hatwalk: patriotic colours

As before. From yesterday. Hatwalk.  Absolutely brilliant concept, which allegedly Boris himself cooked up (I love that man! I was trying to think of a NY mayor that's anywhere near him - Mayor Lindsey had class, and was cute, but he didn't have Boris's humour and overall cuddliness) and the thing about Hatwalk that makes it so special is - like butterflies - its brief life span: it's only out on the streets til this Friday.

I'm going to see and shoot as many as I can. Although showing you the impact of what the hat on Nelson's head looks like - on top of that column - isn't easy. I can't imagine how they got it up there, at night. To surprise us in the morning.

And the best thing about it is, you don't have to buy tickets. The buzz around town is simply amazing, and I've been spending half the morning trying to navigate the London Olympic website.  Suddenly we, and everyone I know, want to go to the Olympics. And those that are at work, are watching it on the BBC site (one friend - who works in the government - said everyone's got it on their screens. So who's running the country??)

What I'm wondering is: where were we for the past eight years? Where we were when being so cool, too cool to apply for thousands of pounds of tickets? While all round the world, everyone was planning to come here, and we were planning to get out of town? Kicking self as we speak. While pinching self that we don't happen to go on holiday til the 7th.

More info on  Grazia (Hatwalk) or the Mayor of London site for the map. Easy peasy, and no queuing. But it's only out til Friday, so don't dilly dally!

hatwalk: look up

What a wonderful way to start the morning. To start off my week.

Up with the roosters, husband bringing me my cup of tea and saying 'get up, Jill, you've got that thing, remember?' The thing was an invitation from the Mayor of London's people to a surprise. Photo call, 7:00, Trafalgar Square. Be there or be.. so I get there, the Square is empty, I see a lovely girl in a purple shirt who is an 'Ambassadress' (gotta love that word) for London 2012 Olympics. 'I'm here for the surprise' I say, smiling. She smiles back. 'What surprise?' 'At, you know, the Trafalgar Cafe... it's for Grazia..' No recognition. She wants to help, she really wants to help. She starts looking up Trafalgar Cafe on her phone. Meanwhile I call the PR company - a cell phone for someone named Rachel, listed on the invitation. Rachel answers and is cheerfully trying to explain where they are ('It's across from the National Gallery'.. which is where I was..) and two bobbies, in hats, get into the act. They're directing me to the same place Rachel is on the phone.. a little cafe in the Square.. it was hilarious, cinematic: everyone trying to help. 

And next thing I know, I'm alone in a small room, being offered coffee and yummy pastries, when who should walk in but Paula Reed, Style Director of Grazia. (And, as of last month, she'll be taking up a new position as Style Director for Harvey Nichols: how ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS is that).

She is now my favourite style editor: more than Carine Roitfeld, who I've got to admit was really cool to meet. More than the enigmatic Kate Lamphear, who barely speaks but radiates calm. More than eternally effervescent Anna Della Russo, who bizarrely, I dreamt about recently: we were good friends, apparently. Paula just exudes such warmth, is delightfully accessible. And meeting her, I was just so buzzed the rest of the day.

And THEN I went outside, and they explained the Hatwalk concept. In two words: Look Up.

There it was: on the very top of Nelson's column: Nelson himself, wearing a hat. A newly made British Flag hat, with gold feather. The original, iconic hat he wore was made by Lock & Co, so it only stands to reason that they got to design this one, by Sylvia Fletcher.

It's brilliant, and it's everything that I love about London, about the delicious Boris Johnson, about art and fashion mixing in the most whimsically English way. Twenty iconic sculptures, around London, being decorated with... hats. Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy are behind it, of course, but each of the twenty sculptures are designed by different artists and designers: such a rich, rich collaboration of talent, tied in with the Olympic games.

I've got more shots from this morning in posts coming up - the light was amazing, it felt very Norman Parkinson, American in Paris - but also, I am personally making a vow: I've got the map. I'm going to try to see, and photograph, as many of the sculptures as I possibly can. Life is so what you make of it, and frankly, I'm so glad I got out of bed early, for a change.

Read more about it on Grazia Daily, of course, but I also think the Telegraph did a pretty good job of explaining it ('The Hatwalk Comes to Town'). And if you get there first, please take some photos: I'm planning to make a whole series from this, so let's collaborate. For the map,  go to Mayor of London: Hatwalk.

passing on the torch

So yesterday was the day the London 2012 Torch Relay reached London. A fact that I wasn't actually aware of until the day before, because I hadn't been really following events. I had realised I was double booked on Tuesday, and Maralee was able to switch to Thursday - which was one of those crazy days when it seemed all these unrelated friends wanted to meet at the same time in different places for different reasons, but I was seeing Maralee. And then in the morning she and a friend were going to try to catch the relay around Wandsworth, then we were going to meet in Battersea Park.. but they switched back to Wandsworth, and we decided to meet next week. 

And I realised at 12:30 that a) I was on my own and b) I could just pop on over - by foot - to the King's Road, and try to catch the Torch passing.

Life is so random, you know? Beautiful hot day, camera in tow, on the phone with my mom, get to King's Road, turn left. If I had left a few minutes earlier, and turned down the street I had planned to, I'd have had the Ab Fab girls passing me. But instead, just before 'my' torch bearer, I saw, in an open truck, a young boy, holding a torch. Looking ahead, with the most intense seriousness. It was just a moment passing  - I was shooting people, cars, cyclists - whatever caught my eye - but that moment I didn't capture on film. (Okay, not film: on digital). But it was a moment that will stay with me always. This little boy, like a buddha or a prince (the buddha, actually, was both). Everything good seemed encapsulated in that boy.

And as I heard others say: it really was kind of quick. A lot of fuss - a LOT of fuss - trucks and people and sound and anticipation (and I can show you those shots, too, another time) and then, my man. Whizzing by, with a smile. And the crowd cheering. It really was quite exciting!

His name, it turns out, is Robert Groves, and I didn't know if he was an athlete, or a normal person, so when I googled him, this is what I found: click here. And I was so moved by his application, I am printing it here, verbatim:

'Bob spreads happiness and hope. Bob was an addict but now teatotal fit and healthy. An inspiration to all that know and meet him.I want to Run a Marathon under 3 hours 15 mins so that i can achieve a good for age in the London Marathon i come from a very overweight and unhealthy background and have already run a marathon in 3 hours 30 mins. I believe that if i can do it i will help others to see that they can do it to.'

Funny timing, too: I've been using the phrase 'passing on the torch' for over a year now, whenever - which happens all the time - people contact me about street shooting. 'I'm passing on the torch to the next generation of street style photographers', I say, when I decline to go to fashion week or do street style. But then a lovely young woman I haven't yet met, named Natasha Lee, pulled me out of retirement last week, for an affilliate of Elle called glo.com. And my first piece for them went live yesterday. You can see it here, and I'll be doing posts on those shots, and more, over the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, though, shown here is a girl I saw near me on the King's Road as the torch went by - you can see her in the BBC footage, we were around 13:45 - she got my vote for 'best street style look' of the day. I love floaty dresses and tough guy boots. Classic summer yin yang look.

This is such a jumble of a post - the more I fuss with it, the longer and more jumbled it's getting - but my husband is talking, and I want to get it up before the Opening Ceremony begins. My husband thinks he's too cool for that stuff but - who knows - maybe he'll grace the cat and I with his presence in front of the telly.

Lovely weekend, all! xoxo