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

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???

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.

More pictures after the jump

It took a team of 15 designers to make these incredible outfits. The entire shoot which was lead by Ami Goodheart of SOTU Productions, took 16 hours. According to Sabarese’s behance page, the artichoke gown (which is designed by Daniel Feld and Wesley Nault of Project Runway fame) took over six hours to finish – and the model had to stand still the entire time while they attached each, individual leaf.

Ted Sabarese’s blog also has a behind-the-scenes video of the photo session where you can see how these amazing pieces were made.

Photo source: Ted Sabarese/Behance

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.

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)

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…

The covering of materials and garments with paint is also a significant trait in MMM’s oeuvre. Not only clothing, but also furniture, as well as store, showroom and office interiors are repainted white. Recycled garments regain a new surface texture after repainting in white or silver.

Under dress cut to form a sleeveless blouse, partly laminated with silver foil.

Cotton T-shirt with printing that suggests a painted-over effect, however still remains its softness.

A mannequin dressed with 2 different fur coats is split in the middle by a large mirror. And from either side of the mirror, you will see an illusion of a full garment from the reflection. There’re lots of brilliant ideas being used into the curation work of the exhibition, which makes the exhibition not feeling too aged but very modernist and futuristic.

Below image shows a terrific creation of layering. White dinner jacket is worn with layers of rhinestone necklace, then cleverly semi covers up the blingness with a tulle shawl on the front of the jacket.

A tailored jacket with embellished mat sequins in black, grey and white.

Classical Wardrobe area shows a countless variations of trench coat. Very different from a classic Burberry trench, MMM trench plays cutting details on shoulders (like picture below). The cut of the shoulder line is inspired by a seat cover.

Trench coat evoking the look of someone sheltering from the rain underneath the coat, with the collar ending at the top of the head. The neck and shoulder lines have been elongated so that the coat can be worn as a hood. When not worn high up, the collar envelops the shoulders.

A series of garments are displayed flat on the wall. Some of them are inspired by our normal daily objects such as supermarket plastic shoppers.

Different materials are constructed together to form this amazing pair magic foot number.

These are installation for the men’s collections at ‘An Exhibition Before Regurbishment’, in order to advertise the opening of Maison Martin Margiela store in Hong Kong in July 2006.

Here’s a long magic wall with large pewter colour mirrors in different framed location. If you stand there a bit longer, each mirror will light up in unpredictable order and shows a show box behind.

Each show box contains an iconic piece.

This sculpt shoulder T-shirt is actually… ….

… …embellished with hundreds of buttons. The hours amount for each creation was labeled on the glass case as well.

Then…finally I walked into the Birthday Room. Compilation of images from the fashion shows, films and photography are showing here on each side of 3 walls. You will be sitting on white-sheet-covered Margiela sofa. The first wall I sat down and watched was showing 3 video footage of 3 Margiela fans showing a wardrobe diaries from London, Munich and Amsterdam.

The other 2 walls are installation of different sizes of screens showing shows, MMM office interiors and interviews. Background music was very upbeat. I tried to ‘shazam’ the music on iPhone, however, they must be too cool songs, so the computer doesn’t recognize any of them.

The whole exhibition is very worth going. Not only with a fair £6 on ticket but with the entire modern technology it contains I really think it’s the best fashion exhibition.

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.

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.