// Fade to #C5C5C5

Jaguar Shoes & Dream Bags

People in East London know this bar very well, but for those who are not in East London, this bar is a great place to meet up with people for beers, cocktails and brilliant true Italian pizzas. They do sometimes change their art-displays from time to time and recently it’s this psychedelic print. The wallpaper looks insane while you get different images when you filter out other layers by using the different colour filters hanging at the side walls. So go wild and get drunk!!

Tags: East London

I am A Robot

JJ. Weekend Market in Bangkok is a great place to visit. It’s in the north of Bangkok and close to ‘Mo Chit Station’ on Skytrain line system. Here you could not only spot all cheap fake branded goods, but also a great deal of Thai traditional decorations…apart from all those, there’re also a big handful of local designers displaying their original creativity. ‘Robot’ is just one of those creative kids.

All robots are hand-made wood, hand painted with those amusing expressions…

They’re often attached with mini airplanes or googlee eyes or flowers…

…ranges are from table lamps to key rings to hanging necklace… prices are varied from 50 baht for a key ring, or 80 baht for a necklace…

‘Robot’ is located at JJ Weekend Market, SECTION 23 SOI 32/3, ADDRESS NO.128

Here’re the 2 brain children behind all…contact them via email: pusaned@hotmail.com

Vogue Paris & Mr. Sexy American

I learnt the news of Tom Ford guest editing Vogue Paris December from actually a streetwear website. Anyway, the news was great and when I got the issue, I have to admit, you can put the french spirit inside a stylish man, but you can never take his American heart away. Here’s a series of editorial.

All started very passionate and quite french…

….until it gets a bit ‘too passionate’…which is Ford’s american heart starting to show….

….then…become more sexual…this is equally frenchee and americanee

Returns to the Parisian way….

Have to say this is a series of very powerful shots. I like the concept behind it….2 old people….crazy in love….could we all still hold our passion still to that level when we are old???

Tags: Tom Ford, Vogue Paris

Fashionology: Gruau – Dior Illustrated Exhibition

In the first page of the booklet it says a quote by John Galliano – ‘To be inspired by Dior is to be inspired by Rene Gruau. His sketches capture the silhouette and spirit of Dior and a new era of fashion and femininity. His illustrations are timeless, ever youthful, ever faithful to the moment he saw; they capture the energy, the sophistication and daring of Dior, and equally are a token of an enduring friendship.’

It really is like…Gruau’s illustration could speak to you…

Flower Woman – below

Christian Dior’s love of flowers inspired him to create the New Look in 1947. Drawn to their architectural symmetry, their colours and scent, he aimed to transpose these qualities on to the clothes he designed: ‘I was drawing flower women, soft, sloping shoulders, generous busts, a slim waist and wide skirts like flower petals.’ Rene Gruau understood and shared Dior’s passion for flowers, and when Dior asked him to create drawings for his perfume Diorissimo in 1956, Gruau initially presented the young woman in the nude. Although Dior was impressed by the boldness of the illustrator’s vision, he eventually asked Gruau to dress her in an elegant black sheath dress.

Diorissimo, 1956, below

was designed around the notes of Dior’s favourite flower, lily of the valley. As lily of the valley’s essence cannot be extracted, the perfume uses a blend of other flowers to recreate its scent. To reflect this, Gruau illustrated a mixed bouquet to evoke the spirit of the fragrance.

Miss Dior was originally a line of bath products. And to assemble that theme, Gruau has created some illustration with girl whistling in the bath.

There’re real photographs being cut and collaged onto the illustration. Those days without computer…

Dioressence (below) was created in 1979. The illustration for the original advertising campaign for Dioressence was inspired by the Belle Epoque society paintings of Georges Clairin. The image of an elegant woman reclining in a hammock conveys perfectly the exotic Haute Couture spirit of the scent.

Below illustration was called Miss Dior created in 1961, inspired by Venetian dominoes, recalls the great society balls of the post-war years, which were often hosted by mutual friends of Rene Gruau and Christian Dior.

For Dior’s second perfume, Diorama, Gruau chose to depict a neo Louis XVI chair onto which a woman has tossed her elegant gloves and scarf. Gruau understood better than anyone the power of the symbolic gesture, and in his drawings for Dior he often referred to the 18th century, a period of great influence for Christian Dior.

This illustration Dior-Dior 1976 is inspired by the techniques of Japanese calligraphy. The model is positioned in a large character reminiscent of Gruau’s own signature. The play on space gives a strong sense of the immaterial quality of the fragrance.

With swirly pattern carved on the body of the perfume bottle j’dor limited edition 2003, it truly represents the concept of the perfume as ‘a drop of gold’.

…below 2 illustrations are for stockings campaign…very cleverly portraited and drawing people attention to its promotional point.

…I wonder whether Lady Diana took her hair-cut inspiration from this illustration which was created during mid 60s…

…they are just so divine, magical and… Christmasy…

The exhibition overall has a genuine feeling of Christmas which is also helped by setting at Somerset House. With the ice-stating ring and Tiffany temporary shop set outside, this exhibition would be an ideal Christmas visit set into your diary.

Tags: Christian Dior, John Galliano, Rene Gruau

Hunger Pains

I recently stumbled upon these incredible pictures by NYC-based photographer Ted Sabarese. In this series, each model’s clothing is made entirely of real food and depicts a meal that the person was craving. Sabarese shot this series in January 2009, so in other words a long time before Lady Gaga wore her meat dress.

More pictures after the jump

» Read the full post

Tags: Ted Sabarese

Future Beauty – 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

A couple of weekends ago I went to Barbican Art Centre to see ‘Future Beauty – 30 years of japanese Fashion’ exhibition. This is the first exhibition in Europe to survey avant-garde Japanese fashion, from the early 1980s to now. True, I’ve only seen the top 3 Japanese designers – Issey Miyake, Yohiji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo in various exhibition, never together, nonetheless all 8 together.

There were beautiful fine linen-paper-like material hanging off the ceiling to divide the space. The material is called MILIFE, a new non-woven product manufactured from a unique technology. It’s double-layer non-woven and it’s composed of 2 layers, each of which contains aligned MD filaments and aligned CD filaments.

It’s a great opportunity to actual experience a very close-up view to those masterpiece. Draping and folding are simply amazing.

Yohji Yamamoto’s cage corset – he’s mastered with playing black and black and black…as he explains, away from the colour distraction, it is much easier to focus on the construction.

It’s breath-taking to be so close-up to these carefully sculpted pieces, I’ve only seen them in art books before.

Below garment by Yohji Yamamoto was a collection inspired from the period after The Second World War, when people had no money and all clothes were illy fitted and misshaped. Yamamoto had taken the idea further and make the look somehow very poetic.

Below number is from Junya Wantanabe…thousands of pleats and ruffles in organdie…

These are from label Comme des Garçons , Rei Kawakubo has created them in the early 90s by understanding the space around the body. Oversized garments envelop rather than expose the female form. This set is from Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body collection (SS1997) featuring extreme, unconventional padding at the shoulders and hips, proved shocking to audiences at the time. Merce Cunningham was inspired by the collection to compose Scenario, a 1997 dance piece for which Kawakubo designed the costumes and stage set.

The exhibition is overall good because of all the show pieces, but however, being let down on a few parts. There was a cinematic room where people could sit down to watch a movie ‘interview with Yohji Yamamoto’. With its odd colour and Yamamoto’s younger face, the film is shot at least 15 years ago to my recognition. I sat in the dark for a good 30 mins at least wishing to catch the end, but still failed. Lots of imageries seemed just a show-off camera tricks with quite empty meanings and sometimes the interview voice was far too low and you could hardly hear anything. Then there were in between interview camera shots on top of the roof looking over Paris and Eiffel Towers in sun-set but sadly with Yamamoto’s voice only in Japanese and no english subtitles, which left all viewers very confusing. I think it was rather arsy than artistic.

The music filled the entire environment was a bit annoying too as it seems to be just some long quiet noises pretending to be the noise of people’s subconscious??! I thoroughly enjoyed all the exhibited garments and felt inspired on colours and especially the pattern-cuttings, which the Japanese are superb amazing skilled for.

Tags: Issey Miyake, Jun Takahashi, Junya Watanabe, Mintdesigns, Next Generation, Rei Kawakubo, Tao Kurihara, Yohji Yamamoto

Wapping Project & Moonshine Cinema

Last Saturday we went to The Wapping Project, a gallery/restaurant/bar=cool hang out place at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station on Wapping Wall. The place is hosting a BBQ with outdoor black & white movie cinema for their 10th Anniversary.

As you seen, the place is beautifully re-done. It was originally the local hydraulic power station and bought by this couple who was high in british theatre industry. They have kept the most features and made the place somehow not just a cool place but feeling warm, welcome and homy although you will be sitting surrounded by big machines.

With the soft early evening sunlight, the place looks so cinematic…

Candles were lit everywhere to soften the aged machines… …

…they have thought about every single little details… the rolling bar stools…

…the still water jugs seem to have their own lives… …

…and jars of cookies probably know most of stories about here?

love the coordination of rusty iron…sea green…soft grey and black table…

when you walk downstairs, even toilette area is a must-photograph zone… battered concrete wall with glass doors…

BBQ area is located outside, you have 4 different salads.

1. feta cheese – tomato – black olives – basil – salad

2. runner beans – beatroot – salad

3. big couscous – peas – celery – salad

4. cucumber – crunchy seaweed – radish – salad

Their extremely-crunchy-home-made bread is deliiiiicious!

For BBQ meat dish, you could have either Lamb / Prawns / Sardines / Sausages plus 2 types of salads from above.

If you are a vegetarian, you will have 4 salads. Total BBQ per portion per head was £12 which is very reasonable.

So here is the lamb…

…with Sardines…

…and giant tiger prawns… …yum yum!!

And the cinema showed a black & white classic called ‘Of Human Bondage’…I have to agree that all old movies are kind of confusing. Some of the plots and scenes are not so connected in our modern logic mind, but hey…the atmosphere was amazing. They have deck chairs and lots of cushions. My best advice? Take a blanket and lots of snacks!!

BBQ is £12 starts from 7pm and ‘Moonshine Cinema’ is £7 starts at 9pm.

All movie schedules until 28th August is as below:

Friday 6th Agugust – Timecode (15) 2000, Mike Figgis (97mins)

Saturday 7th August – Dark Victory (PG) 1939, Edmund Goulding (104mins)

Friday 13th August – Samson & Delilah (15), 2009, Warwick Thornton (97mins)

Saturday 14th August – Now, Voyager (PG), 1942, Irving Rapper (117mins)

Friday 20th August – The Unloved (5), 2009, Samantha Morton (103mins)

Saturday 21st August – All About Eve (U), 1950, Joseph L.Mankiewicz (138mins)

Friday 27th August – Sweet Sixteen (18), 2002, Ken Loach (106mins)

Saturday 28th August – What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (12), 1962, Robert Aldrich (134mins)

Magic Margiela

A couple of weeks ago on a sunny breathy Sunday afternoon I visited the Margiela exhibition at Somerset House. Maison Martin Margiela has been the iconic break-through artistic fashion designer since the 80s. In October 2008 MMM celebrated its 20th anniversary. This exhibition at Somerset House pays tribute to those 20 years and salutes one of the world’s most influential fashion houses.

MMM ’20′ The exhibition is not a classic retrospective exhibition. It’s probably the best fashion exhibition I have been to. I will show you the reason slowly…

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Maison Martine Margiela is its consistent use of white, or better said, all possible shades of white, in the collection, in the interiors of its offices, shops and showrooms and even invitations. I have previously blogged about the new released perfume ‘Untitled’ which was in a white medical-look-a-like bottom.

MMM is especially known for its deconstructivist approach, its fashion shows in unexpected places and its taste for recovery and recycling materials. Entrance hall has a projection of catwalk video in front of a line of statues of ‘Tailoring / Shoulders’. The shoulder is an important element in the MMM silhouette.

Tabi boots have also become one of their most iconic objects. They are inspired by Japanese tabi which are ankle-high socks with a split for the big toe and are worn with traditional Japanese sandals. Tabi boots has the split for the big toe from pumps to platform sandals to boots.

More details and images after the jump…

» Read the full post

Tags: Burberry, Maison Martin Margiela

20 mins Research of…

I really love the pronunciation of Rodarte — Ro-daaa-tay. Can’t name why,  Maybe subconsciously it sounds like ‘Roald Dahl’ and maybe it sounds like a franco-dutch word. I guess it’s just like someone’s a natural-born beauty, this word is a natural born sound-good. But it keeps bugging me, why the talented fine-arty-literature-studying sisters chose this name as their brand’s name??

After a solid researching of 20 mins on-line….(yeah, I really didn’t think it could be that hard to find normally and I know this time is including reading through articles and articles)…I eventually found the answer on an interview on vogue.it. It’s from their mother’s name Rodart, which is an old latin-french name and they add E at the end, just make the whole word sound more artful. (you can read the full interview here.) (and I also wonder since when using their mother’s maiden name become a trend? Proenza Schoulder is also a combination of the 2 boy’s mom’s names.)

During the whole research process I noticed that the sisters have just launched the new menswear line. Although a few pieces only, but totally adorable (same as the price).

Then I realized the famous (or rather infamous) gown worn by Keira Knightley a few years ago  of which appreciated different critics is also by Rodarte.

Then Rodarte, Joyce HK and Unicef collaborated together 4 outfits to raise money and all 4 outfits are inspired by 4 different movies by most influential artistic actress Maggie Cheung. (Very clever move, if they’ve chosen other actresses, i wouldn’t look at the sisters in the same way.)

From the movie ‘Hero’…

From the movie ‘in the mood for love’…

From Maggie’s early year movie ‘Heroic Trio’…

From Cannes Film Festival winner ‘Clean’…

Rodarte’s story is like a modern legend. Their style is futuristic and post-apocalyptic (modern – tick). Within a short a few years, Rodarte fast becomes world famous by mainly spreading out by internet bloggers (modern – tick). Although they started with choosing celebrity as their media-carrier at the beginning, they certainly has won Anna Wintour’s favour with the first 10 piece collection. Rest of all is already history. With the world spinning so fast and many old fashion houses are struggling, Rodarte will become a major part of new blood and a house name to nowadays fashion world.

Tags: Cannes Film Festival, Clean, Hero, Heroic Trio, In the Mood for Love, Maggie Cheung, Rodarte

More Fantasy than Reality

It has been a while that reality TV shows being occupied in people daily life since a decade ago when Big Brother introduced to our life. Then came the pop reality show in 2002 which brings onto another level. I couldn’t agree more when I read the quote somewhere recently refers as ‘reality TV shows bring people back to human-to-human / human-to-beast arena fight around the Roman time’. However, after nearly a decade of pity fight in all kinds of angles, the reality recalls our basic instinct as human being, looking for a hope. And the ‘hope’ which was the last thing remained in Pandora’s box generates more fantasy thoughts.

In 2010, we see fantasy taking in all different art forms, from movie to fashion to illustration.

Avatar is no doubt the number one fantasy sci-fi movie for 2010. The colours (especially the deep crystal blue), the technology (new camera technology evolved just for the film), the message (save the planet)…all of which are quite fantasized.

Then never mention the upcoming Alice in Wonderland. Trailer sounds like a sequel story of Alice ‘returning’ to the Wonderland.

Alexander McQueen brings back the imagination of lost land ‘Atlantis’. The alien-reptile print, the hoof shoe, the titanic heel…

McQueen SS10 show

Clothes become more dreamy for Spring/Summer 2010. Vogue UK February 2010 reports the ‘Pretty Chic’…Natalia Vodianova is looking fresh.

Fashion editorial and illustration are focusing on this romantic power too.

Vogue February 2010 issue

and that reminds me an old illustration I’ve done back in the university.

and again…discovering Reed and Rader’s portofolio

and illustration from Banshee Beat

At the end this simple point of view slowly formed in my head—Reality is from human’s nature and fantasy is from interactions between human intellectuals and the surrounding environment.

Tags: Alexander McQueen, Alice in Wonderland, Atlantis, Avatar, Banshee Beat, British Vogue, Fantasy, Fashion Illustration, Natalia Vodianova, Reed and Rader, Romantic