Pattern Pulp

Budget: Pin Clusters




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Designers and stylists can’t get enough of the safety pin this Fall/Winter season. Forever a signifier of punk culture, fashion houses alike are using this affordable accessory to translate their vision, be it tough, tribal or eclectic. Alexander McQueen‘s latest print campaign along with Dazed and Confused‘s styling techniques and Moschino‘s demurely edgy accents are giving the pin as much prominence as the model, inviting the viewer to draw inspiration and replicate at home. A box of safety pins paired with last year’s twinset can give your wardrobe the facelift it needs to stay current. Just remember, there’s a fine line between cheap and chic.

November 16, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Artful Antfarms and Social Media




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What do ants, art, fashion and social media have in common? We’ve been asking that very question ever since reading Noah Brier’s fascinating take on the power of colonization and it’s relation to the internet. The idea that “ants don’t really ever exist on their own, all their power comes from their ability to organize themselves in groups,” directly parallels social media’s impact online, particularly in relation to traffic, viral marketing and cross pollination.

The use of ant farms to contextualize larger societal microcosms have been popping up in every media form, from literal depictions in Mad Men to more abstract print parallels, such as this Hermès map of Paris. Toying with the idea of national identity and cross pollination, Japanese artist, Yukinori Yanagi brilliantly displays the world through the eyes of  the ant in his 1990 installation entitled, The World Flag Ant Farm. Using a series of interconnected boxes, each filled with colored sand in the pattern of a national flag, Yanagi releases a colony of ants into the system, allowing them to travel freely. “The border crossings” result in an intermingling of color throughout the system, a stunning visualization of our cross-cultural networks. Bringing this concept to the masses on a more playful scale, Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi merge ant farm living with brocade wallpaper patterns, proving mass mobilization can create tangible and beautiful results.

By: Shayna Kulik

November 14, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Follow-up: The Latest Checks in Town




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It’s been but two weeks since Bloomingdales in New York City opened their doors to a remodeled beauty department. Now, $55M dollars later, we have glossy checkers to compliment six new brands: Bare Essentials, Jo Malone, Shu Uemura, Sisley, Bumble and Bumble and Giorgio Armani.  This rendering highlights the perfume area, just one section of the cosmetics floor. As we’ve noted over the past few months, Alexander McQueen, Amy Winehouse, Vivienne Tam and Kandinsky are all artists that have found inspiration in this timeless staple, so too will the customers, the retail financiers are hoping.

By: Shayna Kulik

October 29, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Fashion: The New Face of Lace




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There’s true intrigue when it comes to lace.  Delicate and dainty, it both conceals and reveals. While we’re all accustomed to seeing its multitude of personalities in fashion, home goods and accessories, reoccurring ties to privacy and obscured visibility have been a constant theme over the past few seasons, making us wonder if everyone’s watching Eyes Wide Shut all over again.

The editors at Dazed and Confused are continuing to manipulate eyes in sadistically interesting layouts just as designers are racing to reinterpret them into tactile accessories.  This Karl Lagerfeld tote is brilliantly inaccessible and proves our point with it’s € 1500.00 price tag.

Uma Thurman’s styling on the May ‘09 NY Times Magazine cover adds a layer of intrigue just as the geometric lace pattern on these Urban Outfitter curtains convey feelings of graphic obscurity. Pulling from past influences, Aperture’s Weegee Spoofs the New Spring Hats spread by Michael Caccaro provides a playful window into the world of advertising and photography in 1957. Fast forward 52 years and Jean Paul Gaultier has created his own interpretation of hooded mystery.

Bringing beauty back to the forefront, this delicate Shu Uemura portrait paired alongside this seductive Dazed spread, reveals the ease with which we can jump mediums and industries, proving sexy or sweet, lace is truly a gatekeeper.

Coverage by: Emily Gup, Kelsey-Lee LeGassick and Shayna Kulik

October 20, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Trend: Global Lightscapes




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All creatives know that doodling leads to ideas. Ideas lead to innovation, and innovation keeps culture flowing. Interestingly, we’ve been noticing unruly markings in everything from media and textiles to graffiti and print. Some of our favorite adaptations of this trend come in the form of video.

Bruno Levy of New York City and Nimrod Weis of Melbourne, Australia are two multimedia artists at the forefront of motion graphics. This Modeselektor Deboutonner video incorporates thousands of photographs taken in Patan, Nepal over the course of a week. Using flashlights and long exposures, Levy was able to capture a truly magical landscape using simple tools and the notion of chance. Using a stationary, yet monumental sculpture, Lightscraper, Weis’ latest creation with Eness, is a light show projected onto a custom built aluminum structure, fabricated with a layer of semi translucent mesh.

Jumping into the realm of fashion, These Costume Department leggings are quite inspirational and we can see them easily being translated into a variety of commercial home goods. Tapping similar inspirations, Diane Von Furstenburg’s Fall windows are filled with graphic prints galore.

This collection wouldn’t be complete without a picture of graffiti in it’s rawest form. This snapshot captures a wall in Greenpoint and shares a striking resemblance to this advertisement for IDA Ireland. The slogan appropriately reads, “Ireland. Where Innovation Comes Naturally.”

By: Shayna Kulik

October 14, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Strike Off, the Alternative Textile Fair




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The serendipity that comes with living in Manhattan always amazes me. Be it the time I found myself sitting beside Malcolm Galdwell reading Blink, or the instance I shared an elevator with Simon Doonan right after giving a presentation on Barney’s window displays.  Things happen for a reason, and yesterday’s run in with Travis Boyer and Dayna Holli at the AI Freidman cash wrap was no different.

Boyer and Holli have partnered up to host StrikeOff, an alternative textile fair. The show starts today and runs through the 16th and is being held at the JF & Son storefront on 19 Kenmare. The fair focuses on Fashion and Home for Fall/Winter 2010 and includes fabric designers of every variety, from silk painters and hand weavers to digital printers and natural dyers.

To schedule an appointment, contact info@project1281.com or 212.343.3131

By: Shayna Kulik

October 13, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
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