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Daily Candy Feed - Design Observer
- Hallowed Ground, Worldly City: Ground Zero and the Struggle for Lower Manhattan
- Hell Under Wheels
- Climate Change Chocolate Update
- James Victore: Straight Up
- Death to Design Awards
- Lunch with the Critics: Park51 & 15 Penn
- SELCO: Product Design Philosophy
- SELCO: Founder Harish Hande on SELCO's Future
- Dogs and Their Designers
- The Insignificance of a Logo (Even When Significant)
Apr
28
Park, life
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Maintaining a blog is a lot of work. Being consistent is vital. Being relevant is even better.
Although I noticed my writing develop, and my ideas take shape, for the time being there is too much on my plate to be consistent and relevant.
I’m determined to keep on with my writing. It’s the posting I can’t guarantee.
So for now, I’m making my exit, with the intention to return occasionally. Hopefully, remaining relevant; with luck, insightful.
Cue the music.
IMAGE | Blur| To the End | 1994
Mar
23
Action Causes more Trouble than Thought
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Jenny Holzer twitters! Can you believe it? Now if only Twitter had an option where you can manipulate the feed font to look and act like an LED! It would be Jenny Holzer’s longest–ongoing–exhibition to date!
IMAGE | Luis Colan | Jenny Holzer, 2008, 7 curved double sided LED signs. Cheim & Read, NYC | from flickr.com | 28 March 2008
Feb
27
Read ’Em and Weep
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Insanely amazing show, Between the Covers, Women’s Magazines and their Readers, at The Women’s Library,
Ack! Who wants to go? I’ve never been to the
Feb
13
Happy Valentino Day
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A Valentino Day haiku for you:
Sweating between sheets,
Extreme bliss lost in pleats, I
Achieve fashion feats.
Hands trace a body’s
curves; My fervent desire
Arouses lost verve.
Soft skin seduces,
And fashion induces; I
Father the world, chic.
OK, so I’m not going to be a poet anytime soon. You can still have a Happy Valentino Day regardless! Oh. And if you feel the need to send a little Valentino my way, I’m not going to stop you. (Don’t let anyone else either!) xo
IMAGE | Greg Kadel | Hand Maiden’s Tale, Once upon a time, women were fickle. Sometimes they were girlish. Sometimes they were boyish. Sometimes they were half and half… | Valentino Plissé tulle diamond embroidered gown, $85,000, to order at Valentino stores | Mokuba ribbon (worn as belt) | The New York Times Magazine | 25 February 2007
Jan
26
The Toms to do Something is Now
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Toms Shoes designs stylish footwear with a charitable mandate. With each purchase of Toms shoes, a pair of shoes is donated to a child in a developing country. So far Toms has given tens of thousands of shoes to children in
The shoes are flat-soled, textured Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)–a polymer used for shock absorption in shoe construction. (EVA is present as Croslite, in the foam quality of Crocs.) The insoles are lined with leather; canvas, suede, or corduroy coverings.
Booties and boots are also available. Select types are vegan-friendly. A variety of colours, prints, and custom styles appeal to many tastes.
Toms shoes are available to order online and for purchase at various outlets internationally. Prices range from $42 for a classic slip-on to $98 for a knee-high boot. Perhaps a bit steep for a shoe with no structural arch support and just a canvas covering, but what do you think Converse are? Consider a Tom’s purchase as buying two pairs of shoes at once.
Thousands of people do. Certain sizes and styles are already sold out online. Heartbroken fashionistas will have to find comfort in Tom’s perseverance in getting their message across, and of course, their shoes on children’s feet.
Dec
31
Remember Love: Raise the Roof!
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Happy New Year!
Wishing everyone a loving, healthy, bright, fulfilling 2009–
Tenderness, care, and the space to live fully, open, honest, and safe.
Remember: It’s never too late to raise the roof!
(What relationsham?!)
xoxoxo
IMAGE | ANS | No Time 4 Love | 2008 | Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop
Oct
22
Promsises, Promsises
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The BBC Electric Proms starts today. In its third year, the Proms is a music festival “dedicated to creating new moments in music.” (What does that mean exactly?)
The Prom runs for five days and features musicians such as, Keane, Goldfrapp, The Streets, Chaka Kahn and Burt Bacharach. (Who can forget Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello in Painted from Memory?!)
Other performers completely foreign to me include Bashy, XX Teens, and Rolo Tomassi–the fictional name given by Detective ‘Ed’ Exley–played by Guy Pearce in the movie LA Confidential–for his father’s, unknown, murderer. (Great. Just what the masses were awaiting. Another group with a name bolstering hipster highbrowness. Without question.)
Regardless. If the music is as good as the clever-gimmicky names of some of the newer voices, then this Festival just may be more than promises, promises. Attendees, please comment!
Oct
17
Fashionably Slate
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Taschen’s Fashion Now 2 is pages and pages of designer interviews and fashion photography. Full colour and written in three languages: English, French and German. Insanely affordable! A must!
My small criticisms of the book? The text is impossibly small. (See above regarding three languages.) My young eyes may help me now, but later, I may have to hunt for the “large print edition.”
Also, the tome is missing a few names I would have liked to see included–Heatherette, Isabel Toledo–at one point for Anne Klein, doo-Ri, and others. However, the 160 international profiles that are featured is a definite opportunity to learn about many designers I know nothing about.
i-D is responsible for the book’s select designer overview. Entirely different than the 20th Century Fashion: 100 Years of Style by Decade and Designer, in Association with Vogue. Although both books are good, i-D’s take on fashion is brave, unpredictable, discerning without being judgmental. Vogue’s view is in keeping with their mag: a bit high brow, a bit conservative, and maybe more classic than cutting-edge. (Oof! I know a lot of people are going to hate me for that comment!)
Fashion Now 2 has officially become my bedtime reading book, but my all-time reference. I can’t help it. The couturiosity is killing me!
Oct
9
Primal Scene
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Art, adult content, and beer. What more can anyone want? (I encourage comments.) But, keep it clean people!
Tonight only, Keep 6 Contemporary celebrates the opening of their latest exhibit, Explicit Fantastic: sex(y) in contemporary culture.
The show has sex and sexuality-based works in the visual arts, film, and literature. Artists included are from around the world. Shary Boyle, TILT, and Tomori Nagamoto to name a few.
A screening and reading series runs concurrently with the show, which is up from 9 October 2008 to 30 November 2008, at Keep 6. Exhibiting artists’ merch will be for sale. A catalogue of the works should be available too.
Look for my small contribution to sociology and art theory at the show. (Here’s a clue for you. You’ll likely find me “in between the lines.” That’s all I’m saying for now. Good luck!)
Sep
25
Stella’ sale at LeSportsac!
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The Stella McCartney Spring 2008 Collection for LeSportsac is on sale! Pretty ridic! What’s more ridic is that the line didn’t sell, or really, sell out. (Think Gwen Stefani’s limited edition 2004 L.A.M.B. collection.) I figure it must be the colour combos and print Sir Paul’s daughter chose to do the line in, since Her fall collection is a huge departure from her spring works–all solids, in tame fall-fashion colours–purple (“silence”), black (“night”) and greige (“bark”).
Stella is however still adding a charm to all her bags and carryalls. The spring bunny is now being replaced with a fall deer. (Very Alison Goldfrapp.) And for those who want to hop on the animal bandwagon (I couldn’t help it!) the old bunny backpack is a new deer rucksack–screenprinted perhaps to look less Donnie Darko (Stella’s bunny bag missing facial details; entirely creepy) and maybe more Robert Bateman (all details, illustrated as an artist’s working sketch).
Despite the real-life rendering, I still can’t imagine how the deer rucksack will work. Not even on the runway. Not even on the oilily runway. Am I not haute couture enough? Tell me! I want my idea of the world of fashion to grow. I’m just not sure if I want it to grow into a deer rucksack.
Well, there is definitely one sure way to find out. The next LeSportsac stella’ sale! Take tote! (I’ll stop that now.)