andrea lissoni talks about milan

a quick google turned this interesting snippet: Milan as a city of islands.

courtesy of useful + agreeable

BLESS in apartamento nr. 3

Objects and devices...are mimetic in the sense that they insinuate themselves, they graft on and they root in the interior spaces as if they were immediately classics, therefore becoming splendidly invisible... They hide indoor or fling open outdoor, acting as a zipper. Windowgarden is not a possibility of a slit, a revisited trompe-l'oeil-figure on which Bless has always focused -- but it disappears, becoming a hinge.

a beautiful piece by Andrea Lissoni on Bless can be found in the third issue of apartamento. he writes about the humanising temperament of their most subtle yet pervasive products. the word temperament suggests character, Lissoni says, a personality evident in each Bless production. this character, like the personalities that use the products, has multiple natures and is able to broaden existing horizons by revealing a second, third, fourth function in addition to its most obvious one.

the feeling one takes away from Lissoni's writing is a hopeful one - perhaps enhanced by the good humour evident in Bless' products themselves. Ricardo Fumanal's illustrations, black and white with an occasional light daube of pastels, add to this atmosphere.

petersham nurseries

on the basis of a recommendation made by a couple at Café Constant in Paris, my girlfriend and i made the journey out to Petersham Nurseries in Richmond today. the restaurant is really a converted greenhouse, very much a part of the nursery itself: dirt floors, a sloped glass roof, with mismatched junk furniture in various wood tones and beaten aluminium.



i ordered clams for my starter - it arrived with a hearty mix of courgettes, fennel and cherry tomatoes. the chewiness of the courgettes lent the dish just enough texture to be satisfying.

the main course was grilled mackerel accompanied by chickpeas and a salsa verde. the slightly charred taste of the mackerel worked well against the basil oil and lemon zest in the sauce, to such an extent that the lemon slice they provided did not have to be utilised much. the chickpeas grounded the tastes, and as the meal went on, became a tasty mash with shreds of mackerel mixed with the salsa verde.

the general impression of the dishes i ordered was one of balance - the dressing neither overpowering the seafood nor subdued by it.

the vegetarian dishes my girlfriend ordered were surprisingly both served cold, with an interesting concept. the main today, roasted pumpkin with beetroot, tomatoes and sour cream, was particularly well conceived, but personally i would still plump for the seafood over the vegetables.

the menu at Petersham is changed weekly, usually remaining the same through the week, except for variations in herbs and garnishes depending on the produce available.

Petersham Nurseries
Off Petersham Road
Richmond TW10 7AG

stationery porn

So while googling for Craft Design Technology yesterday, I stumbled across websites that can only be descibed as stationery pornography. Here's some of them. Close your door and enjoy!

notebookism
eraserjoy
pencil revolution
penciltalk
moleskinerie
timberlines
dave's mechanical pencils

craft design technology

Craft Design Technology is a company that aims to enhance the lives of people through the design and creation of quality products that meld craft and technology. Their first line of products is a suite of desktop stationery, created in partnership with a list of well known manufacturers, that would arouse the fancy of any stationery fetishist. The overall aesthetics is minimal with a predominantly pale mint green and white colour scheme, and each product is branded and labelled in an elegant serif font. You might find that the aesthetics of the whole brand is reminiscent of Monocle, that's because Tyler Brûlé has a hand in creating the brand concept through his Winkcreative office.

Looking past the vague and somewhat pretentious mission statement on the website, we see a range of products that is not only pleasing to the eye, but also have sense of a no-frills functionality, conceived by people who know what they doing and made by people who are experts in the respective field of products.

The philosophy is not unlike that of Junya Watanabe's Man line in which he seeks not to invent new forms but to enliven menswear through working with experienced classic menswear companies and recreating classics with a twist. However with CDT, there is less of the element of reworking or reinvention but more of curating a range of good quality products from various sources and packaged under the umbrella of one brand.

My favorite items from the line are the mint green HB pencils and the Universal Scissors, which through its weird geometrically shaped handles, allows both left and right-handers to use it comforatbly.

Currently stocked only in Japan, Paris, Hong Kong and Taipei.

BLACK comme des garcons

the tagline from the Dover Street Market mailer reads: "A new brand featuring perennially popular Comme des Garcons styles in black. The brand will continue for about eighteen months."



40 years of Comme des Garcons, and a temporary label "to last as long as the recession lasts" (Adrian Joffe, from WWD.com).

it's perhaps one of the most striking features of Comme des Garcons projects that they meld visual oddity along with market savviness and a finger on the pulse of popular consumption in the same body. PLAY was pretty bland, but half a floor in Dover Street Market and a white box in Paris suggests it's sold enough polos with miscut hearts to last awhile. the H&M collaboration popped off the shelves at Oxford Circus the same morning it dropped. as much as one feels like throwing stones and crying "cop out", it's a consistently well executed piece of marketing genius, without losing much of the edge that Comme des Garcons has exuded over its history. the closest comparison (although much younger by far) is the t-shirts that Jun Takahashi's Undercoverism machine puts out.

interesting, then, that while news from Yamamoto-san is all bleak and black, this new line in the same dark hues is a direct and almost-defiant response to the economic downturn. again it isn't groundbreaking stuff, but cloaked in the usual slightly stilted diction accompanying Comme des Garcons lines, it hopefully remains intriguing enough to work.

kitonomics in action awaits?

overeasy

There are few things more comforting than a juicy burger and an all-day breakfast menu. And at Overeasy, you wash breakfast down with a beer.

We had “to-die-for” burger with egg, pancake with egg and bacon, sunnyside up with sausage, mushrooms and hash brown. The interior is chic with the copious use of raw concrete, stainless steel and tasteful modern fittings. It is a diner that doesn't try to look like an stereotypical 50s American joint, and it is a bar that serves pretty decent food.


Overeasy
#01-06 One Fullerton

pomo lang

Came across this 1998 Harper's Bazaar article about Helmut Lang while doing some googling at work. (don't ask me why or how). I was struck by how some of his words revealed a somewhat post-modern sensibility beneath the veneer of a modernist.

"I'd been thinking about using the Internet for a long time, so it just seemed the
moment to do it. It also felt right to keep contact with Europe, because it was the
first season we didn't do a show in Paris. We could be global, everyone could
see the clothes at the same time. It's democratic. You know‑his look is
ironic‑modern communication."
-on showing his collection via the internet instead of in fron tof a live audience

He seemed to have foreseen the effect the Internet had on how seasonal runway looks are being transmitted, the breaking down of the information monopoly and by extension, the power of the fashion media. Runway looks are available almost instantaneously on the Internet, quickly filtering into various niche blogs and forums, the new fashion cognoscenti.

""I have no trouble changing the rules...The point is, who has set out the rules?
Often it turns out they were set quite a while ago."
-on moving his show 6 weeks ahead of schedule

Questioning the structure but still working within the system, subverting it movement by movement. (Upon moving to New York, he showed his collection via the internet in place of a live runway show, singlehandedly moved the New York fashion week 6 weeks ahead of schedule and gave the New York fashion establishment a snub by staying at home on the evening of the CFDA Awards when he won best menswear designer in 2000).

"seeing the same thing in three situations, and how people make it different...I don't
take what people do with my clothes personally after I've released them. It's about
how people live in the pieces. The other day I saw a guy in one of the techno shirts
we did three years ago. It was completely integrated into what he was wearing and
still looking good. I love that."
-on how people are wearing his clothes

The creator can no longer control the form, function and meaning of a piece of work once it leaves his hands and the user (reader) has the full freedom to interpret this piece of work; the author dies.

"A lot of what I do is just shaping that or finding new forms that are crossovers, that
unconsciously remind you of something. Somewhere in their roots they have the comfort
of something familiar."
-on his design references

Understanding and exploiting the semiotics of clothing and reappropriating familiar forms in a new context, not unlike the pomo architects of the 80s but totally avoiding the gaudy and facile reinterpretation.

If you enjoyed this article, this is might also be worth a read.

food by region

apart from getting schooled on Hank Williams and Gene Clark, one of the hidden perks of occasionally playing music with a guitarist from Turin is the food talk on the side.

today i've been introduced to a couple of his steadfast northern favourites: fritto misto, which sounds like the Italian equivalent of a greasy plate of fried wings, except it's a whole platter of seafood beautifully battered and then deep fried in flavoured oil. there's agnolotti - a particular ravioli served with a meat sauce, and then melanzane alla parmigiana - fried aubergine slices with a layer of basil and mozzarella. perfectly hearty stuff especially with the word "fried" appearing multiple times.

also gleaned, from a recent visit to refettorio, the difference between a bolognese and emiliana sauce. the former being the more familiar pork sausage and beef mince mix, and the latter being predominantly pork, without the beef, which i found gave a more straightforward flavour to the sauce. their tagliatelle all'emiliana had a very honest flavour, complemented by rosemary.

withnail and i

absurd british comedy that nobody understands except, well, the british: check.
homosexuality, 'camberwell carrots' and a permanent state of inebriation: check.
bang-on characters that still persist till this day in london town: check.

some would consider this a poignant "coming-of-age comedy", attaching a hundred other tails of adjectives to it, but it really is two excellent drunks getting up to some excellent, excellent business.

"we want the finest wines available to humanity. we want them here, and we want them now!"

Architect Making Apparatus

I can't believe it's been a year since I've completed my thesis. And since then, The Great Architect Making Apparatus, that is the NUS architecture school, has been chugging along, pushing more meat through the sausage machine. A fresh batch is now ready with selected sausages ready for viewing. The set up is the best I've ever seen for a NUS exhibition, though the meat is still the same.

How Does Your Garden Grow - NUS Architecture Exhibition
June 13-19 2009
Iluma level 7

capricci

Taking over the space of the former Oso restaurant along Tanjong Pagar Road, Capricci is a self styled restaurant serving Italian food of the hearty home-style variety. Decided to pay a visit after work one day after reading raving review from Wong Ah Yoke on the Sunday Times. Half expecting a busy restaurant , I walked into a virtually empty dining area. And while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive, several of the staff came over to chat with us, though it was really more of a *nudge nudge wink wink* to order some wine. Later, even the chef came out to greet us (one of 2 tables being served at that time). After some awkward chatting with the staff, we ordered and were ready for some big flavours and generous servings (as was promised by the staff during the short and numerous chats earlier).

I started the meal with the parmesan and wild mushroom souffle with melted fontina cheese which was excellent. The cheese and mushroom flavours were robust and well balanced, but really, it's hard to go wrong with something cheesy and creamy. The souffle was followed by king prawns sauteed in grape and rosemary sauce with caponata. It sounded really interesting on the menu which was why I had ordered it. The prawns were well grilled but I didn't get the grape sauce.There was no synergistic value in the pairing, neither creating great contrast nor blending into a coherent whole. I'm not sure if this is a traditional recipe but lemon would have been a better (if more boring and obvious) choice if the intention was to add a bit of acidity to the dish.

The meal ended with the Crema Bruciata of madargascan vanilla and pumpkin, which was basically a pumpkin creme brulee. Unfortunately, the texture of the pumpkin custard was inconsistent. It was grainy on top but smooth and creamy at the bottom. The custard itself was rather underwhelming and there was general consensus around the table that the juniper flavoured berry coulis at the side was actually more interesting than the custard itself.

Cappricci straddles the weird zone between being an exensive downtown dining establishment and a hearty neighbourhood joint, and ends up not quite making it on either side. The food was good but it still fell short of my expectation.


Capricci
27 Tanjong Pagar Road