It’s a while since we’ve done an “In the Closet with…” feature but I can’t think of a better way to re-introduce than with a Stateside Bitchy friend Selah Says. I first encountered Say in her former life as Melly Shabazz, one half of a duo called the Agyators. The Agyators was probably the first actually the first blog I followed too and it sparked my interest in writing and photography, something that has continued to grow since.

Say represents positivity strength and inspiration for us – we love to follow strong girls everywhere, fearless in speaking their mind, feisty and creative in multiple-disciplines.

Apart from everything else this girls never got a less than KILLER do appealing to our deepest levels of hair shizofrenia.

I’ve been meaning to blog her for what seems like an eternity(I’m a bad blogger, I never promised I’d be good at this) and I think now is the most appropriate time – she’s one of the finalists short-listed to become a Levi’s girl. Please show your support too and vote for her – we re-work Vintage Levis in our Remade collection so would be lovely to see one a friend of BITCHY represent a brand that we work with daily. (We’ve just been commissioned to do a really exciting project for Urban Outfitters UK with vintage Levis but more about that later)

Above are her images and below, her words and her video – nothing is impossible(my favorite three words, she proves them)…..

Just Say Say!

Hey world this is Selah Says (pronounced say!)

Up until this monumental point in history, most people have known me by my other alias Melly Shabazz (Google me), when I ran about NYC photographing parties and reeking all types of creative madness under the brand The Agytators (which is now defunct). But honey I had to turn Melly Shabazz into a glass figurine, and put her ass in the back of my great aunt’s menagerie to bite dust—it’s all about Selah Says now!

As Selah Says, I’m continuing the multi-disciplinary artist agenda I began with Melly Shabazz; but now instead of purely focusing on the visual arts (photo, video, self-portraits), I’m branching off into music. I sing and I rap. I know, I know—everybody and their momma sings, raps, and has a demo CD, but 99.9% of them suck monkey balls, and their CDs should be used as coasters at a dive bar. I have the liberty to say such things because I am currently standing behind a 7ft, 340 lbs security guard, come and get me suckas…LMAO!

As for my personal style….I’m the lovechild of Grace Jones, Prince, Joe Strummer, and the monster underneath my bed.

In regards to my musical style…I am Chaka Khan, Lauryn Hill, George Clinton + P Funk and 2pac singing on a Southern Baptist Church Choir on Acid.

I haven’t officially released any of my music. However, you can find videos of me doing my music thing on my Youtube channel. I also have a Facebook page where I share my thoughts. Come visit me at my humble abodes.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/selahsays

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/selahsays

I bid you all peace and loads of fun.

And by the way, here’s my latest SONG + VIDEO that I made. On this video entitled “CONCRETE JUNGLE,” I got my PRINCE on. I wrote the SONG and RAP, PHARRELL made the Beat, I sang all the vocals, I recorded and mixed my own vocals, I shot the video, and I edited the video all whilst getting my MC on with the Vocals + Rhyming. I hope you ENJOY!

Sincerely,

Selah Says aka say!

]]> http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2010/07/vote-selah-says/feed/ 0 http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2009/09/in-the-closet-with-manaboutworld-sunday/ http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/2009/09/in-the-closet-with-manaboutworld-sunday/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:04:50 +0000 Manaboutworld http://blog.bitchingandjunkfood.com/?p=1273

Sunday and I’m back to the dilemma of Wednesday: balancing sartorial demands of very different social engagements. While it’s great living in zone one because it does mean that I can drop home for a quick change with minimal hassle, I also like to pack in loads of things into my day and taking away the need to go home can allow me to cram one more event in.

I get up late and after a relaxed morning blogging and uploading photos onto facebook from last night’s Bollywood party I get ready for my cousin’s BBQ. Later I plan to go into the West End to go to the cinema by myself and then on to a couple of nights out East. I’m wearing a Vivienne Westwood Gold Label t-shirt dress from the Liberty International Designers (womenswear) department sale last summer. It has a really interesting cut with one of the arms attached across the top instead of the side of the body and the hole for the head on that arm. I think it’s a pretty original method of making it fall in a characteristic Westwood twist across the body. A Margiela employee recently tipped me off that Vivienne still designs the Gold Label, Man and World’s End ranges but that Red Label, Anglomania and all the other bits and pieces were other people’s handiwork. I haven’t checked this with anyone at Westwood yet though…

In the photo with my cousin I’m wearing Samsonite boots. For a few seasons Samsonite offered a subtle but effective range of footwear with their Black label branding but they seem to have gone off the boil since last year.

Above the boots I let the t-shirt do the talking and pop on some simple black Uniclo skinnies and a couple of gold plated rings. One is an Indian ring based on Bengali wedding bracelet which I got in Delhi last year and the other is a Vivienne Westwood four-in-one square design which can show the Westwood globe and orb, a skull and cross bones, a pierced hear or two cocks…depending on my mood. I’ve also included a couple of shots of some of my other favourite rings which seem to get quite a lot of attention. I usually wear the two steel Galliano rings on adjacent knuckles. The chunky one with the Galliano coat of arms is a favourite. Another personal favourite is the simple black coconut ring. I bought it on a market when I lived in Argentina over 10 years ago and it’s nearly the oldest ring I own. I’m amazed it’s not rotten or cracked in all this time. Since then I’ve seen lots of coconut rings over here but I’ve never seen any as wide or with the intensity of black that mine has.

I end the day and, indeed, the week, at Disco Biscuit at The Ghetto in Old Street. It’s not long before I get offered some suitably ridiculous accessories…

As a final note I(Marion) would like to thank Manaboutworld for taking the time and effort to contribute and inspire. Next week sees him take flight to Paris for the shows – we will miss him but await his fashion tales in anticipation.

It’s Saturday morning and I wake up at a friends house after going Buster Bennet’s Calling All Tribes party at The Macbeth last night. Despite the fact they work at a vintage store and have loads of very borrowable clothes in their wardrobe I get a skanky pleasure from putting last night’s clothes back on after the shower. It’s probably partly because I sleepover at other people’s houses so rarely that I still get that walk of shame buzz. This shot’s taken outside one of my new favourite places: Monmouth Coffee’s Roast House on Maltby Street. I haven’t touched alcohol or drugs for a decade now but I do have a pretty bad caffeine addiction. Luckily, living in SE1 I’ve got loads of great independent coffee shops around, the best being Monmouth. I’ve done a fair bit of blog papping (blapping) around Borough Market while fuelled on their coffee.

In the afternoon I drag myself to the Cat and Mutton on Broadway market for a friend, Sagarika’s, leaving do (pictured flexing our braces…). I wish I knew why so many of my friends choose that place to have birthday/leaving/bar mtizvah drinks. I’ve got nothing against the place itself (apart from the disgusting toilets) but it’s just so bloody far away and so busy. It takes me an hour to get there and I live in a postcode with an E in it! Perhaps it’s so they can see who there real friends are? In my view you’ve got to be pretty bloody dedicated to schlep all the way over there…

In my Cat and Mutton outfit I’m wearing a t-shirt I bought at one Michael Jackson’s Dangerous concerts in 1992. I went to five gigs of his that year and was on the front row for three of them I bought half a dozen t-shirts, mainly for collecting rather than wearing. By pure chance I retrieved this one from storage along with the other things in my mum’s loft last weekend. Given the big influence Michael had on me growing up it feels a fitting tribute and not offensive to wear the t-shirt after his death this week. I pair it with those fake Dolce and Gabbana skinny shorts from Cambodia which I wore on Thursday, the zips of which remind me of Michael’s bondage trousers.

I sense the outfit needs some serious accessories and go for

•    an Indian prayer scarf

•    undone bright red vintage braces

•    a tough leather wristband from a bondage shop in Soho

•    some 2 year old Dior Homme aviators

•    a couple of chunky steel Galliano rings

•    and my Westwood boots…again.

Saturday night

I opt out of my usual East London polysexual scene and head West for Raj and Pablo’s Bollywood night at The Cobden Club. Knowing I’ll already be the odd one out due to my skin colour I feel the need to pretty much fit into the middle class non-Resident Indian vibe and go as conservative as I ever get with a twisted Vivienne Westwood Liberty-style print short sleeved shirt and matching tie from last summer’s collection. Apart from anything else I pick up from Westwood, I usually buy at least one key shirt each season. Sometimes I wait till the sale but experience has taught me this a high risk strategy as they rarely carry the same fabrics at Selfridges and Conduit Street and often sell-out of the medium sizes. These two items cost over £300 which is a bit steep for short-sleeved shirt and tie. This season I’ve taken on so few paid directing jobs that I waited till the sale and bagged the same size and fabric batwing short I was about to pay £229 for reduced down to £69. In case you’re wondering, the shirt in the photo doesn’t have darker panels in the front; that affect was a result of my rather active Bollywood dancing and the lack of air conditioning in the venue.

I rarely plan my outfits until just before I go out which probably explains why I arrive everywhere late. I still remember going on a date with someone a few years ago and being half impressed and half disgusted by the fact that they chose their work outfits for the whole week on the Sunday. I’d find that level of personal sartorial organisation both impossibly difficult  and creatively repressing as it would preclude the creative expression which gives me such a buzz when I choose my outfit before each outing.

I’m also pretty bad at buying items to go with specific pieces I’ve got at home. My guiding principle is just to buy stuff that looks good by itself. Unfortunately this means I’ve got loads of clothes in my wardrobes, some by my favourite designers like McQueen, Westwood and Galliano, that have only had one outing or never been worn.

Of course there are other items that get worn to death, such as the Vivienne Westwood boots I’m wearing today. Pretty much anyone who knows me is familiar with my Westwood boots which were my most successful fashion purchase of last year. That was a good shopping day in Manchester when I not only bought these boots but some McQueen/Puma trainers, my favourite olive Galliano biker jacket and some lovely black Galliano slim cut jeans. The boots go with everything and I love wearing them with trousers, shorts and kilts all through the year. I’d like to say that they get better with time and some days they do seem to renew themselves somehow. But truth be told they are getting knackered and I’m really hoping one of my buddies from the Westwood shop will help me out with some replacements very soon.

Tonight I’m headed to a Calling All Tribes party at the Macbeth. Up top I’m wearing a black silk cut-work kurta, one of a dozen or so I bought from the ethnic high street chain Fab India while working in Delhi last year. After a year working out how to wear them I’ve now realised how much I like them with these super low crotch culotte-shorts from Greek designer Yiorgos Eleftheriades. The shorts, which are one his staple designs, are one of my most prized possessions. I picked them up from Yiorgos’ boutique in Athens during the Olympics back in 2004. I was told recently that he’s closed the store and is based in Spain now but haven’t seen any of his collections for a while. I really regret not taking the shorts with me to India last year to get a tailor to make a few replicas in different materials for me…

(black t shirt: kokon tozai, yellow tracksuit pants: kokon tozai, big black chain: random bangle, bag: kokon tozai, black trainers: puma)

(black jacket: keith haring by jeremy scott for adidas, tracksuit pants: kokon tozai, big leopard chain: random bangle)

Ran out of credit and weed! what a bad day, fortunatley mr weedhead saved the day!

t shirt: kokon tozai, yellow sweatpants: kokon tozai, black trainers: puma, bag: kokon tozai

Pickin up stuff for his Detox

I had the pleasure of meeting Tictac last year at an Urban Nerds night. He had an oversize Perspex Marijuana leaf necklace which was a nice ice breaker – no ice on this boy though.

For some reason I always imagine super stylish people are going to be complete self absorbed twats. I have unfortunately met a few that fit the bill but I’m happy to say that Tic Tac is not one of them. He’s gobby for sure and, as I struggle to keep mine shut, I like that. He puts this down to the fact that he stands at 5′3″ so what he lacks in height he makes up for in lyrics. I’m 5′10″ so I have no excuse – might play the paddy card on that one though.

This electro grime boy’s got talent as well as style and has worked with super hot producers like The Real Heat, Frankmusik and Goldielocks.

Last time I bumped into Tic Tac was at Calling All Tribes in the MacBeth. This boy’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen – Keith Haring on his wrists and the back of his neck. They’re so good, they made me ill – one of those why didn’t I think of that first moments. I’ve been trying to come up with something equally cool ever since but nothing comes close however I’m feeling scrawly and demented after the Chicks on Speed post so that’s a start. No anchors for me thankyou.

Appropriately for a Monday, the above is a picture of Tic Tac down the health-food aisle picking up stuff for his detox. Top by Kokon Tozai(  a BITCHY favorite), big gold chain, random bangle. Trolley by Sainsburys. Dead nice.

Photographs courtesy of Dominic Okah

Check him out on Myspace

This is my favorite Queen post so far.

Saturday: Had no intention of leaving the house today. Have some magazines to read, tea to drink and dogs to pat. Wore my vintage bed jacket I picked up when I was shopping on Thursday with a customised petticoat, Givenchy wedges, Bebaroque stockings and BF’s Lonny Liston Smith t-shirt from 1984.

So much to write about Wick and weekend but it’s gonna be tough over the next few days. My mum’s coming over on Monday and she’s brining me to a salon get my Ghetto nails back on – can’t wait. She’s also brining me somewhere really posh like Claridges for afternoon tea. What a contrast to my current existence. Wll blog that too and might even dress her up BITCHY style too – she’s a funny and brilliant woman.