How I found Fred

You know how sometimes you see something, and it stays with you, even though you never really think about it. So it was with this exceptional piece of jewelry I saw. The concept was absolutely perfect, and execution ... stellar comes to mind. So I decided to look around and find out who the "guilty" maker is. And it turns out its Fred. Fred Samuel is a jewelry creator, who founded label FRED in Paris in 1936, and since then had opened a number of boutiques around the world. Excluding a small hiatus during the WWII, when Fred joined the French Foreign Legion and fought with the Resistance, he spent his life designing, casting, and giving word perfect pieces of pleasure. And even though the company was sold to LVMH group 12 years ago, traditions of the FRED label continue to flourish. LVNH was picked exactly for the proximity of its values and sensibilities to that of Fred himself. Have you seen his work.... oh sure-- Fred is the designer of the "Pretty Woman" necklace that was so prominently featured in that movie, and more recently Bond girls of "Casino Royale" got to wear his work. I do hope that the good work they do in memory of Fred now will continue for many years to come.

P.S. Last year the company reached into the orient, and new boutiques in Beijing and Dubai were opened. I can only hope the next one will be close to me :)

Dream of Doll

Not even moments after I posted about Small magazine I got an email from a friend about a doll company - Dream of Doll - that produces pretty exceptional dolls. Located in Seoul, Korea the company manufactures exclusive dolls, who are members of anime-type cast for a fantasy story. Dolls have a large number of movable joints, which allows them to acquire very complex poses. With custom eyes, hair, hands and even make-up they are made to please. Here are a few beauties from their website.

Small Magazine

A winter issue of Small Magazine was released today, and as always it is filled with super cute all things baby. I've been with Small since the very beginning, and I have to say that I really look forward to every issue. They always have cute clothes, awesome toys and clever book reviews. Check them out-- absolutely worth it.... even if you don't have kids, good design ought to make you smile.

Green shoes

Yes, you betcha! Shoes that are stylish and made completely of recycled materials. Industrial design student Camila Labra came up with this project after being assigned to create a daily object from unusual materials. She named it Dacca, after the city of Dacca in Bangladesh, where recycling is uncommon, and plastic bags create quite a problem for the environment. Some boots feature vivid prints still bearing the resemblance of what they were in their previous life to encourage a conscious effort at recycling, and yet offer jolly prints to complement stylish outfits. They are up for sale from Camile's blog. Go Chile!

Fabulous Linguine...

One of really neat italian designers Fabio Novembre has designed a space for a retail location selling shoes. So shoes and awesome interior design.... its design lover's heaven :)
The result is amazing visually, very unusual, and yet successful, because increase in sales doesn't lie. Fabio says its shoelaces that inspired him. Sorry Fabio, I see macaroni, but I love your work.

Harry Potter's past, Vogue is present

Emma Watson is this issue's feature of Vogue Italia. And she looks everything but Harry Potter-esc. Generally I like what Vogue photographers, stylists and finishers do, but this time I think they were on a mission to make a woman out of a teenager and no amount of makeup was too great. In spite of her looking a bit old for her own good, Mark Seliger's work might have just increased her market value in the casting pool. She seems versatile and capable of being lots of different things. I look forward to what casting offers she will get from movie studios as a result of this photoshoot. Good work!

Who knew bike helmets could be that pretty

Fabulous Gabrielle Blair at Design Mom had a really neat posting today. It is about bike helmets. And for all of us who get excited over good design-- really cute helmets. I mean Gyro and Bell make great ones, assuming you are sporting a jersey and a pair of biking shorts, but what about riding around town?! The solution is Yakkay. What a smart product! Yay for creative designers at Yakkay.

And so my long lost love returns

An old time friend shared some pictures with me today from a get together of our dear friends, and there was more to the pictures than sweet happy faces. It is fall in Asia… which means that fall fashion overhauled their looks already, and summer has been carefully pressed, packed and moved to the back of the closet. And this fall is not going to disappoint. At least not me. I spotted the most darling trench in the picture, and it had something so familiar about it, so candid. It had some lines shared by shoes I used to sneak out of my moms closet, it had some seams alike to my favorite suit. But all that belonged to an old love of mine—Escada. I haven’t looked at Escada for years, but today I had to take a peak. I don’t know if it was the beauty of burnt orange (seen in lines of quite few designers this winter), or the poetic ruffles, and Mongolian ornamentation on the details… but its so wearable and fabulous. Here is what I found that made me fall in love all over again with Escada’s prêt à porter collection for the upcoming season.