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United Nude Releases New Spring Summer Collection Of Amazing Shoes




If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you may recall my first post about United Nude's unusual inspired shoes). Deriving influences from architecture, art and industrialism, United Nude has continued their distinct vision and direction for their 2010 Spring Summer collection.



Since my last in depth post, they've come a long way with their shoes... refined styles, added more and different color combinations. They even changed the name of their 'Porn' shoe to the Loop.

In addition to introducing new colors of their previous styles, they've added some fabulous new styles; The Cup, The Frame, The Label Shoe (their second collaboration with Dutch fashion designer Antoine Peters), The Graffiti Shoe (an embroidered pump) and The Lo Res shoe (an origami-esque angular shoe).

The Lo Res Pump:


Angular planes make up the exterior of the Lo Res pump, part of a new semi-automatic design method by United Nude. An object is digitally scanned into a 3D computer model and regenerated into various resolutions.



The Label Shoe
A second collaboration with Dutch fashion designer Antoine Peters:


The Label Shoe is a play on the industry’s excessive use of labels forming the style’s distinctive silhouette.


The Ultra Loop
UNITED NUDE’s highly successful Spring Summer style LOOP is a concept where a single foot-bed penetrates a sexy loop creating a remarkable and stylish shoe.



With the use of ultra strong carbon fiber, the shoe is allowed to reach new heights in the form of the ULTRA LOOP; creating an even more feminine silhouette and a towering 130 millimeter heel height.



The Cup
The CUP is designed to literally “cup” the heel of the wearer with a sculptured heel also serving as the back-piece, giving the style not only the desired comfort but also elegance and classic appeal.



The CUP is available in a range of styles from pump to sandal with attention- grabbing color combinations. The heel height on the high CUP styles is 4.5":

And the heel height for the mid CUP styles is 2.7":


The Frame Shoe
The FRAME is a remarkable achievement and is also a tribute to the foundation on which the UNITED NUDE brand was established.


The FRAME unhinges the common perception of what a high-heeled shoe should be with the construction of the heel being far more centered on the foot-bed while encasing the foot with straps, forming a wearable work of art:



The Graffiti Pump
The GRAFFITI uses the brand’s name in a 3D embroidered pattern decorating the shoe as its canvas:



UNITED NUDE’S exceptional design has now led to the expansion of the brand with the opening of the first flagship store in Amsterdam’s city centre. A second flagship store is set to open in the international fashion capital of New York City in early 2010 followed soon thereafter by a third flagship store in Shanghai.


Other styles from UNITED NUDE:

Mobius (below left) and Block (below right):

Stealth:

Coral (below left) and Mono Jane (below right):

Fold:




The UNITED NUDE Spring / Summer 2010 collection is available March 1, 2010 at UNITED NUDE’s retail stores in Amsterdam, Vienna, Tianjin, Guangzhou and London as well as at some of the world’s finest shoes stores and online at www.unitednude.com


Learn more about these shoes, who started the company and their original collection here.

MAD MEN Barbie Doll Diorama From Haute Doll




Much to the glee of advertising folk and doll collectors, todays' New York Times announced the fact that Mattel is soon coming out with MAD MEN Barbie dolls.

The dolls, fashioned after the cast of AMC's MAD MEN, are expected to retail for $75.00 each and a limited number of less than 10,000 dolls of each are to be produced.



above photo courtesy of New York Times



In honor of the release of the upcoming dolls, Haute Doll has created their own versions in an upcoming diorama for the magazine.

I happen to be acquainted with the fabulous photographer, Michael Williams, about who's Barbie Jonathan Adler diorama's I blogged about before.
So, I have a sneak peek at the first images of their own MAD MEN Dolls for you.





This month, for the March/April issue of HauteDoll, Michael collaborated with some One-Of-A-Kind doll artists to create our own custom MAD MEN dolls, wearing fashions directly from the TV show, along with an amazingly detailed miniature diorama of Don Draper's office (COMPLETE with cocktails and cigarettes).


above: I love the mini story boards and the Lucky Strike Cigarettes!



Diorama by Carloyn Allen
Fashions by Natalia Sheppard
Barbie repaints by Vin Trapani
Photos by Michael Williams

Attila, The Well-Dressed Hun. Prada's Costume Sketches For the Opera.




The Metropolitan Opera brought in the big guns when it came to the costume and set design of Pierre Audi's Met premiere production of Verdi's Attila.

The new production, which premiered on February 23, had costumes designed by fashion icon Miuccia Prada and sets designed by Pritzker Prize winning architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

Although the production is not necessarily receiving the greatest of reviews, the sets and costumes are worthy of applause.

A lot of sites, blogs and articles have featured the sets and mentioned the costumes, but here's a look at the actual sketches by Miuccia Prada for the costumes in the Opera (courtesy of Prada and the Met):







And a look at the sets and finished costumes (with photos by Ken Howard ):









Cast
Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Odabella: Violeta Urmana
Foresto: Ramón Vargas
Ezio: Giovanni Meoni
Attila: Ildar Abdrazakov

The Production Team

Production: Pierre Audi
Set and Costume Designers: Miuccia Prada, Herzog & de Meuron
Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman

The opera continues to play through March 12. You can purchase tickets here.

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