Category Archives: Fashion

Brighton Life, Clothes, Fashion, Style

50 Plus… and a chance meeting by David Collyer

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I spent my teenage years in the South West of Surrey, pretty much equidistant between London and Brighton, and it was always one of those two places that called my friends and I when we needed a touch of metropolitan sophistication, or of course to strengthen our wardrobes. In my early twenties, London won and I moved there, the bright lights of the Big Smoke pulling me away from my leafy childhood home.

Brighton, however, always felt like a magical place. I visited often. My younger brother, a musician, moved there, and as many a musician does ended up working a side hustle. In his case, the cook in Hotel Pelirocco. I’d been an early 1980s mod revivalist, and of course with thoughts of Quadrophenia in mind, Brighton always felt like a pilgrimage.

Scroll forward almost 40 years and I’m now living in rural South Wales, dividing my work life between the NHS and as a photographer. Having not visited Brighton in almost twenty years, my partner and I decided to take a city break, staying in an AirBnB off Marine Parade, and catching up with one of my old London friends who has long since made the city his home. After a very pleasant meal my partner and I were strolling through The Lanes as the last light was fading, when I spotted a very dapper man in double-breasted cream linen suit, correspondent shoes, a wide brimmed hat at a rakish angle, and standout silver jewellery. I had a 1959 Leica M3 camera slung around my neck, and two frames left on a roll of black and white film. I had to photograph this man, although with the light quickly diminishing, it was touch and go whether any frame would be useable.

In 2017 when I turned 50, I started shooting a project called 50 Plus… The generation that didn’t have to grow up. It examines my generation of men and explores the freedoms that we have which weren’t available to our fathers’ generation. We are at liberty to cling on to our teenage subcultures and styles well into and beyond middle age. Always obsessed with clothes and music, I still consider myself a modernist. Since my initial re-visit to Brighton I’ve been back a handful of times. In 2023 I photographed the Mod Weekender for Detail Magazine, and as a result came away with a yearning to buy a scooter again, which I did, and it’s been ridden to Brighton a couple of times since. In many ways the photographic project was autobiographical. I have the luxury of holding down professional jobs whilst also indulging my inner teenage rebel. 

50 Plus… grew and grew, and on my 58th birthday in June, it was released by specialist documentary photography publisher Fistful of Books. I start the book with these words:

“As growing old is a privilege, so too is it a privilege of youth to rebel against the elder generation. Unlike when we were young, however, how do you shock the generation who have spent their lives rebelling? I’ve often said to my boys that the only way they could shock me is by playing golf and voting Conservative. Thankfully, as far as I’m aware, neither has experimented with such depravity!…

In the woods behind my house were the rusting remains of a Morris Oxford, and minus its wheels, the monocoque body of a long-trashed Vespa scooter. I used to sit on said scooter, and imagine I was riding to Brighton with my school’s equivalent of Jimmy the Mod’s on/off girlfriend Steph on the pillion. It’s safe to say, I wasn’t the Ace Face!”

50 Plus… is a hardback containing 84 portraits, over 156 pages. There is an essay by myself, a preface by an ex-pat British journalist now living and working in California, who published some of the photos in a magazine in 2022, and although the vast majority of portraits are anonymous, twelve of the men have been kind enough to write a testimony about themselves.

Fortunately the two shots of the dapper gent in The Lanes worked out, and he is one of those who kindly agreed to contribute. If you’re asking yourself why you are reading this in The West Hill Whistler, and you’ve not yet worked it out, that man was Jed Novick, editor of the title, and we’ve since become friends. Last time we met up we enjoyed a good Mexican meal and Margueritas on an early summer evening. Jed and Mike Baller who I photographed on a subsequent visit to Brighton are pictured here.

The book is available from the publisher Fistful of Books, or I have some copies for sale at £30 plus postage. Contact me through my website 

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Circles, Fashion, sustainability, Sustainable Brighton

Climate Cafe: Circles

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Continuing our virtual Climate Café where we look at people and places making a positive contribution to our future. By Benita Matofska 

The Climate Fashion Destination: Circles

More than a store, this new Brighton gem of a place prides itself on being a home for the circular economy. And it’s easy to see why. Beautifully curated, high quality pre-loved clothes and creatively repaired pieces brush shoulders with timeless homewares just waiting to be rediscovered and reloved. 

Circles was founded by Brighton-born ethical fashion aficionado Jules Hau. With over 30 years spent in eco fashion, Jules is on a mission to inspire a sustainable, mindful and creative lifestyle. It’s not just about circles of fashion, but circles of wellbeing and community too. Downstairs hosts a treasure trove of second-hand designer, boutique, vintage clothes and accessories. On my recent visit I found brands ranging from Isabel Marant, Diane Von Furstenburg, Stella McCartney, to my personal favourite Essential Antwerp. All the glamour minus the guilt – so I snapped up a vintage Biba silk, embroidered, red-green-orange top. 

But Circles is more than your average consignment store. Yes, you can sell your designer items by appointment, or discover something unique to buy, but upstairs is another part of the story. Here you’ll find a wellbeing space offering massage, qi-gong, mindful treatments and sustainably focussed events. I’m something of a connoisseur of Brighton’s many pre-loved haunts, but Circles feels different. Maybe it’s Jules’s innate knowledge of ethical fashion, or her personal style that’s infused throughout. I can’t help but feel that it’s her loveliness and genuine care for the planet that will warm the heart of any discerning eco fashionista. 

Circles Store is open Tuesday to Sunday and can be found at 21-23 Church Street, BN1 1RB. For info: https://www.circlesstore.co.uk/ 

The Climate Network: Climate Women

OK so full disclosure (now she tells us), Jules is also Co-founder of Climate Women, an initiative we started together in January this year. The concept is simple – a monthly circle and network for women who are passionate about the planet. We gather (in the Circles wellbeing space) on the last Wednesday of the month to create, support, swap ideas and deliver climate action. Having been active as a speaker, writer and campaigner, with most of my activities focussed nationally and globally, it felt time to turn attention to starting something on my Brighton doorstep. 

Both Jules and I feel that given women’s role in taking climate action, it’s time to build something for ourselves. Notably, women lead on political environmental change, and once elected to office are more likely to deliver social and climate legislation – from Caroline Lucas, to Jacinda Ardern, Christiana Figueres, and Wangaari Mathai. Women lead more eco lifestyles too. A British study by Mintel showed that 71% of women try to live more ethically compared to 59% of men. 

In the global South, women recycle more frequently, buy organic food and support energy efficiency. Women are also building more sustainable businesses, with greater investments into environmentally friendly business processes to reduce emissions. But all this comes at a price, with many women climate actors suffering burnout, climate anxiety and depressions. Climate Women provides a safe space to talk, listen, create and act. It has proven to be popular with (each event sold out well in advance. Each circle focusses on a theme from climate optimism, to wellbeing and our relationship with fashion. 

We make individual pledges to act, as we believe small actions create ripples of impact and lead to big change. March saw our first local fundraiser in aid of The Real Junk Food Project raising £600 in a two-hour clothes swap bonanza. We’ve been asked to bring Climate Women to other cities, but for now at least our focus is to think global and change local.

Climate Women events take place on the last Wednesday of the month from 6.30 – 9pm at Circles, 21-23 Church Street, BN1 1RB. 

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-women-brighton-a-monthly-circle-for-planet-conscious-women-tickets-796010668337 

The Climate Event: The Great Big Green Week (June 8th-16th)

The UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change, protect nature and talk about local action. The theme this year is ‘swap together for good’ – inspiring swaps created by communities to make a better tomorrow. Climate Women are joining forces with the lovely folks at the community-owned Exeter Street Hall who are organising the Prestonville Great Big Green Weekend on June 8 & 9. On Sunday 9th, we’ll be delivering another clothes swap from 2.30pm with tea, coffee and cakes. Funds raised will support Exteter Street Hall and The Real Junk Food Project. You can sign up for plant and pot swaps, the Prestonville litter pick, a skills share (learn to crochet?); there’s bug house making for kids or why not join the repair café? What’s not to love?

Prestonville Great Big Green Weekend will take place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June at Exeter Street Hall, For more info visit: https://exeterstreethall.org/ For The Great Big Green Week full list of events visit https://greatbiggreenweek.com/ 

Benita Matofska is a public speaker, writer, consultant and author of Generation Share, available from independent bookstores. Each copy is ethically produced, feeds and educates a girl in the slums in Mumbai and plants a tree. 

Clothes, Fashion, Preloved, Second-Hand, Style, Sustainable Brighton

Loved and Loved Again

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Style correspondent Ceri Barnes Thompson finds out how to dress to kill while having a “nothing new” pact

When Vanessa Wright was a little girl, she played shops when her peers played teachers and doctors. You’d be more likely to find her rummaging through a jumble sale than a rumbling round the playground, and for little Vanessa easily the best sweet shop was a haberdasher. A career in social work and a family followed alongside a move to Brighton, and as she walked the streets of her new home she would wonder every time a new shop came up for rent why someone didn’t open an old-school dress agency like the ones she grew up around. Until one day…. 

‘Preloved of Brighton’ opened its doors 10 years ago – with its stylish owner ever present to hear how you are, what gigs you’ve been to, what exhibitions have impressed you as well as what you are looking for clothes-wise. Never pushy, always happy for you just to check out any new additions (her stock updates daily with new contributions) Vanessa’s edge is curating her store like a boutique. The jeans are all in one place, the sizes separated up, the sparkly clothes for events and Christmas presented together. Shoes, bags, belts dotted around, there’s even a £10 rail – very worth a rummage for a bargain. And crucially she knows her customers and the fashion zeitgeist so well. There’s no point trying to get her to sell your skinny jeans if wide and cropped is what’s happening at the moment.. she knows what will sell and it’s what makes people happy. Her lovely shop has gone from strength to strength with so many following suit – the market for vintage having massively expanded, and apps  like Depop and Vinted giving new life to old clothes. I see my younger son in someone’s old French-blue Ralph Lauren hoody he’s found on line and snagged for a steal and know that for him it delivers that spark – it’s new to him. 

When Preloved started it was the only place of its kind here – chic and thoughtfully stocked with people’s preloved clothing – splitting the proceeds 50/50 with the people who bring her their treasures. And so often for Vanessa the real treasure is in the stories of the clothes, the connection to her customers and the lives that they have lived.

Initially her clientele was probably between 30 and 60 years old, but now Vanessa reckons it’s more like 15 to 80, and this is so much down to the atmosphere that she’s created. She believes clothes aren’t ‘just’ clothes; they are key to how you feel. Her warmth and interest in the people who come in and their stories wraps you up like a friendly hug. I can’t think of a time I’ve visited when there hasn’t been a lovely chat or a serendipitous exchange of information. I’ve even found a physiotherapist who knows about knees whilst in the shop with Vanessa literally getting on the floor and showing me the best joint exercises to do. 

What gets her up in the morning is a real mission to change people’s minds about buying all their clothes new – it truly makes her day if even one person makes a decision to buy vintage and feels great in it. 

And it’s because of pioneers like Vanessa that I’ve started asking those questions I’d never asked myself – what really do I wear that makes me feel properly myself? The answer is a very limited list, truly. 

This year my husband and I have had a pact to buy no new clothes and it’s been HARD. 

The biggest test of our ‘nothing new’ pact came in the form of a wedding and our oldest son’s graduation. Could I ever feel ‘dressed up’ wearing something ‘old’ to events like that?. Hovering over the ‘add to basket’ on the Cos website too many times, I headed up to Preloved. There was Vanessa, the shop lit up by the early summer sunshine and her smile, a lovely scent filling the air from an aromatic little steamer on her desk. Behind her, hanging up waiting to go on the rails, was a bright orange and pink summer dress, long length, short sleeves, two layers of cotton. ‘I’d never wear that it’s just not my thing’, I thought and dismissed it immediately. Vanessa held it up. “Why don’t you try it, Ceri? it’s a good length for you”. So I did. And when I opened the curtain Vanessa said “Look at that smile!”. I felt fantastic. Worried that my idea of pairing it with my dark blue clutch bag would ‘kill the dress’ (she has a very, very good fashion eye) Vanessa found a gold and orange one and that was that. For £40 I had an outfit that made me feel a million dollars. 

People like Vanessa and their passion for design, designers, textiles and stories really do make the world go round. She’s recently launched a ‘what are you looking for?’ service and she also uses her Instagram presence to promote other local business generously. It’s from her that I really do understand that new doesn’t have to be ‘brand’-new. It can be new to ME. And that not only has to be good enough it’s just plain great. 

Artist Dotty, Brighton Life, Fashion

Artist Dotty has a joke about a… 

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Artist Dotty has recently been wondering around the streets of West Hill, relentlessly trying to think of new jokes. Why? Well, he hit the boards in Brighton and endured a few petrol shares to various downtrodden dives in the darkened outbacks of nowhere.  Now that venues are rocking out comedy nights again, Artist Dotty wanted to clinch one zeitgeist joke  that totally encapsulates the current mood of technology verses the human spirit. So with his Mont Blanc pen and coffee, initial scribbles we’re underway.

It’s is hard to get to the right joke with a particular theme when there is a veracious canine specimen dangling from your knee caps.  After careful extraction of said mutt, my channelling process begins. First a deep breath, allow the higher forces to drop comedy gold from the sky.  

Sat on a bench near Seven Dials, watching car driving comparable to that of the Arc Du Triomphe. I wanted this joke to be the next bumper sticker to fund my art, although being an avid two-wheeler cyclist and world record holder on a self-propelled push scooter, that might be too much of a contradiction. The thoughts start streaming in. 

I’m a Northerner and love Northern lingo A.I sounds slightly Northern in its intonation.  I now have a bank of over 1000 personally written jokes which I smash out while doing Dotty art, a sort of double hat creative combo.  

But to walk out of the door and decide to plonk myself on a park bench to mentally decide I want one diamondo jokio is putting a huge pressure on producing a result. But I have to say that pressure paid dividends. The joke landed in my lap. 

I appreciate this build up is the worlds longest build up to a joke and by now you are completely gripped on my revelation and disclosure of greatness. But before I reveal the joke, while also thinking about pointillism and neon light boxes, I would just like to thank The West Hill Whistler for supporting my art and giving me an outlet to spill out these and many more thoughts (Ed: We wouldn’t be us without you). Perhaps they would consider a commercial angle to mutually share the joke to the world. So without further a due here it is, the joke. 

I stood on the park bench. An elderly lady was walking past looking perplexed, she turned I delivered . THE JOKE : I don’t believe in AI, I believe in A UP.

She laughed and carried on walking. OK, admittedly I couldn’t hold my
audience, but the hessian shopping bag needed to take priority .

Artist Dotty, Brighton Life, Fashion, The Arts

Matt Whistler talks Dotty’s Ditties

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“I’ve got an exhibition coming up in a coffee record coffee shop just round the corner, dressed as Sir Dot A lot. 

I will be reciting Dotty Ditties, with coffee froth on the end of my nose. Recently I exhibited at the Brighton and Hove Engineerium housed in the Goldstone pump station. The big art extravaganza was to celebrate International Happiness Day and to launch a new well being centre. 

“The Professor of Happiness was there. I had a thoroughly miserable experience. Only jesting, it was clowntastic. In-between art shows I head to Montpelier Crescent, to backspin a hula hoop, to then run alongside with the challenge of diving through the hoop without touching it. 

“My latest two creations are Fender BOT, a Dotty mannequin with a silver fender guitar for a head. Fender Bot can be seen in Brighton’s new Bits On Wall Gallery at 50 Grand Parade. Then there’s Sozzled Bot, which is an upturned Star Wars at Walker, on a Dotty canvass with a gilded frame painted in a metallic blue. Exhibiting destination as yet unknown. 

“I’ve been going to launderettes to do book signings of second hand books, with my Dotty art on the front, this is the best way to not ever have to write a book. My wearable Dotty art is going to be featured at Brighton’s funky retail outlet Popstacular among 20 other great fashion designers. Madonna will be present”. 

Dotty continued to tell me about his DottyVerse and all the other incarnations he has created over the years, some of which include Jah Scooterman, AKA Whistles, Totally Absurd Man, Ro-Bot and Kaptin Avatar. 

Artist Dotty looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye and the most incredible realisation hit me, that I have been interviewing a modern day version of Charlie Chaplin, minus the kid, the dogs, the funny walk, the stick, jacket and hat. I genuinely thought during that one moment of eye contact, that Artist Dotty is one of the clown greats, but not in the poodle balloon sense, more in a art imitating life sense. I suddenly realised how utterly honoured I have been to follow Artist Dotty’s steps over the last few months and that Dotty has phenomenal potential to become a rising star and bag the Netflix series prior to death. 

What I like about Dotty, is his ability to tell you about his art capers and yet be a humble modest guy with total humility. You can tell he’s just about able to discuss his achievements with confidence and isn’t one of those all-singing all-dancing stars and flagrant self publicists who perpetually bangs his own drum.

I wandered over to Artist Dotty and offered to buy him a crate of Prosecco and a jar of expensive Olives, with a free packet of pretzels. He gladly accepted, mounted the Prosecco on his electric scooter then sped over the middle of 7 Dials roundabout. 

What a great guy I thought. He really is an incredible dude. He’s got razzmatazz. I almost felt my kitchen needed an Artist Dotty calendar. I watched him slowly disappear down Montpelier Rd and was just about to head off when he took a u-turn and began to head back towards me. With a rattling crate of Prosecco tied to the foot stand, Dotty once again scootered straight over the middle of the roundabout, to finally stop outside the Small Batch coffee shop. He pulled up his vizor and slowly turned to look at me. What was Dotty going to say, could this be a scoop for a Dotty story ? 

I could barely contain my excitement. In a loud Northern Burnley excitement, Dotty said. 

“You did pay for the coffee didn’t you?” 

Dotty sped off down a different road and I was left thinking. What a guy.