Fashion As Stealth Technology

Though separated by 20 years, English designer Gareth Pugh, and French designer Claude Montana, offered up outfits that provided provocative protection for the forward thinking 'gal'

London Power

I took this shot of the Battersea Power Plant in London a couple of years ago. (Immortalized on a 1977 Pink Floyd album cover).

The entire interior of this 30's building, which is huge, is an empty shell without a roof.

It really needs to be saved/renovated, much like the current Tate Modern museum, down the river Thames a bit.

Amazing Suspension Lamps

By British designer Ross Lovegrove. And one by Zaha Hadid.

Spectacular collisions of form and function.

F U T U R E P E R F E C T

Imagine the quantities of fossil fuel needed to maintain this 50's glimpse of the future.

Such optimism and pure exuberance. 

Sinister Beauty?

I think some of today's (or the past's) most beautiful objects, have a sinister element about them.

Take the SR-71 spyplane, from the early '60's. It is an engineering marvel, in that it flew at over 2,2oo mph.......and still managed to look good. Like Starck's iconic lemon juicer, it has an odd duality about it. 'Pretty and Deadly'

I love this woman......

Parisian designer Andree Putman, who did the original Morgans Hotel in NY (and the redesign), is  champion of early Eileen Gray designs from the '20s.

F R E S H !

File this under, 'silly and mundane', but my fave scent (which is 'unisex') is Mugler's Cologne.

Like a soapy, fresh and clean 'just from the shower' scent.

Zaha Hadid

New (at Milan show) Zaha Hadid 'moveable' table centerpiece. Interchangeable pieces, that can be moved in different positions. She is incredibly talented, and I would love to have this piece.

(price to be determined)

Chicago Spire

While not new news, construction (at least foundation) is underway for the talented Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire, which will be the country's tallest residential building. I've lived in high rises, and low level condos alike. I must admit I prefer the freedom to pop outside quickly, but views from such buildings are a surreal thrill.

Another Perfect House

Palm Springs Modern. It doesn't get much better than this. Dinah, Lucy, and Desi with cocktail shakers by the pool in the clear desert air.

There are so many residential developments these days with acceptable, or forward thinking facades, that are cursed with BAD Home Depot neo-colonial front doors with 'stained glass' accents. Not sure why a lot of today's developers falter, at the front door.

How quaint

A never realized nuclear powered Ford from the early 50's. Unimaginable in today's clearer thinking (and totally savage) times. Still would have been fun to see Lucy and Ethel take a ride to the A&P for a dozen eggs and some uranium.

Dali Phone

Iconic 1936 lobster phone by Dali.

V I N T A G E F L O O R L A M P

Just about the most perfect, French floor lamp from the 50's.

Rare indeed, and sells for roughly $9k. 

T O K Y O

I took snaps of these buildings, on an October trip to Tokyo.

The cleanest, most civilized city I've ever seen.

The official Mascot of the Tokyo Tower (which is a goofy, slipshod replica of the Eiffel Tower) is a cross between a soft-serve cone and a penis.

What's not to like?

Lighten Up

Why settle for a cheap mass-market store lamp, when with a little more searching (and a few more bucks) you can find a lamp that lights a room, AND makes you smile.

LP covers as art..

While nothing new, it can be 'fun' to arrange prized record covers. (in this case, The Smiths)

Especially if the covers have a great, graphic Warhol quality about them.

Size Matters

These are tiny, metal, German made 1:200 scale models of the Titanic, and the recent Queen Mary 2 (nearly 3 times the size of the Titanic)

One of the earliest albeit ill-fated liners, and (as of 2009) the LAST ocean liner.

Architecture with a Pulse

Forget about those gold tinted window Trump confections, or those 'neo-Versailles' type high rise condo buildings with a sensibility stuck in some safe, myopic past.

Give me a Sir Norman Foster, any day. (and throw in a little Hadid traveling Chanel Pavillion)

Seriously, now that the hideous year of 2008 is over, I like to focus on objects of beauty and wonder. I know Design, like everything else, is very subjective.

But we all can learn to look at things, and appreciate differences in a new way.

Lunch with the Pope

If my sister and I were to have lunch with the Pope, I'd ask her to wear this Mugler outfit.

By the way, does anyone else find it creepy seeing 6 out of 10 people on the street with North Face coats? Is this now the unofficial uniform of the Uninspired?

:)

Random Thought

I kind of like the idea of projecting arresting images on buildings.

An old Bowie LP on the Guggenheim comes to mind as one fun idea.

Oscar Niemeyer House & 1st Class Dining Room of the SS Normandie

Dream spaces. One tranquil, and one uptight with pure Art Deco embellishment. The Sistine Chapel of Deco ocean liner spaces.

I love them both.

Mad Lamps

Goofy & Fun Coffee Set

Vertical Garden Wall in London

Crazy For Lamps

It obviously needs to work.....but it's a plus when it works as sculpture, when off.

Sinister Modern

Most of the 'design' I gravitate towards, whether it be a lamp, a jacket, a building, or even an ocean liner tend to have some sort of mildly sinister element to it. Expressed either by startlingly unique form, or some challenging component that raises the question as to the exact function of the piece.