Books: Patterns of the 1930's

I just bought this awesome book, Patterns of the 1930's by Pepin Press. It is filled with reproductions of original hand-painted textile patterns from the 1930's, and comes with a CD of art you can use for your own projects. These designs look so fresh and now--a great inspiration for Spring 12.

-Claudia Brown

Liberty London for Apple

Liberty London has teamed up with Apple to bring you these classic covers that are adorned with the company's signature prints and embosses. These launch on November 30th, but if you want a larger sneak peak, check it out here.

Art: Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works

via Opening Ceremony Blog. Photos courtesy Hauser & Wirth Gallery

Little-known fabric works of the late Louise Bourgeois are currently on display in London at Hauser & Wirth Gallery through December 18th. According to the gallery's press release, "Fabric played an important role in Bourgeois’s life. She grew up surrounded by the textiles of her parents’ tapestry restoration workshop, and from the age of twelve helped the business by drawing in the sections of the missing parts that were to be repaired. A life-long hoarder of clothes and household items such as tablecloths, napkins and bed linen, from the mid-nineties Bourgeois cut up and re-stitched these, transforming her lived materials into art. Through sewing she attempted to effect psychological repair: ‘I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole."

See more here: Hauser & Wirth Gallery

Cecil Beaton: The Art of the Scrapbook

via Vogue.com: Assouline Publishing is coming out with a book about iconic Vogue photographer, Cecil Beaton. We can't wait to see this, he is truly an amazing artist. More here: Vogue.com

Eley Kishimoto Journals

Starting your holiday shopping already? Here's a great idea for the pattern lover in your life. These cloth-bound journals are a collaboration between book manufacturer Noble MacMillan and one of our favorite fashion design duos Eley Kishimoto. Get them here.

Exhibition: Alexander McQueen at the Costume Institute

From HuffingtonPost.com:

Over 100 pieces by the late Alexander McQueen will be featured in the Costume Institute's next exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, WWD reports.

"Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" will chronicle the designer's work over his 20-year career. Curator Andrew Bolton told the fashion newspaper, "McQueen had such a singular voice and he was a remarkable technician....He really was one of the most provocative voices of the past 30 years in fashion. His catwalk presentations were outstanding and straddle art and fashion. We want to get across two elements -- the spectacle of the runway presentations and the beauty of his craftsmanship."

WWD adds that the exhibit will be organized by themes, such as, "The Savage Mind," "Romantic Gothic," "Romantic Nationalism," "Romantic Exoticism," "Romantic Primitivism" and "Cabinet of Curiosities." It will launch with the Costume Institute Gala on May 2 with co-chairs Anna Wintour, Stella McCartney and Colin Firth and honorary chairs Francois-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek putting together the fete. The exhibit will be open to the public from May 4 to July 31.

Interiors: Academic Center at University of Oregon

On a recent trip to the University of Oregon in Eugene, I had the privelege or visiting the John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes. Full disclosure, my husband Marc Curtis had a big hand in the interior design of this building while working for ZGF in Portland, and brought some innovative solutions to the problem of recognizing award winners and donors while maintaining the integrity of the space.

From Marc:
"We designed this beautiful building, but there's a huge component of recognizing student athlete achievements, as well as major donors to the athletic department. The normal way, the ugly way, is to have a bronze plaque tacked on to the wall and unrelated to the space. We wanted to avoid that, so we spent a lot of time designing solutions that integrated these recognitions into the fabric of the building, inside and out. There’s a great deal of them, so these solutions are actually what defines the public space. As the viewer looks around in the space, the first things that catch their eye are those many examples…..We achieved this by incorporating graphic elements, typography, shapes, colors, and patterns into the materials that the space is built out of.
One example: The bathroom is a recognition of Don Essig, a famous announcer at U of O, and his famous line "It Never Rains at Autzen Stadium." We recorded his voice, created a graphic representation of that recording, and that became the tile pattern in the restrooms."

Another example is a wall of back lit steel laser cut panels that are the names of notable U of O professors."

-Claudia Brown

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