VIVIENNE WESTWOOD GOES UP THE WALL
If someone had said that Vivienne Westwood is now taking her hand to interior design, I wouldn’t be surprised. This dame of fashion could do little to surprise any of us, if we’re being honest. But here is the passionate designer, turning her artistic talents to the wall and giving our homes the splash of colour and life you’d expect from a Westwood design.
The legendary British designer (and firm favorite here at AGENT2) has teamed up with Cole & Son to create some of the most elaborate and decadent wallpaper designs that have featured in semi-detacheds for a while. Taking inspiration from her eccentric fashion collections, expect to see wallpapers bursting with pattern, colour and texture.
Launched on 27 September at Focus, this collection won’t be seen on the catwalk or mimicked in high street stores. A truly unique collaboration, purchasing some Vivienne paper is almost as exclusive as getting your hands on her latest fashion pieces. It’s no surprise then that someone with so much talent and eye for design would spread their talents unto something new.
The lady herself has said: “It is good when my ideas get carried over into other artistic media. This collection is a perfect opportunity…to see my ideas from fashion translated into the world of interiors and wallpaper.”
And translate her ideas she has. Some of wallpaper designs are replicas of her most famous and iconic fashion collections from the Squiggle print from the Autumn Winter 81/82 Pirate Collection to Cut-Out Lace print from the Spring Summer 07 I am Expensive Collection, hand-drawn by Vivienne herself.
Most notorious for her forward-thinking designs of British symbolisms, Vivienne’s wallpapers are every bit as patriotic as her clothes. The Union Jack wallpaper is inspired by an antique bleached ship flag; the Striped print is her take on traditional pinstripes of businessmen suits, whilst the Tartan designs have been used many a time in her previous pieces as the quintessential English motif.
Known for taking the simplest of patterns and transforming them into iconic images, over the last 30 years this designer has created fashion movements with her unconventional ideas that have swept the nation and the globe.
Now it seems she’s rather a dab hand at interior design too, creating the most distinctive wallpapers to make your home every bit as bold and alive as her fiery personality and famous flame-red hair.
Words Natasha Al-Atassi Images Cole & Son
PRADA TRANSFORMED
Prada and Rem Koolhaas have unveiled Prada Transformer, a modern art installation to showcase a seriers of cross-cultural exhibitions and events in the Korean capital Seoul. One of the films exhibited is Waist Down – a unique exhibition devoted to the skirt, a medium of infinite fantasies and stories expressed from the waist down. The flamboyant panoply of ideas that can be worked into skirts is presented with the most outstanding examples from Miuccia Prada’s personal collection from 1988 to the present. From season to season, the skirt persists as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the designer. The skirt, for Miuccia Prada, is an ever-morphing means to achieve unique ends of each collection.
Waist Down is a traveling exhibition evolving with each relocation, while always situated at a venue that is not an art space. Waist Down Seoul is the fifth stop on its world tour and is for the first time sited in a space specifically designed for the exhibition that is Prada Transformer: Waist Down becomes a kaleidoscope spread over a hexagonal platform, a planetarium of giant mannequins in memorable skirts.
WAIST DOWN EXHIBITION
The inaugural exhibition was staged in 2004-2005 in the Prada Epicenter in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. The second stop was the famous Peace Hotel in Shanghai, facing both the historic Bund and the futuristic Pudong districts. In 2006 the exhibition shifted to the New York Epicenter in Soho, then to the Beverly Hills Epicenter on Rodeo Drive. Each evolution is interpretative and site-specific, blending existing activities and features of the venue as well as the culture of the host city.
Waist Down Seoul is site-specific in a new way: the exhibition includes skirts and mannequins designed by fashion students from eight design programs in Seoul. Thanks to the earnest cooperation of the faculty of the schools, Waist Down Seoul integrates internationally acclaimed fashion design with seeds of creativity fostered in the host city of Seoul. Beyond the conventional zone of the exhibition, Waist Down at the Prada Transformer becomes a dynamic intersection of global cultures and ideas.
Miuccia Prada selected the skirts in collaboration with AMO. The exhibition design was conceived by AMO to highlight and accentuate Prada’s diverse ideas and concepts.
Words: Graham Gartside-Bernier Images: Prada
DINE IN STYLE THAT’S ‘ULTRA’ COOL
In the heart of Queen and Soho, lays concealed Toronto’s trendiest and darkest secrets. Behind its lipstick-red wooden doors, Ultra’s lavish interior incites passers by tempted in by its affluent design and sumptuous flavours.
Described on its website as an ‘informal playground for dining, cocktails and good times with friends’ the newly renovated spaces on trendy Queen St West re-invents the art of hob-nobbing. Re-designed, Ultra has become an after-work haven for those seeking a style, yet un-stuffy and social atmosphere in which to have a few drinks. Or for those who would prefer a sit-down experience, a chef with a penchant for fusing Japanese and Latin flavours will satisfy your craving for food.
We were seated in a maroon crocodile skin booth, under black patent leather ceiling slats, beside a sea of mirrors. The ornate and lavish décor obviously designed for its new ‘after-work’ clientele. Dividing the dining area from the trendy lounge stands a sheer black curtain printed with giant close-up shots of almost vicious looking red and white roosters. The roosters are a running theme for Ultra – the strutting cocks tying the dark and shiny decor, dance beats and extensive drink list to its unashamed and deliberate brazen, showy vibe.
Ultra’s food ambitiously combines Eastern flavours with Western influences. Chef Zielinkski was trained by Toronto/New York samurai, Susur Lee meaning the Asian influence is definitely strong and in most cases, very successful.
Nevertheless, adding to this social culinary arena, guests are invited to design their own feasts to share. However, leaving creativity in the hands of naïve customers can come with a few misses. And this was certainly the case with our Kobe Short-Rib Spring Roll. This strange combination of deep-frying Kobe beef in pastry certainly reminded us that certain foods should be left in their own original state, and not treated this way. The Tuna Tartarlets and Warm Shimiji Mushroom Salad were both excellent, and the Red Snapper Chips were tasty, if relying a little heavily on the deep fryer. The main courses of Miso Cod and Star Anise Scented Duck Breast were both decent, with the cod the tastier of the two. We sampled nearly all of the dessert offerings, including Mango Gyoza, Vanilla Custard, Lychee Tapioca, Mexican donuts called Churros, and Assorted Truffles. Lucky for us the prices were reasonable with dishes from $8 to $20 (£4 to £10 approximately).
At around 9:30pm, the lounge started to pick up speed as the DJ began turning the beats up several notches. On the opposite side of the poultry curtain, stands Ultra’s interesting and no doubt, exceptionally unique, centrepiece: a long solid oak table with 24 red lacquered chairs. Whilst drinks flowed freely around the aesthetically pleasing prop – which doubles as a catwalk runway – the whole affair seems rather communal for such a disclosed and purposefully pretentious bar. The juxtaposition of community in this cockerel-testosterone fest seemed somewhat unlikely. Again, although the summer rooftop patio and courtyard behind its oversized ornate red doors sits nicely secluded away from bustling Queen St., this element of spring-time sociability is rather strange against its dark, intense interior.
Maybe the cocks were a discreet sense of irony or maybe the theme simply does not work.
A variant array, and a unique Toronto restaurant, Ultra struggles to amalgamate innovative and quality cuisine with an opulent capricious bar, failing short of pleasing both expectant diners and thirty-something singles looking for a few drinks and someone to go home with for a few more.
Words: Jory Groberman
SEXY AT SIXTY!
When it comes to hotels with a difference, the Miss Sixty Hotel is right near the top of the list. With an unusual design and top of the range facilities, it’s right at the forefront of innovative hotel construction.
The hotel is owned by the Italian Sixty Group, who also own the upmarket high-street fashion labels Miss Sixty, Killah and Energie, with 300 stores worldwide and concessions in leading department stores such as Selfridges and House of Fraser. With their clothes famed for their urban, fashion-forward and adventurous feel, it hardly comes as a surprise to find that the hotel is all of these things and a few more.
Situated in the Northern Italian town of Riccione on the Adriatic Coast, the hotel was opened in July 2006, the first of a chain of 4 star hotels owned by the brand. The idea for the hotel was conceived by Studio 63, who have also fitted out many of the Sixty Group’s stores, and the hotel retains the cutting-edge design of the shops themselves. Only here it’s taken one step further. In a pioneering move, each of the 39 rooms across four floors has been individually designed by 30 young artists from all over the world. The rooms are named after the artist who designed them. Though the artists had free reign over their designs, each of the rooms has a retro vibe and the colour schemes are clashing and experimental. The walls are huge canvases filled with futuristic artwork, the light installations are unique and the furnishings are modern. It’s most definitely a place for those looking for something that goes against the grain; the hotel screams high fashion, and it’s anything but subtle.
This is something that’s also reflected not only in the artist’s visions, but also in the facilities here. Each room comes with a LCD flatscreen TV and a wi-fi connection, and there’s also a pillow menu, room service, minibar, laundry facilities, whirlpool bath and a welcome drink. Adjoined to the hotel is a large Sixty store stocking the season’s on-trend clothing and accessories from all the Group’s labels.
Creative Director Wichy Hassons admitted that he found hotels boring, and his aim with this hotel was to create a place where guests would want to come and ‘hang out’. Rather than just a place to stay, the hotel is more of an experience. Webcams are provided upon request by the hotel so guests can make use of an innovative new service where they can chat to each other from their rooms to create a community feel.
The idea of a fashion chain opening a hotel is still a somewhat new one, and guests can expect to pay for the privilege of staying in a hotel associated with a leading fashion brand, but image is everything here and it’s not just an Ikea job either. Everything has been specifically created and the services on offer ensure that guests are looked after. It is hoped that this will be the first link in a chain of Sixty hotels in livelier locations, and while Riccione is hardly Milan, it’s still worth a visit.
Words: Kay Weston
REUBEN WOOD SALON GETS A NEW ‘DO’ COURTESY OF BURNT TOAST
Manchester’s Burnt Toast Design with owner/designer Peter Masters at the helm is celebrated for the elegance of the curved acrylic and bent wood furniture designs he produces. When the mood takes him, he can also produce outsize and visually stunning bold offerings for public use.
Reuben Wood Hair Salon in the Northern Quarter of Manchester city centre has recently undergone a transformation at the hands of the Master(s), providing a worthy showcase for the talents that Masters has combined to establish a functional mix of elegance, funk and hi-tech.
Masters has used his trademark curves on the mirrors, which cleverly conceal the necessary day-to-day products and gadgets used to create the cutting edge designs produced by Reuben Wood and his top-notch team of stylists and colour technicians. The mirrors are removable so the salon interior can be changed whilst still the ambience. Splashes of bright colours, green, pink and blue, balance the larger areas of black and white, making interesting focal points through the reflective walls.
To counteract the reflective surfaces, the rest of the furnishings and décor were kept simple and minimalist to make the most of the available space and to keep the salon looking light, airy and efficient.
Masters’ Horse design was the inspiration for the long blue work surface, which dissects the length of the salon, successfully combining form and function.
Masters utilizes a range of materials, methods and technologies in his designs. He is equally at home when laminating plywood, casting resins and metals, fabricating plastics and upholstery as he is proficient in using a machine specifically created for making violins or when hand-crafting custom designs from green materials.
Words: Eileen Green Images: Reuben Wood Salon
