Wear What When

Introducing State at NuBe Green

You’re invited to see where the new line is going on Thursday, October 13.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Oct 11, 2011 at 06:00AM 0 Comments

Quick review: NuBe Seattle, the locally made line at NuBe Seattle: Two thumbs up. Formerly local artist, sculptor, and remaker (the term “designer” doesn’t totally resonate with her) Adrienna Antonson does a gorgeously Seattle-feeling job (read: organic shapes, worldly references, comfortable without compromising on style) of refashioning vintage and otherwise thrifted goods and textiles into favorite pieces that exist inside a complete and popular line sold exclusively at the all-American emporium in the Oddfellows Building.

Now, we’ve known that line as NuBe Seattle; but because Antonson has left her digs on Vashon to be closer to family in North Carolina (hence that formerly above), the line has been renamed State. As Antonson tours with her artwork, she’ll collaborate with other designers, artisans, and friends around the states (hence the name) and scour thrift stores and antique shops for gorgeous threads to put back into premium circulation.

We’re not losing a skilled and artful craftsperson, we’re gaining an entire country.

And we’re gaining an opening party, too. You’re invited to the Fall/Winter 2011 reveal on Thursday, October 13 from 6 to 9 at Oddfellows East Hall (above NuBe Green) at 915 E Pine St (second floor). I’d encourage all fans of local fashion, sustainable design, and utilitarian art to come enjoy a champagne toast and some bites while Antonson discusses the state of State.

If you miss the party, consider passing by the shop in the days the follow; State joins another new collection at NuBe, a beautifully rendered collection of reupholstered furniture called Home.

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Tags: Design, Home Decor, Fashion, Seattle Designer, Adrienne Antonson

Michael Cepress’s Wearable Art

Two-day workshop puts drawing, design, and the art of dress within reach.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Aug 16, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Michael Cepress

Mini-trend: Style Counselors-as-Art-Teachers. It’s happening!

Next up: Local designer Michael Cepress and the latest iteration of his Wearable Art and the Body workshops. (To take a look at the fruits of past workshops, scroll through Cepress’s blog.)

The two-day intensive aims to move students through an art-centric history of cultural dress, figure drawing with a live nude model, ways of thinking about the form as inspiration, the translation of inspiration to design, exercises in design and implementation, and more. It takes place on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11 from 10 to 6 at the University of Washington Art Building, Room 301, on the North end of Campus.

Class size is limited to 15 people and the cost is $180. Necessary materials are provided but students are welcome to bring their own favorite art supplies as well.

Here, three questions from hypothetical potential workshop-takers, and Cepress’s replies.

WWW: So, let’s say I really can’t draw at all. Like, I can hardly sign my name. Can a person really see an improvement in their pencil-and-paper skills in a one or two day setting?

Cepress: The idea of not being able to draw is usually something we start carrying around with us thanks to a snarky remark from an insensitive teacher in elementary school. If you can hold a chunk of charcoal and drag it across a piece of paper, you can draw, design, and succeed in this workshop!

Now, let’s say that I’ve never touched a sewing machine. Will machine-aided garment construction come into play at all?

I’ve designed this workshop to be a “think tank” for all things wearable, and our two-day timeline leaves little to no time to sew a single stitch. Instead we draw, brainstorm, refine, prototype, and energize the experience so you can work for months thereafter feeling inspired.

What if the term ‘wearable art’ seems a little…wonky to me? I’m interested, I’m following, but I don’t know that I’ve ever donned anything that I’d call ‘art’ and I don’t consider myself an artist, though I do fancy myself a pretty imaginative dresser. Do you think I’ll walk outta day two with an African-inspired neon-pulsing breast plate and a headpiece that references the Dutch headcoverings of my ancestors? Is that the goal? How will this class apply to everyday life? That might be my question.

Great question! I call this Wearable Art because I like to remind us all there there is an art in everything we wear. All ideas are welcome in this workshop, and if you’re looking to really cut loose and free yourself into breast plates and headpieces, now is your chance! If you want to keep it in step with your office job or a Sunday picnic with friends, we’ll draw up the most perfect cotton dress or skinny suit you have ever laid eyes on.

For more on Cepress’s credentials, see his CV and his bio. For more information on the class, or to sign up, contact info @ michaelcepress.com or call 206-334-7602

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Tags: Design, Style Counsel, Seattle Designer, Design Classes

17 Swedish Designers

A small but essential show of gorgeously rendered lifestyle pieces is open now at Nordic Heritage Museum.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 27, 2011 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

SLIDESHOW: 17 Swedish Designers at the Nordic Heritage Museum offers a clean, bright, fresh perspective on home and lifestyle design.

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SLIDESHOW: 17 Swedish Designers at the Nordic Heritage Museum offers a clean, bright, fresh perspective on home and lifestyle design.

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This piece by Anna Kraitz sums up a good chunk of what I love about the show. Simple, classic forms—and just a little bit of fun.

Where: Nordic Heritage Museum

What: What is it about the stylish Swedes, huh? From H&M to Cheap Monday, Acne, Filipa K, and Whyred, everyone’s favorite bargain go-to and some of my favorite boutique brands come from the Scandinavian haven.

The country is also known for smart, minimal home and lifestyle design, as a brief but lovely exhibit in Ballard cleanly, neatly outlines. The show, which features 17 young-ish female designers and was developed by Svensk Form, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, in collaboration with the Swedish Embassy and the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and launched in the US at the Cleveland Institute of Art, arrived in Seattle earlier this month. I walked through it on a recent Thursday afternoon, marveled at the perfect simplicity of minimal white ceramics by Anna Lerinder, loved the bright aprons and housewares by Lotta Kuhlhorn, and left resolving to get more fresh flowers, multi-functional furniture, graphic patterns, and white space in my home and in my life.

The whole of the show is laid out in three small, neatly styled wood-floor rooms (you can’t help but think of an edited, abbreviated, way cooler Ikea) but the combination of lighthearted wit, fresh perspective, and perfect restraint is worth the trip. Check the slideshow here for a brief preview.

When: Now through August 21

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Tags: Design, Home Decor, Nordic Heritage Museum

Now Open: The Adventure School’s Adventure Store

Adventure is where you find it, you dig?

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 17, 2011 at 11:00AM 3 Comments

Photo: The Adventure Store

Adventure accessories, and accessories for adventuring at home, at the Adventure School’s Adventure Store.

In 2002 and 2003, Aviva Palmer spent a year hopping the Trans-Siberian Railway with just a single all-black outfit, a tangle of accessories, and a bunch of balloons and some party blowers in her pack. It can definitely be said that Palmer, who went on to co-found the Adventure School, the city’s most iconic party planning enterprise, believes in traveling with style.

But as the Adventure School’s brand new, just-opened online-only Adventure Store sets out to prove, the Adventurers believe in sticking around town with style, too.

On one hand, the store’s offerings have been selected with a deference for what collapses neatly and folds flat. It’s about traveling sensibly (see the handmade kidskin travel wallet pictured here) and always toting an ultra-packable party — you know, to charm host families along the Trans-Siberian Railway, or once the Amtrak pulls into Portland.

But then again, these party people also believe in the kinds of adventuring that happens in Queen Anne condos and on blankets in city parks and on picnic tables in neighborhood pea patches.

‘You don’t have to be on a trip to have an adventure.’ Palmer told me earlier this week. While sitting in my office wearing a gold party hat. To that end, you’ll click on exotic-feeling wardrobe accessories, pine-scented incense in kitschy old-school packaging (can’t make it out to the woods in dad’s old canvas two-man this summer? the woods can come to you), and a crazy sail apparatus that makes taking your skateboard to the library feel just a little bit more like sailing the San Juans.

Now, please be advised that the Adventure has just begun. By which I mean the store opened its virtual doors yesterday, and merchandise is still making its way on to the shelves. This is the organization that brought you (or more specifically, Lake Union Park) a 25,000-person sunrise to sunset party with 20 bands last September. They don’t do adventure light. There are plans for artist collaborations (naturally; Palmer’s partner-in-parties lives half of the year in Miami, as in Basel), pop-up shops, and a steady rotation of limited-run products.

So go check it out now, and start planning your next adventure.

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Tags: Design, Accessories, Party, Special Event

Dress Code: Chicks Did It

Two galleries celebrate the legacy of rock art in Seattle and beyond

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 30, 2010 at 11:30AM 0 Comments

Slideshow: Tether’s collection of female rock industry design opens on August 5 at Tether. Here, the Lisa Orth-designed Nirvana record that started it all.

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Slideshow: Tether’s collection of female rock industry design opens on August 5 at Tether. Here, the Lisa Orth-designed Nirvana record that started it all.

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Beginning August 5, Tether invites you to take a look at female-designed artwork within the realm of rock music in the Northwest. Here, a 1971 poster by Catherine Weinstein

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In addition to poster art, the Tether show also collects artwork by female musician. Here, a painted window by former Northwest resident Neko Case. Tee-shirts and other items will be for sale at the show.

Where: Tether and the Design Commission Gallery

What: Did you know that Nirvana’s first album was designed by a woman? Rock can, in some ways, be a dude’s game, but a poster and album artwork show at Tether flips that on its head as the gallery/design firm/stuff shop examines the vivid and expressive work of Northwest-based female innovators from 1966 through present day.

Tether designer Dan Smith presents the show; the former EMP designer noticed that the scene had never really acknowledged the female artists who contributed so much color and story to the music, so he decided to do something about it. The show’s namesake, Thunderbitch, was a Portland tool and die engineer in the psych rock-era who made show posters that helped define the look and feel of the vaguely isolated Northwest around the end of the ’60s.

Meanwhile, Sub Pop art director Jeff Kleinsmith and Jesse LeDoux celebrate eleven years of Patent Pending, their Seattle-based silk-screening rock poster concern. The duo has created visuals for artists from the Shins to Nine Inch Nails.

When: Both shows open on Thursday Aug 5 (aka First Thursday) with artist receptions that begin at 5p

Wear: Bell-bottoms, biker boots, skinny jeans, platform sandals. Whatever puts you in the mind of walking past a visual depiction of music and thinking, “I gotta go.”

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Tags: Design, Music, Locally Designed, Dress Code, First Thursday

Dress Code: Street Wise

Advice on getting Le21eme’s Adam Sinding to notice you at this week’s Pio Square First Thursday show

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Mar 29, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Adam Sinding

A recent post on Le21eme; Individual, well-shod, coiffed. Let that be a lesson to us all.

Want Seattle’s premier street style photographer to notice you? The first step would be to get to his April 1st photo show at Bo Concept. But showing up only gets you so far; we asked Le21eme’s Adam Sinding to name three things that catch his eye.

From Seattle’s Sartorialist:

1. Most importantly, personal style. Expressing who you are through your outfits. Not just buying for the sake of buying.

2. Shoes. Shoes are the window to your sole (heehee). Seriously. Shoes make or break an outfit!

3. Hair. Do it. We’re all lazy at times, but your hair speaks to your potential. Anyone can have great hair…ANYONE!

The Bo Concept photo exhibit is part of Pioneer Square’s First Thursday festivities; stop in between 7p to 10p on April 1st and enjoy sips from Sixth Avenue Wine Seller as you browse the photos in hopes of being included in the next show.

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Tags: Design, Seattle Street Style, Photography, Dress Code

Sale of the Week: Handmade Home

Find earthy, elegant deals at the red-dot sale at Liave

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Mar 23, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Slideshow: Artful home accessories on sale at Liave

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Slideshow: Artful home accessories on sale at Liave

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Made in Vietnam from upcycled Hmong fabrics. So on-trend.

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Great, high-quality glassware – lots of it for half-off.

Cornelia Veit brought back the red dot, and she made it fit in to a pretty special place, too.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone utilize the bold round %-off stickers this well. It does seem like the time, even if Liave isn’t the most obvious place.

At the West Edge home store, earthy, handmade European ceramics and ethereal old-world glasswork from the far eastern side of that continent have been discounted from 10 to 50% off to make room for spring arrivals. Now through March 31, and there are some pretty sweet deals to be had.

Remember that beautiful, Dutch-made saturated blue suede shoulder bag that was Veit’s favorite thing back in July? Well, okay, that one’s gone, but some of its collection-mates are still around, and with the markdown, you really do want to safety-pin one of them to your collarbone so you never have to be without it.

Check the slideshow here for more.

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Tags: Design, sale, Fall/Winter Sale, Home Decor, West Edge, Liave

Link Trader: The Design Student

April Style Counselor Ben Fuglevand loves long vests, obscure architecture blogs, and democracy webcasts

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Mar 19, 2010 at 07:00AM 2 Comments

Photo: Hel-Looks

A recent image from Hel-Looks, one of April Style Counselor Ben Fuglevand’s favorite blogs

This month’s Style Counselor, Ben Fuglevand, likes scouring Seattle’s vintage shops, sure, but he has a few favorite spots on the web, too. As part of our on-going link trading, he’s here with six of his favorite URLs, and a word or two of explanation.

Building Blog
Maybe my favorite design blog on the net. Geoff Manaugh combines fascinating and often obscure instances of architecture with a writing style that evokes something close to a children’s bedtime story or a Marques novel. His blog is a wonderfully reimagined view into the world of architecture and design.

Victory Garden
This is the newest offering from Seattle knitwear designer and close friend Anna Sharp. Her blog, full of stylish imagery and trademark wit, documents her chic take on the often overlooked world of knitwear. Looking for a giant doily that doubles as shoulder wrap? This is where you’ll find it.

Hel-Looks
Really cool blog from two hipsters on the streets of Helsinki, Finland. They capture street fashion that won’t hit the states for at least another year. It’s good way to keep ahead of the curve.

Creative Applications
Looking for technology and design that should be straight out of a science fiction film but actually exists? Iphone applications that look more like interactive art works? This is where I go to get my fix of both. Technology is everywhere, why not be hip about it?

Democracy Now
If you really want to know what is going on in the world, you should be listening to Amy Goodman. Her daily videocasts are some of the best news reporting I’ve ever seen. Refreshingly absent are the cable news talking heads.

We Are Hunted:
This site is where I get my jams. It categorizes and plays the top 100 most searched for songs on the internet in real time and makes it super easy way to find good ear candy the minute it hits the airwaves.

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Tags: Design, Style Counsel, Link Trader

Let’s Get RE Sourceful

Free workshop at RE Store helps brides and grooms get crafty

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Mar 03, 2010 at 07:20AM 1 Comments

Slideshow: Create cake platters, candlestick centerpieces, ring boxes, name card displays, and more at RE Store’s Salvage Bride workshop on March 13

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Slideshow: Create cake platters, candlestick centerpieces, ring boxes, name card displays, and more at RE Store’s Salvage Bride workshop on March 13

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Bair and her husband-to-be aren’t interested in a ring pillow per se, but a vintage coffee can and some hat pins could do the trick. She also thinks a group of these would make a charming presentation of escort cards and table numbers.

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Bair used discarded cabinet doors and chalkboard paint to create some sample signs. Speaking of paint: Recycled and DIY projects can be tricky if you’re not well-versed in safety matters. Bair and her associates know all about staying clear of lead-free paint and other potential downers. It’s that kind of expertise that makes this workshop especially appealing.

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Chandelier pieces and light fixture parts make great candlesticks and votive holders.

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Rachel Bair and outreach and marketing manager Sarah Krueger in RE Store’s classroom. The store hosts many workshops in this inspiring and motivating space, but I believe the March 13 course is the only one that includes tea and cake.

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Downstairs in RE Store’s salvage shop, you’ll find all manner of inspiring materials. As Bair puts it, “There is so much material here, the only problem is staying focused on one project.”

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What could you do with dozens and dozens of doorknobs?

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Or a collection of hooks? Bring your ideas, dreams, and tool belt to RE Store to sound out projects and get to work.

Got crafty designs on your wedding day decor but feeling unsure about sourcing materials, operating a screwdriver, and/or achieving an Amy Atlas-like ultraperfect atmosphere?

First, drop the notion of ultraperfect. It’s just not useful, or fun. Second, RSVP for Salvage Bride, a workshop led by the expert recycling-crazy repurposers at RE Store on Saturday March 13 from 10a – 2p.

Leading the day o’ DIY is Rachel Bair, RE Store’s shop manager and a June bride. She’s also the unofficial Project Lady. People come to her with “what if this?” and “how would I do that?,” so as she began plotting the decor projects that would lend personality and memorable details to her own big day, she figured she should use her employer’s light-filled second-floor classroom space to share resources and ideas with other engaged folk and party people.

Salvage Bride is intended to help you find and transform previously used materials into cake stands, candelabras, cool signage, name card displays, and really, anything your ceremony or reception requires.

Check the slideshow here for some projects that Bair was elbow deep in on the day I met up with her, and then email sarahk (at) re-store.org to reserve your spot on the 13th.

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Tags: Design, Weddings, Receptions, Locally Made, Seattle Vintage, How To, experts, Ballard, Workshops

Stepping Out

Bellevue Arts Museum shows over a hundred shoes by pioneering designer Beth Levine

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 08, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Slideshow: Beth Levine

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Slideshow: Beth Levine

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Considering modern designers like Diane von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney, and even Tory Burch, it’s hard to imagine an America that didn’t allow iconic, groundbreaking shoe wear designer Beth Levine to put her own name on the beautifully made souls of her artful pumps.

And in fact, as Bellevue Arts Museum curator Nora Atkinson told me, the designer and her husband Herbert Levine, whose name took Beth’s place there under the arched step of so many stylish women’s feet beginning in the early 50s, they were hesitant to use his when they sent their first shipment to a department store in the south, fearing anti-semitic backlash.

BAM’s Beth Levine show, which opens on February 18 and represents the only such show in this country (can you believe that??), is set to be a personality-driven, architectural heel-studded walk through fashion history that gives way to many conversations about the ownership of ideas and the cultural impact of haute couture and everyday dress in America.

Then again, it should also be really fun just crusing through and imagining wearing all that smart, practical, but completely beautiful design. And then maybe shopping afterward.

Some things to think about before you go:

-Levine was a Lithuanian farmer’s daughter who knew a thing or two about calfskin and animal hides when, at 38 in 1946, she moved to New York to work as a shoe model as a means of getting her … um, foot in the door to become a designer.

-Yeah, you guessed it: The leadership in the male-run factories in those days weren’t interested, until she proved to them that she was bringing ideas, and solutions. And an American design identity — until Levine came along, the shoe industry in the states was based on replicating European looks.

-Beth met Herbert in one of the factories; they opened their own manufacturing operation in ’49. It closed in ’75, though she continued consulting and designing after that.

-Her clients included Jackie O, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Cher, and Nancy Sinatra — Levine is credited with bringing those boots made for walking to haute couture.

-Yes, her sexiest styles would fit a modern day Carrie Bradshaw type, but she had a sense of humor and wild innovation, too. She designed one style lined in an AstroTurf-like material -- she was a farmer’s daughter, don’t forget, and thought everyone needed to feel the “grass” between their toes. Check the slideshow here for more.

-We wouldn’t know as much about Levine without expert and author Helene Verin, who will speak at BAM’s preview party.

-We wouldn’t have access to so many historical perspectives without the help of Seattle-based design legend Sara Little Turnbull, who loaned a dozen or so styles for the show.

Start making plans now to stroll through the exhibit with your most amazingly shod and design-savvy friends — as to whether or not you’ll want to wear your museum-friendly comfortable shoes, I’ll leave that to you.

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Tags: Design, Eastside, Bellevue Arts Museum, Shoes

Behind the Scenes: Blogger’s Blogs

Style Counselor Taylor Kieburtz shows us her links (and then I show you mine)

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jan 12, 2010 at 06:00AM 6 Comments

Photo: Photo by Melissa O'Hearn

If you read the fine type in the print edition of this month’s Style Counsel page, you’ve been expecting a post wherein Hipsters with Kids blogger Taylor Kieburtz and I trade the morning shuffle – a.k.a. a selection of favorite blog links.

So here goes.

Says Taylor, who works by day crafting creative branding, visual solutions, and the like, ‘I mostly read design / graphics, art and music blogs — fashion is always evident throughout.’

Taylor’s list:

Design You Trust
Which feels like the universe’s collective junk drawer (in a good way) o’ ideas

Purple Diary
The not-very-secret life of art arbiter Olivier Zahm and company

Planet Awesome Kid
Just what the name implies

Fashion Gone Rogue
Editorials, ad campaigns, and other painfully awesome images

and the friends and family plan:

Metaphorical Child
One woman’s ultra-modern online art museum

Wolves vs. Lions

Black Books

Hunter/Gatherer
Gorgeous textiles and far eastern-feeling minimalist design

And, a handful of my favs; a just-so mix of style, fashion (yes, two different things), design, and my own inner circle of the blogosphere:

Common People
Like Flickr with a special moody / dreamy filter

Ready Set Fashion
Fashion magazine librarian pits 80s ad campaigns and 90s editorials against current spreads

Backyard Bill
Mostly men’s style, all amazing portraiture

An Ambitious Project Collapsing
The world gets bigger and bigger and more thoughtful, and this site becomes more essential every time

Friends:

Remember Me
What it misses in every-day updates it makes up for in the perfect balance of chaos and order

Picture of the Day
A proto-blog by an experimental, obsessive mind

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Hope you found something you like enough to bookmark yourself.

Now it’s your turn. What’s on your daily must-read list?

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Tags: links, Seattle Toys, Design, hipsters, music, Style Counsel, Link Trader