I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

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Coach launch at Selfridges + a little special announcement

Here’s an exciting piece of news I’ve been holding off on for some time now – I’ve been jogging in place until that light turned green. On the second day of London Fashion Week, Coach threw an intimate soirée to celebrate the launch at Selfridges, and that was my green light. I’m happy to share now that I will be working with the brand as the UK ambassador for the season, and boy am I looking forward to playing centre field (I mean, have you seen all that shearling). The brand seems to have been given a new lease of life ever since Stuart Vevers took to the archives and emerged with a playful take on what Coach is great for: practical designs and leather. Think Americana, a tinge of of preppy, mixed with classic sportswear. If you haven’t seen the AW15 collection, winter is coming, this may indeed be the ideal time to take a gander. As always, I’m looking forward to interpreting the collection in different visual stories in the coming months, and hope you are as excited as I am with this partnership.

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Wearing full Coach look from the AW15 collection

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A small disclaimer that while this blog may suddenly be rife of ‘sponsored’ initiatives, everything is my interpretation and edit. Nothing goes up without passing through very strict brand alignment and quality control. And first and foremost, this is still a very personal space for me, so while I feel privileged to be compensated for my time and work (just as one would in a day-job), all decisions for collaborations are made very subjectively in consideration of my readers.

Coat – Boden ICONS. Belt – Stella McCartney. Watch – Larsson & Jennings. Neacklace – Louis Vuitton. Boots – Kurt Geiger.

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NYFW was to me, like Ocean’s Eleven was to Brad Pitt: If you look closely, he is chomping on something nearly every scene he’s in, be it tacos or a shrimp cocktail. At one point Simon yelled WOMAN WOULD YOU TAKE YOUR HANDS OUT OF THE PRINGLES TUBE from across the street, and a whole gaggle of tourists got incredibly confused as to why a German man was supposedly screaming at them (some did yank their hands out of their pockets in shock). Trouble is, I can’t seem to control my excitement for the big AMERICA, simply due to having grown up in a watered-down Eastern European version (90’s Poland) of it all, dreaming of Tootsie Rolls and Pepsi floats. The irony is that I packed a lot of pieces from the Boden ICONS collection, for instance this coat and skirt below, which both have a very distinct British heritage look to it that I absolutely adore, but now that I think of it, I may have walked around New York looking like a crazy Asian lady/Royal Horseguard scraping chocolate off Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups with my front teeth on the street corner. Super attractive.

In Partnership with Boden

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…is that a Pringles tube in my pocket or am I just happy to see you?
Shirt – Boden. Skirt – Boden ICONS. Jeans – Marques’Almedia. Shoes – Coach. Bag – Louis Vuitton. Bracelet – X Jewellery. Watch – Larsson & Jennings.

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Retracing the past,
shaping the future

A closer look into the
Louis Vuitton Series 3 exhibition in london

Forget that this exhibition has anything to do with a high-profile luxury brand, or in fact, anything to do with the nitty-gritty details of exchanging hard-earned anything for something pretty. The Louis Vuitton Series 3 exhibition is a communication tool, a portal, or uplink/downlink to the depths of a dreaming designer, a reminiscing historian, and into the hearts of those that create with their hands. Think Minority Report, TRON…or even Being John Malkovich, and imagine the odd yet enticing notion of seeing the inner workings of someone’s head, the strong electrical current of emotion, and a digital realm that seems so fickle yet real at the same time. Most importantly, Series 3 is not about the destination, but the journey. And this is where we make the connection with Louis Vuitton as a brand, with a ‘malle’ (trunk) at the core of it all.

The day my team and I arrived to shoot the exhibition, 180 Strand was still a construction site – the air was thick with dust, cables strewn across the concrete floors that still bore the footprints of the workers. In the four hours that took to shoot this story, the exhibition came to life around us: the screens fizzed with activity, lasers re-calibrated and spotlights trained on the artisans. I must say it was hugely humbling to have experienced that part of its journey, the intimate, fragmented moments before it becomes one entity, so I’d like to thank the LV team for the invitation to shoot this story. Finally, here it is, my little tour of #LVSeries3, with hopes that you will be able to taste a bit of the experience before deciding to pay a visit, which I strongly recommend – admission is free, just book online for a slot. The exhibition will run until October 18.

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The Entrance
Abstract

This optical illusion greets me at the foyer, first of many – the classic LV signet evolves into the modern twist lock in an animation that peeks through only through the layered blades of polarized glass…

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Cerebrial Journey
Atrium

A vast atrium where a geodesic dome is suspended mid-air swallows me into Nicholas Ghesquere’s brain. It’s a journey towards creative enlightenment: I lose myself in the moments of tranquility, meditation and sweeping illumination.

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Birth of concept
Magic Malle

A dizzying experience inside what seems to be a LV designer’s mind: muses, memories and new shapes form around, with the heritage trunk at the core of it all. Beware, the ground may feel unstable after a while.

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travel with
Artisan Desks

A tale of an artisan – be the hands behind a Petit Malle and see space and time whizz past you.

The buzz
Infinite Show

This room takes me straight back to Paris, to the AW15 show in March. I re-live the excitement of a new collection and buzz of the spectacle.

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Power of Digital
Laser room

The lights are off, all but a single blade of laser that animates pattern-cutting of some of the familiar designs from AW15. The room alone explains the importance of the brand’s intimate relationship between man and machine.

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The hands
Savoir Faire Lab

One of my favourite rooms – watch live, the craftsman from Paris, bringing a thousand meticulous movements to create one special piece.

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Invisible Avatar
Accessories Gallery

Experience an overwhelming blow to your ocular and vestibular senses as you step into what seems like a new dimension, and let your eyes settle on familiar colours and shapes of accessories from both the archives and the AW15 collection.

a dream
Walk-in Wardrobe

Press your nose against the jewel casing and count the stitchings – this glass structure (that looks like a figment of imagination) is in reference to elements from the Palm Springs Resort ’16 set-design.

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Stickers at the
The Lounge

A rest-stop, but also where I ease back to real life, after an experience that almost feels like an intrinsic dream. At the far wall I re-connect with my 9-year old self and picking out all the stickers I can fit in my pocket. Stickers of bags, shoes and the alphabet.

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New Faces…
Poster Room

Like a teenager’s poster-clad room, new faces of the campaign blanket the walls in the last chamber. Pick up a poster for yourself. Move aside Leo Di’Caprio, we’ve got ourselves a new obsession…

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art direction, photography, cinemagraphs PARK & CUBE in collaboration with LOUIS VUITTON
Fit & Flare
Fit in, or flare-out: my two shoulder angels for all major decisions in life and also two denim styles I’ve loved and abused since I was about thirteen

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styling & photography
Park & Cube
in collaboration with

Top – My own. Jeans – flared mid-rise jeans by Paige Denim.

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Jeans – Margot ultra-skinny high-rise jeans by Paige Denim. Top – POLO Ralph Lauren

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Come on skinny love just last the year…

Hands up, if you too took a pair of blunt scissors to your jeans in middle school, cut a slit up the sides and haphazardly stitched floral/plaid(/corduroy!?) fabric to make flares. We used to call it morning glory jeans – my mother used to call it WHY IS THE SEWING MACHINE BROKEN. Fast forward a few years, skinny jeans dominate the denim world, and I guarantee you took the same blunt scissors and ripped up holes up and down the legs of a victim pair. Your mother may have tried sewing them up at one point too.

What’s clear is that these are two denim styles that punctuate my youth, and still reign a hefty side of my closet. I must own a billion iterations of the ‘skinny jean’ and one too many stripper-heels now to make some of the zillion flares I own work. Point is, years later, they still work – as attempted in these looks I’ve been abusing this season – in collaboration with Paige Denim at Selfridges, which has allowed me to glorify the two staple jeans of the last 15 years of my life in a wee digitorial that I had such fun putting together with my team.

Disclaimer: Personal story, sponsored by Paige Denim and Selfridges

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Dress – My Own. Jeans – Margot ultra-skinny high-rise jeans bye Paige Denim.

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Lou lou flared
mid-rise jeans

Suede coat – my own. Jeans – flared mid-rise jeans by Paige Denim.
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Top – My own. Jeans – flared mid-rise jeans by Paige Denim.

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Margot Distressed ultra-skinny mid-rise jeans

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Jader Almeida’s Licce Rocking chair from #TheConranShopEdit

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Join me at a special panel discussion led by Wallpaper* magazine’s Suzanne Trocme, at The Conran Shop during the London Design Festival. Panellists include Jader Almeida, Magnus Long and Russell Pinch, who will discuss their design influences, the creative process and how excellent design enhances everyday life.
When
Where
24th September, 2015 from 18:30 to 20:30 (BST)
The Conran Shop, Michelin House, 81 Fulham Rd, London SW3 6RD
RSVP Here (Free entry)
…or send me your questions to ask the panellists in the comments under this post, on Twitter & Snapchat (ID: SparknCube)

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O, den of great design
…where have you been all of my life?

Let me start by addressing fellow Londoners, WHY HAVE YOU NOT TOLD ME ABOUT THE CONRAN SHOP BEFORE? I feel straight-out betrayed that I am discovering this place – this, Ali Babba’s den of treasures, in my tenth year in London. While it might have something to do with the fact that to me, London ‘Chelsea’ is but a figment of imagination, a faraway land where tall elves frolic in designer garb and their children scoff at us poor people in big red taxis, it still does not explain why I haven’t even scouted the place with condescending hipster gait back in the days. Which reminds me, there is another store in Marylebone, which does suit my bill better (I smart). Now I wish I had done that since I would have much better taste in belongings, in general. So I stood serenading this shop – twice, as the heavens were chucking down something mighty on the day I visited, and it was one fantastic shelter all right.

The reason I visit, is because I am now essentially ‘cheating on fashion with furniture’, to borrow the words of one Carrie Bradshaw, and have decided to skip MFW and do London Design Festival. I’m working with the Conran Shop to behind the scenes of the #TheConranShopEdit Designer Panel Discussion event on the 24th September, with questions from YOU. So come, and get lost between the sheets in the store with me, see #TheConranShopEdit of hand-picked edit of extraordinary furniture and lighting, and talk to the panellists: living legends and up-and-coming talent of furniture design. Most importantly, come see what I’m talking about – RSVP now! See, I’ve decided on spending more time amongst great taste and hope some of it will rub off. To my international readers, please join in on the fun by either leaving a comment here, or via Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat (ID: SparknCube) by sending my your comments and questions to ask to the panellists on the day. Or just send me boob pics, you know how much I like those.

Event collaboration with The Conran Shop. Photography and graphic design Park & Cube

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Shimmer Side and Coffee tables by Patricia Urquiola from from #TheConranShopEdit
Piet Hein Eek’s Hand-folded lamps

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