There are a lot of new developments going on within the world of Kitsuné, with the all-new Condorcet store and Café Kitsuné opening its doors for the first time tomorrow, and more interesting projects to follow later in the year. Yesterday, in the midst of all these exciting new developments, Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki, the minds behind the brand, also presented a new seasonal collection and it is another win. With the just released Autmn/Winter 2015 collection Maison Kitsuné pays tribute to the mysterious soul and beauty of South Korea. For their latest collection, the brand utilizes a series of sophisticated cuts and details for men. Luxurious, refined and textured fabrics are boldly combined in the season's patterns - houndstooth, stripes, checkered prints - play with the contrasting effects. We particularly love the illustration by South Korean talent Daehyun Kim on one of the t-shirts. In a palette of neutral colors, as always - black, grey and an array of blues - which are offset by pale shades of beige and illuminated with dashes of red and silver, make it one of the strongest collections by Maison Kitsuné ever, still showing growth which will very likely cary the brand even further then where it is at this point. [ Continue reading ]
At the end of last year's Summer, the super inspirational multidisciplinary Japanese creative studio nendo created this beautiful retailconcept for ‚BACKYARD by | n’ — an original brand exclusive to the Japanese designer’s own products — located in the Seibu Sogo department stores in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro and Shibuya, and in the Yokohama Sogo space. BACKYARD refers both to a shop’s storage space or loading dock and a tiny paradise for children, an outdoor space for free play. The clean minimal white fixtures bring out the beautiful variety of the different products, but what we love most about the inspirational design are the plinths and in stands’ plywood, on which texture appears gradually towards the base, creating a very elegant aesthetic touch within the clean spaces. [ Continue reading ]
American artist Margaret Boozer is internationally renowned for her magnificent sculptural works, whose material hails from the very earth we walk on daily. The artist focuses with her creations on the individuality, history, and geology of clay used as subject matters. She finds her material at areas like construction sites, the direct surroundings of her Red Dirt Studio, in Mount Rainier, Maryland, or basically any place where purple, red, grey, brown, or orange clay might be found. Subsequently Boozer starts creating her works from the natural material without modifying anything. Everything is created by hand, with the sculptures ranging from more traditional forms like her paintings made out of clay, among which is for instance a delicate work of cracked white clay, named 'Winter Landscape', large floor installations like her 'Dirt Drawings' and 'Line Drawings', to constructions like the incredible 'Dichotomy of Dirt' consisting of clay disks, forming a beautiful wall-mounted work, which is our favorite piece by Boozer. [ Continue reading ]
We recently wrote about the inspirational online project of quarterly men’s style magazine Jocks&Nerds together with Detroit-based brand Shinola. Now it is time to shine some light on the core activities of Jocks&Nerds, which recently released its 13th printed issue, for Winter 2014/2015, being another high quality addition to their overal output. The London-based magazine released the very first issue in Autumn 2011, since which it has been producing insightful, photography driven stories, both online and in the printed quarterly on style, history and culture. With as a result topics ranging from pop culture and fashion to literature, art and film, created by Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Marcus Agerman Ross and his team. The current issue that hit the stands worldwide and online in December features a list of great stories, starting with cover star Wong Kar Wai, who released his film 'The Grandmaster' on Kung Fu myth Ip Man in the USA at the end of last year. Other stories to be found in the 13th release feature musician Brian Wilson, photographer Gordon Parks, a beautiful editorial shot by Ned Wolfgang Kelly, director Martin Scorsese, a story on the history of (professional) basketball in New York City and finally a tremendous story on soul singer Sam Cooke. [ Continue reading ]
We recently became familiar with the work of the talented 29-years-old California-based photographer Shona Sanzgiri. Before Sanzgiri put his focus on photography he was writing, dreaming to become a fiction writer, but soon found out he was better suited for journalism —specifically arts and culture reporting— with some of his work published in GQ, Interview, Bookforum, the Paris Review and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Despite the success in his journalistic endeavors he never lost his sincere interest in photography, which had fascinated him since he was a child, but at the same time intimidated him because of the technical side that comes with the craft. Despite these objections some years ago he bought his first SLR, and what was meant to happen happened: he was hooked. Influential thinkers and writers like Susan Sontag, John Berger, Geoff Dyer and Teju Cole have written hypnotically about how photography and writing are both ways to create images, which comforted Sanzgiri as he made the switch from pen to lens, creating warm images by using natural light mostly at sunrise or sunset, clearly inspired by the great street photographers and reminding us of the beautiful work of Phillip Kalantzi-Scope. [ Continue reading ]
On the 24th of January inspirational force Maison Kitsuné will take up residence at number 68 rue Condorcet (9th arrondissement) in hometown Paris. Listed on the Inventory of Historical Monuments, the building in which the boutique will house was built in 1862 by the French architect Viollet-le-Duc. Conceived by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, of DIMORESTUDIO, the 70 m² venue welcomes both the men's and women's collections as well as a Café Kitsuné. Inspired by the universe of Maison Kitsuné and by a shared passion for detail and the mixing up of genres, DIMORESTUDIO unveils a warm and functional space where complimentary colours and textures, simple lighting and materials, symmetrical lines and volumes are core concepts. Shades of lapis blue and carmine red are given pride of place; the walls, floor and doorways are swathed in a satiny aluminium. Tables are rendered from stratified wood, blue and ivory, while the chairs in the Café Kitsuné are finished with amaranth fur. The all-dominating wood, in a variety of species and dimensions, has been recuperated and re-modelled to measure, creating an elegant environment in perfect Kitsuné style. We can't wait to visit! [ Continue reading ]
In October of last year the biggest and most ambitious private museum of Paris opened its doors for the first time. The new institute named Fondation Louis Vuitton aims to become a monumental contemporary-art museum, housed in a building designed by the legendary Frank Gehry and commissioned by the LVMH director Bernard Arnault himself. In the first months visitors could tour the building, view sketches and maquettes of Gehry's design, and discover a rotating selection of artworks from the Fondation's own impressive collection. In December the very first art exhibiting was opened, featuring tremendous new work by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson named 'Contact'. Like 'Riverbed', which we were lucky to visit at the end of 2014, Eliasson once again created a highly immersive world, but instead of a rocky riverbed he takes the visitor on a virtual space odyssey after which one is intermittently plunged into darkness, making the exhibition a dark opposite of his exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. [ Continue reading ]