Just a quick re-blog to all new susbscribers. I will soon be closing this blog site and everything will be on the new one. Thanks for the follow! Ellie
We have a new home! Which means we will no longer be posting articles on this site. If you’ve subscribed to this blog, we are sorry for the inconvenience, but please make sure you sign up at www.eggmag.co.uk so you can be kept up to date with new posts and EggMaggy goings on.
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I ask you. How can it be that a grown man, possessing reasonable intelligence, a relatively even temper and a history of movie going that would suggest he should know better, can end up cheering and rooting for one robot boxer to beat the other robot boxer in the climax of Real Steel?
Directed by Shawn Night At The Museum Levy and starring Hugh Jackman, Real Steel is basically Rocky with robots. It’s also Rocky 4 with robots to the point where the “evil” robot is trained by a Russian and during the climactic fight the crowd end up chanting the underdog’s name. The underdog here is Atom, a sparring robot who has no chance in the big leagues. Discovered by down-on-his-luck robot trainer Charlie Kenton (Jackman) and his estranged young son Max, they embark on a journey that takes in every cliché known to man. Will Father and Son repair their relationship? Will Charlie rediscover his inner boxer and become the fighter he was born to be? It’s an avalanche of corn and I was at least six scenes ahead of it at every moment but damn it if I wasn’t on my feet shouting “Atom! Atom!” by the end.
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 4/5 (for sheer Hollywood nonsense)
Review by Garreth Hynes
Zoe Robinson finds ethical fashion is really kicking off at Pure
Earlier this month I spent a day in the bizarre bubble that is London’s Olympia to visit the fashion trade show Pure. This bi-annual event takes place for buyers and press to have a good old gander at what designers have created for us all for Spring / Summer 2012.
Over the last few seasons the ethical offering at Pure has grown, largely thanks to the Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF), ‘the industry body dedicated to a sustainable future for fashion’, who also runs seminars at the show. Primarily geared towards buyers, their must-see seminars focus on how to put together a great ethical fashion collection in store, and with sales of eco clothing having grown by 72% in 2010, retailers really have an incentive (and in my opinion a responsibility) to source their stock ethically.
At Pure, EFF also present the winners of the EFF Innovation Award which recognises excellence in design, quality of product and ethical credentials. Here are just some of my favourites from this season’s Pure, starting with one of the Innovation winners Chichia…
This exciting new collaboration between Made By Africa and Chichia is produced in a fair-trade certified factory in Tanzania. The colourful and highly wearable designs combine jersey with African prints in organic cotton (see above).
Nancy Dee now produce their entire collection in the UK using eco friendly fabrics suchs as organic cotton and bamboo. In addition to their wonderful and much-loved printed jersey dresses (above), they have some great tailored pieces for SS12.
If you are a regular reader of EggMag you’ll know we do love London-based brand Lowie so I was very excited to see this 50s style dress (above) in a cute boat print – the first print they have had designed exclusively for them.
This image doesn’t do justice to this ultra feminine dress by Komodo (above) – it’s a really beautiful print and such a versatile style.
There is so much to like about this sublimely simple, versatile and very soft organic cotton dress (above) from Stewart+Brown. How can I style thee? Oh let me count the ways…
It was great to discover this very exciting new Colombian brand Cyclus at Pure. Crafted from highly durable inner tubes these these bags are a triumph of expert design, upcycling and local production. Loathed as I am to recommend a new ‘it’ bag – or utter the words ‘must buy’ – but if you invest in one hot new accessorise brand next season, let it be this one!
I have my eye on this new style from Makki (above) which would go with just about anything. Made from eel skins that are a by-product of the food industry it’s sustainable and stylish, just what we like.
Beautifully feminine bag from Coco Barclay (above) – the vintage gloves can be removed for a more casual look and if it’s cold outside they will keep your fingers cosy.
The brilliant Beyond Skin are a vegan brand who make efforts to be as sustainable as possible. Some of these stunning (and surprisingly comfortable) shoes are produced using a super soft fabric made from recycled plastic (see above).
Meher Kakalia’s amazing footwear and bags are produced in Karachi often using ‘found’ materials (some weaving embellishments are done with thin strips or ‘threads’ of plastic bags), utilising tradtitional techniques and supporting local, highly-skilled artisans. I love them so much I took extra photos, which are below for your shoe-ogling pleasure.
See Zoe’s website www.think-style.co.uk
Twitter @zoerobinson1
Facebook Think Style
Ali Clifford heads up the creative and marketing team at Green Baby, the leading ethical kids brand. She shares her tips on how to be a green parent, explains that it doesn’t have to crucify your wallet and throws in a tidy discount code too.
There are four basics to green parenting:
1. REAL NAPPIES
Using real nappies can save £££s and with some local authorities offering cash incentives. It would be daft not to…
2. BREASTFEEDING
Not every mother is fortunate enough to be able to, however breastfeeding both my babies saved us loads of money, (my first for 14 months and my second for 2 years). We used glass bottles for health reasons as much as for the environment: the plastic bottles at the time contained BPA (bisphenol A) and knowing we could be using a sustainable, reusable product such as a glass baby bottle gave us an enormous sense of wellbeing.
3. HAND-ME-DOWNS FOR THE NURSERY
We were lucky enough to have a good network of friends who had been parents before and after us, so our moses basket, and cot, and even baby bedding came to us from friends, and were then passed backwards and forwards between about seven families! New mattresses were the only things we needed to splash out on. Green Baby also stock everything you need to make a cosy nursery.
4. HARD-WEARING ORGANIC COTTON
A hand-me-down organic cotton sleeping bag was my baby’s first Green Baby garment, and it satisfies me to know that at least six different babies have snuggled up in this one hard-wearing sleeping bag (it made me feel quite sentimental to see it on a friend’s washing line!)
For a special EggMag discount use code EGGOFF at the checkout to get £5 off when you spend £40 at www.greenbaby.com – plus, get free delivery on orders over £50!
Well hello! This is my first entry. Am going to work on making the blog a bit prettier, but thought I’d get this up first. Bit scared about blogging as there’s no sub to catch my typos, but sure I’ll get over it. First proper entry coming soon… Tataa for now.
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