'Cat Burglar' Barbie

Turns out Barbie has a French godfather, who hearts sexy shoes and dramatic fashion.

Would u like to guess who that would be?

Who else but Christian Louboutin.

Christian Louboutin designed THREE barbie dolls of which the first became available on Net-A-Porter on December 4th, and has already sold out!


Press release on stylist.com reads:
Christian Louboutin Barbie Sells Out in One Day on Net-A-Porter

Oh, what a girl won't do to snag a pair of Louboutins -- even if they're completely unwearable -- for under $200!

While the first Barbie by Christian Louboutin became available on Net-A-Porter just yesterday (Dec. 4), alas, it has already sold out!

Now, shoe fiends coveting the $150 limited edition 'Cat Burglar' Barbie will have to add it to their Net-A-Porter 'wish list' in order to be notified when the dolls are back in stock.

One look at the fiery-haired Barbie and we can pretty much understand why she flew off the virtual shelves so quickly. The mini fashionista not only comes wearing a smokin' second skin catsuit, but with four drool-worthy pairs of mini Louboutins, too.

The pint-sized, red-soled wonder includes the strappy "Differa" sandal (that seemingly fit over Barbie's "too fat" ankles -- Louboutin's words, not ours!), sleek "Miss" ankle boots, bright pink "Claudia" peep-toes and leopard print "Altameche" knee-high boots -- along with tiny Louboutin boxes and bags to hold each, plus Barbie and Louboutin's Paris travel journal. Swoon.

While new Louboutin Barbies will be released in 2010 -- with safari, showgirl and Cannes Film Festival themes -- let this story be a lesson to all the procrastinators out there (and yes, we sadly fall into that category, as well).

In the meantime, check out what Barbie herself thinks about the Louboutin makeover in StyleList's exclusive interview with the world's most famous blonde.

http://www.stylelist.com/2009/12/05/christian-louboutin-barbie-sells-out-on-net-a-porter/

xoxo

Betsy

Itaru Yonenaga from Tou

This guy is a genius!

He gave normal everyday items a whole new meaning and that is the concept behind Tou products.
'Tou' is finding your point or a different view point on something so mundane, so everyday. Mix it with a little imagination and creativity et voila! Wearable Art...

Some my favorite items by Tou:

The Sweater form (or the Swarf as I like to call it)


Long hand scarf


2face Cap

Cool just got colored!

I'm totally speechless at this discovery.. and I don't care how old it is or that it can kill me!

No matter what kind of a smoker or non-smoker you are, just one look at that and it'll make anybody start puffing away!

Thank you Nat Sherman!



AND a lovely disclaimer from where I found the post on this COOL product
'Disclaimer: thoroughly endorses the need to be different in order to be noticed. Most of you have turned your back on smoking to the point where it is once again becoming “in” to smoke. Remember indies, addiction isn’t fun. If you’re prone to addiction don’t be an idiot loser and take up smoking. It’s pathetic. If you are addicted to smoking, get off of it. No one thinks your special. Casual smokers rule the world. Just thought you’d like to know.'
http://fashionindie.com/trendspark-colored-cigarettes/

Too bad they don't deliver to the Middle East :(

xoxo
Sasuki

Mary Katrantzou dresses women in perfume bottle shapes!

I love how it's so easy to discover things on the net just by clicking some place random and signing up to this and checking that.. its just so convenient.. so I stumbled upon this today while setting up my 'Bloglovin' account and I thought Ah! What an excellent addition to our blog! .. (this one is from www.designboom.com)

So this designer's fall/winter collection is inspired and focused on fancy 'Baccarat' like flasks of perfume.. which she uses to emphasize and outline women's bottle shape bodies.. As you can tell from the images, the coolest thing here is how these fabrics have these lovely flask patterns which do mostly all of the emphasizing in addition to the cut and design..

My take on it would be that its a more sophisticated way of saying 'Coca-cola' shaped body or 'Hour Glass' with a more literal treatment!

Her line is available at Paris' number one trendiest store (in my opinion) Colette

Chanel Classic Handbag

November 30th, 2007 / Posted in Chanel Handbags by Vlad Dusil.



One very commonly asked question on our Chanel Forum is on the difference between the Chanel Classic Flap and the Chanel Reissue 2.55 bags. I’ve scoured the forums this morning to educate myself, and our readers about the differences between the two. Let me start with a few historical facts on the Reissue.


HISTORY:
The lock on the Reissue is the original lock, it is called the Mademoiselle Lock as Ms Coco Chanel never married, the ‘CC’ lock was introduced to the Classic Flap Bags only in the 1980s by designer Karl Lagerfeld. The 2.55 in its name refers to the first release of the 2.55 bag in February of 1955. Coco Chanel grew up in an orphanage/convent, therefore, the double chain shoulder strap comes from when the children’s’ caretakers in the orphanage would dangle keys from their waists with the same type of chains as on the Reissue. Also, the zippered compartment on the inside of the front flap of the Reissue is where Coco sequestered her love letters, as she was having an affair at that time. The brownish red color of the inside represents the color of Coco and the rest of the children’s uniforms (the nuns’ were black with white trim: thus, the packaging on Chanel Parfum/Eau de Parfum/Eau de Toilette). The back outside flap of the Reissue actually marks where Coco would stash extra money!
Over the years there have been many variations to the original design of the 2.55, including the leather/fabric, the chain – metal vs. interwoven leather, single flap vs. double flap, and the closure – mademoiselle vs. interlocking CC. The 2.55 refers to all flap-style bags, including variations of the original! The term classic flap commonly refers to the flap with the interlocking CC closure and the leather interwoven chain.
In February 2005, Karl Lagerfeld re-made the 2.55 – exactly as Coco Chanel had made in 1955, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 2.55. It came to be known as the Reissue. Technically the term Reissue should only be used for the bags that were made to commemorate the original – so only those in 2005. However, it has become convenient to call all 2.55s that resemble the original 2.55 Reissues and all 2.55s that have the interlocking CCs Classic Flaps.
More on the fascinating history of the Reissue 2.55.


THE DIFFERENCES:
This thread, particularly post #57, gives a great amount of information on the differences between the two styles. If I may briefly summarize:
1. Closure/Locks: Classic has the double CC turn-style lock, the Reissue has the Mademoiselle lock (rectangular shape).
2. The handle: The reissue has an all chain handle, while the classic has leather interwoven between the chain links.
3. Reissue has a different type of leather, that is made to seem more worn than the caviar leather on the classics.
4. All the reissues have a double flap inside, whereas the Jumbo Classic does not.
5. The sizes on the Reissue are different than the sizes on the Classic Flaps.

Louis Vuitton: A Passion for creation

Louis Vuitton and Art

A symbol of French elegance and savoirvivre, Louis Vuitton has maintained close links with the art world for more than 150 years. As pioneers of the art of travel, Louis Vuitton and his successors have forged a strong relationship between traditional know-how and contemporary design.

The arrival of Marc Jacobs as artistic director in 1997 reinforced Louis Vuitton's ties with artists, notably through exemplary collaborations with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince. In Hong Kong, the Louis Vuitton and Art exhibition brings this exciting story to life illustrating the creative process through installations combining works of art and archive documents.

....

LOUIS VUITTON Art, Fashion & Arquitecture

"Of all modern luxury brands, Louis Vuitton can claim to maintain the richest and most varied associations with the world of art! The book is structured as a seductive anthology of the house’s most visible collaborations."

Enjoy the read!

xoxo
Betsy

Artist With His Signature on the City

By STEPHEN HOLDEN - Published: May 22, 2009 - NYTimes

“To Inform & Delight: The World of Milton Glaser” may leave you with the impression that the spirit of modern New York was conjured out of thin air by its subject, the celebrated graphic designer who is about to turn 80. It was Mr. Glaser who came up with the “I ♥ NY” logo in the 1970s when the city, then on the verge of bankruptcy, was widely perceived as a crime-infested danger zone. As the center of a campaign to revive New York, the logo helped reverse the decline and boost morale.

Mr. Glaser’s signature is everywhere: not just in logos but in magazines (he founded New York magazine with Clay Felker in 1968), on posters (his silhouette of Bob Dylan with psychedelic hair is one of his most famous) and in restaurants and supermarkets. The hallmarks of his work are its simplicity, wit and elegance; it may be commercial art, but with a capital A. One of his strategies, he says, is to appeal to the problem-solving part of the brain by creating simple visual puzzles.

Instead of a detailed biography, this small, heartening documentary, produced and directed by Wendy Keys, concentrates on his work, with analysis by many commentators, of whom the most articulate is Mr. Glaser himself. The film takes its title from a quotation of Horace — “the purpose of art is to inform and delight” — that encapsulates Mr. Glaser’s humanist aesthetic.

As a child, Mr. Glaser recalls, he grew up in a crowded three-room apartment in the Bronx and attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and Cooper Union. He discovered the wonders of great art after winning a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy, under the painter Giorgio Morandi. It was there, he recalls, that he realized “history was not the enemy” and he rejected strict modernism. We meet Mr. Glaser’s wife, Shirley, with whom he has collaborated on children’s books, and are shown the couple’s remarkable collection of African art.

Mr. Glaser, who speaks with the measured phrases of a born teacher, emerges as an articulate and humane philosopher of communication through art. “Everything is related to its opposite,” he observes. If you have light, there has to be darkness; truth requires lies; the world we live in is a kind of purgatory.

He is also a passionate connoisseur of good food, a pleasure he first discovered in Italy, and takes special pride in the Underground Gourmet columns he wrote with Jerome Snyder for New York magazine, because they showed middle-class New Yorkers the joys of the city’s ethnic restaurants.

His wry recollection of his mother’s frightening pasta recipe — boil a package of spaghetti for an hour, douse it with Velveeta and ketchup, bake it into a mound shaped like the dome of St. Peter’s, fry it in chicken fat, then slice it — explains a lot.

MILTON GLASER

To Inform & Delight

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed and produced by Wendy Keys; director of photography, David W. Leitner; edited by Tom Piper; music by Hayes Greenfield; released by Art House Films. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 13 minutes. This film is not rated.

STEEL STYLE

It's a simple equation.. 

said in simple terms..

by a man not so simple..

"Fashions fade, Style is eternal"

Yves Saint Laurent

This is what makes these girls (and so many others) special, unique & STYLISH..

They have an ability to create & re invent looks .. It's like they are Realities Style Models...

We hope that more & more ladies look into their hearts & think twice before deciding to buy that piece that will make them look like a copy paste of H&M's catalogue.. if you really can't help not buying it, try personalizing it with some badges, brooches, maybe even wearing it in a different way.. 

Remember keep it different, keep it you & most of all keep it real!

xoxo

Sasuki

THE HOMMOS

Greetings to all our followers, random readers, soon-to-be fans, stockers & other,

We are happy that you've gotten this far to finding our blog & going through it (what it is so far) .. Please feel free to judge us & leave comments (constructive ones) 

Briefly we are 3 girls who questioned the existence of something more to life than a 9 to 6 job, food courts & malls; so we've devised ourselves a hobby that uncontrollably developed into our obsession.

With diverse cultural backgrounds, graphic design fetish & a film production fixation, we've managed to channel it all into a CONCEPT concept! 

CHICKPEAS

A "brand" thats sole purpose is to produce "un-mainstream" items! be it clothes, accessories, photography ... anything

WHY? well we're fed-up, bored & think that there may not be anymore space for human reproduction but there most definitely is a lot of space for design exploration..

The world needs more options.. a bigger visual gallery... it needs to look at new & different things all the time .. to grow.. it .. well I think Malvina Reynolds can say it the best:

HIT IT!

1. Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, Little boxes, little boxes, Little boxes, all the same. There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same. 2. And the people in the houses All go to the university, And they all get put in boxes, Little boxes, all the same. And there's doctors and there's lawyers And business executives, And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same.

3. And they all play on the golf-course, And drink their Martini dry, And they all have pretty children, And the children go to school. And the children go to summer camp And then to the university, And they all get put in boxes And they all come out the same. 4. And the boys go into business, And marry, and raise a family, And they all get put in boxes, Little boxes, all the same. There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same.

Until next time..

xoxo

SASUKI

Johnny Dots...

A teaser dot dot dot

Big thanks to the photographer - NIC ARNOLD 

www.nicarnoldphotography.com

The lovely model - MAYA CHAMMAS

For image color adjustments - MAYA SMADI

The XOXO Effect

Hi, my name is Coco, and I will be bringing you regular updates (almost regular) of things I like. New collections, design, art, fashion, music and movie reviews.

There is no beauty without strangeness!

Let me tell you about Antonio Marras. I love his new collection. The layered soft pieces, the patterns and Japanese floral designs, looked like it was something out of the 1920s.

Check it out www.antoniomarras.it

I saw a posting on ASW, for an art exhibition for Graffiti artist Maximillian Wiedemann called Vanity Unfair.

His work explores the dependent relationship between pop culture, media and consumerism। This exhibit examines the perplexities of grand industry against the trials and behaviour of modern society. His sense of humour is perfect for our ambiguous times, with quotes such as 'Closer to God in Heels' and 'The better you look, the more you see'. Picking up the heels where the bourgeoisie stopped, Wiedemann has continued the quest इन्तो the lifestyle of the rich and famous. He takes something iconic and turns it upside down.

I LOVE IT!

THAT'S IT FOR ME..

xoxo
Coco