The Branch is one of our favourite designs in jewellery. The London based jewellery designer Wendy Pickard, founded her company The Branch in 2003. Her unique approach to jewellery design is coupled with a working philosophy to design and create, original and contemporary jewellery combining wood and silver.

The influence behind Wendy's use of wood can be attributed largely to her repeated travels throughout Africa, where she observed many different uses of wood as jewellery in African culture. Through trial and error and a genuine love for wood as a material Wendy has learnt to harness its natural character and beauty. She has discovered that by working with the grain it is possible to accentuate the shape of each piece and enables her to create movement throughout her work. Inspiration is taken from her extensive travels throughout the world and from both architectural and natural shapes and forms that surround us in day to day life. Due to the individual nature of the grain within the wood each piece has it's own unique one of a kind feel, and through her designs Wendy manages to emphasise the natural essence of the wood and how beauty forms in the colours and shapes within the wood.



For more visit www.the-branch.co.uk

ACCESSORIZE with NiZuri collection at NiZuri Online-Store!

Deal & Wire

Deal&Wire is Kimberley Golding’s first label, launched in 2003 when she was only 20. She has already made her presence known as one of London’s hottest handbag designers and one to watch. Having collaborated with London label Pauric Sweeny and Italian house Corto Moltedo, she mastered the art of working with leather and design, inspiring her to channel her creativity and original designs into her own accessories collection- Deal&Wire.

Deal&Wire was created with women in mind; the bags can be effortlessly taken from Summer to Winter, day to night, formal to casual. All the leathers are hand-picked for quality. Unlike most handbags, the Queenie, Adelphia, Minna, James and Tybee bags are handmade from one skin, and each take around three hours to make, furthering their luxe value.

For more on Deal & Wire visit www.dealandwire.com

ACCESSORIZE with NiZuri collection at NiZuri Online-Store!

Author Adichie wins Orange Broadband Prize

One of the most prestigious literary awards in the UK nominated the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as the winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, for her novel “Half of a Yellow Sun”.

The 29 year old became the first African and the youngest ever winner of this prize. She won over a shortlist of finalists from five countries, including Kiran Desai, short-listed for her Booker Prize winner “The Inheritance of Loss”.

Adichie's novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun”, is her second novel: set during the Biafran War of the 1960s. The novel tells the story of people caught up in the unfolding political turmoil in West Africa, whose loyalties are acutely tested when troops advance on the dusty university town they inhabit. It examines ethnic allegiances, moral responsibility, class and race.

One of the judging panel and broadcaster Muriel Gray, presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the 'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine, and said: "The judges and I were hugely impressed by the power, ambition and skill of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel. It's astonishing, not just in the skillful subject matter, but in the brilliance of its accessibility. This is a moving and important book by an incredibly exciting author". The award ceremony took place at the newly-refurbished Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.

Congrat!



Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie official website: www.halfofayellowsun.com
For more information, visit www.orangeprize.co.uk

AFRICA - A Special Issue

Guest-Edited by BONO

Rock star and activist Bono guest-edited the Vanity Fair’s special Africa July issue, on behalf of his Project RED campaign, which makes him the publication’s first-ever guest editor.

Vanity Fair's special Africa issue brings to life the stories and images of a complex and enchanting continent. More than merely advocating for change, the issue also sheds light on Africa’s unique economic, beauty of the continent, African music, art and literature. The issue features unprecedented set of 20 covers to show a prominent group of people having “a conversation about Africa, a visual chain letter, spreading the message from person to person," Annie Leibovitz the photographer expressed.

"As guest editor, I want Africa to appear an adventure, not a burden, and put faces and personalities to the statistics we read elsewhere," Says Bono in a statement.

Bono launched the Project RED campaign, which has enlisted culturally relevant retailers such as Apple and the Gap to contribute their proceeds from Red merchandise to fighting disease in Africa.

View the slideshow of stars grace the cover of Vanity Fair " African Issue".

Vanity Fair will contribute $5 to the Global Fund for every online subscription purchased this month.

Watch a video of Bono and Graydon Carter talk about capturing the "adventure of Africa",Bono’s Guest Editors letter and the 20 cover shoots on,

For more on Project RED visit, www.joinred.com

(Photo Credits: Vanity Fair)

“Design4Life Ghana” Summer collection at Topshop

Ethically produced batik dresses and bags launch in April

The range is designed by the winners of project “Design4Life, Ghana”, a competition to promote ethical fashion organised and hosted by TABEISA, who offer and support young designers the opportunity to have their designs presented at the Ethical Fashion show in Paris, and sold through Topshop. This initiative was contributed by the University of Greenwich who aided with the set up. The aim of the project is to help alleviate poverty by sparking new ethical trade between the UK high street and a non-profit organization helping women co-operative in Ghana, “Global Mamas”. The women-led enterprises put the items into production, printing batik fabric and make up the garments which are now a result of the launch and sales at Topshop.

The two winning designs were created by Julia Smith (Best Global Commercial Design & Print) and Annegret Affolderbach (Best Innovative Dress Design and Print). Below are catwalk of the designs at Ethical Fashion show at Paris.

The competition continues to expand with Design4Life Africa and involves designers from South Africa, Kenya as well as Ghana and the UK. Categories will increase to include jewellery and accessories as well as batik.

The collection comprises four dresses, £40 each; two baby dresses, £16; and two bags, £18; all available from April at Topshop, Oxford Circus, London W1.

For more information, visit www.tabeisa.com, www.globalmamas.com, www.ethicalfashionform, www.design4lifeghana.com

(Photos credits: Provided Courtesy of Ethical Fashion Show)

MISS AFRICAN PRIDE- proud to be original

Rachael Williams, is in the finals to Miss England 2007


The current Miss Black Britain Rachael Williams is amongst the final beauty queens to becoming Miss England 2007. The national final of Miss England will be held on the 30th June at the Athena Leicester. All the finalists will compete for the national title. The winner will be selected as MISS ENGLAND to represent the country in the 57th Miss World final.



For more information, visit www.miss-england.co.uk and www.myspace.com/rachaelwilliams86