February 20, 2006
Pampered Pooches
"Based in Hollywood, [Rockin' Rodeo] caters to celebrity clients - Parker Posey has stopped by with her pooch, Drew Barrymore has browsed, Sharon Stone is a fan, etc. - along with oodles of poodles and pugs and pomeranians and their people, stylish persons who'll probably never bump into some secret Bloomingdales twin.
" 'We find or create truly unique pieces. So whether it's a concert T-shirt, cowboy boots, or a dog collar, each item is really a reflection of that individual or pet wearing that treasure," says Fauser. 'Our clients are people who want the exclusive, one-of-a-kind items that we find in vintage wear. And they certainly don't want anything less for their pet.'
"Fauser and Rockin' Rodeo co-owner Mary Ossanna would know: they've puppy loves of their own-Coco, Lucy, and Prada-who keep casually outfitted in custom collars made of antique leather. Like the finely aged leather belts, boots, and bags offered to Rockin' Rodeo's two-legged customers, the dog collars and leashes (priced between $80-450) can be further personalized with antique studding."
You can read more but doesn't the idea of personalized vintage collars with antique studding pretty much tell you everything you need to know about Los Angeles, pet owners, the innate lust for stuff humans are cursed with, plus late-stage capitalism in the United States?
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
Stylish Seating
There were supposedly 60-plus colleges represented at the Stockholm Furniture Fair last week. The gorgeous seating below is the handiwork of first-year students at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Starting with the stool and moving clockwise, the designers are Mari Tosmin, Aap Piho, Ville Lausmäe, and Mari Rass.
I spoke to Kerli Valk, a third-year student, and demanded to know how the hell first-year students could crank out this kind of stuff in their first year. Valk seemed a bit bemused by my question and explained that the students spent their first semester working on a single project and the result was on display.
She also mentioned that there were 15 applicants for every opening in the four-year design program, which has a total of 40 students. So I'm guessing the people accepted into the program were pretty darn talented and experienced even before they set foot on school property.
The chair on the left is by Ketsia Suurväli, the chair on the right is by Irene Roos, and the circular wooden stool or sculpture (or toy--it was very popular with kids, Valk said) in the foreground is by Kertu Kaldaru.
The Stockholm Furniture Fair was the first time design students from the Estonian Academy of Arts has exhibited work outside of their country. I don't imagine it will be the last. I'll be honest--until now, I've never had the slightest desire to visit Estonia. But the work of these students makes me want to dash over immediately and see what else I've missed all these years.
I promised you a pic of the Save Our Souls design duo I blogged about recently. Johannes Carlström and Magdalena Nilsson are standing against a backdrop of their Gunner wallpaper. My apologies, SOS, for not making this pic smaller but I really wanted to show off your design. After all, who could resist this deceptively demure pattern of pink revolvers?
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2006
Stockholm Furniture Fair: Bliss on a Stick
I went to my first Stockholm Furniture Fair yesterday. I don't know if all designers are nice or only the ones I've met, but I had a swell time and Apartment Therapy fans would cream their jeans over the nifty items on display.
There are too many cool things to mention in a single posting so today I will limit myself to reporting on a cheeky design duo called Save Our Souls. Johannes Carlström and Magdalena Nilsson, the two young designers behind this spanking new company, found inspiration in last year's global disasters, including Hurricane Katrina.
Yes, it is as weird as it sounds. As the company describes it, “Save Our Souls makes harsh, beautiful furniture with bitter-sweet aesthetic. The pleasant combined with the threatening and dark.” That’s an apt description. Later I’ll post a photo of the two designers against a backdrop of their Gunner wallpaper. It’s a subversively traditional, almost old-fashioned looking wallpaper with a repeating pattern in pink against a background of deep maroon. It takes a while to realize that the repeating image is a revolver. A revolver. I nearly burst out laughing when I got it.
The company showed four products: the wallpaper, a gorgeous black glass table (modeled on an oil spill), heavy, hanging black glass lamps (modeled on—you guessed it-oil drops), and a black bookcase I really love called "Fuckin Far From Ok" that has that phrase built into the shelves. If that's not modern life summed up neatly, what is?
To quote from the company’s statement (which I’ve cleaned up a tiny bit), “The greenhouse-effect is getting more severe every day with storms and hurricanes sweeping our world. The glaciers are melting. We produce. Consume. We buy more stuff than ever before and materialism is a way of life. We believe that almost every cultural worker has a dream of, if not saving the world, at least make it better or more beautiful. It's problematic to want to make new products. In fact very little new stuff is needed.
“What to do? Fold one's hands and pray, like sending out a SOS-signal, hoping for someone to rush out and intervene. Save Our Souls became the working name and we made a series of furniture that comments the world around us. This is not a moralizing sermon, we are just like anyone else, in fact we live happy lives in the industrial world. What we want to do is to use that silence between the catastrophes and remind ourselves. Instead of trying to forget, we put the light on the problems and make a visual experience of it."
Save Our Souls presented its new products in the Greenhouse, a special area of the Stockholm Furniture Fair devoted to new and young designers and design programs from colleges as far away as Tokyo. Few of the products displayed at the Greenhouse are in production, and many of them will remain prototypes. That's the nature of the business. But there was tons worth seeing, and I'll add more examples next week.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2005
Design Disappointment
Just got back from eyeballing the fashion-designer-decorated Christmas trees at the Birger Jarl hotel, which touts its design credentials with every drop of a press release.
"This is yet another interesting angle of our image, in which Swedish colour, form and design are in focus. The concept allows for many combinations of interaction between people, material and form," claims Marianne Hultberg, Managing Director of Hotel Birger Jarl, in a press release (I'd link but it's a PDF file). "It is especially exciting to be able to unite an old tradition with completely new concepts, to the delight of our guests and everyone in general," she says.
What a disappointment. It happens that I had an errand at Immanual Church, which appears to be part of the complex housing the Birger Jarl. It's not like I made a special trip, in other words, but my ten-year-old could have turned out something more interesting. A colorful, pulsating clump of mini trees made me think of America (except for the ceramic troll in front) but not, say, Design with a capital D. None of them did.
A couple were pretty, so that was something. (There's supposedly one dressed up as a Midsommar Maypole but I didn't spot it.) The Amnesty tree was worthy but dull, a real-life representation of the organization itself. (Hope one of the nice Amnesty volunteers doesn't come into my office right now and beat me to death with an Amnesty-logo-etched drinking glass, even though I deserve it.) One amusing tree was bedecked with tree-shaped air fresheners that had glossy fashion and ad pics glued on the back. But the display, on the whole, sucked. That doesn't make it an ineffective PR ploy, of course. The hotel was able to squeeze ink out of a variety of local newspapers and blogs so I suppose it paid off. But next time, hold a contest, make a big deal out of it and actually give the designers (by donating money to their favorite causes, perhaps?) a reason to feel more passionate about their creations.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2005
Stockholm Style: Furniture, Food, Nightlife
Stockholm's new Street market includes art exhibits that even harried parents have time for (above).
Among the wares: the Swedish version of Handiwipes, flat square sponges with attitude (below).
My former neighbor David Sanger, a professional travel photographer and web geek, was in town recently and somewhat dumbfounded by the hordes of (often drunk) graduates packed into the back of enormous trucks with equally large sound systems. Each graduating class rents one or more trucks or buses. After the graduation ceremony they hop on a vehicle and cruise the city while drinking frightening amounts of alcohol (or pretending to) and blasting innocent bystanders with continuous, ear-splitting pop. "I thought Swedes were quiet," David said. Not during graduation week. Because the ceremonies are staggered, the revelry goes on for hours and hours over days and days.
Fortunately for David, there's plenty more for a travel pro to cover. From the famously glittery Berns to the attitudinal Nordic Light to the music-fixated nightclub/hotel Lydmar to Grill, the dining-on-furniture-you-can-buy collaboration between two veteran chefs and a furniture company. Saturday we hit Stockholm's new Street market together. I was intimidated by David's mass of steroidal camera equipment but I took a few hobbyist pics anyway. (It was a little like cooking dinner for a chef: possible but painful.) Södermalm used to be working class and still is in part. But it's also the youth-fueled art and design center of the city. The fledgling market, which perches on the very edge of the island, is an entertaining mix of trash and treasure, a perfect weekend outing for tourists and locals alike.
Speaking of locals, Petrus sends along this bit of self promotion: "FORM US WITH LOVE presents two brand new furniture products; the first one as flat as the second one is flexible." Don't know Petrus? Me neither but I'm a sucker for pitches from Swedish designers, even if their company has an impossibly hokey name. “Bendable Interior Objects (B.I.O) does not come in a flat package, it is the flat package. B.I.O is an unconventional interior concept in aluminium," Petrus writes. “Group of trees is a flexible and sound absorbing room divider for public rooms that brings the outdoors indoors."
Don't imagine birds would ever mistake them for the real thing. But I like 'em.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 02:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 25, 2005
Earth-Friendly Goodies
Just dropped off two big bags of clothes at the local Salvation Army and it feels great. But I'd be a bad Buddhist; there's so much to lust after and I do, every day in every way. I have little talent for buying big new stuff (only because I don't have the cash to finance a home-decorating spree that would include a black Noguchi table, a brace of Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs and perhaps a Josef Frank cabinet or two). I'm much better at making do with what I have or scavenging from second-hand places. I tell myself that's not so bad. In a small way, second-hand shopping is good for the planet.
Plenty of companies are eager to market new stuff as a boon to the environment as well. I'm not necessarily convinced but here's one example: "At least 65 percent of the handle of the Preserve razor is made out of Stoneyfield Farm yogurt cups. To recycle, the handle can be easily separated from the blade, which isn't yet recyclable. (Mr. Hudson insists they are working on it.) The handles can be pitched into a recycling bin or mailed back to Recycline in a company envelope," noted Mark Clayton in the Christian Science Monitor in a tribute to last week's Earth Day. Clayton mentions several great gadgets, including the Juice Bag, "a large bag with a flexible solar panel sewn to the back" that let's you charge a phone, laptop and iPod, say, if you walk to work as one enthusiastic owner does. (The appearance of this gal in the article suggests a successful marketing effort. Which is fine with me, given the topic. But the bag's not for sale yet, according to the company web site, so how the hell did she get her paws on a bag? Is she an Edward Bernays-style plant, a relative of the owner, a beta-tester? That's the kind of information readers should have.)
For parents, something called KidBean.com is thrilled, utterly thrilled to announce the debut of new Organic Hemp Children's Sneakers, as they Insist On Describing Them. According to the release (note to company or agency: enough with the gushy adjectives already): "These amazing children's shoes are 100% vegetarian (vegan) and are: cruelty-free, sweatshop-free, leather-free, and are quite simply the most sustainable children"s shoes you can buy! They are made with only environmentally-sound materials, including organic hemp uppers and soles made from reclaimed used tires."
If the shoes can make the kid wearing them nag-free, I promise to buy a dozen pairs. But what about the grownups? I need new sneakers. Where's my vegan, environmentally sound and affordable option?
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 21, 2005
Room Design
The National Wood Flooring Association now has a design-a-room feature that lets you compare the look of cherry flooring, say, to walnut in your kitchen, bedroom, living room or entry. You can change the wall color and make the grain horizontal or vertical but to a veteran visitor of Kiki's Condo, this tool falls short. There's no bamboo flooring, for example, there are no fun additional ways to use the flooring and there's no way to change the floor plans. Helpful? Maybe a little. Dull? Ubetcha. (Bob Villa's !@#$%&* site has a slew of design tools but doesn't support the Mac so I can't try it from home. Dorks.) Floor Facts has a list of links to virtual room designers and I'm guessing that many of them don't support the Mac but hey, why appeal to all potential customers, especially ones who, rightly or wrongly, like to think of themselves as creative?
Kiki's Condo, with its Dream Room Designer, isn't helpful but is fun for wannabe interior decorators who don't mind developing carpel tunnel syndrome. And it supports Macs and Safari. Guess mass marketers like Kraft Foods understand the value of casting a wide net at least sometimes. The site is sponsored by Post Cereals (owned by Kraft) and contains advertising but nothing outrageous. This so-called game, a fav of my daughter's, offers a selection of floor plans and styles of furnishings (don't miss the space age transparent floor element. Zoom in and click to see an alien) that you can place, move, delete and replace. There's no untidy paperwork, broken electronics or outgrown clothing to clutter up the joint. Sure, I should be cleaning up my actual apartment but rearranging the furniture in a virtual condo is much more appealing.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 19, 2005
Swedish Luxe
Thanks to Lagerlings for the photos above and below. The real estate firm is handling the sale of a condo in this building, a condo that appears to be the most expensive on the market in Stockholm. This place has six rooms, five terraces and an indoor pool (that it includes a sauna goes without saying). The exterior gives little clue to the sleek minimalist mansion within. I prefer modern to minimal but the bath tower below makes me swoon. If you must torment yourself with thoughts of the unattainable, click on "Hem Till Salu" (yup, homes for sale). Then click on "Läs mer" to the right of the first photo. Finally, click on the "Fler Bilder" button on the lower right for more pics. The cost? A mere 35 million SEK, equivalent to just over 3.8 million Euros and just under 5 million bucks.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 18, 2005
Decorator Porn
My favorite lamp is Danish. I see it frquently in Swedish shelter mags but rarely in real life. So it was amusing to walk into the offices of Absolute New York last week and see something like twelve of them illuminating the cubicle farm below. Later I spotted more walking past a small retailer in mid-Manhattan. Maybe I'll drag my husband there this summer as part of my oh-so-subtle style re-education camp. Zome day, zat lamp vill be mine! (Nope, I dunno why I'm writing like that either.)
I'm fighting off jet lag with decorator porn or as much of it as I can, er, swallow. I picked up Dwell for the ride home. Last week it won a National Magazine Award, which is great both because I like it and because the West Coast publishing scene needs all the support it can get. I also lugged many books home, including a paperback that shows 1000 beds (which I've decided is actually 67 beds with tiny modifications visible only to Italian designers, but if that doesn't float your boat you can go for the 1000 chairs model and I wish I had) and a hardback on twentieth-century furniture classics. Browsing the latter volume fills me with a sense of satisfaction, at least until I lift my eyes from the page.
"How many residential renovations get to revisit cold-war hostilities?" Interior Design has the scoop on one of them. "Before Messana O'Rorke Architects could add a 500- square-foot kitchen to a house in Short Hills, New Jersey, the firm had to remove a 1950's fallout shelter from the site, since codes prohibited construction on top of the concrete bunker." But wait, there are more horrors to come! "That wasn't the only best-forgotten period that the architects had to deal with. Clad in white stucco and roofed with cedar shingles, the house had the high gables and leaded windows of a gingerbread cottage directly out of the Brothers Grimm. Not to mention that the kitchen was dark and small, with cracked terra-cotta floor tile and a sadly antiquated range dating back to the age of Elvis." Oh those poor, poor owners. Luckily, heroic architects and, presumably, the kind of cash appropriate to a small monarchy rescued them from the tasteless domestic existence suffered by far too many. Me, for example. That's why I need that lamp, among 40 or 50 other equally tasty items.
Speaking of tasty items, an AP story (in the box) claims that people in the Netherlands celebrate the national holiday of Queen Beatrix's birthday, on April 30, by cleaning out their closets and holding sidewalk sales. How that constitutes some kind of tribute to the queen is unclear to me. The only obvious part is how my pack-rat's imagination takes the dry fact of sidewalk sales featuring outdated CDs and old sweaters and transforms the notion into the image of an irresistable bazaar stocked with luscious rare treasures available one day only and the likes of which I'll never ever set eyes on. One silly little article and my desire to acquire is nearly cranked into overdrive. Which reminds me, there's a Salvation Army store near my office that I've never visited. Catch you later.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 02:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 22, 2005
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Yesterday I bought this soda at Netto. Thanks to Netto, there's been a big price war among the grocery chains in my neighborhood of Kungsholmen. Near Fridhemsplan there are two ICAs, one Coop, one Vi and, starting some months back, a Netto. Two other Netto stores opened in Stockholm as well and this Danish-owned giant made its competitors scramble to catch up. ICA had a national TV campaign to promote supposedly sweeping price cuts that took place March 7, good news for all of us who eat. So I'm not down on the Netto concept (for the moment, at least, the company doesn't appear to be locking in its cleaning people).
But it's slimy that Netto is peddling a knock-off cola that looks so much like Coca-Cola without being Coca-Cola. (The text reads, "Original American Taste, Original Cola Classic.") According to the can, Danish brewer Harboe produces this soda specifically for Netto. The cola that Harboe markets to its other customers is not such an obvious copy.
My husband (thanks for the pic) and I have a friendly disagreement about the legality of this practice. Since neither one of us is a patent or trademark attorney, we're happy to devote hours to debating stuff we're in no position to actually judge. But if the package design above isn't illegal, it should be. The design is a clear effort to piggyback on the success of Coca-Cola's brand in Europe and elsewhere. That's wrong and it should stop.
In other news, what the hell happened yesterday? I mean, 1500 words? For free? On a blog?? Sorry about that.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)