The Underbelly Project: the best urban art you will never see

Somewhere under Manhattan, in a subway station that has never been used and no one will ever find is one of the most secretive exhibitions of street art ever to grace a wall.

For the past summer the urban artists of the world have been working among the rats and the damp on pieces that only their fellow collaborators have ever seen with their own eyes and the art money machine will never get its hands on.

The Underbelly project is the brainchild of two New York graffiti artists, Workhorse and PAC, who have escorted more than 100 fellow artists to the underground space and waited patiently for them to create their masterpieces by the light of industrial worklamps before bringing them back out again.

Those to have descended into the darkness have included Ron English, Lucy McLaughlan, Swoon, Faile and The London Police.

The resulting display shines out through the gloom like a light at the end of a tunnel, ready to put the fear of God into any subterranean explorer who chances to stumble across it.

Not that I have seen it of course. Only a handful of people know of the exhbition's existence, not least its location. And now the last artist has done his thing, Workhorse and PAC have destroyed the entrance, sealing the whole place up like a Pharoah's tomb of urban masterpieces.

One day, in some post apocalyptic New York, people with torches on their heads will discover the Underbelly project and try to work out what it means.

The pictures on this page are courtesy of PSFK.com and Vandalog, where you will find a lot more images of the exhibition. There is also a website dedicated to the project here.

There is a full feature on the project in the Sunday Times of October 31, but in keeping with the theme not many people will read it because you'll have to pay £1. Here's the link, just in case.

 Art: Know Hope                                                                           Pic: Luna Park

Art: Momo                                                                                   Pic: Luna Park

Art: The London Police; Swoon; Imminent Disaster                    Pic: Luna Park

Art: Jeff Soto                                                                                Pic: Luna Park

The influencers: they're in your head

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.
Just like something out of some sixties secret agent series, the influencers get inside your mind. They plant seeds and make you think the decisions you are making are actually yours.

Over the years the art of influencing, putting people on things, creating trends, has become big business. Which it would, seeing as we are all influenced in one way or another every day of our lives. From the coffee we drink to the shirts we wear.

This little film looks at what all this actually means. It has been put together with some of the leading tastemakers in New York, and goes some way to explaining why you just dropped a monkey on those new kicks.

Give yourself 15 minutes to watch it.

"Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread just like viruses."
Malcolm Gladwell

Via sartoriallyinclined

For sale: Supreme bumbag; second chance

This would already be in the hands of some bloke in Russia if he had bothered to check he had the money for it before bidding on Ebay.

I mean it isn't difficult to check your bank balance these days, at least not in the West it isn't, but it seems even that can be too much of an effort for some.

So up this bumbag goes for sale again.

The minute Lizzie bought it from the Hideout back in the summer I knew it wouldn't get a lot of use. She must have taken it to work about a couple of times before it got superceded by a little leather number, which has itself been replaced, such is the churn rate of her bag collection.

It is therefore in very decent condition, and in anticipation of the fact that she would son tire of it she never even took the tags off, just pushed them into the side pockets. 

Here's the link

Moncler V Wasi jacket: specs appeal

When I lay down a decent sum on some new clobber, I like to know a bit about it.

In the case of this Moncler V Wasi jacket, I would have appreciated a little pamphlet explaining how, when it appeared to soak up the rain, it remained dry on the inside, and what those elastic braces were actually for.

While they were at it they could add something about the inspiration for the piece, and whether it is, as it hints, a reworking of an older Moncler mountaineering design.

Because while there is no doubt that this collaboration between Hiroki Nakamura and Moncler is something of a work of art, things like the addition of braces can leave one puzzled.

But all I got was a little tag (right), which offered me virtually no information other than the style and size and the fact that Moncler has been around since 1852, which to be frank, I could have Googled.

For a while I assumed the braces would hold a liner in place, so I dutifully fed my Visvim Pollard under them and into the arms (bottom pic) and it didn't work at all.

Sometime later I found out that the braces act as shoulder straps for carrying the jacket on your back without actually wearing it. As if anyone's going to do that. Luckily they can be removed, so they're coming out. 

Back to the West End: the spoils

Saturday was one of our trips up to the West End, and even though the only purpose of the trip for me was to see an Apple genius about my iPhone, I still managed to come home with some booty, and cross a Christmas present off the list for Lizzie. I might show you that at the time.

We also discovered a wicked, incredibly friendly little record shop called Phonica on Poland Street, which has been open seven years without us finding it.

Unfortunately it seems that the world has now discovered the Nordic Bakery on Golden Square, and without a table in sight we had to go off in search of a suitable replacement which we found, and I am loathe to tell you about and I couldn't right now anyway because I can't remember the name.

So we have, clockwise from top left

Kuumba joss sticks (French Vanilla)
Monocle magazine
Rouleur magazine
Ninja tune 20th Anniversary compilation (volumes 1&2)
Plain white Albam t-shirt.

Terry Richardon x Vanessa Veasley x Supreme Book volume 6: nice work

I think we've already established that Terry Richardson has got what must rank among the best jobs in the world. Which goes to show what a bit of energy and a decent eye for a shot can do for your career.It seems that his fortunes aren't likely to be changing anytime soon, what with this shoot for the Supreme book he's just done with Vanessa Veasley.

I've added some other pics of the actual winter 2010 / 11 collection below just so you don't go thinking that the blog you are reading has gone all soft porn on you. 

Suit Supply Shameless ad campaign: distracting

I don't know if Suit Supply actually makes decent suits, and to be honest after this I'm none the wiser.

But they do know how to shoot an ad campaign, with some Dutch flair.

Apparently Facebook demanded Suit Supply remove these shots from their page because they were deemed offensive, which I suppose is as good an example of the sexual divide of certain cultures as you're going to get. I can just imagine a whole swathe of middle America choking on its Pop Tarts this morning.

But will it sell the suits? Probably not. After all, who's looking at them?