Thursday 31 January 2008

Viktor & Rolf for Piper Heidsieck



Nobody could accuse impresarios of the fashion world Viktor & Rolf of being conservative when it comes to imaginative concepts. In the past when unlikely companies have enlisted the help of fashion designers to inject a product with a bit of creativity, the results have often been lacklustre: pretty prints have graced everything from laptop surfaces to washing machines but rarely have collaborations been anything more than surface.
But when the historic French champagne house Piper Heidsieck approached the Dutch duo to design a limited edition Rose Sauvage set, Viktor & Rolf approached the project with the same care, imagination and attention to detail as they would one of their collections.
‘How could we make something new out of something eternal? We only had one answer: invert the proportions by making an enormous cork and a narrower base,’ they explain.
Aware of the potential accusations that they were playing with the concept pointlessly, they said in their defence, ‘There’s always a danger in taking on this sort of project: a risk of creating a gimmick. The only way to avoid this pitfall is to be very thorough in the execution.’
And thorough in this case means mastering the technical difficulties of making sure each component of the collection follows the same principles: so an inverted champagne glass becomes more of a Martini glass and an inverted cooler appears more like an antique casket.
For Viktor & Rolf’s efforts to stamp a very traditional brand with their trademark wit, we applaud them.

Friday 25 January 2008

YSL digital debut



Each season there’s one show that gets tongues wagging more than the others. Perhaps the easiest way to ensure one’s show is noticed rather than merely noted is in radical use of staging. And this season Yves Saint Laurent pushed the boat out considerably further than anyone else, entirely dispensing with both a catwalk and a string of models. Instead Creative Director Stefano Pilati chose to show YSL’s Autumn/Winter ’08 collection as a film on a three-screen LCD triptych.

The video features just one man, rising British star on the acting circuit Simon Woods, and was directed by equally nascent (and equally impressive) talents in the UK film scene, Sarah Chatfield and Chris Sweeney. This meeting of creative minds away from the traditional format of a catwalk show principally served to highlight how times are changing. And more succinctly how fashion and its presentation can fit into and capitalise on these cultural, technological and social changes afoot.

Whereby it’s customary to read a snippet of a show report the following day in a newspaper, Pilati actively sought to disseminate his collection at the click of a button, not the turn of a page. Bizarrely, it’s actually far easier to get a sense of the collection, as a whole and in detail, from the film than a catwalk show. Taking full advantage of repeat shots, slow motion and zoom, one is left with a comprehensive feel for how the collection is put together and importantly, how it wears.
And what of the collection itself? We’ve long come to expect the finest, gently retro tailoring from YSL. This time round was no different: flared and cuffed, skinny and cropped trousers were worn with sharp-shouldered or deconstructed jackets, with characteristic wide lapels. A bordeaux, dark green, navy blue and ivory palette harks back to the Seventies Saint Laurent, a feeling accentuated by flashes of print: Indian silk scarves, pocket squares together with cloud and lightning appliqués

Friday 18 January 2008

House RR, Sao Paolo

The quasi-industrial feel of the house is offset by the towering wall of greenery that surrounds it.


The house is clad in a combination of insulated steel panels and a system of sliding glass fibre mosquito screens.



Sliding glass-fibre mosquito screens keep out unwelcome critters at night.


The main double-height living area can be opened up to the outside world with the help of wooden and glass opening screens.


Hammocks slung casually on the wooden frame give the house a relaxed feel.


The kitchen and dining area.




The main living area is six metres high.


The timber-framed structure is raised up on concrete pillars.


The timber staircase.


The shutters give the building a tree-house feel on the upper floor.


One of the summer house's three bedrooms.


Tuesday 15 January 2008

OUT interview:Mika's Second Verse (Same As The First?)





























The international sensation on his post-breakthrough, post-radio, post-Out life.

Shana Naomi Krochmal

When pop singer Mika, 24, appeared on Out’s cover last July [Pop's New Queen], he firmly declared, “I’m not willing to label myself.” His consistent not-quite no comment continues to ruffle the feathers of out and proud queers -- and, of course, rile up his staunchest defenders.

He recently checked in with Out from London, updating us on his whirlwind year, his most obscure and infamous inspirations, and just exactly what he thinks of the folks who say he’s hiding in plain sight.

Out: In 2007, you played at Coachella, won three World Music Awards and were nominated for a Grammy. What was the highlight?
Mika: Being able to pay my bills? [Laughs] No. I’m kidding. Everyone always wants me to say the big stuff, the huge festivals and performances. But it was just being given an insight into how to do things. A profession you’ve always wanted to do your entire life finally becomes real, and you have to make the most of it.

Are you going to the Grammys?

I don’t know. I’m more concerned with my own show the day after in Los Angeles. The nomination is quite an honor -- yet award ceremonies are always a little bit of a meat market, aren’t they? I like the nomination more than anything. I think if I was performing it’d be different because I’d have a purpose. We’ll see.

What’s going to be different about this tour?

Unfortunately, I can’t bring the same show all over the States. In L.A. and New York and some of the Canadian shows where we’re doing 10,000 seaters, we’ve got the full show. But because we’re playing clubs down to 1,500 people, we can’t physically fit [everything] into the venues. For the bigger shows, it is a lot closer to this total gig vision that I’ve got. We work with an 18-foot puppet, a snow machine, stuff like that. It’s fantasy. As long as it’s all based around a good set of songs and a good set of performances, it’s important to create magic and stretch the world.

How do you describe your ideal vision for a show?

I’ve been to a lot of arena gigs, and some are very disappointing because they rely too much on a big bunch of screens. There’s a disadvantage being 9,000 people away from the performer, and it’s that he’s quite small. But there is also an advantage to that, because you can create illusions that you never could within a small club, a sense of scale and magic. In the next two years when I’m developing my big shows, especially in Europe and Canada and in Asia, I’m looking forward to creating this virtually delicious show that happens all over at different stages of the arena -- so you never feel like you’re far away whether you’re in the third row or the 300th row.
Whose big arena shows do you like the best?

I think that the Madonna concerts are really entertaining. It’s not like going to a Led Zeppelin gig, but it’s still kind of a visual feat. Prince -- he’s the master, and that relies mostly on music too, the tightness of the band, the tightness of his performance. And also there’s that whole Cirque du Soleil thing, you know? When you see some of those shows, you’re literally sitting there scratching your head, wondering how the hell they’ve managed to create that visual effect.
























Who has inspired your music and the way that you perform?

I always go on about Harry Nilsson. He’s just this victim of his own profession, very underrated. He’s so talented, undeniably so, both as a writer and as a singer -- but just not quite fashionable enough to be famous as a household name. And ironically enough, he was the favorite songwriter of the Beatles for most of their career, both Lennon and McCartney, and very good friends with them as well. And I love Prince, because he’s a musical genius and he’s the opposite end of the spectrum. Whereas Harry Nilsson was introspective and fragile, Prince is a superstar and kind of the short man who kind of dominates the arena.

You’ve sold nearly 5 million records worldwide, and yet such a small percentage of that is in the U.S. Are you frustrated about not being a household name here?

No. I mean, it’s a mixture. I think the U.S. takes time. If someone asks me, “Have you reached the climax of your success in the U.S.?” I would immediately say, “100 percent no.” Is my career growing in the U.S. steadily? Yes. Is it growing as fast as it is in other countries? Maybe not. But when I put my tickets on sale, my tours sell out -- and I’m on my third U.S. tour. The fact that I’m doing so well in Canada is a good reflection that the American market isn’t really that alien to me. My gigs in America are pretty intense. It’s not as if I’m going and getting disappointed. What confuses me is that my gigs are pretty mental, yet I just can’t get the radio support.

Why do you think that is?


It’s very simple. I didn’t get radio support in the States with “Grace Kelly,” even though it was number one in most territories around the world, probably in the top two or three songs in the world by radio play in every single country. I heard from a [U.S.] radio station a couple of months ago, and the programmer’s excuse was, “It’s because he says he wants to be like a woman. He has the line where he says he wants to be like Grace Kelly, and we just don’t feel comfortable with this song.” And then when it got to “Love Today,” and we tried to get radio to play it they said, “Impossible -- it’s a man singing in the vocal range of the woman.” It’s kind of depressing, really. It’s just confusing. But I see the humor of it. Far more people are listening to me online than are listening on radio and, quite frankly, that’s the contact I’m quite comfortable with at the moment, because it means I can sell tickets to my live shows.

If “Lollipop” were a Fergie song, I think it would have been a huge summer hit on American radio.
Well, yeah, there’s this thing where you should know your place. But you can bitch about it, or you can just create other ways to make your career grow. And I’m certainly not intending to bitch about it -- I hardly ever do, actually.

Are you working on your next album?


I’ve been working on it for a while actually. I was recording demos for my second album as I was recording the first album. I really like the opportunity that I have in front of me. I just want more. When I was making my first album, I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it, and I think I’m going to have to keep the same attitude for this one. Even though I’m fucking tempted to go on and on!

Please, let me tempt you! You could go on a little more.
[Laughs] No. No more. But I’m certainly not going to kowtow to the pressure of trying to get radio support in certain territories. I’m not interested in manipulating what I do for anything. I’m going to do what I do. I write songs for myself, and I’m going to continue doing that. If it gives me that funny feeling in the back of my spine, the kind of feeling that makes me want to go to the loo, then I know that it’s good.

Let’s talk about the reaction to your Out cover story.

So how did it go?

On our side? There were a lot of people who were just thrilled to see it and hear what you had to say. And we also got a lot of flak, people who said, “How could a magazine called Out put someone on the cover who seems ashamed to admit he’s gay?”


That’s nonsense.











What’s your reaction to that?

Yeah, well, I’m sure you heard that a lot. But I always polarize opinions, whether it’s my private life or the music that I make, and I’ve had to deal with that over the past year. I think that’s been one of the biggest learning curves. I’ve gotten a huge amount of success, but if you had any idea of the amount of flak that I get for the kind of songs that I write or the way that I talk about or refuse to talk about almost any private aspect of my life -- you’d be pretty astonished. And one of the biggest challenges that I’ve had is just saying to myself, You know what? Just stay the same. Stay the way that you are. I can understand that you got polarized opinions. Of course you were going to. That doesn’t surprise me.

Do you think there’s a way to describe your sexuality without using labels?

Of course there’s ways of discussing sexuality without using labels. I think that if you want to discuss sexuality or just kind of sexual things to begin with, I think there definitely is. I think that’s far more interesting than talking about whether someone is agreeing to or refusing to use labels. I think that’s what your article -- and definitely your [cover] headline [Mika: Gay/Post-Gay/Not Gay?] was getting at.

Is that a conversation you want to have more of? Is it that you won’t talk about anything in your life regarding sex, or that you don’t want to talk about it in the terms that people have been asking you to?

I’ll talk about my opinions, and I’ll talk about my music, and I’ll write about my opinions or about my personal life stories in my music. I will not talk about labels, and I will not talk about over-categorizing things, because labels are the one thing that I’ve never agreed with -- simply because I just don’t fit into them in my own personal life. And yes, if someone’s willing to have an interesting conversation and take the time and patience to go into stuff like that, then yeah, I think it’s fascinating. But I write songs -- that’s what I do first. I don’t politicize myself or my life, and I am who I am. If you know my lyrics and if you know my songs, you probably know a lot more about me than if you just read an article about me.

Monday 14 January 2008

Model:Tyler Bachtel


This, my lovely readers, is Tyler Bachtel. A gift from the gods. Hailing from the streets of Dublin, Ohio, he studies Radiology at university while modeling on the side.

The Basics:
Age: 23
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5′11″
Weight: 160lbs

Represented by:

Evolution Management - London, England
AYO Management - New York, NY
301 Model Management - Miami, Florida

Now that the introduction is out of the way, let’s get on with the photos of Tyler in all manners of undress.








Rendez vous de mois: Benjamin Godfre


20 year old Benjamin Godfre has Irish, Italian, English roots. He raised in Minnesota and now he is attending school in Orange County









Wednesday 2 January 2008

Alessi '401' coffee and tea service















When it comes to drip-proof spouts and ergonomic handles, no one does better design than Italian homeware heavyweight Alessi. Loved and adored for decades by hotels and house-proud individuals alike, the ‘401’ steel coffee and tea service set has become an iconic flagpole that all post-modern designs of the same grain are measured against.

It is thus that we were filled with warmth when we heard the Alessi ‘401’ series was back on the shelves – re-worked, re-launched and reassuringly, still beautiful.
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