Wigmore Street, London

Wigmore Street is a street in the City of Westminster, in the West End of London, England. The street runs for about 600 yards parallel and to the north of Oxford Street between Portman Square to the west and Cavendish Square to the east.

The well-known Wigmore Hall concert hall is located on north side of Wigmore Street, just to the east of the junction with Welbeck Street. Harley Street and Wimpole Street, famous for their private medical practices, are nearby and have junctions with Wigmore Street. Number 95 Wigmore Street was the location of the original offices of the Beatles' Apple Corps in 1968 prior to their move to Savile Row.^[1]

The nearest tube stations are on Oxford Street to the south: Marble Arch at the west end; Bond Street in the centre and Oxford Circus at the east end.

The corner of Wimpole and Wigmore Street features in the famous legal case about causing a "nuisance" between neighbours - Sturges v. Bridgman (1879).

External links[link]

• LondonTown.com information
• ViewLondon.co.uk information

References[link]

Coordinates: 51°30′57″N 0°09′04″W / 51.51583°N 0.15111°W / 51.51583; -0.15111

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Margaret Howell (b. 5 Sept. 1946; Tadworth, Surrey, England) is a contemporary British clothes designer who has worked successfully in both men’s and women’s wear.

Howell has been a strong, if quiet, presence on the British design scene for nearly four decades. Keynote designs are her take on the shirt, gymslip, lace-up shoes, duffle coat and trench coat. Many have an androgynous quality underlined by a succession of carefully controlled photographic campaigns, these are shot on location in black and white and by sympathetic spirits such as Bruce Weber, Koto Bolofo, and Venetia Scott.

Career[link]

After graduating and having been turned down for a job in the BBC make-up department, Howell started making accessories. Her hand-made beads came to the attention of Vogue and led to a meeting with Liz Taylor, then shooting ‘Zee and Co’ in London.

The label which bears her name was launched from a kitchen table in South East London in 1972, and was an immediate, if somewhat unexpected, success. In 1972 Howell, with partner Paul Renshaw, began to design make and sell shirts from their flat in Blackheath, South East London. The business grew, encouraged by Paul Smith and leading US retailers, including Jasmin Ram. In partnership with Joseph Ettedgui,^[1] a Margaret Howell men’s shop, opened in South Molton Street in London in 1976.^[2] This was followed by the first wholly owned Margaret Howell shop in St Christopher's Place in 1980. The early 1980s were a period of expansion for the label. Jack Nicholson insisted on wearing his own Margaret Howell corduroy jacket for his role in 1980’s The Shining, prompting an order for 12 duplicates from Stanley Kubrick. 1982 saw Grace Coddington choose a Howell piece as Dress of the Year.

A New York shop opened in Manhattan in 1982 and in 1983 the first Margaret Howell standalone shop opened in Aoyama, Tokyo. This rapid expansion caused both business and personal difficulties. The couple divorced in 1987 and Renshaw left the company. It was re-organised in 1990 with the help of Sam Sugure and Richard Craig, who remains today as Managing Director.

The new management proved successful and there followed a decade of steady growth culminating in a Paris shop opening in 2009, and then the opening of the flagship Wigmore Street shop in 2002. Today Margaret Howell Ltd employs some 300 people in 80 locations.

Personal[link]

In 2006 Howell was asked to design uniforms for the staff of the Victoria & Albert Museum which are currently still in use.^[3]

In 2007 Howell was awarded a CBE for services to the fashion industry^[4] and was made a Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts.^[5]

Howell also uses Wigmore Street to champion designers and causes she admires. (Japan Hose Book) Anglepoise lamps, Robert Welch cutlery, and furniture by Ernest Race and Ercol complement the clothes, as do occasional exhibitions featuring, among others, the work of architect John Penn and the graphic art of H A Rothholz and the 1950s St Ives group of artists. Howell is a committed supporter of Open House – the charity which promotes access to notable buildings throughout the UK – and in association with them and the RIBA

She still lives in South East London and has two children: Miriam, born 1978 and Edward, 1981.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official UK website
• Official Japanese website
• Margaret Howell designer profile at Fashion Model Directory

Gin Wigmore
Background information
Birth name	Virginia Wigmore[1]
Also known as	Gin
Born	(1986-06-06) 6 June 1986 (age 26) Auckland, New Zealand
Genres	Folk rock Pop Pop rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, ukulele
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Island Records
Associated acts	Smashproof The Cardinals
Website	ginwigmore.com.au

Virginia "Gin" Wigmore (born 6 June 1986)^[2] is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. In 2009, she featured on the single "Brother" by Smashproof, which reached #1 on the RIANZ singles charts for 11 weeks.^[3] In 2009 she released her debut album Holy Smoke. On 7 November 2011, she released her second studio album Gravel and Wine.

Personal life[link]

Virginia Claire Wigmore, more commonly known as Gin Wigmore, was born in Auckland, New Zealand to Peter and Adrienne Wigmore. Wigmore has two siblings: an older brother Olly and Lucy Wigmore, a professional actress well known for starring as Justine Jones in the long running New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street and a role in "Underbelly: Razor".

While Wigmore was in Argentina at age 16, her father died of cancer. Upon her return to New Zealand, she articulated in song the pain of losing her father. One of those early songs, "Hallelujah", won the US-based International Songwriting Competition in 2004,^[4] when she beat 11,000 songwriting aspirants from 77 countries to become the youngest and only unsigned Grand Prize winner in the history of the ISC. "Hallelujah" was also featured in the season 6 finale of One Tree Hill.

“Hallelujah was my way of telling my family I had dealt with dad's passing and honestly. I didn't want to share these feelings with anyone else. I wanted the moment for myself and my family.” --- Gin Wigmore ^[5]

Career[link]

[edit] Extended Play

Extended Play was Wigmore's first EP. It was produced by Tony Buchen (Blue King Brown, The Whitlams, Macromantics, Kid Confucius) and contains the tracks "Hallelujah", "These Roses", "SOS", "Under My Skin", and "Easy Come Easy Go". Released in 2008, it has peaked at number ten in the New Zealand charts. The EP was certified Platinum in New Zealand on 2 May 2010, selling over 15,000 copies.^[6]

Extended Play was released in Australia on 2 August 2008 by Island Records. Wigmore was the first artist signed with Island Records, a partner company with Universal Music Group, Australia.^[5]

Wigmore's hit single "Under My Skin" was featured on an Air New Zealand advertising campaign, Nothing to Hide.

The EP features renowned Australian musician John Butler on ukulele on Wigmore's song "SOS".^[5]

Wigmore toured with Australian artist, Pete Murray, on his national tour in August/September 2008. Wigmore toured in 2008, including at the Cross Town Revue in Auckland, New Zealand, and in December 2008, toured with musicians John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow in New Zealand.

[edit] Holy Smoke

Recent work has seen her featured in the song and video of the new group, Smashproof, also from Auckland, New Zealand. The song, "Brother", was released in early 2009.

In 2009, Wigmore released her full length debut album, Holy Smoke, recorded with The Cardinals of Ryan Adams & the Cardinals fame.^[7] The first single from the album, "Oh My", debuted on the New Zealand Singles Chart at number twenty-one on 24 August 2009, moving to number seven the following week. It peaked at number four.

Three other singles were released during 2010, 'I Do' charted at no.14 on the Official New Zealand Singles Chart, while third single 'Hey Ho' missed out on a top 20 position by charting just outside at no.21. The fourth single taken from Holy Smoke was 'Too Late For Lovers', and despite hitting no.3 on the NZ40 Airplay chart, the single failed to crack the national Top 40.

During the week of 30 May 2010, all four of Wigmore's singles from Holy Smoke appeared on the NZ40 Airplay Chart^[8] 'Too Late For Lovers' #7, 'Oh My' #23, 'Hey Ho' #24, 'I Do' #37

The single "Oh My" is the theme track for the series The Almighty Johnsons.

Wigmore's single "Hey Ho" appeared during the closing scenes of the Weeds Season 6 Finale.

In September 2011, Home Improvement Retailer Lowe's began a new brand campaign featuring Wigmore's single "Don't Stop."^[9]

Her song "Stealing Happiness" appeared in the TV movie "Tangiwai".

[edit] Gravel & Wine

In September 2011, Wigmore revealed the title and release of her new album, Gravel & Wine on her official Facebook page.^[10] The first single from this album is slated to be "Black Sheep", and was released 26 September 2011 and peaked so far at #13, while the album's full release will be on 7 November 2011 in New Zealand, followed by later dates in other territories.^[11]

Wigmore's single "Black Sheep" appeared in episode 12, season 8 of Grey's Anatomy. Wigmore also released music videos for Man Like That & If Only

Tours[link]

• Holy Smoke Tour (2010)
• The Grave Train National Tour (2010)
• Gin Wigmore (2011)
• The Winery Tour (2012)
• Gravel and Wine Tour (2012)

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

"—" denotes releases that did not chart. 2011 Gravel and Wine. released No 7, 2011

Singles[link]

As featured artist[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Music videos[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gin Wigmore

• Gin Wigmore Official Website
• Gin Wigmore Official MySpace
• Interview with New Zealand's Sunday Star Times
• Review - The Vine
• Island Records
• RIANZ Website
• Radio NZ interview with Kim Hill
• SOS music video

A black sheep stands out from the flock

The Black Sheep, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose by William Wallace Denslow.

A black sheep (Hebridean)

In the English language, black sheep is an idiom used to describe an odd or disreputable member of a group, especially within a family. The term has typically been given negative implications, implying waywardness.^[1] It derived from the atypical and unwanted presence of other black individuals in flocks of white sheep.

In psychology, the black sheep effect refers to the tendency of group members to judge likeable ingroup members more positively and deviant ingroup member more negatively than comparable outgroup members.^[2]

Idiomatic usage[link]

The term originated from the occasional black sheep which are born into a flock of white sheep due to a genetic process of recessive traits. Black wool was considered commercially undesirable because it could not be dyed.^[1] In 18th and 19th century England, the black color of the sheep was seen as the mark of the devil.^[3] In modern usage, the expression has lost some of its negative connotations, though the term is usually given to the member of a group who has certain characteristics or lack thereof deemed undesirable by that group.^[4]

The idiom is also found in other languages, e.g., French, Serbian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Bosnian, Greek, Turkish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Romanian and Polish. The same concept is illustrated in some other languages by the phrase "white crow": for example belaya vorona (белая ворона) in Russian and kalag-e sefid (کلاغ سفید) in Persian. A variant form of black sheep, "the red sheep of the family", was used by Jessica Mitford to describe herself, a communist in a family of aristocratic fascists.^[5]

Biological origin[link]

In sheep, a white fleece is not albinism but a dominant gene that actively switches color production off, thus obscuring any other color that may be present.^{[citation needed]} As a result, a black fleece in most sheep is recessive, so if a white ram and a white ewe are each heterozygous for black, in about 25% of cases they will produce a black lamb. In fact in most white sheep breeds only a few white sheep are heterozygous for black, so black lambs are usually much rarer than this. Some breeds of sheep (such as the Hebridean, Ouessant, Black Welsh Mountain and Karakul) are normally black.

Black sheep effect (Psychology)[link]

Overview[link]

In 1988, Marques, Yzerbyt and Leyens^[2] conducted an experiment where Belgian students rated the following groups according to trait-descriptors (e.g., sociable, polite, violent, cold): unlikeable Belgian students, unlikeable North African students, likeable Belgian students, and likeable North African students. The results provided support that the favourability is the highest for likeable ingroup members and the lowest for unlikeable ingroup members, whereas the favourability of unlikeable and likeable outgroup members is between the both former ones. These extreme judgements of likeable and unlikeable (i.e., deviant) ingroup members, relatively to comparable outgroup members is called “black sheep effect”. This effect has been shown in various intergroup contexts and under a variety of conditions, and in many experiments manipulating likeability and norm deviance (e.g., Branscombe, Wann, Noel, & Coleman, 1993;^[6] Coull, Yzerbyt, Castano, Paladino, & Leemans, 2001;^[7] Khan & Lambert, 1998;^[8] Pinto, Marques, Levine, & Abrams, 2010).^[9]

Explanations[link]

A prominent explanation of the black sheep effect derives from the social identity approach (see social identity theory, Tajfel & Turner, 1979;^[10] and self-categorization theory, Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987).^[11] Group members are motivated to sustain a positive and distinctice social identity and, as a consequence, group members emphasize likeable members and evaluate them more positve than outgroup members, bolstering the positive image of their ingroup (see ingroup bias). Furthermore, the positive social identity may be threatened by group members who deviate from a relevant group norm. To protect the positive group image, ingroup members derogate ingroup deviants more harshly than deviants of an outgroup (Marques, Abrams, Páez, & Hogg, 2001).^[12] In addition, Eidelman and Biernat (2003)^[13] have shown that personal identities are also threatened through deviant ingroup members. They argue that devaluation of deviant members is an individual response of interpersonal differentiation. Khan and Lambert (1998)^[8] suggest that cognitive processes like assimilation and contrast, which may underline the effect, should be examined.

Limitations[link]