The Deck Shoe: Go Take a Long Walk off a Short Plank!

What is it with the deck shoe? They are everywhere at the moment, every other bloke here in London seems to be gracing a pair. Even in East London for crying out loud! Plain ones, hideously coloured ones; worn in a variety of ways with shorts, trousers, skinny jeans. Have they all gone mad? What on earth are people thinking?

There is only one place that the deck shoe should be worn and that is ON DECK! Or in South Kensington on a Thursday night at Boujis. Now I'm all for irony in fashion, but surely deck shoes are taking it too far? Have we entered into some kind of dodgy-fashion parallel universe where we are suddenly taking fashion tips from the Sloanes? They have never exactly been known for the dress sense have they?

A few years ago, after university, I somehow found myself managing a shop on the New Kings Road, in London's Parsons Green (just down the road from Chelsea). Deck shoes were all the rage with the locals; but that was almost acceptable because they were being worn with our Crew Clothing Company harlequin rugby shirts in pink and blue and with bright red Chino's. Seriously! No SERIOUSLY! There was totally, obviously no hope for them fashion wise, so it kind of didn't matter.

So called fashion journalists are now calling them 'design classics'. Ha ha. They have got to be having a laugh. Next they will be calling them 'urban', 'edgy' and 'street'.

Maybe I am just getting old, and at the ripe old age of 29 I just don't get it anymore? In which case maybe it's me that should be taking that long walk...all the way into middle age!

Paolo Troilo's Handy Works of Art

I came across an amazingly fabulous artist at the Mondo art Gallery, whilst in Postino, Italy last week (more about Positano later - a beautiful place by the way).


The artist is Paolo Troilo and some of his works are shown below. The paintings are all in the image of the artist himself and he paints using his hands - I loved the rawness of this and found his paintings really powerful, especially the way he appears to be fighting or struggling with himself. The images look violent and masculine, almost erotic even and I found look looking at his work quite emotional, not something that always happens to me.

I was too scared to ask for the price of his work at the gallery and at the moment I am still dreaming that I will one day be able to buy one! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any exhibitions of his work in London.

Update: I am so in love with Paolo's work that I had to feature him again on my new blog Mr Musing where you can see more of his work and a video of him painting.

Red Carpet Fashion Awards: It's got me started!

By Adoomer (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

So this is the first post on my new blog…wow talk about pressure; first impressions count and all. Well actually this is really just an introductory post, a little hello there to let you know what my vibe is.


I was inspired to set up a blog after reading about Catherine Kallon and her blog http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/ in the Evening Standard last week. It sounded like fun and so here I am only a week later.


I should really get across that I am totally new to this (both writing and creating) and see this blog as being in a state of flux for a little while whilst I find my feet. My technical ability has a long way to go before it catches up with my enthusiasm. But enthusiasm goes a long way right?


So now that you have seen my blog (by some miracle it must be said, as even I struggle to find it at this stage) why should you stay? What have I got to offer that will keep you coming back for more?


Well I just like stuff and I like to talk about stuff – all day long. In fact many people say I could talk in an empty house, and I suppose this blog is my way of doing just that. I can be opinionated at times; frank but always honest. I don’t believe in bullshit and am looking forward to writing about things that I find interesting.


I am into everything really – Music, Films, the Arts, Sports, Fashion, Food and Politics; so I want this blog to reflect that and cover whatever takes my fancy at the time. Some of it will be deep and some of it extremely shallow and that is exactly how I would want it to be – a bit of a mixed bag for people who like a bit of this and a bit of that!