London Fashion Week

I left the fashion industry in body 7 years ago, but have not yet managed to fully extricate myself in mind. I like to pretend not to care about what colour is hot and who the hell Cara Delevigne is, like it is some insult to my intellect. But I do care…a lot.

London Fashion Week has just come to close. I no longer decorate the front row of shows at Somerset House, so devouring style.com (and the like) from my office down the road must suffice. Here are some of the pieces I particularly love and will covet until they are rendered irrelevant by the SS15 season shows in September of this year.

J. JS Lee Autumn Winter 2014

Jean-Pierre Braganza Autumn Winter 2014

Jean-Pierre Braganza Autumn Winter 2014

Daks Autumn Winter 2014

Eudon Choi Autumn Winter 2014

Jasper Conran Autumn Winter 2014

Holly Fulton Autumn Winter 2014

Emilia Wickstead Autumn Winter 2014

John Rocha Autumn Winter 2014

1205 Autumn Winter 2014

1205 Autumn Winter 2014

Richard Nicoll Autumn Winter 2014

Nicole Farhi Autumn Winter 2014

Nicole Farhi Autumn Winter 2014

Temperley London Autumn Winter 2014

Mary Katrantzou Autumn Winter 2014

Mary Katrantzou Autumn Winter 2014

Issa Autumn Winter 2014

Peter Pilotto Autumn Winter 2014

Anya Hindmarch Autumn Winter 2014

Paper Paper Paper!

I am obsessed with paper arts at the moment, origami in particular. So much so, in fact, that I made an origami Valtentines Day card for my boyfriend. I thought I would share with you some stunning examples of paper art that I have come across.

WireShade by Marc Trotereau

Marc Trotereau’s WireShades are more sculpture than shade like, nestling into crannies, hugging wall corners and dropping from the ceiling. The lampshade becomes a unique object, and can by custom made for any type of space. The traditional method of producing lampshades is based on brazing metal rods; a relatively flexible and easy process. Marc Trotereau has challenged this design norm via the creation of a jig, which makes it possible to braze three metal rods together at the same time (see pics below), enabling the production of three-dimensional cubical shapes. The frames are then covered with corrugated plastic or ‘Correx’, a flame retardant and antistatic material. What a result. I particularly love how Trotereau wraps the structure around corners. The result is akin to some forgein matter, secretly observing the world from above.

Bocci

Bocci, a contemporary design and manufacturing house based in Vancouver, Canada was founded by Omer Arbel in 2005. His conceptual approach has birthed a unique and striking collection of lighting, furniture, electrical accessories and objects. Their lighting design I am a particular fan of (see images below) and their installation at the V&A for the 2013 London Design Festival was awe inspiring (see video)

Bocci operates as a community of designers, architects, craftspeople, technicians, agents, governance bodies, testing facilities, raw materials suppliers and fine shops. Their aim is to build a network of talent unified in creating high quality, practical and aesthetically innovative consumer goods.

Bocci is committed to manufacturing at their Vancouver factory which reinforces their aim for community moving towards a common goal. The glass blowing studio, office, warehouse and design studio are all in the same location; Bocci employees walk through the factory floor to get to their desks. I just love this and vision for myself the same working environment.

Bocci offers consultation, design, and fabrication services for custom chandeliers of unlimited configuration – from petite to linear to oversized chandeliers. “Our custom capacity is infinite.”

I have pasted the following images below for your viewing pleasure. In my humble opinion, their work is not just lighting design, but art.

For more information, check them out at http://bocci.ca/

EMOJI IRL.LOL.

“Emojis mean everything and they mean nothing at the same time. They’re completely personal and completely universal. They’re really quite stupid and they’re the best thing that ever happened to our generation. They deserve to be observed and worshipped individually. By finding, posing and sculpting emojis in real life I’ve created a set of shrines to the individual characters, because somebody had to do it.”

Urgh, I love this woman. These are the sentiments of Liza Helen Nelson, the designer of the – almost edible – 3D emoticons below. I will let the prints do the talking. No 1 is my favorite – the turquoise, yellow and royal blue work so well together. Also, check out her tumblr for more information at http://emojiirllol.tumblr.com/

12″x12″ prints for $50 each or 20″x20″ prints for $80 each.
All images © Liza Nelson 2013

Jule Waibel: Entfaltung

Other than the Selfridges shop window designs, nothing generally grabs my attention when walking down Oxford Street. This morning however, was a different story. Bershka, (a shop I visited once to never return again) had in it’s front window a picture of a geometric dress which looked to be made out of folded paper; a piece so striking I got off the bus to take a closer look. The designer was Jule Waibel. I know, I’d never heard of her/him either.

Jule Waibel is a London and Stuttgart based German designer. She studied product design at the German University of Applied Sciences and in 2011 moved to London to study an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art graduating in 2013. Waibel´s work is influenced by the geometry and simplicity of the Bauhaus. She combines objects, fashion and performance with a focus on geometric shapes. With her two brothers, Waibel founded clothing and lifestyle label VIOVIO ltd. where she acts as fashion designer and art director for the brand.

The image that caught my eye this morning was of a piece taken from her “Entfaltung (unfold/expand/develop): 25 dresses for 25 cities” collection for Bershka. Check out the images and blurb for the collection below. I’m obsessed.

Collapsible structures reflect how our world is constantly changing. My response is to use folding as part of my design process. A particular folding technique can transform simple sheet materials into three-dimensional objects, with the additional capability that they can expand and contract. A dress which changes its shape according to the movement of the body, an expandable bag and an umbrella are all made of Tyvek®, a lightweight water- and tear-proof synthetic paper. The project celebrates the beauty to be found between geometry, transformation and play. Their elegance, efficiency and beauty enhances my life on the move.

All images taken from http://julewaibel.com/

Homogenizing and Transforming World

teamLab is a Tokyo based group of multi-disciplinarians including programmers, user-interface engineers, mathematicians, CG animators, architects, designers, artists and editors. teamLab’s eclectic mix of professionals have fused their respectice skills to create a new art installation.

Homogenizing and Transforming World is part of the exhibition Distilling Senses: A Journey through Art and Technology in Asian Contemporary Art, at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. An all encompasing maze of giant suspended orbs, each engineered to morph in hue depending on how it is treated, communicate to each other via wireless connection. They change color and emit different sounds when touched by visitors or bump into each other or other objects. The orbs send color information to other orbs which then spread the information to furhter orbs, changing all the orbs to the same color, representing the spread of information between individuals on the internet. The piece is a metaphor for the internet and globalization in general.

You can see the installation in action via the following video:

Alfies Antique Market

I have heard mutterings of Alfies Antique Market for a while and have been wanting to check it out. So, today I did. What a place. Another London gem. I was Alice in Wonderland, walking through a forest of beautiful antiques and collectables; a new site at every turn. I found no mad hatter, but a lovely bunch of passionate and specialist traders looking to politely flog their unique wares. Beaded flapper dresses, Dartmouth glug jugs, boudoir mirrors, art deco rings; I came away with a wishlist as long as both arms and legs. Venture on down to Church Street and take a look, making sure to jump into the pound shop en-route for your £1 adapters and washing up liquid.

The Merit Shop

Ever wanted a new pair of Nikes but the pay cheque doesn’t land for another 2 weeks and a girl has gotta eat? The Merit Shop, a new online store is offering a solution; buying stuff without money. Save your cynical eyebrow raises for one moment for The Merit Shop are not offering something for nothing. No no no, you pay with talent.

San Francisco-based designers Daniel Soares and Pedro Sampaio, the brains behind the brilliance, ask that you “Sing a song. Tell a joke. Do whatever. Use creativity instead of money. Here, in this little corner shop of anarchy, the value is all in you”.

The duo told Taxi that “It’s not about money. For us this is a project to see what happens. To make some good in this world.”

So dust off your vocal cords and whip out those Jazz hands, this is the kind of world that I want to live in. Tell people about them. http://themeritshop.org/ and check out their beautiful video below.

What if money didn’t exist?

New Airbnb HQ

The holiday-rental website, Airbnb, recently revealed their new San Francisco HQ, a 100-year old renovated warehouse (my ideal home). Named 888 Brannan, the great expanse of space has been modelled on eight Airbnb listings from around the world, including (rather sweetly) the original apartment from which the founders launched the website. Great idea.

All images from http://www.dezeen.com/