Chanel, The Queen of Chocolate & Glamcycling

Aim: To continue to write, publish and broadcast independent arts and culture magazine journalism during Covid & achieve financial sustainability

One of my first Ethical Hedonist shows - An organic afternoon tea and slow fashion show at Ventnor Botanic Garden.

News Update - The show has moved to January 28th January at 7.30 pm to 9 pm.  to give us more time to create the best culture show yet! Each talented trailblazer in our show needs your support to come through Covid and keep their business going and shine! Come to our show to support independent journalism, a chocolate revolutionary, author and talented couturier.

When you pledge to attend the show, we receive a notification and you will be sent a unique link to join the show at 7.15 pm for a 7.30 pm lift-off. I look forward to meeting you all and presenting a wonderful show to inspire you through the power of storytelling, journalism and the creative imagination.

I'm Alison Jane Reid, the founder and editor of the online arts and culture magazine - www.ethical-hedonist.com I have more than two decades experience as a feature writer on national newspapers and colour supplements ranging from The Times to Country Life, You and The Independent.  As a result of Covid-19, we lost 100% of our magazine income from sponsored advertising partnerships and other opportunities from March 2020 onwards. 

Artisan, organic chocolate Easter Eggs Created by Chantal Coady OBE, for the Chocolate Detective.

The Art of Good Conversation and the Chat Show

We are now broadcasting and writing our way out of severe financial hardship with our culture show, magazine subscriptions and thought-provoking film, drama food fashion and wellbeing interviews, reviews and features. We craft quality independent magazine journalism that needs to be sustained, supported and championed by its readers, the talented people we write about and the organic and biodynamic community of farmers and circular companies acting as vital custodians of our earth and its people, not by faceless food or internet corporations. Together, we can achieve anything through the power of storytelling.

It has been my dream as a journalist to launch a culture show. Finally, the pandemic gave me the impetus to just do it.

Our authentic culture show, championing film, drama, organic fine food and slow fashion is taking off.  Come to our next evening with a Coco Chanel and rare and exquisite chocolate theme with organic and artisan chocolate trailblazer Chantal Coady OBE.  Chantal and I will talk about her life in chocolate, her work with the Granada chocolate farmers and how she creates collections in chocolate inspired by art, fashion and English Eccentric whimsy. I will also be examining the idea of glamcycling - the art of making something new and even more covetable and precious from something old, vintage or discarded.

Happy Birthday, Madame Coco Chanel! To mark the 50th Anniversary of the passing of Gabrielle Coco Chanel this month, our next virtual Ethical Hedonist Magazine culture show on Thursday, January the 28 th between 7.30 pm and 9 pm is inspired by the revolutionary and unconventional life of Coco Chanel. Readers, I invite you to put on your most alluring, soignee evening wear and join us.  Chanel was a comet for women in fashion and in business -  from liberating women from the corset  - to creating a perfume empire and making the LBD an eternal icon of style.

Coco Chanel was a force of nature. A young woman who rose from the poor house and convent orphanage to be the consort of princes and dukes and to liberate the fashionable woman to move, to express herself and wear fashion her way, not the way society tried to dictate. Her influence is everywhere from the power of monochrome to the darling, box tweet suit to the power handbag, luxurious boyfriend sweater and wide-legged trousers - it is all eternally Chanel.

I will be discussing Chanel's influence and legacy with Caroline Young, the author of a new book Chanel at Home. This new work examines how Chanel's early life in a convent and her subsequent entree and acceptance into the rarefied world of the European and British aristocracy inspired a style revolution. It was this entree into the high society that exposed Gabrielle to the trappings of wealth, travel and privilege, providing fertile inspiration for her iconic and timeless fashion designs. 

During my time writing for the London Times, I interviewed Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's brilliant, polymath successor, in his favourite pavement cafe, close to his Paris studio and I wrote and directed some unforgettable cover stories on his Chanel muses including Anna Mouglalis. What I remember most is that Karl possessed a genius for keeping the spirit of Chanel alive with constant reinvention from humble denim given a couture makeover to the never-ending upcycling and reinvention of Chanel's original ideas for the modern liberated woman.

We will be joined by the Queen of Chocolate, Chantal Coady, the punk chocolate revolutionary. Chantal founded Rococo Chocolate straight out of Camberwell School of Arts in the eighties to create alluring flights of fantasy in artisan chocolate on the Kings Road in Chelsea. At the time Chantal was inspired by British whimsy and European chocolate traditions and her earliest memories of the spice markets in Iran, where her father worked as a doctor.

Chantal was one of the first English chocolatiers to introduce organic botanic bars of chocolate flavoured with rose, violet, lavender and later zingy sea salt. Chantal has recently collaborated on fair bean to bar artisan bars with Fortnum and Mason and she creates curious and delicious flavours of artisan organic chocolate with cacao sent by slow boat from Granada, in partnership with the organic cocoa farmers.

Glamcycled Dress by Design Blender Atelier, Picture Eeva Rinne.

My third interview of the evening will be with glamcycling couturier, Alexa at Design Blender Atelier. Alexa has gained valuable experience in the artisan craft of fashion at Giambattista Valli, Erdem and Liberty London. She cites Coco Chanel as a pervading influence on her exquisite, reinvented fashion works of art, handcrafted from vintage and preloved garments, laces, silks, ribbons and pearls.

The evening will draw to a close with a Q and A and two exclusive giveaways including a year's subscription to the Clementine wellbeing App, worth over £100 and a copy of Caroline Young's Book  - At Home with Chanel, Priced at £22.

The Magic of Monochrome - A blouse inspired by the work of Chanel by Design Blender Atelier. Picture Eeva Rinne.

Purchase your ticket now and support arts and culture magazine journalism. AJ also mentors university and pre-university students wishing to take up a career in journalism, film, media and photo-journalism providing paid opportunities and invaluable practical work experience and placements.