Category — Fashion

I’m not the kind that lusts after and buys alot of shoes. I’m not even that much of a sneaker freak either. But to me, shoes can have an elegant shape to them, and the fantastic designs on The Virtual Shoe Museum are testament to this.

The Virtual Shoe Museum was initiated by Liza Snook in 2004. Once the idea was born, a long search began for designers, photographers and publishers connected to shoes.

Not all the shoes are practical, which is even better since it gives room for the imagination to create all manner of weird and wonderful designs.

Some of the shoe designs  I noticed are posted here, but the collection seems vast and you can browse through them all using criteria such as colour, the designer, the material, style etc. All very useful, if you do lust after shoes.

Check out fantastic shoe designs on The Virtual Shoe Museum

Technorati Tags: fashion, footwear, ideas, shoe design

Lev Dolgachov has a nice slick Flash photo portfolio. Quite straightforward to use, but its a nice contrast of a dark grey blue colour theme with mainly bright photos.

His subjects are sexy, seductive and quite generic actually so you can easily imagine them within the covers of Vogue, Playboy, Men’s Health and Maxim.

Most of all, if you ever fancied (phar) incorporating these kinds of models in your illustrations, he offers many of them on iStockPhoto, Fotolia, Dreamstime and Shutterstock. Check out the link “Buy Pictures”.

Dolgachov.com

Via Sexinart

Technorati Tags: fashion, Lev Dolgachov, photography

This camera lens bracelet caught my eye as a nice idea. Keen photographers can show their passion off camera duty now!

Via SwissMiss

Technorati Tags: bracelet, camera lens bracelet, fashion, photography

These items by Viktor & Rolf caught my eye with their obvious typographic element. Reminds me of something out of a comic strip, but with the speech merged in to the characters.

Viktor & Rolf say “We love fashion, but it’s going so fast. We wanted to say‘No’this season…”

If you like the slight quirkiness of Viktor & Rolf, check out their Flash-based website. Takes a short while to load, but there’s full-screen 3-D rendered, fly throughs of their predominantly white interiors.

Viktor & Rolf

Via the Milk.com.hk blog

Technorati Tags: fashion, Say no to fashion, Viktor & Rolf

Having recently seen an exhibition of Tim Walker’s pictures at the Design Museum, London, I’d highly recommend catching it if you can, as it runs until the 7th September, 2008.

Tim creates evocative images full of textured nuance and intriguing detail and his innovative photography is amongst the most imaginative and exuberant being produced today.

He draws upon his childhood to construct sets for his images that are witty and playful yet sufficiently sophisticated enough to perform for his fashion clients.

Its the sort of thinking that I could imagine creating lots of fun during a shoot (aside from the hard work in creating it of course) as well as in conceiving his ideas.

For instance, deciding to colour tint a group of cats or projecting a film onto the side of a house, or screen set within a rising tide at sunset. Or posing his models in an oversized knitted sweater and scarf, next to a huge camera or glove or under a tree bearing cakes.

The exhibition places some of these oversized objects amidst large prints of his photos and also presents some of his artistic process, from inspiration to execution, via sketch and scrapbook pages.

Definitely alot of effort required, and it pays off.

Biography

Tim Walker is a photgrapher based in London. Tim’s interest in photgraphy began during work experience at Condé Nast where he set up the Cecil Beaton archive.

After graduating from Exeter Art College, he worked as a freelance photographic assistant before working as Richard Avedon’s assistant in New York.

His career as a photographer was launched when he came third in the Inpependent Young Photographer of the Year Award, and he went on to contribute to high-profile magazines including Vogue, W and Harper‘s Bazaar.

He has also shot advertising campaigns for clients including Barneys, Comme des Garcons, Gap and Yohji Yamamoto.

Tim Walker represented by Thomas Treuhaft

Design Museum

Technorati Tags: fashion, photographs, Tim Walker

I love these quirky ideas from the world of Longoland.

Longoland is a multidisciplinary funhouse lead by artist/designer Joshua Ben Longo, who created his fantastical visions in reaction to the restrictive world of traditional product design.

I find his visions are both a little disturbing yet appealing touchable as a result of the cuddliness of the materials he uses.

They’re a little like aliens from b-movies which appear to be cute and friendly, but as soon as humans go near them, they reveal their nasty sides! Or maybe like “Critters” from the original 1986 movie of the same name, one of my favourite old school creature features.

It would good if the rug dude kept his mouth closed until you step on him - a great way to treat unwanted guests!

See more on Longoland.com

Technorati Tags: crafts, Joshua Ben Longo, Longoland, monsters, plushes

If you haven’t heard of her, its looking like you soon will. Kate Moross, is a graphic designer and illustrator who was chosen as one of Creative Review magazine’s recent “Creative Futures”.

Although her work is pretty distinctive, I wouldn’t name it as one of the styles I favour. But I do like the “whole package” - that she has been able to transcend the sometimes-insider industry that is design, to launch a signature range of clothing for the popular Topshop clothing brand.

In the collection, she has six jersey pieces adorned with bright, psychedelic graphics that are hand drawn by Moross using Lettraset markers.

“Topshop have given me the creative freedom and scope to produce something exciting, for a brand new audience,” she says.

Having graphics on clothing is one thing, but to have Topshop also launching her work with a live art event is another.

On Friday 25th January, Moross was in one of the windows of Topshop’s Oxford Circus flagship store in the heart of London, creating what would amount to Topshop’s first live art installation. The event was filmed live by topshop.com and broadcast via a podcast. The end result, judging by Moross’ back catalogue of work, will be an eye-popping window display of hand drawn, colourful graphics.

Via Creative Review

Technorati Tags: design, fashion, illustration, Kate Moross, Topshop

I’ve got a thing about leather goods right now - nothing too seedy, just that good quality leather is generally expensive, but indicates a desirable, timeless, long-lasting product. Maybe I’m just getting old!

Eco Centric sell the following camera bag which has an exterior made from old, sorry - vintage, leather belts, but with a luxurious moleskin and vintage silk tie fabric interior.

Eco Centric tout this as “desirable and practical, the camera bag is the epitome of ‘eco chic style’ for him or her. Designed in the UK and made in Spain it is hand crafted from vintage leather belts that have been carefully sourced and hand selected”.

There is no doubt that the eco-ness of the product is currently in vogue, but it also just makes sense to reuse materials such as leather that can be reused. The fact that aged leather looks good adds to the appeal of this item and I particularly like the incorporation of the buckle of the middle belt as the bag enclosure. The only issue is the price however, which is a little on the expensive side!

The bag is 23cm high x 18.5cm wide x 7cm deep. Apparently, each camera bag is unique and hand made, so if you buy one, it may differ slightly from the bag in the photo.

Get the Leather Belt Camera Bag from Eco Centric

Via BoingBoing

Technorati Tags: Eco Centric, leather camera bag, Old Leather Belts