Tag: design

IN BETWEEN SEASONS

Do fall, resort, spring or winter collections still matter in a day and age where global warming and climate changes are upon us? It’s April and the sun is shining but the wind is cold and the air feels harsh.
It could be the perfect day for a road trip around town; preferably in a car without a roof and grand speakers. On our bodies we wear, indeed, a fall/ winter collection. Shaun Samson’s handsome boys would most definitely fit the picture. Sitting on the hood of the cabrio, they would be honking at the ladies while rollin’ some weed.

Samson, a British- trained menswear designer, was born and raised in San Diego, California. Growing up between surfers, skaters and Mexican gang members, the inspiration for his last collection is home- based. In an interview Samson tells about the fashion statements and hair styles back then: “everyone was wearing black corduroy house slippers being worn with socks – even Birkenstocks! (…) It was really popular to have a shaved head with long fringe that you could comb back. You were even cooler if you had a tail, because that took a while to grow. I knew these Asian girls who bleached their hair and wore blue contacts, you know, to accentuate an Asian’s naturally blonde hair and blue eyes, ha.”

With the wind being below spring temperature but the sun trying to warm our faces, Samson proposes the perfect outfit for a day in between seasons. It contains lots of layers that can be adjusted and see through tops that could be worn with or without a buttoned up blouse. An absolute must though, is the bad boy face. Samson’s soundtrack- Masta Ace’s ‘Born to Roll’- could help getting you in just the right mood.

Teaser Rop van Mierlo poster

The talented illustrator Rop van Mierlo has been nominated for this years prestigious Dutch Design Awards with his work Wild Animals. This book with vivid illustrations is currently available all over the globe and internationally design lovers have embraced his illustrations with great enthusiasm.

Prior to the elections of the award Rop has created a truly marvelous poster exclusively for my website. On FOUNDBYJAMES.com I will offer a very limited run of only 9 numbered prints. This poster is Rop’s only work in between his first (nominated) book and his promising upcoming second. As of the 17th of October, 2011 right before the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the poster will be for sale. Stay updated via Facebook and Twitter

Read my interview with Mr. Rop van Mierlo about the things that  inspire him, his thoughts about the DDA 2011 nomination, his future plans and his dreams.

For press inquiries please contact press@foundbyjames.com

Take a peek at MODEFABRIEK

written by Grietje Schepers

Designing new places at Modefabriek is exciting as ever. You will find a color explosion this edition at MF Food by ENVY. Feeling like a big scale Jackson Pollock today! To give you a peek into what 40 liters of paint and a big blower can do:

Come and see the end result at Modefabriek!

Sneakerology by Facet Studio

written by Frame Mag

To display nearly 300 pairs of shoes in one compact space, Facet Studio’s design team created an unique organizational system that neatly merchandises footwear.

A boxed shoe display wall casts dazzling patterns in shape and colour throughout the 55-sq-m shop. Each shoe is presented in its own 200mm by 600mm plywood box, which are each slightly offset from one another. Displayed like museum artefacts, the products are ordered and numbered.

To learn more about each shoe design and function, shoppers can use touch-screen units in the centre of the store and enter the product’s coding number (which is labeled beside the corresponding box).

‘By placing our design focus on ways to correctly understand the merchandise, it’s an attempt at capturing “sneakers” in a scholarly fashion,’ say the Facet Studio team.

ART BIENNALE VENICE

Why did I go to the 54. Art Biennale in Venice?
Art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions. Artists have the full liberty to create and there are no boundaries. It is for me the ultimate discipline to get food for thought. Interesting of Venice is that it is the largest and oldest Biennale worldwide (started 116 year ago), presenting 89 participating countries.

A lot of countries have their own pavilion in the 10.000 m2 Giardini and Arsenale area. These individual presentations are very important in times of globalization. Countries have the space to present their culture in their own way without borders.
Also the Netherlands expressed their nationality. The Dutch pavilion (by Gerrit Rietveld) was transformed into the model of a theatre titled Opera Aperta/Loose work. Curator Guus Beumer, well-known in the fashion world as he was in the nineties the art director of the labels Orson + Bodil and So, invited artists from different disciplines showing the cultural infrastructure that characterizes the Netherlands.

The opening performance was by fashion designer Alexander van Slobbe. That Art and functional design have a connection was shown in the collateral exhibition Glasstress 2011 presenting glass sculptures specially made by contemporary artists from different nationalities among Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon, Ted Noten, Zaha Hadid Kiki van Eijk and Pieke Bergmans. One of the curators of Glasstress is Lidewij Edelkoort. She is organising more and more exhibitions worldwide, visit her new www.trendtablet.com blog for dates and themes

The 54. Biennale Art stays open till November 27. My tip is to book a room on island Venice-Lido so you can take a dip in the sea to cope with the overwhelming visual impressions.

HELLO, I’M HILDE

written by Hilde Koenders

and this is my first story for the brand-new Modefabriek blog!

Last weekend I visited Arnhem Mode Biënnale, one of the biggest fashion events in the Netherlands, with lots of inspiring events and exhibitions throughout the city of Arnhem.
My dear friends Grietje Schepers and Irene van Doesburg presented their beautiful scarves and lampshades at the Modetuin, a temporary fashion market.
In the evening, we had a lovely dinner together at the Turkish restaurant Blauwe Hoek . The next day we went to the Culture exhibition, beautifully located in an old AkzoNobel plant. I love how the routing blends with the building!
Afterwards we did another tour across the city and enjoyed the Arnhem Museum of Modern Art, the Arnhem Coming Soon store and the brand-new Sjaak Hullekes store.It was also interesting to see the Duologue expo, which is curated and designed by fashion consultant Carlo Wijnands.

Here is a limited selection of some of the great works on display there, but I’m not going to give away too much!

Don’t forget to visit the Spijkers&Spijkers exhibition and all the nice pop-up stores in the city centre. Go and visit the show!

ROPAROSA X BEATRICE // FEMINISM ANNO SS2012

The power of cooperation, that’s what two talented young creative’s are showing us. And with young I rather mean fresh looking than unskilled. Fashion designer Roos van der Kamp and stylist Beatrice Jolly are working together for three seasons now on the ROPAROSA collections and the presentations of them. They are fighting something different than a life without flat-irons, but still you can feel the drive for stimulating individualism and inner power of female beings. The last collection of Roos was called “Come as you are” where the designs took shape from the centre of intuition: the abdomen. These hidden messages were a motivation for Beatrice to speak up.

Next to helping Roos as a stylist she will be giving birth soon to her own jewellery line BEATRICE. This line will be showed together with the SS2012 collection “Let go Let go” of ROPAROSA on Monday the 18th of July in the catwalkshow Modefabriek presents ‘Next & Cutting Edge’. The line will consist of statement pieces, of which the statement is not the excessive size showed to others, but is hidden in little engraved messages towards yourself…