Bitter luxuries

If you were to ask me what my favourite food was in the whole wide world, I would answer, without a single doubt, 'Chocolate'. When I was young, it used to be the sweet kind, like milk chocolate or white chocolate with raisins and nuts and stuff, however, the older I get, the darker the better, the bitterer the better. I thought I might give a few tips as to how to taste chocolate for all you poncey chocolate lovers out there (believe it or not, there is an art to it!):

• Chocolate should be at room temperature before tasting. Cold temperatures ruin the texture and hinder your abilities to detect the flavours.
• Break it into bitesize pieces. Smell the chocolate at the break point before tasting. Inhaling will prime the tongue for the chocolate you are about to taste.
• Place it on your tongue and allow it to come to body temperature, don't chew! (I know it's tempting!) It will slowly melt, let the cocoa butter distribute evenly in your mouth.
• Observe the taste and texture, a good quality chocolate should have a very smooth creamy texture and should have an after taste leaving you wanting more!

It's almost like wine tasting, right? (Forgive me if there are some differences, I have a zero tolerance to alcohol, in other words, I'm a complete lightweight, so I tend to stay away from anything alcohol related.)

Speaking of chocolate, I am digging Wonderwall's new concept flagship store for Belgian chocolatiers Godiva in Harajuku, Tokyo. The melting chocolate ceiling is enough to make me drool all over my keyboard! I love how it's playful and traditional at the same time. I'm so hungry.

Shut up and wrap me in a bundle of cloth

...is precisely what Yoshikazu Yamagata did to his models for the writtenafterwards ss10 collection. I wasn't particularly impressed with what Japan Fashion Week had to offer this coming season, however I am impressed by the presentation of the writtenafterwards show. Fashion-wise, to be completely honest, I reckon a tramp might have been able to carry out something similar if given a clean piece of fabric, but I found the whole concept of the show quite comical and I always love it when designers incorporate old people into their shows, it's kind of a relief after seeing tonnes of fit birds for the past couple of months or so. Actually, I was being a little harsh just now, it's not all that bad I suppose, it's just not great, I actually can't imagine how heavy the dresses must have been, with all that fabric twisted and turned and wrapped and tied (I could go on forever, but you get the gist) toga stylee. In a way, I could imagine this being quite nice for an editorial, it's all very soft and fluffy and heavenly.

So a little intro for Mr. Yamagata. He graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design majoring in womenswear in 2005 and worked as an assistant designer for John Galliano, he returned to Japan and started his own label. I was just checking out his website and it's strange how all his previous collections seem to be so wearable and he's kind of gone a bit crazy on this one. He's got quite an interesting little website which I think is worth a look at, including some masks he made for Hedi Slimane and these cute puppet thingys. Go check it out!