A.M. Cassandre for Harper's Bazaar

In 1936, MoMA held an exhibition of Paris-based A.M. Cassandre’s poster work. That’s when Harper’s Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch, contracted Cassandre to create the numerous surrealistic covers he would produce over the next three years.

Among the handful below, the first two are definitely the trippiest. For a few more, go here.

Betsey Johnson Does Opera

Betsey Johnson: Juliette, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

… well, on her sketchpad she does, and it’s a wide-eyed, leggy, jean-clad, midriff-baring Juliette from the opera Roméo et Juliette. Johnson and a group of other fashion elite agreed to embark upon a truly delectable flight of fashion fancy--to reinterpret the classic-opera character of their choice. The results, which have all been generously donated for a most worthy cause—The New York City Opera--will be auctioned, tomorrow, Thursday May 20th, at the annual DIVAS Shop for Opera benefit event.

Organized by the New York City Opera Thrift Shop (declared NYC’s best thrift shop by Vogue magazine), the Divas Shop for Opera is one of the city’s most anticipated shopping events by fashionistas everywhere.

Visit ‘Soul Stylist’ Lori Sutherland’s blog for details of some of the incredible vintage and designer deals to expect. This is serious stuff—Pauline Trigere, Zandra Rhodes and Issey Miyake, to name a few—at stunningly low (cue for diva to faint) prices.

Here are a handful of about two-dozen designer “reinterpretations” to be on view and auctioned at the event. I’m not sure if it is sold out yet, but you can check here for tix.

threeASFOUR: Queen of the Night, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Christian Lacroix: Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur

Victoria Bartlett: Puccini’s Turandot

Narciso Rodriguez: Cio-Cio San, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Austin Scarlett: Poppea, Monteverdi’s
L’incoronazione di Poppea

Jason Wu: Verdi’s Aida

Behnaz Sarafpour: Puccini’s Tosca

Illustrations: Courtesy of the designers/NYC Opera via Style File

Diaper Jeanie

Huggies Little Movers Jeans Collection. Jeanius.

(via T. Rosen, AME’s official Target correspondent.)

ICFF Takes

I had the opportunity to do a brief cruise through the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javits Center. Thought I’d share a few visuals.

This one, you’ll see everywhere ...

The Sheet Seat folding chair is so appealing in its clever simplicity, that the Hoboken (via Turkey) based designers, Ufuk Keskin & Efecem Kutuk, have multiple manufacturers interested in producing them. Cut from a single piece of wood laminate, with very little waste, they store flat, and even look great hanging on the wall.



Draw with regular Sharpies to customize your Umbra OH chair. Just remember that you'll be sitting permanently on those mindless doodles.



Let’s say you decide to go to Holland because so many people there speak English. You, of course, speak no Dutch. And let’s say you are alone in a train station and this (bottom) is the only clock. Your iPhone battery is out, so you can’t use the translation app. You would have an incredibly ironic, post-modern experience, but you’re screwed as far as knowing the time (8:20). Not fun if you should be running, instead of walking, to make a train. It’s great looking, but let’s hope the Qlocktwo doesn’t catch on in too big a way.

Check out Metropolis magazine for lots more on the ICFF.

Photochrom Landscapes

The landscapes, as promised. Are you thinking schmaltz? Treacle? Saccharine? I think they are dreamy.

Praekestolen, Geiranger Fjord, Norway.

Kongen og Dronningen, Bispen, Norway.

View towards Merok, Geiranger Fjord, Norway.

The Seven Sisters, Nordland, Norway.

Midnight sun, Bell Sound, Norway.

Midnight sun in Advent Bay, Spitzbergen, Norway.

Maderno, Lake Garda, Italy.

Emerald Lake and Van Horn Range, British Columbia

Inspiration Point, Yellowstone, Wyoming.

Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Sunset on the Oklawaha, Florida.

Devil's Bridge, Aberystwyth, Wales. (I've been there!)

See previous post for details about Photochrom prints and read a good explanation of the process here.

See many more scenic Photocroms at the Library of Congress photostream on flickr.

Almost Living Color

The Photochrom process was developed in Zürich, by Hans Jakob Schmid, in the 1880s. Used mostly for travel subjects, Photochroms took the place of hand-colored postcards, and were popular until the 1930s, when other color photographic technology became commercially viable.

The richly colored images were created by transferring a black and white photo onto a series of lithographic stones—anywhere from four to 14 -- that were then printed in color. In the U.S., the technology was licensed to The Detroit Publishing Company of Michigan, where thousands of views and millions of prints were produced. A very good technical explanation of the process can be found here.

The Library of Congress has more than 6,000 images, among which are the portraits and other peopled scenes here. Stay tuned for the mouthwatering landscapes ...

Portrait of Berta Lergetporer, Slovenia

Arrowmaker, an Ojibwa brave.

Pee Viggi and squaw.

National Vierlander costume, Hamburg, Germany.

A Chinese family.

Bedouin beggars and children, Tunis, Tunisia.

Bedouin Chief of Palmyra, Holy Land.

Bedouins and children outside tent, Holy Land.

Arab dancing girls, Algiers, Algeria.

Barbers near Seraskierrat, Constantinople, Turkey.

A Bedouin woman, Tunis, Tunisia.

Future Vintage: Eames Century Modern

My brochure from House Industries just arrived in the mail today. It introduces their new collection of fonts, Eames Century Modern. I like to imagine that some blogger, fifty years in the future, will be very excited to discover this at a flea market.

Take Mom Shopping!

Assuming that Mom is a woman of extraordinary taste, who delights in discovering things she hasn’t seen anywhere else, show her how in-the-know you are. Take her to Pastec on E. 12th St. The store, which had been a Soho destination for over 20 years, moved to the East Village about a year ago.

An eclectic range of accessories for yourself and your home, come from all over the world, to occupy the calmly hued, sunlit space. Each item is strictly filtered through the discerning lens of owner, Sara Spinelli, who is known for her intolerance of the ordinary, and aversion to boredom. I think Mom will approve.

Pastec, 437 E. 12th St., nr. Ave. A - Phone: 212-219-3922
Read/see more in New York Magazine.

One of the few places you will find jewelry by Monica Castiglioni.

Pillows silk-screened with the top ten google searches of different years.