The Bleakest Day

Publicerad 10:40, 30 juli 2012

Back in Stockholm…

With a head full of wonderful memories after my honeymoon. Was a cracking way to spend a July I must say in a round the world trip which included Singapore, Brisbane, Los Gatos, San Fransisco and New York, before finally arriving home again to a sunnyish Stockholm.
It’s been great to empty my mind of work-related things too for a month and simply enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of new places. Of course while I’ve tried to get away from the land of work as much as possible I did indulge in a few colour-related snaps as I ready myself for a couple of new projects which will be rolling out over the next few months.
For the moment I’m going to post a few piccies which I took during the trip including further proof that blue is the colour du jour right now out on the streets.

Publicerad 09:00, 2 juli 2012

Burberry SS13

With only a few hours before I get gone for my long-overdue honeymoon, I just caught up with a bit of MW action captured by the Sartorialist. Hot damn.
Burberry SS13 grabbed the ball and twatted it so damn hard. The first two looks are staggering. The print, the colourways it’s ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. And, while I will not go all the way to saying I so told you so but is there not some semblance of the Pakistani truck art which I posted about earlier in the year.
But back to Burberry. It’s like dating a Swede – it’s the damn future. (photo’s from Sartorialist – seriously hope that’s not going to result in heavy law stuff)

Publicerad 09:00, 30 juni 2012

Apokalyps nu

This was sent out a couple of weeks ago and it’s an interesting example of regionalised crowd sourcing in design which is also a lovely translation of one of Oversight’s current forecast trends, The Local.
Created by Apokalypse Labotek, it’s called the Malmo chair and its design is based upon a series of interviews undertaken with ten of Malmo’s inhabitants in which they talk about a chair they hold dear to their hearts. The findings of these interviews and the chairs that feature have been translated into one ‘master chair’ which holds facets of the ten chairs singled out in the interviews.
The concept is being shown at Malmos Form/Design centre at the moment up until the 9th of September so take a gander if you’re nearby.
Colourwise, I love it. It feels kind of dirty, a shady little street urchin of a tone that would lift your wallet without hesitation. If anyone wants the actual notations for the tones involved let me know and I’ll run it through my special colour machines.

Publicerad 11:54, 29 juni 2012

MMMargiela

That the faceless wonder Martin Margiela will be H&Ms next collaborator is old news I know. Speaking to a chum about it we were discussing the pros and cons of the project, which will launch in the autumn, it’s going to be intruiging to see a designer who is very quality orientated (and I know most designers kind of are) translate his unique work into a mass-production line.
Thinking about it financially, as I like to do occasionally, it’s a genuis move on H&Ms part. The desiger rarely moves away from the greigescale so the costs of fabric are going to drop like flies. The fashion giant must be delighted with that. Lots of nice drapery and layering so lighter fabrics, read: cheap, as well.
Although I am super excited to see the collection you have to wonder if it will be a repeat of the successes of the past? MMM is well established but more in the upper echelons of the fashion world so whether he’s going to have the same pull as Versace’s is a little greige.
Guardian wrote a good dissembley here on the rise of the H&M collaboration.

Publicerad 09:00, 28 juni 2012

If the stars were…

aligned accordingly, I was in possession of some form of self-cauterizing slicing device and thought that I would get away with it. If all these things were true then I may well be tempted to slice such a timekeeper off someone’s wrist.
It’s the latest in the Bell & Ross vintage line, a model called the br126 Sport and it’s ruddy pretty.

Publicerad 08:13, 27 juni 2012

Hyper Hype

During my years of magazine service I’ve had lots of contact with schools, colleges and universities throughout the world. Students, shows, exhibitions and private views in all their forms; I’ve seen ’em and written about them. I prefer writing about emerging designers and creatives than I do the established stuff. Although you’ll get no love from me if you’re thinking about “Saving the presskit for Wallpaper*”!
However, since I’ve moved to Sweden one particular school has held the uppermost intrigue to me, HyperIsland. The small digital school that doesn’t teach a single line of code!
My contacts in the big grown up world talk about the place as if it is some kind of deity. Yet hardly anyone who does not work with digital stuff is ever really going to know its name nor the sheer effing beauty of the individuals and work which emerges from this small Stockholm-based school with an admissions process not unlike a drama school.
I’m saying this because I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with one of its former students on our new SwedishDesign.org project. And her input has blown my little brain apart. While it’s rattled a few of our partners (swallowing pride always tough) the whole experience of working with someone who really does know her onions has been a revelation. In short, this post is effectively one big hat doff to the digital mastery of the school you’ve probably not heard of but one which has almost certainly had an impact on your virtual life in one way or another.
Here’s a link to a new piece of work for the Swedish band Amplifetes. Two kids from HyperIsland were involved in this wonderous piece of work. Have a butchers, the trailer is below.

Publicerad 15:06, 25 juni 2012

Holiday blues

In a week I shall be enjoying my first ever long Swedish summer holiday. It’s actually my long-overdue honeymoon but who’s counting. However the dilemma has become to surface: which jeans to wear. Many will know that I am obsessed with a small number of things: denim, bicycles, colour, trend forecasting and dancing lindy hop being the top of my ‘material’ concerns.
Denim has long been an utter obsession, with the intricacies of raw denim leading me to spend a small fortune on pairs of jeans that I often never wear and keep only to touch! I’m not going to go into which and what I own (yet anyway) but there are a few which are a bit special and are probably the only examples of their type here in Sweden.
However, right now it’s the destinations which are posing the problem, half of them being in deep winter and half being high summer and kicking on 30+. So the weight of the fabric is tricky. With this in mind I’ve been prompted to contemplate the purchasing of a new pair for a travel experiment to see how much a pair of classic all-rounders, APC’s New Standards might break in over a short period of time.
So this is a hint-based post: if you’re after an entry-level pair of slacks the New Standard is a beautious concoction of cloth. The founder of the delightfully subtle APC, Jean Touitou based the cut on a pair of his 501s but refined it slightly and bought it up to date. It was originally called the Standard and had a slightly wider cut but the New Standard is an updated version of the Standard and in many denim fans’ eyes one of the contemporary classics – it actually inspired one of the other modern classic cuts (and one of my favourites in my own library) Hedi Slimanes’ Dior Homme cuts which are loosely based on true to size or sized down Standards.
If you do feel inclined to invest in a pair of New Standards be sure to size down 3 inches from your true waist size as they stretch like crazy over the first few weeks. As  rule of thumb if you can button them up without a struggle you need a tighter pair. Give them a month or so, don’t let them go near a washing machine (they don’t really need an initial soak either as they’re sanforized so won’t shrink) and you’ll be well on your way to a pair like these holy grails. And order direct from APC in Paris as it’s fun and you often get a free tote.

Publicerad 10:51, 20 juni 2012

Stutterheim in Made in Sweden

I heard from my fairly good chum Mr Stutterheim himself the news that he has been included in the forthcoming exhibition, Made in Sweden at NK. It opens pretty soon I think. Stutteheim’s progress is staggering but a joy to watch and, since I first met him for an interview for CH, he’s really blossoming as a spearhead for his brand. While he is one of the five finalists in this year’s Rookies, the only man in the world with a brand built entirely around embracing the power of rainy melancholy is not just one to watch; he’s well up the list on the ones being watched.

Publicerad 08:34, 19 juni 2012

Feral Fluids

A few months ago I wrote a piece in my old mag, Mix about Ferrofluids and a kickstarter project where you could help to massproduce a concept using the magnetic fluid. Now, Cool Hunting has posted a post about Alessandro Brighetti’s Schizophrenia project, a more artistic examination of the incredible fluid. (As an aside, if you’re looking to get your work published from now on, forget about lo-res images as the blogs are really turning quickly away from the format in favour of high-res; the trend forecaster in me says that if there ever is an Apple tv it’s going to be super high-def as a progression from the latest iPads while its next iPhone will also feature an enhanced screen – YHIHF).
It sits kind of half way between the old mazes in the 80s that had liquid mercury and the work of Dutch designer, Jólan van der Wiel (who numbers in the panel for my Dutch trend forecast coming out in the Autumn – amazing trends by the way; incredibly engaging and fantastically different from those we generated in Sweden last year). 
For the uninitiated, a ferrofluid is a hydro solution which suspends particles of a material that can be activated by magnets in a way that it can create forms but never fully becomes a solid and inert.
With any luck Cool Hunting will be running a piece on Elliott Dahlgren Strååt who talked about his Master of Lightning project at our last PechaKucha. 
Some really great technical projects out there at the moment so it’s a great time to be a writer with a section to abuse specifically on these kinds of things.

Publicerad 13:51, 18 juni 2012

Bit o’ House

I do like it when a project shows the pure power of colour in altering perception and stereotype. Obviously there’s no proven concrete proof nor explanation of why we all have completely different connections to colour and its personal connotations.
But I spotted this earlier and it’s so wonderfully simple as a visual trick goes but it marks the build out wonderfully. Yeah, the architect gives the normal blurb, littering it with elements that they think journalists understand and that will attract other clients. Some stuff about placing the living quarters upstairs and the bedrooms downstairs and building a structure in the existing blah blah… But what they deem fit to omit (in a hurry to insert as many meaningless archprose as possible no doubt) is that the house has a white roof. Which is the albino cherry on this cake.
The project is House G-S by GRAUX & BAEYENS (a company who feel it very important to be in caps ALL THE TIME) but who cares. White roof!