Cool Hunting
| 24 June 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Nau 2.0
by Ami Kealoha
Apparently we weren't the only ones saddened by the news earlier this year that eco-clothier Nau was shutting its doors. Thanks in part to an outpouring of support from the community, the Santa Barbara, CA-based label Horny Toad stepped in and bought the company. Sharing a commitment to doing business sustainably, it looks like a good match and we congratulate the both of them. For the full scoop, go to Treehugger.
Abilmo Pop-Up Hotel Rooms
by Doug Black
The summer is finally upon us, and so begins the annual season of outdoor festivals. For those concert goers who wouldn't dare camp out in a tent—and has a pocket full of disposable income—there's Abilmo. The French company offers temporary hotel rooms that they will construct in almost any location.
Perfect for transient events or lodging in remote places, the rooms bring modern comforts to virtually any location. They are a scant 130 square feet packed with all of the amenities you'd expect from an actual hotel. Rooms have hardwood floors and a cloth ceiling fitted with low voltage lighting. Insulated for both temperature and noise, they are climate-controlled with individual heating and air conditioning systems. There's also a full bathroom with hot water and functional shower.
Currently, they're only available in Europe and prices vary based on location, number of rooms and duration of rental. Contact Abilmo through their website for more information.
São Paulo Fashion Week Summer 2009 Highlights
by Phuong-Cac Nguyen
World themes played out in a broad spectrum of colors, loose, bold forms (including jumpsuits), flashy details like low crotches and ruffles and in the abundance of the universally stylish material, denim, at São Paulo Fashion Week's presentations of summer collections. Adding to the cacophony, the usually clean white lines of Niemeyer's Bienal building where the fashion event took place was transformed into a faux Tokyo in homage to the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil.
The star of the show, as usual, was Alexandre Herchcovitch, inspired this season by conflict zones across the globe. Designs took on military suit-like constructions and tabs visually let loose with soft ruffles and pastels for women, while men's saw new interpretations of uniforms worn in places like Africa and Pakistan. (Click above images for detail.)
Neon, a more recent addition to São Paulo's growing list of fashion faves, took over the helm from Herchcovitch to imagine Cori this time around. Looking to Mexico for ethnic patterns and cuts resembling traditional items from the culture like ponchos, the upshot was a surprising take on the concept. (Pictured above left.)
For their own line, Neon came through with the feat of tackling as many prints as possible. Tied together by a thematic umbrella of island women, examples include Gauguin's Tahitian ladies and Hawaiian hula girls. (Pictured above right.)
Super creative agency Oestudio, who came back to SPFW after a two year hiatus, kept their trademark creative cuts and exaggerated hems in prints diagramming their approach to their work. Red cells represented their constantly flexible nature toward projects and geometric shapes in flowers translated into the company's building blocks.
Brazil's freshwater São Francisco river, sacred and endeared by the country's residents but now polluted, was designer Ronaldo Fraga's focus. Fish made frequent appearances and all the denim was inventively well done. (Click above left images for detail.)
In the strange category, Marcelo Sommer's Do Estilista collection went the way of fantasy, riffing on Harajuku, manga and Japanese culture in general. There was a geisha/cocktail dress with a few more appropriately street-ready pieces thrown in, like the soft nurse dress. This show definitely proved that fashion doesn't have to take itself so seriously. (Click above right images for detail.)
You can see more photos of the runway on the official São Paulo Fashion Week site.
Charles and Ray Eames Commemorative Stamps
by Laurice Parkin
As an unabashedly extreme fangirl of all things Eames, I am happy to say that the U.S. Postal Service is also feeling some Eames love this month. This week they have issued a hotly-anticipated set of 16 commemorative stamps honoring the iconic husband and wife design team whose work continues to be the standard against which all modern is measured.
Through architecture, furniture and film; their extraordinary body of work was as innovative as it was playful. The stamps are a perfect slideshow of their greatest hits from their own home, Case Study #8, and the sexy La Chaise to (in this fangirl's opinion) the perfect chair, the LCW.
You can order the commemorative set online. And, at less than $7 a set, you can buy some to save and use others for sending some real mail to your favorite modernists.
