_I don’t even know how to go about writing this, but I feel I have to do it immediately or I won’t be able to.

I just received notice that my dear friend Claire, owner of hands down the best independent book shop in London ‘Claire De Rouen Books’ has passed away. for those close to her we have known she has been sick for a while now, but it still comes as a shock. The 5′ nothing french fireball has been inspiring me personally since moving to London when I was 18, with her tiny, packed to the rafters store tucked away above a Soho sex shop, I used to go to paw over super rare Slimane or Weber publications or simply to get the latest issues of my favourite fashion publications. Up until that moment she was just the lovely lady who owned my favourite book store who always complimented my ridiculously pilled high hair styles. Then a few years ago, on a rainy afternoon I called in as port from the storm, Claire was alone in store, with her beautiful urderbite wielding dog pug Otis curled at her feet, we started chatting, about books, life, hair (obviously), clothes, photography, her upbringing, my upbringing, and the rest as they say is history. Since then I feel lucky enough to have been able to call Claire a dear friend, cemented a few seasons ago when we at the studio started to curate her shop windows (Limited poster print one of our first seen above). The last conversation we had, the middle of last week, Claire said to be that when she spoke to me, she was always reminded of something Bruce Weber once said to her “”there can be no creativity without love, whether that be another person, an animal, an object or simply what you, you must always love”. Well, today, Claire leaves us, but to be honest, she’ll never leave us, there will be a little bit of her love and passion sat in all of our bookcases, everytime we pull a certain publication/book or fanzine out, she’ll be there, her choice, her passion, her love.

You will be solely solely missed Claire,
an incredible person, an incredible inspiration, thank you for everything.
All my love,

Rob xxx

ps. I promise to blog again soon, and not on such sad terms.

_We are VERY pleased to announce, that our forth coming issue of Clash magazine (the AW10 Fashion Special) will be exclusively previewed by IDEA books in Dover Street Market on Saturday September 10th 2010.

Stay tuned for more updates and special collabs in upcoming weeks.

RBPMstudio x Clash x IDEA x DSM
10/09/11
Comme Des Garcons,
17-18 Dover Street,
London,
W1S 4LT

_Yep, our 8th issue hit stands this Friday just gone, here are a few of the spreads from the latest issue, featuring contributions from Neil Bedford, Chrisitian Oita, Pelle Crepin, Samual John Butt and a plethora of other amazing photographers and stylists.

So, next up, our ‘Fashion Special’ stay tuned for updates over the forthcoming weeks…

_We’re having a bit of a ‘Denim moment’ here in the studio tnight, and fighting between our love for classic Levis ad’s against the stunning Jean Paul Goude Lee Cooper ads. But for us, the eternal winner will be this, banned set of 90′s CK jeans adverts – Directed by Steven Meisel and Glenn O’brien, in our opinion they are ‘Cinematic Short’ Genius.

“You look Strong, do you think you could rip that shirt of your back?”

_As part of the promo for this months issue of Clash magazine, the studio commissioned photographer Christian Oita to make a video of the shoot he executed with in house Fashion Director Matthew Josephs. The Shoot and video feature Sebastian Sauvé as the feature’s lead. Ready to wreak havoc, Sebastian is joined by Jake Cooper, Frankie Wade, Raymond Parkinson and Taii Gordon for a brilliantly chatoic mix of brands, color, prints and proportions.

Good job Boiz, we’re all very proud.

_Not content with being the largest stockist of Céline in LDN, DSM last week opened their new site specific ‘Céline space’ packed with not only the stunning new seasons collection but also a perfectly executed ‘Céline lifestyle space’ from railing to display cabinets, seating to hangers – we could pretty much move into this space and never leave.

Studio friend and regular photographer Holly Hay was commissioned by Another.com to photograph the stunning new space, and we think her elegant photography couldnt be better suited to that ever desirable ‘Céline lifestyle’

_a close friend of the studio NYC based artist Josh Gurrie is currently showing ‘Anything but Art’ – an amazing show at the ‘Perimeter’ Gallery in Australia. For those of you who cant make the show, see above, ‘Perimeters’, or Josh’s websites.

The work of New York-based artist Josh Gurrie represents an unlikely amalgam of sorts. Drawn, rendered, ripped and torn with a kind of unhinged autonomy – though composed and arranged with a designerly clarity of mind – his ink, spray and collage vistas veer between a tangle of references and histories, motifs and disciplinary counterpoints.

Amid his new body of work, alien cellular forms collide with archaic tribal markings; otherworldly visages levitate, mist-like, among serrated, abstract collages; flashes of idyllic landscape coalesce with futurist, Tetris-esque beings and gloopy anatomical tracts. Notions of containment and release echo and repeat here. Signifiers and traces activate the figurative mind, only to lead to deep, dark, bat caves of unknowing.

_Lucian Freud, OM, who died on July 20 aged 88, was a towering and uncompromising figure in the art world for more than 50 years and the most celebrated British figurative painter of the late 20th century.

Freud was thought of primarily as a painter of portraits, but though his subjects were often well-known people, he was no society portraitist in the manner of Sargent or Boldini. His purpose was not to flatter, and the starkness of his images, many of them highly detailed nudes, have few precedents in the art of the human form. In recent years his paintings commanded staggering prices at auction, including one of an overweight nude woman sleeping on a couch that sold in 2008 for £17.2million.

Freud stubbornly refused to follow the trends of that world, insisting on using his realist approach even when it was out of favour with critics and collectors. He developed his own unique style, eventually winning recognition as one of the world’s greatest painters.

_This past week we were on a ‘World of Interiors’ house scouting mission, now we cant show too much of where we were, or what we were doing, but we can share this… the INcredible live/work space of British artist John Keane. The space is just of London’s City road, and to say we had ‘space envy’ would be a massive understatement. Oh, and check out the strange parallels between Keane’s art work and the last Clash New Order ‘Pixel’ cover.

_This past week we had the pleasure of shooting with London native Josh Mclellan (Select Models). Josh, who was an absolute pleasure to shoot with, was scouted a few years back, by (ironically) Alasdair Mclellan, and the rest as they say is history. He is also the drummer in the Rad band ‘Turbogiest’, watch out for Josh, and his band mates, in upcoming issues of Clash magazine.