Illustrator Inca Pan's work primarly appears in the fiction section of a Taiwanese newspaper, but his illustrations are so visually striking they easily stand without their accompanying stories. Pan's images are folkloric and character-based, and his distorted figures always seem to be in the middle of a peculiar relationship with the natural world or one another. He has a knack for condensing the tension of a story into a compelling image, and he's got the best anthropomorphized woodland creatures this side of a Wes Anderson feature. Even if the conflicts he depicts deal with potentially serious struggles, or the banal tasks of everyday life, he uses delightful color and an endearingly accessible style to keep things from ever getting too gloomy. In addition to newspaper illustrations, he's also a gallery artist and currently has work in the group online exhibition, "Strangers In A Strange Land." We're not-so-secretly hoping he gets the chance to work with animation sometime in 2013.
With warm weather approaching and beach getaways creeping up on the calendar, some of us are experiencing anxiety. The itty bitty string bikini isn’t for everyone or every occasion—and finding a flattering swimsuit with style isn’t as easy as it sounds. So when we came across Beth Richards recently, we found ourselves excited about swimwear in a whole new way.
The Beth Richards Spring/Summer 2013 collection puts a modern twist on classic and vintage silhouettes, where iconic patterns like florals or exaggerated crosses entertain monochromatic palettes. Versions of high wasted two-pieces are ideal for flattering curves, and come with easy post-water options in crop-topped cover-ups. Richards has a way of expressing a cohesive vision for the female form, allowing the contemporary woman a chance to frolic in the sun with a generous reserve of elegance. We can imagine a Bardot or a Hepburn rocking one of these in Antibes. Bonus: Her one-piece swimsuits, made-in-Canada, double as sleek bodysuits.
Visit Beth Richards online for a list of stockists.
For the first music video from his upcoming metal album, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei recreated scenes from his 81-day imprisonment in 2011 on a set modeled after his actual jail cell. The video depicts some humiliating moments from his imprisonment, such as a forced shower in front of guards accompanied by a head shaving, as well as a bizarre drag sequence. Australian cinematographer Chrisopher Doyle shot the nightmarish clip, which has already been banned in China, as has the search term "Ai Weiwei." [via BBC]
Only a French menswear label, er "collective," could get away with the name Brooklyn We Go Hard, if it is possible to get away with at all. Now, BWGH, which calls itself a collective of "members" on its blog, has a new Paris shop at Les Docks, Cité de la Mode et du Design, a minimal and sleek pop-up inspired by Yves Klein that will be selling BWGH through September.
Visit BWGH online to see its latest collection.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, Penguin UK has published a series of paperbacks related to various stops on the venerable Tube. While we're considering taking home a stack on our next trip to the Big Smoke, there's one in particular that caught our eye right away. Fantastic Man's Buttoned-Up delves into the question of why East London men tend to button their shirts all the way up. It features Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and other notorious buttoners from the East End pondering the question.
Buttoned-Up is available via Penguin in the UK.
Related
-
UK illustrator Scott Balmer references just about every modern era while remaining entirely current.
-
Soccer fandom is contagious when Daniel Nyari illustrates famous Euro footballers.