Grace Jones the Huricane Tour - January 27, 2009
The Roundhouse, Camden
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Now playing: Grace Jones - Do or Die
via FoxyTunes
Friday 31 October 2008
88 days and counting
Why?...
What's the significance? I don't know! - Pee-wee Herman
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Now playing: Bronski Beat - Why?
via FoxyTunes
Fuego Del Ande
Yma Sumac in her role of Kori-Tica sings Ataypura in the 1954 film Secret of the Incas .
Pachamama
Tumpa
Yma Sumac (nee Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo) the Peruvian born beauty famous for her wide ranging vocal.
Her albums Mambo and Voice of the Xtabay are brilliant.
Thursday 30 October 2008
Delusions of grandeur?
The only olfactory recollection we have from the Emperor
Eau de Cologne of Napoleon 1st
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Now playing: The Supremes - You Keep Me Hangin' On
via FoxyTunes
Malice in wonderland
Sunset Boulevard
The whole place seemed to have been stricken with a kind of creeping paralysis - out of beat with the rest of the world, crumbling apart in slow motion.
Before I got distracted by The Boys in the Band news and Mr. Pearl, I wanted to highlight the 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard. Undoubtedly one of the finest examples of American film noir. Directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, it stars Gloria Swanson, William Holden, and Erich von Stroheim.
While some are amazed by what others haven't read, I am more amazed by what others haven't seen.
Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one of the most noteworthy films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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Now playing: The Smiths - Cemetry Gates
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday 29 October 2008
I'm thinking...
Yellow and black, preferably in a black room with yellow curtains.
1950s Italian Up lighter with original painted shade. 
1950s French mirror in the venetian style.
1950s two seat sofa with ebonised frame, original leather straps and re-upholstered buttoned cushion seat and back.
1970s pair of ceramic lamp bases in a black glazed ceramic with monkey detail.
One of my favourite sources is dealer Philip Thomas. As he is now with 1stDibs he is no longer a well kept secret.
Philip Thomas
4A Ladbroke Grove
London
W11
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Now playing: James Galway - The Flight of the Bumblebee
via FoxyTunes
Cultured pearl
Master corsetier Mr Pearl originally began his journey in South Africa some forty odd years ago. In 1994 he established himself here in London as corset-maker to the stars. In 2002 Mr Pearl moved to Paris, where, from his cluttered atelier behind Notre Dame Cathedral, he designs unique pieces for couture houses. Painstakingly cutting, stitching and embroidering each one by hand. Standing 5 foot 8 inches he possesses an eighteen inch waist and carries himself as if he were a ballet master.
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Now playing: Enigma - Knocking on Forbidden Doors
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Finally
The Boys in the Band becomes available on DVD November 11, 2008. Irrespective of all the PC self-loathing, not positive, fair depiction, blah, blah, blah bullshit this is a great film. And, it is staged in what must be the definitive New York apartment.
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Now playing: Kings of Tomorrow - Finally
via FoxyTunes
They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!
What Becomes a Legend Most: The Blackglama Story
What becomes a legend most? One of the most memorable fashion advertising campaigns, ever. Launched in 1968, the ads for Blackglama furs answered the question with photographs of legends wrapped in mink. Shot by Richard Avedon and, after 1972, Bill King.
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Now playing: Dimitri From Paris - Une Very Stylish Fille
via FoxyTunes
What becomes a legend most
R. Couri Hay talks with Michele Gerber Klein about the legendary couturier Charles James.
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Now playing: Art of Noise - The Holy Egoism of Genius
via FoxyTunes
Monday 27 October 2008
Luxe, calme et volupté
Images from Menil House, article by Bruce C . Webb for Texas Architect.
The 1950s modernist house in Houston that Philip Johnson designed for art collectors John and Dominique de Menil was one of the first houses built in the International Style in the United States. Even more intriguing are its atypical interiors done by the couturier Charles James. As a foil to the modernist structure, Mrs. de Menil said at the time, they wanted something more voluptuous.
Restored in 2004 by Stern and Bucek Architects, not simply as Johnson designed it, but as the Menils lived in it.
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Now playing: Living in a Box - Living In A Box
via FoxyTunes
Sunday 26 October 2008
Looky Loos
Adolf Loos by Ralf Bock
Photography by Philippe Ruault
Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was an early-20th century Viennese architect known for his radical facades and for his writings. This volume reveals for the first time the sensuality of Loos’ interior designs, demonstrating that Loos was not an architect of the “white modern movement” but rather fought against it as he saw the work of purism move in the opposite direction of what he had envisioned. He believed in culture, comfort, intimacy and privacy, advocating the evolution of tradition and utility, rather than revolution and the permanent invention of formal design.
Villa Müller
Nad Hradním vodojemem 14
CZ 162 00 Prague 6 - Střešovice
Czech Republic
Adolf Loos 1930
My architecture is not conceived by drawings, but by spaces. I do not draw plans, facades or sections... For me, the ground floor, first floor do not exist... There are only interconnected continual spaces, rooms, halls, terraces... Each space needs a different height... These spaces are connected so that ascent and descent are not only unnoticeable, but at the same time functional.
studio international archive - Adolf Loos: the new vision
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Now playing: Falco - Vienna calling
via FoxyTunes
Thursday 23 October 2008
Amen
Mr Kieth Irvine
It is Mr. Irvine’s opinion that decorating right now has no sauce whatsoever, the expression of a culture that’s afraid to commit. Take, for example, he said, “the modern habit of propping pictures against the wall. It’s A, sort of pretentious and B, tentative.”
He continued: “And that applies to color; they’re scared of it too. Most of the rooms today end up looking like some set piece from Crate & Barrel. I don’t mean to knock Crate & Barrel, because it’s a great resource, but you don’t have to emulate their showroom.”
An English Country Stylist, Unrepentant, New York Times
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Now playing: Annie Lennox - Money Can't Buy It
via FoxyTunes
Pounds? No idiot, drachma
This is the perfect planter/object for the room.
Garouste & Bonetti
Urn 'Lesbos' 1996
glazed ceramic
yellow and white gold leafed handles
purple / green / blue
H46 x W77 x D50 cm
£3,500
The client's response and my thoughts interjected - Not what I thought it would look like. To be fair, I think it's too expensive for what it is. Shame you don't say that at Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Are you sure the handles are not solid gold or silver? As if that would make a difference. Let's keep looking. No. You keep looking. I'm done. Maybe I can find something that makes more sense. What, you mean plastic? We are in a recession!!!!! Pig.
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Now playing: Antony and the Johnsons - Hitler in My Heart
via FoxyTunes
Mission accomplished
Joseph Noble's Achievement Collection of textured wovens:
Perform, Equal, Reward, Actual, Accomplish, Effect, Fulfill, Realize.
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Now playing: Carole King - Tapestry
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday 22 October 2008
In service of the depiction
the line of fashion - the great fashion artists
Curated Robert W. Richards
Leslie-Lohman Gallery
September 23 - November 1, 2008
Gallery hours: Tue - Sat, 12 noon - 6pm
26 Wooster Street (btw Grand & Canal)
New York
The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation presents The Line of Fashion, an exhibition of 50 years of fashion illustration curated by Robert W. Richards, whose own artwork is a familiar presence on the fashion scene. The exhibition includes stunning original works by such luminaries as Kenneth Paul Block, Joe Eula, Antonio, Christian Berard, George Stavrinos, Vertes, Mel Odom and others.
Works by Joe Eula and Zack Carr 
Works by Tod Draz, J. Randall Orth, Dupre, Fred Greenhill, Bil Donovan
James Childs, Esther Larson, Steven Stipelman, Esther Larson, Dorothy Hood
Works by Antonio
Works by Antonio, Marcel Vertes, Eric, Christian Berard, Mel Odom
Works by Robert Fontanelli, Kenneth Paul Block, J.C. Leyendecker, Mel Odom
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Now playing: The Kinks - Dedicated Follower of Fashion
via FoxyTunes
The great wall
Not of China, but of André Breton.
Le Mur, Centre Georges Pompidou
Man, that inveterate dreamer, daily more discontent with his destiny, has trouble assessing the objects he has been led to use, objects that his nonchalance has brought his way, or that he has earned through his own efforts, almost always through his own efforts, for he has agreed to work, at least he has not refused to try his luck - or what he calls his luck. - One of the opening lines of the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924.
André Breton, 42 rue Fontaine
Le Mur, which was originally behind Breton's desk, was taken in lieu of death duties by the government and moved to Centre Georges Pompidou. The remainder of Breton's collection, some 5000 plus items, was sold, piecemeal, over ten days in April of 2003.
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Now playing: Dead Can Dance - The Carnival is Over
via FoxyTunes
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