VAMP Magazine 16

T H E PA R I S I SS U E DEC ‘14

VAMPMAGAZINE

#16

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MY REALITY

The holidays are on the horizon, and Fossil is continuing its journey on the open road. Whether home for the season or off on a winter getaway, we’ve curated a stellar selection of gifts sure to make the season bright. Classic styles in an essential neutral palette, vibrant stocking stuffers or gifts that are truly out of this world— they’re all packable presents sure to assure your destination will be a celebration!

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#WHEN I WANT TO GIVE...

WHENEVER, WHEREVER... SUNLAB

Bay Street • Gozo • Iklin • Paola • The Point • Valletta

SLIEMA

ST. JULIANS

INSIDE ISSUE #16

Nowhere off the beaten track, but a city where, like any city, you can find something new and satiable if you look hard enough. A capital city at its best, Paris has something to offer us all – from various flee-markets to luxury hotels and eateries.

This November saw the world through a lens with the best Paris Photo expo yet – claiming to have sold more than $500,000 worth of works and stealing all the attention away from Christies and Sotheby’s latest auction sales. Around the corner, Isabelle Rouyer presents her Parisian loft. Designed for a pair of designers – one a textile designer with a leading fashion house, the other a costume designer in the film industry – it is fun and an unpretentious home in which anyone who likes a bit of vintage retro can imagine living.

Keeping on the retro vibe – we present exclusive images from the Tico Tico calendar being launched tonight (7th of December). A team of efficient and creative individuals got together to create this fun piece of eye-candy now available to keep us vibing all year – aiming to keep Strait Street alive!

Joelle Gewolb made the difficult but only choice to move to Paris from London many years ago, making adjustments to her academic future and lifestyle. She puts pen to paper for the first time since, and describes her ideal day in Paris.

Local architecture firm MJMDA upgraded an old farmhouse in Malta into a warm and welcoming family home. ‘Cozy up’ this winter and get inspired, while preparing treats for your loved ones with the recipes from Mummies Yummies Food.

022 STYLE FILES Here’s some tips and items to fill up your wardrobe

025 SIF JAKOBS We meet the lady behind the jewellery brand Sif Jakobs, now available in Malta

045 TINDER DIARIES Kris Sargent hasn’t found that special woman in his life just yet.

Here’s the next leg of his journey trying to find her

050 RETROSPECT We review the highly successful 18th edition of Paris Photo

061 THE ENCHANTED ISLE Professor Richard England lets us in on his favourite holiday escape, Santorini

066 PARIS MON AMORE Londoner Joelle Gewolb moved to Paris, and tells us how she got there and how she likes to spend her day

068 DETOUR Vamp winter 2014 fashion shoot

Maltese photographer ‘superstar’ Kurt Arrigo talks to Mike Ross – the local English photographer who started his career designing music covers for famous musicians in the swinging sixties – about his latest and upcoming projects.

081 AKA TWITCH

And Kris Sargent writes on. He has failed again on the dating scene.

088 CREATIVE CURSING

We catch up with the busy Maltese graffiti artist James Micallef Grimaud AKA Twitch

At that moment of need, hold those bad words and replace them with something articulate that will do the job so much better

095 LUST LIST Here are some cool ideas for Christmas gifts

100 PARIS LOFT We look through the key hole at a beautiful loft in Paris Editor Lily Agius Creative Director / Design Chris Psaila Photographers Federico Peltretti Stylist Luke Engerer Pavli Medvedova Sales / Director Sam Psaila - +356 7788 0300

This magazine is published by [ VAMP ] PUBLICATIONS

Printers Print It

Contributors Carmen Briffa, MJMDA Chrys, Mummies Yummies Dr Joanna Delia Federico Peltretti Id-demarco James Micallef Grimaud Joelle Gewolb Keith Diplock Kris Micallef Kris Sargant Krista Zammit Marmara Kurt Arrigo Lara Steer Lee Stack Lorraine Sammut Luke Engerer Malta Type Mike Ross Nicholas Cutajar Nicole Cushchieri Richard England Tamara Burr

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

All rights reserved.

Dates, information and prices are believed to be correct at the time of going to press but are subject to change and no responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions.

Neither the editor nor the publisher accept responsibility for any material submitted, whether photographic or otherwise. While we endeavour to ensure that the organisations and firms mentioned are reputable. The editor can give no guarantee that they will fulfill their obligations under all circumstances.© Copyright 2014/15

facebook.com/ vampmagazine malta

COVER PHOTO BY:

BY FEDERICO PELTRETTI STYLED BY LUKE ENGERER

114 HIGH HOPES We meet some of the adventurous people behind the Kiliminjaro Challenge

117 SMILES ALL ROUND We are updated with the latest developments and designs by Alessi

122 PARTY CHOW Chrys Mangion from Mummies Yummies lets us in on a few quick and easy Christmas party recipes to impress your family and friends

129 CHASING HORIZONS We catch up with the prolific Kurt Arrigo and see some of his remarkable photography

135 MILL ME Local architecture firm MJMDA run us through their revamp of a Maltese farmhouse

149 MIX IT UP You favourite make-up tips with the best brands available in Malta ....AND MORE >

VAMP MAGAZINE UPDATE

100 YEARS OF MAXFACTOR Since its launch of the first mass liquid make-up in 1914, Max Factor has continued to launch make-up artistry-inspired products so that women can Make Glamour Happen.

Mr Max Factor was responsible for some of the world’s most iconic and glamorous beauty looks of the past that are still coveted today. A hundred years on and renowned make-up artist to the stars Pat McGrath – together with the international network of Max Factor Make-up Artists – continue the legacy by redefining what glamour means today.

For local trade enquiries contact VJ Salomone Marketing on tel: 8007 2387

A NIGHT OF WHISKY, WATCHES, & GOOD COMPANY! Craftsmanship, style and generosity are at the heart of the recent collaboration between Chivas Regal and award-winning British watch company Bremont. Bremont has partnered with Chivas to design the latest Chivas 12 Made for Gentlemen

by Bremont Limited Edition gift tin. To further commemorate this collaboration, 12 handcrafted Bremont Chivalry Limited Edition watches have been created exclusively to feature in auctions around the world to help raise funds for a selection of charities.

On 24th October 2014, the first live auction event took place in Malta at VASCAS in Naxxar. Mr Stephen Lee, Area Sales Manager for Bremont, brought watch ‘number seven’ to be auctioned on the night and remained present for the event. The evening, organised by Farsons Beverage Imports Company Ltd. and VASCAS Enterprises Ltd., raised €7,800 towards The Malta Community Chest Fund.

The Chivas 12 Limited edition tin is available in Malta and is distributed by Farsons Beverage Imports Co. Ltd

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BROOKS BROTHERS – WINTER 14/15 As the next generation in their line of suiting, Red Fleece continues the tradition of top craftsmanship seen in Brooks Brothers’ other collections. Their suits have a softer shoulder, but they are still structured for a clean, sharp look.

All feature half-canvas construction, pick stitch detail and are lined for the last word in comfort.

Updated versions of classic pinstripes, checks and plaids now seem fresh when combined with our slim Red Fleece fit— which offers a lower rise, narrower lapels and shorter jacket. This combination of sophistication and trim tailoring echoes the modern sensibility of the collection.

243, Rebublic Street, Valletta. Tel: 2122 1644

Another successful event for VJ Salomone Marketing Ltd VJ Salomone Marketing Ltd hosted yet another exciting event last week, this time to celebrate its long standing successful association with the popular BOSS fragrances which form part of the company’s extensive portfolio.

The event was held on Wednesday 12th November at the recently opened Electro Lobster Project in Balluta, specifically chosen as it was in line with everything that Boss fragrances represent: style, modernity and fabulousness. While guests mingled in these stylishly hip surroundings, they were also treated to a fantastic show featuring the very clever Molecular Fusion team who put on a spectacular demonstration creating the most original cocktails which was then enjoyed by all present.

VAMP MAGAZINE FRAGRANCES

212 VIP ROSÉ

Guerlian L’Homme Ideal This is a new, extremely attractive men’s fragrance with a woody aroma , and a sophisticated, seductive and sexy character.

The opening is flooded with the elixir of alluring sweetness delivered from opulent rosemary and fragrant citrus accents with white blossoms of bitter orange. The courageous heart is revealed with the expressive notes of spicy tonka bean and the sweetness of enchanting almond. The dry down features intriguing notes in a pure harmony of fervent Indian vetiver, Moroccan white cedar and aromatic notes of rich leather.

Exclusively for Franks and Roberts Perfumery

“SOMETHING IN THE AIR THIS CHRISTMAS...HERE ARE THE SIX SCENTS EVERY MAN AND W O M A N WA N T S . . . S P L A S H I T O N ! ” Give the gift of an icon this Christmas The Gucci collection of exclusive fragrances presents not only the embodiment in scent of a historic, Italian luxury aesthetic, but also a journey in Gucci’s iconic world of glamour and style. This Christmas, give the gift of a fragrance forged by one of the most iconic fashion houses in the world and in so doing access Gucci’s unique world of scents, luxury and history.

Gucci fragrances are the perfect gift for the holiday, offering a range of distinctive scents.

Receive a Gucci collectable Christmas decoration when purchasing any male or female Gucci fragrance this Christmas.

For local trade enquiries contact VJ Salomone Marketing on tel: 8007 2387.

This offer is valid from authorised outlets only and on large sizes only. Ask in-store for more details

Boss Reloaded THE MAN OF TODAY. THE BEST HE’S EVER BEEN Personifying strength, chivalry, charm and the complexity of modern times, Gerard Butler perfectly mirrors modern masculinity and embodies the values of BOSS BOTTLED. Receive your free BOSS weekend bag when purchasing any Hugo Boss fragrance and a Boss jewellery case on all Boss female fragrances.

For local trade enquiries contact VJ Salomone Marketing on tel: 8007 2387. Ask in store for more details. This offer is valid from authorised outlets only and on large sizes

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Path: Production:Clients:PGPremiumLifestyle-PGPL:702804:ArtworksandLinkedfiles:Studio:702804-4BossBottle&JourMasters:702804-4_PGPL_600x600.indd Trim: 600x600mm Bleed: 100mm Page 1 of 1 LARGE FORMAT AW @ 100%

Date: DI:

17.09.14 Boomer

PRE PRESS

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191 Old Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5DW | Telephone:+44 20 7863 9400

Carolina Herrera has launched her new fragrance – 212 VIP ROSÉ – born to be the heart and soul of the best party in New York City: an incredible party that brings together all the glamour, elegance and fun of the city of skyscrapers. It’s where people become the essential ingredient – the bottleinspired by the 212 VIP ROSÉ girl – a new feminine design with new materials and definition for the new girl on the block. A glass bottle with a sophisticated degradé effect in matte pink, an engraved ring and VIP signature, the magnetic cap gives our bottle a cool and chic feminity. The fragrance is available in Eau de Parfum 80, 50 and 30ml.

Exclusively distributed by Ta’ Xbiex Perfumery Ltd Tel: 21 331 553

DOLCE & GABBANA – The One and The One for Men Collector’s Edition Dolce&Gabbana celebrates the timeless elegance of The One and The One for Men with a powerful collector’s edition: The One is interpreted in Dolce&Gabbana iconic red and The One for Men in deep, rich brown. This duo of fragrances emulates their wearers – the enigmatic woman of fierce yet sparkling splendour, and the man whose sophistication commands the attention of all around him.

Pick up a beautiful D&G keychain with every purchase from Dolce&Gabbana. Give The One fragrances for both men and women this Christmas.

For local trade enquiries contact VJ Salomone Marketing on tel: 8007 2387. Ask in store for more details. Offer valid from authorised outlets only and for large sizes only

#STYLE FILE

“ I nvest in fa u x f u r – the winter staple – f or a chic day - to - night o u t f it. ” Guess This seasons Guess collection is a dream come true for every women. It’s all about fur coats, leather jackets, sexy heels and statement handbags. Whether you like it or not, faux fur is somewhat of a winter staple. Best way to wear it? Combine leather pants with a silk top and finish the look with heels for a chic day-to-night outfit. Head down to Guess and spoil yourself this Christmas!

Fur Gilet €210 Leather Jacket €315 Leather Bag €279 Shoes €175 Available from all GUESS outlets.

HEBE GLAM Collection Ice-Glam by Ice watch €89 Unisex Ice-Style by Ice Watch €165

Thomas Sabo, gold plated, sterling silver ring with white or black ceramic €198

Let’s be honest ladies. As much as we love to accessorize, we have to admit that a watch isn’t on top of our list — until we need to figure out the time. That’s why I would like to bring these watches by Ice-watch to your attention. They are as functional as fashionable and they are on top of my wrist wish list this season. Wear the black one with your LBD as your desk-to-dinner accessory. Swap it with the white unisex watch to add a bit of glam to your smart causal look. Don’t forget to complete the look with Thomas Sabo sterling silver rings.

Available only from HEBE – Valletta, Paola or Sliema & Ice Watch - Bisazza Street, Sliema.

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Liebeskind

I know you can’t wait to start wearing your winter coat but you can definitely break out a new statement handbag no matter what the temperature is outside. This winter season is all about statement accessory at Liebeskind. Black leather pants are a must-have this winter and the same goes for your clutch. Match it with your bomber jacket and a pair of sneakers. If you really want to make a handbag statement, go for this snake skin structured satchel in burgundy and add an element of lux to any outfit. [ 1 ] €399 [ 2 ] €99.90 Liebeskind 36/37 The strand Sliema

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MEET SIF JAKOBS

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Q+A SIF JAKOBS

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DANISH JEWELLERY LINE LAUNCHED IN MALTA

SIF JAKOBS TALKS TO VAMP ABOUT HER HUMBLE BEGINNINGS WHILE PUTTING TOGETHER THE COMPANY SHE NOW LIVES FOR, DESIGNING JEWELLERY THAT IS SO FAR - REPRESENTED IN 13 COUNTRIES. >>

BY LILY AGUIS

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MEET SIF JAKOBS

Where did your fascination with jewellery begin and when did you start producing your own?

I have been drawing since I was a little girl and my dream was to become a goldsmith, making jewellery by hand. I’m a creative person: when I studied, I was always seeing form and pictures so, in a way, I have always been an artist – I was born with it. I’m also an Aquarius – I’m a dreamer, but I always make my dreams come true. I started Sif Jakobs Jewellery five years ago, in my apartment in Copenhagen. That is when I started producing my own jewellery. The first couple of years, the work was still carried out from my apartment but when product, cardboard boxes and design plans started to take over the entire place, I decided to look for more suitable company facilities. Today, we employ 20 staff at our headquarters, which are located in the centre of Copenhagen.

In which other countries are you represented and are you preparing to launch somewhere else in the near future?

We are currently represented in 13 countries: UK , Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, The Faroe Islands and Greenland, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and, of course, Malta. At the moment we are staying focused on expanding the markets in which we are currently operating, but if a good opportunity presents itself, we will be open to it.

You were born and bred in Iceland, yet your collections are named after Italian cities.

Where does your love for Italy come from and does Italian style and design influence your designs?

Once I had completed my education, I moved to Denmark where I worked for a DanishItalian jewellery company. This involved several trips to Italy, which is when I started admiring Italian culture. The relaxed atmosphere, the food culture, the architecture and the overall elegance became a huge inspiration to me. I love the fact that Italians don’t need an occasion in order to dress up. Italian style and design are definitely one of the things that influence my designs, but I would say that travelling is my inspiration. I love to see what is happening around the world and to be inspired by current fashion trends.

Does a new collection come together when your chosen market is in mind – or is it the other way around? Do you create the collection and then launch it at the next location?

It was actually our first time launching a specific collection in a country, as we did with our F/W 2014 collection in Malta. It was a great experience as we felt very welcome and believe it was a great success. However, generally we focus on creating a collection and then launch it in the markets in which we are present.

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You are considered to be one of Denmark’s top 100 Best-Dressed Women. How would you describe your sense of personal style and how is this reflected in your jewellery?

I would say that I try to dress with elegance and sophistication, which is also how I see my jewellery. The most important aspect for me is that I feel comfortable and confident in my clothes. I also always have a pair of heels within reach if an unexpected meeting or a dinner-date comes up.

What does your typical working day consist of?

It starts very early in the morning, preparing the day, and I am at the office from 9 o’clock until late in the evening, unless I am travelling.

My day consists of several meetings with my departmental team leaders and other exciting people. Later in the day is when I focus on my designs and plan my new collections. The last thing I do is have a very late dinner with my husband who, thankfully, works with me.

For many years you have been involved in charity events, including the donation of a pendant in support of children with heart disease and producing jewellery specifically for an event such as The Pink Ribbon brooch in 2009 for the Icelandic Cancer Society. How important is this to you and how easy is it, do you think, for a business to keep charity in mind – or forget – as it grows?

Charity work is incredibly important to me and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity of designing jewellery in support of so many amazing organisations. I can’t imagine a time where I wouldn’t keep up my charity work, no matter how big my company becomes. It’s important to think of others and see how you can contribute in your community and help those in need. It warms my heart to help others.

Your jewellery is made from various materials: silver, leather, Swarovski crystals, zircons and metal beads, resin…. Does that mean that the price range can vary and there is something for every taste? And how would you describe your collections?

The price range can vary due to the material, but my vision is to create mesmerising, yet affordable, high-quality jewellery for modern women everywhere. I believe that there is something for every taste as my collection has a large variety of items and different materials.

There is also jewellery that is more suited for day wear and jewellery that is more suitable for dressing up.

I would describe my design as Nordic minimalism, with Italian elegance and a fine balance between stylish rawness and femininity. V

T HE ORIGINAL AMERICAN BRAND

R E P U B L I C S T R E E T, VA L L E T TA NEW YORK

LONDON

PARIS

MILAN

ROME

MADRID

MOSCOW

SHANGHAI

TOKYO

HONG KONG

#STYLE FILE Mighty Purse For all the fans of gadgets and gizmos here you are presented with the ultimate extravaganza: not only a bag but also a charging outlet for your mobile on the go.

Stay connected and show off a little, for only €99!

Available from: iCentre

Valletta, iCentre Sliema, The House Shop & Regina Shoe Store www.mighty-purse.com www.facebook.com/ mightypurseinmalta

MONSOON CASUAL LUXE

SOLARIS While sunglasses are a year-round staple for most of us, I still like to switch things up with a fresh pair when the cold weather hits. There are too many days when the sun is shining as bright in winter as in summer. So let’s get this straight. There is no outfit that is complete in the wintertime without a hot pair of sunglasses.

On top of that they are the most functional accessory of all time.

Choose from Jimmy Choo and Saint Laurent retro inspired round sunglasses or Fendi futuristic cat eyes.

Yves Saint Lauren €239 Jimmy Choo €205 Fendi €295 Available from Solaris, Sliema

SUNLAB Jewellery is indeed a great accessory to enhance any boring outfit and highlight what you really want to show. Remember, you want to garnish your outfit, not embellish it, when dressing for the office.

A great idea is to either choose a few small pieces, like this watch or a bracelet from Sunlab, or choose one big piece, such as a very chunky necklace, to keep your 9-to-5 look elegant and sleek. Don’t overdo it!

Fossil Rose Gold Watch €139 Fossil Rose Gold Bracelet €59 2 Jewels Bracelet €59 2 Jewels Necklace €49 Breil Necklace €130 Available from Sunlab & VIP

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Monsoon captures a mood of relaxed femininity. It’s all about real clothes: practical modern pieces made covetable by gorgeous colour, distinctive texture or rich embellishment. Things you’ll want to wear right now. Things you’ll cherish forever.

Sliema-VallettaPaola-Paceville-Gozo

MERCHANT STREET, VALLETTA. T: 22584441 | ST. ANNE’S SQUARE, SLIEMA. T: 22584432

#STYLE FILE CARPISA

ACCESSORIZE

Here’s a queen shopper bag in a grainy material and coconut print from Carpisa, that will have all heads turning at the supermarket. Available in black, mud and Bordeaux red. €39.90

Be a Diva! From delicate chain fringing to lavish pearl and sequin embellishment, our gorgeous jewellery and must-have bags glam-slam the simplest evening wear into a memorable style statement and puts everyone in the mood to party!

This maxi jewellery box from Carpisa, with a drawer and mirror could be the best thing you’ve laid your eyes on if you need to tidy up your jewellery display.

Available in Bordeaux red. €99.90

Available from Accessorize Sliema, Valletta, Paola, Paceville & Gozo

From all Carpisa Stores

MEXX WOMAN If you like to keep things simple this season, then the monochrome trend is the perfect style solution. Monochrome trend is the easiest and one of the most wearable trends for the colder months. The color combination of black and white is as timeless as it is flattering. No matter what the occasion or time of day, whip out a black and white ensemble and you’re good to go. Invest in LBD (Little Black Dress) and an oversized shopper bag for a perfect desk-to-dinner look.

Wool cardigan €119, Pleated black top €69.99, Lace skirt €89.99, Structured tote bag €79.99

CARLA GRIMA LATEST COLLECTION

Available from all MEXX outlets

GUESS SHOES Stand tall and feel slim and fabulous in this perfect pair of booties, a definite must have this season! and to break off your monochrome look, invest in red statement heels and walk proud.

Bootie €225 Patent pump €160 Available from all Guess Outlets

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The classic jacket gets a make-over this winter season. Enfold yourself in a versatile and very flattering wrap-over jacket/top from Carla Grima’s latest winter collection: Eventuality. You can dress it down with black leather pants and a simple top or roll-neck during the day and it will come in handy to throw over an LBD during the party season in a very on-trend style!

Layla Jacket €264 T: 9911 0037 – www.carlagrima.com

#STYLE FILE 1

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TWENTY 2 It’s that time of the year again, when sequins and sparkle are totally allowed to dominate your wardrobe! So ladies, get your shine on. Colorful sequins and other light-catching embellishments provide a glimmer moment for this winter season. This sequined play-suit and dress from Twenty 2 is a party perfect piece. Mermaid sequin is definitely the colour of the season if you’re feeling a little more daring and want to turn some heads. Style it with a funky pair of boots and throw over a black biker jacket. Finish the look with simple jewellery.

Playsuit €68 , Dress €56 Available from Twenty 2, Birkirkara

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COCCINELLE – SPOILT FOR CHOICE SUNLAB It is definitely true that glasses help us to see, and protect our precious eyes from the sun’s glare. But most importantly, they are everyone’s favorite accessory. One trend that is here to stay are oversizedsunglasses. They’re a fabulous accessories to give you that milliondollar look we all love so much. Classic square sunglasses will help add definition to a round and delicate face shape. Gold details also help up the glam-factor of the frames.

Roberto Cavalli Sunglasses €248 Guess Sunglasses €87.00 Available from Sunlab

Nowhere in the style rule-book does it say you can’t treat yourself to a perfect handbag this season. So if you are looking for an investmentworthy pieces, look no further. From classic 9-5 bags to eye-catching suede shopper, Coccinelle will satisfy your style buds. The most convenient day-to-night purse style: cross-body bag. You can choose one in black for versatility or go for one in burgundy or ocean blue for more trendy look.

You can wear the purse on one shoulder or carry it under your arm for a chic evening look.

1. Clutch bag: €190 – 2. Classic handbag: €330 3. Suede shopping bag: €195 – 4. Satin clutch bag: €105 – 5. Clutch bag: €180 6. Brown bag: €160 – All available from Coccinelle – 11 Tower Road, Sliema

FROM LEFT: DITA VON TEESE SET 30ML €26 – CAROLINA HERRERA SET 50ML €76 – MADEMOISELLE NINA RICCI SET 50ML €62 ALL EXCLUSIVELY DISTRIBUTED BY TA’ XBIEX PERFUMERY LIMITED TEL: 2133 1553 PARIS ISSUE

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#STYLE FILE

Urban Culture Casual kicks have taken a step up. You can pair sneakers with nice jeans and a blazer or even a full suit. There is only one rule. If you work out in them they are your gym shoes, not your office shoes. Nike has winterised some of its most iconic styles from sneaker boots to the most popular skateboarding Stefan Janoski shoes.

If you want to keep it classic, Timberland boots are the trend from the 90’s that can rock right now. Just remember: when you wear bold shoes, choose neutral-coloured clothing.

Photography: Federico Peltretti Styling: Pavli Medvedova for PavliStyle Hair: Olga Artysiewicz Model: Gabriel Miculiciu Trousers: €126.50 Kenneth Cole Watch €180 Shirt: €128 Jacket: €190

Timberland Earth Keeper €185 Nike Air Max sneaker boot €155 Nike Stefan Janonski €88 Nike Air Max Lunar €149 Vans Authentic black / black leather €90 Jordan SC-3 €124 Urban Culture-Level 2-The Point Sliema

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MERCHANT ST., VALLETTA. T: 22584447 | ST. ANNE’S SQUARE, SLIEMA. T: 22584434

#STYLE FILE

“ B ring elegance to yo u r loo k with a classic – sharply c u t bla z er . ” B

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GUESS MEN Autumn’s in full swing and we all know the sad fact that it’s only going to get colder from now on. This AW14 is all about the return of the quilted jacket.

From walks in the country to a style statement in the city, men can easily keep the smart causal look with this statement Guess quilted jacket.

It won’t just protect you from the winter winds. Wear it over a suit Italian-style or zipped up aprèsski. Complete the look with suede winter shoes and this season latest accessory – backpack.

Men’s Jacket €210 Suede shoes €115 Back pack €166 Available from all guess outlets

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MEXX MAN - EVER CHANGING, EVER DEVELOPING

SOLARIS

You will always need a decent smart blazer in your wardrobe. You can bring elegance to your look with a classic, sharply-cut blazer from MEXX MEN AW14 collection or choose one of the new season, smart casual blazers that finish off a jeans and t-shirt combo.

MEXX got also plenty of essential knits from crew neck sweaters to roll necks in plain and neutral colours that come in handy this winter season. Sweaters are super versatile and work with pretty much everything from denim and suits, to classic coats or bomber jackets. Fly London shoes available exclusively at Junction Sliema and Valletta.

Wayfarer is the most recognized shape of sunglasses with a very dangerous looking frame iconised since the 80s. The shape is edgy, implies danger and is considered a design classic. Adding a wayfarer-style will instantly transform any smart or casual look. You can never go wrong with tried and trusted pair of Hugo Boss wayfarer sunglasses.

[ A ] Blazer €99.99 [ B ] €159.99 [ C ] €144.99 – Available from all MEXX outlets

Hugo Boss Men €189 Available from Solaris Sliema

SUNLAB Your watch needs to be in sync with your lifestyle. We understand perfectly well that the phone in your pocket tells the time. That’s cool and all, but we still think you should strap on a watch. A watch is the one piece of man jewellery that says something about who you are. Like any other piece in your wardrobe, your watch needs to make sense with the rest of what you’re wearing. If you are wearing a leatherstrap watch, always match the strap to your shoes.

Briel Bracelet €148 - Esprit €148 - Nautica €229 Michael Kors €249 Available from all Sunlab & VIP outlets

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#STYLE FILE

“ I f yo u wear bold shoes , go f or ne u tral – colo u red clothing . ” Fly London - EVER CHANGING, EVER DEVELOPING Inserted in the young fashion industry, FLY London presents, the very last trends, offering a great variety of styles, colours and materials, keeping FLY London at the forefront of international fashion.

The major characteristic to enhance on FLY London products is originality. From the design of each product to the colour combinations, all new collections developments follow this rule.

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[ 1 ] €119.95 [ 2 ] €94.95 [ 3 ] €104.95 [ 4 ] €104.95

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Sunlab Men

Fly London shoes has been represented by Junction for the past 10 years. A truly original design and a quality made shoes. All leather uppers including inside lining . Quality shoes at a reasonable price!

Sunglasses are an indispensable part of any modern gent’s style regimen and can quickly become one of your signature pieces. Not only do they serve a very practical purpose, but they can really pull together that winter look you’re going for. The iconic Wayfarer remains as popular today as ever – these are one pair of sunnies that you’ll never want to be without. An undeniably masculine, retro style, the aviator sunglasses are as iconic as the classic Wayfarer. Extremely versatile, the aviator suits most face-shapes and has the masterful ability to go with almost anything.

Fly London shoes available exclusively at Junction Sliema and Valletta.

Michael Kors €134, Oakley [white] €149 Oakley €209

“Ever changing, ever developing” is the slogan which inspires everyone associated with the project.

Available from Sunlab

FROM LEFT: CH MEN - 400ML SET: €83, BATMAN SET: €27 INVICTUS 100ML SET: €74 ALL EXCLUSIVELY DISTRIBUTED BY TA’ XBIEX PERFUMERY LIMITED TEL: 2133 1553

www.scotch-soda.com | Tel. : +31 (0) 88 561 0000

WARDROBE MUST HAVES FROM SCOTCH & SODA: A VINTAGE CLASSIC WITH A PROGRESSIVE TWIST. THIS AMAZING BRAND FROM THE NETHERLANDS NEVER FAILS AT STRIKING A CHORD WITH A DEMANDING CLIENTELE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR COMFORT, SOPHISTICATION AND RICHNESS OF DETAILS UNDER THE AEGIS OF ONE LABEL. HERE IN MALTA SCOTCH & SODA IS AVAILABLE AT ‘JUNCTION’ AN INDEPENDENT FASHION RETAIL CONCEPT WHICH FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES HAS BEEN INTRODUCING INTERNATIONAL CUTTING EDGE BRANDS WITHOUT EVER DISAPPOINTING >> 042

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[ MODEL LEFT ] Available at JUNCTION, Sliema & Valletta

#STYLE FILE

#STYLE FILE

CCOOMMFFOORRTT, , SSOOPPHHI ISSTTI ICCAATTI IOONN AANNDD AA RRI ICCHHNNEESSSS OOFF DDEETTAAI ILL UUNNDDEERR TTHHEE EAGEI G SI S OOFF OONNEE LLAABBEELL.

Not sure what to buy him for Christmas? How about a wallet? Every man needs a classic leather wallet with a zip, but if you prefer to keep things simple there are also perfect alternatives: a soft, sturdy leather credit card holder with a convenient zip closure to be paired with a sleek key ring and a great classic chunky leather belt to complement a denim look. With those chilly winds approaching you will definitely fall for these rocker scarves to add some swagger to your winter. Here at Vamp we know how important it is to feel confident when we dress up. That confidence only comes when wearing great underwear and the perfect solution would be to go for comfortable cotton blend boxer shorts. Last but not least, your personality will certainly ooze on the zesty, smoky and musky notes of BARFLY, Scotch & Soda’s signature fragrance... Be confident, be fabulous and be happy. Merry Christmas boys!

AVAILABLE AT JUNCTION The Plaza Shopping Centre, Sliema – The Savoy Shopping Centre, Valletta PARIS ISSUE

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EYEWARE TRENDS

EYEWARE TRENDS WINTER>‘14 TIS THE SEASON TO BE WEARING BOLD, OVERSIZED AND DYNAMIC EYEWEAR. COMPLETE YOUR LOOK B Y PA I R I N G T H E R I G H T S E T O F G L A S S E S T O M A T C H Y O U R O U T F I T , S U I T Y O U R S T Y L E A N D S H O W C A S E YO U R D I F F E R E N T M O O D . T H E B E S T S U NG L A S S E S A R E A LWAY S T H E O N E S T H AT M A K E YO U L O O K A N D F E E L G R E AT, A N D T H E R E A R E P L E N T Y O F E XC I T I NG S H A P E S A N D C O L O U R S T O C H O O S E F R O M , A L L I N S P I R E D B Y T H I S W I N T E R ’ S WA R D R O B E S TA P L E S .

The Versace Spring/Summer15 collection offers a selection of frames with a highly contemporary feel.

The range carries a strong, sensual selection of bold frames to accentuate your look and make you feel more feminine. Described as daring, exerting a sense of power, seduction, freedom and glamour, the collection is designed for women who recognise their own stylistic identity in Versace’s unique qualities.

What trends should you be looking out for when purchasing a new pair this Christ-mas?

Dark Tones & Oversized Frames Women who like to wear plenty of bright colours and exotic patterns should opt for dark geometrically shaped frames in a single tone. With their square profile and broad lines, oversized glasses are both practical and comfortable, covering the entire eye area to give the wearer a touch of modern elegance and mysterious flare.

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Aviators A timeless classic since the early 20th century, the traditional aviator sunglasses are recognised for their oversized teardrop-shaped lens synonymous with aviation. For the daring and adventurous, these glasses are elegant, stylish and practical. The Versace range comes in brown or black frames and gradient lenses.

Butterfly Lenses Add that little extra glamour and charm to your personality.

The beauty of the new butterfly lenses is they tend to fit nicely across a wide range of face shapes. Ver-sace’s collection is an elegant re-interpretation of this classic eye accessory, inspired by the styles of Hollywood beauties Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Choose the pair of Versaces to suit your style this Christmas. View the complete collection and receive advice from professional experts at Class Opticians

For a list of authorised Versace eyeware opticians contact: sglass@classoptical.com +356 238 11 000

5 0 1® J E A N

AS ORIGINAL AS YOU ARE

MERCHANT ST., VALLETTA. T: 22584444 | ST. ANNE’S SQUARE, SLIEMA. T: 22584431

FOR EVERYBODY WHO’S NOT JUST ANYBODY.

THE TINDER DIARIES

THE TINDER DIARIES 2 he previously discussed Raisin girl and I have a lot more in common than being open to a date after two texts and finding me funny; we have similar tastes in wine, food and music, although some of her suggestions were questionable and I only went along with them to solidify the assertion that we were, in fact, two peas in a pod.

She claimed she was a great cook, and whether these claims were wild or not remained to be seen, but it did make her look more attractive while she was making them. She was also a single parent – her girl is two year old and mine is five, and we texted ad nauseum for a whole week before we arranged to meet up. I did all my usual Facebook checks and Date Day arrived. We arranged to meet close to her home town in Wexford, in a bohemian book shop-cumcoffee shop.

I was driving to the date and realised there was a slight possibility that I would be a few minutes late. The one thing I am known for is my selective health and safety obedience: I refuse to text and drive but find driving and talking on a phone an acceptable practice.

The phone starts ringing and this silly thought enters my admittedly excited mind: I realised that we had never actually spoken, all our correspondence had been by text.

So wouldn’t it be hilarious if, after a week of ‘bigging myself up’, I would have a girly voice, very much like David Beckham before meeting Posh Spice?

As this thought is swirling around my mind, her phone goes to voice-mail and I’m actually glad it does, because now I can go ahead with my evil plan and see her reaction faceto-face. I hang up the phone, and proceeded to practice this girly voice I would use. I started saying phrases like “Hi, it’s so nice to finally put a face to the texts” in my highest

pitch and the thought of her reaction – all shocked and squirmy – made me burst into fits of laughter. This practice/laughter combo went on for the best part of five minutes and then the humour of it wore off, I stuck the radio on full blast and continued my journey.

She looked fantastic, much better than in her photos. She had a mane of jet-black curly hair, piercing

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meet each other again very soon. After the goodbyes were said and I was on my way to pick up my daughter, my phone died. I’m not saying I’m smarter than Steve Jobs, but he should really have done something about these iphone battery lives, and while we’re on the subject of how Apple could improve their product, a longer charger wire would come in quite handy, me thinks.

My daughter is a stickler for detail and has an uncanny talent for remembering the throw-away promises I make daily. This time I had promised that if she ate all her school lunch, I would take her to the park and this play centre place we usually go to on my days off, all followed by a not-so-healthy visit to Burger King. After all these places were visited, and a great deal of daddy/daughter quality time had been had, we headed back home.

Once there, my little one plonked herself in front of the telly, while I was gushingly telling the girls (my flat-mates) about my fantastic date. After a few minutes my phone was charged enough to switch back on and the familiar sound of a text could be heard, it was raisin girl, and it read: “Wtf is wrong with you, I just got your voice mail, who talks in those voices and laughs at his own jokes???? Weirdo!!” It turns out I had never hung up my phone after all!

blue eyes, a cute nose and a cuter mouth and as she walked towards me, smiling, she seemed happy to see me. In fairness to her, I did look my best; I whipped a smile, walked towards her and gave her a hug and she smelled delicious. I think she was wearing Nina l’Eau by Nina Ricci, but I could be wrong.

We sat down and started chatting away and carried on for hours – the evil plan a long-forgotten joke I was glad I didn’t use: this was a great date. I managed to keep my balance the whole time, even when we moved to another coffee shop. She was really easy to talk to, never once was there an uncomfortable silence so common on first dates. She was hilarious, her humour witty with a hint of sarcasm, she kept smiling at me in a shy kind of way, like she would look away when our eyes made contact for more than a few seconds, which I found incredibly sexy.

Unfortunately, I had to rush back to pick up my little one from school but we both agreed that we’d had a great time and that we would

Among raisin girl’s long list of characteristics we have to add intolerance to somewhat strange actions from new acquaintances, and an ability to hold a grudge, for she never agreed to meet me again, this wasn’t an altogether bad thing, as I was going to move onto bigger and better things…

Yoyos, big ones, euros, call them what you may, but 130 million of them is a serious amount of dosh, and that was the jackpot for that evenings euro millions draw. With two tickets in my pocket, I was walking around at work, thinking how and on what I would be spending my newly acquired fortune in the coming weeks.

After all, I was only seven numbers away from greatness: I was going to build myself a massive country house that was just kitted-out for kids, with slides joining all the rooms. There would be bouncy rooms, video game rooms and indoor and outdoor pools complete with caves. There would be a football pitch, a tennis court, a paintball arena and tree houses, and all this would be surrounded by a golf course.

I was deciding what car I would get – a Bugatti Veyron or a Pagani Zonda – when I realised that this was akin to having the choice of being any super hero you’d like to be and ending up choosing to be Robin. >>

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THE TINDER DIARIES

So I decided I would have both cars, and add a Lamborghini Murcialago to the collection, just because I could.

I was imaging my best friend’s reaction when I rock into his bar in Valletta with a suitcase containing €5 or 6 million in it, or the surprise on my older sister’s face when I visit her in London and surprise her further when I give her the keys to her new Belgravia apartment.

I could hear the shrieks of my little sister when I give her a limitless credit card – on second thoughts, that would be a sure way of needing to work again within a few months so a limit would be set. I was day-dreaming about how I would pay my other best friend – an Irish girl who is probably my soul-mate – a surprise visit to her college residence with a bag full of cash, enough so that she would never have to work again, and two tickets to Berlin so we could go and visit this club she keeps banging on about. I was going to pay off my little cousin’s flying school bills, plus some spending money and my parents would also be obvious beneficiaries, as would the rest of my family and friends. I might actually need to win more than a €130 million!

I was in mid day-dream when something more extraordinary happened: I received a text on Facebook messenger. The name was familiar but it took me a few seconds to realise who it was, and when I did, my heart started racing and I could feel my face getting flushed: it was her. After six whole months, the girl of my dreams – pool girl – had texted me back.

We need to go back around half a year to introduce pool girl, and although not a Tinder date per se, it ties in nicely with the whole experience. I had taken my little one to the swimming pool, trying to get her more confident in the water for our upcoming trip to Malta the following summer. We were playing in the kiddies pool when – and I swear to God I’m not exaggerating here – one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen walks into the pool area. She has a little boy with her, and they go to the adult pool. I tried coaxing my daughter to follow suit which, in hindsight, seems a little irresponsible. My daughter, at five years old – showing signs of being more mature than I am – refused, saying to me: “What’s wong with you, I don’t wanna dwown (she doesn’t actually have a speech impediment, and pronounces her r’s perfectly; I was trying to get across how young she is – poorly, perhaps). I was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t go, but I also noticed pool girl looking at me a few times, which was surprising because I looked as if I had well and truly beaten anorexia at this stage, winter being a time to pile on the poundage. Then, low and behold, pool girl and cute son get out of the adult pool and make their way to the kiddies’ pool. I do what any red-blooded male would do, panic, and move further

away from pool girl, which possibly worked in my favour, making me look cooler than the fumbling bumbling ball of nerves I was. Her son, about a year older than my little one, was very confident in the water, diving and flipping under water like he was a mini Michael Phelps. My daughter, clearly impressed by his aquatic skills, asks me how he does it – a question I will always love her for asking, for this presented the opportunity to actually speak to this incredible-looking woman!

I knew I couldn’t approach her myself, so I told my daughter to go and ask him. She said: “Only if you come with me”, so of course I did, being father of the year and whatnot. The kids started chattering away and I passed a couple of remarks about what a great little swimmer her son was. This broke the ice and we started chatting too. She spoke eloquently, her voice husky yet lady-like; she pronounced her words beautifully and I hung on to every last one she said.

She was the owner of the nicest pair of eyes I had ever seen, a mix of green and blue and great; she looked like a cross between Zoe Deschanel and Megan Fox; she was wearing a red swimming cap and still looked like a million dollars. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what colour bikini she was wearing due to a combination of how captivating her beautiful face was, to which a man of limited vocabulary like myself could never do justice, and I was actively trying to ignore her boobs, having read once that girls don’t like it when strange men look there.

We chattered about kids and family and relationships and work and life in general and I did manage to get a good bit of info out of her, like her name and where she lived and, perhaps more importantly, that she wasn’t with the little swimmer’s dad. I also promise that I did check on my daughter’s well-being from time to time, and she was doing just fine, enthralled by this bigger boy’s skills. The one hour session ended and we had to hit the showers, her boy insisted – god bless his soul – that he wanted to shower with us, and I can confirm she was a 10 out of 10, her body having the same effect on me as an onion would, bringing a tear to my eye.

The getting dressed part was solely spent on what my next move should be. Should I ask her out? Would it be kosher to ask her in front of the kids? Would I have the nerve? It turns out that I didn’t, and I drove off with a weak “bye” and a weaker wave. My daughter had been promised Chinese food after swimming, so the chances of getting out of that were very remote, but the whole way there I just couldn’t get pool girl out of my mind, and think what an opportunity missed this was. We got to the Chinese food place, I placed our order and I thought to myself: “I know her name and where she lives, and her name is pretty uncommon, so if I search for her on Facebook

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and I find her, I would send her a text.” I did realise this had the possibility of making me come across as a stalker, but regret is a horrible thing.

The Facebook search proved to be very successful, her name being very unpopular in Greystones, which is where she lived, and she was the first person on that list. The Chinese food arrived within three minutes of ordering, which always freaks me out! They either microwave everything or they are futureseeing oracles and are really gonna end up ruling the world one day. This at least gave me some time to think about what I was going to write on the upcoming text.

She would get a polished version of it, and it went something like this: “Hi, it’s Kris, we just met at the pool and I thought you’re really nice. Now, I do understand that I may come across as a massive stalker but I wanted to ask you out but didn’t feel like it was appropriate in front of the kids, so, would you like to go for a drink or dinner sometime?” I pressed send, thinking I had nothing to lose apart from dignity and time searching for a new pool to take my daughter to. And then I waited for a reply: 30 minutes, an hour, a day, a week. I could see she hadn’t read it – Facebook messenger tells you if someone’s seen it, and then I realised it must have gone into the junk file as we were not on the friends list and Facebook, the destroyer of something beautiful, thought it was spam.

I was very disappointed that this happened because I thought that, although the moment was fleeting, it also felt pure. If someone told me what I’m writing about pool girl I would have thought they were tapped in the head, for these are the words of a mad man, but I had this feeling that this encounter would be really important in my life, a feeling I had never had before – or at least not very often.

That should explain the excitement I felt when I got her text. She lost her phone one day and went on Facebook on her laptop, and laptops show junk mail unlike the smart phone app.

She was happy to hear from me, and never expected me to contact her, and she also agreed to meet up for drinks, we would meet in a few days and we texted a bit back and forth, but she wasn’t much of a texter and I decided I would give her as much space as I could without seeming disinterested.

The fateful Date Day arrived. We were to meet at Mrs Robinsons at 8pm on a Wednesday. I was a nervous wreck the whole day, thinking of scenarios where I would invariably mess up and how I would react to make the situation better – I like to be prepared like that. I also couldn’t make my mind up what to wear, a problem I previously thought was exclusively for females, and I also wasn’t sure if I should go to the date with a four-day stubble or clean-shaven. >> PARIS ISSUE

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THE TINDER DIARIES

By 7pm, decisions had been made, black top and jeans and stubble, at the very last second I decided against the stubble, a decision that would prove costly. As I was shaving, I noticed a couple of hairs protruding from my ear. I gave these a quick swipe with my blade, nicking my ear in the process; I only discovered this little detail when I arrived at the pub and noticed a streak of dry blood on the right side of my face.

I tried wiping it off, to no avail, but luckily I was a couple of minutes early so I ran into the pub and straight to the toilets to wash it off – only I was intercepted by pool girl, who was there early, another surprise! She looked unbelievable; she had the boho chic look down to a T. She was wearing this really cool halterneck top, worn jeans and flip-flops, her blonde locks making her look even better than she looked at the pool or on the Facebook pictures I had “skimmed” through. We found a little secluded place in a corner and we started chatting. I was very conscious of the streak of blood running down from my ear so I was looking at her at an angle the whole time.

I also felt like – and now I know how the Maltese national football team must feel – inferior, as if I didn’t belong there. This wasn’t due to a lack of confidence, more a realistic self-assessment of the situation I was in. This threw me, making me much more nervous than I would usually be and I get really chatty when this happens. I was asking a hundred questions, not letting the conversation flow and making it feel like an interrogation at times. After a while, I did calm myself down, mainly due to how easy-going and chilled pool girl is, but I still kept catching myself grinning stupidly at her at times.

We ended up being the last two in the pub, and when the landlord asked us to leave we went looking for a club, unsuccessfully. This meant our date night was up. We got a cab, drove her home, she gave me a peck on my lips and walked off, and that was it, no more second dates, hardly anymore texts and in one of her last ones she said she didn’t really have time to start seeing someone. I had somehow managed to mess up the most important date of my life.

I must say I was feeling quite low and blue for a while, which isn’t like me: having played for Gharghur and been an avid Malta and Liverpool fan, I was used to disappointments – to defeats being plucked away from the jaws of victory. One date and a few texts should not make me feel as if I have missed out on something important, but that’s how I felt.

My friend – I’ll rephrase that: my super hot friend who is also super attached and about 10 years younger, so no one gets the wrong idea – suggested that I should ask out the first

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pretty girl I see in real life or match up with on tinder. The distraction should help getting me out of my funk. Call me materialistic, but I tend to listen to someone who looks as good as my friend, figuring that she makes heaps of correct decisions to look like that every day, so she must have form.

I wasn’t overly impressed with any of the tinder matches I had amassed in the last few weeks, and the cutest girl I could think of asking out was the sandwich-making girl at the local Central store; she was cute, not in pool girl’s league but still cute, and possibly more in my league. She had strawberry blond hair, blue eyes and really good skin. I had chatted to her a few times and she seemed keen enough, so I thought to myself that this was quite doable, although I did feel nervous about asking her out, with her being at work, which is not the best place to ask someone out, so I arrived, psyched myself up and what happened next was perhaps the most ………

You were probably hoping I would say “amazing”, or “extraordinary” or words to that effect. Unfortunately, the word “awkward” is more appropriate to describe what happened now. I have had awkward moments prior to this, but this was the Lionel Messi of awkward moments.

This particular Centra is a pretty small store, with a few lanes of groceries and other daily essentials and a hot food bar/sandwich bar situated at the back. The girl in question worked behind the sandwich bar, which was the ideal location for the plan I had devised to ask her out. This was because it was out of earshot from her colleagues, and I was also guaranteed at least three minutes of chit-chat time while she made the sandwich, which I thought would come in handy for building up the nerve to ask her out. I didn’t think asking her out as an opening line would have done wonders for the somewhat cool image I wanted to portray. Another significant part of my master plan was to ask her after the sandwich was made; the scenario where she said ‘No’ to my advances did cross my mind, although this was laughed off with the confidence of Rory McIlroy sinking a two-foot putt, but I though it would still feel awkward just standing there, waiting for my sandwich, after she said ‘Yes’!

Armed with this plan and a fair amount of confidence in it succeeding, I walked into Centra and marched towards the sandwich area and a new era in my love life. To my utter horror, sandwich girl was packing stock on the shelves, away from her usual work position and in close proximity to her work mates and a few customers.

This was probably like a bank robber planning

a job and then going into the wrong building, so I did what I do best in these situations – which is panic. I said “Hello” and – incredibly unsmoothly – continued: “Would you like to go for a drink sometime?”

I was still fairly confident she would say ‘Yes” – so much so that I was expecting her to say: “Oh my God, I would love to”, right after she had said to me, with a surprised expression etched all over her face, “With you?”

In hindsight, her expression wasn’t one of surprise, because that would indicate joy, or at least that something positive had happened.

No, her expression was more like shocked as, taken aback with horror, she continued her “With you?” question with a quite hurtful “You’re way too old for me”, at the same time scrunching her nose, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head. It has to be said that she was quite the multi-tasker.

I went into face-saving mode and – not wanting it to look as if I had gone into Centra with the sole purpose of asking her out – I proceeded further into the building to order myself a sandwich, as if that was the original plan and asking her out was something I did on a whim, but I’m starting to learn, finally, that it isn’t a Kris plan unless it backfires.

I received the sandwich from the far less attractive sandwich maker, and went to pay.

The queue was quite long and, as bad luck would have it, was going past the very same girl who had just rejected my advances. I was inching closer to her in the slow-moving queue, trying my very best not to make eye contact, pretending I was very interested in anything that would make me look in the opposite direction to her. I reached the point where she was standing next to me and, for some inexplicable reason, I turned towards her – like a fly would go into one of those traps, knowing that no good could come out of it, but it had a gravitational pull that was just too strong. She looked at me, our eyes met.

I have previously touched on how I get chatty when I’m nervous and I did just that. I tried to strike up another conversation, she looked at me like I was certifiable, this completely fried my nerves so I handed her the sandwich, saying: “I don’t think they used gluten-free bread to make this” and walked off. The awkward part of this is that she made my sandwich countless times before and never once had I mentioned gluten-free bread. I now have to drive an extra 15 kilometres to get myself a sandwich!

If the size of a man is measured by the amount of times he gets up after he suffers a setback, then I must be some man because I was on tinder, swiping left and right, merely hours after my sandwich-girl humiliation. V

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RETROSPECT

VAMP CHECKS OUT THIS YEAR’S EDITION OF PARIS PHOTO WHICH WAS HELD IN PARIS’ HISTORICAL GRAND PALAIS.

NOW IN ITS 18TH YEAR - PARIS PHOTO HAS BEEN GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH HAVING MOST OF THE GALLERIES EXPERIENCE GREAT SUCCESS IN SALES FOR THIS EDITION, AND SAID IT WAS THE BEST YEAR YET! >> 052

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uccessful sales, with unanimous public and critical acclaim for the 18th edition of Paris Photo, confirming its place as the world’s first fair dedicated to photography.

Photographer as Performer in the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection LAURIE SIMMONS Walking Camera (Jimmy the Camera) II, 1987 Gelatin silver print, Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York

Paris Photo and its director, Julien Frydman, dedicate this edition to Lucien Clergue, co-founder of the Rencontres d’Arles, a major figure in twentieth century photography and a man of conviction who has made the recognition of photography as an art form and its accessibility, the fight of his life.

Gallery owners, collectors, directors of institutions, publishers, photographers and curators, all agreed on the great quality and energy of Paris Photo.Inaugerated on the 12th of November by the Minister of Culture and Communication, Fleur Pellerin, Paris Photo 2014 welcomed 59, 825 visitors over 5 days at the Grand Palais.

Many personalities visited the fair, among them political and public personalities, and more than 200 photographers were present, mainly for book signings: Adam Broomberg et Olivier Chanarin, Antoine d’Agata, Bruce Davidson, Raymond Depardon, Elliott Erwitt, Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jean-Paul Goude, Paul Graham, Harry Gruyaert, David Hamilton, Anthony Hernandez, JR, William Klein, Karen Knorr, David Lachapelle, Joel Meyerowiytz, Sarah Moon, Zanele Muholi, Martin Parr, Richard Prince, Bettina Rheims, RongRong & Inri, Georges Rousse, Thomas Ruff, Joachim Schmid, Dorothée Smith, Beat Streuli, Agnès Varda and more. >>

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ENJOY RESPONSIBLY

andy warhol edition

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Marta Minujín Payment of the Argentine Foreign Debt to Andy Warhol with Corn, The Latin American Gold, 1985/2011 6 C-Prints of the artist and Henrique Faria, New York.

Exposant: Henrique Faria Fine Art

“I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES” – Andy Warhol

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“IT’S ONE THING TO MAKE A PICTURE OF WHAT A PERSON LOOKS LIKE, IT’S ANOTHER THING TO MAKE A PORTRAIT OF WHO THEY ARE.”

Malick Sidibe – Les deux amis musiciens, 1969 Photographie© Malick Sidibé Exhibitor : MAGNIN-A

– Paul Caponigro

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[ Above Right ] Type 42 (Anonymous) – It takes a Thief, 1960-1070s Mixed Media on Polaroid. Exhibitor: Susanne Zander / Delmes & Zander [ Right ] Regina Silveira – (Brazilian, born 1939) Enigma 3. 1981 Gelatin silver print 11 5/8 x 15 5/8” (29.6 x 39.7 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York Latin American and Caribbean Fund© 2014 Regina Silveira [ Above ] Al Vandenberg – Untitled (London), 1976 Exhibitor: ERIC FRANCK Fine Art

Paris Photo is proud to have hosted many international collectors and also directors of institutions, curators, gallery owners and publishers from 35 countries, of which ten were represented for the first time at Paris Photo: Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Greece, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tunisia and Turkey.

The 2014 edition was notably outstanding in particular in its ability to bring collectors and numerous groups of friends of international museums, among them being major international and national collectors.

Echoing the growing success of Paris Photo Los Angeles, the main groups of the largest museums and associations and Californian collectors were present the 18th edition, including: J.Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, MoPA, PAC/LA, SF MoMA, Santa Fe Center for Photography… And for the third consecutive year, the Tate has organised its acquisition committee during the fair. MoMA also came with its acquisition committee. >>

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Paolo Ventura – The Funeral of an Anarchist, 2014 Installation of 144 photos cropped, with cardboard applied behind, inkjet print.

Exhibitor: Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam

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Pierre et Gilles – Stromae Forever (Modèle: Paul Van Haver), 2014 Hand painted photography Exposant: Galerie Daniel Templon

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Larry Towell – Prosthetics made at home by villagers who had lost limbs before receiving access to the Red Cross. International Committee of the Red Cross Prosthetic Centre. Mazar-i-Sharif. Afghanistan., 2008 Set of six Gelatin silver prints by Larry Towell / Magnum Exposant: Stephen Bulger

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Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City, USA (1962) by Diane Arbus which sold from the Howard Greenberg gallery for around $500,000. The photo shows a boy, with the left strap of his shorts awkwardly hanging off his shoulder, tensely holding his long, thin arms by his side. Clenched in his right hand is a toy replica hand grenade (an Mk 2 “Pineapple”), and his left hand is held in a claw-like gesture; his facial expression is maniacal.

RETROSPECT

All participating galleries confirm the exceptional market dynamics generated by Paris Photo and especially the quality of collectors, and connoisseurs, allowing both high quality and excellent trade sales, in fact Important auctions which took place at the same time as the fair, may have suffered from the attention drawn to Paris Photo, five of the most important auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Artcurial failing to reach the lower end of their estimates.

Almost all galleries expressed that this was the best edition. To be noted among the remarkable sales, are, for Exasperated Boy with Hand Grenade by Diane Arbus at gallery Howard Greenberg for an amount near to $500,000 (Above) and also Wheel Barrow and Hower Pots by Edward Steichen and The portrait of Stromae by Pierre et Gilles at Galerie Templo for €120,000. (Previous page) V

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THE ENCHANTED ISLE

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THE ENC HA N TE D I S LE

BY RICHARD ENGLAND

I

n the spring of 1990, after a long and demanding work period, edged by my wife, I booked a short Aegean Sea cruise trip. My wife’s objective was for me to nurture a period of relaxation to find time to allow my soul to catch up with my body. Not being inclined to either relaxing and less so to cruise trips, the sole reason for my consenting was that the itinerary included stops at Ephesus and Santorini, locations I had long desired to visit. As the boat left Piraeus things already seemed not to augur well. The sea was rough and a strong meltémi was blowing; an ill omen for one not being too good a sailor. Soon a full scale storm was brewing and a decision was taken to drop anchor at Mykonos for two nights, curtailing the scheduled itinerary. When the boat eventually set sail, it was announced that the visit to Santorini was to be reduced to a mere couple of hours. Despite frustration and a not yet full recovery from sea sickness, the sight of the island as the boat approached, provided an eye-caressing and knee weakening experience, if no remedy for my discomfort. Rising from cobalt waters, the lava cliff-face, capped by the super-imposed skyline of albescent buildings presented a visual symphony so ethereal and magical that it seemed to belong to the realm of myths. Nietzsche was right when he wrote “Architecture is a sort of oratory of power by means of form”. >> PARIS ISSUE

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THE ENCHANTED ISLE

As the sounds of a dying wind and the lapping waves of the now less turbulent waters merged into a hushed chorus, I gazed in awe at the man-made mantle of undulating whiteness; carving diaphanous thresholds between earth and sky, while recalling that the etymological root of the word ‘white’ is the Germanic ‘blank’ meaning ‘brilliant’.

On landing, the all too brief time, spent mostly wading one’s way though tourist crowds, was however sufficient to whet my appetite for future extended visits. This initial contact, despite brevity and chaos still proved to be spell-casting. The island lured me to return, inviting me to draw, what Greece’s Nobel Prize poet Odysseas Elytis referred to as its “lamp black quality”, “drinkable blue volcanoes” and “Medusalike domes”, together with the melodious orchestras of its ivory buildings perilously perched on the ravaged and agitated topographies of an island born “out of the bowels of thunder”. From that moment, I yearned to roam its snaking streets to discover and delineate the hidden secrets of this miniscule land, defined by Greek architect Alexander Tombazis as “built form poetry of sublime beauty”. Long ago, I had understood that what you draw remains with you. You absorb the whole, eliminate the non-essential, then render the essence and spirit of place, for as Paul Klee correctly stated “the art of drawing is the art of omission”. In that all too short a visit, an urgent need arose within me to explore, draw and retain in memory the sun-baked dancing collages of this mazelike labyrinthine entity. It was Basil Spence who once told me that “to draw a place is to savour its unknown reality”.

Back on the boat, still intoxicated by what I had sampled, if frustrated by what I had missed, I pondered on the island’s beauty, and a decision to return was soon taken … though not in the tourist season. In an hour of enticement, this volcanic island topped by its man-made Malevitch geometries had spun its spell …the ebony siren of the Aegean Sea had sung its seductive song.

In those fleeting moments, I knew I could never escape it, for like George Seferis, I understood that “this place would keep wounding me”.

Three years later I return to the island, this time for an extended visit, armed with pens, oil pastels and drawing pads. It is winter and the sea is sulphur-tinged; the caldera diabolical and plangent, and the island silent, veiled in a muted stillness.

Tourist haunts are closed and shuttered … and an eerie absence prevails. The black cliff-face and the now amber string of cubist geometries have descended into a wintry dreamless sleep. Like a chrysalis, the town is seemingly inert, as if attempting to obliterate the lurid memories of the

chaotic turmoil of its rampageous tourist months. Now it is in an anaesthetic trance, impregnated with quiescence; not unlike a city of the dead …but still a remarkable spectacle.

At eventide, as the sun sets in a prism of colours, the clouds dance jazz-like music on the canvas of the sky. Night sets in and an uneasy lull descends. All is enchanting …crying out to be captured. I draw well into the night, for the island’s built-forms, clothed in lambent moon-light, are now even more mysterious. It is good to feel that eye and hand are still in unison; the hand acting as a sensitive seismographic

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and light” (Nicos Kazantzakis). At noon, a Taverna in one of the winding alley-ways of the town, crowded with black-clad figures playing backgammon, offers solace, shelter and nourishment in the form of dolmadakia washed down by perhaps too many a glass of mercuric retsina. In return for the hospitality offered, I leave one of my drawings with the owner, perhaps to mark in time my passage there.

This is the island which once taught Le Corbusier to appreciate geometry. Here shadows speed over surfaces to mark the passage of time; each wall and dome a time-keeping gnomon. Escher-like stairs and planes proliferate, beckoning one to discover further straggling forms cascading down zigzag levels of precipitous cliff-faces.

Even though the wind’s murmur still haunts the canyon streets, all is sun-drunk and for an instant I imagine I am in Italo Calvino’s city of Zora “where patterns follow one another as in a musical score” and “where not a note can be altered or displaced”.

Harmony reigns in these structures which seem, in the words of Aris Konstantinidis as if “they were made not by human hands, but by gods”.

On Santorini, architecture is the result of human intelligence responding to basic needs. On this volcanic rock, topography and architecture merge into a metamorphosed part troglodyte-part built amalgam and alloy described by Bernard Rudofsky as “one of the strangest places this side of heaven”.

Anonymous craftsmen were constantly creating sustainable solutions in a struggle to provide shelter in a not too hospitable environment. This “architecture without architects” reflects the perfect universal ethos of shelter construction in relation to available conditions.

marker, etching on paper the tremulous registrations of the eye. Walking the church square in Oia is not unlike way-finding oneself through a Giorgio De Chirico canvas with its metaphysical overlays of “lengthened shadows” and “mathematical enigmas”. As the moon casts secret shadows on the old walls, the rustle of a strange music prevails. The mood turns malevolent, the sea below is mercury tinged and the white walls pale to opaque grey mirror panes. Nocturnal shadows manipulate the laws of perspective and I, linger as in a timeless realm, attempting to trace what is fast becoming a lugubrious narrative. The austerity of this spectacle, reminds me why this land was once considered the favoured home of vampires.

The next morning, the mood changes, the sun shines, all is incandescent and the sea is once again a rapturous Klein blue. A resplendent violet aura transforms buildings into alabaster sculptures, “playing and changing shape every moment in shadow

Though nature, through its devastation caused considerable damage to this island, it was the change in the meaning of the sea which inflicted the most spoliation.

Originally a pirate-carrier, the waters around the island now serve as a tourist vehicle and the consequential pressures of speculative development are all too evident.

A once dreamlike utopia is rapidly being transformed into a money-making machine dystopia and as with all Mediterranean coastlines, tourism and greed are fast destroying the ethnic character of this exiguous land form. Yet, despite the rampant tourist trade, in the winter months, the island still much of its original artisanal ambiance and age-old traditions.

On a return journey from the still smoldering volcanic isle of Palaia Kameni, I am again fascinated by the skyline of the dancing geometry linking Imerovigli, Firostefani, Oia and Fira and I recall that it was here, according to legend, that the lost city of Atlantis once thrived. >> PARIS ISSUE

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THE ENCHANTED ISLE

“THE GREEK ISLANDS ARE A CONSTANT ART LESSON… THE RAREST OF SCULPTURAL ATMOSPHERES”.

– CHRISTIAN ZERVOS As if still mourning its loss, the 400m deep sea is dark and cheerless. Once again on the main island, visits to some of the smaller villages, offer more succulent material to render. Miniscule Megalohori provides a picturesque townscape, while the defiantly perched Imerovigli and the adjacent rock-embedded Theoskepasti Chapel stand out as particularly stunning gems. Everywhere geometry prevails as if echoing Cezanne’s words that “everything is formed according to the sphere, the cone and the cylinder”. Later as I visit Emborio, I recall that Sartre had used this village as the setting for his play Les Mouches.

Time is running short. Laden with over one hundred drawings and a heavy heart, my visit comes to an end. Parting is not easy for the island (in Greek mythology a gift to the Argonauts from the sea god son of Neptune and Venus) again lures me back. There is, I know, more to see and draw. Travelling in such an ambiance is an enlightenment and education, and drawing remains the ideal investigational tool. Akrotiri, the “Pompeii of the Aegean” summons, the legend of Atlantis beckons and the mandatory 300m, 500 step, zigzagged donkey ride from Athinos to Fira remains a tempting, 066

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if daunting adventure. All, however, must wait for a future visit, for Santorini, like a sanctuary religiously beckoning its pilgrims to return to its shrines, calls me back.

these ambiances that we must today strive to preserve.

After a decade, still impregnated with haunting mnemonic images, I return, armed once more with drawing materials and camera carefully dispensed. The ten year passage has been tinged with what Milan Kundera termed “a suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return”.

The rejection of the camera stems from my predilection to establish direct links between what my eyes see and what my hand draws. It was Le Corbusier himself who dismissed photography as “a tool for the idlers who use a machine to do their seeing for them”, for the camera looks at the subject as opposed to seeing it. The object remains that of capturing the passion of the place and its genius loci. I have always believed that drawing sweetens the road travelled.

If Santorini does not posses the one single edifice to match the plasticity of the Paraportiani Church on Mykonos, the Panagias Chozoviotissas cliff-hanging Monastery of Amorgos, or the delectable dovecotes of the holy island of Tinos, it does harbour in its array of blinding white villages, a unique canvas of timeless architecture. On this isle, one comes not only to view architecture, but to fully experience the island’s beauty, for Santorini remains a perfect tableaux of platonic solids counteracted by intriguing inbetween spatial voids. Here, place-making balances way-finding, as one experiences a true ‘promenade architecturale’.

Santorini remains a miraculous man-made patrimony, a personification of the real values of life, a lyrical locus where, in Nicos Kazantzaki’s words “never have grace and power merged so organically”.

As our planet today rapidly dissolves into a characterless global village, situational and unique environments, such as those of Santorini, offer man much needed soul enriching antidotes. It is the authenticity of

The place continues to entice. This amalgam of Earth, Fire, Water and Air invites future visits, for the Siren of the Aegean Sea remains a tantalizing and alluring temptress. V

PARIS MON AMOUR

I

was 19 when I arrived in Paris in the summer of 2002.

The euro had been introduced and not a lot of people seemed very happy about it. France’s far-right party, Le Front National, worryingly made it to the second round of the Presidential election; the winner of that election, Jacques Chirac, escaped assassination by a neo-Nazi during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysées; and Paris’s Mayor Delanoë (who was stabbed in October for “being gay”) had the imaginative idea of covering parts of the concrete banks of the River Seine with sand so that the citizens of the city could enjoy their very own “beach” in the heart of the city. It was also, according to Meteo France, the second hottest year since 1949 and the city was ablaze with World Cup fever.

I settled into Paris’s African quarter in the 18th arrondissement, just in time to experience the five-day, all night-ers of car-horn honking and shrieking as my neighbourhood celebrated Senegal’s victory over Sweden.

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Paris was hot, hostile and not at all like the Amelie Poulain film I had seen before arriving. I was even living below the famous Montmartre Hill that featured in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s sugarcoated biopic. But it didn’t take me long to realise that the top part of that hill was reserved for tourist-trappers, rich Americans and depressed painters. At its base were the impoverished immigrant communities, the prostitutes, addicts and a few tourists walking around asking “Where’s Montmartre?”

I had left behind me in London a place at a top university that I couldn’t afford to go to, a single bed in a shared room in a young worker’s hostel off the Earl’s Court Road – a hot spot at the time for Australian barmen and Kosovan refugees. three simultaneous part-time jobs in a pub, a cocktail bar and a nightclub, managed by three different – yet similarly coke-fuelled bosses, a handful of friends that still lived at home with their parents, an angry exboyfriend and a feeling that life wasn’t fair. Paris was meant to be a few months away to reflect. It turned into 12 years.

by Joelle Gewolb

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BY BABA JOZ

PARIS MON AMOUR

I never planned to stay. Each year, for 10 years, I would tell myself that this would be the last. But it didn’t happen. I became used to the French language, the French lifestyle and the French raison d’être and I wanted to be accepted as one of them. In fact it was so difficult to not feel like a recipient for the general public’s disdain for all things British – from 2002 onwards I would receive an endless tirade from anyone met me about Mad Cow disease, Britain’s lack of gastronomic culture, the Iraq war, Tony Blair’s misdoings, Britain not accepting the euro, our inability to pronounce the word ratatouille, Mr Bean and the Hundred Years’ War – that it became a challenge for me to become more French than the French. I worked in Paris’s trendy bars and restos, cultivating a permanent blasé look that said “I don’t give a s**t, I’m Parisian, you schmuck”. I studied History at La Sorbonne and joined the student demonstrations in 2006, learning to appreciate the sweet smell of tear gas and burning rubber, all the while imagining I was in some sort of May 1968 remake set against the historical backdrop of the Latin Quarter. I learned to speak French

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like a native, quickly picking up all those Gallic shrugs and huffing noises that made me look more credible. These days, if a French waiter talks to me in English because he hears me talking with an English colleague or friend, it is I who pompously replies to him in snappy, shruggy French.

The challenge completed, however, I still stayed. I don’t ask myself why anymore.

It seems that there are just over 20,000 Britons living permanently in or on the outskirts of Paris. For a number of reasons it seems: love, family, work, the food, a better lifestyle, the long lunch breaks, the wine, the fact that Paris is so beautiful that you feel as if you are permanently starring in your own film, that Paris is composed of 20 small villages that are totally different from each other, and because everyone I have met who stayed in Paris has said the same thing – Paris is like a vacuum, sucking you in, a lover’s hold, an indescribable force that keeps you coming back. V

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BLANK 2014/15

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Marketed abroad as ‘the’ event to go to, Blank strongly believes in Malta as a dance party destination – possibly over Ibiza and other very popular destinations that have, over the years, become stale and are now totally over-rated.

By keeping the party scene in Malta a tailored and unique experience for foreign partygoers, it believes that Malta strikes a balance between culture, rich history and having fun and that it will be a strong contender in the future of dance music destinations. And Malta’s exceptional weather is also helping that become a reality.

In fact, surveys show that the Netherlands, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany, are our primary markets and that a good percentage of holiday-makers choose packages that include a party or festival. This trend has been growing by 30 per cent each year since 2010! Other large festivals and dance events held around Europe lack good weather, outdoor locations and good prices: Malta, you’re great!

Blank cares about the environment. All reusable rubbish found before and after events is sorted to find any useful material to use for current or future events. A good way to make sure this material is used to realise its best potential, is to hire art, design and architecture students.

Every party has something different also by means of art installations. Pallets are collected and re-used, and bottle taps are given to charity.

They even offer healthy food including fruit!

STARTED IN 2012 BY A SMALL GROUP OF EUROPEAN MUSIC LOVERS, BLANK HAS BEEN GROWING IN POPULARITY AND FREQUENCY...

A percentage of the income is also given back to the community in the form of local charities and youngsters’ organisations. Blank has also held events solely for charity such as the one in 2012 for L’Istrina.

BLASTING OUT THE BEST DANCE MUSIC AROUND, BLANK’S AIM IS TO OFFER THREE TO FIVE EVENTS A YEAR TO THE MALTESE COMMUNITY. IN ORDER TO ELEVATE THE DANCE MUSIC EXPERIENCE, BLANK ALWAYS CHOOSES ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE LOCATIONS ON THE MALTESE ISLANDS, AND INVITES BOTH LOCAL AND FOREIGN DJS TO PARTICIPATE. >>

Blank is currently being promoted in Amsterdam, from which it has attracted a lot of returning party-goers and their friends. One of the founders of Blank, Franco Vella, tells Vamp “it has also attracted a lot of party organisers interested in organising parties of their own in Malta.” We are assured that the intention is not to turn Malta into the next Ibiza, and only to offer something unique to the ‘party traveller’ looking for that something out of the ordinary.

The next Blank event together with Deep House Amsterdam is on the 8th of December between 2 and 11pm. This is the closing party for the Malta BMX Festival, where 6 international BMX riders are competing in a warehouse. For more information look up the Facebook event page called ‘Blank Warehouse’.

See you there!

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Q+A: TWITCH. LEE STACK MEETS UP WITH ARTIST – JAMES MICALLEF GRIMAUD – AKA TWITCH

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Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey to where you are today?

My journey in the world of art started off through graffiti back in the 1990s. I spent my days back then skateboarding and doing graffiti in the streets – mainly the Sliema/Tigné area. Tigné was our playground because it was full of abandoned and broken down spots falling down places.

Good times!! Graffiti and skateboarding weren’t fashionable like they are today. The 1980’s craze had totally died out, apart from a few die-hards. We did it purely for the love of it, to entertain ourselves.

I kept doing graffiti and started painting on canvas as well. I took part in my first exhibition at St James Cavalier in 2003.

After that it was a constant flow of exhibitions and new art projects.

Graffiti and canvas works have taken me to quite a few places around the world, especially after the internet boom. The world became a million times smaller: your artwork can travel the globe with just one click.

At what age did your passion for art start?

I guess it started whilst I was at school in the 90s, drawing in my files and on my school benches. I would transfer some of them on to walls in the streets and use other sketches to create intricate collages made of tiny drawings.

...“EVERY PIECE HAS ITS OWN INSPIRATIONAL ELEMENTS BUT I DEFINITELY FEEL COMPELLED TO SHARE MY CRITICAL VIEW OF SOCIET Y.”

Where did the name Twitch come from?

The word first came to my attention from a scratching sample I own.

I decided to stick to it due to a nervous twitch I had as a kid which would reappear in times of severe stress.

Do you think street art should only stay on the streets or should everyone have a chance to own it?

Street art is art found in the street but everyone has the right to own a piece done by a street artist.

How do you feel about street art becoming more commercial and works selling in top auction houses for hundreds or thousands of pounds?

It’s great. I find it very amusing.

What paints and materials do you prefer to use?

It depends on the artwork and the result I want to achieve. I use a number of media, mainly aerosol for outdoor work and a mix of aerosol and brush for indoor work.

I’ve used stencils a few times to depict more politically-charged subjects and also wheat paste. >>

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Do you think stencil work is cheating or just a quicker way to create pieces?

I think stencil work is great if you want to depict a detailed, realistic image in a very short time or would like to copy the image numerous times.

You don’t need a vast background in art to create a stencil. I actually use the stencil technique during workshops I give to school kids who have a limited background in art.

What is the process of creating a large piece/mural?

It depends on the artist’s approach. A wall space is found, chosen and a subject that fits in to the area is depicted. Murals involve more brainstorming and more focus on structure.

mention of graffiti in some areas, especially the Scandinavian countries and Germany and Spain, where the police have their own special forces to stop graffiti. Here in Malta it has always been contained and people actually love to see works of art in the street. This makes it much easier for us to get projects related to graffiti and murals.

Do you see the street art scene in Malta growing?

It’s definitely growing, partly thanks to the Sliema street art festival and Montana spray cans.

What is the longest a piece has taken you to do?

I have worked in many places and every place has its pros and cons. I’m always happy to work in the Netherlands due to the open-mindedness of the people on various subjects that might seem to be taboo in other parts of Europe.

The first large-scale mural we did in Malta, in San Gwann, took quite a while. Before starting the mural we had to plaster the 56 by six-metre wall ourselves due to a lack of funding and could only work for a few hours a day during the summer months. Every time we wanted to view the wall, we had to cross the busy Bellavista Road. It took us two-and-a-half months to finish.

If you could choose to work with anyone, who would it be?

If you could paint anywhere, where and what would it be?

It would be great to work with Marcel Duchamp, if he were still alive.

It would be awesome to paint a huge space shuttle that regularly orbits the earth.

How do the Maltese authorities feel about street art and what sort of relationship do you have with them?

What is the key to being a good street artist?

It’s great. In Malta, we’re quite lucky not to have had the crazy ‘bombing’ and ‘tagging’ vandal craze that we have witness in other parts of Europe. This has put a dark light on the

Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?

Where’s the best place you have worked?

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What projects and plans do you have in the pipeline?

Loads, just to mention a couple. I’ve been commissioned to paint a five-storey building in the Netherlands which will happen around next March and I’m planning my solo exhibition which will hopefully be ready by May.

Have you seen Exit through the gift shop?

Yeah, such a great movie! It’s funny, because I remember seeing Mr Brainwash’s advert in a graffiti magazine and asking myself who on earth this guy was. I had never heard of this guy and was baffled to see Banksy advertise his exhibition.

Banksy or Blek Le rat?

I have loads of respect for both. Blek Le rat is one of the pioneers of street art, before the advent of Photoshop. He was making his own stencils from scratch. Banksy is more politically charged and his works are very witty. I love the stuff he does. His rats do resemble Blek le rat’s quite a lot, though.

What’s the worst thing about street art?

Watching so-called artists getting credit for copying other artists.

What’s the best thing about street art?

Originality is key!

The beauty and twist it gives to a normally grey and boring urban environment. V

Hopefully still doing what I’ve been doing for the last 10.

PARIS ISSUE

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CREATIVE CURSING

{

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BY NICOLE CUSCHIERI

}

C

CREATIVE CURSING

ursing, swearing – whatever unwholesome, scatological, shapeshifting obscenities we utter so freely in our everyday existence, do we ever stop to examine why we humans need to use this form of lewd vulgarity?

Profanity is, in fact, a deliciously rich and fascinating topic and the string of swear words that stream out of our cursing mouths tend to fall into very distinct categories: sexual references (f**k), profane or blasphemous (g*dd****t!), excremental or disgusting (s**t), ethnic/ racial/gender related (f*g), ancestral insinuations (b*****d) and good old-fashioned offensive slang. Taboo words can range from mildly to indecently offensive, and a curious little behavioural quirk is that people tend to choose a gentler euphemism to replace a swear word as a safe option in mixed or unknown company.

From last year’s public outrage with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s “effing and blinding” on daytime TV to Tony Soprano’s F-bomb extravaganza, it’s enough to make a foul-mouthed sailor blush. So, ultimately, is all this profanity contributing to a general decline in civilised public behaviour and a corrosion of our moral values?

realise that he is, in fact, referring to genital warts and men who are too stupid to know how to use their peckers. The expression “fishmonger” to interpret “pimp” requires a bit more thought to fully grasp its rather witty connotation and the title of the play Much Ado About Nothing is, in fact, a play on the word ‘O-Thing’, being a clear reference to a lady’s private parts.

The infamously long Shakespearean swear in King Lear is a mouthful to even the most refined of cursers: “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, threesuited, action-taking, whoreson glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch, one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.”

Once mastered, however, it is most satisfying to unleash onto the next person who steals your parking space or cuts in front of you at the grocer.

" A K N AV E , A R A S C A L , A N E A T E R OF BROKEN MEATS, A BASE, P R O U D , S H A L L OW, B E G GA R LY, THREE-SUITED, ACTION-TAKING, WHORESON GL ASS-GAZING, SUPERSERVICEABLE, FINICAL ROGUE; ONE-TRUNK-INHERITING S L AV E ; O N E T H A T W O U L D S T B E A BAW D I N WAY O F G O O D SERVICE, AND ART NOTHING BUT T H E C O M P O S I T I O N O F A K N AV E , B E G G A R , C O WA R D , PA N D E R , A N D THE SON AND HEIR OF A MONGREL BITCH, ONE WHOM I WILL BEAT INTO CL AMOROUS WHINING IF THOU DENIEST THE LEAST SYLLABLE OF THY ADDITION."

Before reaching a verdict, we should perhaps burrow deep into our long and colourful history of verbal lewdness. It is an undisputed fact that swearing has been around since, well, forever. Graffiti explicit enough to shock even the most indelicate sensibilities has been scribbled on walls and street corners, not in London or New York City, but in Rome – two thousand years ago. The opening chapter of the Holy Bible insists that God himself demands again and again that his followers swear by him and him alone. This is one command that I do fear has been taken far too literally over the centuries.

The taboo words and phrases of yesteryear were heavily used by novelists, playwrights and comedians for dramatic, libertarian or insulting effect. The phrase “her mewling quim” in the 2012 boxoffice hit The Avengers – which merely means “her whimpering vagina” – would have drawn lurid gasps and bouts of fainting in19th-century London theatres.

William Shakespeare, however, seems to have truly mastered the art of genteel swearing by discarding the everyday variety and soliciting a more creative thread of obscenity. His scripts are laced with discreet profanities that only become apparent after weeding though the euphemisms and sifting through the language.

Shakespeare’s cursing is endlessly inventive, referring to seemingly innocent objects, such as canker-blossoms and clot poles. It would take a solid working knowledge of archaic British profanity to

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“Thou qualling urchin-snouted codpiece!”

Back to the modern day, we pay homage to our universally loved Urban Dictionary, where the art of street slang and swearing are in constant reinvention. It contains thousands of words and phrases that were unknown a decade ago, born from technology, social networking, cultural diversity and pure street wisdom. Their website claims it to be “the dictionary you wrote,” encouraging people to define their own world with a language that is not bound by tradition and can be created out of their own perception of reality.

Scientists claim that swearing is a peephole into the architecture of our brains, holding a strong link between our intellectual, logical instincts and the more neural animalistic urges that fuel our emotions. The unique way in which swearing is expressed helps us relieve anger, frustration and sadness in a way that no other words can. The memory of swear words persists even during the final stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s, long after the rest of the vocabulary has gone.

The nagging voice of nostalgia longs to return to that gentler echo of bygone years, where one seldom heard a scandalous word and famous people weren’t foul-mouthed in public. Little House on the Prairie springs to mind at this exact moment. Interestingly, Kate Burridge, a professor of linguistics at Monash University in Melbourne, said: “People can feel very passionate about language, as though it were a cherished artefact that must be protected at all cost against the depravities of barbarians and lexical aliens.”

But the gritty truth of the matter is that swearing is intrinsic to our language and to what makes us human. It has always been there, whatever it may have been, and it always will be. So let’s keep tradition alive! Turn over for some Shakespearean beauties: >> PARIS ISSUE

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CREATIVE CURSING

HERE ARE 11 CLASSICS YOU CAN USE ON YOUR NEXT VICTIM, AND T H E I R M E A N I N G S :: 1. Away you three-inch fool!

2. I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets.

3. You scullion. You rampallian. You fustilarian. I’ll tickle your catastrophe.

4. Villain, I have done thy mother.

5. Thou art the son & heir of a mongrel b**ch.

6. Away you moldy rogue, away!

7. I do desire we may be better strangers.

8. I wonder that you will still be talking.

Nobody marks you.

9. Thou art a boil. A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood.

10. A fusty nut with no kernel.

11. Methinks thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon you.

“THAT TRUNK OF HUMOURS, THAT BOLTING-HUTCH OF BEASTLINESS, THAT S W O L L E N PA R C E L OF DROPSIES, THAT HUGE BOMBARD OF SACK, THAT STUFFED CLOAK-BAG OF GUTS, THAT ROASTED MANNINGTREE OX WITH PUDDING IN H I S B E L LY, T H AT REVEREND VICE, T H AT G R E Y I N I Q U I T Y, T H A T FA T H E R RUFFIAN, THAT VA N I T Y I N Y E A R S ? ”

1. This is a vicious attack on a man’s confidence and in modern times it’d sound something like “Get out of my sight you chump with tiny penis!” If you’re looking to land a devastating blow, this is your brass knuckled fist. 2. How cold blooded would it be to tell a friend to settle for whatever they can get. This is the same as saying “No offense, but you should probably date anyone who is interested because you’re not exactly a catch.” Ouch. 3. 2014 adaptation: “You trick. You scallywag. You heffer. I’m going to laugh when you get the horrible karma you deserve in life.” 4. This is a straight to the point mom joke, and not so much a witticism as a “I f**ked your mum, deal with it” type statement.

5. Let’s face it - this is ten times better than our watered down, lazy “son of a b*tch.” With this phrase, you’re not just the son of a b*tch, you’re the heir of that b*tch. Also, that b*tch isn’t a regular b*tch, it’s a mongrel b*tch. 6. This is like a quick “Scram, scumbag!” This brief statement has great potential if you’re looking to shoo away a pickup artist at the bar or a pesky Internet troll. It’s well under 140 characters, which makes for a perfect response to any obnoxious tweets sent your way. 7. Basically this is saying “We don’t need to be friends and to be honest I’d rather we don’t interact at all, ever.” It’s a fairly blunt statement, but sometimes thou must keepest it real. 8. Nowadays we would say “Are you seriously still talking? Feel free to stop because no one’s listening.” That’s fine, but the Shakespearean way sounds a lot better. 9. A wordy way of saying, “You’re a leech.” You should drop this every time someone conveniently forgets their wallet when the bill arrives!

10. You know what this is hinting at – it’s like saying someone’s a few channels away from the deluxe package. A few episodes short of a season. A few letters short of a complete sentence. 11. “You’re horrible and you deserve the worst.” This sounds like a retro version of what internet commentators say about Kanye West or Justin Bieber, but I think we should save this kind of verbal lashing for greatest offenders and worst enemies. Also, it’s super fun to say “methinks” so at the very least, consider adding that word to your vocabulary.

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DEWARS NIGHT

“ W E H AV E A G R E A T R E G A R D F O R O L D A G E W H E N I T I S B O T T L E D ”

WHISKY TThhee VVaam mpp tteeaam m ssiipp ffrroom m cchhiilllleedd ggllaasssseess ooff vvaarriioouuss DDeew waarrss w whhiisskkiieess aatt SSttrreeaatt… … aass tthhee w woorrlldd w weenntt bbyy,, iinn tthhee ddeepptthhss ooff SSttrraaiitt SSttrr ee ee tt Photos: Federico Peltretti

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DIARIES

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– AN EXTENSIVE BISTRO MENU TAPAS AND PLATTERS! – A GRAND SELECTION OF WHISKIES, COCKTAILS & WINES StrEat Whisky & Bistro, Strait Street, Valletta Call 21-228-347 / 9967-8113 for bookings whisky@streat.com.mt

LUST–LIST! LUST LIST

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THE PERFECT GIFT THIS CHRISTMAS FOR HIM AND HER. Gold - the gleaming metal dominating global fashions this season. Diesel Timeframes brings black and gold to the forefront in its Holiday 2014 collection.

Find classic black leather meeting bold rose gold accents in select Men’s and Ladies’ collections, including renditions of the Double Down and Mini Daddy series.

Diesel Timeframes are available from Diesel Stores in Sliema and Valletta.

CUSTOM ROLLING PINS These laser engraved rolling pins designed by Polish Designer Zuzia Kozerska come in a variety of patterns and designs. The rolling pins are made from beech wood and measure 42 cm (16.53 in) long and 6 cm (2.36 in) in diameter. Perfect for cookies, cakes, pasta, sugar frosting , dumplings and more.

POLAROID SOCIAL MATIC The Social Matic has a 14-megapixel front and 2-megapixel rear camera, a 4.5inch touchscreen and built-in Wi-Fi. But the real fun starts when you realise the Social Matic can print out your 2 x 3-inch snaps directly onto Zink (Zero Ink) paper. So you’ll not only have a digital record of your shots, but also a physical one. Essentially then, it’s a modern-day Polaroid.

LACIE CHRISTOFLE SPHÈRE

THE DUCK LAMP Its impossible not to crack a huge smile when you look at this crazy duck lamp designed by Sebastian Errazuriz.

This Lamp explores the border between the sculptural and functional qualities of both art and design.

This amazing hardrive

by LaCie is a silverplated Sphère which has been designed by luxury silversmiths Christofle.

It’s certainly the coolest hardrive of the moment, and with 1TB of storage and USB 3 (and no power cable), it’s as handy as it is beautiful!

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LUST LIST

THE NEW HAMILTON CHAIR The new Hamilton chair from BoConcept embraces you with comfort in classic 60s style. the design is based on the old art of origami, with the high back offering plenty of seating comfort thanks to the extra filling in the back cushion for lumbar support, whilst the beautiful head rest and wing-shaped sides allow you to relax in various positions.

Available in fabrics and leathers and a choice of leg.

The Refine wall clock is right on trend with a simple elegant design and copper finish, €39 www.boconcept.com.mt

MOTHER This is for all the designer parents out there, this device connects to your home network and, in conjunction with ‘Motion Cookies’ (which can detect motion, temperature and location), enables you to monitor and track different areas of your life.

For example you might want to get an alert when your son or daughter gets home, or if there’s movement detected in the house when you’re not expecting it.

SUNBURST CLOCK: The Vitra Sunburst Wall Clocks are available in a diverse range of forms and materials. Equipped with high-quality quartz movements, they offer a refreshing alternative to conventional clocks. The perfect model can be found for every occasion among the wide selection of different designs. www.vitra.com

ALESSI - JUICY SALIF

BY PHILIPPE STARCK Enjoy tasty fresh squeezed juice anytime of the day with Juicy Salif by Alessi! Alessi’s Juicy Salif efficiently juices lemons, limes and other citrus fruits. If you want a simple yet highly attractive juicer for getting a little lemon juice for fish or sauces or a nice glass of orange juice for breakfast without bringing out your heavy electric juicer, Juicy Salif is just the ticket. Not only that, it looks like a sculpture so you can leave it on the kitchen counter as an amazing decorative object d’art.

Philippe Starck once said that “Juicy Salif is not only meant to squeeze lemons but to start conversations”. Juicy Salif features a a pointed rocket-like tip and sharp edges make it easier to begin and continue the juicing process.

Available from Petrolea

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VITRA GUÉRIDON TABLE Guéridon Table produced by the designer and engineer Jean Prouvé for the University of Paris and HAL Chair produced by Jasper Morrison are an expression of his “Super Normal” design philosophy. Vitra Home is now available exclusively at Ideacasa. www.vitra.com

A NEW ADDRESS

FOR DESIGN & STYLE MARBLE GRANITE TERRAZZO COMPOSITE STONE HARD STONE QUARTZITE Showroom: The Factory, Mosta Road, Lija LJA 9016 - Malta Tel: +356 21 433636 Fax: +356 21 412499 E-mail: info@halmannvella.com

www.halmannvella.com

“this is very impressive. i think it is even better than...� edward de bono on his visit to our rabat work_shop

at camilleriparismode you will find a beautiful mélange of gifts that will help you cross off all the names on your list this christmas. every product is meticulously selected by our team. each is then individually wrapped in what has become our signature trait to ensure that each present carries the guaranteed “camilleriparismode seal of approval”.

rabat / sliema / valletta t: 20 10 20 30

www.camilleriparismode.com

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PARIS LOFT

A Loft apartment near the Porte de Bagnolet Architect: Isabelle Rouyer Architectures & Design

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE NOSTALGIC AND MODERN AT THE SAME TIME, DO YOU THINK? I’M BEGINNING TO WONDER. THIS FABULOUS, DOUBLEHEIGHT APARTMENT IN A RAPIDLY GENTRIFYING BUT STILL MAINLY INDUSTRIAL AREA NEAR THE PORT DE BAGNOLET ON THE EASTERN EDGE OF CENTRAL PARIS HAS SOMETHING OF BOTH QUALITIES. THE SPIRIT IS MID-CENTURY, BUT SOMEHOW THE TEXTURE AND THE SOPHISTICATION OF ITS ROOMS, WALKWAYS AND MEZZANINES ARE VERY MUCH OF THE PRESENT DAY. >>

WORDS: KEITH DIPLOCK

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The architect of this unusual home is the clients’ former Paris neighbour Isabelle Rouyer, who founded her own practice in 2009. There is no doubting the source of her inspiration: Le Corbusier, the great Swiss-French architect described by some as “the architect of the century”, thanks to the series of original and unforgettable buildings he designed from the moment he reinvented himself as a modernist after the First World War up to his death in the 1960s. His early buildings were formed from white cubes with perfect, almost classical, proportions; his later ones, such as the pilgrimage church at Ronchamp in eastern France, were sculptural and ‘brutal’. Somewhere in the middle came his Unité d’habitation in Marseilles, a vast block of flats that resembles an ocean liner.

And that’s where the connection with the Porte de Bagnolet loft comes in, because it shares not just the long, narrow plan and doubleheight living space of the apartments within the hallowed Marseilles original, but was also laid out by its architect using Le Corbusier’s set of ‘modular’ proportions, derived from the proportions of the human body, that dictate and link the heights and widths of every surface within it. >>

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”THE LOFT WAS DESIGNED AS PART OF A NEW BLOCK THAT HAD BEEN BUILT ON THE SITE OF AN OLD SAWMILL FOR A PAIR OF DESIGNERS, ONE A TEXTILE DESIGNER WITH A LEADING FASHION HOUSE, THE OTHER A COSTUME DESIGNER IN THE FILM INDUSTRY” >>

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“THE APPARENTLY CASUAL ROUGHNESS OF THE INTERIOR IS THE RESULT OF ISABELLE’S PAINSTAKING AND METICULOUS DESIGN.” >>

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...”THERE’S AN AIRINESS THROUGHOUT WHICH BELIES THE FACT THAT THE WHOLE OF THIS SPACIOUS FLAT HAS A FLOOR AREA OF ONLY 160 SQUARE METRES”...

The loft was designed – as part of a new block that had been built on the site of an old sawmill – for a pair of designers, one a textile designer with a leading fashion house, the other a costume designer in the film industry, and both keen to escape the daily pressures of life in the centre of the city. This is certainly quite a setting in which to display their work. Their doubleheight living area faces onto the garden through a wall of picture windows that slide fully open; behind it, an open kitchen occupies the centre of the ground floor.

A flight of black concrete stairs rises from the back of the kitchen towards the window and arrives at a bridge with a delicate steel balustrade that crosses the five-metre-tall space above the heads of the diners below. This leads to the children’s mezzanine, which runs along the side of the living area. The master bedroom is on the other side, and beyond that there is a bathroom which, with its mosaic walls, cerulean blue floor and open window to the bedroom, seems to reference the Villa Savoye, perhaps Le Corbusier’s most famous house. And then back from the bridge area a further flight of steel stairs rises up another storey. There’s an airiness throughout which belies the fact that the whole of this spacious flat has a floor area of only 160 square metres.

The black steel open walkways and stairs have something of a nautical feel to them, especially when seen against the white walls of the flat. That’s another element drawn from ‘Corb’, as all admiring architects like to call him – referring not only to the industrial qualities of the buildings he designed as ‘machines

for living in’, but also, of course, to the unforgettable ship-like form of the Unité in Marseilles. Furthermore, the upstairs bedrooms are separated from the great space of the living area by glazed screens that seem to come more from an early 20th-century factory than from the vocabulary of domestic architecture.

The view from the master bedroom is a wonderfully rich one, with a prospect from the internal window across the two balustrades of the bridge, the delicate structure of the upper stairs and, finally, the mullions of the great garden window.

For Isabelle, this was one of the most important features of the project: the succession of frames creates, as she puts it, the fusion where ‘spaces are born’.

A further neat touch is the fact that the concrete floor of the high-level walkway is studded with glass bricks, as if to suggest that even the firmest spaces within the flat must have something glossy and transparent about them. To complete

the scene, the owners have furnished their home throughout with furniture and fittings that feel at home in an industrial setting, and the wall of the seating-area side of the living space is lined with reused bricks. There are grey steel stools at the kitchen counter, a sturdy timber dining table that looks like a workbench, hanging metal lamps and even a red ‘Tabac’ sign taken from the shop-front of a tobacconist, a great classic of French design.

So far, so nostalgic: and yet what Isabelle is striving for is something timeless. She declares her intention to be a kind of expert fashioner of both physical forms and of light and shade, echoing Corb’s famous definition of architecture as “the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light”. Every detail is carefully controlled: “the harmony of the place depends on it”, she tells me.

Even the apparently casual roughness of the interior is the result of Isabelle’s painstaking and meticulous design. The appeal to the architecture of the past is carefully calculated, and for the designers who live within it is therefore comforting and even cosy; yet on the other hand the great transparent spaces of this rich, glowing space provide a magnificent backdrop for contemporary daily life and for the changing collection of objects that its lucky residents place there. Isabelle says that it’s as much a mix of cultures as the careful observation of her clients that influences her own design work, and so it appears. She takes these and creates from them a new setting for the life.

And that’s how, paradoxically, a home can be both nostalgic and modern all at the same time. V

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DESIGN TIPS

GET THE LOOK! HAVE A LITTLE FUN AND LET GO WHEN CHOOSING FURNITURE FOR YOUR HOME. ADD SOME COLOURFUL TOUCHES TO NATURAL WOODS, AND NEUTRAL CENTRAL PIECES. HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED... >>

HERE’S WHERE TO GET THEM DINING TABLE: Vitra, Idea Casa, Valley Road, Birkirkara. T 2278 6000 VINTAGE HANGING LIGHTS: Bo Concept, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann. T 2137 8011 SOFA: The Atrium, Mriehel Bypass, Mriehel. T 2147 0000 BED: Form, Valley Road, Msida. T 21446000 WALL CLOCK: Bo Concept, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann. T 2137 8011 DINING STOOLS: www.cultfurniture.com CHEST OF DRAWERS: www.made.com

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FROM US TO YOU BoConcept, Triq tal-Balal, San Gwann

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Hang it all Design: Charles & Ray Eames, 1953

www.vitra.com/hangitall

New at the following Vitra Home dealer: ideacasa (Member of Vivendo Group) ∙ Msida Valley Road ∙ BKara ∙ T. 2278 6000 ∙ info@ideacasa.com.mt Member of Vivendo Group

VITRA HOME

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VITRA LIVING: When it starts to get cold outside, we all long to feel cosy and comfortable inside.

Sometimes this longing can be satisfied by furniture that captivates us and accompanies us for decades – that’s the kind of furniture that Vitra makes.

Since 1957, we’ve been producing furniture that meets the highest standards in workmanship, materials and design. Today, our understanding of timeless design continues to be influenced by originals from the likes of Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson,Alexander Girard and Jean Prouvé.

New designers come to us again and again with their designs, but we don’t follow fashion trends – we focus instead on aesthetic and functional.

View the Vitra home range at Ideacasa, Triq il wied ta l-Msida, B’Kara 2278 6000

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HIGH HOPES

HIGH HOPES:

WHILE RAISING FUNDS FOR A KINDERGARTEN IN ETHIOPIA. WE MEET SOME OF THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE KILIMANJARO CHALLENGE:

(Justine Mangion) Oh Yes! Climbing a mountain takes a great deal of preparation, both physical and mental.

Having said that, you don’t need to be built like a Greek god but you do need to have strong legs, a good set of lungs and the stamina to get you through an eight-day climb. But, more importantly, you need to be mentally prepared. In Malta, there is no real way of simulating the lack of oxygen and exhaustion we will experience, so the only way to make it is through sheer determination and excellent teamwork. We are lucky to be a fantastic team.

Have you been at the top of a mountain before, and if so, can you explain the feeling when you’re there?

(Austin Cachia) This is my first time climbing Kilimanjaro (or any mountain, for that matter) but from what I gather from

Kilimanjaro is a relatively safe climb.

However, there are always dangers on big mountains and Kilimanjaro is no different.

The most common danger is altitude sickness, which can be potentially fatal.

This is caused from ascending too fast and not taking time to acclimatise. However, we are confident that by choosing the best route and proper guide services, all 18 of us will be making it to the summit on 5th January 2015.

What do you have to do to prepare for climbing a mountain – and one of such height? Do you have to be extremely wellexercised and fit?

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What changes/successes have you seen as a result of this particular charity event?

(Juan Ellul Pirotta) A lot has changed since I joined the KC8 project. From a personal perspective, I had only met two of the participants previously and was a stranger to the rest of the group. Through our various training sessions and charity events I have come to discover the unique, crazy, but amazing personalities of the other team members that make this group so extraordinary. Every fund-raising event we have organised can be considered a success because not only have they helped us get closer to our €65,000 target for the kindergarten project in Ethiopia, but they also raised awareness of our cause and forged stronger bonds within the team.

What is your greatest fear (not heights, of course!)?

Run us through the schedule to get to the top of the mountain and tell us what dangers are involved.

(Lara Barbuto) We will be following the Machame route to the summit which is considered by many to be the most scenic route. Also known as the “Whiskey Route”, the Machame route is an eight-day, camping only, challenging wilderness route but allows for excellent acclimatisation and stunning scenery.

It will take us through four different ecosystems: rainforest, heath, moorland and glacier. It takes six days with an average of eight hours of trekking each day (15 hours on summit day) ascending through the forest from Machame Gate on the southwest side of the mountain, summiting from Barafu Camp on day 7 and then exiting through Mweka Gate on day 8.

I wanted to do something different, while still helping out in an indirect way.

(Alishia Dimech) There is no denying that my greatest fear during the climb is altitude sickness. Fitness levels don’t figure in whether you get sick or not and reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro depends more than anything else on how we cope with altitude. “Pole, pole” – which means “slowly, slowly” in Kiswahili – will be our sacred two words for the climb.

people who’ve done it in the past, and from what I expect to happen, there will be a feelings of happiness that we have made it to the summit, relief and accomplishment after all the hard work, training and sacrifice and – for sure – exhaustion. And I have to keep in mind that we still have another two days of trekking to make it back down! It will be a proud moment in my life to be up there with my teammates!

Have you met the children in Ethiopia who are going to have a kindergarten school?

(Samantha Galea) When I visited Ethiopia last year on an unrelated voluntary work project, I had the opportunity to experience first-hand the poor quality of life of the children living in the compound where I was helping. The fact that most of them were deprived of basic resources such as education was an eye-opener to a different reality from the one I am used to. Although this was a fulfilling experience, this year

What scares me in general? On a day-today basis – KC8 being such a pet-loving team – everyone knows that the one thing that scares the living daylights out of me is dogs: little dogs are jumpy and bark a lot; big dogs are unpredictable.

How can the public help towards this challenge?

(Nikita Taliana) The public can help build a kindergarten in Ethiopia by calling 5150 2084 (€5), 5160 2028 (€10), 5180 2095(€25) or SMS 5061 7389 (€2.33) 50618062 (€4.66).

Every donation – however small – helps ensure a brighter future for these children!

For more information and to keep informed about our events, visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ KilimanjaroChallengeMalta V

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“The Designer today absolutely works by addressing the public imagination. In this sense he is no different from a film maker or a gallery owner. The complication lies in the fact that you need to make objects that at times also have to function” – Alberto Alessi

SMILES ALL ROUND

SMILES ALL ROUND. > THIS CRAFTY COMPANY DOESN’T STOP EXPLORING NEW WAYS OF BEING INNOVATIVE AND BEING PART OF OUR LIVES. THIS AUTUMN/WINTER COLLECTION IS THE RESULT OF RESEARCH INTO NEW MATERIALS AND PROCESSES, USING NEVER-BEFORE-USED COMPONENTS SUCH AS CEMENT MORTAR AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW FINISHES WITH INNOVATIVE AESTHETIC AND TACTILE EFFECTS. >>

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“ BEAUTY CAN SAVE THE WORLD,

AT ANY TIME AND UNDER ANY CONSTELLATION...” >>

– ALBERTO ALESSI

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he designers of the new collection include well-known names that are already present in the company’s catalogues, such as Odile Decq and Miriam Mirri, but also young designers involved in workshops and online competitions.

One ever-present theme is Alessi’s passion for time-honoured traditional objects and for those that have become true icons. Mario Trimarchi offers a new interpretation of the moka and Alessandro Mendini celebrates the 20th anniversary of Anna G. with two limited editions of his much loved corkscrew. And ahead of the festive season at the end of the year, there are also anticipated new Christmas products created by designer-artists Marcello Jori and Massimo Giacon.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the “Anna G.” corkscrew, one of the most popular and iconic objects in the Alessi catalogue, Alessandro Mendini has designed two screen-printed brass masks for the corkscrew to “wear”. Two special limited edition versions will hopefully bode well for the next 20 years.

Two new 18/10 stainless steel accessories are added to the ObjetsBijoux series: the cheerful “Jumbo” handbag table hook resembling an elephant, designed by Frédéric Gooris with Sebastiano Tosi, and the “Acacia” honey dispenser that Miriam Mirri has designed taking her inspiration from the shape of honeycomb cells, to create a complex design for an elegant and functional little object.

Claudia Raimondo’s research into colour applied to steel saw the development of the “Enamel Paint” project, giving objects a translucent and brilliant effect, made up of colour and shadows, recalling the enamels of the goldsmith tradition. The colours blue and pomegranate are combined in the “Joy” series: the “Joy n.1” centrepiece, the “Joy n.11” round basket and the “Joy n.3” tray.

The Alessi catalogue begins with a new chapter in the world of aluminium espresso coffee pots: Sicilian designer Mario Trimarchi has managed to create a new form - ergonomic, functional, and as multi-faceted as “Ossidiana” (obsidian) - to his moka project. Even the packaging, designed by Trimarchi, is original, a hexagonal shape that is immediately recognisable on store shelves!

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The new centrepieces differ in terms of style and materials: the “Twist again” fruit holder by Odile Decq is made of a sheet of steel cut and folded that gives the item a sense of a continuous rotation and movement and the “La Trama e l’Ordito” centrepiece made from i.design Effix® cement. Designed by Luca Galbusera together with LPWK Design Studio, “La Trama e l’Ordito” was the winner of the #Concrete In Design project promoted in association with Italcementi at desall.com.

Before being put into production, the multi-purpose “CARGO box” PMMA container with wooden handle resembling a 20th century tool box designed by the BIG-GAME Group (Elric Petit, with Augustin Scott de Martinville and Grégoire Jeanmonod), received the 2014 Wallpaper Design Award in the “Best DIY” category, and the Swiss Design Award.

Finally, the AdiAlessi catalogue, the stars of which are undoubtedly the Christmas decorations and the series of figures in porcelain.

The four new hand-decorated and blown glass Palle Presepe nativity baubles, Babbonatale, Babbarenna, Fioccodineve and Uffoguffo, designed by LPWK-Marcello Jori, join the existing twelve characters to decorate the Christmas tree and house in a fun and original way.

Meanwhile, LPWK- Massimo Giacon are the brains behind the new porcelain figures designed to invigorate the vibrant nativity scene that was first launched in 2007. Two-figure sets include “Nello Pastorello” with “ciao ciao” the sheep, organ player “Jimmy Melody” with little monkey “Monkey Money”, and “Dario Dromedario” with “Palmita” the palm tree, as well as baker “Peppino Panino” and his little oven.

Other characters designed by Massimo Giacon can be found in the merry decorations on the two large Panettone plates, “Happy Snowtime” and “Christmas Spiral”.

Rounding off AdiAlessi’s newest products are the characters from a famous fairytale. After Little Red Riding Hood, LPWK-Massimo Giacon unveils four wonderful Alice in Wonderland figures for the Le Fiabe collection: “The Hatter & The Queen of Hearts” and “Alice & The White Rabbit”.

There you have it - the most cutting-edge industrial production line for a smile in the kitchen and a quirky Christmas. V View the full 2014 range at www.alessi.com Alessi products are available at Petrolea – Valley Road, Msida

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PARTY CHOW

PARTY CHOW AND HOW

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR IS APPROACHING. I LOVE CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE HUSTLE IT BRINGS WITH IT. YOU KNOW HOW IT IS: FRIENDS AND FAMILY POPPING AROUND FOR A DRINK OR TWO. YOU’RE INVITED OVER AND WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A LITTLE SOMETHING WITH YOU. LET’S MAKE THINGS EASIER FOR YOU, SO YOU WON’T NEED TO SLAVE AWAY FOR HOURS BUT CAN STILL ENJOY THE FACT THAT YOU MADE IT ALL YOURSELF. YOU’LL STILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT STUFF – THE CATCHING UP! I’VE PREPARED SOME GREAT YET SIMPLE AND QUICK RECIPES YOU CAN WHIP UP IN NO TIME! – CHRYS MANGION FROM MUMMIES YUMMIES >> 124

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Brie & marmalade wrapped in puff pastry 1 portion/ triangle of Brie 2 tablespoons of marmalade – mine was homemade, with ginger which adds extra spice to the flavour.

Option: choose any flavour jam you prefer.

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry Open the ready-rolled pastry, leaving it on its own greaseproof paper. Place Brie in the centre, cover with marmalade or jam of your choice and fold over the pastry. Trim excess. Bake in preheated oven (170ÂşC) for around 20 minutes till golden brown. Serve immediately.

Pear wrapped in Parma ham 2 medium-sized pears 12 slices Parma ham 3 tablespoons cream cheese or herb-flavoured cheese handful of rocket Cut pears into six sections. Core pear and add scoop of cream cheese into indentation. Place a few rocket leaves on top and wrap in Parma ham.

Toasted pita bread with ricotta, pomegranate & orange zest Toast the pita bread to make it super crunchy like a biscuit.

You can also bake it in the oven but make sure to cut it into the desired shape beforehand, as it will break if you try when it is crunchy! Mix around half a tub of fresh ricotta with half the zest of an orange and some seasoning. Smear onto you pita bread and decorate with pomegranate and more orange zest. >> PARIS ISSUE

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PARTY CHOW

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MIXED CHEESE AND GRAPE TREE BOARD Nothing says festive like a Christmas tree! Cut up blocks of various cheeses into squares and mix with grapes or cherry tomatoes and sprigs of herbs for the ultimate cheese board with a festive twist.

SOFT CHEESE WITH CRUSHED ALMONDS ( Serves 8-10 ) 2 2 6

tubs cream cheese spring onions, finely chopped slices speck or smoked ham, very finely chopped A handful of crushed almonds, almond flakes or any nut you prefer

Method: Mix cream cheese with finely chopped spring onion and speck. Season with salt and pepper and roll into a ball.

Place crushed almonds on a plate and roll the cheese ball till completely covered. Keep chilled until serving time.

MUSHROOMS STUFFED WITH MALTESE SAUSAGE ½ tub cream cheese 1 handful grated Parmesan cheese 1 Maltese sausage, skin removed and crumbled One small onion and one garlic clove, both finely chopped 1 egg yolk 20 small to medium-sized button mushrooms Method: To make stuffing, fry onion until softened, add sausage meat and garlic. Allow to cool, then add cream cheese, Parmesan and egg yolk. Stuff mushrooms with filling and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

RED PEPPER PESTO PALMIERS Ready-rolled puff pastry, cut into rectangular shape 2 tbsp red pepper pesto/or any other pesto 2 handfuls grated cheese: I used Emmental Method: Open ready-rolled pastry and smear pesto all over.

Sprinkle with cheese. Pull in both sides of the pastry to the centre, fold again and again until you have what looks like two cylinders attached at the middle. Cut palmiers into 3cm thick slices and place on baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper.

These will double in size so make sure to give them enough space. Bake in pre-heated oven for around 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Store in an airtight container if not being used immediately. V

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CHASING HORIZONS

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GOZO BASED PHOTOGRAPHER MIKE ROSS MEETS UP WITH MALTESE PHOTOGRAPHER KURT ARRIGO TO TALK ABOUT THEIR PASSION IN LIFE - ONE WHICH HAS TAKEN KURT AROUND THE GLOBE GATHERING A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE AND SNAPS OF THE EARTH UNDER AND OVER THE WATER >> WORDS: MIKE ROSS

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CHASING HORIZONS

...”HE IS A MASTER AT CAPTURING THE GRANDEUR OF THE SEA”...

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CHASING HORIZONS

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orld-renowned marine photographer Kurt Arrigo has been inextricably linked to the sea from a very young age. His father ran one of the first diving schools in Malta, and Kurt was introduced to diving at the age of nine or ten, followed by sailing a few years later.

“I grew up on the water. Ever since I was a young kid, the sea was my closest friend.”

An enduring passion for the sea was born.

His interest in photography was sparked at the same time as he was acquainting himself with these and any other waterbased activities with which he could get involved. His grandfather bought him a little disc camera and he soon graduated to his first SLR, a much-loved Pentax Super-A, which accompanied him everywhere as his interest in sailing and racing grew. “It was an extension of my hand in a way”.

As he gained confidence and expertise as a teenager, more sophisticated cameras followed: a Pentax 6x7, a Mamiya 6/7 and a Leica M7. These were, of course, predigital days, when Kurt learnt to process his film himself and print the results.

He put in endless hours, learning his craft: reading, embracing the technology and learning from the work of other photographers before adapting his newfound knowledge to his own lifestyle. “I think anybody who started in photography with film has an advantage, because of an understanding of the process and shooting for the image, rather than shooting images but thinking about the post.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Making a living from water-based photography in Malta was surprisingly difficult and so Kurt also took on assignments in the tourism sector, hospitality and advertising but always keeping the sea close to his heart. He successfully published annual calendars, built an impressive portfolio, won some important competitions and

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gained more and more recognition overseas. The America’s Cup in 1992 was a landmark assignment from which there was no looking back.

One only has to study examples of his extraordinary body of work to realise that there are some serious physical challenges involved. According to photographers who come from other disciplines, yacht-racing is probably one of the biggest challenges because so many elements come into play. It’s impracticable to use a photographic assistant in the conventional sense but Kurt relies on the support of a dedicated team to help him with everything surrounding the shoot – from logistics, planning and booking, to the professionals at the sharp end: the boat drivers and helicopter pilots. With so many variables involved, no amount of planning can allow for unforeseen situations. >>

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“I GREW UP ON THE WATER. EVER SINCE I WAS A YOUNG KID, THE SEA WAS MY CLOSEST FRIEND.”

master at capturing the grandeur of the sea. “I love the aerial perspective but when I’m actually on the water I feel much more connected with what I’m shooting, with the sea spray and the movement of the water.” Underwater photography, at which Kurt has become highly accomplished, has a separate set of challenges, not least of which is communication between photographer and subject, as with the extraordinary series of photographs he has shot with Saho Harada, the acclaimed former synchronised Olympic double medallist swimmer. With a shoal of tuna circling above her, she performs a graceful underwater ballet. “We have to keep coming to the surface, of course,

He is not necessarily able to position himself and his camera where he might choose to be, but his personal yacht-racing experience has taught him to anticipate and be ready to adapt to a sudden change in the scenario.

Physical fitness is essential and Kurt cycles or swims every day to keep in shape for the demands of the job. “I’m one of the very few marine photographers that carries a hand-held six-and-a-half-kilo lens, so very often I’m holding one of these massive lenses – a 400mm 2.8, which is a heavy piece of kit and you can’t use any monopods or any of that sort of thing because you’re moving with the sea, you’re moving in the helicopter, but it offers beautiful optics. You have to be your own steadicam”.

There is an element of danger involved and, along with the racing crew, he always has to sign a disclaimer but there’s also a risk assessment from the companies with which he’s working so he’s confident that he’s working with reliable people. “There was one time in Tasmania when we were between two islands and the waves were about seven or eight metres and I thought: ‘Holy s**t, what am I going to do here?, or alarms will off in the helicopter, and so on, but nothing’s more dangerous than cycling on our roads”.

When not actually shooting from the water’s surface, Kurt is as likely to be flying in a helicopter as he is to be shooting from beneath the waves and whether he’s under it or above it, he is a

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but there’s an unspoken communication between us and it’s very natural because she is such a disciplined athlete.

She knows what I’m after, performs accordingly and I capture the moment.”

Another specialised area for which Kurt is often in demand is as a film stills photographer. He recently worked on The Dovekeepers, a four-part historical TV mini-series shot in Malta. “I’m always drawn to a bit of action and I love catching strong moments.” While unimpressed by the hierarchy and the big names with egos to match that abound in the movie world, he has a lot of time for sincere people who are as passionate about their projects as he is about his own work. “It’s humbling when one of the most influential producers in America, such as Mark Burnett on The Dovekeepers, shows a genuine interest in what I’m doing, encourages me and gives feedback. It’s so rewarding to know that someone at his very high level values my expertise.”

Kurt’s work takes him overseas but he never wants to be away from his Malta home for long. “This year I was involved in the chance to be an on-board photographer and media man in the Volvo Ocean Race, which is a nine-month race around the world, but I have to think not just selfishly of me, but of the full picture: of being away from my family and certain clients”. Of the many far-flung locations in which Kurt has photographed during his career, top of the list for return visits are New Zealand’s South Island and the Galapagos Islands.

Kurt eschews the predictable photo library route in favour of selling his pictures through close and creative relationships with a wide variety of clients. His work recently enhanced a sumptuous coffeetable book on horses, after having been approached by a New York curator. Not surprisingly, Kurt’s stunning view is from below, of a horse swimming in the sea above him.

He feels that his images are better appreciated, for example, in the setting of a contemporary Miami hotel through client communication, than waiting for recognition on the pages of a stock image library. His work has been impressively showcased in three books of his own, Grand Harbour Malta, Maritime Malta and his first one, Malta: A Coastal Journey. It is surely just a matter of time before his work graces the hallowed pages of National Geographic.

Reviewing his career so far, Kurt says: “I feel very fortunate to have been able to pursue a dream that came very naturally to me, and that has supported me and my family.” More important than remuneration, however, is to be able to choose the projects that excite him, collaborating with real people who appreciate his talent and being close to the elements that he loves. As for the future, Kurt is eyeing some conservation projects in Egypt, on the shores of the Red Sea, with its spectacular diving.

But when asked what would be his dream photographic assignment, he unhesitatingly replies: “Antarctica – I’d love to get on an expedition: something in the cold”. V

MILL ME

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A REFINED HOUSE-OF-CHARACTER CONVERSION IN SIGGIEWI BY MJMDA

A Design: MJMDA Photography: Peter M. Mercieca Words: Carmen B. Briffa

conversion requires a degree of respect when it comes to new design interventions.

The approach chosen for this project was one of understanding the existing dimensionality and proportions of the components of the existing building and then designing to fit within that context.

The concept of character, like so many of the central concepts we use on a daily basis in preserving our buildings, is somewhat nebulous. However, we rarely stop to think about how buildings have an abstract idea such as character. Being abstract, it is hard to define and it is also associated with related concepts such as integrity and honesty.

This means that we apply concepts to inanimate objects that really belong to human beings. Can a building really be ‘compromised’, can its ‘integrity’ be questioned, its ‘character’ altered? Grappling with conversion is something that takes courage. Increasingly, our urban fabric requires an effective intervention with the right skills to bring about the change we all require in changing circumstances. This provides the opportunity to improve and build upon our already existing lifestyle.

All buildings should have two elements of goodness: first, doing their practical duty well and, in addition, being graceful and pleasing in the process. >>

Fireplace – Il Camino, Flooring – M Demajo (Timbers Ltd)

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MILL ME

Fireplace – Il Camino, Flooring – M Demajo (Timbers Ltd)

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At best, we achieve buildings with an integrated result that brings about a change for the better. This house, which was originally finished by its owners, was eventually entrusted to MJMDA in order to upgrade its state of being. As is customary with starting a project at MJMDA, we asked a lot of questions in order to be able to understand our clients’ brief. This provided a sound basis for pushing forward into the concept and design phase.

A combination of functionality and inspiration brings a welcoming intimacy to this sprawling residence.

The warm and welcoming entrance and adjacent study gives way to the renovated courtyard, which acts as a central source of light for all the surrounding spaces. The courtyard affords access around the Jacuzzi to a raised timber deck, lifting sun beds up to the sun and allowing the water element to be a more spacious. A layer of light enhances this uplift spilling over of water and then a blue, multi-toned mosaic augments the depth of the circular Jacuzzi that is juxtaposed with the rougher floor and limestone backdrop.

In addition, the mounting of three custom-made linear protracted metal light fittings creates a vertical focus at the back of this multifunctional core, highlighting the natural limestone tones.

Through an arched corridor subtending the view to the everpresent courtyard with its own dining and barbecue area, one is led to the cosy living and dining area. Here, a module was created from the space and used in different multiples to create a physical link to the existing context, while inserting new contemporary functional elements such as a TV unit, comfortable seating, plenty of storage, the fireplace, a display for a focal antique item and a bar. The bespoke fireplace is seen as a dynamic composite aluminium mass rising along the back wall. This space easily accommodates the different needs of a relaxing family space to the more entertaining-oriented lounge. Here, timber flooring provides warmth and cosiness that complements the carefully restored limestone walls. >>

...”A COMBINATION OF FUNCTIONALITY AND INSPIRATION BRINGS A WELCOMING INTIMACY TO THIS SPRAWLING RESIDENCE”... >>

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MILL ME

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...”BOTH INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY, ALL THE ORIGINAL FEATURES WERE RETAINED AND ENHANCED THROUGH THE CHOICE OF MATERIALS AND LIGHTING”...

The living room then opens generously to the courtyard itself, extending its functional link in summer and providing a warm inside and entertaining space, with proximity to the outside, in winter.

Both internally and externally, all the original features were retained and enhanced through the choice of materials and lighting.

The stairwell and landing have been reorganised and revived by the introduction of contrasting materials

and careful lighting. This leads us to the bathroom, which was re-fitted retaining only the original floor. The far wall happened to be overlooking a small yard, and an opening here has injected natural light into the space – completely changing the feel of the room. The travertine masses for the vanities and bath, and the natural texture of the lava in the shower & WC work beautifully in the natural light, and a sense of calm seems to prevail. A ring of light crowns the room, using the old ceiling and beams as reflectors of a

calm and cleansing diffused light.

Mill Me presents the fundamental character of a home that provides the bare necessities on an intimate but generous scale with regard to both the building fabric and the spaces themselves. Rather than doing away with centuries of history and culture, this conversion has clearly intertwined such themes into the design process, resulting in a contemporary style that is distinctly unique and luxurious in its simplicity. V

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PIN UP

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PIN UP.

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TRAIT STREET IN VALLETTA IS FAMOUS THE WORLD-OVER FOR ITS BUZZING NIGHTLIFE DATING BACK TO THE BRITISH PERIOD, WHEN YOUNG SAILORS HAD THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES AND LET RIP IN THE CITY. TICO TICO WAS, IN FACT, THE LAST BAR TO CLOSE AND ONE OF THE FIRST TO REOPEN, IN 2012, IN THE HEART OF THE STREET.

Clint Debono and Mark Zammit’s sympathetic mission to furnish Tico Tico with a mix of traditional Maltese décor alongside original items – which include posters from the famous City Lights Cinema – has been a great success, attracting people from all walks of life. Two years on, its walls are covered with photos and items of memorabilia donated by both local and foreign patrons to help keep the feel of Strait Street alive.

This year, Mark and Clint decided to give something back.

With the help of Lorraine Sammut, they put together a team of photographers, designers, typographers, vintage boutiques, local and foreign models, hair-stylists, make-up artists, and local businesses to produce a calendar in aid of The Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness.

The calendar would still be a pipe dream, were it not for the contribution of everyone in the team, and the help of neighbours M. Demajo & Sons Ltd, and Clint and Mark would like to thank the following, without whom this calendar would not have been possible: Kris Micallef (Photography), Id-Demarco (Malta Type), Samantha from Blush & Panic, Impressions printers, Lily Agius Gallery and M. Demajo Wines & Spirits Models: Stephanie Hodgkins, Jenna McMonagle, Daniela Aciu, Nicola Grixti, Maria Möller, Egle Loit, Adrian Micallef, Jamie Pace, Renato Conceicao, Kallervo Karo, Peter Carbonaro, Lahcene Merzoug V PARIS ISSUE

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MAKE-UP: DIANDRA MATTEI

HAIR TRENDS

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HAIR TRENDS 14/15

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4.hair-Lara Steer, make-up-Sasha, Styling-Marisa Grima, Shot-Steve Vella 7. hair-Lara Steer, make-up- Diandra Mattei Shot-Lux Moments 8. hair-Lara Steer, make-up-Justin Brincat,Shot-Brian Grech

LARA STEER FROM D SALON GIVES US THE HOTTEST HAIR TRENDS FOR THIS WINTER – FROM THE RUNWAY RY RUNWAY,TO TOTHE THESTREET STREETFROM FROMLOOSE, LOOSE,TEXTURED TEXTUREDWAVES WAVESTO TOPERFECT PERFECTCENTRE CENTREPARTINGS, PARTINGS,EVE EVERY TAKE,ON ONAAPONY PONYAND ANDGLAMOROUS GLAMOROUSSIXTIES-INSPIRED SIXTIES-INSPIREDSTREET STREETSTYLES, STYLES,HERE HEREARE ARETHE THEHOTT HOTTEST TAKE EST HAIR TRENDS THAT YOU CAN TAKE STRAIGHT FROM THE RUNWAY INTO REAL LIFE! 1. Playful pigtails Pigtails were spotted throughout the four fashion weeks. Wear them neat, chic and prim-and-proper for a more sculpted look as seen at Marc Jacobs, or recreate the look with a more loose, unruly effect for a more wearable pigtail ‘pretty girl’ trend.

2. Take centre stage Whether it’s worn with a pony or let down to flow, a centre parting always gives an instant fashion statement.

3. Wet look rocks Models wore wet-looking hair slicked back off the face and hair flowing with a messy dry texture through the length. This edgy punk chic trend is great for beautiful faces

who want to draw attention to eyes and cheek-bones, so wear it wet looking and wear it with attitude!

4. Off duty Ballerinas Models sported texture effortlessly with undone ballerina buns at Roberto Cavalli, which complemented the natural bare-faced beauty look, while Gaultier and Prada presented hair that was flawlessly slicked back in performance-ready chic buns. This simple chic trend is easy to wear and gives an instant smart-casual feel to your image.

5. Ponytails Rule Ponytails are seen everywhere on the runway, worn textured with lush fabric

at Chanel, polished and sophisticated at Ralph Lauren, sectioned off sleek at Valentino and multi-layered with a futuristic feel at Fendi. The ponytail is the simple comfortable go-to style that gives a quick chic fashion fix!

6. Braids and twists Braids and twists were also seen everywhere on the runway; Marc Jacobs and Givenchy opted for two tight braids, while Etro models sported fun half up, half down fishtails and Dolce and Gabbana tucked and twisted pretty braids into a pretty hair-up layered effect.

season’s hottest new fashionable style is mid-length or even shorter. Long and heavy is out, it’s time to change. I dare you!

8. Sixties Glam This winter embraces the big hair trend with a Sixties street-style feel, while next spring/summer will see a more casual boho-chic wave trend coming our way.

Every girl loves sexy, feminine hair that moves, and movement is key to sexy hair this winter. Sexy hair should have natural texture and bounce with a luxurious shine giving it a glamorous edge. V

7. Mid-length or even shorter If you haven’t lost it yet, lose it now! This PARIS ISSUE

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WINTER BEAUTY TIPS

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LOSE YOUR SKINHIBITIONS THIS WINTER

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WINTER BRINGS ALONG HARSHER TEMPERATURES WHILE COLDER WEATHER DRIES UP THE SKIN, LEAVING THE COMPLEXION DULL AND SALLOW. PIGMENTATION CAN ALSO BE MORE VISIBLE AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, AFTER ALL THE EXPOSURE TO THE SUN DURING THE SUMMER. TREATMENTS TO BRIGHTEN UP THE SKIN AND FRESHEN UP OUR LOOK ARE VARIOUS AND CAN EASILY BE DONE DURING THIS TIME OF YEAR, DUE TO THE LACK OF SUN EXPOSURE. DR JOANNA DELIA GIVES US SOME WINTER TIPS AND TREATMENT INFORMATION:

1. Toners can dry up the skin even more. Using the right products, such as a foam cleanser which can leave the skin at its optimum pH, is a very good balance between feeling the skin fully cleansed and drying it up.

2. Chemical peels can be ideal to brighten up the complexion. With the use of well-balanced acids, you can give that missing glow back to your skin with minimal downtime. Chemical peels can also be used to reduce excessive oil production, resulting in clearer skin for those who suffer

from acne or light flare-ups.

3. Laser can easily remove any sun spots that you might have after the summer. This is a very quick treatment that can lead to a clear and flawless skin.

4. Laser skin resurfacing treatments can smooth out the lines of time and following this sort of treatment, new collagen and healthy skin cells are produced. In addition, mild to moderate wrinkles are reduced and the skin’s texture becomes smoother and more elastic. This technology has

been shown to effectively treat mild to moderate wrinkles, red and brown spots and textural irregularities.

5. Radiofrequency skin tightening and contouring can reverse the signs of aging without downtime.

This treatment comfortably helps achieve a more youthful appearance. It is the first and only technology that uses combined energies to effectively stimulate collagen production and improve your overall skin quality in areas that are most telling when it comes to age,

such as the eyes, brow lines, cheeks and around the neck.

Trusting the right professionals is always the key to achieving the best results. A thorough consultation is always important to make sure everything is explained in detail. Most of the treatments mentioned above are only carried out in the winter, so lose your ‘skinhibitions’ this winter and don’t miss the opportunity to give your skin and self-esteem a well-earned boost. V

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Tamara Burr Beauty Parlour-Sliema 7982 9472

001 DIORIFIC GOLDEN SHOCK Glow with Dior’s special powder The new, incredibly fine Diorific Golden Shock Powder 001 is a pressed powder that reveals a stylised compass rose, evoking the Château de la Colle Noire, the couturier’s holiday home. Beneath the caress of the brush, the contours of the face – the temples, nose and cheekbones – allow you to glow. Light bonds with shadow in an exquisite discord. €70.50 Available at FRANKS Tel: 2388 2300

The Christmas season can make us feel both jolly and drained. Shopping for presents and cooking for the family can take over our beauty regime, so here are some tips and products that will help make you look the part this Christmas – and some great gifts for your loved ones! BY TAMARA BURR

Diego Dalla Palma

Shimmer and shine with Max Factor eye make-up Almost 100 years after Mr Max Factor first began selling eye-shadow, Max Factor continues to innovate with the launch of new gel-based Excess Shimmer Eye Shadows. These brilliant eye shadows glide over and melt into the skin through an easy application with a blendable formula that ensures that just a little goes a very long way. Rrp €8.90

MAX FACTOR – Conceal and correct to create flawless skin The latest offering from Max Factor is the colour corrector concealer which neutralises blemishes, blotchiness and broken veins. Apply after Max Factor Primer and just before Max Factor Foundation for a flawless finish. All you need to do is identify your skin tone and choose from six different tones to find the solution.

Rrp € 9.50 [ Get a free make-up bag and surprise gift when spending €35 or more on Max Factor products.] Find out more on Facebook/MaxFactorMalta.

For local trade enquiries, call Freephone Tel: 8007 2387

Ego Lipstick 100: Unique in colour and light and creamy texture – use on top of your lipstick to give it a darker look. Glitter Silver Mascara: Recommended for those who are daring and like to have fun. Here is a mascara with silver glitter, give shining eyes a surprising sparkle.

Long-lasting Eye Stylo: A single “garnet red” colour for an eye pencil with a precise stroke and impeccable wear. Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick: Unique colour for lipstick liquid next-generation, super-velvety matte effect. Too Much Black Stick Eye-shadow: An extremely long-wearing stick eye shadow in a deep and matte black. Water-resistant Très Chic Eyeliner: A single, ultrapearly anthracite silver colour. The Nude Lip Pencil: A single “nude” lip-colour shade.

Exclusively distributed by Chemimart Tel: 2149 2212

007 DIORIFIC GOLDEN SHOCK COLOUR LIP DUO Dior reveals a twotone lipstick: Diorific Golden Shock Colour Lip Duo Matte and Metallic 007 Passion Shock. Cast in the mould of Diorific Golden Shock are two effects: a pure matte colour and its hologram, that seems as if it is infused with gold and will light up your smile with maximum radiance. It offers six colour duos for three make-up results: Couture – by layering the two sides, first with the pure colour and then with the iridescent shade; Plump up – with the iridescent side of the lipstick creating the optical effect of plumping up the lips and Vibrato – applying the pure colour to one lip and the iridescent colour to the other. €40.50 Available at FRANKS Tel: 2388 2300

Luscious Lips – with Clarins Here is a lipstick that offers more than just colour. It is, in fact, the first age-defying lipstick from Clarins. Intense, long-lasting colour, the Nutri-Youth Complex protects lips against dehydration and boosts collagen, while Vitamin E protects your lips against free radicals and 100% plant waxes provide instant comfort. Choose from 15 shades of lip-nourishing, age-defying luminous colour with a delicious blackberry and liquorice scent. €23.86 Available from all leading perfumeries and pharmacies in Malta and Gozo PARIS ISSUE

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OVERNIGHT MAGIC: LANCÔME RÉNERGIE FRENCH LIFT

LANCÔME VISIONNAIRE ADVANCED SKIN CORRECTOR Containing LR 2412, a molecule designed to penetrate all the layers of the skin’s epidermis, this second-generation formula is designed to help perfect the look of skin every day. In just one application, skin feels smoother and more supple. Wrinkles and pores appear reduced as if corrected, and uneven skin texture is smoothed.

Exclusively Distributed

by Chemimart 21492212

“ C hoose skin care products with the ingredients that will make a difference and are best for your skin type . ”

Inspired by the precise French lifting techniques, Lancôme introduces Renergie French Lift™ – a retightening night-time moisturiser enriched with the Resveroside™ complex, paired with an innovative massage disc. Designed for nightly use when the skin’s ability to repair itself occurs, it is based on clinical studies.

In just four weeks, it visibly re-tightens facial zones: cheekbones appear lifted, the forehead is smoothed and the jaw-line and neck look redefined.

Exclusively Distributed by Chemimart-21492212

Cell regeneration from Guinot

For signs of first wrinkles – IcePerfect radiance

Beauty is no longer a question of age. Longue Vie Cellulaire is a cell renewal and rejuvenating treatment made up of 56 active biological ingredients that are vital to the existence of cells. This technology, known as the Milieu de Vie Cellulaire, is used in hospitals to reconstitute skin – particularly in the care of patients with severe burns, achieving incomparable results in respect of cell regeneration. This product energises and boosts skin cells whilst restoring the radiance and vitality of more youthful skin. Expert advice says that it can be used to reduce the scars left by acne or after over-exposure to the sun. €77.50 Contact PHBS Ltd on 2142 4401/2/3 for your closest Guinot-appointed salon

This nourishing cream provides the skin with all the energy, well-being and vitality it requires.

Containing Siberian Olive, which is composed of 108 natural bio-active elements, 30 times more vitamin C than an orange, nine times more provitamin A than a carrot, three times more vitamins than sunflower oil – your skin is set!

Siberian Olive concentrates more vitamins, polyphenols and omega 3, 6 and 9 than any other in the entire northern hemisphere! And IcePerfect contains no alcohol, parabens or mineral oils.€49

A TRIBUTE TO THE PASSIONATE WOMAN: ARMANI INTENSE

Anti-wrinkle cream: IceRepair fundamental The Polaar IceRepair Fundamental Anti-Wrinkle Cream is a voluptuous cream that corrects wrinkles and comforts your skin, thanks to its hydrating and nutrient-rich formula. It focuses on every layer of your skin, offering reinforced anti-wrinkle action and targets all the layers of skin for a reinforced effect that protects each cell and offers absolute comfort. €59 Available from all leading pharmacies. Distributed by Ta’ Xbiex Perfumery Ltd -21331553

Love Story Chloe Love Story is a modern story of seduction. Her – and him. Their paths cross, a few mumbled words, a beautiful moment. The fragrance Love Story is the marriage of luminous and sensual orange blossom with stephanotis jasmine, the flower of happiness. A sexy, clean floral fragrance. The bottle, a worldwide symbol of love and a real icon of Chloé’s Fashion House, the lock is now embodying the Chloé’s attitude.

A delicate ribbon, casually hanging on the side, adds the Chloé touch to make it more feminine and enticing.

From €58.80 – Chloe is distributed by Club and exclusively for Franks 2388 2300

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A NEW SENSUAL PERFUME FOR WOMEN: BLACK OPIUM BY YSL Here’s a dose of adrenaline for a glamorous heroine. Addictive? Terribly!

The Quest? To follow your desires and instincts, break codes and assume its singularity. With its charismatic scent – an energy of black coffee electrified with an armful of white flowers and an assertive femininity – Black Opium embodies the new spirit of Yves Saint Laurent. Exclusively Distributed by Chemimart - 21492212

Accomplished.

Audacious.

Glamorous. An emphatic ‘yes’ to these emotions, to taking chances and to having it all. Eau de Parfum Intense accentuates the sensual and elegant facets of the Armani woman – the duality of an extremely seductive blackcurrant neojungle essence, with just a hint of silky freesia, and a timeless chic intense chypre accord; a fragrance of passion, softly powerful, assertive and unmistakably feminine.

Exclusively Distributed by Chemimart-21492212

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Shiseido Perfect Refining Foundation SPF15 This is a smooth, light liquid foundation that fits seamlessly against the skin, naturally covering all imperfections by erasing conspicuous pores, acne scars and skin roughness for even, perfect coverage all day long. Fast-acting ingredients work together to provide a smooth texture, optimal moisture balance, protection from UV rays (SPF 15) and a silky finish. €40 Shiseido is exclusively represented by C+M Marketing Ltd. Tel. 2142 4079. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ ShiseidoMalta

“ T he best make - up product for giving that extra perk and brightness is a luminous highlighter together with a dewy - finish foundation . ” Evagarden’s Skin Specialist Evagarden has launched the NEW CC Primer – your Colour Corrector and Primer in a tube.This revolutionary formula contains six actions in one. It evens out imperfections and smoothens and lightens the skin whilst improving the appearance of the make-up. The CC Primer absorbs excess sebum and minimises pores, making the skin instantly brighter and smoother.

The advanced technology, together with precious plant extracts of lotus flower and the anti-oxidants and revitalising properties of the water lily extract, guarantees a “perfect skin” action with a matt finish. The CC Primer can be applied alone or as a base for foundation, increasing its long-lasting properties. €24.88

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NYX Dewy finish Demand perfection!

For that fresh make up look that lasts, NYX Makeup Setting Sprays are lightweight and comfortable while working hard to make sure your make up stays put. Available in a gorgeous matte, shine-free finish or a dewy, fresh glow €9.99

NYX HIGH DEFINITION GRINDING POWDER High definition Grinding Powder -Nude- This revolutionary compact allows you to grind just enough mineral-enriched powder for one flawless application.

The result is a finely-milled, high-definition face powder that, once applied, deflects light, reduces the appearance of pores and smooths your complexion—making you camera-ready in no time. The rest of your product remains fresh and uncontaminated. €24.95

NYX Mosaic powder blush – highlighter This medley of five matte and shimmery colours creates a flush of colour and dazzling glow for every skin tone. Perfectly usable on its own, during the summer it will enhance your tan and give you a natural glow.

The mineral-based form ula highlights, hydrates and helps to protect the skin €8.99

FRESH FACE BLOTTING PAPER Fight shine with our new types of blotting paper: Tea Tree, Green Tea, Fresh Face and Matte. Each pack of NYX’s Blotting Paper comes with sheets of 100 per cent pure pulp paper to absorb excess oils and keep you shine free. One of the four essential options, for example, Fresh Face (BPRBC) removes any excess oil that can cause blemishes with fortified pulp paper infused with salicylic acid. €6.99 All NYX products are available from NYX Proffessional Make up Store – Tower RoadSliema - Tel: 2704 0768

Check the right colour for your skin tone at a leading Evagarden salon or visit the Evagarden make-up lounge at level -1, The Point in Tigné, Tel: 2060 1184.

For your closest Evagarden salon, visit the map locator tab on Evagarden Malta’s Facebook page.

The natural look: Clarins Concealer

CLARINS PERFECT SKIN Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation SPF10 has an ultra-fine, silky texture that contains highly effective mineral and plant based ingredients that work in harmony with the skin to illuminate the complexion. The result... beautifully radiant, perfectly even, matt skin. It gives a flawless finish every time. €41.15

CLARINS Blush Prodigy This silky, lightweight powder blush from Clarins, containing the perfect combination of mineral and plant extracts, adds colour and luminosity to cheeks for an instant, healthy-looking glow. The stunning mosaic palette displays different shades and finishes, enabling you to illuminate your complexion and enhance its natural radiance and beauty. €37.50

All Clarins products are Available from all leading pharmacies and perfumeries in Malta and Gozo.

Conceal dark circles, hide signs of fatigue and soothe and revive the eyes. Here is a very comfortable liquid that naturally smoothes onto the skin with no visible marks, to instantly conceal and reduce puffiness.

The correcting action is perfect and very natural-looking.

Signs of fatigue are eliminated and the complexion is freshlooking and radiant again from morning to night. Medium to high coverage. Dermatologist and ophthalmologist tested. €27.40

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GET FRUITY AT BODY SHOP Treat yourself to indulgent body candy with Body Shop’s all-new Glazed Apple body care range in an exclusive green festive tin, and smell good enough to eat with the mouth-watering fragrance. And keep an eye out for other seasonal sensations too: Vanilla Brûlée and Frosted Cranberry – the sweetest delights your skin could wish for! €24

“ M oisturise your hands and feet before bed .

Y ou can apply moisturiser so much more generously at night , locking it in with cotton gloves or socks before going to sleep. ”

Skimmed of harsh chemicals – colour crush They have been working hard in the lab to find the right formula, free of chemicals or any animal derivatives. Colour Crush provides high coverage for your nails, thanks to the easy-flow brush. It is also vegan and vegetarian suitable. What more can you ask for? €5

OPI AVOJUICE Skin Quencher Lotions – For hands & body Avojuices are packed with extracts and an entire menu designed to give your skin a drink of moisture!

Silken, “juicy” Avojuice Skin Quenchers Lotions are filled with smooth, rich moisturizers, Vitamin C, softening and hydrating fruit extracts, nourishing avocado and healing aloe extracts designed to give your skin a drink of moisture! ! Paraben free. The juicy fragrances include: Grapefruit, Pear, Ginger Lily, Orange Almond, Violet Orchid, Peony & Poppy, Mango, Coconut Melon and Jasmine! 200ml €9.75

BUTTER GLOSS – CHERRY CHEESE-CAKE Buttery soft and silky smooth, this scrumptious new Butter Lip Gloss tastes as sweet as sugar and makes your lips look downright luscious.

Swipe it on alone or over your favourite lipstick for a creamy sheer-to-medium cover that melts onto your lips and is never sticky €6.99 NYX Proffessional Make up Store Tower RoadSliema, 2704 0768

OPI AVOPLEX CUTICLE OIL-TO-GO Rich in therapeutic, skin-loving avocado oil, it replenishes essential moisture with its combination of deeppenetrating, nourishing ingredients. These include Phospholipids – the biological building blocks of skin – and super antioxidant Tocotrienol, which is more powerful than regular Vitamin E. Avoplex oil softens and smoothes with replenishing, nourishing and deep-penetrating ingredients such as Vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E, essential fatty acids and avocado oil, which closely resembles the skin’s own natural oils. It also contains Grape Seed, Sunflower, Sesame and Kukui Nut oils and Lecithin to restore essential moisture and lipids and nourish dry cuticles. €11.15 – Available also from Peach & Sorrel Wellness Centres. 2144 6683

Turn up the heat In 1981, Body Shop pioneered the iconic White Musk®: the first fragrance with man-made, cruelty-free musk. Now, discover the Red Musk™ collection – an intensely different feminine fragrance that is scandalising the perfume establishment with its smouldering blend of spiced musk with hot notes of pepper, cinnamon and tobacco – and no flowers.

The scent adds a red-hot new note to the fragrance history of The Body Shop.

Eu De Parfum 100ml €49, 60ml €32, Perfume Oil €16 Body Shop: Valletta, Plaza Sliema, Bugibba, Paola, Arkadia Gozo, the Airport Arrivals Lounge

THE SENSORIAL NINE – BY BODY SHOP Argan Oil has already made its appearance in the beauty industry, mostly as a hair oil. The Body Shop, with a 38-year history of developing naturally-inspired skincare, has now created an extensive Wild Argan Oil Bath and Bodycare range. The sensorial, nine-product collection includes an indulgent multi-purpose radiant oil, a unique luxuriant solid oil, body butter,shower gel, bubbling bath,body lotion, massage soap, rough scrub & lip oil. Body Shop: Valletta, Plaza Sliema, Bugibba, Paola, Arkadia Gozo, the Airport Arrivals Lounge

Pañpuri at Myoka Spa ESTABLISHED IN 2003 IN THAILAND, PAÑPURI IS A BRAND WELL-KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD FOR ITS LUXURIOUS SKIN CARE AND AROMATHERAPY PRODUCTS, INCLUDING SPECIALIST MASSAGE THERAPIES, INDULGENT SPA AND AROMATHERAPY TREATMENTS AND INVIGORATING FACIALS USING ITS OWN PRODUCTS. The unique treatments by Pañpuri have been created from various traditional Asian massages including Thai, Indian Shirodara, Indonesian Balinese, Chinese Tui Na and Philippine Hilot. Each unique therapy offers a superlative and individual experience of the highest quality. These all-natural eastern remedies by Pañpuri help to restore health and improve well-being, and stimulate relaxation, harmony, sensuality and vitality. Pañpuri’s original scents are made from 100 per cent pure essential oils, exotic and benefit-proven herbs that have been carefully chosen from all over Asia, promising a full sensorial experience. All treatments at Myoka Spas are carried out by highly qualified professional spa therapists.

Tel: 2137-0163 www.myoka.com

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