GONG XI FA CAI

Here's a picture of Natassja holding her own creation of lion mask for her school's Chinese New Year celebrations. It's a long weekend for all of us in Singapore with Mon and Tues being public holidays, but we are staying put in Singapore, spending time together, missing our families back home...

I'd like to wish you all who celebrate it...

Happy
Chinese New Year
2006!

Flavia Del Pra

Oh, I love patterns by Flavia Del Pra, a Brazillian ceramist. With bright & colorful colors, she combines both fashion and nature into her works. Lots of pretty pictures on her site, but I can't display them all here. :) She has plates, boots, wall tiles, tabletops, notebooks, and more. I have way too many favorites from her site, but I love her plates and wall tiles the most. To see Flavia's collections, click here. Simply Gorgeous!

Massimo Dutti

Massimo Dutti, a 100% Spanish fashion label, has just arrived in Singapore. I've never heard of this label before, until it was on the newspapers couple days ago. So I went to the store to take a peek of its collection. It's definitely for the classy crowd. I guess, its style is more or less like Banana Republic's. It was brought here by the same company who manages Zara here. Have a visit, it's at Liat Towers, Orchard Road, just right below Zara.

Scandinavian design

I have a habit of browsing sites in a total foreign language, simply to feed my curiousity of design trends in other countries. designonline.se is one of them. It's an online shop based in KALMAR, Sverige. It features everything from Art Glass, Furniture, Lighting, Texile/Rugs, Gifts/Toys, and Accessories. My top favorites are Skuggflora by Ingrid Unsold, SAAB Roadster by Ulf Hanses, and Elflugan by Lundgren & Strandberg.

In Singapore, Elflugan is available at STYLE:NORDIC, a cool Scandinavian Lifestyle store. Hey..., it'd be great to see Karin's ceramics at STYLE:NORDIC! Wouldn't you agree? ;-)

Rockin' Pretty

I never really own a rocking chair before, but here's one good excuse to have it. Moa Jantze from Sweden, created the embroidered Rocking Chair 2 (Gungstol 2). Moa applied an 1850s wool embroidery originated from the Swedish province of Skane on a modern rocking chair. The embroidery was made by Ann Jantze. But that's not my only favorite, check out her chairs collection. I love her embroidered chair (Den sydsvenska stolen), too. Catch Moa Jantze at Stockholm Furniture Fair, 8-12 Februari 2006.

Hmmmm.., with good looking chairs like these, I bet I'd be fighting over it with my dear Natassja. Somehow, she assumes our furniture is meant to be her playground.

Very Merry Crystal

These chandeliers are insanely gorgeous!. Valerie Arboireau is the creator of Merry Crystal and based in Nice, France. I just can't get over these pretty chandies! Their beautiful images got stuck in my head as soon as I stumbled on her site, so I gotta share this with iG readers.


Valerie accepts custom orders, where you could choose up to 3 different colors of bohemian crystals, but you have to wait around 2-4 months before it's ready to be shipped. Don't forget to take note the measurements of each lighting if you'd like to purchase it. My favorites are Garden Party Chandelier, Alice Rainbow and the Falbala range. I wish I knew where to find the more affordable ones than these... any ideas??

HUGONET by Grupo Kettal

Here's one lively beach/pool furniture, HUGONET, Paris. It is run by Grupo Kettal, whose headquarter is in Barcelona. They accept orders worldwide, be it commercial or consumer orders. So you could actually own one of these in your own premises. That is, if you have your own pool, or live on beachfront, or if you own a resort/hotel. ;-) You could choose your own colors, on the aluminium structure and on the polyester vynil fabric, and have them shipped to you. If you have a gigantic garden like this pic below, you could have the whole set for garden party! *tsk, tsk, tsk... definitely for the riches...*

My favorites are the cute side table, which you can just flip its top when it's not used, and the folding transat. These two are good enough for sitting pretty on my balcony. :) Hmmm.., in cool colors would be nice...

GAP IS COMING TO TOWN!!!

That's right, I said GAP. This is the BEST news I've heard so far in 2006! I was jumping for joy, after I heard it on NEWS5 (Ch 5 Mediacorp TV) last night. Actually, I'm still jumping now.... :-) This is so much better than hearing Santa is coming to town.. *well, it's not like Santa will ever come to town, 'coz we don't have chimneys here..*

GAP will come with its GAP baby, GAP kids and the first GAP store is planned to be open later this year! Yipee !! it's happening in 2006! it's going to be the first GAP store in SouthEast Asia! and what's more... Banana Republic will open its door in Singapore in 2007!

FJ Benjamin, the GAP franchisee, plan to open 30 stores in Singapore and Malaysia by 2010. I'm so glad we live in Singapore! Okay honey, we're not moving anywhere... we're stuck in Singapore permanently! :)

I can't help it, I'm so thrilled !! it'll bring back so many good memories from my college years in the states... all the shopping haunts with my best friends... geez, I miss those times...

Hopefully with GAP stepping into Singapore, other giant retailers will be looking at this tiny, teeny island, Singapore. And who knows... Victoria's Secret might come next.., then Singapore might not look so tiny, teeny afterall....

Well, it's one good news for me, but not-so-good news for my dear hubby... ;-)

TAXI Design Network

I found TAXI on Singapore Design Festival booklet late last year. But I just stashed the booklet into one of my drawers, hoping to read it more when I have time, OR... when I do remember that I have it. :)

TAXI is a creative network that supports raising awareness in design, created and owned by a singapore company, Hills Creative Arts Pte Ltd. Both are established in 2003. TAXI is featured in over 80 major international magazines and newspapers, and has over 6.5 million page views from 150,000 unique visitors, and the numbers are still growing! Impressive!

The MUST-VISIT features are their list of Web Sites Of The Day and Design Portfolios. They contain numerous great sites and works of creative professionals from around the world. Not to mention they have a calendar of Design Competitions. So if you're in design/art industry, you surely don't want to miss this TAXI ride! Happy Cruising!

mat&jewski

Originated in Paris, France, mat&jewski's sensuous lightings are perfect to create romantic ambiance. Seriously. Take a peek at his complete range of lightings here. I'm specially attracted to his feathery and lacy lamps. *I can be a girlie girl sometimes.. :P* And his Totem and Panneau are excellent for designers' clubs/bars, won't you agree? Check out his creations of furniture and accessories, too.

Marijn van der Poll

Marijn van der Poll is a dutch industrial designer, grew up in Asia and now based in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Marijn founded North Industrial Design in 2000 when one of Marijn's creation, Do Hit, went for production.

Marijn has been producing numerous design projects, one of them is Modular Car. When I first saw the pictures of the Modular Car, I was mesmerized by the simplicity of its design and thought it'd be a great medium to do some prints on it. And voila! I saw Marijn's Modular Car for Marcel Wanders. Marijn designed the body, interior and assembled the required elements for Marcel, with help from Maurice Blok, who built the body, and Mark van de Sande, who did the wiring. And of course, the mosaics by Marcel Wanders for his client, Bisazza. I would love to see fashion labels on Modular Car, like Kenzo, or Miu Miu, maybe? Gosh, it'd be so awesome!

And it's not just that. Marijn has been producing own furniture line, latest is the CHAIRMAN. It's a chair that floats on a film of air, and though weighs over 200 pounds moves effortlessly through a room. How cool is that! So do you want to be a Superman? here's your chance, get the CHAIRMAN here.

LovelyLovely

LovelyLovely was founded by textile designer Louise Scott-Smith and graphic designer Georgia Vaux. Both live in UK. Their LovelyLace Glasses were favored by many buyers and magazines when they were first launched around mid 2005. Now, they have a long list of stockists in UK, France, and Thailand. I love their doilies-tablecloths, so pretty for outdoor party! See their complete products here. For trade buyers, catch them up at Maison + Objet, Paris, 27-31 January 2006. It's LovelyLovely!

Textile Design in Singapore?

As I do my daily blog readings, I found Selvedge on Karin's Style Blog, announcing the Selvedge's special offer. It's a textile design magazine, something that I can't find here. In fact, I've been searching for any textile design courses in Singapore for the past 2 years, but none exists. Until last November, I read news on URBAN that LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts will launch Fashion Institute of Singapore within the first quarter of 2006, and it will offer new degree programmes, one of them is Fashion Textiles. NOT that I'm planning to take another degree, but I'm so fascinated with all these textile design graduates making names both in interior and fashion, ranging from wallpapers, curtains, upholsteries, rugs, tablewares, arts, crafts, bedlinens, to apparels, and their creations are everywhere! You see them at retail shops, houses, restaurants, pubs, hospitality industries, and the list goes on. I'm so excited with the opening of Fashion Institute of Singapore . I've been waiting for the days when Singapore produces its very own textile designers. Well, enough said.

Anyway, fellow readers at Karin's Style Blog were raving about Selvedge, claiming that they are renewing their subscriptions with the magazine. And Karin convinced me to introduce Selvedge to iG readers, here's what she says about the magazine, "it's a balance of serious and fun, crafts and design with a strong textile base, and also branching out to accesories". So folks, if you really want to try it out, I'd suggest buying a copy of Selvedge back issues first, before you commit on subscribing it. A single copy of Selvedge back issues costs 15 GBP to Singapore.

Oh yeah, don't forget to check out their online bookshop, too. They have books produced by publishers, such as Telos, Thames and Hudson, Yale University Press, V & A, and more.

SALE, SALE, SALE @ Clarissa Hulse

Got this from my mailbox. Clarissa Hulse is having 2 sale events:

• ONLINE SALE of their Home 2005 collection IS NOW ON, with at least 30% off on selected items. Check out their site here.


• STUDIO SALE, COMING SOON, see details on pic. below.

Happy Shopping!

Brand Van Egmond

Have you seen this on the magazines? I found this White Flower Power Chandelier on spaces, a magazine from UK, issue 15, 2005. It was my first encounter with spaces, and lots of amazing stuff there. This is just one of them. 2 designers behind Brand van Egmond are the creators of this Flower Power Chandelier, William Brand & Annet van Egmond. It's just like a piece of sculpture used as a ceiling light. Beautiful masterpiece. It comes in White, Black & Glass Nickel. Its tag price? well, it doesn't say exactly for this particular one, but spaces quotes a cool 3630 GBP for a bigger version of Flower Power Chandelier! woaaah... You can find selected Brand van Egmond lights at European Design Centre (EDC), London, UK, too.
That's not all, Brand van Egmond has designed more than just lightings. They have accessories and furniture as well, but their lightings are my top favorites. I love the effects from their lights, so mystical... (pic below). Visit them here.

Portable Hard Drive by Karim Rashid

The world renowned designer, Karim Rashid designed Skwarim (read: square-im) for LaCie, an external storage manufacturer. Skwarim is a 3.3 inch square portable hard drive with a soft texture case and high speed USB 2.0. It comes in pink (30 GB) and blue (60 GB). They are currently being launched at Macworld Expo in San Francisco's Moscone Center from January 9-13, 2006. Even a techie firm wants a piece of Karim Rashid! Hm..., I'd like to see a car designed by him... that would be totally cool!

A RUG STAR!

Rug Star is the brainchild of Berlin-based architect Jurgen Dahlmanns, who was actually born in Holland. His designs are so quirky that I have to post it here! He takes a very unusual, innovative approach towards rugs. He views rugs as versatile objects, which are used as decoration, upholstery, art, and even pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. His Mix & Match and Hybrid & System are my favorites. I have to say his work for IKEA, VORK, is a real smart product! VORK is an interactive carpet system, which allows the customer to be part of creating his own carpet. You could have more varieties if you purchase more pieces of the complete 6 modules of VORK. Pricey? hm, you do the math...

What a surface!

Helen Amy Murray is a surface designer based in London, UK. I admire her ability to use her nature inspirations and textile materials to create surface relief of interior products. Just take a look at these pictures... I can't believe someone is actually making something like this! So painstakingly GORGEOUS! She first got inspired by the wood & marble carvings she found during her research trip in India. Then she translated it into textiles. I wonder how she did it... She'll be exhibiting at Collect at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London on 9 - 13 February 2006. Do you live in London? lucky you...

Ross Lovegrove

I remember his name vividly, Ross Lovegrove after I read a magazine recently at Kinokuniya BookStore, *my favorite hangout*, but I can't recall which of his creations that was featured on the magazine. Gosh! This is what happened if you bring a toddler along to a bookstore. ;-) You would forget most of the things you've read once she asks you to get out of the store. Yeah, I do listen to my girl. Anyway, Lovegrove's site only shows his contact numbers. So I did a search on this guy. Ross Lovegrove is apparently one of the world's leading industrial designers. *gulp, pardon me, I'm really ignorant on this* and it's his SystemX lightings that made me remember his name. I love his BD love seat, too, which doubles as a public seat and a lamp. Brilliant! For those of you who are just as ignorant as I am, check out his slide show and story on BusinessWeek Online: Lovegrove: Naturally Creative. Yes, he is.

Prestat Fine Chocolates

It's the prettiest chocolate shop I've ever seen. It's located at Raffles City Shopping Centre, in between 2 escalators, right in front of Brook Brothers. It comes with colorful packaging designed by Kitty Arden, a London based artist. Prestat Fine Chocolates Singapore was just opened over a month ago. All chocolates are handmade in England and airflown to Singapore. I'm such a chocolate addict, I have a habit of trying out chocs from every new chocolatier in town. ;) So I bought a small box of their gourmet chocs, but it took me a day to finally open the box. It's just too pretty to be opened. :) I like their Rice Crisp chocolate & the Truffles. Next, I'd like to try their Organic Hot Chocolate and Organic Chocolate Bar. Yum!