I’ll be in New York this week to do some research! I’m hoping to experience:
– Barney’s NY
– Bergdorf Goodman
– Prada
– Madison Ave.
– Meatpacking District
– Bleecker St.
– Canal Street
– Brooklyn Superhero Store
Made in China
It’s obvious that many luxury brands are producing items on assembly lines in developing nations where labor is cheap. I think there’s just something so wrong with selling a purse for $1200 that only took $120 dollars to produce. It’s also saddening that some corporate titans are hiding the fact that their products are made Continue reading Made in China
Midas touch
Interesting project. See more here. Time for me to go buy some metallic, gold spray paint!
Luxury Crocheted
Interesting project by Stephanie Syjuco that will be exhibited at the Yuerba Buena Center of the Arts on 3/19 – 6/14. She will also be holding workshops where she’ll be teaching visitors how to crochet their own luxury brand accessories. Here’s an interview on CBS5.
How Luxury Lost its Luster
I’ve just finished reading Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster by Dana Thompson and have taken away quite a lot of valuable insight. Within the book Thompson compares Old Luxury, what was rare and hard to acquire because of its refined qualities with New Luxury, what is readily available to the middle classes who have increasingly greater amounts of disposable income, time, and desire. Continue reading How Luxury Lost its Luster
Bougie gas masks anyone?
These bejeweled gas masks were created by artist Diddo Velema for the “Luxury Show 2008” in Bucharest, Romania.
“We are in a state of perpetual war – with ourselves and with the eco-system that sustains us. Perpetual war breeds perpetual fear. In the present context, this fear stems from our extreme desire for authenticity and manifests itself in our collectively insatiable culture of consumption.” – Velema Continue reading Bougie gas masks anyone?
Murakami Exhibit
Murakami’s exhibit opens at the Brooklyn Museum tomorrow, 4/3. In a statement against counterfeiting, real Louis Vuitton handbags will be sold street-vendor style outside the museum. An unknowing subject might be walking away with knowledge about the counterfeit industry rather than a cheap knock off. Continue reading Murakami Exhibit
Comenius Roethlisberger
Comenius Roethlisberger’s exhibition of luxury-brand logos (Chanel, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, etc.) written in an addicting mixture of cocaine and powdered sugar will be at Colette on March 1 until the end of Paris Fashion Week. Talk about getting your designer fix.
Canal Street Closes
City agents have just shut down 32 vendors of counterfeit goods in New York’s infamous Canal Street. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called the operation one of his administration’s “biggest takedowns ever” against the “easy and sleazy” money derived from counterfeit merchandise. New York Times article here.
Barbara Kruger
I’ve been a big fan of Barbara Kruger’s work and especially her I shop, therefore I am series. I also find her collaboration with Selfridges pretty interesting. It’s great when commerce, fashion and art collaborate together, unfortunately, corporate usually works with artists not to push creative boundaries but rather to bring in the $$$. But then again..is this symbiotic relationship really a bad thing?
Logos Deluxe
I’m doing logo explorations for Superluxe so I’ve been doing research on luxury brands and their identities. Since luxury brands try to market themselves as special and unique, you would think their logos would look drastically different. But no…most have opted for the similar design styles. From my research, they all either have large interlocking initials or tracked out elegant serif typefaces. You can see a compilation here.
Fashionable Exuberance
Leave it to Gucci to open the world’s largest luxury store despite our current economic situation. Looks like Gucci’s new flagship landmark is a branding statement that will position them amongst the most exclusive brands and attract the worlds wealthiest customers.
Gwon Osang
Gwon Osang’s project really features how excessive our consumption habits can become.
Aren’t You Special
Just came across asmallworld.net, an invitation only social networking site, promoted as a Facebook for the social elite. If you’re not rich, don’t even think about getting an invitation.
The Wrong Store
The Wrong Store, curated by Tobias Wong and Gregory Krum, is an art installation in the language of a retail shop. “Conceptually, no one can enter and nothing individually can be purchased, though everything will be visible as the space is under a 100 sq feet. However, as a retail shop “everything” is for sale but only as a whole (the complete installation). The installation is concerned with exploring the concepts of the gallery as a shop, a shop as a gallery and Continue reading The Wrong Store
Pure Magenta
This project by Sarah Kissell addresses “luxury brand degradation and its multi-identity crisis, a recent sprawl in the industry where fashion labels have expanded their empire by creating multiple extension brands at a cheaper price in order to become more accessible. Simultaneously, as these brands degrade, the logo or name becomes more prominent than the actual product — appearing excessively and redundantly over disposable items, and often at sacrifice to the labels history or heritage.”