Ballet Costume Design: New and Old

This week, the New York City Ballet premiered two new ballets featuring costumes designed by fashion houses Rodarte, and J. Mendel.

Rodarte for “Two Hearts” by Benjamin Millepied

J. Mendel for “Mes Oiseaux” by Peter Martin

These beautiful designs bring me back to the fashion/theater collaborations for the Ballet Russe in the early 1900s.

Leon Bakst for “Blue God”

Chanel for “Le train bleu”

Giorgio de Chirico for “La Bal”

Henri Matisse for “Le Chant du Rossignol”

Natalia Goncharova for “Sadko”

Horrockses Fashions

This summer’s revival of the cotton floral dress will reach new heights once you explore the revolutionary brand, Horrockses Fashions.

Museum Curator, Christine Boydell highlights a selection of the ready to wear dresses featured at the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2010.

Alas, the dresses are no longer made, but Horrockses Fashions offers a boon to budding fashion designers or vintageistas by offering a series of dress patterns that utilize their bed linen designs….pretty clever idea, if you ask me.

Here’s the 1st design
Martha

free pattern

Embossed Pencils

Remember embossed pencils? Why did we do away with them? I remember going to the county fairs all around the midwest as a young girl and at the end of each summer, my parents would buy me a new set with my name on them for the upcoming school year.

If you’re feeling nostalgic for them like me, consider these updated versions for gifts.

Teenage Power Couples

Available at Greenwich Letterpress, NYC right now.

Royal Tennebaums

Twin Peaks (never forget)

Available at Pie Diddy

Let’s have some fun with this. What groupings can you think of? Here are a few ideas to get you thinking….
Emotional: affirmations, endearing comments, pet names, moods
Children: commonly misspelled words, family values, state capitals, famous quotes, foreign language translations
Fun: movie quotes, 80′s big hair bands, drunk girl quotes
Business: website addresses

Berliner Philharmoniker

Ever wonder what the inside of a handmade instrument looks like?

Me neither, but these photographs for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra are absolutely fabulous.

Read More…

Do Knit Disturb

New York Times Magazine has featured a knitted hotel room by Brigton artist Kate Cardigan (what a great name!)

The room is in Hotel Pelirocco and boasts being the original rock n roll boutique hotel. The hotel is situated on Regency Square on the seafront in the centre of Brighton. It is very close to Brighton’s vibrant shopping areas, within spitting distance of the conference centre and a stagger away from the clubs, bars, and restaurants.

I’m in! When are we leaving?

Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts,
and Other Artists’ Enumerations

The sweetest little show is currently up at the JP Morgan Library & Museum Lists from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, Curated by Liza Kirwin, highlights a variety of lists gleaned from artists’ papers. I was so interested to explore the different ways people record information and the myriad of methods used to visually execute their respective lists.

“The sweetest of the lists is essentially a love letter from the Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen to New York Times art critic and editor Aline Bernstein, who became his second wife. Written in an architect’s block printing and numbered with Roman numerals, he methodically itemizes his beloved’s virtues, beginning with “First I recognized that you were very clever.” -north jersey newspaper

Adolf Konrad’s illustrated packing list for his trip to Rome and Egypt in 1963.

What kind of lists do you make? I for one make multiple repetitive lists a day which includes very basic tasks like wash hair, eat lunch, take subway, but I also take time to make lists of things that make me happy. My most recent list addresses the fact that Downton Abbey was renewed for a 2nd season on pbs, a friend is now pregnant with twins after 6 rounds of in vitro, the fact that I’m starting to look more like my mom. I hope to add awesome black suede boots to my list in the coming weeks. Will report back.

cool website about visual travel itineraries.
NY Times article

Paris vs. New York

Paris vs. New York: A Tally of Two Cities is a clever design concept by graphic designer Vahram Muratyan that will be on display at Colette Paris. As described by Muratyan, “the friendly visual match between two cities told by a lover of Paris wandering through NewYork. Details, clichés, contradictions.”

Godard vs. Woody

So I can’t take credit for anything here, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share this with all of you. A friend posted it on facebook, and I’ve been in love ever since-too bad I can’t get to Colette in Paris before September 24, 2011. Luckily they can be ordered online here

Here are my favorites:

Sonja vs. Anna

Baguette vs. Bagel

Parisienne vs. Mad Men

Pyramid vs. Cube

Roland Garros vs. U.S. Open

More about the artist here

The touch, the feel…..

I’ve taken new interest in the Cotton campaign after watching the segments sequentially. The most recent addition to the pack; Kate Bosworth-who knew she could sing?

KATE BOSWORTH

see what’s in Kate’s cotton closet

Read More…

Year of Color by Kate Spade

Aside from the Kate Spade sundries we’ve admired for so long, the company has curated a decorous collection of special projects which include artist collaborations, short films, special edition prints and products that coincide with a selected color (one for each month).  This orange image is a still from Meghan Eplett & Language Dept.’s animation sequence.

Read More…

Yo Yoga!

My friends at Yo Yoga! were kind enough to take me on as the studio’s resident seamstress this summer. Together we have designed an assortment of yoga mat bags and straps to sell.

Yo Yoga:
Yo Yoga! offers Hatha/Vinyasa blend classes at an affordable price, making yoga available to everyone. Our students will feel they are a part of a studio that takes yoga seriously without taking itself too seriously.

In addition to our spacious studio, we also offer warm weather outdoor classes on our 1300 square foot roof deck. Fun and affordable in Manhattan. Go figure.

Yo Yoga featured articles:
New York Times
New York Magazine