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King Kennedy Rugs

King Kennedy Rugs is a Los Angeles based brand that offers a carefully curated selection of antique and unique rugs and textiles. 100 year old rugs for your home or office. persian rug, persian rug sales, persian rug sale, persian rug on sale persian rug red, persian rug blue, persian…

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Slow → Search results for ‘curated’

A Magazine curated by Delfina Delettrez

The ever-inspirational A Magazine curated by has just launched it’s 14th edition for Spring/Summer 2015 with the Roman jewellery designer Delfina Delettrez as the curator. It forms the first A Magazine curated by an Italian woman and the very first issue to explore the decorative realm of a jewellery designer, after the magazine’s longstanding relationship with prét-à-porter designers was first diverted in 2013 by the curation of British milliner Stephen Jones. Delettrez has chosen the abstract theme of ‘gold’, tipping an international array of artists, designers, photographers, stylists, architects, philosophers and other creative minds to interpret a myriad of aesthetic, alchemical and metaphysical representations of this precious metal and its intrinsic energy.  [ Continue reading ]

Curated Nº 11 — Studio Arhoj’s Ghosts

It's that time of the year again to share the new Curated gift, and once again it is something which we are very proud to share. It is a pleasure to introduce the work of Danish designer Anders Arhoj to our subscribers. The illustrator and interior designer started his inspirational studio in Tokyo, but now a days returned to his home city of Copenhagen, resulting in a combination of worlds which one clearly picks up in the output of Studio Arhoj. The colors he uses, the shapes, the minimalism. Not only the Scandinavian, but certainly Japanese influences come back in all of these elements. Exclusively for my Curated subscribers he created a series of his incredible Ghosts in black and white. A few years ago he designed these Ghosts along with Louise Gaarmann, based on the believe of the Japanese Shinto religion that everything in nature has a soul - even mountains, rocks and plants. The Ghosts can be used - in Arhoj's words - as "paper weights, doorstops, toys, wedding ring holders kitchen talismans or as companion on a lonely night without friends to talk to." And the great thing is that each Ghost is unique, completely hand made, glazed, baked and with its own color form. [ Continue reading ]

Curated Nº 10 — The White Rabbit

We have been a little quiet about our last couple of Curated gifts, but last week we celebrated the release of already the tenth gift for our subscribers. For this tenth anniversary we collaborated with Rotterdam-based design label Sweatshop Deluxe, which offers young designers the chance to produce limited released of their designs and helped us with the production of The White Rabbit. This porcelain rabbit we created is a design of Lise Lefebvre, a French designer, who is based in Amsterdam. Next to the work she produces with her studio, she also works as the head of education for product design at the Willem de Kooning Academie Rotterdam and she teaches at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. The exclusive limited editions of the faceted porcelain rabbit were dipped in indigo glazing, giving them an unique beautiful two-toned appearance, as if The White Rabbit just took a little dip in magical water. [ Continue reading ]

Curated Nº 6 — Cubebot

New York-based designer David Weeks has proven, for many years now, to be a highly creative spirit. The designer has a very high level of production, from beautiful minimalist sofas and chairs to a nicely balanced mobile lamp. But our favorite of all his work are the wooden animals and robots that he makes in collaboration with Areaware. The first animal he ever produced was a bear of almost 35 inches high, made of 17 pieces of beech wood, put together by elastic. A beautiful and clever creature, who was able to stand in all kinds of positions.  Afther the bear came a gorilla, an elephant, a rhinoceros, a crocodile, a pig, and eventually, as it is bound to happen everywhere at one point, the robot entered the scene. [ Continue reading ]

Curated Nº 5 — Kaweco

We have been a fan of the German-made Kaweco Pens and started collecting these lovely vintage pens and pouches for many years now. For our current Curated we are super happy to send out a special matte black pen case with two pen's: The Kaweco Classic Sport ball pen and the Classic Sport clutch pencil, both in black.
When digging the history you'll find this rich heritage that goes back to the late 19th century in South-Western Germany. [ Continue reading ]

Curated Nº 4
An Incomplete Dictionary

For my fourth Curated gift I present a signed and numbered edition of: An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds by photographer Luke Stephenson. London-based design studio YES collaborated with the photographer for this project which documents the fascinating (British) culture of show birds.
What attracts me to the book in the first place is it's explicit quality of exposing the wonderful aesthetic of nature. Stephenson succeeded in creating a series of photographs catching the essence of the depicted birds in color and form like it was done in formal portraits of monarchs during previous centuries. The birds are depicted on mono colored backgrounds resulting in a great contrast with the many visible colors and shapes of the birds, creating an overall aesthetic reminiscent of fashion photography. Stephenson made nature into fashion.  [ Continue reading ]

Curated

The first Curated gift I made was send out this week. A first gift, dedicated to my love to travel. The love for the unknown, of putting everything together you can't mis and hit the road. Whether it's from Utrecht to Amsterdam or Amsterdam to London, Los Angeles or Lisbon.
The only thing with traveling is that it doesn't go really well with my need for structure. In a bag, or a suitcase, things move around, because you have to open up your luggage at the customs, or need that one particular item at the bottom of your suitcase and everything will move upside-down. I needed something to solve this problem. Something special. [ Continue reading ]

Curated

Imagine receiving a gift, a very unique item with a personal note specially selected for you, every quarter. Curated, an initiative from Arjan van de Steeg and Rocco Stallvord, offers a service where you can subscribe to a so-called curator who will select one product every quarter and… [ Continue reading ]

2022 – 2023

In 22 pictures

When looking back at 2022, it is safe to say that reading David W. Marx’s excellent 'Status and Culture’ was among the most cathartic experiences. Marx’s poignant observations on how culture moves through society is both enlightening and confronting. Reading his immaculately formed thoughts about the world we live in, granted us new perspectives on our own behaviour. Both as a consumer and an active participant and observer of culture as as whole. It has a been a rather strange year of (post-)pandemic life, the third half following those two earlier exceptionally strange years. Marx’s book offered some fundamental clarity about the times we live in. And what we strive for in the coming year(s) of the Another Something macrocosm. [ Continue reading ]

See In Black

Vol. 001 Black In America. 06.19.20

In the heat of everything that has been taking place throughout the world it’s encouraging, inspiring and very educational to hear the many voices that need to be heard and understood and see the extraordinary initiatives all over the world in search for more equality. What touched us in particular is See In Black. A project where over 80 black photographers are selling original prints to raise funds for five non-profits that work to dismantle white supremacy and systematic oppression. See In Black’s “Black America Vol. 1” project is a highly-curated stock of images from photographers including Andre Wagner, Flo Ngala, and Renell Medrano that are on sale now. [ Continue reading ]

POWERMASK

by Walter van Beirendonck at Wereldmuseum Rotterdam

Last Thursday, we were finally able to see the extraordinary 'POWERMASK' exhibition at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam. Curated by none other than Walter van Beirendonck, sided by art historian Alexandra van Dongen and anthropologist Sonja Wijs, it had been on our wish list from September 1st when it opened for the public. For 'POWERMASK', the museum with a focus on ethnology gave the legendary Antwerp fashion designer a free hand to present his own unique, multi-faceted vision of the phenomenon of masks. The result is a stunning colorful display, carrying the designer's unique signature all-over, combining ethnic masks and ethnological documents with modern Western fashion, art, photography and culture — featuring the work of impressive names like Christophe Coppens, Diane Arbus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Brian Kenny, Martin Margiela and Walter's own Dirk Van Saene.

The exhibition is both a feast for the senses and proof how relevant van Beirendonck's vision remains to this very day. He might have found a more niche position as a fashion designer (and a more invisible role as Head of Fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp), the exhibition, although much smaller, feels like an echo of his iconic Antwerp exhibition 'Landed/Geland' from 2001, which at that time set a new standard for fashion exhibition in terms of presenting pieces within its societal context, but still succeeding to convince aesthetically and therewith speaking to spectators in more than one way. With 'POWERMASK' van Beirendonck underlines, now more than ever, that we need powerful artistic voices like his to remind us of the unique beauty of all cultures on this planet and how exchange between them is what makes life interesting.

When in Rotterdam before the 7th of January don't miss out on this incredible exhibition! [ Continue reading ]

Axel Arigato Gallery Stockholm

Last month, minimalistic Swedish fashion brand Axel Arigato opened their first gallery store in the heart of Stockholm, which in our eyes is among the most inspirational retail spaces out there. For the design of the space, the brand collaborated once more with acclaimed architect Christian Halleröd, who also designed the brand’s London SoHo flagship, that opened its doors last year. In the concept for the Axel Arigato Gallery the signature feel of Christian Halleröd industrial clean-cut designs is combined with the understated aesthetics of the brand through the creative direction of Max Svärdh. The space is left intentionally clean with few elements completely blown out of proportion, like for instance the 100-kg abstract oval display in plexiglass in the centre of the store, the yellow fur seats and the yellow illusion windows — resulting in the perfect platform for the products. The store carries the full range of men’s and women’s shoes, accessories and clothing as well as a selection of rare Japanese books, magazines and objects. In the future the store will also serve as a curated space with carefully selected brands, items and events.

Through the combination of the industrial framework of the building, the implementation of materials like plexiglass and the striking use of the color yellow, a beautiful contemporary hybrid space has risen that, without a doubt, will serve as Axel Arigato's perfect segway into greater things in the near future. [ Continue reading ]

Kotn Flagship Toronto

There was a time in which Egyptian cotton stood for the highest possible quality one could get. In particular Helmut Lang's t-shirts made from that particular fiber, for us at least, being the epitomy of understated luxury. Unfortunately, soon after the term and use became established within the globalizing luxury industry, it started to go down hill with the thriving industry. More and more farmers started mixing Indian and American seeds with their original sources for cotton, which caused both a quality drop and resulted in government involvement in the market that eventually toppled the whole industry drastically: with smaller amounts of true premium Egyptian cotton being exported every year. In spite of these developments, in our minds, cotton from Egypt never lost that connotation of the remarkable. Therefore, when at the beginning of 2016 we encountered a small Toronto-based fashion brand named Kotn —honoring the great heritage of true premium Egyptian cotton and understated basic clothing— that came as a wonderful surprise.

A year earlier, Kotn was founded by friends Mackenzie Yeates, Rami Helali and Benjamin Sehl. Based in Toronto, the company partners directly with cotton farmers and textile factories in Egypt's Nile Delta to produce their high-quality basics, including T-shirts, sweats, boxers and dress shirts. By scrapping the middleman, Kotn ensures a fair wage for their manufacturers and an honest price for the consumer. What started with a quest for the perfect white t-shirt has expanded into a full line of men’s standards – hoodies, henleys, sweatshirts, sweatpants, polos, oxfords, pajamas and underwear. Kotn launched with a direct-to-consumer online model, which has garnered a cult-following for the successful Toronto-based start-up. Last week, the company brought their vision to the next level by opening their first brick-and-mortar shop on Toronto’s Queen Street West. Whenever in Ontario's capital, make sure to drop by and get familiar with their inspirational vision! [ Continue reading ]

Quiet Earth

A little over a year ago, the New York City-based Asya Geisberg Gallery opened a new exhibition named 'Quiet Earth' featuring new works by American collage artist Matthew Craven. Unfortunately we missed the inspirational display at the time, but recently our friend Merijn at …,staat pointed it out to us and we have been infatuated by the haunting works from that moment. The exhibition featured a series of works on paper, combined together rhythmically repeating a flattening of time and scale. In the imagery, Craven combines found images of antiquity with abstract hand-drawn patterns of ambiguous origin, and often subsequently painting walls to emphasize aesthetic choices that personalize his project. Ever-curious and controlled in his choice of placement and mark, as per usual the artist created enigmatic combinations, that despite (or maybe because) their encyclopedic nature, always succeed to engage our gaze and force curiosity about each specific reference and composition.

Craven always begins his imagery on an aged background, often vintage movie posters with yellowing tape, finding images in old books that are never glossy. As his collages compress millennia by placing the prehistoric next to the modern, they shift around time: the distance between the image’s creation and our grasp of its significance, the hours searching for appropriate materials, the cultivation of isolated fragments before evolving into Craven’s artistic universe. Several of the works use the landscape, colorful and present, to form a dialogue with the silent man-made artworks, adding an exciting visual layer. It seems as Craven is saying that we exist today because of our pre-historic past, and all cultures share the same planet. From a greater distance, the differences melt away (which too many people seem to forget now a days!), and just as all landscapes share underlying structure and forms (hence the quietness of the earth, possibly), so too do Craven’s stone temples, monuments, and patterns. The result is a highly fascinating series of work forming a quest through human history without ever losing our interest on an aesthetic level. We can't wait for more aesthetic journeys from the mind of Matthew Craven. [ Continue reading ]

Mirage

At the end of last month, American artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken presented his latest incredible creation to the public, which at this moment is our favorite work he has created thus far. Part of the unique Desert X exhibition, that features a curated selection of site-specific works in the Coachella Valley in the Southern California desert, his creation named 'Mirage' is a installation utilizing the form of a ranch style suburban American house composed of reflective mirrored surfaces. It distills the recognizable and repetitious suburban home into the essence of its lines, reflecting, and disappearing into the vast western landscape. As movement was the driving force behind the settling of the American West, and the long flat vistas that stretched toward the Pacific shaped the ideology behind this iconic embodiment of American architecture, Aitken found inspiration in the history of the site to create his vision on reflection. The specific California Ranch Style, which is unique to the West, was informed by the ideas of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed that architecture should be both in and of the landscape.

In the 1920s and ‘30s a small inspired group of architects working in California and the West created the first suburban ranch style houses, fusing Wright’s fluid treatment of spaces with the simple one-story homes built by ranchers. After World War II, the ranch style’s streamlined simplicity gained popularity and commercial builders employed a simplified assembly line approach to create this efficient form, matching the rapid growth of the suburbs. The mass-produced ranch home became a familiar sight across the country, the style filling the American landscape as quickly as each new subdivision was built and was reinvented for the 21st century by Aitken as the ultimate tool for reflection on the rich past of this area. For those visiting Southern California before the 31st of October make sure not to miss this unique work in the middle of the desert, offering a unique perspective in a place where you are doomed to meet yourself anyway. [ Continue reading ]

Don’t Start With The Good Old Things
But The Bad New Ones

Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin at C/O Berlin

South African artist duo Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin became instant favorites of ours from the very moment when we discovered their thought-provoking 'King James Bible' project in the Summer of 2013. The duo works with the eyes of anthropologists, infusing concept within concept —steadily provoking the spectator to research and contextualize their creations beyond the first encounter— in their often raw edged creations rooting directly from the dark side of human life. The inspirational C/O art institute, which for instance brought the incredible 'Beneath the Roses' by Gregory Crewdson and Peter Lindbergh's 'On The Street' exhibitions to the German capital, just opened another must visit, this time featuring the incredible work by Broomberg & Chanarin in the exhibition given the moniker 'Don’t Start With The Good Old Things But The Bad New Ones', featuring two iconic projects in which the duo highjacked two seminal books: Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer, and The Bible (which formed our introduction to the duo's work, as stated earlier), using them as vehicles to explore the documentation, dissemination, and currency of such images within in the media.

The artists juxtapose passages of text, which contain concrete acts of violence, with images, that are often shocking in their violence or tenderness. Images mined from the Internet or The Archive of Modern Conflict function as a means to inhibit a simplified consumption of both text and image. In this way the artist duo challenge our viewing habits, and force us to become a critical observers, unable to passively lose ourselves in the spectacle. [ Continue reading ]

Shore Leave

In April of this year cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann, together with his regular collaborator; editor and archivist Ryan Mungia, presented one of our favorite printed projects which were released in 2016. The incredible 'Shore Leave' is the first photobook to capture Honolulu during the Second World War through a remarkably curated collection of vintage photographs, a lot of them found in personal scrapbooks of veterans, which were collected by Heimann over years and now made public through Mungia's Boyo Press.

It portrays the thousands of US sailors bound for the Pacific during the early 1940's, in a period when the Hawaiian Islands were the staging ground for an unknown fate. Their perception of Honolulu as a tropical paradise quickly deflated upon their arrival. The anticipation of a moonlit Diamond Head, available hula girls and free-flowing and affordable rum quickly materialized into crowded streets, beaches cordoned off with barbed wire and endless lines to nowhere. Still, as with many ports of call, diversions were plentiful, and set against the warm trade winds, sailors took advantage of them on their last stop to hell. A totally unique place and time, which shows throughout the images selected by Mungia and Heimann.

Binding all these insightful photographs together in the book creates a truly unique insight, elegantly designed moreover, 'Shore Leave' is one of the most captivating books we have discovered this year.
It is a one-of-a-kind visual document of a port that, for many sailors who passed through, was their initiation into manhood. [ Continue reading ]

Undercover Japan

With most of the blogs we have been following over the course of the last ten years stuck on their last post without much reason left to believe more is still to come and some of them even completely dead and buried for ever (or evolved into much bigger content producers/magazines of course), luckily there are still a few people out there sharing what they admire through an individually curated filter. One of those places we have been visiting regularly for over five years that remains to be (relatively) active is Dave Smith's This Is Collate, where he has been sharing his personal favorites for years: creations ranging from graphic design, art, fashion, music and photography projects.

Last week, Smith shared a true gem in the last category — shot by his friend Christopher Martin (opposite page), when they both visited Japan in March, which we feel deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Named 'Undercover Japan'  (the series by Martin has little to do with Jun Takahashi's namesake fashion label although we feel the isolated aesthetic would speak to the punk avant-garde designer) the observations through the lens of the Belfast-based photographer form an extraordinary photographic series, portraying the many car- and motorcycle-covers to be observed all over Tokyo and Kyoto. Intriguingly serene, yet also evoking a feeling of covered up secrets, for us the series represents certain important elements that make up Japan, next to being just incredibly aesthetic captions of the country that has no equal.  [ Continue reading ]

The Fashion Set

We first mentioned Dublin-based ROADS at the beginning of the year, when they just had released their incredible Africa inspired new fragrances. At that moment we also shared that next to being an inspirational perfume house, the brand also houses a documentary film production section and a printed publishing section, with all areas producing inspirational high quality creations. Out of the publisher another gem will be released on the 31st of June, which we were just introduced to and really appreciate. The new book named 'The Fashion Set' highlights the importance of the creative process behind the modern fashion show, which has kept aiming continuously for a more impactful, grander scale over the course of the last 10 years in which the internet has created a complete new environment around the existing ecosystem of high fashion.

One of the results of these new preconditions is the need to combine the creative and practical in a fashion show, creating an artistic performance in which the different leading fashion houses try to effectively exhibit their new collections to the world, having to compete with (or when successful temporarily become part of) the visual tornado that is around us at all time. Fashion houses need to stay on top of their game in their complete presentations at all times, finding the right visual language expressing what it stands for twice a year (not even counting the recent 'Cruise' and 'Resort' trend of showing new collections). The insightful new book by ROADS features some of the most impressive set designs from this transitional period in which the spectacle became more and more important, among which are the shows of names like Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Dries Van Noten, Givenchy, Prada, Maison Margiela and Anya Hindmarch, portraying the producers, set designers, and hundreds of craftspeople who together create 12 minutes of runway magic. [ Continue reading ]

Norwegian Rain Piccadilly

We have been following Bergen-based elegant rainwear brand Norwegian Rain from the very inception of the label in 2009. Over the years it has found a close following worldwide, both through their ever-evolving cutting-edge collection of supreme quality outerwear and because of their now famous  founders, designer Michael Tetteh Nartey also known as T-Michael and Alexander Helle, being the perfect ambassadors of what the brand stands for, having become street style blogs favorites since they arrived in the menswear world. Two weeks ago, an incredible new chapter started for Alexander and Michael, when they opened their first stand alone store outside of Norway —where they house in hometown Bergen and Oslo— crossing the water of the Northsea landing at an iconic London location, taking a big step forward in their endeavors. Opened on the 11th of June, the 1450 ft2 space houses the entire collection of Norwegian Rain’s iconic rainwear for both men and women including their signature pieces like the Raincho, the incredible Moscow coat and the Warrior. The store will also stock suits, shoes and leather goods from T-Michael's namesake label, as well as a carefully curated selection of Scandinavian mid-century furniture by Modern Tribute. When in London make sure to step into the elegant universe of Norwegian Rain, and what better place to do so in another city (next to Bergen — the rainiest city of the world) renown for its rain. [ Continue reading ]

Undercover

Rizzoli presents the first comprehensive book on the work of Japanese designer Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER

Next month, on the 12th of July, American publisher Rizzoli will add another fashion orientated publication to its excellent catalogue with the release of the very first comprehensive book on the work of Japanese avant-garde punk designer Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER — which we discovered through our good friend Samuel de Goede (make sure to subscribe to his weekly newsletter for more tips like this!). Takahashi —together with two Japanese designers who were also granted Rizzoli publications on their work: NIGO of A Bathing Ape and Hiroshi Fujiwara of Fragment Design and the recent (temporary) cutting-edge retail concepts The Pool Aoyama (now closed) and THE PARK - ING (opened since April)— is an icon of Harajuku streetwear and the presumptive heir to the heavy mantle of Japanese deconstruction (officially crowned by Rei Kawakubo herself). Although all three have (and still do) played an integral rol in this second wave of worldwide influential Japanese fashion design succeeding the designers of the Eighties, it is arguable that Takahashi has left the biggest or most resonating mark on 'the culture', especially from the moment some years ago when he started his still ongoing collaboration with Nike for the GYAKUSOU line, which stayed very close to his creative vision, but introduced his designs to a much larger audience than his own labels.

From the very beginning of his rise, the fashion of Takahashi is not born out of an excessively intellectualized agenda. While not quite populist, his generative influences are instead romantic —sometimes even gothic. A fixture of the Paris collections for more than ten years—plus seventeen uninterrupted seasons in Tokyo prior to that—Takahashi’s life’s work confirms a maturation from self-conscious artifice and rebel pastiche to a steely, withering elegance all his own. Hailing from Gunma Prefecture like his friend NIGO, Takahashi’s long association with the undisputed king of Ura-Harajuku in the early 1990s is now the stuff of local fashion lore. But Takahashi would blaze an entirely different path to legend and notoriety. The violent rending and hasty reassembly that characterized his early work, its calculated imperfections and sutured seams, have given way to collections that he himself now calls "sexy and feminine."

Seeing the deeply emotional vision of the designer, stretching over 27 years, collected in the elegantly designed book, makes one realize how profound and influential the vision of Takahashi was and still is, which makes this book by Rizzoli a must have. Make sure to get it (pre-0rdered) soon, as it will sell out in no time once its released.. [ Continue reading ]

Nendo for Siam Discovery

Oki Sato's Japanese studio Nendo is among those institutions that never cease to surprise and inspire us through their ever-evolving design vision and truly perfected holistic approach in their practice. The day before yesterday, to our great excitement, the studio succeeded to outstrip itself once again, presenting its biggest-ever project: the exterior and interior renovation of a department store in Bangkok that Sato believes represents a new way of shopping. Going by the name of Siam Discovery, the department store is operated by Thai retail and development company Siam Piwat, which invited Nendo to oversee the refurbishment of the interior and exterior of the 40.000 m² shopping mall on Bangkok's Rama 1 thoroughfare. The studio was tasked with implementing a radical vision for a new retail experience built around curated environments rather than the familiar branded concessions. Instead of categorizing products by brand, as is typical in traditional department stores, the different retail points present customers with a range of lifestyle experiences, including a digital lab, street lab, creative lab and play lab. The result is very likely the first real peek into the future of (department / multibrand) retail in which a physical location will need to have this level of experience to not totally loose its relevance as has become the trend in the last decade. We would literally fly to Bangkok just to see this with our own eyes. [ Continue reading ]