Under my Umbrella (Ella ella, eh eh eh)

 

A while back I posted about how much I love Q-Pot and that I found about them from an amazing magazine spread, I said that I would share some of the other designers featured, but didn't...UNTIL NOW! 

I personally believe that they key to a beautiful life is making everything around you beautiful and unique, which often means your material possessions. Guy de Jean definitely has figured out how to make ordinary things fantastic with the parasols/umbrellas he designs.  The patterns are intricate, the design is elegant, the combination is sheer and utter loveliness!

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I'm a VAGABOND travelling from SANTA FE to EAST HARLEM

In my opinion the best things in life are the ones that remove you from your universe and take you into another world, one just filled with beauty. This can come in many different forms: art, theatre, film, or music, as in this case. I most recently experienced this transplant into a "scenic world" when I first laid the needle on Beirut's new album, The Rip Tide. The album makes me feel like I am living in the French seaside, having a picnic on a blue sky day, smoking with a long cigarette holder, in the company of wonderful people. While the whole record evokes extreme emotion, I would most highly recommend East Harlem, Santa Fe, and Vagabond.

The photograph is by Garry Winogrand and was probably the first photograph to really resonate with me. I think it is the perfect image to accompany this album and very much proves my point because (at least to me) there is a sliver of perfect world captured in that photo.

Song of the Day: Michicant-Bon Iver

If it were possible I would shout this off a mountain, but I don't have a mountain, I don't even have a news channel (that's an Anchorman reference, kids), so I am type-shouting on this blog: BON IVER HAS A NEW ALBUM!!!! It is eponymous and, this goes without saying, it is just overall an amazing record. My personal favourite songs are Towers, Holocene, and most of all Michicant, which I would strongly advise everybody to listen to.

the image is by Wendy Beaven for Marie Claire Italy

"Downtown That's Your Home Address"

Looking through some recent photographs I took I realized that I have never posted about the LA Freewalls Project, one of the best things going on in this city and the street art community on the whole. The project, started in late 2009 (with an inaugural D*Face mural) by Daniel Lahoda, allows local and visiting street artists to legally put up large-scale murals in the downtown area. The project is a breath of fresh air for LA because the city has a reputation for being unkind to street art and even the artists themselves (note that Revok was jailed!). Centered around a building at East 6th & Mateo streets, in the past two years the project has grown tremendously, expanding to much of the east downtown area and features many world-renowned street artists. The recently-ended show at MOCA (blogged about here), brought a milieu visiting  street artists, many of whom contributed to LA Freewalls before leaving...check out the new pieces below:

Swoon

 Swoon

 Anthony Lister

 

Ron English, Roa

to see more of my downtown/LA street art photos please click here

Designer Spotlight: Meadham Kirchhoff (Mania)

Even though this is a "fashion-y" blog I rarely talk about the clothing I like and the people that make them, which seems silly because what is fashion without designers? That being said, I am "spotlighting" Meadham Kirchhoff, the London-based designer duo that makes--in my opinion--the most beautiful--and uniquely beautiful--clothing.

Let's start with their things in magazines:

 

Julija Steponaviciute by Nick Dorey   Spring Summer 2011 collection by Amira Fritz 

 

Ashley Smith in Lurve Magazine  Giedre Dukauskaite by Jane McLeish in a very well-styled Lula

 

V Magazine's own spotlight on new designers , this article was really great and featured some of my favourite designers (many of which will be posted) and that "piece" belongs to my shrine (sorry for all the unnecessary quoting, I feel like a Larry Johnson artwork. Also, I, in my o so kind nature, circled Meadham Kirchhoff for the viewer

Lulu Kennedy in Vogue UK Alek Wek in I-D Magazine (this is also part of my Meadham Kirchhoff shrine)

 

Kirby Kenny by Beau Grealy

 Guinevere Van Seemus ( i don't know what it's from) Olga Sherer by Emma Tempest

Ashley Smith by Ronald Dick for Lurve Magazine

Hannah Holman by Ellen Von Unwerth for Tush Magazine MIA in Interview Magazine

 

 Ann Kenny by Beau Grealy Ashley Smith by Ronald Dick (again)

 

Test Magazine  Dafne Cejas by Sebastian Faena 

 

Their imagined funerals in the London Evening Standard Clash Magazine

Now shall we look inside their studio?

Hello Kitty and teacups

Inspiration wall

inspiration wall part 2

dolls and caterpillar prints...a lot of Alice and Wonderland vibes!

Crown table

Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff in their home and studio

note their fabulous clothing and the walls with the Nicoletta Ceccoli cat girl

The Decorations:  

 The Riot Girl Shrine 

 

 The flowers at their secret store at Topshop  the Fall 2010 runway

Now, I dare indulge us in the clothes: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 All runway photos via Elle

That took forever! But I am glad I did it because now if there is a contest to find for who most loves Meadham Kirchhoff, I have proof that I deserve to win!