Trendspotting: Midsummer Party

Photos by Kanon Organic Vodka: Binki Shapiro & Adam Green, The Misshapes, Ovando flowers and Elin Kling.

Who: An eclectic downtown fashion flock including Fabrizio Moretti & Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, Leigh Lezark, Andrew Wyngarden from MGMT, Binki Shapiro, Adam Green and Elin Kling from Style by Kling

What: Kanon Organic Vodka party hosted by The Swede Beat

Why: Celebration of the Swedish holiday, Midsummer

Where: The Yard at the Soho Grand Hotel

When: Friday 24th June, 4pm-9pm

How: Tunes by Binki & Adam and The Misshapes. DIY floral head wreaths. Traditional Swedish meat balls, pancakes and potato dumplings. Killer cocktails including The Midsummer (Kanon Organic Vodka, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and Lemon Juice).

Top Three Jewelry Trends spotted: leather shoulder harness, oversized metal-plate belt and clustered knuckle rings

Photos by WGSN

Havaianas Pops Up In LA

Just in time for the 4^th of July weekend, Havaianas “Mercado” is popping up inside Space 15Twenty in LA.

The 1000-square-foot store is inspired by a traditional Brazilian marketplace and features the largest collection of the renowned flip-flops brand in Los Angeles. Customers can choose from an array of summer colors and graphics, including the highly anticipated graffiti and Soul collection, or create their own signature Havaianas.

The “Make Your Own Havaianas” station, resembling a Brazilian fruit stand, offers customizable souls, straps and embellishments.

The store opens on Friday, July 1^st and will be in Los Angeles through July 24^th.

Space 15Twenty
1520 North Cahuenga Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
+1 323 465 1893

Congratulations to GFA Shortlist

We're so excited to congratulate WGSN's Global Fashion Awards shortlist, which includes nominees such as Liberty, Harrods and Holt Renfrew for Outstanding Customer Experience, Intermix, Kirne Zabete and Opening Ceremony for Outstanding Brand Mix and Erdem, Jonathan Saunders and Marc Jacobs for Most Influential Womenswear Designer.

The winners for all 17 categories, as well as the winners for Outstanding Contribution to Fashion and Global Style Icon, will be announced at WGSN's second annual Global Fashion Awards, taking place at New York City's Gotham Hall on October 20, 2011. Sponsored by Swarovski Elements, the awards are a call for all individuals and businesses working across the fashion industry around the world to recognise high-level achievement.

For a the complete short list, click here.

Do you know the Moustache Man?

Regular riders of the New York City Subway have probably witnessed the witty graffiti of Joseph Waldo, better known as the Moustache Man. The graffiti bandit - who had been defacing hundreds of posters throughout the city with the word ‘Moustache’ – was arrested on Friday night allegedly having caused $1500 in damages. In an anonymous interview with the Subway Art Blog in May, he admitted his motivations were as innocent as giving commuters a quick smile on their way home from work, but that it soon evolved into a “broader movement of subverting advertisements.” While he apologized and agreed never to do it again, we can’t help wonder what sort of following will trickle down from here.

10 Crosby by Derek Lam

Derek Lam presented his diffusion line, 10 Crosby, as part of New York's resort collection schedule. Filled with easy to wear pieces including pajama separates, slim cut outerwear, denim tweed suiting and tactile Grecian dresses, the collection was inspired by chic downtowners. The range fits in perfectly with Lam's sophisticated signature style, but prices are a bit more wallet friendly at $165 to$795 .

SPFW: Pedro Lourenço

Pedro Lourenço presented his first resort collection at SPFW after showing in Paris for the last two seasons. For this collection, Pedro paid homage to Brazil, with local fauna and flora as patterns on simple and chic yet separates. For fabrics, Lourenço used resin from a native tree which looks like leather and the result had a high-shine, luxurious effect. Bright colour blocking and graphic patters were also seen on the sophisticated collection.

Tucker Blair for Opening Ceremony

Although the upcoming collaboration between Tucker Blair and Opening Ceremony seems like an unlikely match, the outcome will no doubt please the prepsters and hipsters alike. The limited-edition collection - featuring five hand-sewn needlepoint belts - could easily be mistaken as men's or women's. And at $110 a pop, we suggest sharing with your partner to justify the price tag!

Available exclusively at Opening Ceremony on July 15 - both in stores and online.

Duke & Duke Debuts in West Hollywood

Renowned interior designer, Michael Smith known for his “European tradition and American modernism” aesthetic has opened up an innovative design gallery in the heart of West Hollywood. Part art gallery, part furniture gallery and all Smith, the location is slated to become a must-stop shop for collectors, buyers and tastemakers.

WGSN loves Mattia Bonetti’s Broken Pearl Necklace Desk, a beautiful workstation comprised of gold and chrome plated brass and lavastone. The limited edition desk evokes a feeling of power with feminine whimsy. Bonetti’s purple pony hide chair can be customized in various colors and platings ensuring that whatever the client wants – the client gets. Another item of note? The Frequency Cabinet, a luxurious display case that works translates to nearly all interiors including the home, office or guesthouse. The gallery is currently featuring Garden Loveseat & Other Works in association with Paul Kasmin Gallery and will run until September of this year.

Duke & Duke
8527 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069
+1 310.657.0611
www.michaelsmithinc.com

SPFW: Day 4 highlights

Maria Bonita's catwalk theme made reference to Portugal and Brazil with rustic fabrics, woven belts and gowns adorned with crocheted webs. In addition, the designer used a lightweight, papery fabric for applications of flowers and triangles. Combined with subtle colors of white and blue, the collection gave off an air of lightness.

Swimwear brand Agua de Coco took a modernized approach to next season with strong silhouettes. The patterns were based aerial pictures of beaches and drawings of foliage, flowers and stripes, done in shades green, blue, purple, terracotta and orange.

Scuba influences for Resort 12

Alexander Wang, Donna Karan and Herve Leger

The resort collection presentations are slowly trickling to an end this week, and one of the strongest trends I've noticed is inspired by scuba. Designers including Alexander Wang, Donna Karan and Herve Leger all showed a version of a skin-tight scuba suit, with rounded bod-con stitching and quilted performance panelling. Black is the key color to this trend, with pops of crayon blue, red and yellow.

We especially loved Alexander Wang's interpretation, which showed graphic racerback swimsuits worn as undergarments for active separates like running shorts and quilted anoraks.

Cinematic influences at SPFW

We've highlighted two designers from SPFW that perfectly confirm our spring/summer 2012 macrotrend, Cinematic.



As models walked down the runway to Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend," Reinaldo Lourenço presented a collection inspired by Elizabeth Taylor. The shapes were very feminine, with structured dresses and shoulder pads in a palette of black, nude and white mixed with diamond surface treatments and floral prints.

Alexandre Herchcovitch brought a strong 1950’s influence with a light color palette. Nude shades were mixed with light blues and pinks, and the makeup and hair were equally as subtle. For accessories, we loved the rounded eyewear and high heeled shoes that perfectly fit the ladylike looks.

Aritzia opens in Soho!

Whenever I'm updating the city guides for Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, I can't wait to browse the racks at Aritzia, Canada's best women's fashion boutique. With its newest location in Soho, which opens today, I no longer have to travel up north for the retailer's collection of exclusive brands and on trend looks. The 10,000 square foot store takes up two floors on the coveted corner of Broadway and Spring and includes an open, elegant shopping studio and converted bank-turned-fitting room.

Inspired by the idea of a natural phenomena, the store design is organic yet whimsical, with a giant crystal sculpture, carved tree tables and mystical, Native American-looking wooden fixtures. Aritzia's brands include casual yet luxe separates from Wilfred, wear-to-work clothes from T.Babaton, funky weekend wear from Talula and woodsy active pieces from TNA. Prices range from $30 to $300. Happy shopping!

Aritzia Soho

524 Broadway

Tel: +1 212 965 2188

www.aritzia.com

Rainbow City comes to New York City

Image by Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat

In conjunction with the High Line's second section opening, a colorful collection of inflatable sculptures were installed in The Lot - a temporary public plaza for artistic gatherings. Commercial art collective FriendsWithYou are the brainchildren behind the installation, coined Rainbow City, and the first to setup an interactive, large-scale project in New York City. Visitors - tourists and locals alike - will no doubt feel like video game contestants as they wander around, what could be mistaken as, a level of Super Mario Brothers.

This magical city - also featured at Miami Art Week last year - will be on show until July 5 and welcomes all ages! Who couldn't appreciate 16,000 square feet of inflatable toys?

Doo.Ri's resort 2012 collection inspired by Sonia Delaunay

Last week, I had the opportunity to preview Doo.Ri's resort 2012 collection, inspired by artist and textile designer Sonia Delaunay. Doo.Ri had seen the Cooper-Hewitt's retrospective of the artist's work, which WGSN enjoyed as well, and was inspired by Delaunay's sketches and drawings. "I am a sucker for sketchbooks and I just love all of her prints," she told me.

Doo.Ri translated that inspiration into tactile jersey pieces like easy harem pants, shell tops and Swarovski crystal embellished shift dresses (the one shown above was worn by the designer at last week's CFDA awards.) Fluid suiting and dresses were also key, and featured according pleating and interior tuxedo stripes. A collarless leather jacket, sequined embellished coat dress and leather-topped trench were the outerwear stand-outs. I especially loved the brightly-colored, Delaunay-inspired swirl prints, seen on jersey separates and dresses - a lovely departure from Doo.Ri's often neutral, textural palettes.