EVERYTHING GOES?

"EVERYTHING GOES with Mattia Bonetti

The rule is:  if it looks like a Bonetti, it's probably not.  Known for his wildly imaginative and wide-ranging furniture and objets d'art, the Swiss-born, Paris-based designer Mattia Bonetti takes a tour through myriad styles and art movements, making stops from surrealism to rococo to minimalism, then arrives at a radical eclecticism that's all his own.  From metallic tables meant to evoke strings of chewing gum pulled from the pavement by a shoe sole to acrylic cabinets decorated with menacing brass spikes to an asymmetrical, multicolored leather chaise that looks like a melted Jeff Koons sculpture, Bonetti's fantastic creations have injected the design world with a bit of beautiful chaos - and without their creator ever committing to one look, one material, or even one philosophy of design."

nice!

like

interesting giant lego

still good

hmmm..

chewing gum inspired??

???

yikes

everything goes..  or anything goes?

useful reminders

"But genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will - a childhood now equipped for self expression, with manhood's capacities and a power of analysis which enables it to order the mass of raw material which it has involuntarily accumulated."

Charles Baudelaire

"I do not want to see how skillful you are - I am not interested in your skill. What do you get out of nature?... What is life to you? What reasons and what principles have you found? What are your deductions? What projections have you made? What excitement, what pleasure do you get out of it? Your skill is the thing of least interest to me..."

Robert Henri

The Department Store - in new zealand

excerpted from "about" on their website.

"The Department Store is a modern take on the traditional department store experience. It's the brainchild of Karen Walker, Stephen Marr and Dan Gosling of Black Box. Their vision is to create a single environment where one can experience the very best from the world of design, beauty, fashion and interiors... Since opening in October 2009, The Department Store has been recognized the world over as a leading example of smart new retail thinking... Further to those accolades was the nomination of The Department Store as the one and only location for UK High Street fashion giants TopShop to open in New Zealand..."

hmmm.. i think someone's taking themselves a little too seriously. i've always liked designers from down under for precisely the opposite qualities.

i like karen walker's funky, unusual style. it is reflected in the retro, feminie parts of the store. some parts feel more hard and masculine while others almost too trendy. overall, the style of the department store seems to lack an overall theme and coherence. maybe that's intentional, or maybe not.

like the retro mannequins and romantic colors.

twist on gerrit rietveld's red and blue chair and side table.

like the pallet inspired display bases.

down under

i've been talking about designers from down under. it really struck me now how relevant they've become. maybe they themselves have to get use to the rise to fame, as you browse through the funky brand names.. the work is solid. watch out, the rest of the world.

pistols at dawn

dr denim

stolen girlfriend's club - dude, you need to shave!

sorry, lost track of the brand..

we are handsome

ksubi. first class styling on this image.

acne

best thing i saw this morning from my hundred of emails is the acne e-shop-in-shop as curated by opening ceremony. i don't know the extent of oc's "curatorial", whether it is similar to how years ago when barney's new york would make suggestions to designers as big as prada how to edit their designs to better suit the local clientele. regardless. the result is good. this asymmetrical fur coat is my favorite. $3440.

cute, colorful and piccolo

are the three adjectives the designer ionna vautrin chose to describe her new table lamp Binic.  inspired by windsocks on boats, these lamps are indeed cute, quirky and unassuming like their creator.  there's a child-like quality in vautrin that's appealing.  i particularly like her simple but evocative sketches.  here's a video of her explaining how she came up with the design.

oskar metsavaht

"My creative process begins with a scene, a history, a style, a concept that I create from something that I wished or lived.  From this point, I create the environment, the atmosphere, the looks and the attitudes.  In most cases, I have the concept of the campaign before the collection.  Maybe that's the reason I love doing the art shooting.  I create the atmosphere of the story and I make my own films, with which I can share the scene I imagined from the beginning of the process.  The pieces are drawn to be the figurine of my film.  And it is possible to "watch" in each detail of my collection.  I am only satisfied when proposed elements for each piece, the colors, the textures and the silhouettes start being used by the characters of the film I made."

i'm speechless.  images from his current collection (below) might as well be clipped from fellini's 8-1/2.

my name is mona

treasure hunt

mk + i spent the morning at the flea market.  here are a few memorable pieces.

a stool crafted out of solid teak wood.  asking $150.

a skinny bench with nice joinery but not very stable.  asking $25.

cute stroller in the  back.

this stall of handmade jewelry is incredible.  the owner is the artist and he reminds me of beth orduna except that his work is more raw and bold.  if you can zoom into the photo, the piece with the chunky crystal dangling from the thick industrial chain on the left center of picture is my favorite.  he asked for $80 and i would have gotten it if not for the rust on the chain.  his work has soul and his aloofness is touching.

you can sense his artistry not only from the pieces he created, but the care he put into the display of his work.  

these boots rock!  thomas wylde, would you please plagiarize them for your next collection??

a johnsian conversation

we are so fond of jasper johns that we named our son after him.  perhaps more captivating than his work, i find, is his personality.  a conversation with johns can be so distinctive that people in the art world refer to it as "a johnsian conversation."  here's an illustration excerpted from the book by michael crichton.

The art critic Leo Steinberg has recorded the following conversation:  "i asked [Johns] about the type of numbers and letters he uses - coarse, standardized, unartistic - the type you associate with packing cases and grocery signs.

Q:  You nearly always use this same type.  Any particular reason?

A:  That's how the stencils come.

Q:  But if you preferred another typeface, would you think it improper to cut your own stencils?

A:  Of course not.

Q:  Then you really do like these best?

A:  Yes.

This answer is so self-evident that I wonder why I asked the question at all; ah, yes - because Johns would not see the obvious distinction between free choice and external necessity.  Let me try again:

Q:  Do you use these letter types because you like them or because that's how the stencils come?

A:  But that's what I like about them, that they come that way.

while i'm totally fascinated and amused by reading these conversations, i can imagine living with someone like this will make me jump out the window, very quickly.

invisible cities

in the novel, italo calvino depicted marco polo inspecting and reporting to kublai khan on his ever-expanding territories. the way the venetian traveler described each city was mesmerizing. the great khan found comfort and consolation in polo's accounts of his unique and bizarre journeys. at the same time, he was offered no practical information. the stories told were at once magical and irrelevant.

i remember being fascinated when i read the book 20 years ago. upon revisiting it during thanksgiving break, it is now that i can fully embrace and connect with the way calvino described his intellectual depression: "... i ceased to be young. perhaps it's a metabolic process, something that comes with age, i'd been young for a long time, perhaps too long, suddenly i felt that i had to begin my old age, yes, old age, perhaps with the hope of prolonging it by beginning it early." he wrote this at age 43.

when you've come this far in the journey, you seek no longer the black or white. it's the shades of grey in between that is enchanting and offers meaning. it's the substance lying beneath the surface that breathes life and truth into everything.

sass & bide

i love the way their website casually opens unto a full page fashion show of the current season. the collection is young and fun with pixelated prints mixed with strawy stuff plus a few metallic things for accent. the music is cool, even the simple white tent looks fine. all that's left is to offer a little help on the audience's styling..

with this inspiration, go get crazy at target and mix it all up.

the store that never opened

when i think of tobias wong, a few good things come to mind. his Killer Diamond Engagement Ring, his Smoking Mitten, his Coke Spoon. best of all, his Wrong Store that never opened.

MATTER MADE

a few interesting pieces from this design showroom in new york.

a stunning coffee table in huge chunks of wood coated with a brilliant layer of silver. Periodic Table by One And Co, only $42,000.

Lantern Table is made by "blowing hot molten glass directly into an oversized brass mesh structure, containing it like a net. as the glass pushes and strains against the containment, the form is violated, becoming a more organic shape". result? a work of beauty that's both structured and fluid . designed by Stephen Burks, $10,000.

i would (almost) kill to have this chopping board!

one of a kind Butcher Block, $2,500.

first pick

the title of this post might be a little misleading.  by "first pick", i refer to the pieces jotted down as i browsed through the web pages in two minutes, essentially picked at first impression.  why do i feel comfortable sharing this on the blog, you ask.  because as much as i believe life should be lived seriously, i often remind myself to be light.  so here's my "light" list of suggestions out of the net-a-porter sale (on accessories).  let me know if you like!

this piece caught my eye immediately.  love the polka dot tie.

margiela is margiela, even without margiela..

a more modern and edgy erickson beamon piece i've seen.

this piece is big and clunky, nice.

a substantial belt.

check out other images on the website.  this is a handsome belt on the right dress.

the vintage clasp makes the belt.

i'm not always crazy about judith lieber's designs.  but this piece can almost pass for a georg jensen, whose work i love.