The Clothes Whisperer: the fashion blog with wit that sparkles: London is burnnnning

Photo by Marina Scukina

When Marina first told me she lobbied her way onto the guestlist for last night's launch event for the new "Music Inspired Art" Beck's Beer labels by telling the PR, "I'm interested in the relationship between beer and art," I couldn't help but suppress a chuckle. But after an evening of watching the interaction between music, illustration and, of course, beer, I could see that she, and indeed, Beck's is on to something. And that something, cheezily enough, is fun and good times for all.

In September, for a limited time, Beck's Beer will be revisiting their tradition of artistic collaborations (remember the Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst bottles?). But this time, "art" has broadened to include the avenue more palpable to beer drinkers everywhere, performance rather than visual, hot babes on the electric guitar instead of animal skeletons suspended in formaldehyde. This year's bottle muses (and one half of last night's entertainment) are bands of the moment Ladyhawke and Hard-Fi.

So last night, we made our way over to the East London's The Village Underground for bumpin' night of Ladyhawke live, local artists painting enormous bottle label style canvases and more Beck's than any fashionista on the verge of squeezing herself into some of this season's far out trends for the upcoming fashion weeks should ever contemplate consuming (goodbye, thigh high boots). Ladyhawke, whose music I was not aware I was familiar with until the opening strains of "Paris is Burning" triggered a massive and sudden exodus from outside's smoking area back towards the stage, carrying me right along with it.

But hey, it's definitely more than a little bit catchy...I daresay if it hadn't been for the CD handout at the exit featuring Ms. Hawke's bottle-inspiring cover art, I probably would have spent the first five minutes of this morning iTunesing it. Of course, the fact that Bert was humming the title track's refrain for the rest of the evening and forefronted the choice lyric on facebook this morning has nothing to do with it.

"My heart is yearning, but Paris is burning. Paris is burning all night long. Paris is burning. Paris is burning. Paris is burning...."