Educated in France, photographer Vincent Fournier appears especially fascinated by the American space program and its rich aesthetic of control rooms, space suits, and test facilities. But his love of the utopian quest of science extends around the globe in his project Space Program, which also captures space training in Russia, France, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, and French Guiana. While I adore Fournier's images and I admire his ability to contruct mini narratives that make his photos even more beautiful, I also see the series as ripe for misinterpretation. That's to say, I don't see this series as a critique of the efforts to explore space. In any case, for those of us with a NASA obsession, it's a revelatory and beautiful look at the mortals among us reaching for the stars.
An Elton John song, Old Testament character, and Mr. Rogers' sidekick... Add to the Daniels we have known a jetsetter's hotspot in Vienna, Austria. While the Hotel Daniel itself is something to behold—we'll get to Florian Weitzer’s building on Landstraßer Gürtel and its trailer and boat another day—it's the Daniel Shop, the hotel boutique that's got our attention today.
The Daniel Shop stocks Brooks bags and ‘The Bee Station’ from England, Mexican hammocks, traveler's basics like sunglasses, hats, and cameras, as well as a range of in-house products (a soap, a white men's shirt, etc.). It presents it all in a rough hewn but elegant DIY setting amid self-made display areas and vintage '60s shop shelving. It's worth a visit, even if you aren't renting a room.
Scottish designer Catherine Aitken’s Fade Stool collection is a clever fusion of modern minimalism and vintage charm. As a recent winner of the European award Time to Design, the 29-year-old was given a 3-month residency at the Danish Art Workshops to create the Fade seating collection. Which kind of look like a bunch of fancy French macaroons, don’t they? Pastels of raspberry, cream, mint green, etc. And I want them all. As a stool. A bedside table. A plant stand. Whatever. Gimme.
Using a plywood plate atop a powder-coated steel frame, Aitken wrapped the plate in colorful cotton cord—both natural matte and satin finishes—sourced from Japan.
The gathered cords (shaped by repeated threading through a hole in the center of the seat) create a lovely, subtle color fade that plays with pattern and light. It’s a non-traditional material for furniture and it works. And the cord probably makes the seat a little cushy, too. Bonus.
There's a lot to love about Zuriick. The distinctive purple soles on the otherwise unbranded goods, the uniquely updated styling in the boat shoes, boots, and casual and dress shoes, the thoughtful look of everything from its website to its shoeboxes all seem to say there's passion behind the funky named gang from Salt Lake City.
With its new American-made line of boots hitting—a collaboration with Spokane, WA bootmaker Nick's Boots—it seemed a good time to check in on Zuriick and co-founder/principal designer Mike McCaleb.
What did you do before you started Zuriick? Where does the name come from? Where are you based?
Before Zuriick, I tried a lot of things from being a baker to building fences to selling clothes at a department store. The name Zuriick actually came from my original business partner, Clark Butterfield. It was his twist on his family’s origin. We're based in Salt Lake City, UT – after six years of solely online business, we opened our first store in Salt Lake a little over a year ago.
Were you always into style and aesthetics? What led you to shoe design?
I remember being concerned with what I wore to school at a very young age. My socks had to match what I was wearing, bleaching my 501s, and picking out the perfect pair of sneakers.
In 2004 I started a clothing company with some friends and we were selling our stuff, t-shirts mainly, to other friends locally. I was at my day job hustling over-priced denim when I was approached by Clark, the brother of a customer I sold my own shit to. Clark had been fiddling with shoe design and asked if I was interested in helping him design some new shoes. That's when Zuriick began to take shape, really.
Your first shoe, back in 2005, was a boater. What were you looking for that you couldn't find?
Yes, the Ake was our first shoe - a nice, low-profile slip on in eight bright color-ways. At the time, it was impossible to find a men’s shoe beyond black, brown and bulky.
What's your definition of a great shoe?
For me personally, a great shoe is comfortable, functional, and simple – and looks good with my jeans. For Zuriick and as a designer, a great shoe is something that speaks to someone style-wise. Our shoes have the added benefits of being comfortable and functional, but I design with aesthetic and different styles in mind and not just around my own preferences. That was the whole point of Zuriick, something for everyone - our newest line is a great example of that.
Your original signature was a purple sole. Where did that come from?
We didn't want to brand our shoes with a logo or our name badged on a seam. We came up with the idea of making the sole purple to set it apart from other shoes without having to shove it in a customer’s face.
Where do the shoe names come from?
For the first few years the names came from a Swedish list I kept on hand. The last while, I've been naming them after family and friends.
Which is your most popular shoe?
Shüg is definitely the most popular right now.
How did the collaboration with Nick's Boots come about?
We've been interested in finding a factory in the U.S. to make shoes for a couple of years, but it turned out to be harder than we thought to find a domestic company willing to make small runs. I knew about Nick’s because my brother was a firefighter and wore their boots. I gave them a call and they asked if we'd fly out to talk about the possibility of collaboration. After explaining who we were and what we were trying to do, they were on board to make boots with us.
What makes the American Made artisan boots special?
I think people are starting to realize that the way we create and consume low quality goods because they’re cheap, is counterproductive and in the end costs more with more waste. At Zuriick, we’ve always insisted on high quality leather and materials—with this line, we’ve gone a step further. These boots are handmade in America using traditional craftsmanship. They can be rebuilt, so they're not a boot that you'll throw away once the sole is worn or the leather tears. They are a lifetime boot. The US boots are an investment.
Thursday
On the flight to Miami I sat next to an off-duty pilot who tried to insist that I use his uniform jacket as a blanket. After we landed, he read all of my texts over my shoulder and tried to make small talk based on the information he had gleaned. "You like the Kardashians?"
Goal for Basel: see a Kardashian—preferably Kourtney, the most underrated Kardashian. I'd also enjoy Khloe. I'm scared of Kylie and Kendall. Rob doesn't count.
Friday
I was nervous about forcing myself to participate in so much culture in such a short time. I fearfully got up and went to Pulse, a satellite festival. Pulse was the perfect way to ease into Basel; it had a grassy lawn with hammocks and free Perrier (I felt sad for the Perrier girls who had to dress in head-to-toe green). The best installation was Watch Some Movies by Casey Neistat, because you could sit on a couch and watch movies or Keeping Up With The Kardashians while he served beer and grilled cheese sandwiches, aka feel like you never left home. Perfect for the shut-in.
No Kardashian sightings today. Several times I thought I saw one, but it was always just a random girl dressed as a Kardashian; long dark hair extensions, fake eyelashes, an outdated bodycon dress. Basel Barbies.
Not pictured: Kourtney Kardashian
Saturday
Beyonce spotted at Basel: she looked perfect and was looking at the art the way a parent would indulgently look at their child's kindergarten drawing, lots of nodding and head tilting. There was a lot of internet art and I wish her Tumblr had been included in Basel somehow. No Kardashians still, which makes sense; Kim is notoriously afraid of Beyonce so unless Kanye dragged her, she wouldn't be anywhere near this Beyonce field trip.
I met a group of Northern expats. I asked what Miami was like, and if they ever shop at Dash, the world-class Kardashian boutique. They came up with a litany of bizarre information and ignored my Kardashian questions. "There are a lot of beautiful people, but keep in mind 1 in 6 people in South Florida have HIV." "When I first moved here there was an underground horse-meat smuggling ring in the news, so I became a vegetarian." "Christmas decorations here are just really depressing and ruin the summer fun state of mind." "Iggy Pop lives in a mansion in the suburbs." "No apartments have hardwood floors, it's all tile. I feel like I've been living in a bathroom for the past 3 years." "My seventy year old real estate agent told me to lighten up when I refused to rent an apartment where the entire bedroom was mirrored. She told me it was sexy and that I didn't know what I was talking about."
This last thing actually sounded like something a Kardashian would say, if she worked in real estate.
Sunday
Having fulfilled my art duty, I spent my last days at the beach. I got a really good tan all over from just my 1.5 days at the beach. The tropical sun is so much better than the Chicago sun. In Chicago I will get a really intense tan on, like, my knee and nothing else after a hard day lying in the sun, rotating hourly. In Miami it was effortless. There were peacocks walking around and the beach was empty. It was heaven. I felt like a Kardashian.
Monday
The airport on Monday morning was my last chance to see a Kardashian but I was in a crowd of hungover French DJs and my celebrity spotting was sabotaged. I'm sad I didn't see a Kardashian in the wild. But really, Kardashians were everywhere, even if I didn't see the Kardashians. Everyone was drunk, wearing false eyelashes, whining loudly, and talking about how Kanye West is actually a really good designer. That is the beauty of Miami.
With so much attention focused on the mini, the mobile, and the uploaded, that workhouse piece of hardware in the corner of your studio, the scanner, might be feeling neglected. Maybe the next generation will give it more attention? At the recent Tate Britain SCAN.IT exhibit for the Tiny Tate event on November 3, Brighton-based design+production duo Magic+Mafia put a pair of scanners in the hands of tots and their families. In the SCAN.IT "shed" (based on a beach hut design), youngsters were invited to create their own artwork via a household scanner. Kids could scan a range of provided objects and make abstract images, or take impromptu scanner "portraits." The artists took home high quality prints of their creations—and some pieces were selected for a mini exhibit within the shed itself.
Photos by lucid-photography.co.uk
New York City-born, Hollywood-bred Terry Richardson took up photography as a teenager playing in California punk bands. You probably know his work from his distinctively flat, blown-out, and somewhat raw images in fashion magazines. This month, OHWOW published Terrywood, a compilation of works shown at Richardson's exhibition of the same name at OHWOW in Los Angeles.
Terrywood is $60 at oh-wow.com
For those looking for a little defense from the sun’s mighty rays during the warmer months, cool shades are a must. Even under the gloomier skies of winter, sunglasses remain essential—that diffuse light can sneak up on you. But luxury sunglasses have also become associated with free-for-all spending, and lousy retail mark-ups.
So when Robert Denning and Karlygash Burkitbayeva, who met as students at Stanford Business School, realized their shared interest in social progress and their mutual love for fashionable eyewear, they began conceptualizing ways that retail could engage with contemporary social issues. With backgrounds in business, design, and culture, the pair teamed up to create Westward Leaning, a luxury—yet socially responsible—collection of sunglasses featuring one universally flattering shape based off of the classic Wayfarer design.
Available in nine models, each pair features a unique material in honor of a person, place, or organization that has contributed to social progress. The Teddy Roosevelt model features material from naturally-shed antlers collected by Boy Scouts at the National Elk Refuge. The Children of California model celebrates the Golden State and its achievements with reclaimed Californian redwood. And for every pair of sunglasses sold, Westward Leaning donates ten dollars to education programs related to the specific achievements its sunglasses celebrate. With an obvious focus on celebrating the triumphs of humanity and sending a message of hopefulness into the world, Westward Leaning believes investing in a pair of these shades won’t feel entirely self-indulgent.
Just about all of photographer David Ryle's personal projects have a subtle wow factor to them, but lately we're particularly enamored of his Ice Walkers series from 2011—maybe it is the lack of snow in Chicago this year. Shot in the Alps near Chamonix, Ryle uses human activity in a landscape to instantly communicate scale.
See more work at davidryle.com
It was a mob of manicured beards, Fair Isle sweaters, and leather boots at the recent Pop Up Flea V at NYC’s ROOT (Drive-in) in Chelsea. Hosted by A Continuous Lean’s Michael Williams and Randy Goldberg of Urban Daddy, the 3-day menswear event was the mecca for urban dudes who embrace a decidedly rustic wardrobe. Has the heritage trend given guys the liberty to upgrade their look in a down-to-earth way? We’ll let you decide. So, go ahead and pitch a tent. Here are a few highlights:
- Man of the World: The fancy lifestyle mag’s booth sported a shiny black MG, fixies, and smaller goods like axes by Best Made Co. and Walnut Studios’ Leather Bicycle Can Cages, perfect for your PBR.
- Gerber: No, not baby food… knives. A shit ton of knives displayed beneath a tent adorned by a huge boar head. And other potentially lethal goodies like hatchets. Winner: most creative booth.
- Ursa Major: Sustainable skincare products made from natural ingredients that smell fantastic. Products like “Stellar Shave Cream” and “Fortifying Face Balm” kind of smell like... well, the woods. Not sweaty lumberjack woods, more rugged outdoorsman woods.
- Billykirk: The leatherwork designs of brothers Chris and Kirk Bray is handcrafted by a group of Amish leather workers in Pennsylvania. Impeccably made satchels, belts, and more. Also? They’ve collaborated with J.Crew so you know their work is perfect. Because J.Crew just seems…perfect.
- Levi’s Vintage Clothing: I know, it feels all branding voodoo with the addition of “Vintage Clothing”, but Levi’s pulled off some serious bad-ass magic with a large gallery exhibit of self-taught Brooklyn photographer Danny Lyon’s “The Bikeriders” featuring hand-painted leather moto jackets, books, pics, and archives. Photojournalism at its best. It was brilliant.