iDaft: do it yourself Daft Punk

French music and video heroes, Daft Punk, are known for their incredible live performances, space costumes, and obviously their music.  One fan has recently taken their enthusiasm for the duo a step further and created the iDaft console which allows you to interact with the music.  One word about the website… addictive.

Play iDaft console here.

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A second look at Fred Perry by Wonderwall

Tokyo-based retail interior design specialists, Wonderwall, completed the Fred Perry flagship boutique in Moscow in November.  The design generated a significant buzz due to the juxtoposition of Russian artifacts, and british flourishes like the Union Jack ceiling and Chesterfield sofas.  Five months later, the stop is still in tip top shape and Hypebeast published some new images of the interior.

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Damien Hirst Skates?

We don´t actually know if Mr. Hirst is going to try out the new skateboard decks that he has designed for Supreme, but in spite of this he should be pleased to see hipsters out and about bearing his designs. His work with Supreme features some of the Spin paintings on three different skateboard decks and which will release in the USA Thursday, April 2nd both online and in-store.

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Jason Miller and his Woolly Chair

No, this is not a prop from the Where the Wild Things Are movie… Brooklyn based designer and 2008 Future Forum speaker, Jason Miller, rose to fame last fall with his antler lamps which have graced the ceilings of classic and hipster joints alike. His latest design is the Woolly Chair which features a sitting surface made from Bison pelts.

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Aoyama´s Retail Re-invention: Tokyo

In Tokyo, Ginza, Shibuya and Harajuko are typically pointed out as being known for their shopping and consumer culture. However, the neighborhood of Aoyama has recently been re-defining uniquely Japanese interpretations of international shopping experiences and the result is a re-invention of the Tokyo boutique. Three names that have recently been added to the growing list of shops include Raf Simons, Phillip Lim, and most recently Dries Van Noten. Each offers high levels of luxury and visual stimulation as you can see below:

Raf Simons

According to Men.Style.Com, in this shop, “the medium’s the message where paint-spattered walls reflect some of the patterned fabrics in the designer’s collections. The space was conceived by the German-born, L.A.-based artist Sterling Ruby, no stranger to splatter—his own work in ceramics, sculpture, and drawing has emphasized a similarly messy sensibility.”

Phillip Lim

The 2,230-square-foot, bi-level space will carry 3.1 Phillip Lim menswear, shoes, and accessories, not to mention women’s, kids, and the organic Go Green Go Collection. Designed by Norito Takahashi, the two-story space boasts white concrete walls studded with circular cutouts, reclaimed wood floors, and a mirrored glass shell.

Dries Van Noten

The store features two dedicated floors of menswear, and the concrete-and-wood rooms are hung with East-meets-West art: two Old Master paintings and three “reinterpretations” of them by contemporary Japanese artists. That’s thematically appropriate for a Belgian setting down roots in Tokyo, but as you might expect, the fastidious Van Noten hasn’t skimped on the detail, either. Case in point: The fitting-room salon’s decor calls for a hand-knotted carpet so labor-intensive—a mere 20 cm are added per day—that it won’t be completed until summer.

(via men.style.com)

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Where the Wild Things Are

Gave me goosebumps!

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IHT SUSTAINABLE LUXURY CONFERENCE 2009

The International Herald Tribune has recently hosted its annual Sustainable Luxury Conference, this year in Delhi India. Hosted by Suzy Menkes, the event featured an A list of speakers ranging from Stella McCartney to Francois-Henri Pinault. The main topics of the conference were related to consumption in the current time of economic turmoil and how the concept of responsibility and sustainability play into this.

From the overview of the conference, “call it the death of the “It” bag or the decline of capitalism — either way there has been a dramatic change in the business of luxury. Only a year ago the spread of high-end goods was growing geographically and demographically. But now the credit crunch and bank chaos has halted the grandiose plans of big brands.

With Brazil’s debts soaring, China coping with layoffs, India’s fast-growing economy slowing and Russia’s financial status toppling, the BRIC countries, or Brazil, Russia, India and China, are no longer viewed as a luxury utopia. Stores may not be closing yet but, across the globe, the frenetic pace of openings has stalled.”

Below are some videos of the wide range in speakers at the conference.

Stella McCartney on Sustainability

A tour of the Emporio mall

Sustainable luxury

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Haunch of Venison in London

Having recently taken over the former Museum of Mankind in London, the Haunch of Venison Gallery is now open.  Famous for formerly housing a grim collection of skeletons, dead animals, and other assorted items more commonly found in a witch´s caldron, the opening exhibition for the gallery is entitled Mythologies.  According to Adrian Searle from the Guardian the show is, “installed thematically, its rooms are devoted to Material Culture, (Un)Natural Histories, Belief, and History & Magic. There are shadow puppets - by Christian Boltanski, and by Tim Noble and Sue Webster - that remind me of the Javanese shadow puppets once shown here in the old museum. There is a huge, overpainted photograph of Damien Hirst’s glittery skull; a Mayan crystal skull was a star attraction at the Museum of Mankind, though it turned out to be a 19th-century fake. Weighty aphorisms by the likes of Walter Benjamin, Pliny, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino are written high on the walls, while below, the glittery sculptures go ooh-err, and are crushed rather than elevated by the quotation. Jochem Hendricks’s stuffed dog, with a rat’s tail dangling from its mouth, sits under one vitrine. Polly Morgan has stuffed and mounted chicken chicks, open-beaked and staring pitiably through the cracks in an old coffin. Hyungkoo Lee’s enlarged skeletons of Looney-Tunes cartoon characters Sylvester and Tweety Pie are caught in a familiar drama, the cat frozen in mid-air pounce on the bird.

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Batman through the years

 A video has been making the rounds online recently showing the animated evolution of the iconic Batman logo all the way back from 1941!  It is interesting to watch the evolution of the graphic as well as the text in the bottom left of the screen which is the title for the many different incarnations of Batman.

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Leather Bike by Etablissements Ferrand

Jaques Ferrand, the 14-year apprentice-cum-leather expert based in Paris, has recently unveiled his latest creation- a completely leather-covered track bike.  This information comes via Yorgo Tloupas in the Arkitip website.

Ferrand normally works on bags, shoes, and belts, either directly for customers under the name Etablissements Ferrand, or for labels such as Hermès.

“Today he called me to show me the bike he’s just finished covering, and the result is quite spectacular. Every inch of the frame is covered in thin leather, down to the lugs and tightest spots of the bottom bracket, and the saddle and grips are in ostrich leather. Although some thin chrome vintage tubular rims would have worked better, and maybe a road bike with baskets and mudguards would have been more fitting than a track bike with risers, this is a rather impressive demonstration of his craft.”

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