To celebrate the launch of the Swatch New Gent Lacquered watch, Swatch has teamed up with the biggest fashion magazines from the world over, which is 17 fashion magazines in 8 different markets, from i-D, Dazed, Nylon, Qvest, Vice to Hong Kong’s Milk, to pick their favourite streets. You can vote for your favourite street #fromthestreets here and the competition ENDS 6PM BST (12PM CET). The street with the most votes gets to throw a once in a lifetime street party which you can also win a chance to go to.
There are so many streets one has yet to visit in the world. There’s so many places I haven’t actually visited in the world either. As each ambassador from each country makes their own video and conducts their own photoshoot to sell their street, a wealth of content is created – and you get to see their country through your eyes.
For London (I make a whoop here) – our ambassadors are Jamal Edwards of SBTV, who has picked Acton for Dazed’s entry.
21 year old Jamal Edwards, if you don’t know, is the founder of SB:TV (and yes, is in that Google Chrome advert), hailed by Q Magazine as one of the most influential people in music in March (and perhaps the new Simon Cowell, just hope he doesn’t hoist up his trousers that high) and a new entry on The Sunday Times Rich List. Jamal does personify the #fromthestreets brand message exceptionally well.
All the videos shot are incredibly interesting, with tons of fantastic imagery. You can vote for your favourite #fromthestreets street until 6PM BST tonight/12PM CET – incidentally when the competition on TSoS to WIN a Swatch New Gent Lacquered Watch ends
To enter: Simply RT this post on Twitter (or any of my Swatch #fromthestreets posts. (click the Twitter share button at the bottom or this link ) or you can do it the old fashioned way and email winstuff@thescienceofstyle.com. Competition ENDS on April 30th 2012 at 6pm BST (12PM CET)
A lot of people admire items I wear or have and get upset because I tell them I got it free. How about you do my job(s) and WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES? They may fall off, because I have big feet. Also I defy you to survive on 4 hours of sleep an night, work all day then hit up events, head home, edit and write and go to bed at 2am. I DEFY YOU!
That’s only a few people who say things like that to me. The majority of you are awesome people, and I have some really top notch readers. That’s why I’m offering you the chance to win a Swatch New Gent Lacquered watch in a colour of your choice! I have the red, but grow large, PICK ANYONE YOU WANT.
Competition Guidelines: Prize provided by Swatch. Winner will be drawn at random and notified within 7 days if they have won. Competition open to ALL READERS WORLDWIDE. No correspondence can be entered into.
I enjoy a good timepiece. Nobody seems to wear watches anymore, which is a real shame. We rely too much on pulling out our phones, which is quite annoying, and what happens when your phone dies or gets stolen by someone on a bike? MADNESS! DESPAIR! SUBTERFUGE! (I may have over exaggerated)
As usual, I’m going off the point. You may remember that Swatch took me and a bunch of other fine bloggers to the MTV EMAs in Belfast back in October 2012, and we wholeheartedly enjoyed the whole experience, with vim and vigour, and much gusto. Swatch also gave us many watches, which I would love to photograph all together… but I gave the first one away as a birthday present. At last count, I had the Rankin x Swatch, The Swatch Lady in Aqua, the Swatch Touch and the special edition MTV EMAs Swatch which no-one is laying their grubby little paws on. And now, I have a Swatch New Gent Lacquered too!
I’m usually not too keen on watches with no numerals, or even ones with numerals sometimes. When I feel especially lazy, I wear a digital watch. But this watch is so pretty. I chose the red, after consulting with a work colleague (who was right) and I could almost watch the pretty mechanics all day…
The New Gent Lacquered was created for the young street savvy and stylish global audience, by showing off the heart of its workings, and what better way to show it off by taking some pictures on one of my favourite streets and areas of London, which are close to my heart (and its workings trololol). It’s not hipster haven Brick Lane, or shopping hell Oxford Street, but the Newburgh Quarter (and also Liberty since it is one of my favourite places in London.)
Why did I pick the Newburgh Quarter? Even though I’m born, bred and will always be a city girl at heart, the hustle and bustle of London does give me sensory overload. Especially when navigating the busy West End. I love cutting through the back streets and discovering new places, little boutiques and cafes to get away from it all. And I also love flowers. I admit, I hang around the flower stall at Liberty and watch all the guys buy flowers for their girlfriends and feel a bit jealous. Personally I think it’s the ultimate date indulgence. Wouldn’t you love to meet someone for a date outside the flower stall at Liberty AND they’ve got you a bunch of peonies?
Pah it’s never going to happen. Right around the corner from Liberty is the Newburgh Quarter, which is all cobble stones and independent shops. Why I especially love this street is the plethora of flowers – everywhere! Window boxes, crates of flowers – and the many benches dotted around for sitting down and resting your city weary legs.
The best part of Newburgh Street? In the day it’s pretty quiet, but at night, a lot of the stores have events and parties, spilling out onto the street. Newburgh at Night has definitely got to be one of my favourite times and places in the city.
For the launch of the Diet Coke x Jean Paul Gaultier special edition bottles, the Harvey Nichols Champagne Bar was transformed into a pretty girly Parisian salon decked in nautical stripes and printed cushions, with Paperself eyelashes, special edition Diet Coke x Jean Paul Gaultier nail art, glitter body painting as well as gorgeous cocktails, along with the obligatory line up of Diet Coke bottles.
As the Paris launch was held simultaneously, Hilary Alexander hosted the London launch, while JPG partied up in Paris. As the new creative director of Diet Coke this year, JPG’s two bottles were inspired by his most iconic silhouettes, Day, the nautical stripes (Le Male) and Night, the corset (Classique).
As usual I turned up looking like a ruffian and was ushered to have some eyelashes put on (aka polish a turd). Since I was wearing my glasses, this didn’t turn out to be the best of ideas, but as I wear them at the end of my nose, it wasn’t as bad. I did decline the offer of face painting, as once you get glitter on, you never GET IT OFF, but I got my nails did, as all you all know, I love getting my nails did. Unfortunately the nail art stickers started peeling off in the shower after, but I did get a picture on my webcam, as well as the Paperself eyelashes, as I still have no camera.
You can also see a glimpse of my new Swatch New Gent Lacquered watch (which you will hear about very soon)
We were also treated to a performance by Leah Debincrat, a fusion belly dancer to celebrate JPG’s love and homage of the female form. Just watching her sinuous frame made me feel like I shouldn’t have eaten that second cake pop, as well as breakfast, lunch and that mini burger. Since there was a huge music delay, Leah stood for a while in silence, while we all watched also in silence, until I couldn’t take it anymore and asked my neighbour if the performance had started. Don’t judge me, because ART DOESN’T ALWAYS MAKE SENSE.
Good ol’ Billy No Mates me did make friends with fellow bloggers Marin Monroe and the official Diet Coke blogger Style It Light who was hugely entertained by me, even though I wasn’t actually being funny. Maybe she had a bit too much fizzy pop?
The highlight of my night was definitely having a sit down and chit chat with Hilary Alexander, although I started fangirling like an idiot, and subsequently she legged it. I apologise, I’m just not very cool. The conversation did start when she spotted my La Sardina Domino camera and took a picture of it as she liked how it matched my new Diet Coke nails – but damn you Blackberry cameras and your crappy flash! She would have tweeted me and that would have been my second claim to Twitter fame, after having a conversation with A-Trak about the merits of calling crockery, crockery over china.
Speaking of which, I still don’t have a camera or a phone that has internet, but I was kindly loaned two Lomography cameras, the La Sardina and the Sprocket Rocket. Time will tell (a day will tell, when I get the prints back) if the pictures came out…
And of course, I got the special edition Diet Coke x Jean Paul Gaultier gift set, with glass and the two bottles of Diet Coke, which I also took a dodgy webcam photo of. Thank you Diet Coke for a rather delightful evening!
The ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ bottles are available from Harvey Nichols from April 16. A third bottle, entitled ‘Tattoo’ and inspired by Gaultier’s love of body art, will be released later in the year.
The day after Easter is the day I rushed to the supermarket for the cut price Easter eggs. Alas, it was not to be. Other wily individuals had the same idea, so my post Easter week was not filled with cocoa ovoids. Thankfully, I’d already started munching on Easter eggs from February (Lent what?) and Easter Weekend was a chance for me to relax, and stay away from year old sweet treats.
With days off, I tend to make ambitious plans in my mind, which always fail to come to fruition because I like catching up on my sleep. However I did make the effort to go see the Monkey Shoulder Chocolate Trail, an Easter egg hunt for grown ups. Invited (and created by my super talented friend Katie Antoniou), the rather planty Monkey Shoulder Chocolate Trail popped up on 63 Broadwick St with custom cocktails by the London Cocktail Club and hand crafted artisanal chocolates by chocolatier Niko B, specially created to pair with the drinks.
But the best part, is that it was all FREE, and everybody was welcome (unless you were a small child or under the legal drinking age). All you had to do was (wait for it) find an egg, in the indoor wilderness. I missed the press night so I popped by on Easter Monday to get my Monkey fix.
I got lucky, and found an egg straight away, after picking up a couple of carrots and trying to fob them off, but others were not so, and seemed a bit reluctant to dig around in the soil. Note – you are washable. Soil will not kill you.
I was tempted to flirt with the rather foxy bartender, but I realised I was wearing a bowtie and that he would not take me seriously. In all honesty, nobody takes me seriously even when I’m NOT wearing a bowtie. I am just that kind of unfortunate comedic person.
Artist Bobby Peterson‘s Musical Chairs. If they’re all sat on, you hear all the parts of the music. By changing how many people are sitting, you can change how you hear the music. Pretty nifty eh?
Since I am so rubbish and blogged right after it was finished, I have procured the London Cocktail Club‘s specially created recipes, as they were also serving the flavour pairings at all three LCC venues… until the 15th April (D’OH).
Banana & Sherry Fix with Coffee & Cardamom truffle
50ml Monkey Shoulder
15ml Pedro Ximénez Sherry
15ml Banana Liqueur
25ml Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
25ml Pineapple Juice
25ml Freshly squeezed orange juice
Dash of Angostura bitters
Mix in a shaker, fill with ice and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass.
This will be paired with – Coffee & Cardamom truffle (a blend of dark and milk chocolate ganache
truffle with cardamom infused cream, coffee and vanilla).
Rhubarb & Rose Julep with Lemon , Ginger and Cayenne Pepper truffle
50ml Monkey Shoulder
15ml Sugar syrup
15ml Rose Liqueur
Dash of Rhubarb bitters
Pinch of Mint
Build in a julep tin with crushed ice.
This will be paired with – Lemon , Ginger and Cayenne Pepper truffle ( a dark chocolate ganache
truffle with fresh ginger infused cream, lemons and cayenne pepper)
Monkey Jam Sour with Masala Chai truffle
Heaped tea spoon of apricot jam
50ml Monkey Shoulder
25ml Freshly squeezed Lemon juice
15ml Drambuie
15ml Sugar syrup
1 egg white
Dash of Angostura bitters
Mix in a shaker, fill with ice and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass, add twist of orange zest
for added aroma.
This will be paired with – Masala Chai truffle (a milk chocolate ganache truffle with star anise
infused cream, black tea and chai spices)
You can check out all upcoming Monkey Shoulder news and events on their site, and on Facebook.
**UPDATE** 1/4/2012 – I was switching my domain over, so my site was down for a little while and it looked like I was a cheap git who didn’t renew. That’s a lie! I never pay for it! It’s my annual birthday present from my brother. So I started writing this post ages ago, so bear that in mind. Oh and as usual, I will try and blog more blah blah blah.
I always said if I didn’t have a Blackberry, I’d go for an Android. Ok, I haven’t always said that, because Android hasn’t been around for that long. But if I didn’t have a Blackberry I’d go for an Android.
I no longer have a Blackberry. Well I do, but it broke, so I needed a new phone. Vodafone hooked me up with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the latest jewel in the Android crown, the contender to Apple’s mighty iPhone.
Ima tell you, it’s a big phone. It is bigger than the iPhone. I don’t have one to compare it to, so I’m going to let your mind figure that out. But it’s slim. Like super sexy slim.*
Ignore the mess and my sleeve isn’t dirty, that’s just ’shadow’
*Yes I just used italics to reiterate the word ‘sexy’. I’m a cock.
But look how pretty it is. The whole phone is a display. A HD display. Yes, it has the HD. You see those buttons on the bottom? They’re not ACTUALLY BUTTONS. They flip around to whatever orientation the phone is at, tip it upside down, and the buttons sit next to the speaker. Magic.
Back to the phone in a bit. I especially wanted to try the Samsung Galaxy Nexus out because of the new Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. Android just has the best names for their OS’s. Previous incarnations were Honeycomb and Gingerbread. And of course, there’s a cute icon to go with it.
It’s an…sandwich made of…ICE CREAM!
All yokes aside, everything about this phone was pretty damn sweet (all jokes aside.) Let me count the ways:
1. That Big Ol’ Screen
The display is absolutely ridiculous. When I say ridiculous, it is ridiculously good. The screen is a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED 720p screen- which I have no idea what that means. But it means it has the HD. Samsung dropped these screens on their latest Galaxy (also the Note) devices, meaning a super sharp, super clear display – the icons look phenomenal (as seen on the photos), and video playback is crisp and the size of the phone means that watching shows on a piddly little screen is part of the past.
I was a tad worried with having a phone which was effectively a huge screen, but Samsung screens are all made with Gorilla Glass (not made from real Gorillas, so calm yo tits PETA) meaning you can ‘apparently’ fling is around, and it’s scratch, break resistant, and remains cool to touch, which is top banana* since I can be a bit of a clumsy Colin.
*no pun intended
2. Social Sharing
I like to share things. I like to overshare often. The Nexus allowed me to do that, and do it well. Since it is a Android phone – it reallllllly wants you to use Google +. Which is good, because I would like to use Google+ more, but I forget. Too many social networks to remember. But I do have a lot of subscribers on G+ (because my surname is Bangladesh and lots of brown guys get super excited) and that translates to *bing bing* TRAFFIC. Apart of G+, it synced really easily with all my other social accounts, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… you name it, it did it.
Another thing which was pretty handy is that it synced with my Picasa and the albums I’ve shared using Picasa online automatically. It doesn’t download them onto your phone, but is linked through your Google Account. Pretty handy.
I however didn’t set up WordPress with it, because for some reason, WordPress apps really don’t like self hosted WordPress accounts, and after trying to set up my account for a while, I gave up. I don’t think this is an Android app specific problem because it’s happened to me with Blackberry.
3. Slim Jim
For such a powerful phone, I was hella surprised at how thin the phone was. But the phone is HUGE. It has a 4.65 inch screen and it’s not too easy to just slot into your pocket. But I am known for having big pockets. But slipping it into your jeans pocket may be a thing of the past.
4. 1080p Video Recording
I scoff at most technical specs that manufacturers lay on thick because most of them are bare-faced exaggerations. But have a look at these videos… (in some of them you can hear my honking laughter or terrible Cockney commentary. I do apologise). The phone microphone cannot deal with very loud music, or sound, but in all fairness, I’ve yet to find a standard consumer device that does.
I suggest very strongly you mute this video, the sound is awful.
These videos were both taken at the Bjorn Borg Lights Off Pre LFW launch party at Battersea Power Station, where Robyn and Coco Sumner performed hence the very loud music, ergo terrible terrible sound.
Louise Gray AW12 LFW finale. The sound is a little better, as the music was still quite loud.
Here’s a bonus video of me blowing out the candles on my 25 Birthday Cakes on my actual 25th birthday. Sorry if you ate the cakes after, since I coughed all over them, and I know a lot of people did. *cough* 5. Android Market (now Google Play)
As I write, Google Play was just announced a few hours ago. From what I can see, it’s just a fancy term for The Cloud (but the new Google Cloud). Alas I didn’t get much time to try it out, although I think I’d have seen more benefits if I had an Android tablet as well.
6. The OS
The phone only froze on me once, and that’s because of the free version of Fruit Ninja which kept trying to get me to post my score on the global leaderboard (No that’s just sad). It handles an inordinate amount of apps running at the same time. Granted they do deplete your battery as they’re running in the background but you don’t realise it because the phone is running rather smoothly.
7. The keyboard
I have stupidly big hands for a girl, so I never want to use a touchscreen keyboard that isn’t the size of my head, but the autocorrect on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is actually rather good. There were only a few times were it made errors, and never as serious an error as an iPhone. It did however correct “HIHIHIHIHI” (sp) to “GINGIVITIS” (?) and although I added it to my dictionary, ‘ducking’ came up more than once. A phone that tried to improve my propensity for filthy language is a good thing.
8. Automatic Screengrabs
No need to download any extraneous apps for this, but hold down the volume buttons and power button and a screengrab is taken and saved to your pictures folder. This took me a while to figure out, and I only took one screengrab… which I then deleted by accident.
9. Face Unlock
You’ve seen the adverts with the kid doing a dictator moustache to unlock his daddy’s phone, so I gave it a whirl. It recognised me fine without my glasses, but as soon as I put my hair up, it was game over. A nifty feature, but not always accurate. I however thought it was hugely entertaining and kept locking the phone just to unlock it.
Does not like camera face. That’s reassuring.
The oh no no’s
1. The problem with the screen
It kills the battery way down. Way way down. A way to counteract this is to turn on automatic brightness and turn it down low. It goes a long way in saving the battery life as well as turning off the flashing LCD notification that you have a message or notification. However the screen at any one time will use 40% of the battery at a time. Food for thought, if you’re considering this phone. You do have to charge it every day – after changing the display settings, I did manage to eke out a day and a half.
2. IT DOESN’T PLAY ANY OTHER VIDEO FORMAT BUT MP4.
Finding that out after waiting for my .avi files to transfer was intensely frustrating. What gives? I don’t own a Mac, not everything is automatically encoded in Quicktime format. Grrrr.
3. The horrible plastic back
The back of the phone is not particularly attractive. In fact it looks like Samsung spent all their time on the front and there was a “No more twist!” situation but there was no mice to save them. It’s a thin piece of plastic, which is very annoying as the tabs don’t always line up and clip in properly. It also makes the phone look a bit cheap.
The real story is – Do you get this phone? A resounding yes, and it is more than worthy to the Apple crown. I did keep discovering new things about the phone as I used it. The size is important to consider, as it seems that Samsung’s keep getting bigger (see Galaxy Note) as well as battery life. The plastic back is a bit off-putting, but it’s not a deal breaker. The ease of the OS and the super easy social sharing makes this an ideal and (almost) perfect phone for us digital girls in a digital world.*
*Not just for girls
Samsung Galaxy Nexus courtesy of Vodafone UK. All opinions my own. There is no pay for play unless specifically listed as advertorial or sponsored. See FAQs for more details.
Since I’ve been sorting domain and hosting stuff, I have a whole bunch of posts on on my dashboard to be published (yes it’s true! It’s really true!) including the review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but for the meanwhile, please enjoy a selection of photos I took with the Nexus:
I am Sabrina, someone who loved fashion and fell into it purely by accident. I'm an accidental stylist (truly an accident) and journalist. I also know a lot about the internet and social media. I have worked for MTV, Time Out, The Sunday Times Style and Cosmpolitan to name a few. My portfolio has nice photos. Once I had to dance up on Kevin Bacon dressed as a tiger.
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