You know how it goes, you’re sat there listening to some young Shoreditch thing strum her out of tune guitar whilst shoving a vacuum cleaner down then microphone, ahem. When, just as you have turned your speakers up to maximum capacity Roberta pipes up and ruins it, ruins it all.

Yes Spotify, oh how great it was, and yes I’m cheap I could subscribe but I want to save my pennies, and just track her down and lodge the microphone so far down her throat that she can only mumble rhythmic static.

For those of you who are wandering what the hell I’m writing about, and whether I am slightly psychotic, fear not there’s a great new thing in Internet world, called Spotify. Hardly a justification for dismembering someone’s vocal chords, but wait…

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If you’re a designer no doubt you have come across the legend that is Barbara Chandler. If you are a follower of design, then no doubt you have read some of her articles in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the London based Evening Standard.

Barbara stood out from the other journalists that I have had experience with, for the pure and simple reason, she did her job well.  There is nothing more entertaining than having a journalist cut and paste your press release directly, you won’t find this lazy approach with the Chandler. “I learn as much as I can, and I love it!”

She has a passion for her trade, the people she meets and a desire to learn and understand, that results in real journalism.

I caught up with Barbara at the DesignersBlock show, intrigued to see how her trade has evolved over her 35 year career. 

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Synonymous with groundbreaking avant-garde fashion pieces Maison Martin Margiela has never been one to follow the crowd.

In Paris he showcased his S/S 09 collection but no one will know if he heard the roars that ensued as the show was drawn to a close by the walk of a perambulating birthday cake, entire marching band and his many lab-coated assistants as, by tradition, he was absent. He has remained a mystery man in a forward thinking, pioneering Maison, but this has not stopped the demand to have access to the product.

And after twenty years the Maison has answered. In a preface to a new direction with the brand, Martin Margiela has introduced a proposal in the form prototypes of interior products and architecture that are in development for the future.

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Wandering around the Established & Sons preview the one ‘product’
that caught my attention was Sam Hecht’s Table, Bench, Chair.

The range of furniture seems a distinct shift from some of the more
recent, consumer goods, output from the london based studio Industrial Facility,
but it is still grounded in the attention to detail and passion for process one has come
to associate with the group.

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