Another Saturday, another working lunch in Notting Hill trying to make sense of all the things around us and what they mean for Turnleft. This one took me to posh E&O for a drink or two with Johannes, Turnleft’s creative consultant and all-time muse. After checking preserve and latkes recipes at Books for Cooks next door, we walked on Portobello and passed the flyover for a quick look at Les Couilles du Chien - the area’s favourite antiques shop – and then Rellik – the godmother of all vintage shops. It was very inspiring as usual and we agreed that the cosy world of travel publishing is in need of a new magazine that can relegate Conde Nast Traveller to history… What came to mind as sources of inspiration were Alain de Botton’s A week at the airport and Iain Sinclair’s Hackney. If I remember well, Johannes threw words like semiotics and psychogeography [Later that day I checked the travel writing section at Foyles and Waterstone's only to realise that it is indeed populated with stories of middle-aged men in the South of France and public schoolboys gonzoing their way through Africa/India/Tibet].

Apart from his imminent flight to Helsinki, Johannes also mentioned some ongoing trend forecasting work with a Hong Kong-based clothes manufacturer and it hit me that we should launch a clothes line for the World Cup, something fresh and different that would target football widows (TM thank you – I coined it) and those that feel alienated by football culture but that will still revel during the Cup. In a bout of naughties nostalgia the closest thing that came to mind was my old fcuk football tee-shirt and how daring it felt at the time.

For some reason we then talked about Mademoiselle Agnes, Paris’ eponymous fashion observer. I am not her biggest fan but Johannes – whose brains are permanently in overdrive – dared suggest that her style is the embodiment of Dada philosophy applied to the fickle world of fashion. I’m still pondering.

From there our discussion could only lead to how overrated most fashion bloggers are, and how ephemeral their influence will be in the realm of fashion, even if a few of them made it to the front row. Instead we analysed a range of new magazines, including Candy – the first transversal style magazine dedicated to transvestism, transexuality, cross-dressing and androgyny by the fabulous Luis Venegas, of Fanzine 137 and Electric Youth fame. With Bruce Weber and Terry Richardson as contributors, we gathered that magazine publishing isn’t on its last legs.

And that was it, another Turnleft brainstorm in the shadow of Trellick Tower!

E&O 14 Blenheim Crescent - Books for Cooks 4 Blenheim Crescent – Rellik 8 Golborne Road - Les Couilles du Chien 65 Golborne Road

Travel and fashion editorials remind me of the most recent fiasco in the airline industry and of the Ratner moment enjoyed by Easyjet, clearly not the world’s favourite airline this winter (and not mine at any rate). Scandal came in the form of a fashion shoot in the middle of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, qui plus est featuring what can only be described as scarily emaciated models (women’s) and a Nazi officer lookalike (men’s). Now, I’ve had stupid ideas in my days but the only word that came to my mind when I was shown the feature was WTF (the other word is Schadenfreude). As much as I like a daring photo shoot, this wasn’t their brightest moment!

(needless to say you won’t find a copy in front of your seat – they’ve been recalled).

I suppose that the flipside of trying too hard  is to not try hard at all. And so off I was a few weeks ago for the launch of Kisses From Paris, a film sponsored by the French tourist office aimed at showing a new side of Paris and at creating a “viral buzz” on the Internet. Thanks for the champagne and the petits fours but Le Nouveau Paris? I don’t think so. Uber-Parisian film director Yvan Attal – who has bored us rigid with Parisian cliches for the best part of this decade (Ma Femme est une Artiste anyone) – delivered the most annoyingly Parisian film ever while trying to tell us that Paris is not what we think it is. Well is it, Yvan? Because judging by this dull Doisneau a la Youtube, it does look like Le Same Old Paris to me. And if I may say so, I wasn’t necessarily expecting burning cars in the Montfermeil banlieue but this is as white as a Ku Klux Klan recruiting advert. Now there’s a broader point that needs to be made about city branding: do tourist offices really know how to showcase a city as vibrant as creative? And doesn’t it happen at a more grassroots level? I let you judge… Try not to fall asleep!

I realise that I haven’t blogged for ages, having been too busy enjoying the London high life (and the low life I must admit), moving flats and working on the relaunch of our new website – it will look fantastic. Still I managed to spend last Saturday drinking white wine in the company of the fabulous Aaron Hales, editor-in-chief of The Montebury, slagging off big fashion names, comparing freebie moisturisers (Aaron survived the scars of chickenpox with Creme de la Mer) and switching nonchalantly between English and French as we compared our publishing experiences. I picked a few tips from Aaron and I am now the proud thrower of little French putdowns in the middle of all conversations: “Il m’enerve Lagerfeld”, “quelle connasse”, etc. Thanks.

Our discussion is definitely worthy of a blog. On many accounts. The first one is that I love The Montebury (formerly known as GCulture), an online men’s luxury fashion magazine. In fact it is the only online fashion magazine that I read and I love how each edition is produced and laid out individually, like a luxury print publication should be. In contrast Wordpress seems like battery publishing. The Montebury being so fashion focused, we decided that it was time to join forces, starting with a Turnleft contribution to be featured in their new Ephemere section.

Aaron’s contention is that now is the right time to shift to a premium model and to charge readers for access. I couldn’t agree more for The Montebury, which is a periodical, and it is tempting to apply the same reasoning to Turnleft – after all most readers are prepared to fork out £4.95 for a Wallpaper* city guide (and £13.99, ouch, for a Time Out guide written 2 years ago) – yet I’m still very keen to keep things free, a legacy of my long-time addiction to Vice (now fully rehabed). And it would be odd to charge online on our new website while continuing to distribute for free when we print guides on this ridiculously expensive Swedish paper… So I’m not sure what to write and I guess that Turnleft will evolve as a freemium publication, with a commitment to free distribution where/when allowed by willing sponsors and various fee paying services such as iphone apps or limited edition posters. Send me your thoughts. And subscribe to The Montebury…