Gavello nel blu

Creatively presented retail stores are a delight. Saint of Athens created this pool-themed jewelry store on Mykonos for Italian brand Gavello. Fresh, fun, and unique.

GAVELLO nel blu, the jewelry shop that thinks it is a pool. Cosmopolitan and picturesque places like Mykonos tend to trap themselves in a dipole of rigid tradition VS forced extravagance. Thankfully, emblematic Italian jewelry brand GAVELLO Milano came up with a solution that transcends the island’s stereotypes with a creative aesthetic idea. GAVELLO nel blu by SAINT OF ATHENS and Dive Architects is a jewelry store within a pool, as in, a typical Cycladic store (as seen from the outside) designed to resemble a pool on the inside. Light blue tiles, beach balls, striped bolsters, lockers and a pool ladder on the wall create an oh-so familiar ambience and evoke an oblique summer feeling. Mirrors, cushions, custom terazzo display cases and display cones & cylinders (on which someone might even want to hang their towel) serve as practical elements as well as conceptual props that enhance the pool concept. A few square meters are enough for interior design to show its surreally ingenious side and for opulent products to acquire a whole new market context.

https://saintofathens.com/en/works/gavello-nel-blu

Rise & Win Brewing Co. BBQ and General Store

Located in Japan in Tokushima Prefecture, about two and a half hours outside of the Osaka area, the Rise & Win Brewing Co. BBQ and General Store is a charming site visually as well as intellectually, as recycled materials feature prominently in the design of the structure. Of course the main feature is the double height wall of mismatched windows!

While it is indeed a brewing company (newly appointed brewing director Ryan Jones is American and they boast that he "he studied craft beer making in the real American...immersing himself in making beer until he was stoic"...clearly something got lost in that translation), the general store section, created from discarded wood, offcuts, recycled bricks, and old bottles for a chandelier, is dedicated to an eco-friendly way of selling and purchasing as well. Their website states:

"Old winning department store has been reborn as a general store.
As a proposal for excessive packaging and shopping that does not emit garbage coming from an inappropriate amount, we are doing selling by weight.
Please bring your favorite containers, pack nuts, dried fruits, seasoning such as pasta and rice, as much as you want.
Of course we also sell craft beer. Enjoying shopping leads to zero · waste."

http://www.kamikatz.jp/ja/toppage.html

BEAUTY: Photography--Alex Prager

Filmmaker and fine art photographer Alex Prager shot a video (with accompanying stills) for Nordstrom's Fall 2016 campaign. Prager's usual style is in full force here with crystal clear images of crowds full of, um, unique people.

“Our lives are moving so fast--at lightning speed--and in particular, our industry, dictated by the internet, social media and this constant urge for newness all the time, has embraced sayings like 'see now, buy now, wear now,'" said Olivia Kim, vice president of creative projects at Nordstrom, Seattle. "We forget how to enjoy the moment we’re in, appreciate where we’re standing, or even remember to look up and see the sky," she said.

I love the hyper-real, dream-like sense of the video itself which seems to slow down and highlight individual moments where fate seems to intervene and bring us a new experience, a new person, a new place, or a new perspective of ourselves.

"In partnership with world-recognized artist Alex Prager, we wanted to capture and recognize that moment," Ms. Kim said. "Using modes of transportation as a metaphor of speed, and as the literal representation of how we get from here to there, the fall 2016 brand campaign also emphasizes that within a crowd, there are countless individual stories and unique experiences, that are all worth recognizing."

http://www.alexprager.com/

Heath Ceramics

I went to Sausalito last week to visit my dear friend Sherry Page of Culinary Getaways and we took an impromptu field trip to the Heath Ceramics Studio, located right down by the water. I've loved Heath for years but had never had the opportunity to visit the factory and store until now.

Although there are other Heath locations, the Sausalito space is the original factory started in 1948 by Edith and Brian Heath. In the early 40s, Edith began making ceramics and despite the fact that she had no formal training (or perhaps because of it), she quickly made a name for herself. She had a one-woman exhibition at the San Francisco Legion of Honor in 1944 and a few years later, Heath Ceramics was established. Heath creations went on to adorn many Eichler, Neutra, and mid-century modern homes on tables (in the form of hand-crafted dinnerware), and on floors and walls (in the form of stunning dimensional tile). Edith's work led to advances in clay and glaze development, securing Heath a unique place in ceramic history, along with design awards including the Industrial Arts Award from the American Institute of Architects. Many of her original pieces are a part of the permanent collections of museums such as MOMA and LACMA. The factory itself was built in 1959, and was designed by the Heaths and Marquis and Stoller Architects.

In 2003, the company was bought by Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey and all of Heath’s products are still handcrafted by skilled artisans in small runs in the Bay Area. Edith and Brian Heath’s vision of "making good things for good people—the right way—" lives on.

In addition to serving platters and trays, Heath makes dinnerware of all kinds, including some very special collections, such as the Chez Panisse collection designed in collaboration with Alice Waters and made for the legendary Berkeley restaurant (which is ground zero for the modern foodie movement!).

They also produce clocks, house numbers, candle holders, and vases. But for me, as an interior designer, I am most interested in the specialty tiles they produce. The Sausalito location boasts an extensive tile design studio where you can see the many different colors and glazes they use in addition to the stunning shaped and raised tiles which can be used for many applications such as on fireplace breasts, and as kitchen back splashes or even bathroom walls!

Your blogmaster at the Heath Ceramic store and factory
Photo by Sherry Page

Visit the Heath website for more information about the history of the company, how they make their products, and information about visiting as well as tours of the Sausalito dinnerware factory or the San Francisco tile factory.
http://www.heathceramics.com/

R.I.P. Elio Fiorucci

Elio Fiorucci, the Milanese founder of the Fiorucci clothing and shopping empire died last week at the age of 80.

Fiorucci worked in his father's shoe shop until he opend his own store in 1967. In 1970 he created not only a fashion but a lifestyle empire with his Fiorucci brand, opening several stores around Milan and bringing global fashion to Italy. In 1975, he branched out to London, and then in 1976, Fiorucci opened a store on East 59th in New York City just in time for the disco (and roller disco!) era; the store even became known as the daytime Studio 54 (Elio Fiorucci was a habitué of Studio 54, rubbing shoulders with Bianca, Halston, and Liza)! This was the Fiorucci heyday, featuring platform sneakers, heart-shaped glasses, a collection made from DuPont's new Tyvek fabric, Day Glo tee shirts, gold lamé pants, collaborations with Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf and fashion luminaries Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood, and ultimately the memorable Fiorucci denim jeans. In fact, Fiorucci, along with Sasson, invented the high-end jean market. In the late 70s and 80s, Fiorucci combined elements of punk and New Wave as evidenced by their often risqué advertisment graphics. And if that is not enough, Elio and his brand were name-checked in the classic Sister Sledge song, "He's The Greatest Dancer:" "He wears the finest clothes, the best designers, heaven knows/ Ooo, from his head down to his toes/ Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci, he looks like a still/ That man is dressed to kill."

Above, a shot of Elio Fiorucci with Andy Warhol at a party for Interview Magazine. Below is a shot of the Fiorucci outpost in Beverly Hills which opened in 1979; it was also the setting for a very memorable and campy sequence in the 1980 film "Xanadu" with Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly.

And here is my very own Fiorucci tin canister which I bought in 1978 in the Fiorucci section of Burdine's department store at Dadeland Mall in Miami, Florida when I was fourteen years old. This particular graphic is my very favorite Fiorucci design, and the tin remains a treasured possession, reminding me of the wonderful, heady disco days of that period...

Since the mid-90s, the label has been owned by Japanese jeans group Edwin Co., Ltd.
http://www.fiorucci.it/

Rest in peace Elio. Thanks for making the world a little brighter and a little more fun.