The Most Stylish 'Zine on the Block

Drum roll... TBB (Tits, Brains, Balls) No.2.... This Bourgeois Battalion is here.

And no, I'm not just saying that because it's the brainchild of a wife and a favourite.

However, I do happen to be in this edition... I'm giddy with excitement about it, and thoroughly unrepentant that my contribution doesn't deviate from my core philosophy of shoes, shoes, shoes. The article was posted here a while back,  however, this time you can read it with a rather scrumptious visual accompaniment.

Make sure you check out all of TBB, including edition No.1 - the fab styling of the pages, which houses a mighty fine dose of cultural goodness makes it a MUST!

Playlist: Artists with Style Chutzpah

Sometimes you just gotta give props to those who not only write a banging tune, but also to those who wouldn't bat an eyelash at the concept of wearing paisley, or indeed a conical bra.  

1. Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man. That hair, that dress and a song dripping in soul. Beyond stylish. 
2. Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady. Oh this man, this man. What. A. God. 
3. Madonna - Express Yourself.  Like her, loather her. You gotta hand it to the woman, she's got chutzpah by the bucket.  
4. The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses.  For a start there's Mick, who back in the day was one hot rock god and let's not forget Keith -  a man who is slowly evolving into a walking privet hedge. Amazing. 
5. Kraftwerk - The Robots. C'mon people they're German electro minimalists.
6. Beyoncé  - Why don't you love me?  The video for this song is solely responsible for the look I shall be working this summer.  It's merely a bonus that I'm already a martini drinking hot mess.
7. Diana Ross - Chain Reaction. The woman's clearly batshit crazy, but she owned the '60's with the Supremes and she's nailing '80's decadence with white fur, shoulder pads and a alarming amount of sequins. I love it. 
8. Louis Armstrong  - Hello Dolly.  A bow tie. A nice suit. A proper shirt with cufflinks. A handkerchief in his breast pocket. Lovely. This is what I call dressing for dinner. 
9. Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal . Screw Thriller, this video is so stylish it actually hurts. Prohibition era bar, white suits, fedoras, and that leaning dance move. 
10. Snoop Dogg - Drop it Like it's Hot . This video is smokin' and in Snoop's case, quite literally. 

Night of the Living Dead

It's official, dungarees are making a comeback. I know this to be true because they were in my bank holiday mail out from Oasis. Which means they've gone - gasp - mainstream. AGAIN.

For some this may be a phoenix from the ashes, although, hello? Were you there in the '90's? They were bad enough then. And yes, I can say that. I saw and I wore.

I think it's safe to say that for me this particular renaissance is less phoenix, and more night of the living dead.

See what I mean? Bad, bad, bad.

So, an appeal:

Ladies, we did dungarees, and oh how we did them. We worked the cropped tee, we worked the webbed waistband of our Calvin Klein underwear, fully visible if you wore your 'rees baggy enough (and we did), but crucially, and this is important, we were teenagers. Yes, teenagers. We knew no better. We read Bliss and J17, we thought All Saints were edgy for a pop band and that Kurt 'RIP' Cobain would live for ever. In essence, we knew nothing. Nothing!

Is it going to be any better this time around? I doubt it. Wearers revisiting the trend will only feel oddly petulant, with a strong desire to start hanging around at the 'rec', drinking cider from a 2 litre bottle, which would, let's face it, seriously perturb the current crop of teenagers who're already there.

A simple equation then. Dungarees + 2010 + previously sane woman = complete embarrassment for society.

Harsh but fair i'd say.

Oh and in case any boys feel moved to give it a go, y'know, in the name of fashion, consider this a warning: Men shouldn't even contemplate working the dungaree unless they are a) legally known as Farmer John, and/or b) featured in the music video for Cotton Eye Joe.