Tappening Tap Water Campaign

by Karen Day

Once considered an indulgence, bottled water's popularity and resulting unnecessary stress on the planet has spawned growing ire in the eco-conscious community. Tappening is a faction of the movement aiming to challenge bottled water usage by highlighting environmental impacts and spreading white lies about bottled water, much in the same way the companies do.

The lies include a multitude of tactics from the funny, "Evian is actually collected from the sweat that freely flows from the armpits of Gerard Depardieu," to the compassionate, "Bottled water causes blindness in puppies."

In addition to the clever campaign of bottled water lies, Tappening's website offers invaluable information on the truth about bottled and tap water and includes a database of quality tap water around the United States. For those in NYC, tap into the action with TapIt, an iPhone app that identifies cafes around the city providing a free fill-up service for reusable bottles.

La Rinascente Design Supermarket

by CH Contributor

by Paolo Ferrarini of Future Concept Lab

The Design Supermarket, a new floor entirely devoted to design in its multiple expressions, debuted recently as part of Milanese shopping icon La Rinascente's ongoing renovation. Over the past four years, international architects and designers such as Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, Cibic & Partners, Dordoni Architetti, Vincent Van Duysen and Future Systems, have been transforming the seven-floor department store with the basement-level design shop as the latest facet of its reinvented identity.

Directly linked to the nearby Duomo metro station, the new space houses a wide range of products from microelectronics to lighting, technological gadgets to office accessories and kitchen and tableware to small pieces of furniture. Starting with objects for just a few Euro to several hundreds, the range of prices makes the store the perfect place for both a little souvenir and important gifts.

Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso Architects designed the 2,000 square-meter space, which creates the contemporary equivalent of a city square. The perimeter hosts various shops within the shop, including Alessi, Conran Shop, Kartell, Georg Jensen, Tumi, Samsonite and Nespresso, while long white stands run along the center. The display closely recalls a museum, with hundreds of objects from more than 200 different brands.

Overall, the boutique feels airy and bright, inviting browsers to touch and experiment with all the objects, like in a real supermarket. In the center of the floor, a colorful and cozy cafeteria designed by Martino Berghinz stands in contrast with the rest of the space, lending a bold splash of purple and dark grey with furnishing and fifties-inspired graphics.

Design Supermarket at La Rinascente
Piazza Duomo
Milan, Italy 20122 map
tel. +39 02 88521

Quiksilver x The Standard Boardshorts

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

A counterpoint to the Dogtown generation of surfers and skateboarders in '70s L.A., Echo Beach surfers in the 1980s sported a loud, colorful style that inspired lifestyle apparel and board companies like Quiksilver, who—in homage to those decadent years—is reissuing a retro-looking set of swimwear in partnership with the Standard hotel. The limited-edition line debuts for sale today through the Standard's website, with high-tech vending machines to follow in Standard locations across the U.S. starting Saturday, 8 August 2009 to serve the spontaneous habits of patrons in need of boardshorts for late-night impromptu pool parties.

The standout in the collection, a polka-dotted swim piece, replicates almost exactly a pair of pro surfer and Echo Beach original member Danny Kwock's red-black-and-white trunks from the old days. Other new shorts take their design cues from Standard hotel locations, featuring city guides specific to each printed in the waistbands and edited by Quiksilver creative director and seminal skateboarder Natas Kaupas. Special snap detailing, the incorporation of Quiksilver's Diamond Dobby anti-rash material and a waterproof travel bag round out the offerings on the shorts. See larger images after the jump.

For girls, Quiksilver reissued one of its first bikinis, a simple, black little number.

Only 250 of each product is available, with a price tag of $75 for the board shorts and $84 for the bikini.

For those heading to Standards in Downtown L.A., Hollywood or Miami after 8 August (and later in the New York location), the vending machines use a touch screen, accept credit cards and have a feature that allows customers to see the product before buying.

We're waiting on vending-machine surfboards.

Beat Poet Menswear Fall/Winter 2010

by Nathan Suberi

Beat Poet Menswear delivers another thoughtfully minimalist line with their upcoming Fog collection. The line works in tandem with their spring/summer line, Desert, a conceptual approach taken by the Sydney-based designers to produce a full year-round collection.

Desert and Fog take their inspiration from the immense power of the sun and the threat of its demise. Their wide range of influences—ranging from Luc Besson films to Futurist Operas and Germanic military operations—make for a decidedly intellectual fashion experience.

These themes shine through with varying intensity in the Fog line, playing heavily towards the military vein with t-shirt sporting blossoming mushroom clouds and a Germanic D coat hinting at ominous things to come.

Several Australian retailers carry Beat Poet Menswear. Visit the Beat Poet site to find a stockist.

Learn and see more after the jump.

Blofield Inflatable Chesterfield Furniture

by CH Contributor

by Laura Neilson

Blofield's inflatable chairs one up other blow-up options, introducing the concept of permanent air-filled furniture with classic styling.

After two years of working on research and development, Dutch designer Jeroen van de Kant, created one-, two- and three-seat inflatable chairs, modeled after Chesterfield-style seats and sofas. These handsome, puffy seats, which debuted at various international design fairs last year, feature vinyl bottoms and earned an enthusiastic following for their smart and modern twist on a familiar piece of furniture design.

Available in white, gray and green, each Blofield comes with a repair kit and an electric pump that inflates the chairs in under five minutes.

Due to the varying voltage systems, the chairs are currently unavailable for purchase in the U.S., however the Netherlands-based company is working on an inflatable pump specific for North American distribution. Buy the European versions through Blofield's site, starting at €380.

See more images after the jump.