Jean-Charles de Castelbajac invades London today with a flagship store, pictured here. In the former Voyage Passion boutique on Conduit St. will be this Rubik’s Cube-esque boutique conceptualized by de Castelbajac and architect Christian Ghion. In stock you will find his collections, housewares and furniture. He told the Independent “London has always been an important place for me” and about his neighborhood: “it’s perfect for me as [it unites tradition and modernity, something integral to my work.” Jean-Charles de Castelbajac 50-51 Conduit St. London W1
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Tag Archive for 'design'
22MayDomestik Wares
I know, the Army of M.E. can’t stand Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie because, in UO’s case, they sell overpriced disposable clothing unwearable after one wash. We must admit we do like a lot of what we see in the way of Anthropologie -especially the designer collaborations. But then they get silly with their no-name bags in a similar price range of a top designer bag at a sample sale -and that makes us mad. We hate trashing but this is just how we see it. However, we do give credit when it is due and in the fall we covered UO’s stylish beenies (those little sequined and hounds-tooth hats they had, some resembling Eugenia Kim at a fraction of the cost -who wants to spend a lot on a dying trend like hats?) Now, our attention is brought to a sale on the domestics at Anthropologie -shipping charges can be a bitch with larger items (and you can’t have them shipped to the store for pick-up) but here are some nice items we found that we think are good deals:
This Stenciled Coffee Table is reduced from $698 to $350 + $75 shipping. It has a lovely design and is quite practical with storage space for magazines and remotes and rounded edges if you have (or plan to have) little ones.
This Decoupage Nesting Table is very versatile -you can use it to display rolled up towels in the bath or, if you are fortunate enough to have a summer home, a resting place for your guest’s weekend bag. It was originally $248 and is now $50.
My home consists of mostly white walls so I rely on the occasional splash of vibrant color and print from little accent items that can make brief appearances (committing to bold colors/prints that can’t easily be changed, like wallpaper, is not advised as the eye tends to tire and taste tends to bore quickly of them)
Dishtowels -the first two are $8/ea. and the third is $10:
Napkins (first 2 -$13 and last $17 all are sets of 4):
Tablewares -bowls $8/ea and teapot $30:
This inside out hanging shade is very Kartell for $80:
I’ve had an ongoing obsession with birch tree forests (to the point that I want a full-wall mural in my living room which would require abandonment of the above rule about permanent prints), so I love these coniferous curtains to the right, but that’s just me.
And for a final little DIY lesson, the below ‘wall art’, as they like to call it so they can charge you $130 (on sale!), you can do yourself. Peruse some art magazines, or go to a local fabric vendor -or even look on ebay for interesting prints/fabrics. Get a $5 black frame from Target or wherever and viola -your personalized version will likely be more exciting than this anyway.
The Army of M.E. has a whole file of “Stories That Never Were” (i.e. unpublished drafts) one of which highlighted the rumored and then confirmed departure of lesbionic, scandalous couple Sandy Brant and Ingrid Sischy from Interview mag. Ingrid’s departure was like Andy dying all over again and we couldn’t wrap our brains/hearts around a proper story. Well here is the June/July issue that our calendar of events and social intelligence would figure Chris Bollen in charge of. By social intelligence we refer to him and Marc getting along swimmingly at most events.
The Army of M.E. releases a politically (in)correct ‘no comment’ in response to the spread. We do enjoy all the juxtaposing love and hate it inspires throughout the blogosphere though -it seems people look at Marc and mostly feel sad. Aw. Anyone whose entire professional life is devoted to a useless industry like fashion deserves a big fat ‘Awww’.
Besides knowing and loving the fellas over at Le Book, we just adore the look of each brilliantly-designed box on the bookshelves of our offices. The essential resource for all elements of fashion production and photography, the latest 2008 London issue is designed by the dame of fashion herself, Viv Westwood. Her inspiration, this is the part we love, came from her cultural manifesto “Active Resistance to Propaganda”. Past commissions included Emilio Pucci (we still have it around here somewhere), Kaiser Karl and Azzedine Alaia, to name a few. New York gets brilliant Narciso Rodriguez this time around -yeah! If you don’t already have this year’s click HERE to purchase NYC, Paris and/or London books.
Tonight is the fourth annual Design on a Dime Benefit hosted by Housing Works (the country’s largest non-profit, minority-controlled AIDS service organization) and Real Simple Magazine. 30 renowned interior designers will create unique vignettes from donated, brand new, high-end products -all of which will be available for purchase at 50-80% off the retail price. Tonight’s exclusive VIP opening celebration will offer cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, live entertainment and preview shopping. The 2 day sale will open to the public tomorrow at 10am. This year the event is co-chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal, a host committee that reads like the society pages of W mag and designers from Thom Felicia (adorable gay man the Army of M.E. hit on in an elevator once -we have a thing for the unattainable) to Ernest de la Torre (whose vignette is pictured here). The Metropolitan Pavilion 125 W. 18th St. betw. 6th & 7th Ave. Click HERE for tickets.
Someone used this term in regards to their relationship with fashion during a recent covert conversation and it stayed with us. We are always trying to articulate our take on fashion as we adhere strongly to our ideals that style has more to do with confidence, intelligence, opinions and how well-accessorized one’s brain is as opposed to one’s body. We have strong ties in the fashion industry and witness first hand how money-driven, the big churning wheel can be and how programmed the cogs are. Justification lies in the fact that it is a business, and how many are run in all industries, but we concern ourselves with the loss in translation when filtered to the masses via the pages of glossies. We hate the idea of being preachers but these ideals fueled the creation of this site. It’s within in the negative space that our tastes exist and the power of the edit, our preferences. In other words, it’s what you don’t see covered here. Each day is a constant bombardment of new labels, lines, gadgets & ideas -so few of which pique our interest. Our own creations stifled by our disgust for the ‘gimmicky’ which is how we see most of our inventions after 48 hours. The art of ‘sleeping on it’ seems lost while many shuffle to push their mediocrity on celebrity stylists -but, we respect their struggle. To endure, evolve, and stay afloat is an art in itself and to have the self-confidence (or financial sponsorship), a feat. We just found this image on one of the sites we frequent -we think the black button on this jean jacket best sums up where we are currently at.
15AprCover(t) Operations
The Army of M.E. was conducting some online investigation when we discovered this little gem at the online shop of one of our Mitte (Berlin, for those who don’t frequent) haunts, Lil*Shop. The other Kaws graffiti’d wallets that spell out CdG and Garcons in pink are sold out while the chartreuse one reading CdG is still available. This one reading ‘Kaws’ is slightly more reasonably priced -the equation of which is determined by: street artist emblazoned - name designer emblazoned + label whores x 47 - 73.6 = 70.00 EUR. Based on our sorry state of currency that’s like 40,000 dollars (it’s really about $112).
We suspect someone’s handsome bribe was rejected…The UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned poster and magazine ads by the US cotton industry claiming the fabric of our lives to be “soft, sensual and sustainable”. Impossible, says the UK authority who know the crop to be “pesticide- and insecticide-intensive”. I know, who cares. But you should because this is the exact kind of thing that gets passed on within this country as a result of heavy lobbying and palm-greasing. It’s a good message to wake up and smell the pesticides -especially with the current green revolution there are bound to be imposters.
Could polyester be the new cotton? According to the current (March) issue of W it is?! Check out the story “Synthetically Speaking” by Miles Socha who illustrates all the fabulous designers incorporating the technologically re-invented fabric into their current collections. I always check to see if something is cotton and not polyester but, seriously, you could roll it in a ball, throw it in a suitcase and that shit just doesn’t wrinkle…kinda brilliant. Its endless color possibilities and structural aspects make it appealing to designers, some of which include: Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, Alber Elbaz, and Marc Jacobs. It’s apparently no longer the sweat-inducing, unbreathable fabric of the mod era.
This is the cover photo to the W story from Lanvin’s current collection (S/S ‘08) in this season’s signature color. Courtesy of Style.com
…in case you were wondering what the hell was going on at Houston & Lafayette today, it’s another public publicity stunt. There’s a month-long Supima pop-up shop at 72 Greene St. in SoHo that we keep getting e-mails from their PR company about. This public cotton field was their way of spreading public awareness today…and only today -thankfully. They should have dressed a building in a cotton tee or something. After the New Museum bike installation this whole dressing up NYC trend has been stepped up a few notches. As revolutionaries we are all about guerrilla everything, but this shit is lame.
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