Adult slumber parties are de rigueur these days. The opening of Nick Jones’ swanky new Dean Street Townhouse hotel was attended by a milk and cookies supping crowd of Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Kevin Spacey and Lily Cole. Flamboyant designer David Carter hosts bedtime story nights at his sumptuous 40 Winks micro hotel - complete with pyjama dress-code and cashmere blankets natch. And then there’s the brand new London outpost of Amsterdam phenomenon, Supperclub. You won’t get much sleep on its super king-size beds but there’s enough goose down in Acklam Road for one mother of a pillow fight. So it comes as no surprise that kidults are falling in love with the magic of fairy tales all over again.
Unfortunately we’ll have to wait ‘til next year for the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland but just to whet the appetite in an “eat me” kind of a way, it stars Australian newcomer, Mia Wasikowska, as Alice and everyone’s favourite freak, Johnny Depp as a darker than dark Mad Hatter and blends live action with the motion capture technique demonstrated by James Cameron in his 3D Avatar epic. But for now, if Grayson Perry dressed as Alice seems, well, a bit, well, wrong, Cecilia Hammarborg has got it right.
The new “Black River Falls” collection from the brilliant Swanfield Co-Operative member and designer to watch (find her at Topshop EDIT or Kingly Court), is inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s fairytales and the lesser known 1800’s book entitled “Wisconsin Deathtrip” from which she derived the title for her collection.
We find ourselves fiendishly torn between her divine Blue Riding Hood coat – all the better to be seen in and her Storm Petrel coat inspired by the tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". It’s all about a young girl who in her search for truth is carried about the stormy corners of the world by a massive white Bear. And with its Cossack style high collar, fishtail hem and puff sleeves, truth is certainly a beautiful thing.
Hair straightener extraordinaire GHD is also turning heads in the pages of the glossies with its Little Red Riding Hood ads featuring a glossy tressed lovely. She’s just had Mr Wolf with a meat cleaver and undoubtedly plans to dye his tail fushia pink and customize her bag with it a la Mark Jacobs for Louis Vuitton.
Finally, those with a literary bent will love “In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed.” Fairy tales historically featured licentious themes before they were u-certified for modern children but in her collection of erotic fairly tales, erotica author Mitzi Szereto gets right back to basics. The bawdy humor of French fable meets sublime eroticism of ancient Chinese myth as a far from virginal damsel weds a Prince Charming with a shoe fetish, Little Red Riding Hood discovers Grandma’s bed is open to any dirty-talking stray wolf and as for Sleeping Beauty ... well we’ll leave that one to your imagination!
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Away with the fairies
