Solin Des E'Toiles

Solin Des E'Toiles french for "under-flashing stars" is a local label embodying the spirit of luxury design houses like Louis Vuiton and Goyard but still maintaining a local flavor. The man behind it is Lesedi "Wayflyer" Ngema who hails from Soweto and is currently a student at U.J. Solin Des E'Toiles also carries the certain swagger and sophistication of rapper Kanye West. Look out for this brand as i feel it is going to explode into the mainstream very soon, considering the ever growing "black-nouveau riche" market segment that is becoming especially important in places like Johannesburg. Check out Solin's website at www.afterdef.blogspot.com , WOW!

Record breaking Art auction at Sotheby's.

Brian Donnely (KAWS)

Brian Donnelly is a well known american street artist turned comercial mechandiser and comercial fine artist. His brightly colored works draw their inspiration from familiar cartoons like Smurfs, Simpsons and Sponge-bob. The KAWS brand aslo has an impressive list of collaborations from designing Kanye Wests last album's cover art, no working closely with japans Nigo of the popular street wear brand "a bathing ape", A big spokes person and collector of KAWS artwork is none other than Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D/The Neptunes fame. He described Donnely's work as a "truly visual stimulant". In the early 2000's Kaws prefected the skill of marketing "hyper-exclusive" merchandise, selling limited edition vinyl toys,t-shirts and caps. He became "an instant hit with the global art toy-collecting community, especially in Japan, where this genre is well respected and widespread." At the moment his personal fashion label is called Original Fake. Recent solo exhibitions include OriginalFake at the Bape Gallery in Tokyo (2003) where his sculpture "Wonderful World" sold for $400,000.

Illustrations from Barnaby Ward

These eerily stylish illustrations come from Barnaby Ward aka "somefield" a fine artist and illustrator from the Barbados, The characters in his work have heaps of character and seem to tell a whole story with just their ambiguous expressions. His work is mainly computer based as he a fetish for accuracy and detail. Space elements mixed with fantastic/horrific creatures along side leggy girls with big eyes, kinky?! ;-) check out some more of his work at www.somefield.com. amazing stuff!

Married to the Mob

MTTM:

Married to the Mob (MTTM) is the brain child of Leah McSweeney , Fed up with the New York fashion industry only catering luxury street wear for males. She started her own clothing line from her apartment. With catch phrases like "most official bitches" and "Lets talk shit" her style is raw NYC girl power with tons of attitude. Check out http://www.mobliving.com/ for more info!

evil tune... evil style

Black Magic- Magic Wands

The boy-girl duo from Los Angeles (who are coincidentally lovers.) make up the rocking "cosmic pop" band called Magic Wands. Not only is their sound eclectically hypnotising but their style is too. Their D.I.Y music video is testament to the creative chemistry shared by these two. This song to me is begging for an electro dance remix but im sure thats somewhere in the pipeline. so rock 'n' roll! ;-)

"Entangle" by Josh keyes

This is one of the latest painting from a contempoary artist currently working from Oaklands, California. His work has been described as "a satirical look at the impact urban sprawl has on the environment and surmises, with the aid of scientific slices and core samples, what could happen if we continue to infiltrate and encroach on our rural surroundings." Beautifully detailed and thought provoking material is reminicent of those naural history dioramas we were all exposed to as children. For more info about Josh Keyes check out his website http://www.joshkeyes.net/.