From Flat Pack to Fashion

2020 has been one hell of a year. Never did I think I would live through a pandemic, or be back in my childhood bedroom six years after I left Liverpool for the big smoke. Yet here I am. Apparently anything goes in 2020 which is why this collection doesn’t surprise me. This week IKEA Japan announced that they would be launching a clothing line, a departure from their usual furniture and meatball offering. The range will be called “EFTERTRADA” and includes a t-shirt, hoodie, umbrella, tote bags, towels and water bottles. Sign me up.

Coca Cola Shoes

If IKEA clothing wasn’t enough, you can finish off your outfit with a pair of Coca Cola trainers! The infamous BAPESTSA trainer from A Bathing Ape turns twenty this year and this Coke collab is one of many to mark their big birthday. If anyone with any sort of clothes making influence is reading, for the next strange clothing collab I would like to request a McVities snapback collection please. Who wouldn’t look fly reppin a rich tea cap? Or perhaps you’re a digestive kinda guy? It would be great to celebrate my favourite shop, drink and food all in one outfit. 

Music in Your Brain

Elon Musk really is the man of the moment, isn’t he? Hot on the heels of the SpaceX launch, Musk has announced plans for Neurolink, a micro-chip that allows wearers to stream music directly into their brains. I already have visions of the year being 2050 and teenagers are sitting in exam halls getting all the answers from a chip in their brain because the very important and very stern looking inveigelators can’t exactly ask them to take it out and put it in a tray can they? Or maybe the year is 2060 and it has just transpired that the chips have been secretly recording everything we say and sharing our secrets with the people we’re trying to keep the secrets from? So many possibilities. Charlie Brooker, if you’re reading, yes I am available to write Black Mirror scripts.

Absolutely Disgusting

Writing this story has forced me to confront one of my biggest fears. No, I’m not talking about death, I’m talking about the amount of germs on our phones. It’s absolutely disgusting! Worse than your toilet! Particularly during a pandemic. For those who are germaphobes like me, thankfully Skinny Dip have come to our rescue. They have launched a UV-Clean Portable Phone Sanitiser; a case you put your phone into which kills 99.9% of germs in just one minute. Yes, one minute – by my calculations, that’s the same time it takes to sing happy birthday two and a half times. Genius!

Get Famous Fast

What better way to emerge from staring at the same four walls for four months than to emerge onto streets that are adorned with your artwork. The Tate is giving you the chance to do just that. They’re inviting 16-25 years old to creatively respond to a series of iconic artwork from Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Your response can come in any format, from a makeup look to a photograph or even a poem. I think I’m going to film myself doing an expressive dance in response to Van Gough’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting, so watch out for me on the streets as I think I’m onto a winner!

Lockdown TV Returns

Did you even do lockdown if you didn’t watch Tiger King? If you haven’t watched it yet then please skip this story as there’s a spoiler coming up. I thought we’d seen the end of Big Joey since the series ended with him being imprisoned with no hope of release (apart from that brief moment when Trump suggested he might be able to help, but surprise surprise, he didn’t), but how wrong was I? Joe is back in a new show Surviving Joe Exotic, which follows him just before his arrest. Filmed four months before he went to prison, it explores Joe’s controversial breeding practices and animal welfare at his park. I’m glad we’re getting something new to watch as this week we’ve hit the stage of the pandemic where a channel that shall not be named thinks it’s acceptable to play Christmas films in July.*

*actually they should be named. It was Channel Five and they played Love Actually on Tuesday.