@Melissa/ Salone del Mobile 2011

Beloved brand Melissa created especially for the occasion of the 2011 Salone del Mobile, a line of three new shoe designs. The Brazilian label collaborated with the Head – Genève (Geneva University of Art and Design) and gave the opportunity to three young student designers of Fashion, Accessory and Jewelry Design to develop a completely experimental prototype of a shoe.

The three winning projects, designed by the students Julie Simon, Marine Stampfli and Morgane Ribeyrolles, highlight the avant-gardist creativity of Fashion Design at Head – Genève while combining at the same time the technical expertise of the Melissa label.
The most interesting part was that we were able to see the prototypes as well as the final shoes along with video projections of all the other participating projects. Every student used a different material as for the prototype, from wood to leather, to fabric, but from the three winning shoes, these two are the ones that really impressed me.

The playful and joyful "Melissa Academy Duck" by Julie Simon, the "Melissa Academy Exlocio" by Marine Stampfli along with the shoes of Morgane Ribeyrolles will be marketed internationally in April 2011, as written in the Head – Genève's site.

I really wish the "Melissa Duck" goes on production soon, too!

@Milano, Streetstyle at Salone del Mobile

In the same time that I was walking around via Tortona in boots and leather jacket (yes boots, weather forecasts always lie when it comes to heavy rain), some very stylish people were captured dressed to welcome the crazy rainy-windy-sunny weather of Milan!

Love check on: the bag, the tights and the hairdo (pic 1,2,3 accordingly)

@Milano, Fashion at Salone del Mobile

Atelier del Cima situated in Via Tortona, featured a collection full of black and white dresses. The idea of playing with just two colors may seem dull, but it was actually quite interesting to see how these dresses were so much different one from the other as for the textures and shapes!
Tomoko Tokuda creates handmade jewelry out of vintage watches. The idea behind this project came to her when she was 25 years old and found some old watches inside a dusty box in an antique shop in Milano. She wanted to bring them back to life in a more modern way and make people remember them again! You can find more pictures of her jewelry at her site!
As for Mafalda86, it is a brand created by three friends,Vittorio Sebastiani, Stefano Di Berardino and Marco Albani. Their sunglasses are totally handmade and as they mention in their site they want to change the world- one face at a time! Especially for Fuori Salone they collaborated with Stryx19 that created in the top floor, jewelry for accessorizing the glasses!
As for the end...chairs made out of hangers from StyleMyLife company! I would say don't try this at home, but I'm already too temped to try it myself to say something like that to you!

@Milano, Salone del Mobile 2011

On Friday for just eight hours I found myself in Milano after three years of not living there anymore! The "Salone del Mobile" is of course one of the most important events of the city and of whole Italy and as fashion is strongly related to design trends, we had to be there and observe what will rule the design world next year!

As the time was limited we only went to via Tortona where more than 40 locations were open with design exhibitions. The first exhibition featured the very impressive project of Res Sapiens, where 13 lamps were using the traffic of the internet and by the power of the tweets, the lamps moved and lighted. In order to really understand the project just follow this link and see with your eyes what Res Sapiens was all about.Tweelink from Holland created a very impressive table made out of 1000 color pencils- Maybe IKEA could be the next to present a table like this. The "Whoever does not understand the silence cannot hear it speak" comes from the Hillsideout project by Andrea Zambelli and Nat Wilms, which came to life in 2009 because of the common realization and the following discomfort concerning the degradation of abandoned sites in the Italian Apennines. They took old wooden furniture and re-created them into contemporary design objects. The above phrase was behind a plexiglass plate and the wardrobe in which it was inside was made of an old entrance door.
ilil studio Alessandro Israelachvili and Desiree Restuccia) was definitely of my taste -yes buttons managed to catch my interest! Their moto is "dress the table" (vestire la tavola) and they actually mean it! As they mention in their site:

"The table is a space for sharing, for relationship. Ilil imagines this relationship in an ironic way, creating a collection that plays with elements of fashion: sizes, basic items, accessories, styling."

Their ceramic collection of cups and dishes are accessorized by buttons and fabrics. This way each cup can be "dressed up" differently according to mood and occasion!For the end, I kept the scenographic light installation of Menogranoblu company. The collection "Hydra" is a collection of suspended hand-blown glass lamps. The light is reflected and diffused by the blown glass pendants which are suspended by a coloured tubular mesh of copper threads.

As this blog is not a merely design blog I just wanted to share some photos of the things I saw. For more details and real design reviews follow Yatzer that was in town as well!

Tomorrow, my fashion findings and some streetstyle shots!

Firenze in filters...Part II

After Part I here's part II of Firenze in Filters!

Giardino di Boboli, Palazzo Tornabuoni and the amazing view of the terrace, heart stickers on signs and my new vintage bag/love are some of the pics I took these past days. Too bad I haven't taken any pics of the gelatos I'm eating every day!

Have a nice day people!

Super Duper Hats interview!

Maybe Garance and her hat obsession made me realize some months ago that street style photographers were featuring more and more pictures of girls with hats. Or maybe it was even the fact that I could see these girls by myself on the street (something that highlights even more that Hat-ed girls were not seen only in fashionable NY or Paris but also in Athens or Florence)!

BUT the fact is that more and more online and on-life I see girls wearing hats and I was -and am- really interested to see if this trend is something that magazines are trying to push or is it a sudden coolness of girls and boys wearing their fedora hats in the most amazing colors and not care -not even for a minute- for the fact that...ermmm they have something on their head!

So when on January I met Veronica and Ilaria at the LuisaViaRoma party and they told me that they actually made the hats that they were wearing by themselves, I came to the conclusion that maybe hats is not only a trend! It can be a true business in the year of 2011! As you can guess...I had to interview them and learn more about their brand! Enjoy Super Duper Hats as much as Vogue.it does these days!

Two girls and one guy! How did you meet and Why did you choose to design hats in particular?

We met during a master at the Eindhoven university, the work was based on how to integrate technology in textiles. Then we became a little family, Veronica and Ilaria are sisters and Matteo is the Veronica's boyfriend....we chose to design hats because they are a real passion for us, we always used and loved hats. We were fascinated with the history of this unique object so carefully carved. Our curiosity towards the charm of an older generation of handicraftsmen and their techniques of manufacturing grew as did their awareness of the richness of a kind of work made with special passion an care.

What do hats represent to you and why do you think that women and men should start wearing hats again? Who is your ideal client?

First, hats are beautiful, second, we think that our hats are perfect for a person who dares to complete her own look with a stylish accessory that allows her to stand out for her elegance and refinement, for somebody who is looking for a sophisticated detail full of personality.
The research behind SuperDuperHats is aimed to create in each hat its magic and unique aura in order to nullify the transience of the contemporary fashion product.

The hat-trend was absent for quite some years but especially in the SS11 and AW11-12 it seems like designers are really trying to push the revival of the trend!
Why do you think people started paying attention to hats after so many years again?

A lot of fashion collection recall to something vintage, and in the passed Era hats was very important for a cool look, the hats had the same importance that nowadays have mobile phone, nobody goes out without it!

Are SuperDuper Hats handmade?

Every SuperDuper hat is totally handmade by Matteo, Veronica and Ilaria. SuperDuper exists because our hands work with care for hours, transforming a high quality raw material in an authentic handcraft product. A hat becomes a SuperDuper only if we are truly satisfied with the final result and if we are the first ones willing to wear it.

SuperDuperHats plays with old shapes and volumes, transforming them in suggestive and desirable gemstones, whose strong point is their current and unusual nature. SuperDuperHats are modern, yet they seem to magically wear a perfume of history. When you see them you can clearly feel how people used to make hats, yet you are sure they will never pass.The research behind SuperDuperHats wishes to give each hat its magic and unique aura in order to nullify the transience of the contemporary fashion product.

...And what about your inspiration?

SuperDuper Hats collections plays with retro shapes and volumes by looking back to the roaring 1920's. Wrapping bonnets, metropolitan gangter design: Each hat has its own contemporary, sophisticated allure.
Cuts, shapes, and leitmotivs recall those classic hats one can find in old, black&white pictures.

A huge Thank You to Matteo, Veronica and Ilaria! Don't forget to visit their web page at superduperhats.com

Current Mood

While my fellow bloggers were enjoying each others company at the Fashion Week, I was -and am- enjoying the good weather, the sunny days, the gelatos and everything that finally made the Florentines a little bit more smiley, cheerful and positive!

On the other hand, I'll admit that I'm a bad bad baaad blogger these past few weeks! No time for posts being a student (again) is actually harder than I remembered as we have project after project and presentation after presentation! So...please be patient and enjoy my little post/mood for today!

Current mood: All things white/beige with a tiny neon hint! prrrrrfct!

sources: Sartorialist, serrestv.gr, net-a-porter, style.com

Dimitris Petrou /Θeros

Dimitris Petrou is ready to present his Spring/Summer 2011 collection in just 10 days from today (April 12)!

Last season his collection only consisted of grey garments but the different textures made them all interesting and not boring at all! For the lucky ones that were there, the show was so different and unique that we all talked about it even weeks and months after...

The refreshing part was that instead of the usual catwalk, we saw a video, a live performance and models standing still in "random" parts of the stage. The audience was standing in the same height level as the models and we all felt part of the presentation. The AMP Gallery was also chosen wisely and it's the first time that I'm mentioning it, but as we waited outside for the doors to open, random people that lived in this area passed by and told us that they are really happy to see something good happening in their neighborhood.

The reason why I'm repeating parts of the post I did in October is because the designer is preparing something yet again inspiring and is emphasizing in a concept idea rather than a simple catwalk! The collection under the theme "Θeros" (harvest in English) is accompanied by this teaser video and some more interesting info:

The invitation will look like the cover of a book and the paintings of artist Michail Tsakountis will be placed in the center of the cover. All copies will be signed by the artist.

The space installation will be developed by Yiorgos Assimakopoulos and it will resemble a farm land filled with hay, referring to a realistic farm.

Thiseion theater is chosen as the location of the presentation and in the foyer a bar will be placed where guests will be having welcome drinks (as well as afterparty ones).

No one will leave empty handed, either. MaxFactor as being the main sponsor, will be providing goody bags to all guests!

Harvest days and nights, summer boys and girls, the sun and the countryside....Spring is here after all!

pic source: screenshots taken from Haris Farsarakis' video