CELESTINE'S BLOG

ABBEY LEE FOR US VOGUE

2012-01-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

Portrait of Abbey Lee that i styled in the current issue of American Vogue.

GET TO THE CHOPPER....

2012-01-25T02:31:00.000-08:00

Givenchy Spring 2012 Couture. I love everything about this, the gym hall, the basket ball, the nose rings that make all the girls look like very pretty baby predators.

I also enjoy this immensely.

BALENCIAGA

2012-01-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

SALEM'S LOT

2012-01-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

Pretty obsessed with Salem's album....it's dark as anything but there is light in there too, that old chestnut 'bittersweet'.... like forget me knots growing on a new grave, or when snow falls on piles of rubbish and makes it look really pretty or people rising from the dead that you didn't want to die.....like Jack Nicholson's character in Easy Rider...i fancied him so hard in this film and he was all fucked up and a total alco but he was kinda scared and childlike too and impulsive and just so lost, anyway i was half in love with him when he got murdered and i kept hoping he was just unconscious and not really dead. I hated that they had smashed his lovely face in with a hammer and i really missed him for the rest of the film. I feel the same about the cat that got murdered in Girl with a Dragon tattoo that i watched last night...i really missed that cat a lot after it was gone :(

I'm Presuming this is the kinda soundtrack the world provides you with when your speeding car has veered off the edge of a cliff at night time and everything has slowed down and you can see the ocean shining underneath you cos the car's headlights are still on and you know you are definitely going not going to survive because beside you in the passenger seat the grim reaper is smiling at you and holding your hand and you realize that you're 100% cool with dying.

BANBA

2012-01-06T02:50:00.000-08:00

So my massive love in with Ireland continues, it reminds me a little of when my mom used to brush our very long hair as kids and she would put your face in between her boobs and brush all the knots and tangles out, it was extremely comforting and quite a lovely experience considering there was a certain degree of pain involved.

Banba is the ancient name for Ireland (pronounced bahn-va), she was a daughter of the Tuatha De Dannann and the patron Goddess of Ireland. It's a good name for a kid i reckon except it sounds a bit like Bambi...which is also a cool name for a kid...god love my babies....poor Banba and Bambi...an island in the middle of the Atlantic and a fawn with wobbly legs and a speech impediment.

I went to the Cliffs of Moher above on New years day with the Lahinch family all of whom i love deeply (see Lahinch vibez) and it was wild up there, dark and stormy....with the winter sun coming through the clouds and sea spray making everything look dreamy, there was even an upside down waterfall. I'm thinking if you dipped your hand into that it would burst into flames like a heathen stepping onto holy ground....gone in a puff of smoke....all that would be left is a little pile of evil ashes.

We rang the new year in together..all twenty of us..on the steps to the beach surrounded by the high foamy tide and the wind howling around us like a murder of banshees. One of the most memorable and wonderful nye's i can ever remember. Ireland i love you madly.

LAHINCH VIBEZ

2011-12-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

This new years eve I'll be surfing (ie..trying to surf...ie... paddling for 45 mins til my arms are about to fall off, and i think i might barf in the sea and then actually...eventually catching a wave ..paddling...paddling...paddling...dont stop keep paddling.... aching... aching... ouch ouch... get up get up... and then standing up like Michealangelo's 'David' for around 60 exquisite seconds where you hear briefly but perfectly Motzart's final concerto ringing in your ears before you hit the shallows) in Lahinch in Co.Clare on the Irish Coast this year.

Conjoined with me on this one are a bunch of reprobates, English men, Irish women, stragglers and blow ins from the four corners of the world seeking refuge in the Irish sea. Seeking to get their heads blow off by the wind, their eyes burned out by the winter sun and the very core of them frozen to an icicle by the hard blow that comes in off the atlantic.

We're talking full wet suit here.... gloves, hoods and socks cos the atlantic is feckin freezoid. I'm hoping for a full survival tally on this one although we may lose one or two to the sea (there are a lot of us) and some fingertips and toes may succumb to frostbite, other than that i think the whiskey will keep us warm and in high spirits for the adventure beyond the surf.

I have a theory that i totally made up and this is it.... when the old year is turing into the new one like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, the sea churns magic... like cream into butter and can absolve you from of all your sins...no matter how bad...kinda like a really wet confessional box but the sea is your priest and can free you of it all, no hail mary's or our fathers or anything...she will simply wash all your dirty little sins off like soapy suds. I'm really into this ....i'm going to spread the rumour as soon as we get down there and see how many filthy little sinners i can get in for skinny dipping on new years day.

A LOVE LETTER TO IRELAND BY CLAIREBAN

2011-12-29T07:28:00.000-08:00

This poem was written by one my best friends and soul sister Claireban with the red hair like fire, like a caribbean sunset, a beech tree in autumn. She's an active volcano.... a ginger unicorn or a selkie if they exist at all... thats what she is, just in human form.

This poem is what being irish is all about. It's the essence of it that gets you when you're away from home. The can't quite put your finger on it-ness of something that holds you suspended in a memory of a person, place or a time and the eternal association of inanimate things with those we love, have loved and those we have lost.

There is a line in Carol Ann Duffy's poem Mrs Midas when she is talking of her husband who wished for everything he touched to turn to gold and it crushes me like a snail underfoot after the rain whenever i read it...'I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead.'

My favourite part of Claireban's poem is 'I miss your men, God i miss your men, i miss your tracksuits, your Nike air max, your women, your mackerel'.

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2010

A love letter to Ireland

IRELAND

GOD

I MISS YOU

i miss you

I miss you

I miss you blowing in my hair

whispering in my ear

confusing me

I miss lying in your fields

swimming in your seas

smelling you

smelling of you

i want to inhale your gorse

Kneel in your churches

Perv on your knackers

I miss your men

God i miss your men

I miss your tracksuits

your nike airmax

your women

your mackerel

your humor

you camouflaged me

you illuminated me

you gave me this skin

Ireland your in me

your my name

your my great strong roots

the blaze in my hair

my voice

my accent

my prayers

my curses

my wilderness

my WILDNESS

your my conscience

my family

my freckles

my fire

You Mothered me

Fathered me

Your the most beautiful land I've ever seen

I dream of you

I love you

see you soon

Claireban

MAGIC BEANS

2011-12-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

'Never be afraid to trade in your cow for a hand-full of magic beans!'
Tom Robbins

As an afterthought.... have the bravery and courage to really believe in your magic beans and never ever trade them back in for the cow.

PURE LOVE

2011-12-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK LABRADOR

2011-12-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

New York. You are perfect even though it's been pissing rain since i got here and has mostly been dark and hardly light at all....i still love you. I'm your golden labrador always, unconditional big wet brown eyes gazing up at you in an 'oh god i love you so much it hurts' kinda way.

ALWAYS IN MY HEAD AND IN MY HEART

2011-12-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

"There are bears and there are small dogs. Be Strong like a bear! If they take out your teeth, sit on the dogs. Bears always forget that they can just sit on the dogs. Sit on the dogs."

Dave Eggers, 'You shall know our velocity!'

Reading Dave Eggers at the minute and I am so comforted that he is kinda weird and funny like Salinger. That's what is so amazing about reading, having a good ol laugh or cry by yourself. I feel like this on the plane sometimes watching films and its just me and the other 300 passengers or whatever all happily strapped to our chairs like mental patients. Noise cancelling headphones on and i may as well be floating around in some space pod thing in the galaxy for as much as i am alone. I have access to my entire emotional spectrum on a flight.

Also he talks about God which i love, i have a mad empathy and affinity with people who have any concept of god or faith. I grew up with it and i'm not religious but i love faith.... i just love it. I mean you can feel hopeless for a second, at sea with no life ring, no arm bands, no land, no nothing and then faith comes flooding in like a little tsunami, washing all over you with warm ocean and carrying with it a lovely big smooth piece of driftwood for you to cling onto and you know in your heart that, that piece of wood is gunna take you home.

The lovely thing is that miracles can always happen because what you believe in isn't tangible in the first place, so if the existence of something is not proven and it's merely an idea like UFO's and aliens, bigfoot etc... you can't un-prove it, until every single person in the world beyond a shadow of a doubt stops believeing in it and hence it ceases to exist, even as a thought. It's already too late for that anyway cos everyone loves the Loch Ness Monster and all that other shit.

So all that stuff like Jesus and heaven and aliens and ghosts, it's kinda just out there and up for debate and to be honest i think it makes life more exciting. So you just keep on keeping on kind of believing in it because in the end it actually doesn't matter, you can go round in circles trying to get your head around it and you never will cos there is no answer. I always think that if something makes people happy and comforts them when stuff gets heavy then it's okay whether it's real or not who cares, anything that gives people faith is so incredibly worthy of existing.

I told my friend Nick this about faith, he has no religion and he said 'Oh well if thats the case then you may as well have faith in the devil and ask him to give you stuff cos that would be more fun. I laughed pretty hard at that....mostly because he was right. I bet the devil would have given me a porsche by now.

KARLIE AT 14

2011-12-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

A really old shoot that I just found with super model Karlie Kloss, shot by Jacob Sutton back in the day. I remember Karlie was 14 years old and incredibly wise and sweet. Gary Card did all of the wonderful illustrations and plasticine animals. I love how weird this shoot is and it reminds me how we were always doing interesting funny stupid things back then, just finding our way in the old world and being brave and not really giving a shit what anyone else thought. Now when i look at it, it makes me dig those younger versions of us and i love these images.

This is Karlie now in Italian Vogue. WOAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh someone got all grown up.

THANKSGIVING

2011-11-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

DAZED DECEMBER DOUBLE COVER

2011-11-21T03:55:00.000-08:00

The double cover I styled for the December Issue of Dazed and Confused magazine shot by Rankin. We worked with Gael Garcia Bernal who is such a cool guy. He suggested his star of the future in Veronica Echegui. Veronica is kinda like a cross between Salma Hayek when she is licking tequila of her own leg in from 'Dusk til Dawn' and Penelope Cruise in 'All the pretty horses' when she is being all cute and fragile and then riding around bareback on massive horses. So everyone was all misty eyed about her...gay, straight, boys, girls..... it was a universal falling like we all just got tipped of a plate like vegetables and ended up in a love soup with her.

ZOO KID

2011-11-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

I'm crazy about this boy, his name is zoo kid and he's very young like 14 or something and really talented. Not only does he have amazing ginger hair like some of my favourite people in my life but he has awesome style and his voice is like all heavy and syruppy like cough mixture, you can't not listen to him when he is singing....it's an involountary command, i love that. I reckon he's been on earth before in another life cos there's no way i had a handle on love and any level of emotional shit when i was his age. Anyway he's heaven. Check him out here singing his song 'Out getting ribs'.

MING MING THE CHINESE PRINCESS OF CHARLAND

2011-11-14T13:37:00.000-08:00

Super talented designer, fellow Irish woman and one
of of my best mates, Simone, full name for real... Simone Cecilia Ming Ming Rocha featured in this month's issue of 10 magazine. Photographed by Freddie Helwig looking all hot and dishevelled in her studio in Dalston. Her hair looks so good in this picture i cant stop zooming in on it. Her interview is bright and funny and full of stuff like this....

'I attended Ching Ming which is the amazing day of mourning, very inspiring also my family are originally from Happy Valley but my dad grew up in Healthy Village in Hong Kong'

Loving the positivity of the names of the villages when translated from Chinese to English!

Go on Ming ming the Chinese Princess of Charland (China & Ireland of course).

http://simonerocha.com/

YOU GOTTA LOVE JACK

2011-11-12T03:37:00.000-08:00

“Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To the children and the innocent it's all the same.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

I kinda love that celestial sounds like my name, it makes me think of stars and navy skies and clouds and heaven music which is harps and the flute and maybe some violin.

LIL BIT OF WRONG NEVER HURT ANYBUDDY

2011-10-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

'No breath today, all is gone. She suffer like a dog in that age of lonelyness. I will be there for the light for the fire. Il Il will see in the deep soul in our romantic destiny. Maybe we can talk about her long hair the song of the silence God.'

Lara Stone in French Vogue by artist Marco Perego. The Tinkerbell asphyxiation obsession is pretty funny and the Virgin Mary getting an handful of lara's boob was always going to be a good idea. I guess the perversion of innocence is always fascinating and loving things that are 'wrong' will always be exciting. If there was a like button on this i would click it until it turned into a 'i want to sleep with you' button.

REALLY COMFY COUCH

2011-10-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

The film we made with Agyness on our Twin shoot, shot and directed by Ben Weller. Myself and Agyness did the audio, sat in a van on the side of a hill in the middle of a field with all the doors closed. The two of us trying not to laugh too much and get hysterical as you do in church. We were under fierce time pressure at this moment so it was an intense little session. The answers were so good sometimes i got goosebumps, i love the honesty of Agyness she's so open and is just not afraid to be herself on any level, strong or vulnerable. I love that.

THE GREAT DEYN

2011-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Twin's very first cover Shoot with Agyness Deyn and photographer Ben Weller for Issue 5. Agyness rocks, she's the coolest girl ever and her accent is like a lullaby. We had a magic team on this one which all seemed to be confirmed by Mother Nature at the end of the day who blessed us with the most epic double rainbow i've ever seen, we were all running knee deep through a wildflower meadow on a hillside in the rain to try to take pictures of it. This was followed by an incredible Hieronymus Bosch sunset that set whole sky was on fire as we drove back to London. Hair by Chi Wong & Make up by Shinobu Abe

LOVE IS THE DRUG

2011-09-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Shoot for Issue 5 of Twin i worked on, shot by the main man Jason Kibbler on location in deepest darkest Brooklyn in NYC on the hottest day of the year in July! It was hot as hell out there, the sun beat down upon us like a witches broom. We drank the ice box dry three times and all lolled around in the air conned Winnebago silly with the heat like meerkats sheltering under Boabab trees. Yuri very kindly introduced us to dinosaur porn on X-tube in the interims between dressing. Who would have known a man dressed up as a pterodyctl could be so sexy.

I love the love in this shoot and god knows I love love, I go about it enough. Here is my favourite love poem ever it's called Cascando and it's the only one Samuel Beckett ever wrote. It kills me.

Cascando

1.
why not merely the despaired of
occation of
wordshed

is it not better abort than be barren

the hours after you are gone are so leaden
they will always start dragging too soon
the grapples clawing blindly the bed of want
bringing up the bones the old loves
sockets filled once with eyes like yours
all always is it better too soon than never
the black want splashing their faces
saying again nine days never floated the loved
nor nine months
nor nine lives
2
saying again if you do not teach me I shall not learn
saying again there is a last
even of last times
last times of begging
last times of loving
of knowing not knowing pretending
a last even of last times of saying
if you do not love me I shall not be loved
if I do not love you I shall not love

the churn of stale words in the heart again
love love lovethud of the old plunger
pestling the unalterable
whey of words

terrified again
of not loving
of loving and not you
of being loved and not by you
of knowing not knowing pretending
pretending

I and all the others that will love you
if they love you
3
unless they love you

THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

2011-09-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Shoot for Twin 5 showcasing Heikki Salonens new collection for Diesel, shot by Nick Dorey with the delightfully charming and beautiful Nimue Schmit who everyone fell in love with a little bit.

Hair by Naoki Komiya and Make up By Lucy Burt

WHAT IS AN EMO?

2011-09-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Real life conversation between me and a friend at dinner last night

Me. 'Well you know it's kinda like those emo kids'

Friend. 'What's an emo?'

Me. Screaming laughing.......'oh my god hahahahahahaha....'

Friend. 'Ohhhh I know, I know, they're in Starwars'

SIMONE ROCHA S/S 12

2011-09-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Simone Rochas's ridiculously beautiful show that i worked on again this season. People were crying which is always a good sign. The clothes were etheral and intricate...lace trapped under tulle and plastic, latex tee shirts over chiffon blouses and of course the floating block heeled jelly shoe debuting a brilliant ghostbusters green and boiled candy pink version. You can see the whole show here.

Hair by James Pecis and Make up by Shinobu Abe. Top images by Nick Dorey for Twin.

ASHISH S/S 11

2011-09-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ashish this season was so much fun, I loved the floral prints on prints and sequins on sequins. We thought it would be cool to lace real wild flowers into the old vintage army boots that were sourced for the show so it kinda looked like the girls were walkin through wildflower meadows on the runway.

You can see the complete show here.

Hair by James Rowe and Make up by Georgina Graham

Black and White images taken by Nick Dorey for Twin.

THANKS TOMMY TON

2011-09-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

I love this picture Tommy Ton took before I released my Meadham Kirchhoff balloons into the London sky after their show on Tuesday which was the sweetest most magical thing i've seen in a long time. I love Tommy Ton he's so bloody good Tommy Ton Club.

ABSOLUT

2011-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

The bottle that I designed for the Aboslut Vodka Visions project in Dublin. The main black and white image is by dreamy sexpot photographer Mel Bles that we did together for Dazed ages ago and then i sat on the floor and cut stuff out for hours....meticulously working my way around ponies legs and animal fur and human hair and fingers (very tricky) to create the nostalgia collage including legends such as Marky Mark of new kids on the block fame in the Calvin Klein ads, then Baywatch where the women were women and the men were actually also women, Eminem three times cos i love him, lil wayne three times cos i love him too, meerkats, punguins, pugs, Nancy Regan sitting on Mr.T's knee, ALF and some 'Saved by the bell' thrown in for good measure and then the finale of stars cut out of photocopied old porno playing cards consisting of some subtle tit and muff action.

All thanks to Bren and Richard at Small Print who curated the whole thing and were our dad's for the time that we resided in Dublin, they got us everything we needed from pritt stick to pizza to Sambuca. One of the lads on the trip Chaz of the grafitti duo 'The London Police' wrote a brilliant email with a synopsis on each person who took part, ... my favourite was about Bren....this is so good!

'And last but not least big cuddly Bren. If i caught you in bed with my sister i'd fucking tuck you in son!'

What a week and what a totally amazing thing to have been involved in, i loved every minute of it...the last thing i remember doing was a majorette routine with someone's crutch at Fallons pub near Francis street and it getting confiscated by the barman. Good Times.

I HATE MYSELF AND I WANT TO DIE

2011-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Um...wow............um.........are these goths or emos? I dig them bigtime

CYGNET WING

2011-09-07T01:23:00.001-07:00

Another picture pilfered from my friend Poppy's blog if you havent checked her blog out already you should cos she's amazing.

I love this picture, I wanna get in there.....ahhh it looks so good...like being in a tent with all your brothers and sisters except they are fluffy all over and can keep you warm as a nut.

THANKS KSUBI

2011-09-07T01:22:00.000-07:00

Thank you Ksubi and Holly at Relative PR for my Ksubi Mandarin jeans. What a mega colour!

WAREHOUSE FALL CAMPAIGN

2011-09-02T05:44:00.000-07:00

Warehouse Fall campaign that I worked on with my friend and mega photographer Amy Troost.

Hair James Pecis, Make up Sally Branka and Model Kori Richardson.

HUNTER CAMPAIGN

2011-09-02T05:32:00.002-07:00

Hunter ad campaign i worked on with photographer Matt Irwin who was also one of the stars alongside the pure delight that is Katie Hillier and Liberty London girl. That is Matt in his picture looking all manly and sexy by the sea in Devon where he grew up.

SIMONE ROCHA S/S 12

2011-09-02T05:32:00.001-07:00

Simone Rocha S/S 12 from Niall O'Brien on Vimeo.

Simone Rocha's film invite for her S/S 12 collection during London fashion week that i worked on. Directed by the Irish blue eyed dreamboat that is Niall 'Bomb' O Brien.

RUFUS THE DOOFUS

2011-09-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

This is Simone Rochas short legged daschund Rufus. He is extremely scute...look at that coat!!! Why he 's feckin shinier than a newly polished mahogony side table, he's like a freshly split conker is rufus. Rufus's attitude stinks, he's pretty rude and gives strangers a lot of shit when they first arrive, he likes to embarass them in front of the family and makes them feel like they have been rejected by barking at them incessantly. His other fav thing is licking the bed sheets, he just cannot get enough of that. We wuv him.

LAN MUTTHA FUCKING VIN

2011-09-01T04:59:00.000-07:00

Man oh man, Lanvin know how to make good fashion films, posh white girls with shiny set hair and perfect upper east side make up doing hip hop routines and breakdowns. It reminds me of dad's dancing at their kids 21st birthdays to Nelly and 50 cent. The song is Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)”. You just can't get any cooler than this baby, this is box fresh mama.

IF I GAVE A SHIT YOU'D BE THE FIRST PERSON I"D GIVE IT TO.

2011-08-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

Um... so i would marry this guy and his moobs for better or for worse just cos his tee shirt is so rad. I nicked this from my mate Kate Merry's facebook documentation of a summer festival. This is a real festival tee shirt dontcha think. I can just see this guy being a total asshole to everyone after about 50 pints of whatever and then falling asleep with his pants down outside his tent.

WHEN I LOVE SOMETHING I LOVE IT FOREVER

2011-08-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Ireland i love you, i love the colour of you, your heather, your music, your skies, the stoney beaches, your little castles, your big fields, caravans, bungalows, your people, your pubs, your dogs even seem a certain way, they have a look about them. I love your rebel songs, your humour, your holy wells, your holy walls, your churches, your loyalty, your stubborness, your will.

Where there's a will there's a way and there is always a way.

RAGLAN ROAD

2011-08-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Home.

GOOD TASTE IN GIRLFRIENDS

2011-08-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

'Sure the last time i went to visit my granny she told me i had good taste in girlfriends...but i was with my sister Leah'.

One of the funniest things I have heard all week, a true story courtesy of my friend Fay.

LOOSE UNICORN

2011-08-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my friend at a loud party last night and i was describing someone i knew as a 'loose unit' and she was like Oh wow i love that a loose Unicorn and the next minute she was on a roll about the magic horn, etheral white glow and how amazing they were.... FYI she's American. The Americans love that shit, the elf ear implants and all that creepy extreme fantasy stuff (these are the kinda people that have "relationships" with their golden labradors and miniature ponies). When i was a kid my aunty who lived in the US would post us these amazingly beautiful and incredibly tacky stickers of unicorns with glitter rainbows and crystal waterfall backdrops. We stuck them on everything we owned, pencil cases, my bmx, my baby brothers Massey Ferguson toy tractor and all over our beautiful antique mahogony beds.

In August in Ireland we have a big horse event called the Dublin Horse Show, it was the nucleaus of our summer as kids litreally nothing existed outside of it, we would be foaming at the mouth weeks before they had even started putting the signs up. It was here that we conducted reunions for Pony Camp which occured earlier in the summer in June.
A plethora of kids leading ponies of all shapes and sizes would pour out of horseboxes onto the racecourse like some weird, crash landed Kinder Egg with saddles and bridles and grooming kits as extra bits. We all camped over night in the bars on site, it was pretty much where everyone tried smoking and got their tits felt for the first time. It was great, man oh man i have some special memories from there, everyone had traintracks and bad timing so there were cut bloody lips and everything....lots of snogging, one handed wrestling with bra straps and dry humping in the racing stands.

The horse show was a haven for animal lovers, they always had stands there for associations against testing on animals, my sister and i would donate our hard earned cash and pick up leaflets featuring pictures of pink faced monkeys with all kinds of electrodes and things in their heads and lop eared rabbits with their fur shaved off and weeping eyes. The RSPCA were more into emaciated donkeys with long curly hooves and starving dogs. The dunkeys really did us in, I remember myself and my sister bawling our eyes out the entire drive home in the back of the car looking at these pictures and just our hearts breaking all over the place.

I had a hell of a lot of empathy for animals as a kid. I had a pet cemetery in the garden where i would conduct burials for all the roadkill i stumbled upon on my daily local trots. Shovelling up the tiny little corpses off the road, wrapping them in newspaper and burying them in miniature raised graves side by side with the cherished family pets consisting of mice, hamsters goldfish, cats, guinea pigs....etc there was a pretty high pet death toll in the Cooney household. Each animal had it's own handpainted tombstone. One grave housed only half of the corpse of my beloved pet eel Dick Francis, the other half of Dick Francis's slippery little body lay in the grave next door in the belly of my cat Benjamin Wolfgang who had eaten Dick Francis the day before he himself got hit by a car. Holy hell there's tragedy in childhood i tell you, the tenderness of youth leaves you vulnerable to every living thing's pain.

BE BRAVE

2011-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

'I can rip out the roar
from the throat of a tiger,
or gargle with fire
or sleep one whole night in the Minotaur's lair,
or flay the bellowing fur
from a bear,
all for a dare.
There's nothing I fear'.

extract from Carol Ann Duffy, 'Delilah'

I was in the Lorimer subway station today in Brooklyn and there was a beautiful boy playing slide guitar and when he started singing i got goosebumps all along my arms even in the heat of the subway station....it stayed with me the whole way up to 42nd street... it sounded like late night bars on the outskirts of town with ropey strippers dancing on tables, dollar bills tucked into their knickers, it was riding horses accross sun parched prairie lands with a dry mouth and big heart and the sun going down behind the mountains like a phoenix rising up from the ashes, it was a neon cross outside the church ground with a sign saying Jesus loves you and a bunch of choir boys in white gowns singing acapella at sunday service in Texas. It was so good it made me sad and happy at the same time, i think maybe that's what you call bittersweet.

APPLE OF MY EYE

2011-06-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ah .....New York you lover of stars, massive food portions, steaming manholes, good smells, bad smells, bedbugs, cockroaches, dingey bars (Mars Bar you know who you are), this is the the only bar i've ever experienced where in the toilets i didn't want to touch anything including the toilet paper, ice is a luxury and drinks are served straight up hard as nails, you take what you're given. Propping up the bar is a bunch of people who could only be described as a bag of broken biscuits, a jammy dodger with no jam, half a bourbon creme etc... and they have the Pogues on the jukebox. It's good to be back in the city with cars big as bars and rivers of gold.

THIS IS WHAT LOVE FEELS LIKE

2011-06-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

I got this image from my beautiful friends Poppy's blog. I haven't seen something so perfect in ages.I love her blog, it's so honest and always makes me feel calm and grounded which is just like Poppy is. http://levoici.blogspot.com/

DUFFY JEWELLERY

2011-06-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

So my awesome buddy Joe who is the creater of Duffy Jewellery is known as 'Little joe'. Now Little Joe is actually a 6ft 5 muscle bound beanpole heartbreaker of a man but because he has two older brothers he's been called 'little' since he was a nipper, it's very confusing because now he is massive. Anyway Joe is a very talented artist and Jeweller and his new shop is opening up on Thursday 15th June on Redchurch street next week.

Look how sexy Joe's new shop is, all dark and moody. I was with him when we found that turtle there on the wall. I am still jealous of it. I wish it was mine.

This is where the little fella works, his 6ft 5 frame bent over like a spring snowdrop, fettling away, carving, crafting and creating all kinds of rad things like......this bird claw ring below.

It's not just a shop debut, it will also showcase his new collection 'Memories of Innocence'.Be there or be Square.

ILL BE YOUR DAWG

2011-05-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

Kid, you're destined for stardom, big city, bright lights, you'll probably never even remember that you used to draw all over the family pet when you're famous and the whole world is at your feet and you're like King Midas and everything you touch turns to gold. When in doubt you'll just get your crayolas out.

As a kid i was obsessed with drawing, i drew on everything, i would draw all over the walls of my aunties and uncles houses, all over their flocked wallpaper.... as well as my parents walls at home. I was crafty back then, I would draw under picture frames and under the hanging photo's of all of us kids in our school uniforms.

One day as i was having a particularly good time scribbling sweet nothings with a blue marker in the gap between the grandfather clock and the stairs, my dad caught me red handed and let out a roar 'to stop drawing all over the fucking walls'.

I got such a fright i laid off the wall drawing for ages but i got itchy about it, fingers got twitchy and so one balmy summers evening i climbed up on top of the 6ft high wardrobe in my bedroom and drew all over the ceiling. My mum walked into the room clocked me mid doodle and was like "Jesus Christ I cannot believe this Celestine, i'm getting your father'. My response was 'this is not a wall' whereupon the old animal instincts and i jumped off the top of the wardrobe and knocked myself clean unconscious.

The next thing i remember is my dad holding up 3 fingers and saying how many fingers am i holding up Celestine?' and me saying 'oh for gods sake...6 fingers, i can see 6, is this a dream?'

POESY & JESUS UP A TREE

2011-05-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

My poesy and the Meadham Kirchhoff painted and glittered jamjar vase they came in from the Topshop secret store party on wednesday evening. Poesy and Jesus look great together dontcha think, they go together like bread and butter....

...... just like Ben and Ed the Meadham Kirchhoff boys who gave a great interview in this issue of Twin and Nick Dorey took this picture of them that i love.

HEYA JANE....YOURE SO COOL

2011-05-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

So i was searching for a picture of the white Supreme box logo/Birken bag that i saw on someone's arm in a photo at a party.... and the only ones i could find had lady gaga in them but every cloud has a silver lining cos i did find this awesome picture of Jane Birken with her namesake birken bag and her rad dog. How cool is she!

SUPREME + COLGATE = ICE COLD

2011-05-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

What's cooler than cool? Ice Cold'. Yeah you're damn straight it is. Supreme have done a collab with the iconic toofpaste brand Colgate. Supreme Toofpaste and Colgate skateboards. Supreme do great collabs I have this duffle bag from the Supreme Budweiser collaboration that i am having a longstanding affair with, it turns me on a lot.

Superbrands. Yeeeeah mamacitas that's what it's all about!

DOROTHEA'S DISPLACED BONES

2011-05-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

The amazing Dorothea Barth Jorgensen who I worked with on this story for the new issue of Twin. She is awesome and so is her blog http://displacedbones.blogspot.com/. Check it out.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES

2011-05-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Rodarte Feature I worked on for Twin IV with photographer Ben Toms, lots of birds including the beautiful and cool Sara Blomqvist. It was a great day we got to meet all of the feathered beauties here and at the ned of the day we all got to hold the eagle who was about the same weight as a can of stella, you would have thought he weighed a tonne but i guess that's where the saying 'light as a feather' comes from. Raj, the little grumpy looking one with the orange eyes almost had a part on harry Potter, he was trained to turn the pages on a book for the film so he's the mini celeb with buckets of attitude there at the sanctuary, he won many hearts this day. Among other highlights i was transfixed by the sight of Elsa the owl mercilessly chowing down on a (pre-dead) baby chick. Fascinating and barbaric (they are predators after all) it deserves a post all of it's own. Big thanks go out to Randall the head falconer who was the hostess with mostess on the day. www.countrywidefalconry.co.uk

Photographer Ben Toms
Hair Naoki Komiya
Make Up Lucy Burt

Model Sara Blomqvist @Viva

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

2011-05-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

New editorial i styled for Twin IV with the amazing Dorothea Barth Jorgensen and a host of beautiful English boys here in London.

Photography Jason Kibbler
Hair James Pecis
Make up Kirsten Piggot
Casting Sarah Murray

TOMBURGER V'S DINOJESUS

2011-04-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

ShaWowza what's not to love here ? Tom Selleck everyones fav moustache kicking back in his denim shorts with a cup of decaf in a lagoon with a waterfall and a mystic floating big mac hovering like a rampant little UFO in the background. Seriously who comes up with this stuff?

It's almost as good as the time i found the Tyrannasaurus Rex being chaperoned by a massive floating Jesus rising up through the cumulus clouds like the Space rocket swaddled in a white cotton christening robes.

Although I have a feeling that this may have been some evangelical imagery about god creating all and evoloution having never happened in the first place, for example..... jesus can make big things too, not just little animals and other humans in his form but he can also create from dust and rain and the heat of the sun and fertile earth, great big enormous thick skinned tusked things, like elephants, big multi-storey toothed things like Dinosaurs, great horned ferocious things like rhinocerous, and swimming slippy things like whales and giant squid..etc....

there are really great references to this in CS Lewis's 'The Last Battle' when the earth starts bubbling like a saucepan of porridge and burps forth all kinds of delightful herbivores, carnivores, reptiles, amphibians......from the bulbous compost blisters. Aslan is god and he creates everything and the new world is dark and silent before he puts his heavy padded paws upon it and sends wave of new life through it like lightening which starts it bubbling and spewing forth animals of all shapes and sizes and everything is born for the first time. All Life starts here.

TAN LINES

2011-04-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

I guess with all the blisteringly hot weather here in london recently i'm getting all summery inside, all misty eyed, dreamin' of pimms and pina coladas, hot brown skinned boys with far away salty eyes, strawberries and cream, sandy sandwiches, the ocean lapping around my belly like a litter of wet kittens, the sun in my eyes, girls in bikinis with tan lines, tan lines are hot.....when we were kids my brothers and sister and I would keep our watches on for the whole holiday so when we got back home we had proof of how tanned we had become and who had won by being the brownest.

I believe this may have been an early foray into my competitive self.....i really gave a shit about winning. The satisfaction i gleaned from watching the white patch get brighter and brighter day by day was unrivalled, it was like secretly polishing the ultimate tan trophy that was going to be mine at the end of the trip. The luminous graphic strip felt like a tiny but very significant success story right there on my little 11 year old wrist, just like Tom Cruise in Cocktail or Matthew Broderick in Ferris Buellers day off.

MAD

2011-04-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Britney, Nicole, Paris and Lilo, what a guest list. Wowza

Batman and his super gay little sidekick Robina.

Joker

My particular all time fav lil Wayne. Leg end. I did a whole blog post about him and my conclusion was this.....

'It's just the cacophony of shit thats going on here, the lip piercing, the tats, the plaster, the jewellery, the dreadlocks, the diamond teef, the raybans, the smoking, the smoking and drinking at the same time. He's like a bull in a china shop in his own body. It kinda blows my mind'.

I am seriously into lil Wayne.

Bush as Mr.Potato head/mad

Obama looking fit as a ginger. Love those freckles like i love train tracks.

Mad is so good, smart and funny and a bit wrong but mostly very very right about important things, tongue in cheek when necessary, blatent when required, exposing in all the right places like a flasher with buckets of integrity.

HEY SUMMER HEY NATASHA POLY

2011-04-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

April 2010 Mario Sorrenti for Paris Vogue and a prediction of what my summer is going to be like.....bit of a tan, bit of baby oil, sea, sand, seaweed, a balcony, some socks, trainers, a small bikini, a life ring and a horse of course.

HOUSE OF HACKNEY

2011-03-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Above campaign I styled for House of Hackney with photographer David Dunan. House of Hackney is the new east London based interiors company set up by the super talented husband and wife team Freida and Javvy. I am in love with all of their soft furnishings and want this entire Dalston Rose bedset (above), including the giant square bed pillows and eiderdown. I swear i will stay in bed for a week, i will be so happy ensconced in roses drinking tea out of their custom china cups.

There is a pop up shop taking place at 76 Stoke Newington Road, Hackney, London N16 7XB where you can go and see everything for yourself from Thursday 31st of March until Sunday the 3rd of April.

HEY SUNSHINE, HEY SPRING, GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN

2011-03-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

What a difference a day makes, the sunshine makes the whole world feel better. Welcome back Spring, always a pleasure to see you in the face of flowers.

Photos from an old editorial I styled for Mixte with photographerDavid Dunan www.daviddunan.com

DAZED - BIRKENHEAD

2011-03-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

Latest Dazed Editorial that i worked on in Birkenhead with photographer Jamie Hawksworth who was my partner in crime for the weekend, thanks to all the cool kids we met and that allowed us to take their picture up there. http://www.jamiehawkesworth.com/

MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF AW11

2011-03-05T05:45:00.001-08:00

No surprise that I loved Meadham Kirchhoff AW11, what an awesome show, first off they ditched the conventional catwalk structure and marched their models out together en masse and not one by one. Opening in the pitch black the models gathered under the arches of the Topshop venue at old Billinsgate market like the bad gremlins in Gremlins the movie when they gatecrash the pub.

As the lights came up they marched forward like a stormy sea wave, with all the focus of one of those 11 year old chinese gymnasts that can do triple backflips on a 3 inch bar.

The music was unearthed from graveyards and old horror movies, the best kind of horror movies, with poltergeists and people getting thrown around their bedrooms in their pyjamas, waking up to find yourself floating on the ceiling like Micheal does in 'The lost boys' ('they're maggots micheal you're eating maggots'). I love a bit of unexplainable occurances, deathly hallows, the darkest recessions of the human mind....the unknown, the wierd and the wonderful. It freaks me out so much like i cant sleep and i get nightmares but god do i love a bit of horror.

The set was heartbreakingly pretty like all graves are, there were flowers and momentos, photos....memories....youth...everything that is not death. Ben and Ed are exceptional young men....they are bright, brave, insightful and romantic.The set brought me back to the 'Blessings of the graves' in Ireland where i used to steal the white quartzite stones from the graves of my grandparents and then go to the local shop and buy quarters of rhubarb and custard sweets in paper bags. I would recall all year the taste of them and the pungent smell of churches in my nose, the cold knees, the frankincense billowing out over the dead people in the churchyard.

This is ed, he looks like Peter Pan here.

This is Ben.

Ben again.

The colours even though they were bold and strong were sweet and rich like cake icing, reds staggered in between the blacks and navys, raspberry freeze pop blue, sugar mouse pink...with hair by James Pecis, make up by the delightful Florrie white and hats as always completely inspired and magical by the one and only Nasir Mazhar who must be one of the most adored men in fashion as far as i can see everyone that meets him falls in love with him.http://www.nasirmazhar.com

It got me thinking of grassy hills, Heidi and goats, except that even though I'm sure the Meadham Kirchhoff army milked the goats and made delicious goats cheese and loved them from when they were soft haired bleating kids, i have a feeling they also offered them up as sacrifices to their beezlebub.

There was definitely an air of dark worship about the place or maybe it was just death and that's probably scary enough. The dark glasses were very funeral, a bit wino forever in Beetlejuice, a little chink of lagerfeld.....you could think that behind the glasses they all had yellow goats eyes instead of human eyes. There was a menace and a beauty and a glory to it all. It kinda felt like a power from somewhere else, the power of more than one, the power of togetherness, a clan, a sect, an army. I think humans are way scarier than ghosts and the devil, at the end of the day the only thing we need to be scared of is each other.

So BE NICE.

ASHISH AW11 LONDON FASHION WEEK

2011-02-24T07:17:00.001-08:00

Ashish AW11 show that I styled during london fashion week, probably my favourite ever collection of his, with the best moth eaten knitwear i've ever seen, the coolest sequin tartan punk trousers with knee and ankle zippers, skellington tracksuit bottoms...the most beautiful striped shirts inspired by m&s boxer shorts...holy knitted crop tops.....sequins that looked like wool blankets and herringbone that looked like mink fur....

We collaborated with classic English footwear company Underground England on the shoes, the high top creeper is houndstooth ponyhair and the black gold studded leather creeper comes with a bottle of tippex so you can customize your own shoes! We handpainted all of the ones in the show.

We made special cobweb knee tights inspired by punk elbow tattoos....

Added some lip piercings.....

And finally M.I.A did the never before heard soundstrack for the show which debuted on the catwalk! You can see the whole show here on Vogue.com

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/show.aspx/catwalk-report/id,10194#/imageno/1

Black and White pictures by Nick Dorey http://www.nickdorey.com/ specially for Twin.

SIMONE ROCHA AW11

2011-02-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Simone Rocha AW11 that I styled yesterday, i want the entire collection in my wardrobe, so beautiful and my new favourite model below Maddy Ford at Storm opened the show.

Casting by Sarah Murray and her assistant Lucy Quick, we love these women.

Hair by James Pecis

Make Up by Shinobu

MINKY PINK

2011-02-15T06:40:00.001-08:00

Really liked the cosiness and minky pink nudes at Wang F/W11.

THANKS HENRY!!!!!

2011-02-09T12:16:00.001-08:00

Henry Holland S/S 11

I love henry, he's super cool and always really fun, i just got a sent a pair of his awesome fluffy green pom pom earrings and i love them too. THANK YOU HENRY.

UNTIL THAT DAY I LOVE YOU ANYWAY

2011-02-09T02:43:00.000-08:00

My man harry is having his first solo show tomorrow evening at the Print House Gallery beside Cafe Otto in Dalston. He is smart and funny, he doesn't like the police or being told what to do, he's a street dawg, wise in his ways, he knows where to get a free meal if needs be and where to keep warm on a cold night, for the most part he likes treading the sidewalks listening to other peoples conversations and soaking up all the good lines like a human sponge.

Come along for cider and art from 6PM onwards..........

KC

2011-02-04T10:40:00.001-08:00

What is it about Casey Affleck? His movie roles so far have pretty much consisted of an array of cold blooded psychopathic killers, which i might add he plays with effortless aplomb. Pummelling/stabbing/suffocating his chosen victims to death with all the deceptive innocence of a velociraptor.

He hardly ever smiles and when he does your heart kinda breaks a little bit, it's like an excruciating pain that relieves for a moment and then the relief is so seductive you almost can't handle the pain anymore and it just makes it worse. I'm not one for celebrities or falling for people i have never met but there is something about him that makes me feel like maybe we were married in another life and lived in a trailer park with 7 kids a German Sheperd and a massive tank of tropical fish.

OF MICE AND MENSWEAR A/W 11

2011-01-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Nirvana circa 1991

Raf Simons circa 2011

Comme Des Garcons circa 2011

The funny Comme hair reminded me of that wig that Raquel Zimmerman wears in Jeurgan Tellers book Zimmerman. It's not trying to be real or seamless it's very 'wiggy', there is something beautifully synthetic and pathetic about the crappness of it.

Dazed & Confused Cover by Marianno Vivanco Circa 2007

Mugler Circa 2011

VOGUE NIPPON

2011-01-24T03:51:00.001-08:00

Some of my favourite things in Vogue Nippon.

STICKS N STONES WILL BREAK MY BONES BUT NAMES WILL NEVER HURT ME

2011-01-23T05:26:00.001-08:00

By Steven Meisel

I've posted my three favourite campaigns this season Balenciaga, Celine and Jil Sander. I'll stop now.

CLEVER YOUNGER ME

2011-01-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

My older sister who i shared a bedroom with for the best part of my innocently mispent childhood and just told me the other night that i would sleep in my school uniform so that i didn't have to get dressed in the morning! I had totally forgotten this, what a genius. If i could go back in time i would be high fiving myself for sure.

Sometimes it really hits me that i was one of those kids that people didnt want to babysit or take to the circus etc.. but most importantly i seemed to be completely unaware of this and as far as i was concerned i was cruising through my youth and fitting (like a glove) into every social strata known to the human race.

Here is a picture of me on my confirmation day in my school uniform.

CLEAN CELINE

2011-01-13T17:32:00.001-08:00

by Jeurgan Teller

JIL SANDER NAVY (ORANGE N BLUE)

2011-01-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

by the original and the still the best one and only David Sims

HEYA TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN, NICE TO MEET YA

2011-01-06T14:44:00.001-08:00

.... and here we are now with a brand new squeaky clean year, she's pure as the driven snow, she's a bright new penny in a shallow drain, she's a lamb, with a curly bright white pelt and a soul like a sparkling clean plate straight out of a well salted dishwasher ....ahhh i can do better than that....she's a virgin beauty with alabaster skin like a sea worn stone, smooth and poreless, fresh and lightly salted. She's a face lit up by a cigarette at a party when you're higher than the Empire state and her voice is soft and her skin is honey and she's all letting the smoke crawl out of her mouth and curl around her chin like a girl you saw in a movie once, never left you and here she is now sitting in front of you with her beautiful little collar bones and she's smiling and her eyes are endless and in them they are holding everything, hope, love, glory, the rollercoaster, the theme park of everything in those eyes, Bumper cars, Waltzers, Ghost trains, Pirate ships, Death slides, Candyfloss, Burgers, Mini donuts, Ice cream, Goldfish in a bag, Big wheels....looking down all over it all cross legged on a cloud up there just looking down, searching for this famous two thousand and eleven that everyones talkin about. Ready to take it on with relish.... with chutney, tomato ketchup, mayonaise, butter.... Kerrygold of course, keep it Irish, remember your roots and where you come from. Truth and beauty and all the rest. Come on two thousand and eleven my arms are open my bosom is ample i'm ready for you now. Where have you been all my life?

HOME IS WHEREVER IM WITH YOU

2010-12-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

ACHILL E'S HEEL

2010-12-01T02:56:00.001-08:00

This is one of my favourite pictures in the book, it's a caravan park.

My childhood buddy and very talented photographer Linda Brownlee has just published her first book, pictures taken on the windswept, hostile shores of Achill Island, Ireland. Depicting a landscape hacked out by the weather that comes in from accross the atlantic like a herd of dark and stormy raging bulls and the teenage dwellers awkward in their youth, their love and complete with that great teenage vice; suspiciousness that i love so much.

I spent some time here surfing, climbing mountains and drinking a lot (alcohol not sea water). It's freezing, the water is freezing, the wind is freezing but everyone still gets drunk rips all their clothes off and sprints into the ocean for some skinny dipping. There are no lights so it's really dark and the shooting stars were all over the sky, i mean there were hundreds i could'nt make wishes fast enough. I counted over twenty of them blasting off in all directions over my head. I always recall this memory as someone standing on the shore and all the lovely moonlit wet goosebumped skin and the dark sky and the fireworks display of shooting stars over everyone's heads and us all looking up and right and left counting as many as we could, it seems very romantic from the shore, like a painting. the reality i'm sure was more like impending hypothermia and frostbitten essential digit loss.

So it's a magical place, Achill, it's the ends of the earth like in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, drinkable light and the sea filled with white lillies and all that.

Linda's book is beautiful and captures the essence of everything that is there but you can't quite put your finger on. You can buy Linda's book here http://www.lindabrownlee.com/index.php/book

THE GREAT MONTAUK

2010-11-21T09:18:00.001-08:00

Shoot I styled in Montauk with photographer Jason Kibbler and the gorgeous model Karolin Wolter. Zan Lundlum did some amazing streetcasting for this, the local kids were super dooper suntanned and unbelievably toned from surfing in the sea every day, they were all sun bleached blonde, even their eyelashes were white!!! It looks like some kind of Arian race story which is kinda funny but not intentional, they were all just blonde as could be. There is also a beautiful little film from this story that you can check out here http://www.twinfactory.co.uk/video/soul-surfers

FURBY KIRBYS

2010-11-21T09:10:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures from the one of the new shoot's i did for Twin 3 with twins Ann (dark ice maiden) and Kirby (blonde grunge princess) Kenny, they were cool! Photos ; Beau Grealy

Beau made a mega film of them too http://www.twinfactory.co.uk/video/two-of-a-kind-2

FOMHAR

2010-11-09T00:19:00.001-08:00

Fomhar's arrival on the orange carpet

not yet red but turning

dancing like a madman at the front door

hair tips frozen tapping like a bird

on the window

at my ankles with his teeth

like the next door neighbour's dog

face pressed against the glass

fogging it up like a steam train

eyes, big wet stones

teeth, little white bones

grinning

like an upside-down graveyard

cool across the bridge of my nose

head bowed down,

to the god light on the back of my neck

Cassius clay in the near

Foreman in the far

praying for mother

punching the god given

daylights out of each other

the Ginger Rogers of Spring

all that grace and swing

the hoy polloy

and high fulluting fluttering feet

around him she goes like a may pole

dancing prancing like a reindeer

red nose dripping

and Autumn there heavy on his feet

'i am the greatest i said it before i even knew i was'

never misses a beat

the biggest horse in the yard

hooves like dinner plates

a whinny that makes the ground shake

slow power

heavy handed

overthrowing

wrestling

kissing in the end

each others necks

both down now

in the leaves about

having it out

losing and finding

making out

bumping and grinding

then ginger

she just tap dances

right out of the picture

off the frame and down

Fomhar sets out on his wild rampage

and he goes forth like a charger

in the war

like a warrior

a fighter

eyes wild and foaming at the mouth

sides heaving heavy breathing

crashing through

the cobwebs

branches

long grass

dew flying

fondling the chestnuts

groping wildly at the bramleys

the coxs

the granny smiths

sweet young flesh

tender loins

rippling down the sides of his tongue

swallowed gobbled gone

tangy... lip smackingly good

and the carpet turns

to welcome him home

scarlet like the woman

the prodigal son

in his muddy boots

and the holes in socks

that need darning

TWIN FACTORY FRESHENS UP

2010-11-08T04:57:00.000-08:00

The New issue of Twin comes out today and to celebrate our website has had a makeover and looks fresh as a firework. There are new films to watch from photographers Tom Allen, Jason Kibber, Will Davidson, Beau Grealy, a film with Dree Hemmingway rocking head to toe Simone Rocha and loads more, check it out here http://www.twinfactory.co.uk/ and keep your eyes peeled for our brand new book on the shop shelves this week. WHOOP WHOOP

HAPPY HALLOWEEN BITCHES

2010-10-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Awwww scute little sad face monkeys, it looks like a bit of photoshop but these are their actual faces! Trippy. Don't they look like little icy blue skellington heads? I have a feeling if you fell asleep beneath their tree, come morning the search party would stumble upon a pile of glowing white bones laid out in a Jenga style construction and one of these guys would be wearing your face like Hannibal Lecter in silence of the lambs.

BALLYFERMOT

2010-10-29T10:48:00.001-07:00

This is Ballyfermot in Dublin where Mary Byrne from X Factor is from. I suppose you could say it's the equivalant of some kids riding ponies bare-back past the 'Iceland' on Mare Street in Hackney. This is pretty normal, happens all the time at home...no one bats an eyelid it's like oh Lidl great let's go and buy a garden shed and a fifteen man tent and some glow in the dark face paints 'oh watch the ponies there kids' and fifteen selection boxes for christmas and why not throw in some veg for the dinner, scented candles, towels, plastic fruit, you need a patio table and chairs it's there....there is nothing these guys don't do, if the price is right it's under their roof. Quite exciting i suppose as you really never know what youre gunna get. Lidl is my dad's favourite shop in the world.

THE TWINDOM OF PRUSSIA

2010-10-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

The next installment of Twin, Issue 3 is imminent like a hovering kestrel buffering the cold October winds. Having embraced our native london first time round, frenchied with NYC in June, we are dying to unhook Berlin's bra strap where Issue 3 shall launch like a Virgin space ship into the galactic atmosphere. So if anyone happens to be in Berlin on the 11th November get yourself to Skalitzer Strasse and get down with the kids for a bit of bump n grind to celebrate the brand new issue!

BILLY JOE SAUNDERS

2010-10-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

I love this short film of British professional boxer Billy Joe Saunders shot by photographer Alasdair Mclellan. Billy Joe is a bona fide traveller and the grandson of Absolom Beeney who was one of Britains most famous Romany bare knuckle champions. Watching him move is pretty mesmerizing i think it's this that give rise to good old Shakespeare coming up with great quotes like the following...

What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason,

how infinite in faculties,

in form and moving how express and admirable,

in action how like an angel

in apprehension how like a god

I feel like this when i watch Danny Way do massive transfers on his skateboard, it's kinda godly, he elevates to another level that is so extraordinary it almost doesn't seem real...but it is. He just makes it look so damn easy.

On the other hand Billy Joe has been done for 'lewd' behaviour so maybe you'd want to delete a couple of lines/words from the quote so it's a little more tailored for him. The sound in this film is so nice, the lovely purr of the super 8 mechanism and the soft ruck of his feet on the floor. Simple done well is pretty impossible to beat.

PREEN LINE S/S 2011

2010-09-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Preen Line S/S 11 collection that I styled during August with model Gwen Loos who is pale and beautiful as a winter rose.

We compared tans. Gwen was warm bedtime milk and I was chocolate Yazoo.

... we also all got involved in a spot of wafting for the blowy hair that features throughout the lookbook....which everyone took very seriously....especially me.

Photography by Nick Dorey who has become my beer can swilling, kerbside, kebab eating buddy, we are pavement lickers, lacking in grace and good manners.

Hair by Tracey Cant @ Premier

Make up By Lucy Burt @ Premier

ASHISH LONDON FASHION WEEK S/S 2011

2010-09-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

The Ashish show that I styled during london fashion week was so much fun as always. It acid tripped it's way through the US of A, from native American indians, to cowgirls to gauchos to white trash pin ups followed closely on the heels by the trucker capped red neck kentucky fried chicken eatin' sorority.

The hats were custom made by Piers Atikinson http://www.piersatkinson.com/ and really put an a feathered cherry crown on top of all the looks. The whole collection was sent sashaying out to a plethora of bump n grind dry ride hip hop opening with Dominque young unique's filthy dirty 'Show my ass' and my new personal fav by Cazwell 'I saw Beyonce at Burger King' ...she ordered two cheeseburgers with onion rings.

Donna Loos and Daphne backstage.

My Mcdonalds n Beans boots.

I handpainted some of the tall cowboys boots for the show too, I liked these McDonalds beans/chips n coke ones the best. It was like art therapy class in between all the maddness of fashion week I got to sit on the floor of Ashish's studio painting and listening to sunday matinee film music.

THE ROCHA BOMB PART DEUX

2010-09-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Simone Rocha debuted as part of Fashion East during this London fashion week presenting an anthology of grown up sophisticated sexy tailoring. A mix of elegant contradictions all melded together seamlessly in one very beautiful and stand alone collection.

Styled by me alongside my good buddy James Pecis who coaxed a little bit of mondaine punk into our girls hair (casting was by the lean and lithe as a whippet Sarah Murray from Darling casting), coupled with make up by Shinobu Abe which was all 'Stella Tennant clean as a whistle skin' with a subtle sheer shiny pink eyelid.

Backstage shades of pink, a candy floss sheer tulle tee shirt and perspex Vegas neon pink tissue box clutch.

Simone backstage with model Cara Delavigne and the perspex cross clutch from her collection.

THE ROCHA BOMB PART 1

2010-09-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

John Rocha S/S 2011

Beautiful super cool show, I want these over the knee lace up boots worn by Katie Fogarty who opened the show yesterday!

TOPSHOP A/W

2010-08-31T03:50:00.001-07:00

I styled the brand conference show for Topshop recently, a proper big mid August fashion show where they present all of the upcoming trends to everyone that works there. Of course i love this, as i get to preview of all of their new collections and hang out with the girls in there who are all super cool and fun.

My favourite look that i assembled was this Stepahnie Seymour/Axl Rose/November rain inspired super-trash wedding ensemble. I want to wear this to my wedding, i think its amazing.

This is Alys from Next, she'd arrived in the day before for a casting with home bleached eyebrows in skinny jeans looking all 'Twilight' and vampish. I think she should wear this to her wedding too. Thanks Alys.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

2010-08-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all time favourite images ever, it's just so pure and perfect. I think Corinne had a way of capturing that youthfull intensity and naiveity like no one else. Even when the images were beautiful there always seemed to be lurking a darker underbelly like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

R.I.P Corinne Day (1965-2010)

SPEARSMINT RHINO

2010-08-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

The new POP magazine with that iconic celestial face of pop music that is Britney Spears on the cover.

Firstly there are two deliciously hazy, sunburst-y covers to choose from. Above Cover 1, the immediate thoughts that came tap dancing into my mind were of the tragic child pageant beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. Maybe thats just the tiara and the freshly blown out golden halo of blonde hair so popular with beauty queens, child stars etc...or the spray of teeny white flowers around the crown of the head? or the big doe eyes? or the pink lipstick on those perfect cupids bow lips stretched nervously over bleached out pearly white teef?

This is starting to sound like one of those books that tells you how write a number one pop song....except this is with human beans not music....it's a formula....15 extra eyelashes here, some botox there, some hyper shiny bulking extensions for that, spray tan all over, vaseline on the teeth, lipo underneath, lose two extra ribs to accomodate 300 fast backflips in row then into the splits, extra artificial cartilage in the hips for that and all before the the age of 11.....

Squeezed to one side by the undeniably seedy sexy undertones of Courtney Love, also a fan of the tiara for casual outings, but to be honest, tiara's aside, i think they just look the same.

It makes total sense that Cindy Sherman's name is on the cover too (it comes with a free bookzine by the artist like some smaller twisted side order of a three toothed teratoma twin).

Cindy + Britney = Cibri (sounds like a delicious cocktail (ps. I know it sounds like seabreeze with out the z))

In my opinion a beautiful fusion of perfectness like chips and tomato ketchup, bananas and white chocolate, beans and cheese, beer and peanuts, Hula Hoops and Primula spreadable cheese in a tube with ham bits....

Cindy Sherman's, Untitled 276

All of this gorgeousness is jizzed up with some Japanese cartoon characters and happy, open mouthed, giggling flower face fonts by Louis Vuitton favourite Takeshi Murakami. Makes you think of those Vending machines where Japanese business men can buy day old knickers. Talking of underwear vending machines and the obvious fucked up slash amazing Japanese porn insinuations the second cover number 2 is pretty hot. Love a teenage bride in swimwear with her honeymoon gear in her back pack all ready to go.

.... and after all that..... it's just brit brit shot through a lens with what looks to have a reasonably intense layer of vaseline smeared over it.

I love it/them both/everything.

DAZED DOES ROCHA

2010-07-27T11:52:00.001-07:00

Young Simone Rocha's hyper pink veil from her MA St.Martins collection debuted in Dazed this month on Julia Stegner styled by the blonde bombshell that is Katie Shillingford. She also has the Fashion East office headed up by Lulu Kennedy madly in love her.

http://lulukennedy.blogspot.com/

..and an interview with ID http://www.i-donline.com/i-spy/i-ntroducing-simone-rocha

Simone will be showing her first main collection as part of Fashion East during London fashion week this September. Watch this space, in the words of Buzz Lightyear... to infinity and beyond.

BAMBI AND EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH HIM

2010-07-15T08:36:00.001-07:00

The other day for reasons unknown to myself I was compelled to paint Bambi onto the back of an old green military shirt. So off i went to do some research on Bambi pictures so i could paint the little fella true to his iconic form.

I also watched this clip from the film early on Monday morning and i must say the word cute and everything it stirs up deep within us was created for things like this. It should come with a warning, this clip is actually so cute it will probably cause you pain.

It's okay to feel emotional watching beautifully made kids films like this because it reminds us of our childhood. For me about a minute in, i could smell freshly cut grass and i could see my dad on the lawnmower, and me running around behind him in my bare feet and the sun beating down on my back and the grass all in the air and if like me you had ponies i reckon there will be some pony memories in there too, smelling sweetly of molasses and leather and hay.

The intense memory of my beloved ginger tom cat Frisby came to me a bit later on and i could distinctly remember the weight of him in my arms and then i went looking for pictures and found these...they made me cry.

I loved that cat so much, he was an exquisite comfort to me as a child. He got an earfull of everything that was going on in my young life. He consoled me when i was sad, celebrated my victories, he also agreed that it was never my fault when things went wrong and everyone was blaming me.

Frisby died of Pneumonia in the summer of 1991, i remember when he was sick, getting an electric heater and putting it in front of him in his basket, i heated him half to death thinking if i could get him warm enough i'd just knock that pneumonia right out of his body.

Anyway it didn't work and he died. I buried him wrapped in a red blanket in my pet cemetary where i also buried any local road kill i found on the road beside my house. I painted a big stone with his face and put his name under it for his grave.

WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER

2010-07-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah god...dont forget it.

Photo by Ross McDonnell, a photographer and film maker who is so good it hurts. http://www.rossmcdonnell.com/

KYDD ING

2010-07-05T18:30:00.001-07:00

Diver, Corniche Beirut

Beautiful boys in Naples

Mega picture of Don Brown and Sarah Lucas looking all wicker man ish in Suffolk.

House on motor way , Naples

John Osborne, World war One Veteran born May 11, 1900

Love Johnny Shand Kydd's pictures http://www.johnnieshandkydd.com

OH NO VIDEO OH OH OH

2010-06-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Here's Marina and the Diamonds brand new video for her next single Oh No, it's a bit like Batman and Robin, popping candy, sherbet fizzers, wham bars n ring pops, it's lucky dip bags and bubble gum with rub on dolphin tattoos inside the wrapper. Directed by wunderkind Kinga Burza, styled by me and make up by my friend Hiromi Ueda.

All designer archive pieces.....
Sequin map of Italy dress, gold sequin trousers, yellow peace symbol vest and perspex light up shoes by ASHISH
Dollar Dress and Credit card dress by Jean Charles de Castlebajac
Pink Sweetheart dress and red bandage dress by Christopher Kane
Panetone pink dress and purple suit by Henry Holland
White square glasses by Linda Farrow for Luella
Dancers wear pastel latex dresses by Atsuko Kudo

BARE BONERS

2010-06-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

Bare Bones is a free quarterly zine filled with general irreverance, taboo, boobies and blasphemy, it's independently published by the artists themselves which would explain some of the gloriously un-edited stuff you find in it. I have written before about BB and mentioned that if Bare Bones was a person it would be a criminal and in prison. Bare Bones Da however, Harry Malt commented on this saying it wouldn't be in prison cos it would have broken out. This is Harry below doing biniss on da phone

Whatever way you look at it Bare Bones is definitely electronically tagged and probably has an alcohol monitoring ankle bracelet like Lindsey Lohan and all the other fun people in Hollywood.

Which is good cos on the 29th of June Bare Bones is going to NYC and having a launch party at Envoy Enterprises Gallery, 131 Chrystie Street complete with a glass eating punk band to get everyone dancing in fear and joy.

So on the cusp of this great American introduction I interviewed the proud Bare Bones daddy Harry Malt here about his delinquent son......

Where did the name Bare Bones come from?

It came from the red wine fuelled brain of the wonderful bastard Neal Fox.

The type was forged by Luke Frost of Heretic Print Studio.

It is the perfect summation of what we do, we're stripped back, efficient, fast as fuck and enjoying it.

If Bare Bones was a person (dead or alive) who would they be?

BB is us.

Describe what Bare Bones stands for in 5 words?

Our Friends

Good times

Progression

Fuck You

Art

If Bare Bones was to have a soundtrack to its life going from its

1.conception

Any song by Crass

2.to getting it off the ground

Hello Old Friend, East Coast Novas.

3 producing the first issue

Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes, I Do, Captain Beefheart.

4. your first show

Pink Frost, The Chills.

5. its imminent arrival in NYC

Fuck You, Pay Me. ARE Weapons

If Bare Bones was on Death Row what would he/she (depending on above answer to question 2) what would the death row meal be? Starter, main course, desert and drink

Starter

Oysters & Champagne

Main

Cheese & Crisp Sandwiches

Desert

Tirimasu

Drink

Gallons of Sancerre will do.

If there was to be a Bare Bones celebratory dinner what special guests (dead or alive) would you invite and what band would you get to perform at the party?

For a nice quiet sit down it'd have to be;

Shane MacGowan

Elvis

Jonny Ramone

GG Allin

Ghandi

Gandalf

The Rubbish Men

Jay Adams

Captain Beefheart

Sebastian Horsley

Jesus

Allah

Buddha

Stephanie Seymore

Alex Higgins

Lara Stone (not her husband)

Joan Jett

Band.

Pogues.

What artists would you like to have contribute to Bare Bones 4?

I'd like to see work from people from all over the world.

Unknowns, vagabonds, people doing their own thing.

For love n lust, y'know.

What are Bare Bones dreams for the future?

Just to keep on keeping on, maybe get a sponsor or some sympathetic rich old lady.

A permanent space to use for shows etc

Editions set up in different cities, all publishing on the same day, a global free press, a resource for art and artists for art sake.

Have fun.

If youre in NYC on the 29th June go to the opening it will be sexy mayhem and you'll get to meet all the funny attractive people involved, here's the invite above, click on it to make it big if you have bad eyesight and can't read it here....Check out the whole issue of BARE BONES 3 in motion on the website here http://www.ourbarebones.com

LITTLE CC

2010-06-24T05:06:00.001-07:00

This is one of my assistants Cecilia, since we both have names beginning and ending with the letter C, she is known as little cc. She is also Irish and so she understands it when i pray to Saint Anthony to help me find things i've lost, why i put excessive amounts of kerrygold butter on everything and why i feel funny about putting a dunce cap on Jesus.

Little cc is quite the phenomenon, she's an awesome flower arranger, has the most impeccable taste, probably knows more about fashion than most editors and she just turned 18, so she's only a babby.

Her blog is beautiful check it out http://www.acresandgold.blogspot.com/

She even gives cake recipes in here too. I sometimes feel like Little cc was a gift to me from the world when i needed her most. She walked into my garden quite early on and told me i needed to take better care of my plants, she gazed upon my bloomless camelia with a sad face like it were a featherless budgie in pet shop and said it wasn't flowering cos the pot was too small. Thanks world for sending me little cc, she is awesome.

MY LIFE IN PICTURES

2010-06-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

My new website is live........ http://www.celestinecooney.com/

OH NO

2010-06-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Vogue TV shot backstage at the recent Marina and The Diamonds video I styled for her new single OH NO. If this video was an Ice cream Sundae it would have strawberry cheesecake, lickitty lemon sorbet and blue raspberry ice-cream with sprinkles and cherries and bubblegum balls all over the top in one of those fancy expensive cornetto cones with chocolate on the inside. The video is not ready yet but you can see what went on behind the scenes here....

http://www.vogue.co.uk/video/voguetv/player.aspx/exclusives/video,9634/