Hot and Bothered

Zana modeling her own leather peplum, and a friend modeling one of her bondage style face masks

Yesterday night, I made a sweaty trek over to CATM Gallery with hundreds of other Zana Bayne enthusiasts to view her latest Fall/Winter 2012 collection of leather body-harnesses.  Taking a beautifully orchestrated step away from the traditional fashion presentation, Zana chose to collaborate with three other artists and photographers to fully convey the sensual nature of her work.  Char Alfonzo, Maxime Buchi, and Adrian Wilson used photography, video and installation to capture Zana's work on the human body, playing with the themes of power and submission that are integral to her bondage inspired pieces. The fetishistic and fantastic elements conveyed through the resulting work gave Zana's harnesses a life that could not be expressed in a simple presentation with models, and the gallery truly felt like a teasing peek into Zana's lush, leather-filled world.  The exhibition is only up for one more day, so try to make it if you're in New York.  Otherwise, keep an eye out for her new pieces to arrive--I personally can't wait to get my hands on the leather cone bra pictured in one of Adrian Wilson's photographs.

Zana's Leather skull installation

Leather bra photographed by Adrian Wilson

-Tiffany

Gimme A Beat

All photos by Molami

Headphones, in the last few years, have become a surprisingly ubiquitous accessory.  In both New York and Stockholm, many of my fellow subway companions regularly sport various shades of Urbanears (which originated in Sweden, but are so popular that they are even sold in J.Crew's children's section), or, as Christina pointed out, Beats, Dr. Dre's headphone line.  I generally prefer earbuds myself, finding headphones too clunky to carry around, and too easy to get tangled in just about everything.  Recently though, my earbuds broke, and I've been wearing a pair of Eskuches that I normally reserve for behind the DJ booth.  Now that I'm getting accustomed to them, nicer pairs are starting to catch my eye.

I first spotted Molami, yet another Swedish headphone line, at Nitty Gritty in Stockholm.  Since Sweden has pumped out an endless stream of musical talent, while simultaneously maintaining a reputation for forward thinking design, it's hardly surprising that such meticulously designed headphones would originate from the country.  Designer Maria von Euler drew upon her background in tailoring and fashion design to create luxe new headsets that incorporate leather and fabric, as well as silver or gold metallic accents.  The pleat headphones have a dynamic angular shape that flatters the face, while another model features earphones built into a soft silk headband that straps around the head.  They're beautifully crafted, easy to use, and perfectly balance form and function.  If I had a pair, I would wear them everyday---they're simply too nice to wear while hiding behind a DJ booth. 

It's All Ancient Greek To Me...

All photos by LN-CC

Practical summer sandals usually make me weep from boredom.  I've acquired my fair share of gladiators, and various other inexpensive iterations of the necessary basic, which I usually wear into the ground before unsentimentally tossing them in the garbage by the time fall rolls around.  Sometimes, it's worth paying a little more for something that you'll be spending so much time in, and this summer, I'm planning on picking up a pair of Ancient Greek Sandals.  Recently launched by former Balenciaga shoe designer, Christina Martini, the sandals are inspired by bits of Greek mythology, and are hand crafted from vegetable dyed leather.  Even though Vivienne Westwood and Jeremy Scott have both made recent versions of Hermes's winged shoes, I think that Martini's version takes the cake: simple, minimal, but winkingly cute, much like the messenger god himself.
 

-Tiffany

Jewel School

Kristin Hanson's Fine Jewelry School Workshop

After graduating from college, I went back to school at F.I.T. to get an Associates Degree in Jewelry Design.  While I learned a lot from the program, there's always room for improvement, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to take a sampling of one of Kristin Hanson's courses at her Fine Jewelry School in TriBeCa.  Kristin herself is an accomplished fine jeweler, who specializes in colored diamonds, and who sells her eponymous collection in her own store at 60 Reade Street.  Behind the discreet boutique lies a massive three story studio, which houses her showroom, as well as the jewelry school.

Founded in 2006, the school offers courses ranging from the fundamentals for the complete novice, to advanced workshops for professionals, as well as an intensive two year program designed to help aspiring designers launch their first collection.  The studio is lovely and spacious, yet the setting feels slightly more intimate (and well kept) than the studios at F.I.T.

For the workshop I attended, we did a basic introduction to piercing and sawing, carving out a simple flat pendant from a sheet of brass.  While I've done my fair share of sawing, it's been a longtime (lets just say it's not the most fun part of jewelry making), so it was good to get back into shape.  I was amazed by how fast Kirstin and John taught the course, and with a bit of their help, almost all of the students managed to knock out a pendant during the course time.  I will definitely consider returning to brush up on some of my bench work skills, and I highly recommend the studio for all of the untrained jewelers out there who are looking to take their work to the next level.  Here are some photos from the course, including my final piece, which took about an hour and a half to make (I'm proud to say I didn't break a single saw blade in the process).

Starfish from Kirstin's latest collection, stones, and a wax ring model.

The first step involved designing a flat shape on paper and then gluing the paper to a flat piece of brass to serve as a guide for carving out the pendant.

I designed a simple geometric shape using stencils, and made two prongs that would later be bent over and used as bales to slip chain through.

After our shapes were designed, we used jewelers saws to cut out the shapes from the metal.  Here is Kirsten herself, helping a student complete their piece.

Once the shapes were carved out, we used a metal file to smooth and file down the sharp edges. 

John, the instructor from the class, helped create the bales, and attach the chain to the pendant, before we gave the piece a quick satin finish.

My piece after the course. I might go back and cut out holes and refine the shape.

Pieces from Kirstin Hanson's Men's collection

Pieces from Kirstin Hanson's Men's collection

-Tiffany

Put on a Pedestal

Scandinavia has been well known since the midcentury for its innovative and forward thinking architecture and furniture design.  Within the last decade, Scandinavian fashion has also gained traction and become increasingly influential, and is similarly aligned with a minimalist design approach.   Still, I have never seen midcentury modern so fluidly applied to apparel as with FINSK, the line of architecturally structured, extremely high heels.  It makes sense.  Finnish born and London based designer Julia Lundsten was born to an architect father and an interior designer mother, and cites furniture and buildings as major sources of inspiration for her shoes.  Set on elegantly carved wood platforms, they look a bit like Constantin Brancusi's sculptural pedestals. I personally can't imagine a better thing to stand on.

-Tiffany

Object of Desire

Considering that Eleven Objects started in Fall 2011 with a small but highly detailed collection of hand embroidered collars, it's quite amazing that a year later, they're presenting their first ready to wear collection.  I guess the quick progress shouldn't be that much of a surprise given the designers' impressive resumes: Christine Rhee studied architecture at Princeton and worked at BOYY, and Linh Thi Do worked at Alexander Wang and doo.ri.  The clothes bear all the luxe details of the collars, and the AW 2012 collection heavily features rich brocades, gold leaf, shearling, and Swarovski crystals.

The collars are still the focal point of all the looks, and in addition to the detached collar style, the designers have introduced the "collar sleeve," a floating collar with a set of short sleeves attached.  These pieces, along with the belted peplums, occupy a space somewhere between clothing, accessories, and jewelry, which might sound confusing at first.  However, once they're matched with the outfits, they complement the clothes beautifully, and everything comes together and makes perfect sense.

 

-Tiffany

South by Southwest

All photos by Saga Sig 

I first came across Miista at Urban Outfitter's last year, and was immediately taken by the unique, well crafted styles, available at a reasonable price.  Unlike many other shoe brands in the same price-range, which often traffic in the business of designer knock-offs, Miista creates styles that are truly their own.  Their shoes often incorporate tooled leather, woven cords, and novel shapes and silhouettes.  The new spring collection has a distinctly 70's southwestern feel, and includes Ikat print boot-sandals, patchwork leather slingbacks, and high-heel T-straps in a gorgeously Smurfy blue.  I'm particularly entranced by the magical lookbook, shot by Saga Sig, which will definitely serve as inspiration for how I'll be dressing when warmer weather rolls around.

-Tiffany