Cool Hunting

Arty Dandy is a small, French gallery/store specializing in rare and exclusive art books, magazines, fashion accessories, gadgets and decorative design objects. They feature many limited product runs and every quarter the store presents a new theme for their collection. Launching this past Saturday and runnin through 24 May 2008, Arty Dandy will take up shop in the legendary French department store, Le Bon Marché. We took a look at some of the items that made their debut there.

Joe the Polar Bear is a free-standing bookcase created by family-owned French design studio, iBride. Joe is just one in iBride's collection of animal-themed furniture. It's made of white laminated wood standing 1.6 meters tall and is limited to a production of 50 pieces. There's also a website that tracks the location of each bear (note: not recommended for wanted fugitives).

The set of Néos Vases (above left) is limited to a run of only 20. These tubular flower vases come from Parisian architect and designer Frédéric Ruyant and will only be available at Arty Dandy. Arik Levy designed the same object, but takes a vastly different approach. His Twister Squares (above right) also sustain plants, but they use an infinitely transformable stack of transparent squares. They layers are joined on a vertical axis and will easily rotate to create an ever-changing vertical surface. The crystal body also refracts light to produce optical illusions. They come in three heights.