Barbershop Revival

#1:  Old-school barbershops for men.

I don’t know why, since I’m not a man, but I really love the idea of old-fashioned barbershops for men.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I have an unexplained nostalgia for an era I didn’t live through when routine daily activities were glorified.  Like shaving.  Here, a barbershop in London called Murdock that is along the lines of Freeman‘s (below) in New York.

And for me, this begs a question.  I would say the female equivalent to getting a shave at a barbershop is getting a manicure– it could easily be done at home, but it’s nice to have someone else do it for you.  So why aren’t there classy manicure joints like there are men’s barbershops?  They’re all tacky!  Even the new trend in nail salons is the ultra-girly look (not feminine, girly, there’s a difference) where everything is pink and sparkly.  Ick.

This reminds me of the J. Crew Men’s store vs Women’s store issue… to me the men’s version is just so much cooler.  Why can no one get a grip on what classic, old-fashioned (but updated) femininity looks like?

Trend I Love #2:  Anything apothecary-looking.

“I’ll breakfast in bed and then get straight up into the tweeds.”

 

Doesn’t this bedroom look like the perfect spot to stay snugged in for some coffee and a scone while you read the newspaper??  Everything about it says “linger a while”…

Rumpled and casual but elegant bedding, sun streaming in the window, that sconce you can pull around to aid the morning light, and you’ve got that charming old phone there just in case anyone needs to reach you.

Also l-o-v-e: the gallery wall behind the bed, the wood ceiling, the striped indigo pillows and striped sheet peeking out amongst an otherwise white (but textured) bed scheme.

(Title quote from Gosford Park)

Valentine’s 2k10: Part II

Part II: The Food Edition

LOVED this cute idea from Eating is Art– she decortated this box and filled it with things she loved about her husband and things he loves.  (Recipes included in the link too.)

For the non-sweet-toothers*, a cheese and fruit plate with calimyra figs.  Did you know they look like hearts when cut length-ways?  Click the jump for more edible treats…

I don’t know how you manage to cut a heart out of the middle of a marshmallow, but it’s a great idea.

Like a rice krispie treat but with cheerios? 

(Yes I know I JUST posted a poster with this phrase, but helloww, it’s hilarious, and I liked this print too.  Is this going to become the next “Keep Calm & Carry On” (the last print to become ubiquitous in the design blog world) ?)

1: the adorable box of sweets from Eating is Art  via Frolic.  Good thing I have a blog now, this has been bookmarked for a year now!!

2, 3, 5: Martha Stewart

4: can’t remember, sorry!

6: cookies available from etsy baker Short and Sweet
7: from Rar Rar Press (love their stuff, check it out)

*Who??

Fool's Gold

Would you have guessed this is an oil painting??  Carly Waito‘s hyper-realistic paintings of metals and gems had me at hello.

Interesting that when so much contemporary art is focused on getting away from illusionistic, representative traditional approaches to painting and shocking the viewer with the new and the “is it art?”, that something purely representational can appear so incredibly fresh.

Really, at it’s most basic, this painting (with a very clever spin) has many highly traditional attributes: it is an effort at depicting something realistically, and it depicts something beautiful and even worshipped, much as art from the 15th-19th centuries illustrated religious scenes, beautiful landscapes, and wealthy patrons.

via Pixels & Arrows

Listening to: Jonsi

“Go Do” by Jonsi, a side project by Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi Birgisson

Not only is the music hauntingly beautiful in a celestial and atmospheric way (think Bon Iver but with more instruments and the pace and anthemic drive of Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, plus more hope and less melancholy), the video itself is a work of art.

The editing is actually unreal, notice how the cuts and the visuals parallel the music.

disovered via the really awesome music blog Sunset in the Rearview

Update: So fyi, I went to download the album after watching this video and discovered it’s not being released until March 10, but there’s another preview track available on his website.  It’s equally intriguing and magical.

Downsizing (the good kind) >> Trends I Love, V. 1

Karl Lagerfeld’s Off the Record, his personal collection of photos he took from 1986-1994.

When I was little, I spent tons of time at bookstores with my dad.  (I asked my mom recently what I liked to play with when I was little, because I didn’t remember having dolls or anything, and she said “you liked to go to bookstores and read.” haa).  So I was genuinely sad when small, focused bookstores packed with hand-picked treasures old and new started to die off, and hence, I’m glad they are reemerging (slowly).  Compared to that kind of bookshop, there’s nothing magical about exploring a Barnes & Noble– it’s impersonal and sterile.  It’s like buying groceries at Walmart vs a farmer’s market.

In Williamsburg, High Valley Books is helping to bring back the small bookshop scene with interesting off-the-beaten-path books like these that have long-since been pushed off the shelves of B&N.  With a small selection, you’re more likely to find these gems…

In general, I have to say I love the direction the world is going in as regards mass production (or rather the demise of its popularity).  Everything became SO available (any food any time of year at the grocery, any book on Amazon, etc), and now things are shifting back to local, antique, and handmade.  And stores that focus on curated, carefully selected collections of things. I think I could have a happy life based on farmers markets, old books, and antique textiles, furniture, etc.  Maybe next I’ll get into vinyl records?

So back to the bookstore, it’s actually not even really a bookstore, it’s better than a bookstore.  It is one guy’s personal collection of books about art, fashion, architecture, etc., many of which are out of print or signed, and he has his inventory listed online.

Valentines 2k10: Part I

Despite the dreaded “commercialization” of holidays, I love Valentine’s Day.  I do.  I can’t help it.  If you look past the Hallmark-y overload, Valentine’s is an excuse to creatively express sweet sentiments with abandon– what’s not to love? 

 

  

Images:
1: window display at The Booksmith via Design*Sponge
2 and 3:  le love
4: chez sucre chez
5: etsy store Neither Snow
6: Martha Stewart
7: cute postcards and prints – rar rar press
8: illustrator Brian Rea
9: unknown
10: Martha Stewart
11: the wife of this cutie on Garance sewed this heart into his cuff– love it!

PS- Anna, it was about the cutest thing yesterday when you didn’t have time to chat because you were toiling away on your valentines.  I still remember the ones I’d always get from you in school, and actually recently found a few in a shoebox at home…

Yard Work

Creating a dwelling out of sticks sounds primitive, basic, and even instinctual– after all, people have been doing it since the beginning of time.  But artist Patrick Dougherty, who was a capenter before becoming interested in art, infuses wonder, whimsy, and delight into his stick structures.

Though Dougherty is classified as an Earth Artist or Land Artist (which seems obvious given his medium and installation sites), to me he actually seems more a part of a decorative arts and architecture trajectory… though not an applicable or practical step forward in architecture, his vision echoes the long history of people taking pride in their dwellings.

To me, he rather seems like the Frank Gehry of primitive architecture.  Gehry looked at buildings made of modern materials and asked why they could be more imaginitive and fluid, while Dougherty essentially did the same thing with the most basic building materials. 

Fem/Masc

For the Blizzarded…

For those of you blizzarded in today, a few images to warm you up.  Although it’s the usual 65 and sunny here in California, it actually sounds fun to me to have a day of blankets, movies, homemade smores, books, hot chocolate, time to catch up on magazines, and baking (because I generally will if I’m inside all day). 

And definitely lots of candles everywhere if the power goes out … or even if it doesn’t.

Images from three favorites: Desire to Inspire, Design*Sponge, and at bottom, This is Glamorous (and it’s a Ralph Lauren room).