Cool Hunting
| 23 January 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
The Countdown Season II
by Letizia Rossi
The second season of The Countdown, Refinery29's video series featuring profiles on important names in fashion, premiered yesterday 22 January 2008 in collaboration with MySpace Fashion. The series visits five influential independent designers in their studios as they prepare for New York Fashion Week 2008.
The first episode's subject is none other than Thom Browne and includes an interview with the designer as he prepares for his circus-inspired show. "There's some things in the show that will take some very, um, multi-talented models," explains Browne while trying not to give away too much.
Future episodes will feature Shipley & Halmos discussing their upcoming collaborations over burritos, Erin Fetherston casting for her show, Band of Outsiders creating looks with their stylist and Preen at their hair and make up trials. Check Refinery29 for dates and details.
Doshi Levien x John Lobb: Apprentice Shoes
by Leonora Oppenheim
In collaboration with the classic British shoe maker John Lobb Ltd, London-based design duo Doshi Levien came up with this beautiful new range of shoes. Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien, with support from the British Arts Council, undertook an apprenticeship at the Lobb workshop to learn the traditional method of hand-making shoes. The result is a stunning collection appropriately entitled "Apprentice."
We love the traditional lines and materials combined with a twist of contemporary style. As you would expect from this level of craftsmanship, the detailing is wonderful. Doshi Levien (who also created the beautiful Mosaic Range for Tefal) decribe their shoes as demonstrating, "The creative possibilities resulting from the partnership between design and expert making. This is our aim as a studio, to work with the best makers in the world."
"Based in the city of London, we are surrounded by small jewel-like shops, ateliers, specialist makers and artisans who epitomize fine manufacturing. The trades vary from shoe making, to clothing, saddlery and gentlemen's umbrellas. The trades people draw upon a reservoir of knowledge learned through practice and experience and passed on through generations. When you visit one of these ateliers you witness an expertise that encompasses engineering, material technology and fine craftsmanship with an acute understanding of the human anatomy...We wanted to create a range of shoes that can only be made by John Lobb, a collection that can only be made by hand."
Doshi, who hails from India and the British Jonathan Levien are particularly motivated by their individual cultural heritages and the contrasts that their relationship brings together. Doshi's connection to beautiful craftsmanship and reverence of everyday objects is matched by Levien's European industrial design background. Together they create products which are full of symbolic meaning and practical functionality.
The shoes are available exclusively through John Lobb starting at around £2,000 per pair.
via Dezeen
Pineapple Paper Furniture
by Jacob Resneck
Establishment (an interior design outpost in Manhattan) recently tipped us to Pineapple Paper Furniture, a new line of benches and chairs made from compressed pineapple fibers.
We like the Doonya Chair (pictured above right, $1,900) as well as the Nut Bench (pictured after the jump, $2,900). They hadn't been added to the website last time we checked, but you can email Establishment directly: info [at] establishmentnyc [dot] com for more information.
Or if you're in Manhattan, stop by the store on Gansevoort Street. See more images after the jump.
Glasvegas
by Lost At E Minor
It's rare for a band to have the ability to pen mature, potentially massive, songs yet still retain a sense of locality and modesty in their music. The thick Scottish accent rolling unimpeded out of Glasvegas frontman, James Allan, is proudly grounded in the pubs and bars of his native Glasgow. This quality slices through the reverb-laden, atmospheric background of their songs, lending an irresistible intimacy that tempers the enormity of the sound.
Allan's raw lyrics will likely draw comparisons with the Arctic Monkeys' scribe, Alex Turner. Although perhaps not mirroring Turner's genius knack for mass-appeal, there is something about Glasvegas that—like the Arctic Monkeys—makes them sound as though the songs were written just for you.
Thankfully, however, they don't pander to the trendy London-based hipsters they may be categorized alongside. The music is dark, honest and thoroughly developed, fusing styles as diverse as rockabilly and punk.
Visually, they stand on the thin line between Jonny Cash and Joe Strummer: decades apart but joined at the hip by dark glasses, leather jackets and slick black hair. This unabashed coolness wouldn't work if it didn't have the substance to back it up. Luckily, for us and them, Glasvegas have it.
