And finally, vntgsmthg.com is online

Oh you know how it is these days, everyone speaking of circularity, of buying vintage, deadstock, second-hand and how all this better for the environment. Well, if you did not follow vntgsmthg on Insta yet, here's your chance for a better browsing, the website vntgsmthg.com is finally online!! With their incredibly well-preserved deadstock merchandise from the 60s to the 90s (can you believe the 90s are already two decades back?), and fabulous retro items waiting for you to browse and pick (sorry I am biased, a small look at my closet will reveal that all my polos are bought from them!).

Well, now that ABBA is back, how about dressing like Bjorn or Frida and go full swing as it genuinely was back in the day? According to Rania Haber - the ever genial person who revived her late father's store - "I truly wanted to keep the same feel as the Instagram and the Facebook for the website. A lot of people see browsing online as some sort of dry experience, but using the same photographic feel of the social media, made the whole image of Vntg Smthg quite unified and in many ways, solidified".

Indeed, the website is welcoming and fresh. And no I will not guide you to favorite pieces, am adding them to my own collection! So, happy hunting down memory lane!

Pepsi - 1 Liter returnable

Believe it or not, at one point the 1 Liter Pepsi bottle was reserved for Sunday lunches,  birthdays and special occasions. Of course, Pepsi is now ubiquitous in any meal, but still, in a 50s ad, Pepsi was supposed to be a post-Iftar digestive drink (see here). Which brings us to - the 1 Liter Pepsi "chraba redda" (returnable glass bottle) is now back in the markets (side precision: I have not seen it anywhere but this does not negate it might be present). Does this signal a shift in consumption especially with the plastic 2,25 Liter Pepsi bottle skyrocketing in price (by the latest count it is 7500 Liras up from 2250). Is this an eco-friendly move? I am assuming such bottles are more the turf of small shops rather than large supermarkets however. Still, all of these are assumptions considering I still have to see it in shops. But hey, if Pepsi trucks have such an ad on their back, who am I to argue?

Lacoste x Polaroid, the collab we did not know we needed

Lacoste x Polaroid, the collab we did not know we needed! The campaign (you can see the film here) was shot by photographer Simon Schmitt in the French Southern city of Marseille, with plenty of natural light and in an industrial background, the campaign features teams of dancers and skaters in a dazzling stop motion jigsaw puzzle that follows their non-stop movement. Lacoste (and agency BETC) selected performers of jooking, a type of dance using jerky moves that perfectly fits the energy of the film, shot frame-by-frame (well, considering this is a collaboration with Polaroid, why not shot by shot via Polaroid camera? or better call on the queen of Polaroid, Maripol herself!).

But still, with 70s fashion raging everywhere (even flares are back in style!), Lacoste already rode the wave with a collection by Bruno Mars and his alter ego Ricky Regal (see the full retro line here), and now it is doubling down with the Polaroid collab and its logo's dreamy colors which were featured on the clothing items.

Well, I am all for retro indeed. 

Lebanon had a KFC in 1973 (which proves that the golden age never existed!)

So, apparently, we had a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) branch in Beirut in 1973.

This is news to me. Not the least because when KFC was introduced to the Lebanese market sometime in the 90s (apologies, have no exact date) they forgot to say that it was a re-introduction to the market. So, I know what you are thinking: Lebanon in the "golden age" and cosmopolitan Beirut at the height of its glory, when the country was "the Switzerland of the Middle Middle East" and "Beirut, the Paris of the orient".

OK, now chill.

I found the ad in an old Annahar issue Dated December 1rst, 1973, when Lebanon was navigating its umpteenth political crisis - if it was not a strike, it was the government falling apart, if it was not the Palestinian fidais, it was an Israeli infiltration, if it was not the president threatening to step down, it was the Prime Minister stepping down, if it was not journalists being arrested, killed or kidnapped, it was the whole convoluted Arab situation where Lebanon always had a dog (but no arms) in the fight.

As a matter of fact, that particular issue of Annahar has a "manchette" that read: "International movement to stop reignition of the fight" in an allusion about the then flammable situation between Egypt and Israel.

Which brings us back to KFC. Actually, what I was doing was researching an artistic project which had a very large "political" angle. And as usual, my findings confirmed by central theory: The was not just one Lebanon, not even a country "a deux vitesses" (on two speeds), but rather on 100 different speeds.

Ads for Christmas regalia cohabitated with political crises, news about political misadventures stood side by side with new play reviews or artists inaugurating their exhibitions at hip galleries with lovely words by the late May Menassa. Confusing? Yes. But doesn't it remind you of anything?

Well, Lebanon has always been this odd, strange, cacophony of voices which happen to live in a land smaller than the Disney World parking lot. Of course it is exhausting, tiring, trying, and exasperating. But digging through so much archive (I admit, more than the original project needed), only made me too aware of the never-ending cycle of political issues of Lebanon. Even through its so-called "golden age", which I repeat - to me never existed (case in point, all those political issues and that teetering at the edge of the abyss we always experienced).

And hey since we are on lockdown they had a day and night delivery service, all you have to do is call 319810-312513. Hmmm, make mine hot please.