Opening May 7, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s newest show, “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” is a “celebration of the body fantastic,” so says Giorgio Armani, the exhibit’s honorary chair.

Clicking through the slide show of some of the costumes reminds me of some of fashion’s better moments both on the runway and on the silver screen. For more, go here.

Image courtesy Style.com. From the Superheroes, “The Doge Knows: Philip Treacy’s futuristic Venetian mask, photographed by Irving Penn for Vogue, December 1996.”

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I saw this concept over a year ago in the British Elle Decor and have seen glimpses of it since.

With house sales down right now the apartment market must be soaring, do we think? Haven’t seen stats on that yet, but expect to soon. That said, apartments can be very space challenged. It seems the Non Kitchen may be an answer. Elle Decor’s angle came more from how much we are combining our living and kitchen space so now really need the kitchen to if not be there, then disappear.

It’s perhaps the one area I felt Meredith Corporation didn’t cover (from NKBIS)….but this is extremely contemporary so at least right now a smaller segment of the market.

This is the Tivali kitchen which can be put in the center of a room and act as a room divider.

From Dada. If you visit their site, be sure to visit the Hi-Line, top image, and the Tivali, to get more than one perspective……

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Sorry to end the week on such a sour note, but when I got this article from MediaPost on how consumer’s were pulling back spending on everything except driving, I thought it worth posting:

How Gas Prices Affect Shopping Habits

___________________________________________________Oct___ Apr___ +/-

Eat out less often…………………………………………………………….38%….53%……15

Carpooling or finding alternative means of transport………10%….15%…….5

Delay Purchase of new home……………………………………………5%….10%……..5

Less shopping of non-essential retail items……………………..42%….65%…..23

Purchase fewer media entertainment items…………………….33%….48%…..15

Will not change any spending habits………………………………..43%….22%….-21

Source: Kelley Blue Book Marketing
Research Gas Prices and Shopping Habits-
Trending Over Time

This pretty much reflects my changes, except I am taking public transportation even for just running errands unless it requires a trunk.

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Of course if you are a color, light, and texture junkie like I am, you’ll love the collaboration of Dupont’s Corian (known mostly as a wonderful and seamless kitchen countertop material) and Missoni Home (Rosita Missoni and her husband were the original founders of Missoni Fashion) introducing Corian’s five new translucent colors while the material itself is used for all manner of things around the home. In that respect, it was a brilliant pairing….Missoni known for their vibrant color and their unique patterns was the perfect choice to help introduce Corian’s new colors but to also show just how well rounded and fascinating Corian as a material can be….

To highlight the pairing, the above picture illustrates the many colors of Missoni in a giant spool of yarn, the “Spool” itself made of Corian using the color Nocturne (black and polished). The flooring beneath the “Spool” is also made with DuPont™ Corian® (Cameo White and Nocturne colours) and features a pattern designed by Missoni rythmically inserting in the “background colour” a series of small squares of contrasting colour (glossy background finish and white matt squares). In an adjacent space is a “Ball” of yarn, also made of Dupont Corian. Who knew you could bend it like Beckham?

A familiar theme throughout the exhibit, Rosita Missoni, the designer played with the negative space black and white can create by alternating and juxtaposing one black/white color pattern against another.

The “CORIAN® loves MISSONI” interior design project is a loft-style apartment (extending over the two floors of the “Corian® Design - Milano Store” showroom) with a series of functional “rooms” - an entrance area, reception, hallway, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor and living room, bathroom and bedroom on the lower floor. In the dining room, above, the table is made of Corian using MissoniHome’s Bolt pattern. Echoing the aesthetics of the table, the MissoniHome “Bolt” pattern is stencilled on the wall behind, in a larger scale. The chandelier was designed by Rosita Missoni, is made of Corian’s Glacier White and spells Missoni. The chairs around the dining room table are Moroso’s “Ripple” chair.

A hallway area dedicated to showcasing the five new translucent colours of DuPont™ Corian® - Glacier Ice, Strawberry Ice, Blueberry Ice, Mint Ice and Lime Ice – take on an enhanced luminosity when back-lit. The area features five cubic stools made in each of the five translucent colours of DuPont™ Corian®. Contrasting with tops featuring a smooth surface, the sides of these stools have been carved with “Onda” (Wave) pattern by MissoniHome, which is also repeated, on a larger scale, on the back-wall in pale green DuPont™ Corian® Mint Ice. The cubic stools are lit from within by an LCD system developed by Artemide, run from rechargeable batteries, making them totally wireless and mobile. On the wall, a backlit circular curved fixture made in translucent DuPont™ Corian® Mint Ice is engraved with Missoni’s “Esmeraldas” pattern allowing lights to elegantly diffuse with varying intensity.

So, let’s get to the living room……..

Descending to the lower floor, visitors find themselves in the living room area where they are surrounded by a combination of multi-coloured and monochrome forms. The “Relaxer” chair and “Wengen” rug by MissoniHome are set against a large backlit screen: a wonder in terms of both aesthetics and technology. Made in DuPont™ Corian® Glacier White and carved with the “Esmeraldas” pattern from MissoniHome, the four parts of this screen are slim boxes illuminated using Artemide’s “My White Light” system, integrating RGBs and LCDs, to give different coloured lights and varying shades of white light, from warm to cool.
The two low tables in the living room space feature bases in DuPont™ Corian®, created using a new assembling technique reminiscent of mosaics: small rectangular elements in DuPont™ Corian® in black and white colours (Glacier White and Nocturne) are jointed together with metal rods to create a sort of “flexible surface”.

In realising “CORIAN® loves MISSONI” exhibition, Rosita Missoni, Luca Missoni (Rosita’s son & the project supervisor) and their design team have worked in close collaboration with architect Massimo Fucci, consultant of DuPont Surfaces to the architect and design sector, who coordinated the whole project and the creative contents.

For more details and images, visit Corian’s website. For more about MissoniHome, visit missonihome.com.

Art Direction: Rosita Missoni; supervision: Luca Missoni
Organizer/sponsor: DuPont™ Corian®
General project: MISSONI
Project manager: Arch. Massimo Fucci, DuPont™ Corian®
Partners:
Artemide (lighting solutions)
Boffi (kitchen and bathroom)
Listone Giordano (flooring systems)
Moroso (furnishing)
Zehnder Group/Runtal (radiator technology)
Hasenkopf (fabrication of DuPont™ Corian®)
TechLab Italia (fabrication of DuPont™ Corian®)
Esarc Hi-Tech (invisible audio systems)
Antica Gelateria del Corso/Nestlé (decorative ice cream compositions, served throughout the showroom and during the show)

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Why just confine face masks to humans? Ahh, the things we take for granted. Doesn’t this just say it all?

Meet Chloe. She and I are without a doubt ardent walkers. It’s one of our favorite things to do. And soon, like some 13,000 others with dogs I am told, I am going to move us into our recently renovated downtown (they are trying to make it like Denver’s downtown, but they have a ways to go). So, it got me to thinking about emissions. Where I am currently, it’s a non-issue. We can walk around mask free. The air is fairly clear here. Will it be worse in the heart of a city, as it is in other parts of this country, like L.A., and the world?

Speaking of which, my daugther is still in Beijing, soon to wrap up her semester abroad. We have been skyping each other with some regularity so she fills me in, thankfully, and sometimes not so thankfully. Recently when we were talking (I can see her on video as well) while they were on spring break in the Yunnan Province, I saw her take a swig of a cigarette, much to my chagrin. I’ve known she began the habit while in school, but she never smoked around me (I’m a long time ex-smoker). When I bemoaned the fact, she said they were in a clean air zone and it was obligatory for her to maintain an unhealthy air environment so as not to shock her system when she got back. Then she, as is her habit as well, laid a little trivia on me: the people who work outside, like the traffic controllers or traffic cops, are known to have a significantly lower life span than others in Beijing because of how polluted the air is over there. She then couldn’t help but wonder how Beijing was actually going to host the Olympics…..the city just didn’t have what it took to do so. That all the people coming from all over the world would never be able to adjust to how the Chinese really lived…..Beijing is not exactly the Westernized version of a big city, as Shanghai is.

I know the visiting athletes will be wearing masks during the games. My one friend whose husband is a professor at Washington University (she is one of their research scientists) tend to travel all over, mostly because of their work, and she insisted they not go when invited by a colleague to come over to do some work in Beijing. Initially they were excited about the prospect but soon decided against it (mainly she) because she was concerned for her husband’s health….he’s had several open heart surgeries and she just didn’t want to be over there in the event something went wrong.

Then today I read that China is now considered the biggest polluter in the world and I quote, “April 16, 2008 — China has already surpassed the United States as the world’s largest carbon polluter, the authors of a California study report.

‘Our best forecast has China’s CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions correctly surpassing the United States in 2006 rather than 2020 as previously anticipated,’ said the study by researchers at the University of California………

The spike in air pollution by China has largely cancelled out efforts by other countries’ attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, the authors said.

The researchers predicted that by 2010, ‘there will be an increase of 600 million metric tons of carbon emissions in China over the country’s levels in 2000.’

That growth would ‘dramatically overshadow the 116 million metric tons of carbon emissions reductions pledged by all the developed countries in the Kyoto Protocol,’ the report said.” More on the report at Discovery News.

That’s just too ironic for words. You wouldn’t believe what I go through on a daily basis to live a more sustainable life (well you probably would). Like others I am making changes to reduce my carbon footprint in life as well as my business. I take public transportation now; and this is in a city NOT well laid out for public transportation. I’ve given up buying as well as drinking bottled water (by the way, that is something that CAN’T be done in China. You HAVE to drink bottled water there by threat of death!). Trendcites (rhymes with bites) is the newsletter my agency, kimbro, produces and we are going to all CD’s or online. No printed newsletters. Plus the loft I am considering moving into downtown is heated by electric and not gas; that’s more about saving money though than reducing my carbon footprint.

But that’s a whole other story trying to figure out the trade-off’s. Such as whether to buy local food or organic brought in…apparently there’s more reduction by consuming a quarter less of the average 240 calories the average American eats of red meat a day and eating chicken or fish or fruits, vegetables and grains instead. More greenhouse gas emissions are caused from how certain foods are produced than how food is transported. So, yes, chew on that one for awhile (but make sure it’s a toothpick and not red meat you are chewing on, no not a toothpick–that’s wood, thus chopping down a tree was involved, not a straw, that’s plastic….how about gum? only if it’s sugarless, though known to aggravate IBS in some, okay, chew on that hypothetically) and go here for that story.

And, now I hear with all of our moving our production offshore, any energy savings done is for nought cause China’s not doing anything. Ahhh, progress, there you go rearing your ugly head again. (the image is of a package of two gas masks provided to me from a kind man/vendor who had a booth at the International Housewares Show, www.bluestarmask.com, in case you need some for your next trip to China or if you’re moving into the heart of a downtown polluted city).

So instead, maybe I should do like Thoreau and just move to a cabin in Maine, go off the grid for awhile, like for the next 10 years then come back and see if we made any real sustainable progress. From what I’m reading, I won’t be as alone as Thoreau was.

For more on how you can reduce your carbon footprint and the trade-offs, visit “>HowStuffWorks: How Carbon Footprints Work.

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Midwest Living “Future Thinker” trend room

If you read my post on the Meredith Corporations trend rooms for the National Kitchen and Bath Show, then you also saw images from these rooms corresponding to the stages women go through during the course of their lifetime.

To clarify my own thoughts on the Idea Center, while these may not be the most exotic kitchens or even contemporary kitchens, say for instance like what Trendir features in their online publication, for what is happening in most of America I think Meredith Corporation and their designers and trade publication editors got it right….for the most part this is the way Americans do live and they do experience each one of these stages.

I did like how they (Midwest Living) emphasized the baby boomers choice aging in place and theirs is oddly enough the most modern of the rooms represented (left and above image).

Even if style-wise I may not have agreed with everything they did, there were two overriding trends to take note of and that is the built-in dining table (or even built-ins in general) and the office/mudroom/laundry room additions off the kitchen or in a galleyway. It does make the kitchen a more practical place to function from with all of these extras, built in or easily accessible from the kitchen. It leaves less shelving to purchase from the home centers, but more baskets or accessories to purchase to support the built in. A representative of the Meredith Corporations brand magazines said that customizable storage solutions were one of the most sought after additions to housing these days, particularly in the kitchen and bath.

When it came to sustainable solutions, the Better Homes and Gardens room tended to focus on this aspect more so than the other magazine titles. It wasn’t that other lifestyle stages weren’t interested in sustainable solutions, it is just that it was a particular focus of that title publication and their designer. In fact, Better Homes and Gardens has a completely green home that is traveling throughout the United States….to 15 different cities. More information will be coming about that tour, with the dates and places it can be seen. At the show, this Organizer-In-Chief lifestyle room had many sustainable ideas built into the fabric of everyday life, such as a compostable bin built into the cabinet beneath the counter, and access to it from the countertop as opposed to opening up a cabinet door or putting scraps into the disposal. There were several methods of recycling built in to make it more convenient to recycle as well as flooring by Armstrong that was a lineoleum made up of recycled wood chips, cork and linseed oil. Further, that lovely circle pattern behind the cooktop is actually recycled glass from beer and wine bottles. Bamboo had been worked into the counters at various places for cutting.

In the Kitchen and Bath Trends room, I really liked the cheeriness of the room with the yellow curtains and lighter blue seating mixed with yellow walls along with paring beigey double sinks and lighter cabinets with walnut or espresso cabinets. Looks like we are breaking a few rules here, a kind of anything goes design ethic.

But the real noticeable difference from years past would be how upscale the young savvy professional his and hers bathroom was. They’ve spared no expense here. Close-ups of this room reveals a customized tiled wall, his and her shower stalls, his and her dressing areas, built in shelving in the bathroom…just a flurry of customized touches that speak to how someone thinks this demographic is the one spending the big bucks!

his bathroom/shower

built-in towel warming drawer

As it was explained to me, the magazine responsible for representing this room, Traditional Home, has the most upscale demographic of all their publications represented and in terms of age that could span decades, and isn’t just confined to the late 20’s early 30’s female (who, as was represented as a lifestyle stage Young Savvy Professional, is single and either living with someone or about to be married), and in general luxury was heavily featured throughout the show. This of course follows suit with what many of the international labels are doing….going for the luxury markets, those that still have the expendable income during these difficult economic times.

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To get this out quickly, I wanted to link you to this article from the New York Times on the plastics dilemna, “Adored, Deplored, and Ubiquitous.”
I like the premise because it recognizes how fundamental plastic is to our day in day out life, so what’s a person to do? but offers solutions and hope even if it comes with an initial increase in the price tag.

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FIVE LEADING MAGAZINE BRANDS SHOWCASE NEW PRODUCTS AND DESIGN TRENDS AT the 2008 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Chicago, Fri., 4/11-Sunday 4/13.

The 10,000 square-foot Design Idea Center features kitchen and bath designs from five of Meredith Corporations most popular consumer brands —Kitchen and Bath Ideas®, Better Homes and Gardens®, Traditional Home ®, Country Home® and Midwest Living®.

Titled “Your Kitchen. Your Bath. Your Way. Designs for Every Lifestyle and Life Stage,” each brand has created a fresh and unique look that addresses the needs of women as they progress through life. Whether she’s a young professional, a new mother, mom-on-the-go or an active empty-nester, this year’s Design Idea Center provides effective and useful spaces for her life, her way. Other trends include eco-friendly design, spaces to entertain, aging-in-place, indoor/outdoor living, technology, organization and storage.

Hostess Extraordinaire

The kitchen is often the hub of a busy household with teenage kids, and Kitchen and Bath Ideas has designed a space to fit this center of activity. Recognizing that a mother of teenagers is part chauffeur, part chef, part counselor, and yet, someone who also loves to entertain friends in her “spare” time, Kitchen and Bath Ideas’ teen-friendly kitchen has the ability to morph into an ideal entertainment space where adults enjoy gathering. With a functional mudroom/laundry room, butler’s pantry for serving, and banquette for ample seating near the prominent flat screen television, this kitchen can handle “teen central” and more.

Organizer-in-Chief

Better Homes and Gardens’ “Everyday Easy” kitchen is designed to help make life easier for busy families. This super-organized and eco-friendly kitchen helps make it easier to get dinner on the table, keep everyday tasks and clutter under control, and spend time together in a space that’s as much family room as it is kitchen. Innovations include a recycling center, recycled-content countertops and flooring, and a mudroom with customizable pullout cabinets for everyone’s stuff.

Savvy Young Professional

Traditional Home presents the ultimate bath suite designed for young professionals—a new generation of educated, affluent, and brand-savvy consumers who embrace a modern interpretation of traditional design and are confident investing in the creation of a home environment uniquely suited to their personal lifestyles. The floor plan, consisting of a central spa-like shared space flanked by two private baths, allows a couple to comfortably and efficiently meet their daily needs—both physically and psychologically—without conflict. Sumptuous appointments, such as a freestanding whirlpool/soaking tub and Murano glass chandelier, express this couple’s distinctive idea of luxury, while equal emphasis is also given to cutting-edge technology. A “fully loaded” steam shower in “His” bath and a “to the nines” dressing table in “Her” bath further underscore the theme of customization and personalization.

Mother Starting Out

Country Home’s kitchen, mudroom and laundry/multi-task room work hard for the young family without sacrificing style. Easy-living Corian counters take on the feel of marble and soapstone, laminate floors look like reclaimed wood, and glass front cabinets featuring a new “lace-look” pattern, make for easy organization. A technology station, flexible built-in seating, and an island with a second tier of countertops that doubles the work space, offer solutions for the woman balancing her growing family and her taste for beautiful surroundings.

Future Thinker

As 78 million baby boomers head toward new phases in their life journey, many are looking to stay in their homes for years of cooking, entertaining, and active living; and Midwest Living has created the ideal space. This kitchen and bath offers thoughtful conveniences for future needs through a design aesthetic that combines both comfort and style. Integrated wider traffic patterns, accommodating cabinet design, sit-down workspaces, and lever controls, along with other amenities, are all ideal design choices for the smart woman planning this new exciting chapter of her life.

Meredith Video Solutions will produce a half-hour syndicated television special, “Cool Kitchens and Baths,” featuring the 2008 Design Idea Center and related kitchen and bath trends from the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show to air nationwide in the summer 2008.
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Art glass is a beautiful thing. These glass lanterns from Marston & Langinger, available in clear, green or blue are blown into a metal frame. In two styles, the ‘Goccia’ lantern (top left) and the ‘Venetian’ lantern (middle and top right) in small or large give outdoor porches that extra touch. via April British House and Garden and marston-and-langinger.com.

But that’s not all. Style statements are being made with glass for kitchen countertops using both solid or recycled glass and depending on which one you use the looks are entirely different and specifications for handling are different. It’s hard not to see how different your counters can look with solid glass which can be formed into nearly any shape, texture, and color, and as noted by Taunton’s Fine Homebuilding and Rob Yagid’s feature article “Amazing Countertops,” the more elaborate, the more expensive.

Broken bottles, windshields, windows whatever are now being recycled into unique and durable countertops. Visit the Magazine Extras section of FineHomebuilding.com to see IceStone’s Manufacturing facility and how they combine recycle glass and concrete to make countertops. Or visit Vetrazzo’s showroom to get up close and personal with their recycled glass samples. It’s a new world for sure.

Back to Marston & Langinger, they also make these lovely cut glass scented candle holders in an array of colors and aromas, sure to bring the proper glow to your outdoor dinner parties.

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Weird concept, I know, but I couldn’t help but think of Cheez-Its when I looked at Kate Spade’s homepage this evening….I’ve been thinking about the Cheez-Its box style for awhile since the yellow and red color combinations right now are so popular, but it just spoke so clearly to me from the Kate Spade page I was moved to finally post about it.

The one thing Cheez-Its doesn’t have though are those cool leopard print sling backs……work on that, okay, Cheez-Its?

Now, I guess I’ll be in trouble with this post for the link to Kate Spade’s homepage when it changes as I am sure it will with the season at minimum, but the Cheez-It box, now it has been that color combination forever, right? Wonder if their sales have increased at all this year because of fashion’s current love affair with red and yellow? Does anyone else think of Cheez-Its when they see these colors combined? Surely I am not the only one with that association in mind…the real question is, who is the beneficiary of the association?

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