This sculpture, of a tanned Jack Nicholson-type gentleman, drifting up the blue wall of the gallery  in his Vilebrequins and sunglasses is unsettling firstly because of the scale, he’s about half human size, so seems to be in the distance in the blacked-out room which makes your footing go off somehow. The pose is also almost crucifix-like, and his state precarious – why doesn’t he fall off the wall?

I love Mueck’s work, after getting over the hyper-real ‘gimmick’ which, in itself is quite a feat, there’s always a bit more to consider, staring at the waxy flesh and what he might be saying about the human condition….

What I think is marvellous is the homecrafty, folky take on abstraction. So I made it into a duck down cushion and will reluctantly be taking it to M.Goldstein later in the week to sell.

He may be only just graduating from the Fashion Communication course at St Martins but this handbag-sized Issue 1 will be available in very limited numbers sometime this summer at a discerning newsagent near you!

If Sofia Coppola were a transsexual making a fanzine for Laduree it would look like this.

The matte, sugared-almond-hued pages are full of ladies chatting, shooting the breeze about fashion, life, happiness…all the important stuff. Peppered amongst the interviews are Jack’s polaroids of key items: hair clips, a Louise Gray shoe, and icons: Mildred Baena, Roger the Alien. It’s an utter joy, a beautiful object. I’m so happy Jack picked me as one of his interviewees and beyond happy with the result.

You can also order Issue 1 but I think there’s only a very few left…

Like Malcolm McLaren (who took over the World’s End era Mr Freedom shop in 1976 to open Seditionaries with Vivienne Westwood), the days of these kind of heroic retail trailblazers and risk-takers have sadly all but been swallowed up by high rents and homogenisation of everything. The triumph of the generic cookie-cut high street and The Chain have made shopping a bleak prospect, with few exceptions.

Obviously this is a subject very close to my heart. And to Paul Gorman‘s, author of “Mr Freedom. Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero” out on Adelita next month.

As Paul Smith rightly says, “He has always been at the forefront of what is new in retailing, fashion and design.” I’m about halfway through my preview copy and keep getting those excited butterflies you get when witnessing the perfect clash of inspiration, location and heroic individualism working at the right time and place – when a ‘scene’ happens naturally, before the rest of the world catches up and cashes in. Amazingly though, this happened time after time in Tommy Roberts’ long career;  selling Italian coffee to hipsters, vintage to Jimmy Hendrix and Julie Christie, wearable pop art (the first to license Disney on clothing), Mr Feed’em american burgers before London had heard of McDonalds, pop art as furniture, becoming a recording artist, clashing Neo-Expressionim with goth, kitting David Bowie out for his album Pin Ups, importing mobile phones and pre-dating Post-Modern design whilst pioneering Hi-Tech and gadgets which revolutionised the interiors landscape before anyone else with partner Paul Jones in the early 80s, clothing retailer/band manager, …I could go on and on…it’s incredible the amount of times this man re-invented himself, and what a huge yet unsung influence he has been on British pop culture.

This is such an important book. Tommy Roberts is a hero.

I’m particularly happy with the two interviews I contributed with the incredible Dianne Brill and Patrick Wolf. Here are a few candid shots by Etienne on the day of Patrick’s portrait shoot. You might recognise the paige-boy wig from the beautiful cover shoot – it looks a little, er, different on me…a lot less glamorous, especially with all the woollen accessories I had piled on for some reason! But we had a lot of wig fun that day…

Jonathan Kemp’s back-page feature is wonderful. An object of desire and a love letter in one, here he is above seeing the magazine for the first time in the George and Dragon the other day – that’s the Dolled Up beauty shoot..one of my favourites in the magazine…

Amazing shoot from Fran Bedia again this issue and Felicity Ingram, Iwo Gospodinov…and many more! It’s even more gorgeous and glossy than issue 1…if that’s possible!!!

Available from Selfridges, Magma, ICA bookshop, Compton News, Claire de Rouen…and worldwide!!!!

Just ordered myself a pack of these divine cards. They are a limited edition created from Stephen Jones’ archive of hat illustrations to raise funds for HIV i-Base. You can buy them here and they are, as it says on the press release “a must for all stylish correspondence” !!!! Agreed!

If you’re up west they’re also available from The Society Club Soho.

There’s further editions planned too – can’t WAIT for the Donald Urquhart ones!!!

The delicate skull, made from dead men’s Saville Row patterns, comes in a beautiful perspex box.

Looks right at home on the shelf…

Natural beauty is a gift. As time goes on, managing what nature gave you and your attitude to the power of your beauty, as well as the signs of time, separates the women from the perpetual girls. Lauren Hutton is a good example of that I think.

Charlotte Rampling has always been breathtakingly beautiful.  I first saw her in Georgy Girl as a child, the beautiful bitch…have  obsessed over her many times since; The Night Porter, of course, Stardust Memories, The Verdict. Wonderful actress, she’s always taken surprising choices, wilfully avoided the star vehicles. Seeing her here in Angelina Maccarone’s documentary The Look, talking to friends about the big things like Love, Exposure, Taboo and Desire puts a classy twist on the bio pic. Not a single talking head to camera. Just friends talking informally, filmed rather beautifully. And, swishing around Paris in the film in her floor length leather coat taking pictures, she’s still got whatever it was that caused her to be discovered in the first place.

In the Q & A afterwards I was too intimidated to ask a question; didn’t want to risk being caught in the headlights of The Look. But she was so funny, honest and effortlessly cool, I wish I had now. She’s a role model for all women, and not just because she’s ageing naturally, with dignity and without compromising or submitting to ridiculous cultural pressures. She’s just one of the ones that makes you proud to be female.