The Independent

Rhiannon Harries: the last thing we need is another Tesco Metro

30 May 2010 12:00 AM

The sign on my local grocery store reads "Food and Wine at Clapton Village", although a quick glance at its environs reveals that Clapton is anything but a sleepy hamlet. In fact, it's an area in Hackney, north-east London, abutting a road that used to better known as Murder Mile. Yet to call it a "village shop" somehow seems accurate, providing as it does the sole physical place in which an otherwise fragmented multicultural community rubs shoulders and, hell, even talks to one another occasionally.

How we met: Helaine Blumenfeld & Michael G Wilson

30 May 2010 12:00 AM

'At their table I've sat with the Astronomer Royal, the man behind the portable calculator...'

On the agenda: Latin American art; I Blame Coco; eating al fresco at the National; hotguysreadingbooks.com; Wychwood Festival; Martin Margiela

30 May 2010 12:00 AM

We're all set to marvel at Margiela, blame Coco and have a picnic with Alan Bennett

My Style: Little Boots

09 November 2008 12:00 AM

Occupation: Singer
Age: 24
Personal style: Cosmic disco doll

Ask Martha: 'I haven't been invited to my friends' wedding'

09 November 2008 12:00 AM

Got a social dilemma? Martha Arthur has the answer...

How We Met: Viscount David Linley & Tom Aikens

09 November 2008 12:00 AM

'If we'd met 10 years ago we probably wouldn't have been friends. I was a right little upstart'

Page Turner: Sailing to Byzantium with Sir Bob

09 November 2008 12:00 AM

I've been having a Yeatsian week. First off, I went to the British Library for Josephine Hart's Poetry Hour. The novelist has been promoting poetry since 2004, charming the likes of Jeremy Irons, Juliet Stevenson and Ralph Fiennes into performing for free. Hart introduced key themes from W B Yeats's work and life, and Harriet Walter, Dominic West and Sir Bob Geldof read a generous selection of the poems to a glam media crowd. Hart's ever-smiling husband, Maurice Saatchi provided the astonishingly huge spray of white roses on the stage, quite dwarfing the bouquet presented by Hart's Virago publisher, Lennie Goodings.

Dr Feelgood: Can a masque make hair shine?

09 November 2008 12:00 AM

Your weekly health and beauty check-up

Why I love: Passing it on

02 November 2008 12:00 AM

Jamie Hector, Actor

Bites: Ice, slice and two sugars please

02 November 2008 12:00 AM

Yesterday, Bistrotheque, Pablo Flack and David Waddington's hip east London eatery, spawned Flash, a "guerilla" restaurant made entirely of art storage boxes, at London's Royal Academy. The menu is French/Californian, while afternoon tea includes the option to swap your brew for a pot of Tanqueray gin cocktails. How decadent.

Parties: It's full-on at half-term

02 November 2008 12:00 AM

When the London College of Fashion held a catwalk show and after-party on 27 October to kick off its inaugural Fashioning the Future summit, a series of seminars on the subject of sustainability, your average punter would have been hard-pressed to spot a famous face. But for the clamouring students, a veritable dream line-up was present, from the ever-dapper Jaeger chairman Harold Tillman and ex-Topshopper Jane Shepherdson (now of Whistles) to Browns boutique owner Joan Burstein.

Fashion: Sell high, buy low?

02 November 2008 12:00 AM

Political upheavals and economic woes may come and go, but our fascination with the vagaries of female footwear reigns eternal. Last month, an announcement by shoe designer extraordinaire Christian Louboutin, in which he unveiled his dastardly plan to unleash a pair of eight-inch stilettos on the world, led the fashion press to declare that heels, and women's irrational love of them, are set to reach new heights this season.