The Men of Fashion.

Yesterday I saw the Ralph Rucci: a Designer and His House + Dressed for 10 Years fashion documentaries at ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image).
The Ralph Rucci film was so amazing, the detail that goes into his work blows my mind. He showed an example, from his recent couture collection, of a matching cocktail dress and coat which used over 140mt of fabric and took more than 1000 hours to make. As well as a dress which was made of a delicate silk with an overlay of sparkly beaded embroidery that was then covered in ostrich and vulture feathers so that the sparkle could only be seen when the wearer moved and the dress was so light it seemed to float.
Ralph Rucci himself was so effortlessly graceful, he was an American with the air of a Frenchman. His signature look of tailored pants or dark jeans with a light, white shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbow, was pure elegance.


The Dressed for 10 Years film was a montage of selected footage from the cult television show Dressed. Hosted by fashion journalist Mademoiselle Agnes, the documentary shows the highs and lows of the fashion world over the past 10 years. From industry scandal and fights among design houses to the effect of 9/11 and the global financial crisis. The documentary details the trends each year who all the big events, such as Yves Saint Laurent's death.

Part of the film documented the rise of Tom Ford within Gucci and then his fall within Yves Saint Laurent where he was booed of stage by fashion photographers. Tom Ford now has a successful line under his own name. Through his ups and downs there was always one constant, women swooned for him. His screw you attitude, his methodicalness and his fantastic suits had (and have) the ladies falling at his feet. At the end of every runway show he takes a precise 12 steps down the catwalk, swings his left arm a little then nods his head and walks back. He is all class.



Another designer shown in the film is Joseph Altuzarra. He is just as beautiful as his clothes.



Mademoiselle Agnes's interview with Largerfeld muse, Baptiste Giabiconi, is hilarious. It revolves around her asking him to take his shirt off, him flexing and posing, her touching his abs and then demanding he do push ups. It ends with him saying he doesn't understand why girls are not all over him. It's hard to tell if he is being ironic. But really, who cares?


I highly recommend seeing this duo of films at their final showing this Saturday evening at ACMI (Federation Square, Melbourne).

Norman Foster.

While flipping through an architecture book I stumbled across this fellow, Norman Foster. And he basically blew my mind. Just check out this bridge he designed with a little help from engineer Michel Virlogeux. The Viaduc de Millau spans the valley of the river Tarn in the south of France. It is the tallest bridge in the world with one pylon being 343 mt tall. The bridge is just short of 2.5km long. Holy moley.


He also built this
And this, to live in

For the Love of Gold.

I adore everything golden at the moment and I want this Burberry Prorsum Ombré silk-habotai trench more than most things in the world right now.

All the Cool Kids.

Firstly, my opinion of children is hardly a positive one. I think they are unpredictable, messy and not particularly cute. That said, these kids are pretty darn cool. The following children's collections are wonderful and the styling and casting of their shoots is absolutely perfect.
The kids appear effortlessly cool and stylish without being trite. This is what all the children of the world should be wearing. Just say no to Dora the Explorer and Ben 10 merchandise.

I have said many a time that Marc Jacobs does advertising better than fashion and I'm sticking to my guns. The Little Marc Jacobs collections are lovely, the spring 2010 one especially so, but more lovely are the catalogs that accompany them. The children are who you want your children to be, they are gorgeous. And the photos are fun. Marc Jacobs has found the perfect medium between high fashion and kids still being kids, no contrived poses. The images all look spur of the moment and totally brilliant.




Talc is a french children's label. Their clothes are simple and stunning. They are all great for kids to run around in and still perfectly stylish. Never have I so badly wanted to fit into children's clothing. Like the Little Marc Jacobs catalog, Talc's is also beautifully cast. The children are stunning and are so wonderful in front of the camera. All Talc's catalogs feature children wearing masks of some sort and all their images have block coloured backgrounds and a lovely soft light. The girls in the 2011 preview catalog (last 2 Talc images) seem so effortlessly hip and chic, i wonder how they have attained this coolness at such a young age. Proving that the French really are a superior race.

(This boy is so beautifully elfish)(I want to be the girl in the brown floral jumpsuit)

I like selected pieces from Stella McCartney's collection for GapKids but in general I'm not a huge fan. The images however, I love. The simple sets and barnyard animals are brilliant. the casting isn't quite as good as Little Marc Jacobs and Talc, some of the kids appear too 'posey' and even mannequin like whilst others are great and natural. As a sucker for glitter i can't help but love the glittered animals too.

Lanvin Lust

And this is why Alber Elbaz is widely considered a genius

Illustrator Milliken

Melbourne based illustrator Kristy Milliken does beautiful, colorful water colors often featuring rather rotund women sometimes in animal costumes, often naked and always fun.
The shapes, hues and lightness of her works are wonderful.

Woodlands

Tangled

Sensing Nature

Designer, Tokujin Yoshoika's, latest fine art piece 'Snow' is currently part of the Sensing Nature exhibition at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. The piece is absolutely beautiful. I wish i could see it in person.

Snow

But Snow is no fluke, Tokujin Yoshioka can hardly put a foot wrong when it comes to design.

Designer of The Year Exhibition for Miami Design

Martini Glass for Bombay Sapphire

Visual Merchandising for Hermes
(The face video is played on a loop and timed perfectly to interact with the scarf, being blown by a fan.)

Tokujin Yoshioka's site: http://www.tokujin.com/en/

" ! " Moments.

Nendo is a design company with offices in Milan and Tokyo. They dabble is everything from interior design and architecture to visual merchandising, from fine art to product and graphic design. Everything they do is simply amazing.

I love their concept statement:

"Giving people a small " ! " moment.
There are so many small " ! " moments hidden in our everyday.
But we don’t recognize them.
and even when we do recognize them,we tend to unconsciously reset our
minds and forget what we’ve seen.
But we believe these small " ! " moments are what make our days so
interesting, so rich.
That’s why we want to reconstitute the everyday by collecting and
reshaping them into something that’s easy to understand.
We’d like the people who’ve encountered Nendo’s designs to feel these
small " ! " moments intuitively.
That’s nendo’s job."

It so perfectly sums them up.

Here are some of my favorite things they've done

Meguro Office, Tokyo
MD.Net Mental Health Clinic, Tokyo

Baby Cafe, TokyoNendo's site: http://www.nendo.jp/en/