Anglomania

I've got a case of Anglomania, badly! I used to pop into the Vivienne Westwood boutique on Conduit Street, right next to a site I was working on. The shop was quirky and the clothes were sharp and tailored, angular and edgy. Vivienne Westwood needs little introduction, what an icon. It's always interesting to see how a fashion designer translates their style to interiors, and with Westwood designing for The Rug Company it definitely works!

From The Rug Company:
What does the word quality mean to you? Maintaining high standards at all times.
Favourite view? Christalino lodge in the Amazon.
Accomplishment you are most proud of? Inspiring people to open their minds and question what is around them.
Greatest extravagance? Staying home reading a book.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be? A teacher.
Desert Island items (3 max)? Book, book and book.
Idea of heaven? Interesting conversation and debate.
What qualities do you admire most in others? Honesty, open-mindedness and individuality.
Favourite city? London.

Melbourne Winter

I have to say that I love winter. We've had some lovely crisp mornings with the sun shining, blue skies and it's fun rugging up with coats and scarves.
Photos by Lauren

The Small Stakes

I love the colours and quirky designs of these cool music posters. They're by Jason Munn who started The Small Stakes in 2003 and has a pretty impressive lists indie music artists. He started out making the posters and they soon became a fixture in the local music scene and he now is exhibited in an Francisco Museum of Modern Art. They are available to buy on line for around US $30, which one? mmmmm...

Jaime Hayón Plays Chess at Trafaglar Square

This is just so delightfully typical of Jamie Hayon's quirky yet sophisticated design. 'The Tournament' is a work in progess and part of London Design Festival 2009. It is a site specific installation in which people can play chess through the festival's website and win prizes. Yeah prizes!

The 32 hand painted designs demonstrate the finishes, scale and techniques that can be achieved in porcelain, giving insight and exposure to the craft of ceramics. The figures will be up to 180 cm high and mounted on wheels so they can be moved around as the game is played.

Calling out to my London girls, watch out for it in September and I hope to see some photos please!

Study Space

After visiting Andy's for dinner on Sunday night, I was well impressed by her neat little study area. Filed, labeled, sorted and organized. Love it! So I'm going to organize my study too as I'm lucky to even have the space for one. Tomorrow...

Panama House, San Paulo

I want to share with you this house I found on Cool Hunter. It just feels so effortlessly chic, it's quite minimal and modernist yet definitely livable. The Panama House is by a San Paulo architect Marcio Kogan.
From the Cool Hunter: 'At the Panama House, there are no cozy nooks, no soft furnishings, no homey touches. And yet, there is a feeling of comfort and livability in this art-gallery-of-a-house that makes you want to move in tomorrow.'

8th Arrondissement

When I'm in Paris I always make sure to visit the Christian Dior store on Avenue Montaigne (ok so I've only been to the store once). The store is set out like department store with each category in different rooms. Dior Homme is in a slick white minimalist space and the shoes are in a beautiful room surrounded by soft drapes. It is modern yet has a sense of tradition, the palette is soft muted greys and ozes luxury. Love that! It is off the Champs Elysee where you can find the delightful Laudree. Just go there, make a booking first.
I . LOVE . PARIS .
Photos by Lauren except 'Models Posing in New Christian Dior Store' by Loomis Dean 1957 on art.com

Sharyn Cairns Photographer

I love these fabulous photos by Melbourne photographer Sharyn Cairns. Beautiful interiors, sharp styling and great photography. Love a bit of local talent, and what a lovely lady she is too!

The Lord vs The Prince

Which design do you prefer, and yes they are both designs of the 21st Cenury. That's right even the quiant sketch is a proposal for Londons Chelsea Barracks which the 1 Billion Pound development designed by Lord Richard Rogers has just been scraped. Prince Charles didn't like the look of Rogers plans so he wrote a letter 'prince to prince' to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, whose family owns the land.

Lord Rogers was not impressed, "Bringing in the foundation, his own boys if you like, is unbelievably questionable. I absolutely don't think this is acceptable. It is directly self-serving and is unconstitutional."

Prince Charles prefers the architecture of Quinlan Terry which if you ask me was modern a couple of hunderd years ago and served its puropse then, but the needs of modern living now are dramtically different. This design is a pastiche of ideas from the past and would end up like a theme park. Compared to the design of Lord Rogers who is internationally renowned and has designed some of the most ground-breaking buildings of the last few decades.

If this gets you a bit fired up too, check out a great article at the Independent

Clouds

These clouds are by An Te Liu a Taiwanese artist with this latest installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale last year. He is concerned with ideas of cleanliness, hygiene and how this was influential with modern architecture and urbanism. I came across these images on Busy Being Fabulous a really inspirational blog.

Cloud, 2008

Air purifiers, ionizers, sterilizers, washers, humidifiers, ozone air cleaners; running continuously Installation view, 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture

One girls trash...

I find it fascinating the things that people collect. Last weekend we spent hours wandering around an antique warehouse on Tyabb Road in Mornington. There are treasures everywhere and something for everyone. I love exploring and imagining what some of these odd things were used for and where they came from. There are faded photos and well loved toys, rusty old tools and mis-matched tea-cups and saucers- just everything! I would highly recommend it for a lazy winter Sunday afternoon followed by a Sunday roast on the Esplanade.
Photos by Lauren

Sculptural Staircase

This is the new Armani Store that opened up on Fifth Ave, New York in February. The four storey store is by Massimiliano & Doriana Fukas Architetto and features a central steel staircase.
Here's some info from Giorgio Armani:
"I worked on the creation of this store with Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas, whose hugely respected architectural practice is known for bringing a precisely judged sense of glamour to clothing stores. This is the third project we have jointly accomplished, following on from Armani/Chater House in Hong Kong and Armani/Ginza Tower in Tokyo, and significantly all three offer totally distinctive environments, each different from the other, because I contend that identical retail spaces, monolithic and repetitive, belong in the past and cannot match the experience offered by a totally original store which introduces the public to the aesthetic excitement of fine contemporary architecture."

Lovely stair and I'm sure the photos don't do it justice, it would be great to actually experience it. No sign of the clothing though, seems like the focus here is on the interior design. I'm fine with that...
Photos from Dezeen

Simply. Beautiful.

Tara Donovan sees everyday objects in a very different way doesn't she? What an amazing talent to turn Styrofoam cups to fluffy white clouds and to see the beauty in pva glue? There are other amazing installations Tara has done at Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills. She uses pencils, fishing line, rolls of tape, paper plates and other everyday materials to evoke thoughts of nature. So inspiring and so beautiful. Do you like it?