Coach Spring/Summer 2016

Several weeks ago, under the guidance of Creative Director Stuart Vevers, Coach debuted their first-ever menswear collection at London Fashion week. As any 90’s kid knows, Coach is an American accessories brand, once on top of the word, but has struggled in recent years to establish relevance in todays rapidly shifting fashion landscape. In 2013, Stuart Vevers, formally of Mulberry and Loewe, was appointed Executive Creative Director of the brand and is quickly reshaping Coach into a modern lifestyle brand for a younger generation. In the fall I blogged about Coach’s Fall 14 advertising campaign being one of my favorites, and the Spring 2016 Menswear collection is adding to my growing love for the brand.

I’m so in love with the animal print mixing! So playful, young and graphic. As a guy, I feel like most American brands (J.Crew, Gap, etc) struggle with offering newness each season. This collection is a breath of fresh air! Finally a brand offering something you don’t see in a million other stores. I can’t wait for next spring when this collection is available in stores, and I can’t wait to see what Vevers creates in the seasons to come. So check out more images from the Coach Spring/Summer 2016 Menswear Collection below, and get into it!

Awesome right, below are some backstage shots captured by Russ McClintock.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

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Marimekko Holiday 2014

Today I’m sharing my last in a series of favorite Holiday brands from 2014. Earlier I shared Shinola’s + Sephora’s holiday campaigns + mood boards, and today I’m blogging about one brand that should be very familiar on this blog, Marimekko. Every year the folks at Marimekko select prints and color ways to spotlight during the holiday season. They aren’t always “Christmas” patterns, as some are existing patterns in new color ways for the season. I especially love Sanna Annukka’s Lamppupampula pattern (pictured above), how great are those colors? I also like Maija Louekari’s playful Kuusikossa pattern that is very holiday themed (christmas trees, see below in post). Another favorite is Sami Ruotsalainen’s Hauki pattern, with the fish. These patterns and products would look great in any home during the holidays, or throughout the year. Hope you enjoyed these Holiday-themed posts and get into the wonderful world of Marimekko below.

Sanna Annukka’s Lamppupampula Pattern, pictured above.

Maija Louekari’s Kuusikossa Pattern, below.

Sami Ruotsalainen’s Hauki Pattern, pictured below.

I love these fish! How great are these?

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Sephora Holiday 2014

Hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas! Another brand I’ve had my eye on this holiday season is Sephora. I saw their store windows in both San Francisco and NYC this year, and I’m loving the playful patterns, bright colors and model images mixed in. Looks very festive and “holiday” looking without resorting to making everything red and green. I also love how elevated everything looks. Job well done Sephora! Check out more images from the campaign and their Holiday packaging below. Get into it!

Cute right? Hopefully you saw some of this stuff under your tree this year. If no, go treat yo self!

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Wood Wood x Disney Collection

Recently I stumbled across the a-mazing collaboration between Scandinavian streetwear brand Wood Wood, and Disney. This capsulate collection was first released at Colette in Paris, then online in Europe. I was immediately drawn to the abstracted patterns and prints designer Brian SS Jensen created of Disney’s Mickey Mouse. How inventive and creative! It’s frankly surprising a mega-brand like Disney would license their creative in this way. So forward thinking and cool of them. I can’t get enough of this entire collection. What do you guys think?

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Pattern Play with Leta Sobierajski

Today while browsing Pinterest I stumbled across the Leta Sobierajski x Print All Over Me collection and stopped in my tracks. I haven’t blogged about patterns/prints too much lately, so consider this post a return to form. I seriously can’t get enough of these images. Great patterns, fun colors + poses … what a fun project! Leta Sobierajski is a multidisciplinary freelance designer & art director in New York City. She combines mediums in design, photography, art, and styling to develop tangible compositions for print, digital, and motion. In 2014, she was recognized as a top 20 under 30 designer in Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists issue. I’m also super-into the typeface she designed, Marle, which can be purchased exclusively at Ten Dollar Fronts. It’s so great to see graphic designers experimenting with patterns. This project definitely inspires me to step up my game and get back into creating patterns of my own. But until then, get into more of Leta’s collection for Print All Over Me below.

 

How great are these? If you want to check out more of Leta Sobierajski’s work, check out her site, her collection for Print All Over Me, or follow her on social media. Get into it!

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Bonus Hudson’s Bay Print

Two days ago I blogged about Hudson’s Bay Company’s iconic point blanket and some of its creative applications in homes/interiors and use in the fashion world. After more digging, I’ve found even more examples of collaborations between Hudson’s Bay and other companies, notably Converse and Timex. It’s cool to see how this simple pattern can be so easily applied to shoes, coats, bags and watches. The possibilities are endless! Get into it.

Another interior (above) with the patterned blankets. The Hudson’s Bay Co x Converse collection (below).

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Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket

 

One textile pattern I’ve been following recently is the iconic Hudson’s Bay point blanket. HBCo’s is one of (if not the) oldest department store in North American dating back to the 1800’s. The point blankets (pictured above) were first sold in Canada in the 18th century to Native Americans in exchange for beaver pelts. These wool blankets were prized for their ability to stay warm even when wet. Two hundred years later these iconic blankets are part of North American history (and here I thought they were just a new pattern). Pendleton Woolen Mills also makes a similar blanket called the Glacier National Park Blanket which were first sold in the early 1900s. According to their website,

“Since the early 1900s, Pendleton Woolen Mills has honored America’s National Parks with a collection of distinctive park blankets. Glacier Park National Park Blanket was one of the first. Its historic markings and colors date back to the frontier trading posts. Traders would indicate the weight of the blanket offered in exchange for furs by holding up one finger for each pound. The original blankets incorporated three, four or five black stripes in the design, which indicated the value of the blanket. Colors and variations of the original striped theme have been adapted to reflect distinguishing characteristics of each park and blanket in the collection. (link). 

HBCo has a heritage site on the Point Blanket dating back to 1780 here if you’d like to read more. Super interesting!

I’m not exactly sure the difference between the two blankets, but safe to say both have a rich history and are still relevant today, in fashion and interiors. I love how a pattern so simple and graphic can reach iconic status. Just like Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and her polka dots, this pattern with it’s green, red, yellow and indigo stripes is so uniquely its own. Need to get one of my own ASAP.

I love some of the more unique applications of the stripes (below).

I also like this graphic pattern so easily translated into fashion (below).

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Patchwork Patterns

Today after a lovely brunch in Brooklyn, I stumbled across Remodelista’s beautiful patchwork patterned tiles post, and I couldn’t wait to share the images here (and add a few of my personal favorites from Pinterest). I’ve been super into the idea of pattern mixing with tile in kitchens, bathrooms, on floors, etc for a while now. God willing, if I’m ever call myself a homeowner here in NYC, I’d love to create moments like this in my apartment. It is also a dream of mine to design my own patterns/tiles like this, and mix them in this patchwork style. A DREAM I tell you! So until then, get into this patchwork pattern inspiration. And happy MLK day!

 
Made a Mano patchwork tiles (above and below). I love the way these tiles look mixed together. Graphic and beautiful.

Blue and white tiles from Odyssey’s Blue Tapestry Collection (above). Love the two applications of patterned tiles for floors (below).

And now time for two of my favorites, patchwork tiles by Sonya Marish for Jatana Interiors (below). Obsessed!

Don’t these tiles look great with bold colored furniture? Also loving the contrast between the graphic tiles and raw concrete floors/brick walls. Would move into this place in a second. For more images like this, check out my Pattern board on Pinterest. Get into it!

 

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Maharam Pattern Stories

Graphic Thought Facility (London, above)

While searching for pattern inspiration today on Pinterest, I stumbled across a cool blog post on Maharam’s website about a collection of patterns by a group of graphic designers. I (shockingly) had never heard of Maharam before, and I’m so happy I found them! Maharam was founded in 1902. From small beginnings, Maharam transformed from a source of theatrical textiles for costume and set design in the 1940s to a pioneer of performance-driven textiles for commercial interiors in the ’60s. Today Maharam partners with designers from all disciplines creating conceptual, performance and fashion textiles for countless companies.

In the post Maharam writes,

Patterns are the double helix of the textile industry—the visual DNA that serves to establish the identity of a company. In the pre-digital era, companies like Pucci and Marimekko found a way to create and make distinct visual vocabularies their own. As Maharam moved into the digitized world of the 21st century, we challenged ourselves with a design research initiative that could capture emerging post-analog trends and yield a new pattern language that we could call our own. 

In collaboration with Pentagram’s Abbott Miller, Maharam invited an international group of ten entities at the forefront of graphic design to create ten patterns each. The participants included A4 Studio (New York), Marian Bantjes (Canada), cyan (Berlin), Graphic Thought Facility (London), Harmen Liemburg (Amsterdam), Karel Martens (Arnhem), Abbott Miller (New York), Niessen & de Vries (Amsterdam), Post Typography (Baltimore), and Casey Reas (Los Angeles).

As a trained graphic designer that also studied textile design, these two diciplines work so well together. I think all graphic designers should learn about textile and pattern design. The images below are some of my favorites from Maharam’s 1/10 Pattern Stories post. Tomorrow I’m going to share even more patterns and photos from Maharam’s NYC design studio. Get into it!

Harmen Liemberg (above).

Niessen & de Vries (above).

cyan (above).

Abbott Miller (above and below). This is pretty cool no? Flattening a car and making a graphic pattern. Love it.

Harmen Liemburg (above).

Niessen & de Vries (above).

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Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama pt. 2

A few days ago, I blogged about W’s December 2013 Art Issue featuring George Clooney in a suit painted by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. W’s magazine cover inspired me to look more into her work and the 2012 Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collaboration, images of which I also shared in the previous post. Today I’m sharing some of the A-MAZING in-store experiences Louis Vuitton created around the world in cities like Paris, London and New York. It’s neat seeing Kusama’s work come to life in an retail experience. Each of these pop-up shops are practically works of art themselves. As a windows and in-store experience designer, and someone into textile and pattern design, Kusama’s work is the perfect marriage of the two. So check out these interiors and beautiful store windows below. Embrace the polka dot. Love the polka dot!

And now for the store windows (below).

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