“There was a story going round about young cowboys in Mexico that love nothing more than wearing glittery clothes and really pointy cowboy boots whilst dancing to a particular strain of tribal dance music…”

And so it begins.

Cowboys. Sequins. Line-dancing. The latest Scene@ gang from the Swatch MTV portfolio is right up my street – rhinestone cowboys, some might say.

The Tribal Cowboys are a gang of young men from San Luis in Northern Mexico who have given local ranch style a rather flamboyant twist and spend their time choreographing group dances to impress the ladies. Swit fucking swoo!

You may have noticed (how could you not) that the gents express their, ahem, masculinity, through rather long shoes – which the local ladies allegedly eye up before deciding whether a hombre is worth her time. Hot. A lot of time and effort goes in to making said shoes – find out more about Brando, who specialises in making them, here.

Despite first impressions, the Tribal Cowboys actually don’t jig around to Billy Ray Cyrus and Bill Bader.  According to DJ Otto, one of the scene’s most celebrated DJs, the music is the result of fusing musical influences. He says: “I was born listening to tropical music. Then, when I was 17 I moved to Monterrey and in Monterrey I started getting into techno and minimal music.” Check out the video below to hear the music, see the boots, and enjoy the chaps getting dancey.

“We aren’t handsome, but we are fashionable.” If that isn’t a life lesson to live by then I don’t know what is.

If you’re into Sheffield, design, or both, you should totally read this Guardian article about Urban Splash’s overhaul of Park Hill flats – complete with a lasting, neon tribute to the most romantic bit of graffiti ever done.

After the last few days of doom, disturbance and yoof-baiting, it was nice to be sent the latest dispatch from the Swatch MTV Playground project which just so happens to celebrate vibrant, youthful, inner-city sights, scenes and sounds from across the world.

As with the rest of the Swatch and MTV Playground project – and in keeping with MTV’s pop culture heritage and Swatch’s dedication to diverse reference points – the latest footage highlights the importance of music in influencing style and identity. If you visit the Scene@ section of the website you can find out more about underground music scenes around the world, but here are a couple of interesting scenes that I rather like the like of.

//

Jerk chicken, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Cool Jerk, Doing The Jerk… While the term ‘jerk’ may have originally been thrown around as an insult, most things related to jerk are good in my book these days. The jerk was a 1960s dance craze, popularised in the Capitols’ hit Cool Jerk, but as with most things from ye olde days it’s been given a fresh new twist.

Reinvented for the 00s in California, jerking has since made a splash in Switzerland – of all places. I’m meeting up with my Swiss pals tomorrow and I’ll certainly be challenging her to a jerk off based on this video of the Swiss Jerks – a colourful, vibrant community of dancers who you can see in action above.

The other scene of interest is – prepare yourself – Brum and Bass. I mean… As I couldn’t love Birmingham more, it goes and develops a scene with a hilarious pun too. Only bettered by the whole Pontefract/Ponte Carlo thing.

Birmingham has (apparently) one of the biggest bass-based music scenes in the county (so I’m told, I can’t even pretend to have a clue about such things) and Swatch and MTV recently paid them a visit to find out more – see what they discovered in the video above.

I love the look of this scene – lots of Carhartt and Dickies and vintage Americana sportswear. And there was me thinking that heavy metal was the most stylish genre to emerge from the Black Country. Check out a streetstyle gallery here!

The Big Things shop has so many nice things, including these informative and attractive bandanas.

From fish to flies and whales and star signs, they remind me of I-Spy books or some educational children’s books from the 70s, when car journeys were about playing the pub sign leg counting game or spotting things out of the window, rather than reading a Kindle or watching Kung Fu Panda on your private head-rest TV.

The constellation one glows in the dark!

[spotted at Urban Outfitters]

Well… I don’t want to see him mad, do you?

via

Fancy stationery is a total treat, even in this day and age of texts and emails. I personally would be happy to have my phone surgically grafted in my forearm, such is my love of electronic communication – but I still have an abundance of nice stationery for thank you letters and the like, plus when note-taking at swanky events there’s nothing like a nice notebook to show off your shorthand.

Christian Lacroix is the latest designer to turn his hand to the art of posh paper, with a series of notebooks, correspondence cards and writing paper for the V&A. As you can no doubt imagine, Lacroix gives stationery a decidedly decadent look with insects, period costumes and his trademark bows and ribbons all combining for a style which appears to be inspired by the Victorian obsession for collaging.

Beautiful!

Prices start at £12.99, available online or at the V&A.

There’s nothing like the fashion industry likes more than a luxe version of something basic – see, the Jil Sander market bag or Chanel’s take away Chinese box.

Unfortunately this overpriced treats inevitably end up being extremely covetable, with chumps like me getting excited about the prospect of spending a month’s rent on a pastiche of a plastic bag. The latest novelty bags to be mentally added to my shopping list are the black embossed leather shoppers from Cast of Vices, available to pre-order at Final Episode.

Inspired, obviously, by the carrier bags that you get in American grocery stores, the designs include the classic Thank You and Have a Nice Day options above, as well as the regional favourite, I <3 NY option.

[Spotted on Is Mental]