Rima Suqi

The luggage I love but cannot afford is apparently now available (in one specific color) from J. Crew. Normally when I read about a super high end designer creating for a not so high end brand or store, the prices tend to be higher than usual for that not-so-high-end place, but not astronomical. Sadly this is not the case in this beautiful vulcanized cardboard case. It’s just a new color, available at an unexpected place, at the same very very expensive price (STARTING at $1,000 and top out at $2,400). Still gorgeous, though.

I am not personally into knick-knacks or other objects I might eventually (key word) have to dust. But I have always been into Constantin Boym’s Buildings of Disaster series for their irreverence, statement on society, political incorrectness and general cojones. The collection was introduced 11 years ago as part of a catalog called “Souvenirs for the End of a Century.” Every time a new piece is introduced, I wonder why I do not own the entire series. Or even one damn piece of the series.
Today is one of those days.
As I scanned the clogged in-box I noticed a couple-days-old email announcing the latest Building of Disaster – the Golden Mosque (aka Al Askari), one of Shiite Moslem’s holiest sites located in the Iraqi city of Samarra.

According to Boym, ” The original shrine dates back to 944. On February 26, 2006, a double explosion destroyed the famed golden dome of the building. The two remaining minarets were destroyed by another bombing in June 2007.

The building has become the most notable architectural victim of sectarian violence in Iraq. In the week following the explosion, 168 mosques were attacked or destroyed in reprisals. Presently, there is talk about rebuilding the Al-Askari.”

This, like all buildings in the series, is an edition of 500. Many are sold out (Unibomber shack – genius and gone!) but some of my all-time faves are still available including: Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch,
Waco, Texas, the O.J. Car Chase (really) and the New Orleans Superdome.

Prices start at $110; this mosque is $220.

By now you’ve probably heard of the stores Design Within Reach plans to open in September – two locations (SoHo, Santa Monica) filled with products from their new “Tools for Living” collection. I got a little tour of the collection last week and here are some highlights. For the most part, it’s a collection of well designed, products with a purpose. And almost all of them have a beneficial-to-some-underprivileged-group or sustainable or organic angle (insert politically incorrect eye roll here). One item I didn’t get a picture of was the fly swatter that doesn’t actually KILL the fly, it just stuns/temporarily maims it so you can put it back into nature (insert obvious, exaggerated, look-at-my-eye-roll, eye roll here).

Designed by WINK (Tyler Brule). Expensive but gorgeous:

dinnerware:

container for carrying dog food -

and these little figurines -

I’m guessing that most reading this probably haven’t given a thought to Lithuanian anything, never mind design, except perhaps when buying those incredible linen sheets from Area. I, however, think about Lithuanian things fairly often because my mother happens to be from there (obvious from my blonde hair and generally fair complexion), it was my second (or possibly first) language and I’m trying to get my mom to go back for the first time in 66 years (it’s not working but I’m still trying).

I digress.

So, there I was in a semi-daze wandering the ICFF when I spot some pretty cool stuff that I cannot identify at a casual glance. It turned out to be the Lithuanian Design booth. Who-fucking-knew?!?!? I immediately called my Lithuanian cousins – Astra, Aldona, Audra and Alexsas (not kidding) – then did a lap.

Here are a few things by my peeps -

I’m so proud…

What’s not to like about a trade show that takes 2.5 hours to walk through, random conversations with old friends and new acquaintances included. It’s always interesting to walk around, but the items of interest themselves are dwindling in number (including, according to my gay friends, the scenery of a human nature). Things we don’t need more of include: wallpaper, chandeliers, modernist baby furniture and big slabs of natural, grainy wood anything.

The big surprise for me was the return of Geoffrey Lilge who you might remember as being one of the founders of Pure Design (1993 – 2002). Pure Design was sold and Geoffrey is now teaching AND has a line of furniture he showed at ICFF (he’s looking for a manufacturer). Someone – step up and help this guy!

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ICF showed a great new cantilever chair by Konstantin Grcic called MYTO. It’s colorful, comfortable and will retail around $480, making it a rocky purchase for those short on cash. But I predict it would easily re-coup its price using cost-per-use math.

Artecnica had the previously mentioned witchy kitchen utensils by Tord (currently at Moss) and a few other cool things including this WirePod by Joris Laarman. It’s 12.5 a curvaceous power cord for indoor or outdoor use — love it. Not cheap, though (then again, what is).

They also showed a series of lamps by Heath Nash, a (forgive me) kinda gorgeous South African designer whose current work is shown at Amaridian on Howard Street.

My friends were obsessed with Tom Dixon’s wing chair -

A few other items of note -
Lamps in the Charles and Marie booth (I forgot who designed these – sorry!)

Lamps by Pablo – very colorful, not expensive, and adjustable:

Items from Mater Design:

Call me crazy but I kinda liked this thingie by Jiri Pelcl for Krehky:

Richard Schultz took a step in a VERY NEW direction – gotta hand it to the man in seersucker:

Lindsey Adelman’s new lamps (also available at Desiron in SoHo).

Craftpaper seating from Vancouver’s very own Molo Design:

And finally, even thought I said that I never need to see another chandelier again, I make an exception for this one by O’Hare & D’Jafer. I’ve had a picture of this gorgeous leather lighting fixture on my board for over a year, but had never seen it “live” before this show. I love the natural leather version shown here, but at the show they had a white version (very Miami) and another bling-y version (ditto) neither of which, in my opinion, hold a candle to the original, shown here:

Before I get into any discussion or pictorial of ICFF I thought it was worth mentioning one item from the Anthropologie preview of items for fall -
Fabrics by the yard. Reminds me of my Crate & Barrel days when we’d sell Marimekko by the yard – a genius idea that didn’t stand the test of time, but that Anthro is resuscitating. It’s not that you can’t get fabrics by the yard in NYC – from the fastly disappearing LES stores to the hundreds of dollars a yard D&D building – but these will be perfectly curated to the Anthro customer. No word yet on the cost.
Here’s a shot I took of a sample selection -

Ever hear of Hida? Prior to yesterday, I hadn’t either. It’s a Japanese furniture maker that’s been in business since 1920 and, long story VERY short, just teamed up with Enzo Mari for a line of furniture that will be distributed in the U.S. through Ameico.

It is made of a wood called Sugi (no relation, thanks for asking), which Hida is trying to position as the “next key material trend in furniture design.” The validity of that statement remains to be seen. What I can show you are pictures of the furniture itself, which I saw live yesterday.

Keep in mind a few things -
1. It’s made in Japan, where light woods still rule
2. It’s designed by an Italian rock star
3. It is REALLY EXPENSIVE. As in, about $600-$700 for a wooden side chair and about $6-7,000 for that sofa.

Hey, I’m just the messenger.

Key to surviving design week in NYC: do not go to the parties expecting to see stuff. Go either the afternoon before, or the day after, or else expect to battle it out with design students from all over the world who want free drinks when all you really want is to see what’s on display. OK, and maybe one drink.
This week I visited Moss on a few occasions, to have a look around. Here’s a peek at what’s in the store and the gallery. Forgive the glare on the Tom Binns photos.
In the gallery, a few things of note. The honeycomb vases “Made by Bees” by Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny and, well, bees. They’re $25k each (no, really). I had read about these a few times and was psyched to see them in person, but if you don’t know the backstory they just look like your basic honeycomb vase (not that there is such a thing, but you get the idea).

Also in the gallery, “Pyramids of Makkum,” featuring several designer’s take on the age-old flower pyramid design. Here are a few shots:

In the store, there’s a crazy Robber Baron series by Studio Job. My favorite is this – wait for it – safe. Sadly you cannot see the whole thing in this picture (which is just off the top) but you turn the clown’s nose and the safe (below, opens). It’s worth the trip just to take a look at this, even if, like me, you are creeped out by clowns.

Also in the store, a few pieces of taxidermy that you won’t be seeing at John Derian, Freeman’s Alley, Earnest Sewn or anyplace else anytime soon:

New wooden kitchen utensils by Tord Boonjte, who (we hope) is finally out of the twee woods with deers phase. I know he was spurred on by demand from Target and the like, but he was also in danger of ending up on “we’re over it” pages with those designs. These very sinister kitchen utensils ($770 for the set) were hand carved in Guatemala and have names like “Spoonchella,” which strikes me as more of a name for a drag queen than a kitchen utensil. You be the judge.

these are for tossing salad -

Finally, those Tom Binns pieces.

I recently got a postcard mailing from Sunset Beach, the André Balazs hotel/hangout on Shelter Island….something about the beginning of the season, blah blah, and in fine type something about trying the new André Balazs reserve Rosé. I personally love a nice Rosé so I dug around and got the official release and picture of the Sunset Beach Rosé bottle.

According to the release, it’s a collaboration between the celebrated hotelier and his good friend Christian Wolffer of Wolffer Estates. I wonder if André knows that the release went on to state that he is “credited by many with popularizing [Rosé] on our shores.” Really? None of us would have ever been drinking Rosé without Andre? Who knew we had him to thank for that, TOO.
That one ridiculous line aside, and without the benefit of tasting it [this is also one of the only releases I've ever received about a liquor/wine introduction that didn't come with a sample] I’m sure this mixture of Merlot, Cabernet, Cabernet franc and Chardonnay, with hints of peach, pear and gooseberry, will be a hit. Wolffer produces some very tasty wines, and I don’t believe we’ve seen a failure with the name André Balazs behind it – ever. No word on the price, but availability seems to be restaurant/hotel bar only.

Prior to leaving for Bora Bora (more on that later) I stopped by Alexis Bittar’s DUMBO workshop for a preview of shiny glittery jewelry items for fall. His (yes, Alexis is a man) collection featured a little bit of something for everyone, whether you’re into ’80s redux

a re-thinking of Cameo culture

or my personal favorites, cuffs worthy of Wonder Woman (I’ve been rocking the black one, not shown here, to great effect. Or perhaps affect).