Room for space.

 

Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima will be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize on May 17th, 2010 in New York. The founder of the Japanese architecture office SANAA will be the first-ever male-female duo to receive the prestigious award.

I wish I could create such beautiful things.

(All images apart from the first image are courtesy of SANAA.)

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (Courtesy of designboom).

 

New Museum of Contemporary Art building on the Bowery in New York City (USA).

 

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (USA).

 

Dior store, Tokyo (Japan).

 

Model of the Zollverein School of Design, Essen (Germany).

 

Zollverein School of Management and Design.

 

The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (USA).

The Poncho.

Seriously, I don’t like that the 2010 fall collections have already been presented in January. In my opinion, even March/beginning of April is still too early to think about or look at fall and winter fashion. Maybe it’s because I’m now living in a region where the weather is always warm or even hot and I can’t do anything with winter clothes. Maybe that’s why I’m generally not interested in the cold season’s collections anymore.

The only fall/winter item I can’t stop thinking of is a poncho. I love ponchos (since I didn’t buy that poncho-like Isabel Marant top on sale a couple of seasons ago – damn, I could still kick my ass).  Unfortunately, a real poncho, like the beautiful one from Chloé’s Summer 2010 collection wouldn’t suit my tiny frame.

Chloé Summer 2010.

 

That’s why I fell in love with the poncho-like coats and jackets of Philip Lim’s Fall 2010 Collection. Some of them even I could wear because of their short and boxy cut.

Not quite a poncho but something that has kind of the same feel is that beautiful skirt and the shorts.

But still: No matter the season – it’s warm here in Dubai, so I won’t be able to wear anything like that.

Walking on a piece of art.

Carpets used to be the last thing I thought about when it comes to interior design. I always underestimated the effect a carpet can have – until I discovered the designer carpets at The Rug Company. They are so beautiful. I had seen them quite a while ago at their store in DIFC and even collected really nice cards with their designs (yes, they have a bigger-than-a-postcard size card for each design, and around eight of them adorn the living room walls of our current flat). And when I recently showed them to a friend of mine my old passion was back. Check them all out here. I still can’t decide which one I love most.

(Images courtesy of The Rug Company.)

Autumn leaves. By Marni.

VW Flag. By Vivienne Westwood.

 

Homegrown Blue. By Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

Lanvin & ACNE 2010.

It may sound really stupid, but I almost had a heart attack, when I saw that small line on ACNE’s homepage: acnelanvin 2010.

I kept on hoping they would do it again – it’s simply the perfect collaboration!

OK, the prices do highly irritate me (the moment I looked at the prices was when I almost had the second heart attack), but let’s not focus on prices here. 😉

(All images courtesy of ACNE.)

I really love the skirt/shirt combo. What are your favourite pieces?

Melli.

I told you before that I am a big fan of our Junior Art Director Melli (who has to leave us soon again, unfortunately, to continue studying in Germany. We already tried to convince her that having a degree is not that important and that we could make her rich, but she wouldn’t really believe us. Wonder why?). Today we surfed through her blog, so she could show me what she was doing in her leisure time. And I immediately fell in love with so many things… Isn’t she good?

(Images courtesy of Melanie Wicker.)

It’s as simple as that.

After I recently inherited boyfr’s sleek, ¾ sleeve Jil Sander shirt I started to get interested in the minimalist design of the formerly German company again. I used to love it when the “Queen of Less” herself was still on board. After Jil Sander left over confrontations with the new owner, the Prada Group, in 1999 and the confusion about who would become the next creative director started, I didn’t really bother anymore. But when I look at some of the really basic key pieces of the current ready-to-wear collection they sell at their online store I can feel a little of that old Jil Sander vibe again.

(Images taken from http://www.jilsander.com)

Inspiration! Thoughts?

I like. Maybe I will give the sandal + socks combo another try.

Check out La Garconne’s online store.

(Images are courtesy of La Garconne.)

The weekend before the move. Part II.

I have to admit: I’ve been living in the UAE for 4 years now and I had not been to Abu Dhabi until yesterday. I know it’s strange. But I have to say – I didn’t really miss anything. OK, Abu Dhabi is greener than Dubai, the Corniche is very nice and the city feels more like a city and not like a loose collection of hotels and shopping malls like Dubai. But for my taste it’s a little too… hm, authentic?

We went there to support our colleague and friend Michi who took part in the triathlon. He finished it, but he wasn’t really happy with his time, since he got injured on the way (the scratch on his leg looks really bad) and couldn’t give a 100%.

Anyways, all was good. But I’m so not sporty – it’s frustrating and embarrassing. Think I was much more exhausted after that long day than Michi.

Mimi, Alex and Moe. Cheering and shouting for Michi.

Doesn't Michi (guy in black) look pretty athletic?

Still athletic, but exhausted. Michi with girlfriend Mimi after the finish.

Colleague and friend Moe.

The weekend before the move. Part I.

One week till we move to that triangle in Dubai. Last night we met the guy who should take the measurements for the curtains at the villa and found out that there was no electricity (yes, Dewa is registered and paid). Hmmm, so we had to use our mobiles to have at least a little light for the guy to measure everything. Alex also parked the car right in front of the open house door and turned on the headlights. But it was ok. Gosh, I can’t wait to move. It’s like were not really living in our current flat anymore but we’re also not living in the new home, yet. And there’s still so much to organize.

The cats obviously don’t know anything about their new home – I’m sooooo much looking forward to seeing their reaction (after the first little shock) when they see that they will have loads of space, a huge garden and a huge terrace (Atze loves sitting on our tiny balcony all day long only watching people and birds). The other possibility is that the two simply continue using and living in the small spaces, like they’re used to.

I gave that little cat-grass-thing all my tender love and care for more than one week until I presented it the cats.

And they don’t know what to do with it – apart from tearing it to shreds.