BlingLust >> St. Kilda Jewelry

Loving the jewelry by St. Kilda...

Doesn't it look like the diamonds are foil-backed like antique jewelry?  They have that antique-y silvery glimmer to them.. not quite as clear as new diamonds.  I love that.  

Some of the pieces they sell, like the earrings above, are actual antiques.  You can really see the silvery look to the little diamonds on those.

Black diamonds!

St. Kilda collection here.

Art World "Controversy" (read: "Gossip") >> The Robert and Ethel Scull Collection

Robert and Ethel Scull with Warhol, George Segal, and James Rosenquist

I would LOVE to see the show right now at Acquavella Gallery.  

This fascinating and much-maligned couple-- the Sculls-- amassed an amazing collection of Pop Art and AbEx before that, and actually are somewhat credited with driving the Pop Art movement's beginnings.

Warhol's "Ethel Scull, 36 Times," 1963

The Good:  

They commissioned Warhol's first portrait, gave James Rosenquist his first sale, bought an entire show of Jasper Johns when it wasn't selling, and gave George Segal enough money to quit his hairdresser job and focus full time on his art.

Rauschenburg, "Currency (Mona Lisa), 1958"

Robert bought the art, according to the awesome NYT article about the show, because of a genuine love and understanding of it, and he helped fund a struggling movement by buying it.  He and Ethel then even spurred a social scene that revolved around championing and buying the art.

Jasper Johns, "Map," 1961

The Bad:  

It was the sale of the art, at an auction in 1973, that made them much maligned.  The auction, which was seen as a scandal because of its pure money-grabbing motives, brought the couple $2.2 million. 

Interestingly, it is this auction that is seen as turning the art world into what it is today.  

Claes Oldenburg, "Cake Wedge," 1962

The Ugly:

Robert was originally able to buy the works with the money he got from his taxi empire, inherited from Ethel's father, and he and Ethel were seen as the epitome of social climbers.  

Even before the auction scandal, they were seen as tacky-- the NYT describes them as the "loud-talking, cigar-chomping, Jaguar-driving taxi king and his wife, who modeled Dior and Courrèges in Vogue." 

In fact, by the mid 1960s, Tom Wolfe had called them "the folk heroes of every social climber to ever hit New York."

Willem de Kooning, "Police Gazette," 1955

"They were vulgar, knew it, and didn't give a damn," said art critic and historian Irving Sandler, who actually meant it as a compliment, as he was stating why he liked them.  

I find it particularly interesting that they were such a patron and friend of Warhol, since their seeming superficiality and greed is exactly what Warhol was fascinated by.

George Segal, "Robert and Ethel Scull," 1965

The remaining works in their collection were sold at an auctionin 1986 after Robert's death (and their divorce) and were scattered all over the world.  

Now, Acquavella Gallery has gathered 44 of the pieces in the collection.  What an awesome exhibit.

Read the full article (very interesting) here.

For a sweeter tale of a (more humble) couple and their art collection, check out this post.

Old Stuff >> History of the Feminine Costume of the World

 Based on the recommendation on design*sponge, I perused the New York Public Library's digital image archives, and I discovered this book from 1927 that goes region by region dissecting the history of women's styles. 

Above is the chapter header for the Assyrian section, and then the following page in each chapter is titled "Fashionable Ladies" and depicts fashionable ladies of the respective region.

Chic draping in Assyria, no?

I think it's interesting that the chapter on the French region is given the title "The Comfortable Costumes of..." since it still seems that French women have mastered looking both chic and like their outfit came together effortlessly.  They never look like they tried too hard.

Then, there are more detailed pages for each region on things like sleeves, skirts, shoes, and jewelry...

I particularly liked the jewelry page for Gaul.  #2, at top middle, looks a LOT like the Cartier love bracelet, no?  Wonder if that was a classic French style and that's where they got the inspiration? 

#19 (bottom right) looks like the inspiration for the "bit" motif, based on the actual piece of equestrian equipment, and made classic by Gucci on their bit loafers, like these below.  Didn't realize it had been a motif in jewelry for so long as well!

The original inspiration for the gladiator sandals of today...

Also, WHAT are those sock/shoe things (#3) at top middle that are like socks with men's faces on them?  With mustaches??

Finally, thought this montage of fabrics from Europe was interesting...

Compare to the fabrics of India...

You could learn so much about textile history from comparing the different countries' fabrics in this book!

Other than those mustache slippers, seems like this book would provide endless inspiration and reference material for modern designers...

More from this book here.

NYPL Digital Gallery here.

Summer's Coming...

Doesn't that cabin above look perfect for a summer weekend?



...a few evocative images from the poetic blog 46th at grace that remind me that summer's coming...

LustList >> Bar Carts Pt. II

More bar cart and tray eye candy... 

Above, an image from Tiffany Table Settings.  Bonus points for the fact that it's in front of a bookshelf with art hung over it!  It's a triple-point lustlist item.

Eddie Ross

Scot Meacham Wood's apartment (aka tartanscot)

See the bar tray, right in the middle of the arrangement?  Also, look closely-- that is a mirror behind the sofa (I thought at first that somehow there was another room back there!), and that is a trompe l'oeil curtain swagged over it.  Clever.

by Richard Lowell Neas, via Peak of Chic

Provenance You Can Believe In >> Izzy Lane Wool

I've mentioned before that I love the trend going on towards consuming locally-grown foods, companies supporting local economies, etc., and here's a company that takes these philosophies very seriously:

 

Izzy Lane in Britain saves sheep that are destined for the slaughterhouse for being lame, missing a pregnancy, or being male, and puts them to use for their wool instead.  Then, the cloth is woven in a nearby ancient mill by neighboring craftsmen.  Does that make you love it or what?

  

Unfortunately, their methods of production are more endearing than their designs, and the sweater above was really the only piece I really liked!  Maybe they need to collaborate with someone else, like Apolis Activism does, to get a good designer in there.  They've already got all other pieces in place!  Still, thought the company was worth sharing...

Fresh Pulp >> Canal House Cooking

I am loving this concept by Christopher Hersheimer and Melissa Hamilton.  They are producing these books, that are somewhere between a cooking magazine and a cookbook, three times a year -- a Winter/Spring edition, a Summer edition, and a Fall edition. 

You can buy them individually, or you can get a subscription for $50/year.  Wouldn't a subscription make a great gift?

As the Kitchn said, reading it is like flipping through a friend's recipe journal, complete with little personal notes. 

You can also preview the books at their website, which is where I pulled these images from.  The current issue is Volume III, Winter/Spring.  It opens as a full screen pdf and looks pretty even on a computer!

The Kitchn published their recipe for the Lemon and Sea Salt Focaccia shown above... It looks so good!  Click through below for the recipe...

"Real People" ad campaigns

Have you noticed this trend?  I feel like I'm seeing it everywhere... brands asking blogger-photographers, as well as just normal photographers, to create ad campaigns of "real people" wearing their products.

There's actually no reason "real people" should be in quotations, except that in the case of Tod's and Cole Haan, if you're wearing the shoes on a daily basis, you might be real, but you're not exactly a plebian, so saying "real people" might overextend the point.  So really, by "real," I mean, non-actors/models.

Here, a Tod's campaign by wonderful photographer Eliott Erwitt.

I feel like it's a way of brands attempting to become more real and human to people.  Like the idea of the Creative Director becoming the human face of a brand, or knowing the "story" of a company and its materials, knowing who the photographer is and who the subjects are makes you, as the buyer, feel somehow closer to the brand, like it is more accessible to you. 

Instead of advertising images just appearing like magic on a magazine page, you have a sense of how the image was created, which makes it feel more authentic, and, as a result, leads you to feel that the ad is more believable.

For this Cole Haan campaign, the brand asked Todd Selby, of The Selby, to photograph people who inspire him wearing Cole Haan shoes.

Interesting the way this is bringing the whole photographer-blogger thing full circle, since I guess we wouldn't have really known these photographers in the days before blogs.  

Like Scott Schuman, for example, was already a fashion photographer, but now we know who he is, so now it's like, "Oh look, these brands are using that photographer we like," when really, they're just capitalizing on the fact that we know who they are now by publicizing who the photographer is.  It's working out well for the photographers who have created blogs!!