Four years, three painstakingly-detailed sets, 28 sassy characters, a head-shaking 10,000 photos later and Terpins Greco, the 40-member Brazilian team responsible for producing Battle: The Vinyl War, is finally seeing the juicy fruits of their labor. This month and next their stop-motion animation will be shown on Brazil's Cartoon Network channel in a four-part weekly series.

The shorts, which clock in at a brief five minutes each, follow the story of a vinyl shakedown between two DJs set in the favelas of São Paulo. Though all fictional, it's the classic story of the established versus the newcomer. DJ Black Jahmantha, a man who needs no introduction, faces DJ Air, a new up-and-comer, while DJ Thiade oversees the battle. Staying true to real life scenes found in Brazilian street and hip-hop culture, famous underground hip-hop DJs King and Cia were recruited to be the voices and music behind the main characters and Thiade got to cameo as himself.

The successive shorts, which began last Friday, 21 September 2007, will air over the next few Fridays at midnight on the Brazilian cable network. The rest of us will have to wait for their plans to expand the broadcast to all of Latin America and eventually land in the U.S. at a future undetermined date. For now, check out the trailer here.

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Fashion week jumped over the pond to London last week and our friends at Refinery 29 were there to catch the action. Many of our favorite pioneers didn't disappoint, but we chose to highlight a few designers that we thought were in especially top form.

England's own Nathan Jenden, who's had years of experience with Galliano and Von Furstenburg, followed up last year's success with another great line presenting an eye-grabbing collection of cheeky, superb creations for spring/summer '08. While most of this ready-to-wear line was far more watchable than wearable (as any good London collection should be) the artistry of his simple pieces were his strength. The narrow black dress with oversized white cuffs, large and broad skirts, white bustle dresses and oversized bows were undeniable (pictured above).

A man with momentum, Jonathan Saunders always does best when his body-hugging, no-nonsense designs stay that way-trim, taught, and without fanfare. More toward straight style than experimentation he displays an uncanny knack for mature, cosmopolitan chic and the best pieces in this taupe, black, and white collection stayed in that urbane minimalist framework. Thanks to a modicum of layering and silhouettes that generally hugged every curve, allusions to hip streetwear were outnumbered by those toward tennis dresses-though these are not pieces designed for doing anything other than looking your best.

Other notable collections include Richard Nicoll's gauzy dresses and 24-year-old Christopher Kane's balance of high and low fashion pieces.

Continue reading here.

by Gabriel Bell

Phaidon's latest behemoth, 30,000 Years of Art, will have you re-think everything you thought you knew about the world of Art. Spaning the entire history of art, the must-have coffee table book delivers a stunning collection of work from the first examples of human creativity to the future of art in the 21st century.

More than 1,000 masterpieces from the greatest artisans of all time are included on the full color photo pages. Text from 35 of the world's most renowned art experts allows the reader to trace the origins of each piece of art and compare and contrast it to art from differing eras.

Beautifully produced and immaculately presented, 30,000 Years of Art is an essential read for art admirers and art historians alike.

More images—a cloisonné jar, an Altamira Upper Paleolithic bison painting and a Hokusai—after the jump.