Nr°44_IMAGE OF THE DAY

Last weekend I was in London with my daughter Maui and I absolutely wanted to visit The Beauty Project at London’s trendiest megastore Selfridges.

The Beauty Project is a mind-provoking and multi layered exploration of the definition of beauty and what it means in today's society.

 The first thing you notice is a total takeover of the store's famous window displays. Statements are made about ‘letting your hair grow’, thoughts on science versus nature, ‘ eat yourself beautiful food, an open window fragrance lab and questions about what is beauty (and what not)

Un-retouched images of unknown faces will appear all over London in a new campaign shot by Norbert Schoerner, whilst debates in the store's ‘Salon’ focus upon challenging topics such as The History of Beauty and Ugliness and the relationship between beauty and youth.

The point of The Beauty Project is to define many versions of beauty: mature ladies, colored girls, pink hair or all over tattoos. The idea is that when we have a wider range of ideals to look at, so women can feel better about the way they look and do not need to be disappointed not looking like the lipstick advert girls in a magazine.

Fun workshops are be inn organized like a face gym (a workout for the face that uses collagen-boosting finger moves), skin analysis, a Dove self-esteem workshop for mothers and daughters, hair straightening demonstrations and yoga. 

There is also a GREAT Fragrance Lab (London only) which I visited off course, but I tell you more about this in the next post.

Founder Harry Selfridge was the first to introduce a fully-fledged beauty fragrance and make up department at the centre of its London store back in 1910. With the The Beauty Project Selfridges sets again the trend tone, after the very remarked ’Silence room of last year’, by putting topics around beauty issues close to their heart on the agenda.

Business need to run to, so the big brands join in as well: Chanel customizes nails, Nars offers one-to-one blush consultations and Mac gives advice on the perfect shades as Tom Ford offers manicures with private cosmetics consultations. For the guys, a pop-up barber shop provides traditional shaves.

But hurry! The Beauty Project only runs until June 12 at all Selfridges stores, but the one in London has the most allure and events.

http://www.selfridges.com/en/StaticPage/the-beauty-project-hello-beautiful

Join the #beautyproject. I did.

Nhow hotel Rotterdam_a life inspiration story

When traveling and staying in Rotterdam, for me there was just one option, to be honest. I know, I lost my heart on Hotel New York, and if you're looking for a cosy, warm and historical family hotel, it is still a great option. But, hey, we need to check out new things, and when I got an invitation to stay at the brand new Nhow hotel in Rotterdam (after our inspirational bike tour with Eastpak), I took this chance to explore new beds in Rotterdam.

I arrived by watertaxi, so I got already a good view on the building from the riverside. The impressive wall of glass of the magnificent skyline building gives Rotterdam another stunning beacon next to the famous Erasmus bridge. I could already imagine the view from (each) room on the Maas and the vibrant city....

I stayed in a basic urban room at the back of the hotel, overviewing the industrial side of the city. Luckily, because of the huge floor to ceiling windows, every room has nice day and night views, even if you stay in the more basic ones. Although,  the view in the sunset rooms or suites is better (inside tip!), as you overlook Rotterdam city and the Mentioned Erasmus bridge for the front row.

I was friendly welcomed with a personal note, some chocolates and bottled water. The urban room is very spacious, quite light with a undeniable industrial feel. If you like minimal straight fit rooms, this is your place. Bathroom and bedroom are divided by a printed glass wall and the Tv is hidden behind a glas wall. All to get rid of cluttered details like wires and closets. Everything is there, as it should be: room & bed good, clean & crisp, friendly staff, a more than correct breakfast buffet and some nice funny graphic details to find your way back to your floor or room.

For me, Nhow is a more business visitor oriented hotel, but with a touch of art, some creativity and a very alive entertainment program. The hotel really wants to become a vibrant part of Rotterdam's city life and therefor it is an excellent starting point to explore the city.

Nhow Rotterdam is part of the Nhow group and has hotels in Berlin, Milan and recently in Rotterdam. The stunning skyline hotel opened its doors beginning 2014 and is designed by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas of OMA. Nhow is not your average ' just sleep-over-hotel' but a place to re-set your mind by the in-house art exhibitions, product launches, concerts and conferences that become part of the best R'Dam urban culture has to offer.

©ALL photos by Kate Stockman_THE SQUID STORIES, except image from hotel skyline is by Events.nl

'Eastpaked' for Rotterdam_a life inspiration story

I’ve always been a huge fan of Rotterdam. I think it’s a city with more innovation power than Amsterdam, and they have less to prove to the world. It’s also the only Dutch town with a real skyline, 2 big rivers coming together and some exciting(but let's be honest, not all buildings are beautiful) architecture.

A few weeks ago, I got an invitation to join travel bag expert Eastpak who organized a so called ‘wildlife’ Tour in Rotterdam, to discover some new, independent small retailers, hair salons, designers and food concepts. The fact that the tour was guided and animated by Rotterdam locals was an asset, made me take a day off. So 2 weeks ago, I joined 20 female journalists, influencers & bloggers from Belgium & The Netherlands for a bike ride (with some great interesting stops) trough the city. Ah, maybe fun to mention: this tour was woman only. Besides us, city trippers, all the fashion, design, food, music en architecture venues we visited were initiated, hosted or powered by leading entrepreneurial woman. 

City tripping on a Dutch bike: this asks for a handy bag, a kind of survival kit of the day. Everyone received one of the brand new tote bags from the Aminimal Collection ( mix animal with minimal and you get the picture. Pure 'fashion meets functionality' style. Nature leather straps, a light water-resistant fabric in 3 minimal animal/nature prints ( panther/feathers/leaves) on a perfect sized bag to store a lot of stuff_ essentials that we bloggers (and woman tout court) cary always with us: our camera, a smartphone, a bottle of water, sunglasses, notebook, a (healthy) snack and a creditcard_and a very handy zipper to close the bag in case of running, biking or even boating.

Some remarkable extra’s in our city travel bag? Fresh aromatic coffee beans from roastry Man met Bril, handmade chocolates from Chocoholic, and not forget the cute, clean and fresh tennis socks in case of wet feet. I didn't need any of them during the tour, but at home they'll serve well!

What about The Wild Life Tour itself? 

Kick off at Rotterdam’s Central District with the urban platform Hiphop Huis, the idiosyncratic traveling bar BAR and concept store and young designer/artists platform Groos. As I missed my train and the above listed outlets (damn!), I joined the group later at Picnick for an outdoor lunch.

Good, honest and very fresh food, with a typical creative  ‘Berlin meets Rotterdam’ feel. The story? Picknick seemed to be a successful collaboration with Proef Rotterdam, an initiative by Marije Vogelzang and Piet Hekker.  Marije, the first food concept designer started PROEF in 2004 and everything in the cosy shop was specially made: the cutlery, the crockery, aprons, tea-bags etc. It became a famous spot in Rotterdam. In 2009 it changed owners and made a new concept called Picknick. Marije Vogelzang is not a food designer. She is a Dutch product designer who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven and chose to use food as her main material because of her love for it. (the ones who read my blog frequently, know her work already)

http://www.proefamsterdam.nl

http://www.picknickrotterdam.nl

Great to hear the enthusiastic introductions by all the young (female) entrepreneurs we visited: they all were totally into their stories, full of energy with an addictive collaborative spirit overcoming negativism and economic realities. Everyone of them worked hard to be successful, they were proud but modest about their realizations and above all, they knew each other, promoted each other and started crossover projects with each other. Inspirational!

My favorites of the day?

First of all Barrelproof & Bobby’s Gin. A small shop(in fact a tiny small shop, they even call themselves ‘The world smallest cocktail boutique’)were you can buy, taste and experience unique spirits. We started with a shot of a very high alcohol gin, and to flush all lunch remainings away, we were offered a 'Bobby’s Schiedam Dry Gin, Dutch Courage and Indonesian Spice'. A complex gin, full of exotic botanicals mixed with local Dutch herbs. Imagine: us drinking in front of the store, our bikes in one hand and this special blend gin tonic with juniper, oranges, lemongrass, cubeb peppers and I guess 10 other ingredients, in the other. Hell yeah!

http://bobbysdrygin.com

Another memorable hotspot was a venue that looked like a hair salon (wat is actually was)with a reading table and a small but very crisp fashion collection. But the real surprise we found in the basement of the shop. We met on level minus one the fascinating designer, Sam Cruden. Sam is the strong lady behind the denim label C.Cruden. She was there to talk about her story, background, exciting previous jobs (designer for Kuyichi en Diesel) and her latest project: the very exclusive limited and nearly handmade collection C.01 with Japanese denim. Unisex jeans, with at the end of the legs a kind of sock in nappa leather. Paris already picked it up and is madly in love with the label. Good to mention is that Eastpak, our beloved host and initiator of this trip, had for their famous ‘fashion collabs’ (think Raf Simons, Wood Wood, Kris Van Assche and Rick Owens)also a capsule collaboration with C. Cruden. Sam designed female backpacks and some elegant shoppers.

http://ccruden.com

Our last stop was at Motel Mozaique, a theatre, dance, art and music city festival, where we got our entrance wristbands, a  street concert and we were good to go. 

Bikes on the side and after a short walk to our watertaxi stop, we crossed the river, full speed to the Nhow hotel. Yeah, I’m not kidding: after a quick guided tour in the brand new, just opened Nhow hotel we got our own roomkeys to spend the night! After a fun night with good food (I could not help it to end up in Hotel New York again for a diner with new met Belgian bloggers Julie and Margot from whynotmonday. We had some lovely chats, a rock concert in our hotel bar, and after that, a good night sleep was all I needed.

http://motelmozaique.nl/en/

http://nhow-rotterdam.com

See for yourself: we had a great tour! Thank you Caroline from Listen’up Pr, for the organization and the good care (let’s call it even pampering!)Thanks Tjeerd Hendriks, our entertaining coach & guide from Concept Store GROOS. 

A special thanks to Nhow Hotel* for the much needed rest(*later this week, a Squid Stories blog post on my stay at Nhow Rotterdam) and Motel Mozaique for the evening & night entertainment.

But the biggest ‘thank you is for Jos and the entire team from Eastpak. It was fun. 

(and yes, I used my ‘flask Leaves’bag after the tour already a few times and it will become one of my ‘regulars’) http://www.eastpak.com/eu-fr/flask-leaves.html 

More about the Eastpak Aminimal Collection? Just good to know it comes in 5 bag variations, from the mentioned tote bag, to a handy sized weekender and (off course) as a ‘back-in-fashion’ backpack. 3 prints & color variations. Great.

The Jugged Hare: a typical British gastropub_a life inspiration story

I need to be in London for work reasons quite often. My motto has always been 'combine work and pleasure in your job’, and I try to live by that motto. 

So when traveling, I always look for new places to eat, drink, chat, sleep or dance. 

We had to be in the neighborhood of The Barbican for a seminar, and this pub has always been one I wanted to check out. Not that I particularly like the dead animals in the window, but they are a part of the pub's story and to be honest, I do like to eat fish, meat and other kind of living creatures.

The Jugged Hare is a so called gastropub, where you can either hang on the bar and have some strong draught Ales, Lagers, Stout or ciders. The bar is filled with the typical London ’suits’, relaxed chatting with other traders, bankers and other City workers. Everywhere in the pub you see animals from the hunt, as a kind of trophy in closets, armoires or on the wall. This kind of Victorian decoration is hip and happening in London and reflects a hunger for old, more safe and relax times. Time stands still in this place, but service follows our current time pressure. Best of both worlds, I told ya. 

We tried a dark Jugged Hare pale ale and a gin tonic (pleasure in-between work, you know).

Lunch and diner is served in a corresponding room with lots of red velvet, leather, brass and oak floors. A very friendly staff, British polite and professional explained us the menu. 

As you will read in other people’s feedback on Tripadvisor or Yelp, food is excellent. And I can admit, it is lovely.

Meat is definitly the main topic on the menu, but as I still prefer fish my choice was easy.

The Shetland mussels were probably the best mussels I ever had(and that means something): a pot of delicious Shetland mussels with Jugged hare pale ale, smoked bacon, garlic and some hand cut chips. 

The 'Billingsgate' on the menu stands for Billingsgate Fish Market. Billingsgate is the UK's largest inland fish market, located at Canary Wharf. Each trading day at Billingsgate Market offers buyers an opportunity to see the largest selection of fish in the United Kingdom. Daily arrivals from the coast and overseas ensure a continuity of fresh supplies. (Billingsgate Market, Trafalgar Way, Poplar, London E14 5ST)

The Jugged Hare is a great place to lunch. The excellent cuisine, the warm atmosphere and the Victorian style are worth the travel. Situated on the corner of Chiswell Street and Silk Street in the City of London, the pub forms part of the famous old Grade II listed Whitbread Brewery (now the Montcalm 5 Star London City Hotel).

Enjoy and say hi to the joly bartender!

Address: The Jugged Hare, 9 Chiswell St, London EC1Y 4SA. Nearest tubes: Moorgate, Barbican and Liverpool Street are all very close by as are Old Street and Farringdon. 

OPENING HOURS:
Monday - Wednesday	7am - 11pm
Thursday - Saturday	7am - midnight
Sunday	7am - 10.30pm

Reservation is a must, but when you come early before the restaurant opens for lunch, you can be lucky (like we did).

http://www.thejuggedhare.com