FASHION DESIGN - Thakoon design

Remember this name.

The Thakoon collection is a true reflection of the highly diverse background of its designer, Thakoon Panichgul. Born in Thailand, raised in Omaha and now New York-based, Panichgul’s creations blend various distinct influences with dynamic ingenuity. His work is an examination of innovative construction. His collection imparts a feminine spirit, poised elegance and an underlying hint of playful wit.

Upon earning a business degree at Boston University, Panichgul moved to New York to begin his career in fashion—first in production, then merchandising—laying the foundation to what has become a very well rounded background in the business. Prior to launching his own label, Panichgul spent four years as a writer and editor for Harper’s Bazaar, where he chased after style news, traced trends and developed fashion stories. Eventually, he decided to try his hand at design, leading him to enroll at Parsons School of Design.

In September 2004, Thakoon presented his first ready-to-wear collection, quickly becoming one of fashion’s most celebrated talents to emerge from the New York scene. In 2006 Thakoon was one of 3 recipients of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund and also has been nominated by the CFDA for the Swarovski Award for Best Emerging Womenswear Designer. He developed a cult following and created a unique niche, consistently showing collections of beautifully crafted, feminine designs which are as romantic and sensual as they are modern and intelligent.

Panichgul is fascinated by decorative ideas that spin out of constructing clothes. Where classic patterns have existed for decades, the nuances involved in finishing the garments are reexamined or altered in some way. The subtleties, he believes, make all the difference.
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PHOTOGRAPHY - Hollis B. Thornton

Artist Hollis Brown Thornton has taken these questions into serious consideration and uses his work as a way to explore life’s uncertainties. 

The main themes used include memory, reality and the unknown, almost every component of his work has a meaning attached to it. 

  
Thornton’s work ranges from acrylic paintings to marker drawings of wallpaper, VHS tapes, erased faces and outdated media, which all play a key role in ‘uniting the fleeting present to a lingering past.

FASHION DESIGN - Bio Fashion

BioCouture Fermenting bacteria spinning solid skins, plant stalks interlocking to form home-grown lace, human bone grown bangles: just a small selection of the ideas that are born when textile designers meet biologists, material scientists and physicists. Bridging the boundaries of science and fashion, a series of projects are hoping to revolutionise the textile industry, creating a cleaner future. On average for every kilogram of textiles, 10 kilos of chemicals are used which are extremely harmful to both our health and the environment – mainly affecting those in China, India and other countries where these clothes are produced.

 

"Bridging the boundaries of science and fashion, a series of projects are hoping to revolutionise the textile industry, creating a cleaner future"

The Textile Futures Research Centre at University of Arts London is a hive of activity investigating "how can more sustainable futures be enabled by textiles?". Carol Collette, researcher and course director of the MA Textile Futures course at Central Saint Martins, is an enthusiastic explorer of the potential of synthetic biology for cloth-making. Currently, she’s exploring a new concept for producing lace grown from plants – dubbed BioLace Collette’s research looks at apoptosis: the process in which cells are programmed to die for the benefit of the whole organism – the way gaps between toes are formed in a developing human. In plants, Collette hopes this could be a way of growing the lattice-like lace structure.

Suzanne Lee is also part of the Textile Futures Research Centre, where she has developed another textile growth technique which relies on bacteria in a sugary green tea solution that spin microfibrils of pure cellulose during fermentation, entitled BioCouture. These thin cellulose fibres form a dense skin layer on top of the liquid that can be harvested and dried.

Such collaborations look set to continue as a new initiative called The Textile Toolbox launches next week between MISTRA future fashion and the Textiles Environment Design at Chelsea Art School. The portal will provide an open innovation platform for designers and experts to engage with and foster new ideas for sustainable textiles and fashion, weaving paths for the future of fabrics.

FASHION DESIGN - Feit

 

Australian brand Feit make some exceptional hand-sewn footwear, taking an old method and making something pleasingly  modern. Founded in 2005, they offer a selection each month which, of course, are available on a small, limited run. This Toscano Low in Natural is a fine example of what the handmade method brings to a shoe. They seem like you’re run of the mill plain leather court sneaker but up close the raw stitching, the cut of the leather, the ridge running along the heel, the cork footbed…it all comes together to make something rather special.

Available in black and chocolate brown (all Goodyear constructed), this Naurale shade is a winner, even if it does have a touch of the Buffalo Bills about it. Feit also offer more sports and outdoors influenced styles, take a look over here for more.

ILLUSTRATION - Lee's pen art

Korean born, Brooklyn based Il Lee is best known for his ballpoint pen abstract artworks which he has been doing for more than 30 years. It is stunning to think about the labor that goes into each of these works, and not to mention how many pens it must takes to do the larger pieces, as big as 8′ x 12′ feet. I especially love the blue works featured here.

VIDEO - Mood inspiring

ART - Jean Wells

 

Coke and Hamburger.
2 feet tall x 0.5 foot diameter and 1.5 feet tall x 1 foot , 2010.

 

American artist Jean Wells began sculpting in the late 1980's using a beguiling array of materials and objects, large and small. Playful, paradoxical and full of technical finesse, Wells offers not only visual pleasures, but stimulating food for thought with her Pop icons of ice cream, soda and pin up queens.

 

Fitting neatly into an art historical discourse that revolves around the loaded topic of consumerism, a conversation that includes such twentieth century stalwarts as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Jeff Koons, among others, Wells also invokes more rarefied luminaries such as Nikki de Saint Phalle, Wayne Thiebaud and Takashi Murakami. Like many postmodern artists working with a blend of pop culture iconography and autobiography, Wells' work is charming and nostalgic, yet packs a punch with its satisfying bite of underlying poignancy, offering an authentic and personal undercurrent that balances the lyrical. 

 

Wells is deeply inspired by her sumptuous materials, and works with an exquisite palette of beautifully colored glass that she has custom created for her sculptures. These unique glass creations provide her with an incredibly wide selection of tones, qualities of reflection and color gradations, allowing her to shade forms, variegate and layer colors with great precision and nuance. Wells hand cuts the glass, and keeps a reserve of tiny scrap pieces that allow her to add details and touches of color that keep the surfaces lively and variable. Like many artists, she relies upon her personal history, imagination and even her dream life to arrive at the ideas she will pursue as actual objects.

 

Raised in the wholesome landscape of the evergreen Pacific Northwest, Wells was born into a large artistic family with a strong traditional skill set grounded in such old world techniques such as fresco secco, realism and mosaics. At an early age the young artist apprenticed with her father, mosaic artist Thomas Wells, and learned the painstaking craft and iconography of classical Byzantine-style mosaics as he completed a large commission for the prestigious and architecturally celebrated St. Demetrios Greek Church in Seattle. Having worked for a number of years in paintings and ceramics, Wells has recently rediscovered her love of mosaics and in keeping with her playful, trickster nature, she prefers to turn the traditional uses of this medium on their head and make sculpture instead of murals.