Middle-aged men who feel compelled to adopt leisure wear in warmer climates (particularly cruises) have given Hawaiian bad rap in the past, but if anyone can make these prints cool again it’s Stella McCartney. As the label continues to get bolder with print we love her take on this old favourite for her 2012 Resort… Read more »
[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/fIrnFrDXjlk” frameborder=”0″ width=”625″ height=”549″></iframe] Loie Fuller Art Nouveau dancer of the Folie Bergères, Paris, was famous for her performances where she would swirl billowing sails of silk as coloured lights shone upon her. Though she may not have been considered a technically gifted dancer she was known as the "magician of light". This footage from… Read more »
We recently stumbled across an amazing tumblr of National Geographic scans from the late 50s to the early 70s. The beautiful grainy pictures with their warm light and saturated colours seem to represent a life so pure and unaffected. First published in 1888, National Geographic was a window to the world in a time when… Read more »
Sam Chirnside is another Australian-based art director riding graphic design’s latest wave of illusory optics and digital collage, inspired by 60s psychedelic art, nature and occult symbolism.
During the 1920s Gunta Stölzl was the only female master of the German school of Bauhaus, a progressive art school that combined craft with fine art. Stölzl applied modern art and mathematical principles to weaving, emphasising the use of hand looms and training in the mechanics of dyeing. Her diplomatic and practical approach, mixed with… Read more »
Roses have a long history of symbolism in the ancient language of flowers, most commonly known as the symbol of love and beauty, a representation that dates back to Ancient Greece where the goddess of love Aphrodite was depicted by the rose. But perhaps because of their natural alluring beauty, yet sharp thorned stem, roses… Read more »
For a theatre conceptualised by both artists and architects, constructed of Italian marble, white granite and oak paneling, it is not suprising that a red velvet stage curtain would not suffice. In 2010 Californian textile-artist Pae White was commissioned, following an international competition, to design a closing screen for the Oslo Opera House. The result:… Read more »
For the nineteenth century the ocean depths were what outer space was to the twentieth century; a frontier to be conquered, mystical, mysterious and foreboding. Ernst Haeckel (b.1834-1919) was a biologist fascinated with the geometric intricacies, patterned structures and perfect symmetry of alien sea creatures of the deep. Uniting art and science he detailed his… Read more »
Beautiful paintings by Spanish, Berlin-based artist Yago Hortal (b.1983).
It is funny how retrospect can be clouded by nostalgia, provided that the distance of contemplation is lengthy enough. When it comes to fashion, nostalgia has an immense power to resuscitate what had once expired. By the end of the nineties millennium minimalism was encroaching, supermodels were getting older and Donatella had taken over following… Read more »