Baby, it’s cold outside!

First official day of winter / Solstice : December 21^st.

Today : -17 degrees C / 1.4 degrees F

ILLUSTRATOR: GAVIN REECE

Fashion & Movies | If you like the combo, see Women’s Tales.

©PRADA | WOMEN'S TALES

		Right now Miu Miu gives us six Women’s Tales shorts to choose from. Each very different, compelling, always looking good.
№ 1	|	The Powder Room by Zoe Cassavetes (American), known for Broken English. Secluded. Codified.
№ 2	|	Muta by Lucrecia Martel (Argentinian). Surreal mute transformations. Eerie.
№ 3	|	The Woman Dress by Giada Colagrande (Italian). Ultimate change into desired.
№ 4	|	It’s Getting Late by Massy Tadjedin (Iranian-American). Getting ready to converge.
№ 5	|	The Door by Ava DuVernay, the “first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance Film Festival.” Smooth.
№ 6	|	Le Donne della Vucciria by Hiam Abbass (Palestinian). Vibrant “dolls” intoxicate with life.

Random | I am extremely busy right now

milkybubbletea via unskilledlass via paola silvia bombelli’s the art of slowing down

Interesting Couple | Hello weekend! Rick Owens & Michele Lamy by Sofia Tchkonia

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every day.

Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) is known for his depictions of American culture. “Freedom from Want” is from his “Four Freedoms” series, and is currently displayed at Art Institute of Chicago as part of “Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine” (Tuesday, November 12, 2013–Monday, January 27, 2014).

Fashion | Prada goes Julius and Gene for Candy

Shared it elsewhere, but this is just too cute to pass up!

Inspired by François Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim” falling for Catherine 1962 cool.

Movies | Zabriskie Point finale

What a lame plot, if that’s what that was. Dialog – not much better. But. Exquisite cinematography. About one hour forty-six minutes into it, also, a piece that morphs with the soundtrack so well that I would pay to stage it at any contemporary space worth its existence. This is Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point” | Cinematography Alfino Contini | Music Pink Floyd “Come In Number 51, Your Time is Up” where it matters ~1:53

At Home | Humidify!

©MAK

Supposedly cold and flu viruses like dry air better…  Proper humidity eases coughing  Humidity is good for the skin and relieves those chapped lips Wooden floors and furniture, and wall paper fair better than in dry air  Air feels warmer when not cold and dry  Lowers static electricity  Less frizzy hair, less tousled clothes and less of those mini-electric shocks  Alleviates snoring  Soothed, less dry, lubricated mucous membranes in the nose and throat  Prevents nose bleeds  Can ease asthma but check with your doctor Reduced dust  Recommended humidity levels: 30-50%  Remember: Humidity levels kept too high can also make things worse – think mold or mildew; keep the humidifier clean; cold humidifies may keep multiplication of bacteria and fungi more at bay than hot ones SOURCES: EXAMINER | FITSUGAR | LIVESTRONG | MAYO CLINIC

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

I SEE MONSTAS | HOLDIN’ ON	ELISE HURST | MELBOURNE | AUSTRALIA

Music | Hello weekend!

NINA KRAVIZ – GHETTO KRAVIZ

Music | Female singer-songwriters №17: PJ Harvey

How could I forget! Tsk tsk. Ms Harvey! Maybe a shy/calm flower in real life (many a creative is), she is not artistically. This petite lady is Man-Size and a 50-ft Queenie; she can howl with the best of them, then whisper and tell a good story or make a promise.	DOWN BY THE RIVER
~	A PLACE CALLED HOME
She’s got style. She can rock.  Yep, Man-Size 50-ft Queenie indeed …  No no, she is more than that.	THIS IS LOVE

Fashion | Bits & bob that inspire men’s wear

As a follow up to How men get dressed, here is Patrick Grant of London's Savile Row based E.Tautz & Sons talking about designing A/W 2013 collection.

Health | Happy outliers. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work.

Fashion | How men get dressed. Short films by Chris Floyd

Chris Floyd takes pictures – still ones and moving ones. One day The Sunday Times Style Online commissioned from Chris a series of short films on dapper men’s rituals of daily dressing. Here to share and get you started.

Hello November

SOURCE: VIA PINTEREST

Fashion | Ladies got vicious at Rick Owens

The whole S/S 2014 fashion hullabaloo was done back in September, but the photos and videos are still out there to inspire. Fashion cycles, and not just in the cuts and colors, but also attitudes – especially when portraying the modern/current woman. She is “strong”, she is “bold”, she is “power” – as long as she is pretty, still somewhat delicate which is not hard to achieve if she is very very slim, sexy, and up for ogling (nothing wrong with that; sometimes we dress to be ogled). Then every now and then a designer says, “F%^k this pretty skinny thing. Let’s get real. Let’s get amped!”  S/S 2014 had Rick Owens. The models came in not-typical-model sizes, i.e. women sizes, and step dancers moved, really moved. All were truly fierce – strong, bold, powerful. Meanwhile, men’s wear collection had an Estonian Death Metal band…  Ah Rick, rascal you!

Random | Zen GPS

Music | Well hello Monday! Ya Mama!

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" – Oscar Wilde

Art | Jean Paul Gaultier at Brooklyn Museum

Paolo Roversi (Italian, b. 1947). 

Tanel Bedrossiantz, 1992. 

Digital print, 

15 x 12 in. (38.3 x 30.8 cm). 

Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Barbès” 

women’s ready-to-wear 

fall-winter collection of 

1984–85. 

© Paolo Roversi

No, there is nothing wrong with your internet connection. It’s just…

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

October 25, 2013–February 23, 2014

Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor

$10 / $15 +

Brooklyn Museum

200 Eastern Parkway

Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052

 2    3  Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum

Work & Life | Albert Elbaz on creating and directing

“When you create, you cannot direct 

and when you direct 

it’s very very difficult to be creative. 

So I don’t think that creation and direction are good sisters.”

Elbaz has worked for the Paris fashion house Lanvin since 2001.

Work & Life | How to schedule your work hours a la Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was a writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. And she did not spend 24/7 doing just that. Here is an excerpt from The Paris Review on her working hours. By my calculations, it added up to 7 hours a day: 10 am to 1 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm.  INTERVIEWER People say that you have great self-discipline and that you never let a day go by without working. At what time do you start?  DE BEAUVOIR I'm always in a hurry to get going, though in general I dislike starting the day. I first have tea and then, at about ten o'clock, I get under way and work until one. Then I see my friends and after that, at five o'clock, I go back to work and continue until nine. I have no difficulty in picking up the thread in the afternoon. When you leave, I'll read the paper or perhaps go shopping. Most often it's a pleasure to work. The Paris Review, Spring-Summer 1965 | Courtesy of Marcine Miller Read also: Slate “Daily Rituals: Life-hacking tips” by Mason Currey Mason Currey’s inactive Daily Routines blog

Fashion | The Fairy of Porn Chic called Carine Roitfeld

Who’d have thunk it. Me?! I didn’t. All I knew is that I gravitated to that je ne sais quoi on the pages of Vogue Paris. When I bought the December 2010 / January 2011 issue, changes were already afoot that I was clueless about. It was an issue that pushed buttons for some with its Cadeaux spread: kiddies made up for a late decadent night, swathed in major bling, all very grown up. The Cadeaux was, let’s say, provoking, creepy in fact, but to be fair the same issue contained Forever Love with very sexy, and also provocative, shots of two adults at the other age extreme. Equality for all age borders! Little did I know that December 2010 / January 2011 issue marked the end of a 10-year reign of its editrice – Carine Roitfeld. Supposedly, Cadeaux was the reason. Or maybe her final salve. Either way, controversy spread beyond the fashion industry. The dust might have settled by now, and you can draw your own conclusions. I found Forever Love quite welcoming and needed. Tit for tat, I suppose… Still, it took me a while to register the name in the middle of it all. When it happened, I was conflicted about the role of fashion editors as cultural mavens, celebrities, artistes in their own right, visual directors or dictators, poachers or patrons of talents, eagle-eyed aesthetes, or just a bunch of bulls**t.
Who’d have thunk it. All that thought about THAT?! But, I did gravitate for a reason, non? So couple of years later, courtesy of well thought out birthday present, I became an owner of irreverent and despite a well-meaning attempt at aloofness, curious of Carine. Oh, but it’s so easy to dismiss, to be disgusted, to laugh at the posturing of that world and the gluttonous triteness of it all; it’s harder to dismiss the quality of the vision and the titillating fantasy. I am sticking with “eagle-eyed aesthete” with a good dash of kohl-rimmed Rock & Roll cool and all the goodness that comes with that. She might’ve been The Client for W Magazine and fit the preconceived mold, but now we have Mademoiselle C and CR Fashion Book and I like to watch people at work, especially in artistic milieus. We all need trifles in our lives. Even me.

Read also: Harper's Bazaar “Fashion's Fairy Grandmother” by Anamaria Wilson

Coded Candy | Cheeky error message

If ‘Nothing here’ is what you were after…

Random | And don’t you forget it

Food | Chopstick Know-How and Style, or Chopstick Etiquette with a Wink

SOURCE: KEN CORPORATION LTD. BLOG

Random | So here it goes

SOURCE: donnerpartyofone

Coded Candy | Pushing the aural envelope

JAMES ZABIELA

So far Coded Candy dealt with the visual – infographics, computer generated graphics and films, icons etc. – but there is another type of Coded Candy – the aural. Technologically, DJ’ing has moved beyond mixing the records. The equipment digitizes it all and has expanded in such a way that in deft hands DJ’ing approaches the arena of pure performance. At the core of it all, we want the DJ to just play that song – but the question is now, which one? The pre-recorded or live? Following is an excellent insight into DJ’ing Coded Candy courtesy of BBC Radio 1, hosted by a longtime proponent of electronic music and a DJ himself Pete Tong, featuring a master class by affable DJ James Zabiela. When you are done or over the chit chat, check out James Zabiela’s London set at Boiler Room TV to see it all in practice. When done by a Master.

At Home | 350-year-old farmhouse in rural Japan

Location: Otowa, rural village near Kyoto

Build: in 1600s

Renovated: more than once but not that much…

Feature to know about: tategu (“standing things”, the Japanese sliding doors that are also interior walls) change with the seasons

FROM AT HOME IN JAPAN

A FOREIGN WOMAN’S JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

BY REBECCA OTOWA

Random | I have plans, things to do

dust jacket attic via paola silvia bombelli’s the art of slowing down

Random | Before the weekend starts – chill

SOURCE: PALIDES via BAR2FER

Learning to be silent | The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them who were intimate friends promised one another to observe seven days of silence. On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: "Fix those lamps." The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. "We are not supposed to say a word," he remarked. "You two are stupid. Why did you talk?" asked the third. "I am the only one who has not talked," concluded the fourth pupil.

ZEN KOAN FROM ASHIDAKIM

Food & Fashion | Make it a meal. Chanel encased meal.

I am not sure if this is quite the nosh Mademoiselle Coco would've indulged in, but let’s not forget that the reigning Kaiser, Karl Lagerfeld, knows about indulging in food. His strict diet was survived potentially only by Diet Coke, so much so that he advertised the drink. I am also not sure if “Fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight”, but boy, it can be a fierce one. Still, a burger meal encased in Chanel insignia?! I’d eat that with styling gusto!

Random | Monday

Travel & Music | Paris & New York just want to dance

Peeps in the City of Light and the City that Never Sleeps struggle under gentile sensibilities, 
and then get creative.

Travel & Music | Berlin doofs

A hub of decadence (think Weimar Republic), through the turbulence it never lost its edge.

Random | To do list. One item.

Fashion | Tatler let your feet do the talking

Music | Beautiful and angular

"Now is ze time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!" and dance some more

Sprockets Germany's most disturbing videos | September 29, 1990

Nina Kraviz Boiler Room Berlin DJ Set | Recently

Art | Let there be light! Lots of light making shapes.

“Makoto Tojiki is an artist and designer who uses light as his primary medium of expression.

Tojiki, a 1998 industrial design engineering graduate of Kinki University, devoted his personal time to experimenting with light while employed as an industrial designer. 

In 2003, he launched his career as a full-time artist. 

Early on, Tojiki produced small works intended for production, but found this limiting and branched out into artistic images of objects constructed from light, as well as jewelry that involves light reflection, such as diamonds.” 

– from http://www.makototojiki.com

Random | Pillow help

Random | Oh bull

SOURCE: WIT & DELIGHT

At Home | Yoshitomo Nara’s hang out for his Girls, Girls, Girls!

Countryside north of Tokyo, petulant children are painted to music within reach.

SOURCE: W MAGAZINE

Random | If you think it’s that simple

SOURCE: DESIGNBOLTS.COM

Random | Buddha on time

Interesting Couple | Grace Coddington & Peter Lindbergh

She is a creative director at American Vogue with an eye and styling skills to rival, if not surpass, many. He is a prominent photographer of iconic proportions, cinematographic suaveness and black-and-white cool. For all we know, they were or are not romantically involved. They work together. Often. On the pages of Vogue. Together they create stories – with fashion and their models still prominently there (these are fashion editorials after all), but somehow animated and engrossing within the two-dimensions of a photo. That’s talent. Maybe they are a romantic couple of sorts. Partners in crime, so to speak. May they remain together. Frequently.

OBSESSION | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA DUST JACKET

BRIEF ENCOUNTER | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA DUST JACKET

STARDUST | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA FASHION GONE ROGUE