If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Make Your Modern Classic Chairs A Little More Comfy With Parkhaus Pads

As a project, Parkhaus of Germany, known for their wool products, created over 80 seat pads for 100 classic modern chair designs from Eames to Alto.

Whether it was as unusual a shape as the Sori Yanagi's 1954 Butterfly stool or as simple a chair as the Emeco Navy aluminum chair, they created upholstered 100% wool non-glide pads for them. They named the project SUIT FOR 100 CLASSICS.

above: the Sori Yanagi butterfly stool with Parkhaus pad.

above: Emeco's Navy chair by Philipe Starck with Parkhaus pad

During the last 12 months since the first launch of their SUIT FOR 100 CLASSICS, Parkhaus developed over 80 seat pads for classic chairs that you can purchase in either one of two versions—a 5 mm wool felt pad or a 16 mm layered pad (3 mm wool felt sandwiched around a 10 mm foam inlet) for extra cushioning.

Surprisingly, the pads don't detract too much for the lines of these beautiful chairs. It may seem as though it's a shame to alter some of these classic designs, but the Parkhaus pads stay true to the shape and form of the original chairs, maintaining their design appeal, while adding a bit of comfort. With one stand-out exception. The wool suit for Pastoe wire chair by Cees Braakmann is quite unusual and unlike the rest of the collection:

above: the anomaly; the woven wool suit for the Pastoe Wire chair

You can find a range of models in brand new designs as well as seat pads for timeless vintage chairs of the last century. In cooperation with different design offices they expect to have the entire collection from SUIT FOR 100 CLASSICS on the market within the next year.

above: Philippe Starck's Ghost chair with Parkhaus pad.

In addition to protecting the chairs from scratches and wear, they offer comfort for chairs that aren't always so cozy, like the Bertoia wire chairs or the sometimes slippery Arne Jacobsen 7 chair, shown below with Parkhaus pads:

All the Chair Suits available for order as of now:

Available colors for the wool suits and pads:

Contact & order information:
Parkhaus Showroom
Schroederstrasse 13
10115 Berlin - Germany
phone +49 30 44012460
fax +49 30 44012461
info@parkhausberlin.de

Be sure to see more Parkhaus products as well as other fabulous felt products from several designers like MP Industries and IlluStration here.

Cecil Beaton Sketches Become Fabrics (& Wallpaper)

Legendary photographer, costume designer and artist, Cecil Beaton has had some of his wonderful drawings immortalized in a new fabric and wallpaper collection from Beaudesert of London.

Launched at this year's upcoming London Design Festival in September will be a collection of silk, linen and cotton fabrics and wallpapers based on the sketches of Cecil Beaton; one from the Ascher Studio archives and the rest from The National Portrait Gallery printed by Beaudesert of London.

Combining 20 years experience in interiors at the highest level with a Cambridge art historical background, Beaudesert director Andrew Ginger has also acted as editor for the house collection of archive document hand prints for the last 10 years. It is his passion for the work of Sir Cecil Beaton which has driven this first collection from the unique Ascher Studio archive.

The ‘Sketchbook’ collection takes Beaton’s fashion drawings largely inspired by his 1954 book ‘The Glass of Fashion’ (shown above) and reinvents them as fabric and wallpaper. This award-winning* collection features his art deco women, sketches of 1929 beauties, fashionable hats, whimsical sailors, his cross check pattern and a surrealist interpretation of Garbo's Eye, with whom he had an affair. (*'Beaton Beauties' Winner, Best of the Best Awards, Best New Fabric Print 2008, Living Etc / Focus 2008)

As of right now, the fabric and wallpaper collection consists of the following patterns and colors.

BEATON BEAUTIES (in red, grey or pink silk):

detail:

BEATON 1929 (available as graphite, taupe, lavender and soft violet):

BEATON SAILORS (in blue or pink cotton):

CRISS CROSS CHECK (for which I only have a black linen example):

UPDATE: GARBO'S EYE & HATS FABRIC is now here!

GARBO'S EYES:

Below is Beaton's sketch of Greta Garbo's "eyes" :

HATS:

Below is one of Beaton's hat sketches for Vivien Leigh in Anna Karenina:

These wallpapers and fabrics are available exclusively in Los Angeles at the Suzan Fellman Showroom (yes, the same woman whose crystal animal horns I blogged about the other day).

Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980)

above: Sir Cecil Beaton with his costume sketch for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

Beaton launched his career as a ‘society’ photographer in 1926 with an exhibition in London which won him an immediate contract with Vogue, where he worked for the next thirty years. His style was inspired by figures such as E.O. Hoppe, Edward Steichen and Baron de Meyer, the most successful magazine photographers of the 1910's and 1920's. Beaton’s fascination with glamour and high society prevailed throughout his life and in 1937 he became court photographer to the British Royal Family. He also became a successful stage and costume designer, most notably for 'My Fair Lady' and 'Gigi'.

Some more examples of his costume designs and drawings:

above: costume sketch for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

above: Another costume sketch for Audrey Hepburn

above: An archival drawing of his

above: his costume sketch and the final result for Leslie Caron in Gigi

Some examples of his photography:

above: Cecil Beaton, silver gelatin print, Self portrait

above: Cecil Beaton, portrait of Miss Nancy Beaton as a Shooting Star, 1929

above: Vogue, June 1948, Women in Charles James Dresses, Photograph by Cecil Beaton (British, 1904-1980), Courtesy of the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

above: Audrey posing for Sir Cecil Beaton in 1943

or purchase the collection exclusively in Los Angeles at the Suzan Fellman Showroom

Buy Cecil Beaton Books, Photos and Movies From Amazon

Kobe Bryant & Nubeo's Luxury Watches Are A Slam Dunk.

The Black Mamba is a result of Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Nubeo's partnership with world renowned basketball marvel Kobe Bryant.(Kobe is honored with the nickname Black Mamba for his unmatched ability to conquer the opponent with a quick and deadly precision that is beautiful to behold).

UPDATE 6.25.2010: The Toyota iQ Font takes home the prestigious Cannes Lion Grand Prix in Design with this clever concept and execution!

Belgian ad agency, Happiness Brussels, wanted to come up with a unique promotion for the new compact Toyota for Europe, the iQ.

above: the Toyota iQ

They came up with the clever idea to have a car-created font.

The agency hired two typographers, Pierre & Damien from Please Let Me Design and a pro race pilot (Stef van Campenhoudt) to pull this undertaking off. The car movements were tracked using a custom software, designed by interactive artist Zachary Lieberman. ( openframeworks.cc )

above: Stef, Damien and Pierre

They created a program to track the motion of the car's skid; the designers told the driver exactly what sort of skids they would need to create strokes from which they could build an entire font.