their own stall later in the day at an increased price! Apparently, it happens a lot more frequently than you think and sometimes items can jump from several stalls throughout the day and the price multiply each time! 2. Take cash - another obvious tip but in a day and age where we rely on carrying around our cash cards, it's so, so easy to forget to cash out for occasions like this and it would be simply tragic (we're not even being dramatic, tragic!) to miss out on something that you love, purely because you didn't have the cash on you! 3. Have an initial browse - As we mentioned earlier, it's really easy to be overwhelmed by the fast pace and bumble of people crammed into compact markets not to mention the thousands upon thousands of items on offer.... just where do you start? We found that the best thing to do was to have an initial browse up and down all the aisles to get a feel for what sort of things were on offer before heading back to take a closer look at the things which caught our eye! Remember, most flea markets are open all day (9am-5pm) so take your time :)
4. Make a wish list - it's so much easier to find something you'll love for years to come if it's something that will have a place in your home. Make a wishlist beforehand, even if you divert from the list for a couple of impromptu bought items, it keeps a sense of focus when browsing amongst the variety of knick-knacks available... it's easy to get carried away with no-so-practical purchases when it's all sittin' pretty!
5. Buy old - Resist the urge to buy something new. At the Arkonaplatz market, vendors had also set up darling stalls full of home-made and vintage looking jewellery (Egyptian inspired beetle jewels & cameo necklaces, gah!) as lovely as they looked, it seems a shame to browse around a flea market, only to come home with something brand new that you could search out online. Keep to the old and the antique and then you'll truely feel like you've found a treasure!
6. Colour vision - Seems silly but it does work...use colour to scan out items from your favourite eras. Colour pops of bright orange kept catching my attention and pulling me towards wonderful stands full of 60s and 70s delights!
7. Do your research - This really does help! If you have access to internet on your phone, use it! This way you have a much greater idea of how much an item is really worth before you pay or barter... you could even show the vendor the prices that you've found to see if this will encourage them to knock off a little more dollar! James fell in love with a beautiful sounding harmonica from the 50s on one of the stalls, the vendor was adament that the price offered was a bargain... a quick browse on ebay soon uncovered that you could get them a little cheaper online! There's nothing worse than feeling fooled by a confident seller!
8. Stay friendly & polite - although it might not aid your quest for lustrous bargains too much, remember that the majority of items on offer are probably from private collections or the seller's own possessions. Be respectful of sentimental value and use this to your advantage to find out as much information as you can about the items - it's always lovely to have a bit of backstory!
9. Take a tape measure - At Twee Towers, practicality is not always our forte... remember we bought our sofa without even considering the shape or size of the living room before moving in... luckily it fitted! For bulkier, house hold items, being able to measure will be a useful tool and will save you tediously lugging around a chest of drawers only to find it's too big to fit anywhere!
10. Look past the wear and tear- we all get suckered in by pretty, visual merchandising and artistic set ups but some of the best antique junk looks just like it sounds... junk! We stumbled across a stall that at first glance looked like boxes upon boxes of recycled metal, on closer inspection they housed the most charming, ornate brass door knobs that would make an amazing feature on wooden drawers and dressers... and sooo much cheaper than you would pay elsewhere! At Twee Towers we live by the mantra that almost everything can be fixed, scrubbed up and upcycled!
11. A bonus tip - enjoy yourself! How often do you get to spend a day drifting around troves of vintage and antique treasure? Buying is much more interesting when you have to work to find your goods!
We hope you enjoyed today's tips... happy shopping :)
