the traditional contemporary art library

Loring Art is a contemporary art library with a very traditional look. When I got inside, I felt like in my grandma living room. Combining home sick+cosiness +cool books=success. I never saw this! If you would ask me how a contemporary art library looks like, I would imagine some kind of Zaha Hadid's building. But this, is one of a kind. I was happy to see how many good books they have on cinema&photography and totally surprised when seeing the Victoria&Albert publishing house books (double the price in pounds but still, you can buy them in Barcelona!). The ladies of the house are making you feel like family. It is definitely a cool place where you have to go for new discoveries in terms of books, magazines, decoration&soul. Breath in!

Loring Art

Gravina 8
Barcelona

MUDE preview

MUDE is the new Design and Fashion Museum which will open to the public at the end of 2010 in Lisbon: 3,000 square meters, 2,000 items of design and 1,200 of fashion purchased from collector Francisco Capelo. But before the grand opening, they installed a preview exhibit “Ante-estreia”, between the 'ruins' - as the building is underconstruction, with just a few pieces from the collection. Mixing the unfinished look of the building with art and design works just perfect in the heart of Baixa area.

The temporary exhibition, hosted in the same building that is going to be remodeled very soon - the former headquarters of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino - seemed to me a little bit chaotic in terms of inside arrangement&placing but interesting in terms of content. Like a journey through time, one could identify the trends and directions in the 21st century, the search for innovation and close ties to the consumer and advertising worlds , follow transformations in cutting technique, research in new fabrics and materials, stylistic trends and the revolution of the silhouette or discover how ideologies and music were influencing the style of living and fashion.

My top 5 - it is impossible to find the first 3 on Internet, so this is a more powerful reason to really visit the exhibition. The pictures belong to MUDE catalog.

Semour Troy, Troylings Oxford Shoes, 1940

Tejo Remy, You can't lay down your memory drawer

Hubert de Givenchy, 50s evening dress

Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot, gramophone radio Braun SK4, 1956

Fernando and Huberto Campana plush chair, 2003

The upper floor hosted a political portraits exhibition which was very good. It was interesting to see different political leaders (sometimes rivals) categorized by the communication&advertising strategy they applied in their campaign.

The museum aims to trace the history of design and fashion from the 1930s to the present: apparel, footwear and accessories, furniture and small everyday objects, both unique and mass-produced, reflect the 20th century’s major design trends and movements.

In the future it is planned to extend the museum to the upper floors, including the terrace, where one can enjoy a magnificent view of the downtown and the river Tejo. A project to adapt to the work of museum architects Ricardo Carvalho and Joana Vilhena. Can't wait to see the results!

MONOCLE

One of the best things that happened to me since I moved to a more European city, Barcelona, is the access to good magazines. My favorite (and the best magazine ever, in my opinion) is Monocle, 'a briefing on global affairs, business, culture&design'. Even if it is more expensive than in the UK for example, it is the best investment one can make for himself. I read it thoroughly every month, from the first page to the last, not missing any of the little text columns, like a really good book that makes you addictive. And after I read it, I become proud of my knowledge and I walk more confident on the street. Haha, yeah, try it!

shiny and new Beyonce

I never thought I will write a post on Beyonce. Not because I have something against her, just that, let's say, she is not my style. But lately, more precisely since she started her collaboration with famous designer Thierry Mugler, she reached my graces.

Although Mugler had stepped away from the fashion world, concentrating instead on his couture and fragrance collections, Beyonce tempted him back, making him create a 58-piece wardrobe for her upcoming world tour. And this is not all! He is also the creative director of her whole show giving his inputs on lighting, choreography and stage outfits.

So, thanks to Mugler, Beyonce is now riding the retro futuristic trend. Retro futuristic design is a return to, and an enthusiasm for, the depictions of the future produced in the past. Do you remember Metropolis? or Cartoon Network's The Jetsons? The Rocketeer? 2001:A space Odyssey? They all have elements of the future, as seen many years ago, which should have happened now. We already reached the time they were talking about and it's interesting to see where we are in fact and where people imagined we would be.

Beyonce is now part of this movement and she is doing it very good. As she is a trendsetter, I wonder what will happen with pop and R&B industry now. Her latest 3 video clips (Ego, Diva, Single Ladies) have the same structure: black&white colors+Beyonce+her 2 dancers+retro futuristic elements in their outfits (metal gloves, shiny leggings, big shoulders, metal layers)+burlesque elements (gloves, corsets, net tights). If you come to think of it, retro futurism and pop is a strange combination, but she sure makes it in a cool way.

let's share the Lego feelin'

Lego reminds most of us of our childhood times, sitting on the carpet in our room, very concentrated in creating something of our own world. As brands already know that selling pleasant emotions is the key to success, Lego is extending his products to a whole new audience. Now they came up with this Lego camera aimed at teeny human friends. In fact, I think we will all buy it, with or without having children. Is it just my love for these bricks or lately they are everywhere?

The brick candles

After seeing the Nintendo approach on mixing sounds, one of my readers told me about Legoloop, a very cool projects that units Lego and music. The idea evolved out of the preoccupation with the term "live" in electronic club culture and the related melting of the two formerly separated roles of the DJ and the producer. The turntable and the computer are linked up to each other and form a new interface which allows a visual approach towards sample based digital sound generation. Lego bricks take over the functions of knobs, sliders, mouse and keyboard. A video camera replaces the needle as pick-up. Structures of sounds can be built, changed and destroyed intuitively. The cameras register the position and colour of the Lego blocks or rather, the sequence or pattern that these make when revolving with the turntable. I say, WOW! Must admit the sound is veeeeeeeery strange.



Please feel free to share your Lego experiences and discoveries with me. Let's get into the Lego mood!

food design

When it comes to food, and not only, we all have little rituals that we are not even aware of. We have a special cup for drinking coffee, special way of eating an orange, special napkins for dinner with the guests, etc. Admit it, it's true! Food is an important compound of our lives and we all have big expectations when it comes to smelling it, tasting it or just looking at it.

But who would of thought there can be a fairy doing the PR for our food? Such a person is called a food designer. Although you may think this is kind of a Chef, the job requires different skills. Beatriz Lloret, my teacher from the Coolhunting course that I take at IED, is a technical engineer in industrial design, studied a postgraduate in product design, has some notions of chemistry and alimentary industry and works as a food designer with elBulli and Escriba.

Food designing is part of a creative process. It all starts with the constant motivation of making the client happy. When creating an event for a specific brand, food can communicate much more than we think and it has to match a lot of variables. Are the people at the event standing or sitting? Which working domain do they belong to? Are they vegetarian? How can we make food matching the brand's personality? How can we make it innovative, tasty but also easy to eat? This is when the food designer comes in and starts talking about deconstruction, reconstruction, trompe l'oeil, crio-kitchen, trash cooking, cromatherapy and aesthetics. In food, of course!

So, after the shop experience we are now talking about food experience. We are not satisfied anymore with food that only stops our hunger but it has to be good looking and offer us a certain amount of fun. Oh, human kind will never ever get bored, that's for sure! The cakes in the pie chart shape from the picture are designed by Marti Guixe, one of the most playful food designers in the world.

celebrating the full moon

where: c/Lluna (Moon St.) in the Raval district/Barcelona

when: every full moon
featuring: all the shops in the area, hair saloons, Catalans with their children, people from the neighborhood, art fans.

what's going on? each edition has its own specific activities. This Sunday was about live music, workshops for children, body painting, documentaries and projections, erotic reading, swing concert and God knows what more was this street hiding. The best thing is that people get involved in this celebration and start creating their own gimmick, installation, art or games for the ones that passed by. I love it because it is all about giving and sharing. No one is there for earning money (correct me if I'm wrong) but for the supreme purpose of having fun with the others. So, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. the Moon street was filled with happy people, all having fun underneath the shiny looks of the full moon.

My favorites:
Truly reviving the Nintendo but giving it a different purpose...the DJs were scrathin' on Nintendos!!! Where's Mario?!??!?!


Pepi's hair saloon. Specialized in natural rasta and extensions. (You will see why when you visit Barcelona). They were body painting this night.


Paper people. The project is very interesting as they inspired from Joan Colom' pictures portraying el Raval in the '60s and remade them but this time they switched the real people in the pictures with the paper ones they created.



El color da vida. So sweet!



Brazos y Abrazos/Arms and hugs. Accidentally or not, on the street with the blinking heart (it's there since forever and it never stops 'beating') there was an installation with lots of sweaters, tied by their hands, as if they were hugging. People had to add a sweater and create a big chain of...hugs.

starting point: film noir

Latvian duo, Mareunrol's, hits the fashion industry with film noir inspired collection. Marite Mastina and Roland Peterkops are part of those very few designers that make more than fashion. They are involved in the music, arts and fashion movements in Riga, making a hell of a good job.

I saw their latest collection, entitled Private Detective at 080 Barcelona Fashion and they really stood out from the other brands. Heavily influenced by the film noir genre, gangster and detective stories, the collection was about concealing hidden messages, and also led to the creation of their first ever short fashion film with the same title, directed by Kristine Kursiaa.

I like the extra volumed hair that doesn't give you the chance to see the person's eyes and face. It wraps the whole collection in mystery, making it very unique. The fashion show is not only presenting clothes but is story telling and meaningful, playing with your expectations and feelings. They are trendsetting and cool. Great, just great!

rolling

London is roller skating! You would think, yeah, OK...but people are roller skating since the 18th century. What is new? As every trend, social actions come and go out of fashion. They always come back when you least expect and with additional details, adornings that make things so wanted again.

Now, roller skating is turning London crazy. It is a frenzy! And they do it the cool way, buying the classical roller skates. Remember them? I am a fan of the vintage influence in our lives now, just that sometimes I feel like I am repeating myself...but, honestly...that's what's going on! Vintage is taking over our lives and now it's into the roller skating. It came as a surprise for me the fact that not only women but also man buy this kind of skates again. I always thought it's more like a girly thing, as I remember mine, white with pink wheels. These days roller skates is among the most popular search words on e-bay and they have more models for men!

The question is how far will this go? Will Manolo start designing roller blades too? Will Louis Vuitton put the monograms on some skates? Till then, see ya rolling in Hyde Park.

Keel's diary by Taschen

Have you ever kept a diary?

a) yes, and now I am laughing my heart out when I read it;
b) no, but I have always wanted to keep one - didn't have the time and courage to do it;
c) nooooooo, it is too cheesy and gay.

No matter which one is your answer, tadaaaaaam: Keel's Simple Diary by Taschen. A sweet little book with funny questions that one should fill in. A page for every day, taking not more than 2 minutes of your time and giving you some moments of fun, wisdom and comfort.

Well, to be honest, people need this kind of things. In a world where products are out as soon as they are in, where even our accessories need accessories...we need simple tools. Slowly, we start admitting our need to conquer busy life and actually live. Keel's diary published by Taschen is a book that helps us look inside because we are overloaded outside.

The author, Philipp Keel, so adept at asking questions in his search for understanding who we are and why we do what we do, also provides some compelling, philosophical and witty answers in his new work.

The diary will be released on 2nd of May, so stay tuned! It will be available in various colours, so one could choose the one that best fits his personality. You can buy it for yourself or give it as a present. I had a sneak preview ;) It is lovely!

Imelda May

Johnny got a boom boom oh yeah/Johnny got a bamm...He's got ya in his hands/Gonna make ya wanna /Make ya wanna ohh...

I am still under the influence of Imelda May's concert last night in Apolo/Barcelona. She is addictive, she makes you wanna dance and sing along, reminding me of my rock'n roll sessions as a child - meaning listening to music on the record player and dancing in the living room.
Her music goes deep under your skin and runs through your veins. It has some kind of magic that only live beautiful voices like hers can do it.

Coming from Dublin, she shared stages with everyone from Van Morrison to the Scissor Sisters and now she is reviving retro music, mixing in a fresh and cool sound jazz, blues and rockabilly.

Everything fits just perfect. Her voice with her clothes, the haircut, her body language on stage, her laugh and giggling. She gives you the shivers! Imelda May is the new sound that is taking the London music scene by storm. She definitely is the one to watch for 2009.

FABRICA

Benetton is taking the future to the next level. FABRICA is the name of their creativity laboratory, a talent incubator, where artists from all over the world develop innovative projects in fields from design, music and film to photography, publishing, visual communication and the Internet. It is the most creative initiative I've seen conducted by a fashion house that dares to conquer other fields while still making a fashion out of it.

Apart from the brilliant idea of the project I very much enjoyed my time in the store from Lisbon. Some of the cool products are available to people in the FABRICA Features spaces. So, the 4th floor of Benetton's building is not only a shop but an art gallery, a music center, a stationary exhibition, a cool place where one should make wishes. Yes, that's right, you have a special place with a sweet view over the city (even if it was raining at that time) where you should make a wish. Mine came true so the place has the good vibes. Definitely a must see!

P.S. I like Colors Notebook/blog.FABRICA/the sketchbooks and the special collections.
Special thanks to Ruxi with whom I share the same bag design now :)

the shop experience

We are overcoming the materialist state in a way because we started to appreciate the uniqueness of things, the one time events, the feeling that a shop gives you, the buying experience in marketing terms, the spiritual experience. This trend started around 4 years ago with the happening shops like Swatch Instant Store and it is now developing fast in most of Europe's capital cities.

I was last week in Bucharest, my hometown, and I was amazed by the quantity of newly opened concept stores, boutiques and experience shops. Kombinat is mainly a clothes shop but as the name says, they combine this with photography, good music played on the record player/tea - you can sit back and relax on a vintage sofa and drink your cup of tea while looking at the old stove with the Romanian classical kitchy porcelain toys decorating it/books - most of them on feminist themes, don't know why?!/paintings, pins/Berlin they say - maybe because it is now the coolest city in Europe; urban stuff and lots and lots of vintage influences.

Moreover, the owners are very friendly and nice people so, it is worth to go there enjoy the atmosphere, buy some cool clothes and have a talk with them. Hurray for Bucharest and quality shopping!

flavors of Barcelona

When you are new in a city like Barcelona, you suddenly loose the reference points in life. "To whom or what do I belong to" question conquers your state of mind. Slowly but inevitably you fall in love with the city.

Now I have "my favorites" (barrio, placa, Sunday coffee bar etc), I taste, I feel and I smell the soul of this amazing city every day. It is a place where you can never get bored and I am living the most spontaneous moments ever. So, today I will serve you 3 barrios, situated near the center, each having a typical flavor.

El Raval is my favorite because of its diversity. Ex-Chinese neighborhood, el Raval is now a mixture of old, new, stinky stuff, cool museums, pakis, international phone booths, scary people & very good bars.

Smell\Kebab
Taste\Lime
Color\Fuchsia - because of its craziness
Highlights\best second hand and vintage shops with workshops included, Casa Camper, MACBA, skaters, CCCB, Madame Jasmine - my very favorite

Barrio Gotico is the aristocratic version of El Raval. Charming and elegant.

Smell\pastry
Taste\red wine
Color\cherry red
Highlights\Harlem Jazz Club, small boutiques, funky clothes shops, small art galleries and antique shops.

El Borne is the sweetest barrio in Barcelona. It is packed with cool restaurants, small bars where you can have the time of your life and shops with expensive but extremely beautiful hand made stuff.
Smell\cotton
Taste\crepes with cinnamon
Color\coral
Highlights\El Xampanyet, Creps al Born, wine bars, hand made stuff shops.

As one of my friends says, you cannot know the real face of a city if you haven't lived there for more than 4 months. I will soon celebrate 6 but I am sure that the good stuff is yet to come.

LEGO world

Don't you just love LEGO? It is the game of my childhood, together with Barbie dolls of course. I am talking about the Lego I was playing with 15 years ago and not the one they are selling now. Let's call it the classic Lego, in which you only have bricks, a board, windows and doors and the rest is up to you. God, I would still spend hours playing with this!

Seems that all this retro&vintage trend has got really deep under our skin. I would firmly like to add that this is not a boy game as I heard people talking. Why do you think they have pink bricks and boards? Or more precisely, why would Lanvin launch a campaign with LEGO? I tell you, for the fun and happiness of nostalgic girls like me. Lanvin print campaign is inspired by Lego and by Pacman. I think there are lots who will get excited about Pacman too. I am just a Lego fan. Photographs by Hartland Villa.

Not only big fashion houses got the LEGO feeling but also hand made designers introduced this little pieces in their collections. Look what I found in Portobello Road, London.

And I couldn't help myself from buying these broaches. I wear them with pride.

feeling books

What's your favorite bookstore? Think of its colours, smell, sound and of how do you feel there. Hmmmm... Ok, stop! Now imagine that Ciclic is 10 times better than that.

I don't know if you are the same but I could spend days inside bookstores, scanning every book, wanting to buy each and every one. This could really be a problem because I wouldn't have enough space to store them in my house and not even money to buy food.

Ciclic is a design/architecture/art/photography books heaven. It was lovely listening to Dave (the owner) how he talks about books like they were his babies. You can always find him there, chatting with the customers and recommending the best titles. He changed my perspective on books. The most interesting insight was about books as means of expression for the repressed artist, the one that has no other way to show his art, as it is considered to be tabu/too weird/aggressive/sexual to come out otherwise. And as if this wasn't enough, they also have a really well supplied video shop.

Wrapping up, even if you are a book fan or not, Ciclic should be among your landmarks in Barcelona.

le cool

I started to read Lecool magazine as soon as i got to Barcelona. Being new in such a city is not an easy thing to do so, Lecool was there for me when i didn't know where to start from. This is how i got to the most amazing&crazy parties, concerts, shops in here.

Last week I had the chance to visit their headquarters and found out the story behind this cool magazine. Sincerely, i found what i was expecting. Behind such a cool thing there can't be anything else but cool&special people.

They work in an old precious building from Barrio Gotico and hold their meetings in a lovely patio, remembering me of Eixample's hidden gardens.

As every success story, it started with someone's desire to show stuff. Desire to share good places with friends and continuously pursuing for "the best" one. Slowly, Lecool became a good friend in the know, edgy but not elite, speaking to trendsetting readers, having the "knowledge for a better living" kind of vision.

Passion is the name of the game...cause that is how they choose which event should be published. So let yourself caught!

mi barrio

I find it incredible how things show up when you pay special attention to them. On your daily way home try not to look down but up, try not to think of what to do when getting home but look at the places and people that pass by and try to find out their hidden meaning. You will discover a whole new world.

Check out what I found/ mi barrio pics