We're a lazy generation...

Oh but we do love to shop! Luckily the Internet is forever providing new and increasingly lazy ways for me to get my clothing fix! This is a site i look upon regularly - it's called pullyoursocksup and it's a cheap and cheerful vintage site run by Angela Crane. The wife of Murray Crane, you know 'little brother' ...'Murray Crane Clothing'..

Yes well, basically the idea behind the site is that Ange goes shopping and sells her prized items onto lazy sit-at-home punters like you and me.

I guess it's more of a glorified trade me profile than a fully comprehensive vintage site, but here in lies its appeal. First in first serve. And lots of waiting in between.

NEONSLEEP

A wee interview with the brains behind NEONSLEEP! Welfe Bowyer has in many ways been responsible for creating a new kind culture. It's one that dares to stay up all night, isn't scared to let loose, lives for adventure and is increasingly global in scope! As Welfe explains NS is much more than a home for 'party photo', it's an original and innovative NEW kind of space. A hub for high fashion, street culture, jewellery and much much more...

You've changed the format of NeonSleep drastically, what's the concept behind the new site?
The new site is designed to act like a cultural hub, allowing fans to easily navigate all the aspects of NS. All sections are equal, whether your into the photos or street fashion or art.

How do you see the site evolving?
Treating each section as equal, allows each to also grow and shrink as needed. The new fashion sections, Sidewalk and Look are starting to gain momentum, with various NZ labels seeing the potential and getting on board. It would be great to have Auckland street fashion on there too. So any budding fashion photographers out there!?

What is about NZ culture that inspires you? What would you like to see more of?
NZ'ers are so do 'DIY'. Its an old cliche, but the reality of it is that NZ gives you a very good chance to do what you want. And you might just find your one of the only people doing it! There's less competition, which gives you more attention. This is good and bad, as designers are often pushed further amongst competition. So I would like to see more competition for sure.

Less?
Less P would be nice. People should just chill out with a nice cup of Peppermint tea.
And where would you like to see NeonSleep five years on from now?
In 5 years, I would like to expand the brand to include photographers from other cities around the globe. That's been the idea from the start. We've been mixing in photos from Berlin for 2 years now, and would be great to see some other cities (on one site) too! But yeah, just generally focus more globally, which hopefully just strengthens NZs position next to work from around the world.

You can check out NEONSLEEP HERE ( and don't forget to navigate all the features!)
Cheers Welfe! x

Rona Green's Poppet Prize

Thanks for all the amazing entries, they were VERY good indeed. Prize goes to...( drum roll)...Jo! Because your entry was ridiculous and make me giggle!!!!

'This gritty little poppet needs to become part of our family. The rest of our soft toys have become way too contented up here in the hills we call home, too comfortable, taking advantage of our hospitality and expecting everything to be done for THEM! We need some corruptive character to move on in and shake things up abit, let them know it's not good enough to just sit there and be cute. This poppet is the one to do it. I just know.'Please email lucy@fluromag.com and we will have this sent out to you. 

A window of vision!

I'd love to lie and pretend I didn't have a day job which paid the pills, but I do..for as long as I can remember ( whether it was in school or in uni) retail has been my income. Luckily I've always worked in interesting shops and subsequently been exposed to new labels, ideas and visions.
I've also come to appreciate the value of a 'good window.' Eye catching and 'original' are two values which resonate strongly, and when a shop achieves this, I always appreciate their effort!
Enter: Children Of Vision - a new boutique nestled amongst the cafes and galleries on Auckland's K rd. C O V is the brainchild of designer Jimmy D and stocks brands such as Romance was Born ( Sydney), TV ( Melbourne), Andrea Crews (Paris) and many many more....

But back to the point of this post - check out the pics of their latest display 'window'

Children of Vision...get it? get it? Check out their goodies HERE

WASTE NOT...

Most of us are aware we should learn to re-cycle and re-use a little more...Oliver Bishop-Young is just a bit more inventive than the rest of us...

Creative Crochet

I've always been really interested in the 'drink driving' campaign. I always hear people bagging it, 'the visuals are too intense' 'too unbearable' or 'too fake', yet no one seems to have any better ideas. Well New-York based 'crocheting artist' Olek may have just found the solution!!How about this one for ' pedestrians and cars might be hard to see'....

Her work is truly inspired ( and no, not all are car related!)You can view more of her creative crochet here! Check it out...they're pretty darn amazing!

The Skunken Wins!

Madame Fancy Pants drew the winner for the Swarovski crystal necklace. She decided her favourite fictitious animal was indeed the Skunken!

Guzz described a Skunken as 'A small cute round animal that changes colours and shape according to the environment it is in. It eats lollies and rubbish for energy and it is best friends with many Figgles. Figgles are child friendly animals who make very good babysitters! I could do with a few Figgles today ... !

Please email lucy@fluromag.com and we'll have this sent straight out to you. Congratulations!!

It's fashion week in Syndey, Darling!

The ambition of any designer is to 'break new boundaries' and 'shock and excite the audience .' This week is Sydney Fashion week and by the end of it I'm sure there's going to be a hell of a lot of stories to tell. One clip which so far has intrigued me is that of iconic Melbourne label Dizingof. For the introduction he used interpretative dancers and as you will see below....the result is certainly eye catching!!!!

Follow more FW news HERE

Miranda July...

There are some people who are just so damn talented you can't help but watch them in awe. They're not good at one thing, but five and not only produce great work, but get worthy recognition too!!!

Miranda July is such a girl. In 2005 she wrote, directed and starred in her first feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know, she won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for her collection of short stories, and in July 2002 created the participatory website, learningtoloveyoumore.com with artist Harrell Fletcher.

Last year she also produced an installation work 'The Hallway.' This features a series of thoughts which are displayed down a 125 foot hallway and feature English one way, Japanese the other.

Strangely compelling, thought provoking and utterly random ..Miranda July, I think I heart you!!!

WHAM BAM THANK YOU PAM!!!

I'm not really a tee person. I know that sounds stupid, because they're just so basic.... but i prefer dresses or shirts over the hum and drum of a tee. When the slogan faze swept though, I refused to fall victim. 'I am not a walking billboard' i thought....and there and then swore never to T it again.

And then I fell upon PAM. Perks and Mini doesn't just do T's, ( they do pretty much everything under the sun), but it's their humble T which every season gets me.

Born of a graphic design background this mega-genius-couple-creative-duo always do the best prints. Inspired, original and often with a very collage aesthetic... upon viewing their range I threw my 'morals' out the door.

Our good friends at GAG just got a drop of their new stuff. Yes the images above are men, but meh, the T's are freaking rad. Who ever may choose to wear them.
Oh yea and check out their site. These guys are KOOKY AS!

WOWZAZ

I forgot to post these ages ago ( being two tones and all it's always interesting to see our fashion shoots in colour!) Here are a few pics from Issue 8 'Creative Desctruction'

You can view more here...

The Flaneur

Auckland photgrapher Lydia Cowpertwait has just begun a cute new fashion blog....

Oh how great it is to find another interesting place to trawl on the wonderful world that is the web.

Tribal warfare

NEONSLEEPS 3RD bday party was rad last night. For those who came early to enjoy some punch and pick up a Mag- Thanks!!
Anyway, there were castles, warriors, owls, 'intelligent survivors of the recession', inspired tribal futuristic Indians ( thanks Courtney) and gangsta/rocker/hipster rappers.
It was awesome!
But back to the point of this post: Welfe showed me the up and running 'Look' feature of his site. You should check it out...it's rad....
Can't wait to see the rest!

FLURO ISSUE 8 LAUNCH AT MIGHTY

IT'S NEONSLEEPS 3RD BIRTHDAY THIS SAT AT MIGHTY .......and it's a FUTURE TRIBES costume party! Ye-yah!
Between 8 and 10pm we'll be celebrating the launch of the new issue " CREATIVE DESTRUCTION" so pop along and grab some free punch , while it lasts, as well as a copy of the NEW issue.
Oh yea in case you don't know- it's FREE too! Now that's what we all like to hear....

This issue is going to be our best yet, it's a freaking dream.... and what better way to kick of the celebrations with a few drinks!

This Saturday is going to be meaaaannnnnn
WELL DONE TEAM xoxoxooxox

Plan C

before you jump up and make fake clouds and fake trees let's fix a few other big issues.

You may have read recently that a negative consequence of declining car crash fatalities (you thought this was a good thing didn't you?) is that there are less organs available for transplant. Yup, healthy people don't die that often.... car crashes were like a veritable feast of good organs and now that those horrible ads are working on the national psyche and cars and roads are getting safer - we have a problem.

Well there are a few Chinese whispers that you can grow these things (you know, hearts and lungs and livers) in a laboratory. You may also have heard that cute little piggies have compatible organs with humans - which reminded me of something I read once. This is basically how my brain works... you tell me some crap and I find the excuse to rant on a slightly associated tangent (and then when you look bored you know I'm gonna say "well you bought it up!").

Utility Pets:

I'm not going to explain it better than the artist so follow the link and read for yourself. Genius.

The artist is Elio Caccavale - he's pretty cool.

WHOLLY SHIZZ

If you party/ go to gigs/ or are just generally out and about.... then chances are at some point over the last few years you may have come across a wellington guy named Welfe.

Neonsleep ( the cultural hub of NZ's night life) is moving....No longer will Welfe deal solely with pics of YOU, rumour has it- he's going to document all aspects of cultural life. Fashion, events, gigs, etc..

It's really nice to see party photo progress into something else.... I think he's right on to monopolise on the hype the neonsleep site has created, and to build on that to create something else...

Hell New Zea lands a small place- there's every reason why ONE cultural centre ( even if it's on the web) could exist.

The launch party is tonight so for those of you, like me, who can't go- check his site tomo...

www.neonsleep.com

I can't wait to see!

The Fresh Prints Of Hell Yeah!

You've probably seen his work plastered all over a city near you. Hadley is off the chain when it comes to gig poster art in NZ so get along to his exhibition opening tomorrow night at Rex Royale.

NERO SUNERO gets political

We just got word from our old friend Nero Sunero all the way from Ireland who we featured in issue six. Hes been working on some political doodles that are too good to miss. Damn Palin is scary, thankfully things went how they did and shes probably in hiding somewhere now, miles away from hair and makeup.

Check out more of his work HERE

SEMI PERMANENT THIS WEEKEND!

Hey creative cats, if you haven't got your tickets to Semi Permanent yet, get your shit together because its this weekend! Its going to be amazing, if you have been before you'll know what I'm talking about and if not you don't know what your missing. This year its running over two days with a massive twelve speakers from all over the globe. As always there is a big after party where you can usually have a chat to some of the designers or even have a dance off with one of them if you drink enough. Classic.

The two final speakers have been announced so check them out too:

JOEL GETHIN LEWIS

Joel Gethin Lewis is an interaction designer and artist. He has recently formed a company based around creating interactive experiences using open source tools. For the last three and a half years he was the interaction designer at United Visual Artists, working with clients such as U2, Massive Attack, Nokia and the British Council. Educated in London, he split his time between the Royal College of Art and working at Dazed&Confused magazine, where amongst other things he launched AnotherMag.com and assisted the photographer Rankin. In other work he has collaborated with such varied clients as Benetton, Rem Koolhaus, IBM, and Orange. He is one of the founders of the interaction design meet-up, This Happened.
www.joelgethinlewis.com

DEBASER

Designers David Homer & Aaron Hayward established Debaser in January 2004. Having worked as Art Directors for Sony Music, they decided to leave the corporate environment and establish their own business.

Since doing so they have created some of the most memorable and iconic album artwork of the last few years. Having worked with artists as diverse as mainstream favourites Powderfinger, Bernard Fanning Paul Kelly and Tim Finn, to indie bands Kisschasy, Faker and End Of Fashion, through to Ben Folds, The Cat Empire, Paul Mac, Lior, the Living End, Butterfingers, Sarah Blasko, Something For Kate, The Beautiful Girls, Ben Lee, The Grates, the Exploders and the list goes on...

They have won back to back Aria awards for their cover for Bernard Fanning in 2006 and Powderfinger in 2007.

www.debaser.com.au

Yay!

Latest Semi Permanent Speaker Announced!

The latest speaker announced is Marian Bantjes from Canada producing some amazing typographic work. Heres what Semi Permanent had to say about her:

Marian Bantjes is a designer, artist and writer working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver. But it is her highly personal, obsessive and sometimes strange graphic work that has since brought her international recognition. Marian is known for her custom typography, detailed and lovingly precise vector art, her obsessive handwork, her patterning and ornamentation. Often hired to create custom art for magazines, advertising and special projects, Marian's work has an underlying structure and formality that frames its organic, fluid nature.

This years event is shaping up to be the best ever so if you haven't got your ticket sort it out!

Plus the after party is going to be huge, last year we got to meet half the speakers and drink free tigers.

Bliss

For more of her amazing work check out her website HERE and check our SEMI PERMANENTS SITE for all the other speakers and to get your ticket!