Inflated/Deflated is a project run by three Chicago based creatives, formed up by Jillian, Lauren, and Kady. This project evolves around handwritten humorous quotes to heartfelt feelings and memories on deflated balloons, which certainly helps hit home on a number of them. All the images that are photographed and the prints are available to purchase from Etsy, so you get the opportunity to keep a simple, yet witty or touching piece of art.

Below are a pick of my favourite images by Chicago collective. Check out the rest of the project over at their Inflated/Deflated.

The tsunami of photoshopped “beauty” is being targeted by this fantastic spoof video by filmmaker Jesse Rosten. This great work by Jesse should tickle every photographer and retouch wizard I know, as it advertises beauty product, Fotoshop by Adobé. The video is accompanied by the statement, “This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.” Need we say more? Check it out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tucked away on a little side street in East London’s Hoxton locale is a compact two-floor boutique that has remained relevant and consistent in challenging times for physical store fronts, with winning curation, a very impressive brand roster (home to brands such as PAM, Junya Watanabe Man, Wood Wood and Pendleton) and keeping true to their ethos with admirable enthusiasm and success.

Designers, Jo Sindle and Kyle Stewart are the creative duo behind the Goodhood name (established 2007) and in my opinion, have made nothing but substantial moves to guarantee themselves a prolonged future as one of London’s finest.

We had the opportunity to sit with Kyle (our congratulations to you both, as Kyle’s partner, Jo is currently away on maternity leave) to discuss style, influences and the future of the ‘hood.

Who are ya + what do you do?

My name is Kyle Stewart. I’m co-owner of Goodhood store and I run this place.

Tell us a bit about the Goodhood store and brand.

The store was set up in 2007 by me and my partner Jo Sindle. It started out as a bit of an idealistic project to curate brands and products that we’d seen on our travels. It was important for us to try and get a range of goods that, at the time, shared our ideas of independence and what that stood for, along with quality and creativity. The store has been going for 4 years now and has got bigger, with an additional floor for men’s in the basement and a gallery just over the street.

Myself and my partner Jo, we come from a design background and so it was important for us to create an identity around what we were trying to do. I come from a graphics background and Jo comes from clothing design background, that’s why we’ve been able to do collaborations with the people at R.Newbold, ’cause it’s something we’ve been doing for years. The graphics thing is a thing we’ve that we’ve rolled with – there’s myself and other designers involved with in the business, so it’s easy to roll out an indentity and be quite strong on that side of things. Although we are a multi-brand store, people very much see the store as a brand in itself.

You recently released the latest collaboration effort between yourself and R. Newbold, which was consistently strong. How did that team up come about?

Basically, friends of friends worked at Paul Smith and I met them in the pub one night. I knew they had done a collaboration with Oi Polloi, so I just said to them cheekily, “We should do a collaboration”, not thinking anything of it, but funnily enough R. Newbold had based a lot of their collections on London style and so the idea was perfect for them.

When we started the project we wanted to make sure that it had a bit of a life, we didn’t want it to be a hit-and-run thing, collaboration for the sake of it, so we applied a long term approach to it. We’ve just released the 8th season and are in talks about a 9th.

What inspires you for each collection?

Listening to what people want, people we meet, talking to customers, taking in what we see here and on our travels. This current season we wanted get away from all the heritage stuff to do something that was more “streetwear”, that’s why we did the Way Back tee, sort of having a laugh with ourselves. We’re obviously very interested in heritage and it does influence our designs, but really the collection is what we’re feeling at that particular moment in time.

On your website you host your Store Styles to exhibit outfits of visitors to the store. What’s your take on blogging’s effect upon men and women’s style?

I think blogging is massively important right now — it’s bigger than magazines, which I feel have become stagnant. They started out being quite cool and about something real and cool or whatever. Now it’s about selling ad space to perfume and sunglass brands. I’d like to see blogs become more significant. Guys, particularly, want to obsess over products and girls are into what people are wearing and doing. East London, hate it or love it, is a global focal point and it is nice to know that someone in Australia can know what’s going on over here instantly via the blogs, news sites and online niche communities at the click of a mouse, and vice versa.

Following on from that, do you have any favourite print publications at the moment?

Monocle is the only magazine I really bother reading. It’s intelligible and an actual interesting read. Stylistically it’s not my cup of tea, but I like their content. Some of the mags we have in the store at the moment like Travel Almanac, Apartmento, Gentry Magazine and Champfest are all really good too. I even like getting in all the brand books, they’re usually quite interesting.

All these new publications are quite open and one thing we learnt when first starting out is that the established media is closed off, it’s quite often about their mate’s mate. It’s quite boring. It’s nice to see people have an open attitude to content and deciding for themselves.

What are your favourite brands at the moment?

Difficult to say. From what we stock there’s Norse [Projects] — they have great product and a great attitude, it’s easy to wear their stuff. Phenom, Yuketen, [Junya] Watanabe are all doing great things at the moment. I personally really like Unrivaled, I’ll buy something every season.

Favourite spots in London?

We’re very local, we pretty much never leave Shoreditch as everything is very convenient here. From the all pubs to places like Laxeiro, Brawn and my local grocers S. Jones on Columbia Road — a little old school grocery joint that hasn’t changed since the 30’s or something, where I pick up lovely bread.

What do you love and hate about London?

I like the people of East London, the diversity, the style and I love the architecture around here, it has a really unique look and feel.

I hate all the crackheads who rob bikes and threaten people with syringes.

Do you collect or hoard anything?

Yes, clothes. I have a massive archive. We come from a denim background, so I have a lot of special stuff that I can’t get rid of and will hopefully become relevant again. A lot of classic streetwear stuff. I used to collect trainers, but I’ve sold them all. I’m trying to get into a more transient lifestyle, where I wear something out and then get rid of it, replace it and not sit on it because my son might wear it in 25 years. He might love my sh*t, but he probably won’t.

Briefly describe your own style.

I’ve just been to the gym this morning and I forgot my jeans, this isn’t my usual look. My style is influenced by Japanese takes on our style, metal and rock, street. I used to dress like a bum, my thing was bum chic, but I stopped that. Grunge is massive influence for me, I grew up in the 90’s and I was into skateboarding. I skated for years and that’s affected the way that I dress and as I got older there were brands like Silas.

You’ve mentioned metal and skateboarding; people tend to forget that it’s had a quite an influential affect on streetwear e.g. brands like FUCT. Kids these days seem to think it comes from a more hip-hop aesthetic…

I think when streetwear became associated with hip-hop, New Era and matching Nike sneakers, it became a really cliched look and a bit of a joke. For me, when we talk about streetwear, it’s nothing to do with that — it’s about i-D magazine 15 years ago; Japanese takes on mixing stuff up with running shoes, fur coats, business shirts and tweed — mixing up styles. I think the hardest thing for us is to challenge people’s perception of what streetwear is. People hear the word ’streetwear’ and they instantly think that it’s like dressing like a baby wearing a blue t-shirt, blue sneakers and a New Era cap, and that’s not what it is.

What’s next for the Goodhood brand?

We’re starting our own label off the back of the store and we’re talking about opening another space, which should be happening in 2012. We’ve got a 4 month old kid who we need to see to/get to a certain age before we can get our heads down on all of that.

The Goodhood Store
41 Coronet Street
London
N1 6HD

The Goodhood Store
@goodhoodstore
GoodHood on FB

Words: Mister Ollie
Interview: Mister Ollie and Denis Yong
Photography: Mister Ollie

Last year was pretty epic and eventful in terms of news. Riots kicked off nation-wide, protests happened on both sides of the pond, media mogul scandals were taken to court and notorious warlords taken down. These news highlights from the past twelve months have cleverly been given the awesome LEGO treatment, photographed and uploaded onto Flickr. The Guardian on Flickr have curated 2011’s most defining moments in LEGO, month-by-month.

Here we start with the Royal Wedding back in April 2011, as well-wishers and media gather to watch the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge aka Kate and Wills’ ‘first’ kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Check out the rest of the year below.

The Guardian on Flickr says: March 2011 – troubled star Charlie Sheen was fired from American sitcom Two and a Half Men after he rejected requests by its broadcast network to enter rehabilitation

The Guardian on Flickr says: May 2011 – US president Barack Obama and his national security team were picture in a now famous photo watching the mission to kill Osama bin Laden unfold in real time

The Guardian on Flickr says: June 2011 – Barack Obama, appears with Angela Merkel, played down the prospect of a double-dip recession

The Guardian on Flickr says: July 2011 – Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng blocked him from getting cream-pied during a hearing of a government select committee hearing on phone hacking

The Guardian on Flickr says: August 2011 – rioters clash with police in London, Birmingham and Manchester, as local businesses and buildings are looted and damaged

The Guardian on Flickr says: September 2011 – protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, sparking copycat demonstrations across the globe

The Guardian on Flickr says: October 2011 – fighting continues in Libya between anti-Gaddafi forces and loyalists as the rebels mount a massive attack on Gaddafi’s forces in Sirte

The Guardian on Flickr says: October 2011 – hosts New Zealand beat France in the final of the Rugby World Cup

The Guardian on Flickr says: October 2011 – tributes were paid across the web to Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, who died aged 56

The Guardian on Flickr says: November 2011 – 11/11/11 remembered

The Guardian on Flickr says: November 2011 – the image of the pepper spraying cop at a protest in California sparked a series of online memes, as Xeni Jardin explains

London’s premier art space, The Wayward Gallery have released their very own t-shirt. It’s a simple black on white graphic of Mickey Mouse bound up in chains with a speech bubble saying, “Good Gosh! Opium!”, as he’s surprised to see can of the labelled stuff. Wayward brand themselves on the front too in a Disney styled font, finishing off this great tongue-in-cheek design.

Wayward Gallery’s ‘Opium’ t-shirt is available now from their site at very reasonable £15.

Us Londoners are privileged to have at our Hayward Gallery holding the first major retrospective of American artist George Condo. He’s recently renowned for the artwork on Kanye West’s single ‘Power’ and album ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’.

Having emerged alongside befriended fellow artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York’s East Village in the early 1980s, George Condo developed an outlandish humorous and outrageousness style. It focuses on ‘imaginary portraits’ that conjure varied mental states, which the exhibition’s suitably named.

The exhibition’s artwork are in three areas focussing on ‘portraiture’, ‘abstract-figuration’ and, ‘mania and melancholy’. All fascinating pieces on show merge the beautiful with the grotesque, and the recognisable with the profoundly strange. They’ll somehow provoke our horror, fascination, laughter and delight or the extreme end conjuring an unsettling mix of all those responses. Stirred in are familiar aspects of our own natures and our own times that are bound to cause us to reflect.

However, this is not for everyone’s taste, as George’s style lacks consistency with single precious pieces. The artist produces an absolutely abstract style that pushes variety. ‘Mental States’ is definitely one to hit up if you appreciate dark humour and imagery. It’s running until 8th January 2012.

London finally gets a taste of a mighty fine night market that’s launching in Dalston this Friday. The Long Table is to open every Friday night until Christmas, with it being the only night time food market in East London. This makes Friday night hell of lot more enjoyable through indulging in great street food that’s all been hand picked.

This project’s been set up by the creative team of last summer’s Dalston Roof Park. They’re bringing in an actually very long table for this event, so that you can share your meal with fellow lovers of street food under a setting protected from the winter chill.

Taking place in a large disused space featuring a World War 2 bunker with live visual art. Log fires will keep people cosy as toasted homemade marshmallows, mulled wine, beer, cocktails and the obvious quality food will be served up.

Food will be looked after by fifteen of Britain’s impressive street food sellers, including the likes of:

• The Bowlerwho’ll bring their mobile meatball mayhem a universally loved culinary delight to street food. The gourmet balls are made from free range British meat and quality ingredients. Serving ‘Great Balls of Fire’ and the ‘Bjorn Ball’ with varying sides.
• Award-winning Moorish cuisine will be dished out by Moro. Coming from the heart of Exmouth, the restaurant is hugely popular with diners and those who come in to enjoy tapas. Think chestnut and chorizo soup and slow cooked lamb with white beans, chard, paprika and preserved lemon with couscous.
• Yum Bun. Tasty goodness gifted in pillow-soft steamed buns, slow roasted belly pork, hoi sin sauce, cucumbers, spring onions & shiracha – quality ingredients from award-winning producers.
• Big Apple Hot Dogs deliver exactly what their name is; New York style hot dogs but with better quality meat. Good ingredients, a choice of toppings a great choice of dogs and even the buns are fluffy and delicious. They’re set to be the greatest dogs in London, being all-natural and hand crafted.
• Voted the best steak restaurant in London, the Hawkmoor’s menu at The Long Table has not yet been announced. We’ve been told it’ll be a “signature” dish with a cocktail from The Long Table’s menu ‘Shakey Pete’s Ginger Brew’.

This is all happening from 6pm until midnight, starting on Friday 25th November, hidden round the back of Abbot Street, Dalston. Check out The Long Table’s Facebook event page for full details. Also, see the respective photos of the amazing food by the above mentioned stalls.

Reebok teamed up with artists 3D Joe and Max to break the Guiness World Record for the largest ever 3D street art, here in London. This was in conjunction to promote the launch of Reebok’s CrossFit, a revolutionary strength and conditioning programme. The artists produced this epic painting in a week at down West India Quays, Canary Wharf. This mammoth task was done in a week, in this cold month of November. Placed across this artwork are several of the CrossFit-workout-of-the-day-equipment and as it’s outdoors, any passers by can get their daily fix of a workout on. On completion, 3D Joe and Max broke the world records for the world’s longest and largest 3D painting, so massive props to them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

British streetwear label Vision Infusion have dropped their first viral video for their clothing line. VI has largely adopted the streetwear movement, but have placed themselves at the higher end and with a layer of class originating from the background of the CEO of the brand, Alan Yésawi. The viral dropped on 11.11.11, the video captures a snippet of the VI appeal, encompassing the subcultures of youth, whilst still remaining elite and individual. It showcases the brand’s new line of clothing from stadium jackets, tees, hoodies and snapbacks that all sets a platform of cool.

Playing out like a moving lookbook and with the promise of cut-and-sewn pieces and a full accessories range, the bar has been set. Directed by young videographer of the now, Dexter Navy, the video is shot at night; full moon out, on the streets of London, with individuals rocking the soon to be iconic VI with a roaring tiger’s face. Representing London to the fullest, this captures the essence and rawness of inner city youth.

Stay tuned on the brand’s news via their Twitter and tumblr.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cycling jersey brand Milltag have produced twelve different jerseys inspired by each of Insa’s photographs for his ‘Girls On Bikes’ exhibition at London’s Protein this month.

Each jersey features Insa’s signature style across the front and back of the jerseys, coming in an array of colours with both men and a limited selection of women fits. These tops are pretty damn hot, but they’ll set you back £150 as they’re premium cycling gear and are highly limited. The colourways are highly limited to a number of only three each and will come with a signed postcard of the associated photo from the show.

Whether or not you cycle, and you wish you cop a stunning piece of exclusive wearable art by Insa, Milltag have these available now.
Also, check out our recap of the show’s opening night here.