His appearance headlining the stage at UK music festival Glastonbury last year drew critical and cultural acclaim.
And the effects felt by UK rapper Stormzy’s history-making turn as the first black British artist to headline the Pyramid stage, are still being felt.
The stab-proof vest, imprinted with the Union Jack flag, which the rapper, 27, wore on stage has been announced as a finalist in the Beazley Designs of the Year prize, the winner of which will be announced by London's Design Museum next month.
The vest has been described as a “defining cultural moment” by the museum. It was designed by British street artist, Banksy, whose real identity is not known. The artist said of the vest: “[It is] capable of stopping bullets up to .45 calibre and is fully stab proof, yet not machine washable.”
After Stormzy finished his set at Glastonbury, Banksy took to Twitter to reveal: "I made a customised stab proof vest and thought – who could possibly wear this? Stormzy at Glastonbury".
Not even the rapper knew who had designed it until Banksy tweeted, leading the Heavy is the Head star to declare himself "absolutely speechless."
Art, shoes and burgers all up for awards
"This year's exhibition explores key moments in design from January 2019 to the moment global attention shifted in late January 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold — the selected projects respond to urgent questions of inequality and censorship, health and sanitisation, and the ongoing possibilities of design and technology," the director of London's Design Museum, Tim Marlow, told the Evening Standard.
There are 74 design works in contention for awards across six categories – architecture, digital, fashion, graphics, product and transport.
There will be a winner in each individual category, as well as an overall winner who will be announced on Thursday, November 26.
The technology used to de-age Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Martin Scorsese's Netflix movie, The Irishman is one of the works being considered, along with the Parks family house from the Oscar-winning South Korean film, Parasite, which was built from a sketch drawn by the director, Bong Joon-ho.
Also in contention is the vegan Impossible Burger 2.0; The Renegade, a dance choreographed by the then 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon, which went viral on TikTok; Nike's Vaporfly running shoe, which was worn by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge when he became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019; a self-sanitising door handle, and a school which can be quickly put up and dismantled in response to forced evictions of farming communities in India.
The exhibition opens at the Design Museum in London on Wednesday, October 21 and runs until March 28, 2021.
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Astroworld
Travis Scott
Grand Hustle/Epic/Cactus Jack
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
- Steve Baker
- Peter Bone
- Ben Bradley
- Andrew Bridgen
- Maria Caulfield
- Simon Clarke
- Philip Davies
- Nadine Dorries
- James Duddridge
- Mark Francois
- Chris Green
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Anne-Marie Morris
- Sheryll Murray
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Laurence Robertson
- Lee Rowley
- Henry Smith
- Martin Vickers
- John Whittingdale
Paris Can Wait
Dir: Eleanor Coppola
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard
Two stars
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
