Girls Friday: How to play rugby

LYNX - Rules to Rugby from Soap Creative on Vimeo.
Rugby would be so much more fun if it were played by girls, as this instructional video quite aptly demonstrates.

Comme des Garcons Junya Watanabe Fall/Winter 2011 - first time for everything

I've skirted around Comme des Garcons in the past. Not because of any particular hatred for the brand but more because I haven't seen anything that really catches my eye and I often find the stuff just a little over-worked.

This collection looks a bit better though - either that or my eyesight is on the wane.

Via Slamxhype

Jaguar C-X75 from the Dunhill perspective

Dunhill has a thing about cars, always has had. So when Jaguar unveiled its C-X75 concept at the Paris Auto show, the people at the gentleman's outfitters must have been salivating over their car coats at what they could do to pay tribute to such a feat of engineering.

The C-X75 offers a nod to the XJ-13 that was built in the mid-1960s for Le Mans and is powered by four electric generators, two jet turbines and a diesel engine.

Quite a machine, and very fitting for a Dunhill film.

Rapha hidden Alps film: look and ye shall find

The Hidden Alps from Rapha on Vimeo.
Another nicely put together piece of cinematography from those chaps at Rapha, who certainly have developed a knack for making their clobber look as good as it actually is.

Which is handy, because this is the first glimpse of the new A/W 2011-12 collection, in its shades of precious stones.

For the film Rapha took its riders up the Colle delle Finestre, or the 'Hill of Windows', which is one of Italy's toughest climbs, even if it doesn't feature as much as the other cols. 

More info to come soon, no doubt.

Read more here

Critical Dirt: border riders

CRITICAL FILM from e r t z u i ° film on Vimeo.
This sounds like a whole bunch of fun - cycling along the former border between East and West Germany, all 485km on it. It sounds like a something between a road cycle tour and cyclocross, which I think it actually is.

The event is called Critical Dirt and runs from September 30 until October 2 but if you were thinking of taking part you're out of luck because the 80 entries sold out in minutes.

So enjoy the video.

Bape x Star Wars: someone hand me a phaser

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away there was this clothing brand from Japan that became really pretty cool mainly because of the select media types it chose to be associated with and the quirky cartoon-like nature of its designs which also had a kind of respectable undertone because they centred on apes and played quite a bit on the planet on which apes lived, called the Planet of the Apes.

Well that was then and that was that star system. Somewhere along the line tastes in this brand changed, initially in Japan, where people soon got a sniff of what a sell-out the founder of Bathing Ape, Nigo, was becoming. Then some real gorillas, or gangsta rappers as they are also known, started to take interest in the brand and before long Bape, as it was known then, had transgressed from cool to crap.

A similar thing happened to this brand called Star Wars, the reputation of which was decimated by a succession of appalling prequels, leaving only the design of costumes and the original films to stand it up. But then the creator George Lucas got greedy and as he slowly licensed away the last traces of respectability, along came Bape.

And this is the result. The bastard offsrping of a dying brand and an overmilked movie franchise.

And as a former fan of both of these entities, I am slowly weeping into my keyboard as I type.

Bape x Star Wars launched in the New York Bape store last week.

I am in the process of finding a shuttle off this rock.

Nigel Cabourn short down puffa: cool up north

You might think that one puffa is much like any other and in some respects you would be correct. But when it comes to Nigel Cabourn you can expect that little bit more. Such as a design inspired by some key moment in adventuring history and the kind of manufacturing that only British craftsmen can deliver.

So the short down puffa is manufactured from Norwegian cotton canvas, has a goosedown filling, is trimmed with a sheep collar, and has a detachable fur trim hood.

It has a yolk of leather (one detail we'll be seeing a lot more of this year) and leather arm patches for when you're sliding down that mountain with nothing but your elbows for brakes.  Factor in drawstrings in both hood and hem, wood toggles, two side pockets and elastic cuffs and you can see why Cabourn makes clothes which will last you a lifetime.

Available at Present.

Supreme London store opening: I wasn't there

It was all because of this

I've done my fair share of waiting outside shops. There was many a Saturday morning back in the day when you would find me queueing outside Busy Workshop with all the other Bapeheads for a chance to get my paws on a shark hoody.

But I never did get my head round waiting there overnight like some of the true (mainly Japanese, it must be said) devotees. Which is why I only ever managed to get second best, which was usually something like a purple camo crew neck sweat. Although I did once grab a Kaws chomper hoodie.

It should be noted, however, that not a single item I have ever qeueued for is still in my wardrobe, and that goes for Supreme as well as it does Bape. In fact I disliked my Supreme Damien Hirst box logo tee so much that it was on Ebay within a day of me waiting for hours outside Dover Street Market to get it.

So when I turned that corner off Wardour Street into Peter Street yesterday afternoon and discovered that the small gathering outside the new Supreme store was just the beginning of the queue which started again at the Co-Op up the road (so cars could get through) and went from there round the corner past the loading bays, I didn't feel like hanging about.

And for the first time ever I also felt a little bit old, seeing as I had just come from work and wasn't wearing a snap-back cap, a chambray shirt, skinny chinos or Vans Era.

So I hoofed it. I was later tweeted by someone who told me he had waited 18 hours in the queue. For a t-shirt.

To add insult to injury, my invite to the opening party must have got lost in the post, so these pics have been lifted with great care and many huge thanks from Hypebeast, Better Never than Late, and Firmament.

I'm going to try and get in there again in a little while.

Just imagine turning around to find that yellow thing staring at you

The crowd looked a bit cock-heavy to be honest

Insert names of people I should know here

Viewed from the front or the back it was still a massive yellow plastic thing

If I had got this close I would have considered it a success

Add caption

Leopard camo

Big white plastic thing

Bubble camo

If she got this at the store, what was she wearing when she came in?

Eddie Chen and Aaron Bonderoff

Futura still does it

Girls Friday: Jessica Jane Clement

She's the star of the Real Hustle, whatever that is, and she makes a good canvas for a tattoo. This is her photoshoot for Loaded magazine.

Visvim x Mastermind Gila Moc Folk: haunting

When these Visvim Gila Moc Folk were first released, one of the regular contributors to Fuk.co.uk quite accurately likened them to something Timothy Claypole from Rentaghost might have worn.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it was a Seventies children's show featuring, if I remember correctly, a ghost dressed as a jester, who pranced about in a pair of pixie boots. With bells on.

That comparison kind of tainted my opinion of the shoes a bit, compounded a little by the £700 price tag.

But now Mastermind have been to work on them I might just be tempted.

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