Man is a Political Animal, Clothes Maketh the Man

It's all about politics today, and they have roused me from my blogging torpor. There's much ado about apathy, and the fact that two thirds of people did not vote and seemingly don't care, which is exactly how evil steals a march, when the rest of us roll over (to paraphrase Edmund Burke, being quoted widely thanks to UKIP's success at the polls). A kick to the consciousness of the main parties here in Great Britain was overdue, but writing in the capacity of my own opinion (I voted, I'm entitled to one), how about getting at them by boosting the Green Party or the - as yet limited availability - brand new Reality Party? It was launched last month in Manchester on April 29th by founder Bez, p.k.a. maracas master, interpretive dancer and ambience co-ordinator from the Happy Mondays, while wearing his Bedlam t-shirt.

Bez launching the Reality Party (Photograph by Elspeth Moore)

They may have come third with their candidate in Salford, but a mere twenty-three votes behind the Conservatives.

Honorary Bedlamite Jacky Carroll ordered Bez one of our "God Save the Queen" bee-shirts for his 50th birthday present - he is a keen apiarist apparently, these days, so we hope he proves to be a new breed of pollentician. Here she is presenting it at his party:

Photographs by Elspeth Moore (to whom, many thanks)

He was by all accounts delighted, as were we to receive this fabulous photograph:

Loving your country without stomping on everyone else ought to be an achievable human goal. We received an interesting commission lately, to design a curtain for the foyer of the Bermondsey Square Hotel http://www.bermondseysquarehotel.co.uk, and its other side was to coordinate with their "GB Bar & Grill". This weekend (Saturday May 24th) the Daily Telegraph (winners of the Best Travel Website award) included them in their Fab Five hotels on the Southbank:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotel/63881/Bermondsey-Square-Hotel-London-review.html

The hotel is one of twelve that make up the Bespoke Group and wishing to play up that aspect, they have appointed us as their in-house tailor. We will be in residence this coming Friday, May 30th, and subsequently every last Friday of the month to give consultations and take orders (that's the idea!). Having spent time in the United States I became accustomed to seeing flags proudly displayed on just about every front lawn, while in the United Kingdom people had become embarrassed of being mistaken for a football hooligan or rabid racist. So we have made our attempt to reclaim it, firstly with the tweed Union Jack that plays to the muted colours of the restaurant:

Robert Holland, manager of the Bermondsey Square Hotel with his deputy Chris

And on the flip side is the St George Cross mounted on black to chime with the strong graphic scheme of the reception. Here is the first lady to check in after it was installed:

We have also made waistcoats for the restaurant staff and enjoyed the practicality of the project, choosing a wool /poly mix fabric so that they can be cleaned as per the necessity of workwear.

Anyway we have now been asked to work on designs for the staff at the Gotham - a new hotel they will be opening in Manchester next year. We look forward to Bez holding an election victory party there!

France, meanwhile, is also having a resurgence of prehistoric tribalism. Back in April, demonstrating pan-European appreciation, we were thrilled to be invited by the glamourous champion of the arts, Canadienne TV music show Genevieve Borne (she is the Jools Holland of Canada) to the opening of the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Barbican. We highly commend it to you, it takes up the baton of exhibiting fashion from the YSL expo of a few years back and runs with it hysterically around the track. JPG was there and extolled the creative inspiration that London has afforded him, a visiting foreigner, throughout his career. He helped us enjoy a proud sense of our nationality by declaring that he can personally dismiss the "No sex please, we're British" myth. "I know eet eez a lie!"

So we shall end with our gallery of Vive la Euro-Love, and the hope that we can love ourselves and live and let love.