Selectism

Architecture has always both inspired and impressed us just as much as art and/or design. In our culture the creators of the most famous urban monuments have become superstars over time and they do deserve the status.

Taschen has released their latest book in the Architecture department - Architecture In the Emirates. Comprised of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain, the UAE is an oil-and-gas-rich region that has experienced an unparalleled architectural boom in recent years. With a dizzying array of ultra-modern towers popping up throughout the area, it's no surprise that the Gulf region has attracted many of the world's most prominent architects, including Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Jean Nouvel, who are all designing groundbreaking projects for the ambitious Cultural District project on Saadiyat Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. With these and many more remarkable, large-scale projects recently built or in progress, the Gulf emirates are perhaps today's top architectural hotspot.

Architects featured: AEDAS, Tadao Ando, Asymptote, Atkins, Behnisch Architects, Frank O. Gehry, Gensler, Zaha Hadid, HOK Sport, Kazuhiro Kojima+Kazuko Akamatsu/C+A, KPF, Greg Lynn Form, Jean Nouvel, OMA/Rem Kohlhaas, ONL, Carlos Ott, I.M. Pei, RNL, Hadi Simaan, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Studio Pei Zhu

For any architecture fan an absolute must-read!

Engineered Garments got his name from the fact that their garments are not designed, but engineered, due to the vast amount of details involved in each garment. Inspiration is taken from American sportswear, military clothing as well as outdoor clothing, in the collections, designed by Japanese designer Daiki Suzuki.

That is no different for the Spring/Summer '08 collection of the brand. Classic styles are smartly re-interpreted and lots of small details are added, giving them their very own unique looks as well as functionality. As usual in terms of colors the brand stays simple and concentrates on cuts and patterns. The outcome is a casual style, that might have looked dressed up by any other designer, but Engineered Garments manages to make them wearable and inhales a relaxed look into these American classics.

After the jump some more pictures of the upcoming collection.

The concept of Atelier La Durance is something we can understand and support 100%. Choose one thing and become the best at it. The French brand has chosen the denim sector and creates since day 1 outstandind denim and since then slowly increases their collection every season without ever dropping an item from previous seasons. Now they offer denim pants, jackets, cashmere knitwear and accessories in premium leathers.

The latest item by the brand that we came across, is the Novelty Jacket, a modern take on the classic workwear jeans jacket. The cut, pockets as well as collar are unfamiliar to the classic denim jacket, but give this model its distinct and sharp looks! By the way, all denim used by the brand comes from Japan, thus quality is ensured!

Our market need a new tradeshow. Project was getting too big and not innovative enough anymore, thankfully the good people from BPMW took it on them and created Capsule tradeshow, with its first time showing last summer in NYC. They return this month and the line-up of brands is super strong- WoodWood, Ksubi, Cassette, Gourmet, Penfield, Staple, Won Hondred, Yoko Devereaux, The Cast, Krane and many others.

If you are end of January in NYC, make sure to pass by!

Last year Las Vegas based boutique Fruition, known for their outstanding selection of vintage clothing, started carrying the Jeremy Scott collection, as one of only a handful retailers worldwide. Now the store got together with the designer to collaborate on a special crewneck sweater featuring Bart Simpson wearing an outfit made up of previous Jeremy Scott patterns. A great piece, unfortunately hard to get a hold of! Via Hypebeast.

Boats are after all still something fascinating. We just came across this Fearless boat that was entirely designed by Porsche Design from Stuttgart. We have never seen something so sleek. And the pic above is not a mock-up, it actually looks like that. The performance on water is also really impressive.

Check out its performance in the video in the RL Magazine.

Swedish brand Gram Design has made a name for itself in the footwear market. Unlike other brands, they had quite an innovative/creative idea of naming their various shoe models - according to weight. All their shoes are called after their weight in grams.

The footwear comes in interesting materials and patterns, but is mostly not the athletic, but dressy side. In their A/W '07 collection the brand expanded as well into knitwear, presenting a nice small selection of quality knitwear with designs on them!

Let's see what the Spring will bring from Gram!

Frivolus Goods are re-releasing our jetsetter A travel Bag. The Bag is made out of premium calf skin, and comes in the colors scarlett, ebony, and camel. The first release of this bag sold out of the store almost instantly. Jay-z recently purchased this paticular bag in ebony crocodile in a recent visit to the flagship store.

There is just something about a quality leather travel bag. Every man should own one and this is a particular nice one! After a while you just get sick of the Louis Vuitton monogram stuff, Gucci patterns, etc. Keep it simple and you can never go wrong.

After the jump the other colorways.

Last year an incredible hype around Henrik Vibskov broke out all over the world. The Danish designer certainly has his very own unique style, that is sometimes dressed up but mostly sporty and always sports lots of crazy colors.

We love his collections, but mostly we enjoy picking pieces here and there and matching them with more subtle outfits. Our personal favorites in his collections are always the knitwear as well as the accessories. The shirts in the new collection also look great! The pants we find the hardest to pull off, but that's just our personal opinion!

Have a look at some more styles after the jump.

Hedi Slimane has made Dior Homme what it stands for today. Since he left, Kris Van Aasche has taken over and present his first collection soon.

"“They look like young professional killers,” quipped Karl Lagerfeld, who shot three models in a Parisian apartment wearing Van Assche’s ballooning, high-waist pants and pristine white shirts.

Van Assche described the images, which break in February magazines, as the “next step” for the brand—rather than a radical change—in its post–Hedi Slimane era. A budding photographer, Slimane lensed recent Dior Homme campaigns and favored an edgy, artsy approach.

“When one evokes ‘elegance,’ people tend to think you refer to something old-fashioned, boring,” Van Assche said. “I am totally aware that we are living in a sportswear generation, but I feel it is my duty—at Dior Homme even more so than at my own label—to propose an alternative. ... I prefer to look at it as a challenge: Make elegance radical.”"

DNR has an interesting article about the new collection. We cannot wait to see if live!

The Baracuta G9 is such a classic, one just should have on in the closet. Recently we presented to you the Beams Plus collaboration and for sure you still have in mind the various Stussy collaborations from last year. Here we present you their latest limited edition version - the Baracuta G9 Slim Limited Punk Edition Harrington.

Paying homage to the 1980s Punk era, Baracuta has produced a limited edition jacket. The jacket comes full with 3 punk badges, a stunning 80's album cover inspired pink box. Also on the inner lining there is the print "I'm No One's Lap Dog", which is also featured on the packaging. The jacket is now available at End.

After the jump more detailed pictures.

Along with the Paris fashion shows for Spring/Summer 2008, Jun Takashi presented the Film Show t-shirt by Undercover. Available in black and white it features people wearing space sunglasses on photoprints. The t-shirt are now available at TaipeiUC.

A few pieces out of a Porter x Levi's collaboration collection have been released now. The collection comes in blue washed denim and features a white Porter tag with red levi's tag on the front. For now they released the Boston bag, tote bag and also the backpack. All available now here.

Neighborhood continues to release their Originals series exclusively through their online store. After the M-65 jacket, they are now about to release the Original LS Shirt. The longsleeve shirt comes in black and white, two chest pockets, a patch embroidered on the chest as well as special applications around the buttons.

It will be released on the 11th of January!

German luxury label MCM slowly fights its way back into the luxury goods sector. Especially the Japanese seem to be on the label again. Now we came across these MCM neckties, featuring the classic MCM monogram pattern printed all-over. It's actually a collaboration with Japanese store Liquor Women & Tears and they released them this past week in three colorways.

Check out the other colorways after the jump.

Long announced, the Louis Vuitton jewelry collection designed by Pharrell Williams finally seems to be hitting store this Spring season. Named "Blason", the collection consists of edgy, avant-garde pieces inspired by the music universe and featuring combinations that include, but are not limited to, white gold with diamonds and yellow gold with diamonds.

The pieces range in price from 1,400 to 420,000 Euros, or approximately $2,070 to $621,000. Louis Vuitton will officially unveil the Blason collection to press on January 21. A party hosted by Williams and Miceli celebrating the pieces will take place that evening at a private mansion on Avenue Foch. More here at FWD.

Fast Boy Fenders is offering handcrafted wooden bicycle fenders. In general we have to say, if you can go without fenders, then do so, because there is nothing more beautiful then a clean bike. With the recent bike trend and especially the fixed gear bike trend one sees the cleanest and most beautiful bikes around, fenders thus do not really work.

But, if you live in London and don't want to get wet every day and absolutely need fenders, then go for these beauties. We also love the irony on their website. It is as oldschool as their fenders. No real online store, you have to order by email! At least they are consequent!

We just came across an article in the Economist about the rise and fall of the American shopping mall. Outdoor shopping is again the trend and you cannot imagine how happy we are to hear that.

Walking along a nice shopping street is so much nicer than being stuck inside a massive building with thousands of people. Europe for some reason also never really took this trend on and it seems like it is also coming to an end in the US.

Check out the article here.

Here we present you the Gourmet Summer 2008 sneaker line-up. The Jordan inspired linen sneakers have been well perceived in the market when introduced this past Fall/Winter season. A modern and somewhat elegant interpretation of some of the most classic basketball shoes to be ever produced. Almost like an off-the-court version.

For the Summer 2008 collection Gourmet has cooked up many more colors infusing some more life into the line-up. When it can get annoying to have too much color on your shoes, the Gourmet line-up still looks really solid, that mainly due to the fact that no colors are mixed, each shoe comes in one color only. We like what we are seeing and cannot wait for them to drop.

After the jump have a look at the entire line-up for this coming Summer season.

Yeah. New Years Eve has come and gone - considered by the high connoisseur as the only day to properly lose conformity to the rules of drinking spirits and beer. Most proper connoisseurs also know that there is one expectation of your host or hostess that usually leads to a scavenger hunt: the bottle opener. Nothing  can complicate a party more than a lost opener. Hence the reason I stick to the High Life. Champagne indeed.

But times are different now. Yoko Devereaux and Mexican design duo DFC came together to forge the Cabron Bottle Opener. You can open your bottles with its solid brass cap ring and use the posterior brass knuckle as a handle or better yet a knuckle sandwich. Protection with a touch of class. And why not. You deserve it.

You will not find the Cabron Bottle Opener ($126) beauty at your local Army Navy Store (though that would be cool). Better to visit Yoko Devereaux's Brooklyn store or select retailers.