I came across these amazing photos today:

After a little digging I found these are from a book called Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester. These are members of the Surma and Mursi tribes who live in the Omo Valley on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Fifteen tribes, including the Hamer and Kurma tribes, live in this area but I’m unsure if they all partake in this ornamentation. The decorations seem to serve no ritualistic purpose and are purely for enjoyment.

It’s wonderful to see such spontaneous, natural (in all senses - apparently the designs are painted freeform, with no sign of pre-planning) and elegent designs. It’s kind of unifying to know that these tribes people have the same concerns about accessories as I do! Although I don’t think I could wear theirs - my hayfever redden eyes would probably spoil the look somewhat.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not the only person whose eye Mr Silvester’s images caught as the book has also been mentioned by the Mail and the Telegraph last week, worth a look as they have more of the pictures too.

LG are one of the supporters of London Fashion Week and a few days ago we held an exclusive show down at the Natural History Museum to show off our latest LCD and Plasma televisions for 2008. With some of the top fashion, style and tech press there, George (one of our TV experts) talked them through what we have for 2008.

Following on from the success of the Design Art televisions of 2007, our new TVs are all about style and design excellence. Our LG50 series of LCD television combines an invisible speakers with no visible grille to detract from your viewing. They’re full HD, at 1080p, and feature cool stuff like the Intelligent Sensor (which adjust the brightness according to the ambient light levels) and a USB connection which allows the TV to play JPEG or MP3 content from external devices.

The LG60 series (which you can see George demonstrating above) is ultra-slim - we’ve moved the electronics and other gubbins from behind the screen to underneath it to make it thinner. It also has a red coloured back to add warmth to the television’s surroundings, and our 120MHz TruMotion technology with its improved response time and smoother motion display, as well as four HDMI ports for all you technology addicts. It also has a unique circular aperture at the base, which is used to turn the screen on and off by touch alone, with no moving parts.

On the Plasma front, George showed off the PG60 and PG70 series, which are totally flat all the way across with no raised bezel (so the television mimics a single sheet of glass), which looks gorgeous and sleek. Like their LCD counterpart the speakers are invisible

Everyone I saw who gave the TVs a look-over was appreciative if not impressed with the features and clarity of the screens, and you’ll be able to judge for yourself when they hit the shops later this year. If you want to find out more, then check out the official press releases for the LCD and Plasma lines on the LG website.

It’s tempting to be cynical about brands setting up shop in virtual worlds as they often miss the point of places like Second Life. It’s interesting to see however if brands such as Armani can use virtual worlds in an inventive and understanding way to get their message across without seeming opportunistic. After all they tend to have huge budgets which means the potential the produce a lot of excellent work.

For me the key to the success of Armani’s venture into the virtual world is the clothes themselves. If Armani wants to get people to buy clothes in the real world then the virtual items must also match the quality of their real counterparts. You’re not likely to head to the online Armani shop if what you see in the virtual world doesn’t at least compete with the best virtual clothing available.

Unfortunately Armani seems to have forgotten this. Initially finding any clothes in the store is a bit of a task - the layout is exactly the same as the flagship Milan store and it doesn’t translate well into the virtual world. When you do come across the clothes their design is far from inspiring. The limited items for sale are in a separate area of the shop and initial reaction to them has been poor. With plain, boring and badly designed clothes the shop has lead people to comment that more attention has been paid to the taps in the bathroom than the clothes themselves.

This is a shame. You feel if Armani had spent more time understanding the differences between the virtual and real worlds and not just attempted to plonk a real store in Second Life this would have been a lot more successful.