Gordon Parks at the beach

Aren't these color-poppin' vintage photos from LIFE Magazine so so great? How about that turquoise bodysuit, eh? It has been HOT here in Los Angeles so far this year - I am crossing my fingers hard for some much-needed rain - but in the meantime, it is actually warm enough to don a bathing suit... and so, why not? Get crazy. The iconic Gordon Parks, best known for his black and white photographic essays for LIFE and his 1971 turn as director of Shaft, is behind these snaps; I kind of can't help but love their campy, sunshiney charm.

bandelier

L.A.-based Bandelier is making some of my favorite accessories right now. Kinda shamanistic and so super beautiful in the loveliest of leather. I am so into the simple styling too, letting these pieces take center stage. Very much looking forward to their future collections! If you're in Los Angeles, you can find some pieces at Mohawk General Store, purveyor of all good and luxurious things. A few are online here too.

Michael Lundgren

Michael Lundgren's series After the Fall is quiet and eery, it's colors pristinely monochromatic or awash in an alien palette of pastels rarely found in our natural world. Paper Journal offers analysis of Lundgren's unique ruminations on landscape:

"Lundgren conjures into being a landscape that is suggestive of a moment before the advent of human civilisation or in the aftermath of its fall, save for what we assume to be a solitary, impersonal observer; these are most emphatically not human landscapes, or at least have not been cast in such a fashion. Rather they are necessarily conceived of in terms of a fundamental human absence" (Paper Journal).

Today, while a wind-whipped wildfire rages in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, its dusty pink clouds thickening over the freeways, a sooty grayscale settling over the ocean, these photos carry a kind of poignance. Our earth is fragile, and powerful. And tremendously beautiful, in both forms.

Milleneufcentquatrevingtquatre

Milleneufcentquatrevingtquatre. Yes. That is this rad scarf brand's name, and Amelie Charroin and Marie Colin-Madan make some spectacular silk wonders under it's moniker. As it turns out, the word means "1984" in French, which is the year Charroin and Colin-Madan were born.  Good to know.

This collection, called Varengeville-sur-Mer, is named for a commune of the same name located in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France. Now, if you had one of these to call your own, would you not also wear it disguised as a cape or a skirt? To the beach and against the cliffs and in the tidepools? I would...

Disquiet Luxurians

I love this sci-fi-inflected photo series, called Disquiet Luxurians, by artist Emelie Grenier. The brass-stone-green palette is perfectly, quietly Mars-like, no? Grenier's body of work explores the design of rare objects and experiences, and our conceptions of rarity and value - I'd recommend taking a peak!

2014

Hey, 2014. Hey, blog. I ducked under the radar for a bit there, looking to gather my strengths, meaning to post little snippets of where I was and what I was up to, ultimately deciding to leave it be until I found myself ready to get back in there. Here I am. HI WORLD! So ready for ya! I hope the year has been full of treats and sweets and all good things for you so far. It's going to be a goodie, don't you think?

(photo)

Some required reading to get us back in the thick of things:

⌇Lili Cuzor's amazing, beautiful, spell-binding photos from her and her husband's trip to Iceland. Let's go!

⌇A very long and fascinating piece in The New Yorker about plant 'intelligence' and, more broadly, mankind's shrinking domination here on Planet Earth.

⌇By Heart, a literary influence series from The Atlantic, in which writers share their favorite written passages. I love the concept, but want more.

⌇Learning about the Sensory Ethnography Lab over at Harvard, a department which explores the crossover of ethnographic research and aesthetically driven media. When learning about places and people and things, isn't it best to do so with fully engaged senses?

⌇Spike Jonze's Her is my favorite moviegoing experience of the last year or two, or maybe even three. Shockingly tender, wonderfully intimate, and truly poignant as far as exploring how we understand, rationalize, and define our own humanity and relationships with love. See it. I've been twice already.

L R N C E

The internet is a curious and fascinating place. My friend (and photographer!) Laura Paul stumbled onto the Instagram account of this rad bag company L R N C E, and passed it along to me. Many swoons ensued, but it's proven silly difficult to track these beauts down online in any actionable way. 

I reached out to Belgium-based Laurence Leenaert and learned she is in the middle of an internship with BLESS, and about to start another with Stine Goya. Her bags are inspired by voodoo and religious iconography.  Laurence told me a bit more about it:

The textiles are woven fabrics with prints I've made based on signs from cults and African tribes. All the other fabrics are self-coloured. I like to experiment with materials that are not intended for clothing... Every piece is unique and there is only one of it - I think it's important for my product that it is exclusive.

TenOverSix, Opening Ceremony, Ooga Booga, you listening? Get these babes alongside your amazing merch already. The gold foil! And the squiggly cool designs! Major love.

apiece apart ss 2014

Apiece Apart always brings it. Color palette and cut and prints, just perfect.