edit: JUNE (2021)
hey there,
We are reopening!! What exactly are we reopening? Our souls. Leaving the cocoon of anxious - cozy - sexy - crazy sitting at home wrapped in wifi and robes to reconnect with every living thing on earth. Dressing up and going to dance. I feel a delicious summer dawning. Perhaps we should speak about how we do miss music shows when “Hot Chip will break your legs.” But save it for the next time - let’s circle back to the openness and take it apart. What does it mean for your life and your wardrobe? How do you live openly, soak in it instead of sousing in yourself & routines? As always - in five increments that bleed into each other >
what is openness? and why is it interesting?
in my opinion, it’s just being who you really are and living fully with the world lovingly forcing yourself outwards. I will try not to drift into esoteric. But if I do, just think of it as an exercise of building a brave new world that we promised ourselves when the pandemic ends.
> KOMANEKO. Ask questions. For the sake of asking questions. Ask questions with your mouth, ask questions with your eyes, ask questions with your hands, ask questions with your heart, keep asking until you fall on the floor. Satiate your curiosity and don’t believe in this slogan about curious cats. Komaneko cat is pretty happy being inquisitive. These are my today's questioning minutes > “Can I buy those NBA Top Shot NFTs with my credit card or do I need to obtain digital currency? Austrians grew a tiny human heart in a lab, how relevant is that? Is this rose fragrant or just pretentiously pretty? Do I wear these oversize shorts with a hand-embroidered top, which is very tight and showing my cleavage? Hm, I don’t think I can do it - too much of the cleavage. But I still do because I am curious how I will feel and look + behave outside my usual safety-net looks. What’s the future of Belarus? How long will this dictatorship stand? Can concoction (jam from basil and gooseberries) found last Sunday at the Farmers Market be used for my morning toast or more as a base for an aperitif? Do I need seven more books on feminine archetypes or should I first read all I have? What happens if I argue with the customs and border protection office who has intercepted my migraine meds sent from Europe? (extremely good ones!! This one is TBC).”
Being this way, I am not only feeding self but also testing my limits and the patience of people around me. Sometimes they place me back in the square they assigned for me. But I mostly get away. Staying in those biased squares (aka behaving like a grown-up) is a waste of time. And I don’t have a lot of time to waste. Or let’s say, I want to waste it in my own way. So, while I am making a pendant from my favorite emoji (because why not?) - what questions are you asking right now?! Although you might feel like a cat thrown out of the tree exploring birds - keep asking. By the way, scientists say that we don’t notice things we don’t have words for, so the more words - concepts - tools we learn, the more new definitions and ideas we come up with, and the more we will see, comprehend and experience. “Consciousness is a big suitcase,” said Marvin Minsky. He meant that consciousness is a simplistic view of very complex processes that are thrown in one because we got stuck thinking in reductionist “unexplainable” terms. But I would draw a metaphor (simplifying his genius reasoning 😊) - we keep collecting information all our life.
> LONG TERM THINKING, or where is my serotonin bath?! Over espresso martinis with a friend we were brainstorming ideas to work on after the sky stops falling and the world gets back to self. One of them was my dream dress that changed color. You can pick a shade on your phone and it becomes what you want it to be at the moment. One good silhouette that would show your legs just the way you like, your neck, just the way it pleases you, that absorbs the heat in the summer and gives a cashmere-like coziness when cold - same dress in various changing textures. “Why is this a shocking idea?”, I asked. Then I wouldn’t need piles and piles of the same in different fabrics. Only one: with the surface of weaved-in transistors or something similar to an extracellular matrix soaked in a cocktail of neurotransmitters.
And think about the pieces already quietly disrupting the field. Jewelry that measures your vitals. Wearable devices that transform the human body into a biological battery by tapping into our natural heat (creates 1 volt for each square centimeter of skin). The interesting thing about that battery is that it’s made from stretchy material called polyimine that is resilient as a biological tissue and ”if your device tears, you pinch together the broken ends and they seal back in minutes.” Or tactile textiles that can sense movement via touch (of the wearer). “These machine-knitted fabrics are soft, stretchable, breathable, can be mass-produced and are planned for athletic training, rehabilitation and long-term - for training robots using data from the wearables. Couple weeks ago MIT researchers announced the first fiber with digital capabilities: to store and process data, adding a new information / content dimension to materials and allowing it to be programmed literally. When dreaming up crazy ideas for this project, scientists “thought about applications like a wedding gown that would store digital wedding music within the weave, or even writing the story of the fiber’s creation into its components.” I guess, my dress got here while I was writing this text.
Recently Giorgio Armani made a statement that fashion can’t survive in exclusively virtual form. True, but really?! Not everyone thinks so. RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) recently sold a digital jacket for $125,000, and also raised $8 million from Andreessen Horowitz (among others) to develop their NFT’s marketplace. Havaianas made headlines releasing special edition digital flip flops with Brazilian artist Adhemas Batista and the collaboration with Fortnite (perfect timing, perfect marketing, bravo). After successful “natively digital” Sotheby’s auction at beginning go June, you can now buy the original 9,555 lines of source code from World Wide Web. The code was written by the British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 and 1991, and will be tied to an NFT. Even if blockchain analytics at Covalent say that “fewer than 2000 buyers accounted for 80% of total purchase volume on Variable, the second-largest NFT exchange […], and even celebrity works are sometimes struggling to sell - only one from 3 Kate Moss’s virtual postcards was purchased, while others remain unbid on (May 10, 2021, Vogue)” - I still think this phenomena will last. Similar to the online dog food stores, it all crashed in the nineties but came back full force as the internet gained a foothold. We just need a couple more of young gamers or miners burning with a need for new flip flops for their avatars, and look, later they will be digging into “digital antiques“ (not my term!).
I understand art pieces but honestly - I am not a fan of digital clothing - internet pollution, someone’s hours coding, storing all this online in arctic servers, and what’s the point of it, anyway?! Fashion appropriates NFTs to create limited editions as a way to make exclusivity even more exclusive. Do you need digital Gucci sneakers?! (🙄). When we all move into another reality, I might want a virtual facelift for my 168 years old virtual self but not right now. Actually, more likely I will get a real vertical facelift in next 5-10 years rather than digital sneakers.
Love this weird but warm interview with Hermès menswear designer Véronique Nichanian when a journalist asks her how she understands the word luxury > “my work is doing beautiful clothes […], for me, that doesn’t mean anything. The price determines nothing. It’s working with your hands, it’s attention, it’s a beautiful material. It takes time, you can repair it. Maybe it’s costly at the end, but it’s not the point. And in the end, if it’s luxury, I don’t know. And I don’t care.” The fact that after the lockdown was lifted in China (April last year) Hermès reportedly pulled in $2.7 million in a single day at one of its flagships is pretty significant. Aside from craftsmanship, I think the main idea here is passion - Véronique’s passion for her work, brand’s passion for creativity, and customer’s passion for authenticity. People are following their desires: some live and sleep online, some are obsessed with the best NBA moments (funny that guys are crazy about those sports moments and - women are crazy about real shoes, but not Kate Moss digital artwork), some want the best leather from Paris craftsmanship house (talking leather - Cartier is releasing its first watch with a vegan leather strap), some crave for witty drawings on their scarves, some just want the hype to brag about. We all have our own thing. It’s nice when you can see beyond it. AND what about collecting animated moments of your dead relatives? If that’s something that makes you curious, check out deep nostalgia memes on MyHeritage. I tried to animate my grandmother but it was creepy, pretty primitive and they ask you to subscribe to see her dance. I think I will skip this, too, at least for now.
In my humble opinion, everything that doesn’t make you a better person and doesn’t serve your freedom is a waste of time. Wasting time is unsustainable. And solutions to resolve it could be something I am looking forward to as tomorrow’s products. I am not talking about the Blinkist, at one point the most exciting Berlin app, but more about something that truly gives you more time to live the life you want. More time for yourself, for your family, friends, maybe for doing nothing and wondering to create new interdisciplinary things: jet fuel from plastics, grown fabrics that alternate color, alive materials that change electrical potential to accomplish different goals. Or maybe an hour here and there to talk to your dead extended family or to feed your digital racing horse that you occasionally will use as your meeting background (sorry, I had to mention this!).
> PROVENANCE. Sustainable, green, organic. And obsolescent. Unbreakable. Better for the world and better for you?! I try not to throw anything away. That means, I think before I buy. I think when I want to get rid of something. AND I think, I became this funny friend that always has something you might need (obviously because I don’t. Flat iron curlers, anyone?!). Less / better / lasts longer / feels nicer. More pleasure, more function, do I need it at all? Why do I need it? Is it done by unhappy people or chained to the radiator kids? Does it have pesticides in it? I was surprised that honey collected in the United States (even labeled organic, bio, etc.) has plenty of it - I don’t think I am buying made in USA honey anytime soon.
My first jewelry (2004) was made from old pieces, flea market finds, and some hideous scrap that I would assemble in artsy compositions. Turning into casting, I was planning to make “something more scalable” compared to one-of-the-kind pieces. But, you can’t make very personal artistic pieces and do a huge production of them. It doesn’t work that way. You have to choose your path. And I want it to be personal. Effective but personal, with a touch of my no filter personality (a label I recently got). You have to use what you got, right?!
The newest Lucinda Chambers and ex-Marni creative Molly Molloy venture Colville is all about transparency, openness, and all the other qualities that I think the future of fashion should have. Not only they do what they want by being their target group themselves: “we don’t think in these marketing terms”, but also their fashion is so midcentury Californian, which translates into this daydreaming and joy when growing older is just another realm of fun. And glamorous, and satisfying > when you wear chic garments made by a distant Columbian or Moroccan community, and your purchase has just made the whole village survive for 6 months.
> RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. Being in this moment. Or plunging into timelessness. In my opinion, those two are the same. Cutting through your unhappiness, your anxieties, your weird obsessions, your failures, and your fears. Open minded. Traveling in time and space, while sitting and typing these words in my bed. No time at all, time disappears, is suspended, only this moment. And you give 100% of yourself to the world. To the fullest. Openness as happiness here and now.
At one point in my life, after all kinds of emotional distresses, I noticed that my mind started to block thoughts when I would like to go to the past or would get anxious about the future. My explanation was that I am just getting old or experiencing some weird memory problems related to stress. Or I have some kind of emotional trauma that I don't want to immerse myself into again. But I assume, I just learned to live in the moment, as that poor Pavlov’s dog, salivating for happiness right here right now.
“Take responsibility for the energy you bring to the world,” says Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. She was a brain scientist working on schizophrenia (her brother was born with it) until she got a stroke in the morning of 1996. It took her 8 years to recover and she completely switched her life because of it. In her TED talk (must watch it! very funny and also makes you cry) Bolte Taylor wholeheartedly recounts those 4 hours when she was fascinated observing her stroke from inside, became her own subject until she realized that what’s happening is serious and led her to lose her left brain function. As a result, she got an enlightening insight - on living in the left side of her brain (“a scientist climbing Harvard ladder”) or right side of her brain (“expansive love and peace energy that connects you to the world”). Your right brain hemisphere functions as a parallel processor, and your left brain side functions as a serial processor, and each of our cerebral hemispheres has its own emotions - and once you know your two brains you can choose your response to triggers, you can choose your energies, and overall, the music of your life. Her enthusiasm about that right brain euphoria, full of love, openness, and peace is so contagious. That naive idea that our planet could be more peaceful and happy if we consciously pick what kind of vibrations we want to emit to the world. Right here, right now. When we lose track of time, the future and past disappear, when we don’t care about goals, about who we are, how we look, just about the energy we receive and radiate by choosing to step to our right side of the brain.
According to Jill, it takes 90 seconds for our emotions to get completely dissolved. From the moment when it originated in your brain rippling through your body, to dissipation. Unless you choose to keep it alive ruminating on it - we usually attach a story to those emotions and keep looping it in our systems. When a feeling arises and you fully feel it, breathe through it, you can watch it go away after the chemicals flush the body. And then come back to here and now to enjoy your nirvana.
> I GOT MY JUMP ROPE - to be able to wear heels again. The other day, while organizing my closet, I pulled out the incredibly beautiful Vanessa Bruno 4” shoes. Purchased 10 years ago - I only wore them once. They are so cool. I tried them on. Can’t walk in them. OK, I can, but I look ridiculous - a bit like the lead vocal from a flying circus. But also, I do WANT to wear them!! Hopefully, more than once in the next decade before they disintegrate in a shoebox (talk about obsolescence). Jumping up and down in my sweatpants daydreaming about the heels led me to the final part of the openness: you have to move to live a happier, less constricted life. Immersing yourself in positive chemical signals and physical exercise is one of the ways to achieve it. “Getting out of breath” factor is crucial for your healthy vagus (wandering in Latin) nerve that is a very clever regulating, monitoring and sensing system of our body.
Original roaring twenties were a mix of economic boom, societal changes, women's voting rights, and liberation of the body. Women lived it by dancing jazz, working in a factory, driving, becoming a typist or maybe pioneering aviator. Fashion served all these aspects - it diligently borrowed sportswear for daywear, removed restrictions in garments, shortened hair (less time to upkeep). Boyish “la garçonne” represented by Gabrielle Chanel and fancy “robe de style” designed by Jeanne Lanvin led the way together with Jean Patou tennis adaptations and Schiaparelli fantasies. What are we going to do?! What’s “The New Girl” of the 2020 post-pandemic decade? Prada from Raf Simon? Alaïa from Pieter Mulier? (can’t wait for it!! debut on July 4th). Minidresses? A new variation of the ’90s? And most likely sweatpants, too. Suzie Kondi came up with pretty good ones > “I made the tracksuit so I could go to school (to drop off her kids), then go to the office and then meet somebody for lunch and then go to dinner — all without having to get changed.” Jemima Kirke is her best advocate: “not all sweatpants are created equal […] these will get you laid.” And since Kirke has 19 pairs, she probably knows what she is talking about. So, we want to be able to dance, run, hang upside down and do other things. Konfect adds - swimming in cold Zurich lake during your lunch break is not only healthy but also super chic (and then you go for the drink afterward - or as my local girlfriends do - start with one and then plunge). If you want to listen to someone, listen to the sister magazine of Monocle.
To conclude > question, experiment, smile, and trust the universe to take care of you. Kundalini yoga might reduce grey hair, Reichist therapy might release stuck emotions from your muscles (pretty fun! - tried), some people drink up to 150 supplements a day, some get teenagers blood infusions (yes, in Silicon Valley), I assume, just live fully, immortality is years away but you can still make your life pretty decent regardless. By being curious, open, and loving. Being here and now. By “getting out of breath” (lots of ways to do it🤪). OK, and getting cool sweatpants, too. The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.
— 5 questions > please answer candidly —
> Do you process your emotions when they arise or suppress them into your bulletproof storage to explode later when you expect the least?
> What are you wearing right now? Does it communicate your current state of being?
> How often do you put music on and dance in your kitchen? While washing dishes?
> Which piece of jewelry summarizes your 2021? Or maybe you have one for each month.
> How much of your inner self is different from the one you project to the world? Do we need that dissonance? (think again).
#open #theparadoxoflife
Yurga
PS// Please don’t drink and swim! And don’t walk in 4” heels if you never have done it before, you can for real hurt yourself. Obviously, jump rope could be dangerous too, but I trust you with that. See you in August or September. x
Me and this sweet girl (sorry, I don’t remember your name!) - Paris in 1997. That’s when I thought that all was in front of me. That I can be anything and anywhere, basically a Faceless Man. Now, I think it’s funny, but what can you say to your 19-year-old self? To calm down?! I am sure I would have punched myself in the face for these words.
Latest fascinations >
1) You absolutely need to see Jill Bolte Taylor talking to Jeffrey Rediger about strokes, curiosity and spontaneous remissions from terminal illnesses. And, don’t forget her book: The Whole Brain Living.
2) In the last two years we faced death way more than usual. Conservative burial involves a lot of toxicity, huge carbon footprint, & constant upkeep of the tomb afterwards. This makes me a bit nauseous but let’s discuss how to die in a more ecological way. You can become a tree (that would not be my choice!). You can be eaten by mushroom spores or dissolve into the ocean. Also, you could sprout with wild flowers in a huge wild park, where coming to visit you would be a challenging attraction! What would be your choice?
3) Paul McCarthy and Lilith Stangenberg on performance, drawing and power.
4) Even if I am craving for movies in the real cinema (one comfy chair for 2), I think a puzzle night is pretty sexy, too. When you lean over the game in your short silk pjs, and two minutes later a half day of puzzling is on the floor, and you are on the floor. And your pjs are on the floor. Sweet.
5) Eleven Madison is going vegan and continues to serve meals to the food deprived > every dinner purchased at EMP provides five meals to New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity. These meals are served from the Eleven Madison Truck, which is operated by restaurant staff, in partnership with Rethink Food. In parallel universe a multidisciplinary research on stone-age human nutrition says that we were apex predators for 2 million years. We ate lots and lots of meat, and it’s supported by genetic research, archeology, current metabolism, and our physical build.
6) Amazingly scary > “we know what you did during lockdown.” An FT Film written by James Graham. Do you fall into predictable patterns of behavior?!! No more privacy when googling newest vibrators - don’t expect no one is watching you. I love the fact that data companies store your data in countries were laws allow to do anything they want with it - minimum to keep it for next 150 years instead of deleting it as you requested. I am going to cry now.
7) This NFT is pretty cool: it will burn itself when global warming reaches 2 degrees celsius above average! Constant reminder to watch your carbon emissions unless you want your art on fire, too.
8) Carrotes râpées for lunch. Just because I am into my carrots phase.
9) Finally a sports bra that opens in the front and doesn’t have a million logos on it. Raising money for her company Joanna Griffiths was pregnant with twins. She had one rule: not to take money from anyone who questioned her ability to lead the fast-growing startup either during her pregnancy or after she became a mom.
10) RIP Elsa Peretti. “Style is to be simple” and “of course I am slow” are my two favorite quotes from her. A genius woman with an open heart.
+ visual board for June:
Openhearted to the oblivion. It requires willingness to see small, simple things and question the meanings. “What do you want from life?!” Your answer might vary depending on the time of the day, on the season, on your age, on the moon phase, or on the way someone looked at you. Worry nothing. The answer is somewhere. Maybe inside of you. Feel it.
NFT by Pplpleasr. She defines herself as a 3D artist influenced by anime, video games, underground music, and traditional Asian art. Also known as “defi's (decentralized finance) high quality meme generator.” In her twenties, based in Taiwan & New York, she got into NFTs when a job at Apple fell through due to an ill-fated visa application. The bureaucratic misstep was a blessing in disguise, she told Decrypt. With her art she “strives to find the perfect balance between the extremes of being familiar enough that it’s not alienating, and novel enough that it’s not boring.” By the way, if you want to frame your NFTs instead of having them on your phone or laptop - go to Infinite Objects, that print your video.
RANDOM TRIO: (1) Sneakers and bridal (or pajamas dress) mash-up. Such weird combinations make you look great in any situation. It doesn't matter if you're stepping outside in the morning for a coffee or dining with friends. (2) Gabrielle Chanel exhibition at Galliera museum in Paris is extended until July - run to see it if you can. (3) Studies show that when your body adjusts to cold, your fight or flight (sympathetic) system declines and your rest and digest (parasympathetic) system increases – and this is all mediated by the vagus nerve. Drinking cold water or splashing cold water on your face may be enough to stimulate it. You can also take cold showers, take a swim in an unheated pool or try cryotherapy. // Photo: Daria Werbowy by Vanmossevelde + N, Marie Claire FR, 2016
Rainer Judd in Hudson, NY (2002) // photo: Kely Nascimento-DeLuca
Takashi Homma: mushrooms from the forest exhibition in Los Angeles is on view from June 5 to July 17. And, if you are aware of amazing medicinal qualities of fungus - try Reishi (“mushroom of immortality”) supplements by Paul Stamets. He famously thinks that these “soil magicians” (or mycelium) are a paradime for our neural activity and dark matter, and can save the world from all the perils. Vegan leather from mushrooms, anyone?!
Soothing chamomile based skin rescue. When you want to heal your break-outs and avoid scaring, or just calm your face. For twenty years The Organic Pharmacy makes organic, earth-friendly, hypoallergenic and clean cosmetics look and smell nice and all of this without a fuss. A good staple.
Our BEATRICE earrings in sterling silver.
One of my favorite creative couples. The guy is seriously bad-ass, the girl is quintessentially Parisian, side-by-side they invented Officine Universelle de Buly. In 1803, Jean-Vincent Bully came up with “vinaigre aromatique et antiméphitique”, basically, a scented vinegar then believed to make your face glow, smell nice and even protect you from plague (!). Ramdane Touhami bought the brand in 2014, removed one L (Bully became Buly) and started the whole universe around the vinaigre. The brand was reborn grace à imagination of Victoire + Ramdane, their love for the old-world, France and Japan, devotion to craftsmanship & beautiful artisanal things as well as natural, non-harmful ingredients. Fascinating Buly products: Vide Poche eye serum for dark circles, Slim Cera - face lift massager, their water-based perfume collaboration with the Louvre museum + porcelain boxes with home scent - Alabaster, that “derives from the Greek vases that were once used to preserve the fragrant oils for body care (the earliest perfumes).” If you don’t need any of it > just go visit their space while in Paris, Tokyo or San Francisco - to step into the magic. I probably shoudnt’t mention that Ramdane was also brains behind Cire Troudon candles, before he stepped away and started this new venture.
Betty Catroux has been cited as a muse by both Yves Saint Laurent, Tom Ford and now Vaccarello. In NYT interview “19 things about BC” journalist summarized > 1) she is not a muse (“I hate the word”); 2) she is a muse (a female physical double of Yves Saint Laurent); 7) she was the original nonbinary (“why be the worst girl if you can be the best boy”); 9) she insists she is lazy (“a big project of mine is never to do any work”); 11) but she really does like to drink (“will you have some?”). What a peculiar muse-ing life. // photo: Vogue March 1, 1970
Let’s discuss brains talking. Did you know that when we interact with someone, neurons create their own communication between you two by syncing brain oscillations? Does it mean that when you feel someone’s energy it is real? // photo: Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair, 1993
Private house in Australia, by Whiting Architects. Example of simplicity that is not hard to achieve and is also very inspiring. // photo: Sharyn Cairns
This is how I see “roaring twenties” post-pandemic spin happening: (1) you are reliving your vintage +
(2) inspired by the 90’s for clean and minimal looks +
(3) find a right balance between sexy and cozy +
(4) sexy wins but in a subtle way. I would wear this dress with the puzzle sweater (on the right) and black Bottega wedge clogs (you have to see those are amazing). // photo: Courtney Love in Versace at Batman Robin premiere in LA, June 12, 1997. Behind the step and repeat she had an amazing little mint color bag + a grey purple sheer gauze shawl (google it).
Architecture des arbres was first released in English in the 80’s. This breathtaking book shows 212 types of trees (represented at the scale 1:100), their shadows and foliage by season, as well as silhouettes without leaves and their change throughout the years. Location where you plant the tree affects tree’s expression of its genetics because of the nutrients, soil, sunlight, heat, and water - and that’s how you can shape your dream landscape. Conceived by architects Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi who almost exclusively worked on parks & collective structures in Italy of the 70’s and 80’s. AND, if you are curious how trees communicate within their communities look-up Suzanne’s Simard work, here is a 4 minutes animated story.
Famous sweatpants that promise you a thousand and one adventure. Check out Suzie Kondi website for all the colors, they are all so good, but this emerald green is just perfection. You can wear them with heels too - that would be a super outfit!!
A scandalous shoe which Nike violated USPS intellectual property with (war of the giants) but such a nice / weird design! It looks like the shoe was immersed in a white glue - so be aware, you might not want to wear it but place on your shelf next to the Tom Sachs’ work. It’s called Postal Ghost and will be launched on July 14 (and shipped by UPS, oups!). In April USPS released the statement condemning Nike of its color scheme and label appropriation, but the two came up with an undisclosed collaborative solution. AND why don’t you just immerse your old AF into a bath of thick white glue?!
New Zealand beach photo taken by our friend Indre. She says that other than a travel bubble with Australia and a girl who went viral with her “it’s a fucking goat”, nothing else is really happening (she meant “no hijacked planes or state terrorism”).
Love Formuniform bags so much > very functional + simple but elegant. This mossy green backpack leaves your both hands to use them as your heart desires!!
This happens when you roll your eyes too much. The best of 2021, so far: curiosity in action.
Heels on a boat? This girl puts me in a good mood. AND, of course, those are new-Bottegas (it’s like the swearword by now). Musing on colors > three groups were defined by Trend Council agency for the end of 2022 > (1) Yellows. (2) 70’s inspired earth tones - neutrals that go into reddish brown, make-up foundation shades and caramels. (3) Greens symbolizing rebirth: sea glass, clover, olive + forest.
In the middle of nowhere. I miss this feeling of wandering in wild countryside. Where all grows on it’s own. No one is chasing after the weeds, dry branches, asymmetric bushes and rotting wood logs. Nothing is soigné and that looks just flawless. // photo: Martyn Thompson
Argentinian Italian painter - sculptor - theorist (1899 – 1968) Lucio Fontana was obsessed by the concept of space and space travel. He founded the Spatialism art movement in 1947, not long after the first ever photos of the Earth taken from a rocket. He wanted art to engage with the technology to achieve a radical new format that melded architecture, sculpture and painting, as well as embraced the subconscious. Fontana began puncturing canvases and works on paper with his I Buchi - Holes series (1949–68) > “it’s not true that I made holes in the canvas in order to destroy it, no, I made holes in order to discover the cosmos of an unknown dimension.” // text + photo
Jeans + black. Simple. But never boring. Or is it?! You can always trow on it a short - sheer - colorful - gauzy - oversized minidress. News for those who stoped wearing jeans because of their atrocious environmental impact > crystal clear technique is so far the cleanest way to produce jeans: 70% less chemicals, 40% less steam, 15% less energy. AND FINALLY, someone figured how to close the loop reusing textile waste to make new materials and monetizing our landfills. IN ADDITION - until now only clear plastic was recyclable in closed loops, with a loss of quality in each cycle, making it difficult to obtain new products from the 100% recycled PET. This problem is solved by a French company Carbios that invented enzymatic technology to break down the plastics: “our innovation allows infinite recycling of all types of PET waste as well as the production of 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PET products, without loss of quality." After 4 years of research pilot-phase is over, and commercial roll-out is planned in 2025 for one of l’Oréal’s (co-collaborater's in research) brand Biotherm. // photo: figtny
One night I got so drunk from one cocktail in Big Sur. It was poring cats and dogs and almost pitch black. I managed to drop and shatter my iPad. Then almost drowned in my bath. And the next morning saw the other side of the world across the ocean. No one was there to hug me, but Big Sur after rain is pretty spectacular.
A hint of color. Cinnamon girl > is that Neil Young influence or just me being obsessed with triangle bras? // photo
Kim Gordon’ The City is a Garden is produced in support of Printed Matter / St Marks and 8-Ball Community for Spring Zine Fair. The title hearkens back to an East Village aesthetic found in the neighborhood’s funky community gardens.
Comfy boots for that barn of yours. Or maybe more for an afternoon eating la salade at Rose Bakery in Saint-Germain. // photo: SSENSE
Wearing a black satin coat on naked isn’t that radical. But how many of you tried?! I am waiting my turn. Have the coat ready. Not sure about the shoes. Massage and a glass of Champagne before would be a perfect way to accessorize. // photo: Alasdair McLellan styled by Kate Phelan (Vogue UK September 2013).
Two young souls and a little dog rambling in the open fields of Tuscany. Five weeks ago. It was French honeysuckle blossoming season. // photo: Lina
Looking forward to get my hands on this one! Released last year, impeccably designed by Pentagram, the cookbook celebrates good produce first. “If you look at traditional Italian food, plant-based is something that is both traditional and contemporary. Italy was a very poor country for a very long time. The consumption of meat and fish was just a Sunday treat. If you think about the basic ingredients and recipes of Italian cuisine, you have pasta. You have tomatoes. You have olive oil, and you have plenty of seasonal vegetables,” says Emilia Terragni (publisher of Phaidon) who grew up in Como, Italy, and this was the only cookbook in her family’s kitchen. “[…] it’s probably the most contemporary in the series. But it also looks at ingredients that we think are ‘new’ ingredients - (they) have been in the Italian diet for centuries.” (NP)
Eyes - smile - and their outfits photographed by William Vazquez.
Spectacular color and playfulness combination from The Elder Statesmen.
Got attracted by YVAIRIOS - incorrect spelling of “various” (in Lithuanian). VARIOUS LITHUANIAN FAIRYTALES was published in 1928. Such a beautiful page made up of mixed fonts that don’t really make sense, and this weird old school spelling that looks ridiculous but so pretty.
Glossier launched GLOSSY lipsticks that are creamy stains unless you layer them to make it more opaque. Could be a little pick me up for the summer, Ultralip has hyaluronic acid in it to keep you moisturized.
Vitamin D in aerosol anyone?! If you don’t care about aesthetics, look for cheaper versions in pharmacy brands.
Matcha cake from Indre: no sugar, no flour and no dairy.
Little Hermès raffia pouch with cognac leather frame. Even when some say it’s to be beaten up in the beach (for your Airbnb keys and passport), but I would definitely treat this guy with more respect.
Trying to switch from coffee to tea (honestly, I don’t believe it’s doable), and to flavored Pellegrino’s as a drink alternative for the summer. To spice up my so ambitious health plan, I will be sampling kombucha from Chrysanthemum and honey made by young enthusiasts United Ferments.
Where Matteau got their inspiration. As NYT says - a movie about “pretty, rich people behaving poorly” - La piscine is on view at Laemmle theater now.
New French cinema icon Suzanne Lindon started writing her own debut movie at 15 and directed as well as starred in it at 19. Daughter of Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kimberlain is a grown-up young lady that goes to Cannes with her Spring Blossom story about “weird adolescence love (without a kiss) that you half live half imagine.” Watch her talking about it. AND don’t forget that she is also Hedi Slimane’s muse (among other things!). Thank you, Stephanie, for recommendation.
Sophie Fontanel is always killing it. With her writing. With her point of view. With her hair. With her selfies. With her openness. My beloved Parisian grey-locks-gal was a fashion editor at Elle (French Elle is iconic) and now a writer at L’Obs, a successful novelist and boomer influencer brilliantly mastering her Instagram. Here is all you need to know about Sophie and her “aventure capillare” - super funny but in French. And here you can read a nice dithyrambs and they are all true, and en Anglais!!
Two most popular Sophie’s novels - Une Apparition and The Art of Sleeping Alone - are the perfect illustrations of her genuine: a book on going totally grey (because why not?!) and a book on years in celibacy (because why not?!). When you feel societal pressure to have perfectly retouched roots and someone to sleep with, you might want to explore it deeper and write a bestseller. Hats off to Fonelle (her nickname from the Elle days).
Not a big fan of snakes but could stare at this Guido Mocafico photograph for hours.
Probably the best Vogue make-up series - with Grimes. If you want more of her, google “grimes oversharing in interviews compilation.” I had same hair 20 years ago. Clearly remember my dad saying “it’s really really really bad.” So happy that now kids have better children-parents boundaries.
Old Céline. Never enough of this neatness. A summer version of the polished. Paris / London and NYC mash-up. A bit of Helmut Lang + a bit of Yves Saint Laurent’ Marrakech and a bit of the 80’s power suit. I am sure you can make a similar combination with the contents of your closet.
Christian Dior from Thelma Foy closet (at the MET now) would be my choice for post-lockdown partying. With navy blue underwear and combat boots + thick cashmere socks in case I pass out in LA desert weather just before the breakfast. You can browse all the Dior that Metropolitan museum owns here.
I forgot how good your nails look in a deep-deep brown. It’s way more neutral then bright reds and way more elegant than just no-nail-polish. And it’s not a boring black. This photo is purely for color reference because Chanel nail polish sucks! (sorry).
From Baltic symbols to feminine principles?! No, not really!!! From pagan comb to the cosmic womb, ha!! I guess, when you follow your intuition, sometimes true meanings of your choices reveal looking backwards 🌸. My work is my food and my medicine, fired by my imagination and curiosity. And I explore life through shapes and meanings. Extremely happy when it resonates with people but it’s also so much stronger than me. I can’t just not do it if something calls me. In the photo you see me reading explanation what comb is in different timelines, cultures and mythologies (dictionary by Barbara Walker), it made my jaw drop. Stories are so powerful. Symbols are so powerful. Preverbial language. More about what I discovered soon!! // PS: fun fact is that Lithuanians were the last European pagans.
