Inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans, English photographer Jacob Perlmutter set off on his own American journey last summer. Like Frank, he traveled for three months. Perlmutter’s 88 Days captures the spirit of the voyage and the people he encountered.

Perlmutter draws influence from a range of street photographers, but primarily works from a desire to dig beneath the coating of popular culture, to get to the essence of his subject. In the end of his American trip, he’d amassed 2,500 photos. These differed, he says, from the preconceived ideas he arrived with.

88 Days will be shown at The Orange Dot from April 19 to May 14, 2010, located at 54 Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury, London. Complimenting the exhibition, The Orange Dot will also offer a special edition 60-page 88 Days book.

Further preview images from 88 Days follow. (via Curated).

My lord the weather is nice right now in the Northeast coast of the USA. From Maine to NYC the sun is shining which means bikes will roll. Be prepared for the weather and for socializing with this long sleever from Rapha. “The gingham look and feel to the shirt is something that can be worn casually, but worn casually on the bicycle as well. There are a few improvements to the traditional dress shirt that have been made with the Cycling enthusiast in mind. .. The top few buttons are covered to protect them from the strap of a shoulder or messenger bag tearing them clean off. And the rear pocket replaces the breast pocket.” Also seen in our Rapha Spring 2010 Preview.

More looks at the Rapha Long Sleeve Shirt for Spring 2010 after the click.

Woah! A white moleskine! It’s a perfect match for your white saddle! “The first entirely white Moleskine notebook — created exclusively for yoox.com — is a limited edition of the legendary notebook used by artists and writers around the world. Simple and classic, yet always innovative, this version has a hard cover with lined, bleach-free pages: perfect for writing and note-taking. One interior pocket in the back comes with a page narrating the history of the Moleskine brand.” Available now from Yoox.

More looks at the White Moleskine Notebook after the click.

Any watch which claims to pull inspiration form the movie Alien deserves a mention. Cabestan Nostromo shows off their work at Baselworld 2010. “Created by Jean-François Ruchonnet and Eric Coudray , nicknamed “the masters of revolutionary watchmaking”, the Cabestan Nostromo draws its inspiration form the world of science fiction, more exactly the legendary film Alien. … The Cabestan Nostromo undergoes a transformation at dusk: a fine phosphorescent coating inside the bridges, windows and surfaces of the movement diffuses a yellow-green light that illuminates the mechanism and spreads over the strap, creating an almost supernatural effect.” (timezone)

More looks at the Cabestan Nostromo Watch after the click.

Who’d have thought that John Lewis would be making an appearance on these pages? Not us, for one. The most middle class department store in the world (and that’s verified fact) surprised everyone when they announced their collaboration with Joe Casely-Hayford.

Now that the virtual dust is settling, here’s one piece that we’re especially fond of. Whilst quilted jackets are dangerously close to being played out (in the UK, at least) there’s always room for something that’s this handsome. You can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll look ten times better than the folks who bought cheap versions from TK Maxx. (John Lewis)

Never content to let the Harvard crowd have all the fun, Yale’s contribution to digital exhibitions related to student rooms launched this week.

Recently, I discussed the FDR Project and much the same I love There’s No Place Like Home for capturing the spirit of a time through interiors and objects. This particular exhibition was curated by a fellow Winterthur Program graduate, Dana Byrd, whose work I admire greatly.

From the site -

In the late nineteenth century, Yale College students took great care furnishing their dormitory rooms, filling them with personal mementos, artistic objects, and the accouterments of academic life. Between 1869 and 1894, new dormitories, monumental in scale and lavish in design, were built along the New Haven Green on College Street in the area known today as Old Campus, gradually creating a self-contained quadrangle that quickly became the psychological center of campus. The new student rooms provided a marked contract to the austerity and coldness of many of the university’s other facilities. To commemorate their living spaces, students commissioned professional photographers to document their fashionable interiors and to record intimate traces of their personal tastes and habits. The extensive decoration and photography of student rooms was not limited to Yale; it occurred at other elite academic institutions across the country. This online exhibition is dedicated to exploring the ways in which students used objects to create a distinctive home for themselves at Yale.

I have selected a few objects from the exhibition that really spoke to me. These are after the jump.

It might have something to do with our scruffier big brother site being so into streetwear and all, but we’ve always had a soft spot for good varsity jacket. Pendleton patterns can be a little loud sometimes, especially when they’re shoehorned into the design without thought of how it’d affect the overall piece. But this pattern meshes well with the grey arms and navy trim, avoiding that unfortunate ‘cut up a blanket from the 80’s and wore it’ effect that previous Pendleton collabs had. (End)

If you ever wanted to know what name/tag annoys us the most – and if you didn’t were telling you anyway – it’s hipster. But because the name hipster works on some bizarre inverse scale the more we protest the more we’ll be labelled one.

Why did we bring this up? Because Berlin based magazine ‘Der Wedding’ is rather resolutely anti-hipster, instead focusing on ‘the topics, events, items of everyday life and small stories’. We’d say we hate hipsters too, but that’d be a very hipster-like thing to do. Either way, the magazine looks great and, whilst it’s all in German, it’ll still be great eye candy for the design deprived. (GuteSeiten)

Take a leap to see more spreads of the magazine.

01. The J Dilla Donut Shop 2xLP Serato Pack

“Seriously, Stones Throw has vinyl fever lately.  This new “J Dilla Donut Shop” package is a team-up with Serato, “the leading vinyl emulation software”.  You get two LP’s, each with a side of Dilla beats and a side of Serato tones.  Six unreleased beats in total, plus two fancy donut slipmats.  This whole package was designed by Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One, so that’s pretty cool as well.  $34.99 at StonesThrow.com.” (omgvinyl)

02. VIDEO Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

“Vince Clarke is a man synonymous with synth pop and a legend in the history of electronic music. He’s famous for founding three of the most popular and lasting musical acts in history: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure. But his distinct sonic output depends upon another feat: he has spent the last 30 years amassing one of the world’s most impressive collections of rare, ‘holy grail’ analogue synthesizers.” (motherboard)

03. GGRP Record Player (above)

“This is pure genius: Audio engineering company GGRP Sound sent a 45rpm record in a corrugated cardboard sleeve that doubles as a record player. You can put it together one single step.” (notcot)

04. The Great Western Alpaca Show

“Photographer Ross Evertson’s 2007 trip to The Great Western Alpaca Show highlights the strangely fuzzy annual springtime exhibition, recently featured by Good Magazine. From shearing contests to best in show, the livestock-friendly fair finds a little something for every Alpaca lover.” (coolhunting)

We pulled in the latest member of the team to work over some selections from the John Varvatos Spring/Summer 2010 offering. Pete Williams, our resident Canadian, skater, snowboarder, designer, and all around great guy, spends most of his time on the HS side of our business but as we know, those borders tend to mix more than any of us would have assumed just a couple of years ago.

If you run into Pete at a tradeshow, you may mistake him for the younger brother of one of Complex Mag’s editors. He may or may not mind that.

In the meantime, Pete has selected some very crossover appropriate pieces – the John Varvatos Murray Duffle and the John Varvatos Canvas Star Player Oxford Sneakers. We’ll let Pete tell you all about them.

View Pete Williams’ Selections from the John Varvatos Spring/Summer 2010 Collection after the click…