I had a recent chat with someone about this blog. They told me that ‘I liked to have a rant’ – and it’s kinda true. So, in an effort to not make this blog all rants and fawning over Home Alone, (and because I’ve been lucky enough to been on a few trips lately) I’ve decided to show pictures from a couple of them.

First up: Turkey. I was there for a week covering a Tween SS11 show. I didn’t actually take any pictures of the show itself (blame it on the cumbersome SLR) but the show was a good one and their store – all seven floors of it – had an art gallery and mini-restaurant there. In between boat trips, fashion shows, museum visits and a very angry over-protective husband, it was quite the trip.

Those Falke invisible socks really work.

The view from the hotel room was pretty, to say the least.

Our Legacy sweatshirt + Aesop bag = makeshift laptop sleeve.

It’s Jean-Vieve (aka Michelle Obama, Janet Jackson, Beyonce or any other black celebrity you can think of)

This blog/column can get a bit rant heavy at times, so here’s a rundown of some things I’m loving right now.

- The jealous/forlon ‘what about me?’ look on bystanders faces in street style photos

- Olivia Palermo’s hair. I’m convinced she uses the Prince Akeem recipe of juices and berries.

- Rick Ross’s compulsive lying. I don’t believe rappers who boast about their criminal dealings anyhoo, but I’m sure Rawse actually thinks he’s met the real Norieaga (and is owed a hundred favours). I’m still convinced he should name a future album ‘Cocaine and Crabmeat’.

- Ordering things in foreign countries in my pigeon version of French/Spanish/Italian. It always devolves to me shouting ‘excuse moi, dos stellas, prego grazie’.

- The look on people’s faces when they realise they’re on TV during the world cup. ‘Shit, we’re done 3-1, this is awful. hang on a minute, look, I’m on the big screen! Wave!!’

I was recently featured over in Style Salvage’s style stalking feature, go take a look to see how I dress.

I took a break a while back when my sister passed away. Since then I’ve been going back and forth about whether to write about it or not. On one side you always hear about how cathartic writing about this sort of thing is; Getting it off your chest is the correct phrase. But the usual things I have to get off my chest are generally  trivial. While I’m not comfortable writing my feelings about what happened, I will say this; It woke me up to the fact that nothing’s promised, so there’s no point caring about the trivial things while I’m still here. It’s something easier said than done, but I’m getting there.

One of the reasons I brought this up is because of this Quincy Jones book I purchased during my week off. You should already know about Quincy Jones by now: he’s soundtracked some of the coolest films, produced some of the best albums and was a mean player of some instruments himself. One thing I didn’t know about him was his fine eye for style when he was younger. I felt it selfish to keep these images to myself, so here some of them are:

You remember that feeling when The Wire was underappreciated? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but there was a time when you had to spend ages telling folks about this great show on FX, using all kinds of re-up, product and ‘come at the king, you best not miss’ talk – only to receive a blank face staring back at you. A close of friend of mine, who I won’t name to save embarrassment, once told me he didn’t have time to watch The Wire because he was so engrossed by the plot lines in Heroes. Effing Heroes. The reason for that meandering intro is that I’m starting to feel the same way about the film style in ‘Cabaret’. Yes, the ‘Cabaret’ with Liza Minnelli.

I’d previously ignored Cabaret because, well, it was Cabaret, why would I watch it? But having caught it on late night TV, the film does have some very fine English style in it – something I’m particularly interested in right now due to my contrarian nature. Fair isle, Cable knits, 1/2 arm jumpers (might be giving these a go this summer) shawl collar bathrobes, club collars and boater hats all feature in the mix. But enough yapping from me, take a look for yourselves.

You know when something’s so offensive it doesn’t even register? Or, to paraphrase Dave Chappelle, something’s so racist that all you can say is ‘that was racist!’ That’s what happened to me when I read the ‘black black’ paragraph in US Esquire’s Jay-Z profile. Before I even get into it, let’s take a look at the quote.

“Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black. He is black the way Labatt is blue. He is not white black, Barack black, like our president. Or the kind of black that doesn’t curse and deplores the n-word, the genteel black, like Oprah. He is, arguably, the first black-black guy to cross over into Oprah-land and Bill Clintonworld without making the Oprah-sized no-look-back forward flip that means you’re selling not necessarily your soul but perhaps something fleshier, a little more external.”

Let’s start with the quote ‘Old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black’. It’s a phrase so offensive I can’t believe it made it into print. Did no one read it and think that rating blackness on a chocolate based Richter scale could be viewed in a negative light?

Without breaking down the quote word for word, The main gist of it is that not there are levels of blackness and cultural traits that can be considered white or black. Barack Obama doesn’t fit into these, so he’s ‘white black’ – an offensive phrase whether it’s referring to his mixed race heritage or character traits. Oprah doesn’t make the cut either, as she’s one of the ‘genteel’ blacks. Never mind all she’s achieved, she doesn’t swear or call people nigger, so therefore isn’t black enough in the Taddeo’s book.

It’s rare that people call things racist nowadays, mostly because it’s become a slur on par with paedophilia, but the above quote is a racist one. I’m not saying Lisa Taddeo is a racist – I’m sure she has black friends, maybe even black black friends – but what she wrote is undoubtedly racist.

It’s rare that I look forward to anything on the internet, not because I’m a curmudgeon, it’s just that the flow of new things is so constant I don’t have time to get excited. An exception to that rule is Street Etiquette’s ‘Genesis of Style’ project. While I am excited about the project itself, what I’m really excited about is the shift in menswear blogging it represents.

Last year was all about craftsmanship; we got treated to endless factory tours and studio visits. Somewhere in all this gusset and yoke talk, the relationship between wearer and clothes became secondary. Don’t get me wrong, I like the details, but there was a point where it all got boring. I love music too, but I don’t want to know how Thom Yorke tunes his guitar.

It goes without saying that workwear took shit over last year. Chambray shirts, indigo denim, brogues and a hastily grown beard was the unofficial uniform of the new workwear aficionado. An annoying side-effect of this rise was the increased amount of negative comments on anything that was deemed as feminine. I wouldn’t mind this if we spent all day featuring frilly skirts and dresses, but the idea of feminine clothes stretched to anything that wasn’t blue, grey or black.

While these comments annoyed me for a few reasons – ignorance, homophobia and general stupidity to name a few – what really ground my gears was that comments like these totally ignored the relationship between clothes and wearer – the most important factor in clothing. As a wise man once said, it’s never what you do but how it’s done. Maybe we’ll get back to that this year.

Has there ever been a worse time to be Nigerian?

Being Nigerian has never been as cool as, say, being from the Caribbean (I was reminded of this constantly as a youngster) but it’s taken a few serious knocks lately. Firstly there’s the whole online scamming thing – I’ve no sympathy for the numpties who fell for that nonsense – but this wannabe bomber has taken it to new depths.

Aside from the obvious issues here, what country wants to be known for a failed bomber? At least if he’d pulled off he’d have shown some initiative, and drive – but he failed and he’s forever tarnished his country as the one that made the guy who stuffed explosives into his boxers.

The news reports haven’t helped either. I know they have to report the news, but do they have to mention that he’s Nigerian in every news report? That’s negative reinforcement on a grand scale. Before you know it the BNP will start talking about Nigerians in the same way they do about, err, every race, gender, colour and creed different from themselves.

And that’s not to mention how hard it’ll be for any Nigerian to board a plane. We’ll be subjected to those random checks that were carried out on anyone vaguely Middle Eastern. I’m lucky I have the double whammy of a British passport and an English sounding name (which, as the old joke goes, shows that my parents wanted me to have a good career). Any Olufemi Adeyemi’s out there might not be so lucky.

2009 has been the year of the blog. Bloggers are getting front row seats, flown to Japan and hanging out with designers (although that’s just Tavi doing all that). But one thing people just can’t seem to get right is how to approach us in the first place. So here are some do’s and mostly don’t’s.

Do offer a slightly personalised approach: Obviously you don’t have to read the entire archive before sending over something, but I get far too many inbox-clogging emails about shit I’d never write about. A little research goes a long way.

Don’t send news you’ve given to another blog weeks ago: In case you hadn’t noticed, blogging is all about newness. And chances are I’ve already seen it and have no interest, hence why it’s not on the site already.

Don’t say ‘I love your blog’: Even if you mean it, I hear this phrase so often it’s in one ear and out the other. It’s the blogging equivalent of telling someone they’re beautiful (and lord knows I hear that enough).

Don’t send us a press release about a party without an invite: Why the hell would I want to write about an event you don’t even have the courtesy to invite me to?

Don’t CC emails: BCC’ing isn’t that hard to do.

Don’t tell me you stock Nom De Guerre: So what? So does everybody.

Do stock pieces other stores won’t have: If you are gonna stock the likes of NDG, at least take some chances in the buying stakes. It’ll pay off in terms of blogging coverage. You can always sell the ‘guaranteed sellers’ in store.

Don’t tell us about your online store if the pictures are awful: This should go without saying. Why would I feature a badly shot piece from your store when I get a great shot from elsewhere?

Don’t stock brands that established online stores already stock: No one will buy the piece from you when it’s already available from a retailer they trust.

Don’t follow our lead: This is at odds with the previous point but consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. I’m starting to see stores that are stocking things on the basis that they’re ‘blogging favourites’. Words can’t describe how boring this is. Surprise us sometimes.