This week,  Joana Preiss shares with us her top ten inspirational women…

1/ Sylvia Plath is a fascinating poetess. ‘The Bell Jar’ is, for me, a masterpiece
2/ Anaîs Nin for her freedom
3/ Hannah Arendt for her modern thinking. She was a big political theorist
4/ Pina Bausch is an essential figure in the history of movement and gesture
5/ Gertrude Stein for her avant-gardism
6/ Marilyn Monroe for her grace
7/ Lillian Gish – she’s divine
8/ Ingrid Caven for her fabulous work with Fassbinder, and for her singing
9/ Gena Rowlands for all John Cassavetes movies and for her incredible sense of improvisation
10/ Maria Callas for her unique voice

Tags: icons, Inspiration, joanna preiss, top 10

We’re super happy to announce that Twin is now available at Berlin’s best magazine store – Do You Read Me? Situated in the heart of the Mitte district, it’s home to all the world’s coolest and most covetable reads. We’d just like to say – thank you for having us!

www.doyoureadme.de

Tags: Berlin, do you read me?, magazine shop

Twin’s cultural connoisseur in Paris, actor and DJ Joana Preiss shares her top ten tracks with us…

1/ Harry Crews : Naked In Garden Hills
2/ Lizzy Mercier Descloux : Torso Corso / Fire
3/ Joan La Barbara : Three Voices (Morton Feldman) / The Wonderful Widow (John Cage )
4/ Teenage Jesus and the Jerks : Everything
5/ Anna Karina : Ma Ligne De Chance (Pierrot Le Fou)
6/ Diamanda Galas : Gloomy Sunday
7/ Gina X : Nice Mover
8/ Lydia Lunch (and Rowland S.Howard) : Some Velvet Morning
9/ Millie Small : My Boy Lollipop
10/ Laurie Anderson : Born, Never Asked / O Superman (live version with David Bowie)

Tags: joanna preiss, Music, top 10

Even though I’m not engaged (and please God do not let my boyfriend read this) I have already found my wedding dress – which is a big deal, considering my never-ending, maddening (for both my banker and my boyfriend) addiction to dresses.

When I discovered the ‘Sunday Brunch Dress’ site on one of my numerous trawls for fashion on the Internet, I thought I had found heaven. Beautifully twee, funny (the dress descriptions and blog are hilarious) and personal (sizes are based on the owner’s own ‘real’ body), the site urges us to ‘take time to slow down & dress up’.

With beautiful handpicked dresses by Heidi Merrick, Lorick and Keemia, among others, and showcases of work by owner Judy Kou’s favorite female artists – ‘Sunday Brunch Dress’ is truly a Twin kindred spirit.

When I emailed Judy about my dream wedding dress (no, I will not tell you which one it is, my boyfriend might be reading this), I got the sweetest, swiftest reply which finally sealed the deal, and made me fall in love with ‘Sunday Brunch Dress’ for real – quite an achievement for an online shop.

www.sundaybrunchdress.com

top picture: the incredible Aunt Judy dress

Eveline Taunadjaja‘s Ugly Duckling

The Kloset Must Be Mustard dress now on sale | Sunday Brunch Dress’ owner, Judy Kou

Tags: dresses, hianta, judy kou, shopping, sunday brunch dress

Tokyo based photographer Beezer”s images of the Eighties music, art and club scene in the West Country capital – “Bristol Wild Dayz” – go on show at the city”s museum and art gallery this week. Beezer who counted the Wild Bunch (Massive Attack to you and me) as mates captured some brilliant moments of a long lost and under-celebrated English early hip hop era. If nothing else, it”s a reminder that this city has been responsible for some of the biggest and best names in culture for the last few decades – Portishead, Tricky, Roni Size, Banksy, Bananarama……

“Bristol Wild Dayz” is at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery until 31st January 2010.

Tags: Beezer, Bristol, exhibition

Maggs Bros – one of the most beautiful purveyors of rare books and prints in the whole of London – have an exhibition and sale of flyers, photographs and prints all of a countercultural variety. The historical riches on offer in ‘Please do not bend’ are placed under some fascinating titles: Agitation, The Occult, Magic, Revolutionaries and Urban Guerrillas. Sounds like our kind of sale. One notable piece of left-field ephemera comes courtesy of the invitation pictured, sent out by Richard Neville during the infamous 1971 OZ obscenity trial. According to Carl Williams, curator of the counterculture section at Maggs, “On his way to the trial, over The Schoolkids issue of their wild underground magazine OZ, Neville added his own note to this invite.” We’re intrigued. My oh my, the publishing world certainly isn’t what it used to be.

‘Please do not bend’ is at Maggs Gallery, 50 Hays Mews, London W1J 5QJ from 15th December – 3rd January 2010.

maggs.com

Tags: maggs bros, maggs gallery, richard neville

We love these feline and fido themed lamps created by British designer and artist Stuart Haygarth. Part of his first show for Haunch of Venison, entitled ‘Found’, the lamps are one element of Haygarth’s enchanting exploration of discarded kitsch and taxonomy.

‘Found’ by Stuart Haygarth is at Haunch of Venison until 30th January 2010.

www.haunchofvenison.com

Tags: exhibition, haunch of venison, lamps, stuart haygarth

Twin’s art editor Francesca Gavin has been busy working alongside artist Jonathan Yeo co-curating a permanent collection of artworks for the Dean Street Townhouse, the latest addition to the Soho House Group, which opens tomorrow.

In the style of Colmbe D’Or artists Tracey Emin, Sam Griffin, Fiona Banner, Tim Noble and Gavin Turk – to name just a few – were all given credit at the hotel, which was once the notorious Gargoyle Club, in exchange for their artworks. So visitors know they will certainly be in good cultural company.

www.deanstreettownhouse.com

Tags: Art, book, francesca gavin, jonathan yeo, soho house

Fantastic writer, performer and TWIN contributor Sophie Woolley – who imagined a fictitious female future in issue one’s ‘The Age of Aquarius’ – is set to star in Channel 4’s latest reality drama, Cast Offs. Frank, dark and funny the series explores what it’s like to live with disability in Britain – all with the help of the writers of Shameless, Skins and The Thick of It.  Sophie – who is partially deaf in real life – plays (Hear no evil) Gabriella, and appears in each twice-weekly episode. Catch her big moment on December 2nd.

Cast Offs airs from 24th November channel4.com/programmes/cast-offs

www.sophiewoolley.com

Tags: cast offs, channel 4, sophie woolley, TV

Staffed by five friends who met in the silk-screening studio at HAW Hamburg art college, Kingdrips opened their gallery-cum-skateshop-cum-graphic design offices in their small one room basement space back in December last year. The guys are the height of skater-boy cool but the highlights of the shop are Maren Szeymies’s masterfully hand-stitched hooded sweatsuit dresses, and super-soft organic cotton T-shirts which provide the canvas for slinky line drawings of irate chihuahuas, taggers, kittens, kissing couples and seagulls.

www.kingdrips.de

Tags: ana, Design, gallery, Hamburg, shop

Originally named Garter & Asp, an appellation merging a harmless snake with one that is poisonous, the Berlin-based design duo Don’t Shoot the Messengers (pictured below) create elegant yet subversively sexy feminine garments. “There is a sort of darkness that we look at,” says Canadian Jen Gilpin. Alongside her partner Kyle Callanan, she sums up their aesthetic as, “Geometric, molten and just a little bit rock and roll.” We likey.

www.dont-shoot-the-messengers.com

Photographs by Maxime Ballesteros

Tags: ana, Berlin, designer, Don't Shoot the Messenger

There is so much to be said about Madonna, whose life is as infinite and intriguing as the never-ending story. This is could be why Pud Whacker began his blog: Madonna’s Scrapbook. It’s more than just another trashy gossip website with juicy stories about Madonna and Jesus. In amongst the pictures from her latest trip to Malawi, you’ll find original Eighties editorials, funny pictures of Madonna as child, limited edition album covers and exclusive artwork. It’s definitely Twin’s bookmark at the moment.

madonnascrapbook.blogspot.com

Tags: madonna, melanie, scrapbook

Issue one of this hard back bi-annual features a poetry portfolio curated by the first female poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Miranda July’s imaginings on a female future, and photography by Todd Selby, Boo George and Garance Doré.

BUY 

BUY 

Tags: Boo George, Carol Ann Duffy, freja beha erichsen, Garance Doré, Imogen Morris Clarke, Miranda July, niall o'brien, Peter Blake, Rose Blake, The Selby, Todd Selby

Photographer Mari Sarai captures the rebellious mood of Louis Vuitton’s leather and lace collection.
Film shot and edited by Natalie Spitzer
Music: Gotan Project – El Capitalismo Foraneo

Tags: Gotan Project, Louis Vuitton, Mari Sarai, Natalie Spitzer

Twin goes behind the scenes as Boo George photographs model of the moment Freja Beha Erichsen.
Film shot and edited by Natalie Spitzer
Music: Sister – Into the Dark

Tags: Boo George, Freja, freja beha erichsen, Freja Erichsen, Natalie Spitzer, Nicola Melly, Sister Into the dark