Turnleft Guides Blog

Paris East Preview: La Hype

2008-05-16T02:42:00.000-07:00

Pick up your skinny jeans and brush up your French because Paris is back. The city is loud as ever, and you love it or hate it but after a painful introspection, it seems to have renewed with its creative spirit: chefs dare to innovate (la food attitude), electro labels bring a new French Touch and a new arts scene is slowly emancipating itself from the diktats of May 68.

Most travel guides see no life beyond districts (arrondissements) 1-8 but Northeast Paris is the cradle of the city’s current revival. This spring, many fashion shows took place at the emblematic Maison des Métallos (a workmen’s club in the 11th) and many collectives and studios are settled in the area. We even keep overhearing that everything that matters takes place in the banlieues, Paris’ infamous suburbs. It is a slight exaggeration but two of them, Montreuil and Saint-Ouen, are as fashionable as the organic rutabagas they sell in their farmers’ markets.

This is a totally different side of Paris – experimental, unfussy and mixed - light years away from the tipsy dances around street lamps in The Devil Wears Prada. Art collectives, political activists and residents engage with social issues. The bridges over the Canal Saint-Martin quickly become as romantic as the Pont-Neuf. 2008 sees the area coming out of its shell, with architectural projects and new art spaces; the beach returns to la Villette this summer. 40 years after the riots of May 68, which started south of the river, the wind is blowing from the East!

(eds: for Paris Chic read our Paris 1-2-3-4 guide)

La Hype

Parisians are willing victims of la hype; most trends last only a season and many find a base around the Canal Saint-Martin, a leftfield gentrified neighbourhood. Trends come in waves and are quickly discussed by the usual panel of TV philosophers, sociologists and other trend authorities before running their course. Très tendance in Paris this summer are block parties, snacking, illegal restaurants, all-night demonstrations, finding secret smoking bars, art in banlieues, board game dating, lounge everything, poetry slam competitions and minimal music. Affordable art fairs are all the rage.

In a city prone to frequent strikes demonstrating at least once is a Parisian rite of passage. You are likely to encounter a strike or even riots, particularly this year. To maximise your chances stick to the Bastille-République axis of rebellion. République always has a demonstration of sorts going on. The Canal and the derelict squats and churches around Belleville and the Goutte d’Or are where radical-chic Parisians stay out all night in protest, joining forces with the homeless and the illegal. Street art often mingles with guerrilla politics. Some of Nicolas Sarkozy’s most elegant quotes (casse toi pauvre con – or “beat it, asshole!”) are written on street walls, Carla gets the moustache treatment and anti-globalisation activists use Métro adverts as foundations. Many strikes now resemble a Comedia dell’arte, with staged décors, costume dramas and convoluted happenings. For all these associations, the establishment has remained hermetic to street art, viewing it as mere graffiti and troublemaking. In a complete U-turn street art features prominently in all art fairs this summer. Many French artists are better known in Amsterdam and in Berlin, and big names like Blek Le Rat are only starting to gain mainstream recognition in Paris. The Lolita-like fafinettes of French female artist Fafi are reaching cult status: this spring they appear in a make-up range by M.A.C Cosmetics.

Amsterdam Preview: Seduction of Fashion

2008-04-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

Amsterdam’s cultural identity is one of complex introspection: legalised vice casts a shadow over any significant cultural contribution as if Rembrandt’s grittily honest self-portraits symbolised an everlasting quest for identity between lowbrow and highbrow. This introspection lives on in the stream of urban art and fashion arising from the city’s subculture: the sweet aesthetics of the lowbrow movement are an outlet for revealing darker depths. And in September Streetlab, a poppish utopia of street culture, fashion, design and clubbing, takes place at the margin of the very highbrow Design Month. The festival brings together more than 150 movers and shakers of the fashion and design world, in the brand new Blijmer ArenA station (the area has an up-and-coming Caribbean food and music market, Kwakoe, every summer weekend).

It must be a challenge to rebel as a young fashion designer when vice is such an integral part of the city landscape so it makes complete sense for the emerging fashion scene to instrumentalise cheesy neon signs, sex shows and coffee shops as part of this year’s Fashion Week. January saw the launch of the year long Redlight Amsterdam project: fashion consultancy HTNK made the controversial purchase of a number of brothels at the hub of the Red Light District, transforming neon-lit working-girl booths into showrooms for Amsterdam’s talented young designers. This is an interesting move because previous collections have been almost too prudish but now Amsterdam designers are going head to head with the sex of the city. It could easily look like sensationalist propaganda and graceless PR but on closer inspection this exemplifies artists reconnecting to their city. “Blinded by the Lights”, the previous collection by label …and beyond, professed to catch the instant when utopia disappears and reality bites when the lights go on. Maybe 2008 is a landmark moment in Amsterdam’s subculture.

Kate Bloomfield

Welcome to the Turnleft Guides Blog

2008-04-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is the inaugural post for the Turnleft blog. We are currently primarily a print company with a keen eye for the faster-moving world, but it didn't make sense to publish a blog until there was something worth saying. From now on, there will be.

We just launched a revamped version of the Turnleft site. The newsletter subscription and better areas for interacting with us are the main changes, and as a small addition you can now also order and pre-order our guides from the site. We will only make a small number available like this, and when they are gone, they are gone. Right now the cost is 3.00 UK pounds per guide, which enables it to arrive at your door in the good old mail.

For the community of people helpful and interested in the product we decided to go with Facebook. Here's the Turnleft Facebook Page. We're there all the time anyway, and even for the people who are not, the Page is visible even if you don't have a login. Come join us, for updates from us and tips from other city-aficionados if nothing else.

The Helsinki guide, our first guide and acid test, has been received very well - too well in places as it has flown off the shelves to the dismay of some people we've told where to go and pick one up. There's a few left for mail order if you are interested on the main site. Helsinki is of course a slightly off-beat destination on the grand scale, but it has the creative buzz and impetus we look for and love in our cities. We are already updating that guide for a new summer release, while we're finishing Amsterdam and Berlin and working on London, New York, San Francisco and a couple of other cities. It's busy but good!

In the future, we'll use this blog to air updates, discuss new cities and alternatives, post cool new finds or developments around guides we've already launched. Subscribe or come back often. It's good to have you.