Hand Painted Majesty

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013 | Design & Culture by Ed

Holly Fowler is a name to watch in London fashion scene- this girl has something really fresh and at the same time traditional to offer! To be clear. Holly is not doing prints, trench coats, Tartan plaids nor feather and high tech innovations. It’s all about… Hand-painted dresses! Sounds kind of stereotypical, but it looks so refreshing and new! The painted frescos on long minimalistic dresses, leather jackets and skirts look fantastic with their strong colours! Fowler also did to big collaborations- one with bags and dresses for Browns London, where a simple leather bag had a realistic print, and second one for Bergdof Goodman in New York! Really, the effect is mesmerising. This is real fashion- it really feels new, but it is still something wearable and at the same time at level of haute couture… In pretty affordable prizes!

Day 6: Madison Avenue, Second Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Midown

August 9, 2012August 10, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

Today I was in the Whitney Museum for the Kusama Exhibition on Madison Avenue. And that was a real disappointment. Well known for her use of dense patterns of polka dots and nets, as well as her intense, large scale environments, Yayoi Kusama works in a variety of media including paintings, drawing, sculpture, film, performance, and immersive installation. Kusama came to USA in 1957 and quickly found herself in New York epicenter of avant garde. After achieving fame thanks to art “happenings” she returned to Japan. Now she is one of the most loudest and known Japanese Contemporary artist and this retrospective in the Whitney features her works. However I didn’t liked the exhibition. The paintings were too… Ugly and normal. But the only thing I loved was the art piece with dark/yellow polka dots! And I will not write about rest of the museum because that was a hopeless. But the Frederic Malle perfumes and Rag and Bone shops were gorgeous! I also ate some ice creams in Eli Zabar Bakery (Madison Avenue).

Yayoi Kusama and this what was in the Whitney

Frederic Malle boutique, Rag and Bone, Pork Buns at Momofuku Ssam and Duck Dumplings
The next thing was a lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar, whose chef is David Chang. We tried the iconic pork bun (a fluffy pancake with steamed pork and pickles inside). The dish was for me quite good, however it is really hard for stomach. The next dishes- were poor. But I bought, the Lucky Peach Magazine, that can be bought only in Momofuku. Because there was NO coffee in restaurant we went to Momofuku MILK Bar, that was on thesame street. I tried the first time in my life ice creams made out of… milk! They were great! We caught a taxi and drove to Bergdof Goodman on fifth avenue. We tried out some perfumes and I did lots of photos of some really fancy shoes! (I m gonna send them back at home!). To go back to he hotel, we chose a route through Central Park- in reality we didn’t see any green trees for few days! After some rest, we went for the dinner to Nobu- an Japanese restaurant. The food was really good- Wagyu beef, shrimp tempura, nigiri and tuna sushi rolls- but it was so annoyingly noisy there… But the most important was this that the fish was really fresh! As always, that was a great day day in NYC!!!

Day 1: Fifth Avenue and Soho

August 5, 2012August 13, 2012 | Design & Culture by Ed

My first day in New York, was mostly happening on Fifth Avenue and Soho. It all started in Women Bergdof Goodman were we have went through all the floors… At the beginning there is this big jewellery/bags hall that is really mind-blowing. I should say that Paris all Avenue Montaigne shops are nothing, comparing to the variety of labels and sizes on the 2,3,4th floors of BG. There is everything. Clothes of Givenchy in every size to the newest Louboutin’s high heels. After this “expedition” we went to men’s BG, but I was quite dissapointed… There were only those really expensive suites, Prada and Dolce&Gabanna. The next point of the walk on 5th Av. was the Gucci huge boutique and New York based Abercrombie and Fitch. I bought there like five things… We went also to Prada and to a great BG’s restaurant on 7th floor. That was so delicious… I ate an roasted chicken and seasonal asparagus soup. Then we had a small walk on Madison Avenue. We went to Reed Krakoff, Loro Piana, Tom Ford, Celine and Barney’s.

On the photo: BG Louboutin
The next part of our day we spent on Soho, where the first thing what we did was a visit to Marc Jacobs Loft boutique on Mercer Street. We saw the new fragrance Dot with the Kusama design. Then, Lena bought in Acne Studio on Greene Str. A beautiful red coat with fur at the top and white and black boots. We also met there a girl that worked in he shop, that is from NY, however her parents are from Greece and she lives in NoLiTa. We visited the shop of Isabel Marant on Broome Str, John Varvatos and Diesel on Spring Str. By the way I bought in Diesel an awesome parka jacket. And there was also a very mystery shop at thesame street called Revolution. They were selling there real skulls of racoons, skunks and rats and even of humans for 249$. You can buy there also some insects in jars, bones, dead rabbit with horns and other really disgusting things. But, we ended our day in an awesome restaurant called Mercer Kitchen on 99 Prince Str. We ate an grilled organic chicken, plat de mer, and roasted beef. One more time, DELICIOUS! That was a great day in New York!