It’s a Friday and a Leap Year Friday at that. Somehow Apropos of the Times.
Comments(0) 
Anomalies. To me they spark the winds of change and are not isolated incidents. There are too many other things happening all at the same time seriously on an international horizon right now that are also changing….these are unique times, so let us mark our calendars, write in our journals, and note specificially what is going on around us so when we look back we can say, “I was doing such and such when…..”
I’ve been an observer of movement ever since I was a child, it was just my habit. To have cultivated that into a profession that can frame those moments (almost like the freeze frames of a camera lens) and give them form with symbols that resonate with the many and not the few has been more than a passing fancy or a way to spend my idle time. It’s more like it’s what I do, not just for a living but how I live and breathe. Nor is it academic. The things I write about and present are to be used for one’s profit and to ultimately be used for the better good. Those are my goals, pure and simple.
Trendbites as a blog is a method I am using to communicate to those who need to know, and they will find me, how I think and by extension how I work. It’s just a taste of it. My intent was not to make this a full time job although I can see how it can become one. Having worked on this blog for 8 months now I know it is better than when I started. My timing is probably more in sync with the rest of the blogosphere and therefore speaks to all those who use and manage it which can be an Herculean effort.
But, let’s not digress, Trendbites is also a natural outgrowth of my trend newsletters, Trendcites, which is going through a change. Not up even a year and there are massive changes taking place. That change will be announced within the month I hope which will include changes to both the Trendcites websites and the kimbro agency.
Trendcites (rhymes with bites) is an outgrowth of the kimbro agency which is a company I formed back in January 1996 when a friend in the industry pulled me out of a job that was not in the home dec/home office/stationery/craft/gift/and Back to School/Back to College markets….and put me back in the swing of things. Kimbro has taken many forms since that day, but all with the same goal, that what I provided could be used as profit and therefore to the greater good of all and I am proud to say the kimbro agency has in fact accomplished that for more than a few people, and will continue to, in case you were wondering….but I remain open and flexible as to how things need to play out on what has come to be an increasingly international stage.
This more international scope and focus has and will impact all of us in ways many of us do not know right now but will eventually. Several people I know cite China as being at the forefront of this and to be the next economic world power, if not already,….others are focusing on what is now commonly referred to as BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China; I am in the latter camp as China has a long way to go to get its act fully together and while it is, the other part of the euphemism the BRI is quickly coming into the fore.
That’s it….that’s my trend bite for this day, 2/29/08, the Friday of a Leap Year. Maybe its happening like this right now right this moment so we can all digest what an increasingly larger world, that is becoming smaller at the same time, means to us.
Happy Leap Year.
Kim
P.S. Two of these images have come from the same blog, Wardomatic.blogspot.com, who has for the moment taken a hiatus, he is too busy to blog. See, coincidences. This will be happening to me soon enough, but I hope to have someone take Trendbites over as part of the agency. That said, Ward-O-Matic is a digital artist and lends inspiration to those of us meandering around the web looking for it. The baby’s hand sketch and the Dream World image is from his blog, the latter being a book cover for the book Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation by Hans Bacher, a former Disney art director. I am not necessarily recommending the book as I haven’t read it and am not a production artist, however I feel compelled to mention it since I am using his cover as inspiration for thought. There must be something to it.
P.P.S. On weekends, I will be doing some guest blogging for 2modern’s design blog. It’s on all things modern and contemporary as is their online shop….it’s a world I don’t live in necessarily but see the need to explore more and more; we will no doubt be exchanging information throughout the time I guest blog for them.
I could not help but love this patchwork design by Christian Lacroix. So smart, and good colors.
Nice way to do retro in the kitchen and still have it be very modern and inviting. See
Heart Health for Women.
Helen Mirren in a custom made Georges Chakras duchess silk satin with Swarovski Crystal studded sleeves. For more including those not in a red dress visit 
Webkinz. As Alison Zisko reported 2.11.08 for trade journal Home Furnishings News, “For the uninitiated, Webkinz, manufactured by Ganz, are small plush toys that come with a secret code that unlocks a secure Web site, enabling children to take care of a virtual pet online. It offers games, trivia questions and all sorts of ways for children to mind the health and well being of their pet, as well as create and decorate rooms for it on the computer. Webkinz are introduced periodically. Introduced in April 2005, they retail for around $12.95 apiece.”
Color Palettes and what the color trends are for 2009, 2010, and beyond is a hot topic right now among design and product development professionals round the world.
You probably didn’t think Marc Jacobs and Miuccia Prada could be uttered in the same thought breath….and both might be insulted or flattered depending upon the day if you did, but both managed to bring that infamous liberated Charlie Girl from the 70’s right smack dab into the 21st century (both shown below). In Jacobs case liberating her from constricting perfect cut and hard to wear much less live up to clothing while Prada lets us wear our more sensual sides on our sleeves so to speak without screaming we have one. Praise the fashion Gods, the Woman, I say, W-O-M-A-N, has arrived…..Lucee, let me ’splain. 
well not exactly, it was actually Raf Simons at Jil Sanders, but no less upsetting (as the likeable and messy Polly that Jennifer Anniston played was to the uptight and o.c.d. character Ben Stiller played in the movie with the same name) to the most sensibly stylish of us. Simons expertly created evening wear without one ounce of bling; he may have considered origami, but only for a second before he and his patternmakers-cum-designers created sculpted looks only an imperfect lady (named Charlie I think) could wear, simultaneously turning the season and dressing up, upside down–pleated tweeds, whoever has heard of this much less done it, worked it…had it work. I’m at a loss for words to describe what he’s managed to pull off.
It came up as a solution to the flu that seems to be sweeping continents right now, wear gas masks to filter the air. Then I read where atheletes want to wear them or something like them, air pollution masks, while competing in the Olympics in Beijing this summer because of how bad the air is over there. So when I ran across this while perusing 
