New technology takes the turbulence out of driving with the top down When Mercedes-Benz unveiled their brand-new Aircap technology in their 2011 E-Class Cabriolet at last February’s NYC Fashion Week , I knew I wanted to check it out for myself. As someone who always saw the appeal of convertibles as spoiled by hair whipping in my face, I was curious to see if it actually worked. I had the perfect opportunity when Mercedes lent me the E-Cab for a day trip to the Barnes Foundation (a spot I highly recommend visiting) outside of Philadelphia, PA. Activated with just a push of a button in the center console, the Aircap technology makes the smooth and luxurious ride that you’d expect from the luxury car all the more so for all of its passengers. While the experience isn’t completely wind-free, the small windshield spoiler and rear screen creates a pleasantly breezy and more quiet interior for chatting, listening to music, talking on the phone over the built-in Bluetooth, or just communing with the open road. The feeling of joy and freedom that comes with driving is what the device is really all about—cruising down the highway, with the wind licking at your hair (not blowing it in your face) and sunlight pouring in the car. For lead-foots like me, Aircap automatically adjusts according to speed, significantly decreasing the wind flowing through the cabin, even at speeds over 60 mph. With the new technology, you might be inclined to keep the top down all year long. Fortunately, Mercedes thought of that too. In cooler weather, Aircap also works to keep cold air out of the cabin, and combined with Airscarf, a heating system at the often-ignored neck level, you can still keep warm while getting all the benefits of owning a convertible. Available only from Mercedes-Benz , Aircap can be found in the new E-Class Cabriolet, with a sticker price of a little over $56,000 (give or take a few thousand for various customizations). Airscarf is also available in the E-Class as well as other models.
Cycling clothes get dandy in a collaboration joining two renowned British clothiers by Summer Seventysix Yesterday we got a sneak peek at the latest from Rapha , the British makers high-end cycle clothing. It featured pieces from the upcoming AW10 range and a much anticipated collaboration with Paul Smith, on show at Rapha’s soon-to-close pop-up cafe in Clerkenwell. Our man on the ground picked his favourites. Following the successful release of a line of accessories , the Paul Smith clothing tie-up is for the next two seasons, and the man’s signature color purple was very much in evidence combined with Rapha’s own pink flourishes, and a decent dose of black. The stand-out examples can be seen above: a mid-weight merino jersey, flamboyant polkadot silk scarf and a beautifully cut rain jacket, all designed to fit in with Rapha’s move to provide more options for the city cyclist. With that in mind, the brand also unveiled its new jeans, which have been two years in the making. Made of a specially developed water-repellant, shape-maintaining, denim-style fabric, they include a place to hold your D-lock. Once turned-up, they also reveal a none-too-subtle Rapha logo, and reflective pink seam. Our favourite piece from the new Autumn-Winter season, though, is the new merino cyclocross jersey. Rapha recently hooked up with bike brand Focus to sponsor a cyclocross team in the US, and this jersey features their signature candy-stripe color scheme on black background. Also available is a full bodysuit, for those feeling particularly brave. All the new gear is expected to start appearing on Rapha’s site from the start of September, as well as in selected stores.
Exquisite craftsmanship honors the Industrial Revolution in this luxury timepiece by Meehna Goldsmith Designed by complications maestro Christophe Claret , the Palace is the latest addition to the luxuriously retro watch line Jean Dunand . The timepiece, inspired by the dynamic Art Deco age (the company’s name references a famed artisan of the time period), embodies the spirit and style of the glamorously functional arts movement. Even the name is a shout-out to London’s Crystal Palace, which was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and set the stage for the era. Sourced from a range of classically Jean Dunand geometric shapes, consistent with the Art Deco ideals of function, craftsmanship and the highest grade of materials, the watch also references imagery from two iconic films of the era—Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”—each giving life to the machine and its tools. The Palace’s movement takes aesthetic cues from the architecture of the Eiffel Tower, with plates supported by tiny pillars to suggest the reinforcement of a massive, cast-iron structure. From the profile, the watch even resembles the great tower’s base. But the Industrial Revolution and its fascination with mechanized function anchor the thematics of this timepiece. The eye wanders over a landscape of tracks, wheels and a chain, evocative of those used on the chain drives of vintage Indian and Vincent motorcycles. Exhibiting his trademark mechanical virtuosity, Claret powers the Palace with a manually wound, one-minute flying tourbillon with a 72-hour power reserve. True to the company’s motto, no two watches share the same materials or design, making each one a truly unique piece in the collection and helping to justify the $417,000 price tag. It’s available through select retailers around the world.
An altruistic leather worker’s line of covetable purses, bags and accessories Portland, OR-based Talitha Leather was founded by Nate Bagley after working as a case manager for a homeless youth organization. Inspired by bible stories, he named the business after a sickly young girl who Jesus saves after her parents leave her for dead. A friend of Bagley’s was working in a shoe store, where he learned leather working techniques. Together they began collecting tools and set up shop in a basement, refining their skills at riveting and sewing. Today, Talitha Leather sells a full line of men’s and women’s accessories, including bags, purses and leather jewelry made from materials sourced on the West Coast. A portion of the profits from the sturdy bags goes towards the International Justice Mission , a human rights agency that promotes victim advocacy in the public justice system. The profits from the company also allow Bagley to offer a sliding scale for his services as a private practice mental health counselor to uninsured families and children in Portland. Prices range from $14 for jewelry to $200-$500 for handmade messenger bags and sell from their online shop or Talitha Leather’s Etsy site.
An up-and-coming British designer launches an Art Deco-inspired lighting line One of Britain’s most exciting young designers, Lee Broom , launches his fourth collection, One Light Only , at the London Design Festival this September. With last year’s Heritage Boy collection gathering praise from fellow designers and press alike, Broom’s latest collection sees him tackle a wider audience with a more affordable selection of offerings. “With OLO I’ve taken a different design approach; I wanted to create a range which is accessible and affordable,” explains the designer, noting that his previous work has been aimed more at the design-as-investment market. Drawing on his years in the fashion business (he cites Art Deco jewelry and late ’70s fashion photography as influences), Broom developed a striking lighting collection based around two different pendant lights, one 10 centimeters high and the other a princely 30 centimeters. The lights will form an installation which will welcome visitors to his East London studio, where his other work will also be on show. Exterior faceting in either matte white or polished gold characterizes OLO, with the interior of the lights finished in the juxtaposing finish. With the designer scooping awards, commissions and projects with growing frequency, his tag as one to watch can safely be replaced with “cannot be avoided.” Not that you would want to. Prices will start from
Stylist-turned-designer Adrien Sauvage debuts a collection of sharply-cut suits for the modern man With a Tumblr site as his look book, stylist-turned-designer Adrien Sauvage puts a fresh spin on men’s suiting by casting and personally photographing some of art and music’s finest as models for his debut collection. The black-and-white project, called “This is Not a Suit,” sets the stage for his first collection of suits that mix modern styles with Saville Row-level cuts. As an experienced tailor, the young upstart’s transformation from styling made a natural progression to designing, with the impeccably-conceived collection speaking for itself. Like many new labels, Sauvage’s motivation was simply that he and his clients couldn’t get the choice or quality of cut and style they desired. With this first collection, Sauvage focuses on fit, offering two styles—a sport jacket and two double-breasted jackets—for the country, as well as a day and evening suit. Jackets, cut rakishly short, feature working horn buttons as the standard and a plunging lapel for the essential V-shape aesthetic. Double-vented for a flattering shape around hips, the jackets also have a little extra volume worked into the sleeves for added mobility. Championing precise tailoring, Sauvage leaves the logos and insignias behind for a subtly smooth air and crisp appearance. The only acknowledgment—an A. Sauvage label on the interior of the jacket—has info about its origin along with notes about its inspiration. The debut A. Sauvage collection hits stores Fall 2010 and will be available at Harrods and Matches .
A cast of curious characters handcrafted from upcycled materials The brainchild of Wisconsin-based artist Amy Arnold, Peepwool are individual stuffed dolls handmade from completely recycled materials. A mix of personality and found objects, no single Peepwool looks the same as the next. Arnold started creating Peepwool when she came across a box of remnants she had been keeping in her parents’ basement. As a new mother at the time, Arnold used the found materials to create clothing and hats for her son. Inspired by working with recycled fabrics, she eventually found the garments giving way to organic wool forms which she needle-felts and embroiders into adorable characters. Peepwool sell on her site or from Etsy , starting at the heirloom-worthy price of $200 each.
Journalism students task colleagues around the globe with bringing Millennium Goal stories to life The United Nations Millennium Development Goals —the ambitious list of global objectives put together by world leaders in September of 2000—have just five years until the deadline and are seriously behind schedule. With pie-in-the-sky targets like education for everyone everywhere and ending extreme poverty and hunger, students at the Knight Center for International Media from the University of Miami’s School of Communication decided to take a different approach to the high-minded initiative. Realizing that often the most effective way to effect change in people is to tell the human side, Knight collaborated with journalism students around the world to tell the stories behind the goals. Asking budding reporters in Africa and Asia to respond to different Goals, the students at the Knight Center compiled a website of the completed multimedia stories, including video, infographics and photo galleries. Using all three mediums, a group in Lagos, Nigeria–Subsaharan Africa’s largest city–tackled the biggest challenge facing the United Nations—the eradication of poverty and hunger. In the overpopulated city, the students tell the story of the unexplained demolition of a market that was home to 10,000 people. Following those that returned, the story shows the determination of some to survive within the rubble of extreme adverse conditions. Other stories cover topics such as equal education in India and maternal health in Sierra Leone. Supplementary info on the site helps viewers contact NGOs working towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals in the related countries. A social media component allows for sharing, discussing and embedding each part of the website, bringing the stories to all wired corners of the world and opening the project up for dialogue and interactivity.
An underground Toronto salon where blow outs (of the 420 variety) are included by John Ortved We’ve all heard of BC bud (for those who haven’t, it’s the especially potent marijuana grown in Canada’s British Columbia province), but how about BC bangs or a BC bowl cut? At Lightheaded, a new secret salon in Toronto, hairstylist Uli sits customers down for a cut and a toke from her high-end vaporizer, all for the bargain price of $30. Tall, gorgeous, and sporting a dimpled grin (no photo of Uli because while selling marijuana in Canada is almost legal, that’s a big “almost”), the unaccredited hairstylist—who is also an artist, musician and costume designer—got the idea sitting around stoned with her roommate, coming up joke business names. Then it occurred to her, this could really work. Launched last October, she currently boasts a roster of approximately 30 regulars—mostly men. Uli cuts hair in the living room of the house she shares with her husband, which also serves as an event space for art shows, concerts, screenings and stand-up comedy. Customers sit among set pieces, musical instruments and half-made puppets. (During my last visit a hand-made, life-size werewolf costume kept us company). The marijuana she serves is potent, but a distinctly relaxing variety. She tells Now Magazine , “Guys don’t necessarily enjoy going to the salon because the atmosphere isn’t chilled out. It can be uptight. My goal was to provide a low-key alternative to the salon.”
The sculpture-inspired Dutch lighting brand celebrates their 20th with a new collection Commemorating 20 years of success in the design world, Brand Van Egmond is celebrating their anniversary with a new collection of their “haute couture” lighting. With an approach based on the idea of making real sculptures, BVE’s fixtures (many of them custom-made) bring art from the “ground to the ceiling,” while also enacting a fascinating mix of craftsmanship and technology. New models include the classic chandelier shape draped in strings of beads, Coco (pictured at bottom), and Digital Dreams , an experimental fixture that incorporates digital frames to illuminate photos of your choosing. In addition to their own collection, Brand Van Egmond has partnered with many premiere brands to offer their lighting expertise. From stores (like Neuhaus Chocolate and Saks Fifth Avenue ) and restaurants (the beautiful Glenneagles in Scotland) to hotels (Gansevoort NY and Hilton Paris) to a theater (in Berlin) and a Delft, NL church , Brand Van Egmond has left their signature light for the world to see. The brand’s first book Lighting Sculptures will be for sale at key bookstores worldwide later this year. The book showcases Brand Van Egmond items like their very first lamp and chandelier , along with creative collaborations for the 76th Academy Awards and the 2008 World Expo in Zaragoza. Brand Van Egmond luxury lighting fixtures are available for sale here .
Our video with Ford’s voice recognition engineer reveals sweeping improvements to their MyFord interface The latest news from Nuance , whose voice technology powers the SYNC-powered MyTouch system. The system’s benefit remains the same—it easily controls the car’s climate, entertainment, navigation and phone systems without having to take your hands off of the steering wheel or eyes off of the road. This evolution achieves two important goals that improve how voice recognition works. Though the system’s voice still sounds like a computer, it makes a huge leap towards more natural speech and tone. Secondly, the system’s vocabulary has grown exponentially from 100 to 10,000 first level commands, which makes talking to the interface more natural too. Changing the temperature, for example, can now be achieved by any number of phrases, such as “increase temperature,” “temp warmer” or “make hotter.” Learn more in our video above with Brigitte as she demonstrates some of the features in a production model of the 2011 Ford Edge.
Quinoa chocolate bars, purple jasmine rice and more from a powerhouse fair trade brand Though today the fair trade food brand Alter Eco works with 25 cooperatives across 19 countries, they began in 1999 as a small shop in Paris carrying mostly furniture. With time, money and retail partners, the company has grown into a “team of fair trade visionaries and food-loving explorers on a mission to connect you to our farmers and their honest foods.” One of the leading members of the Fair Trade Initiative , their hands-on approach has led to major impacts in improving the food cycle by supporting independent producers and distributors, as well as by spearheading education initiatives. In keeping with the brand’s overall commitment to improving the global community, the food is of course natural, organic, and never anything less than you’d expect. Products range from bags of hearty grains like jasmine rice and quinoa to chocolate bars filled with sugary mint or crystallized orange peels. Each of Alter Eco’s 56 fair trade, USDA organic products sell on their site at reasonable prices. The chocolate runs just over $4 a bar, and comes highly recommended by the candy aficionados on the CH staff—particularly the Dark Chocolate Quinoa . For in-store purchase, check out the webstite’s retail locator , which lists carriers all across the U.S. and in parts of Canada.
Create beautiful kaleidoscopic images with an iPad app that reinvents the classic toy Arguably one of the most entertaining iPad apps we’ve come across, the Annamika kaleidoscope provides optic stimulation for inspiration, to cure boredom or as the ultimate stoner pastime. Choose any of ten preset images or one from your iPad’s photo gallery and the program runs them through a psychedelic filter to create a beautifully-digital take on the classic children’s toy. The work of artist Catherine Hubert , the collection of images included with Annamika come from her personal portfolio of designs. Based on the cities for which they’re named, the patterns featuring intricate shapes, lines and patterns (see above). Once you’ve uploaded your image, you can propel the image into a series of swirls and shifts by dragging a finger across the iPad. Pinching the screen zooms into the spiral, while tapping the image twice stops and starts the animation, and a double-tap in the center blacks out the corners for a classic kaleidoscope view. Another amusing filter allows you to randomly change the color scheme of the image, adding an element of surprise and distorting the image for display on a projector—another nice feature. Compatible with the iPad’s video-out capability, you can project your designs on any screen, which (when combined the animation) provides a great background for dance clubs or your next rave. Annamika sells from the iTunes store for $5, and will soon be available for the iPhone as well.
Matthew Dear taps the Boyms for an object-based digital release of his latest album For the release of Matthew Dear’s latest album, Black City , his label decided to take a slightly more inventive approach to packaging. Teaming up with award-winning design firm Boym , Ghostly International will release an ominous-looking totem, inscribed with a unique four-character code that accesses a download and stream of the full digital album, as well as an exclusive track. The Black City mini-sculptures, described as “skyscrapers that might populate Dear’s creeping, nameless city,” references the Boym Buildings of Disaster, a series that darkly riffs on the object-history of architecture. Known for their clever takes on everyday objects, by leaving the surface of the hand-cast aluminum totem almost completely blank, the designers leave the real meaning up to its owner. Dear (a Texas-born electronic superstar who also cofounded Ghostly ) continues to throw down the hits with Black City . It drops 3 August 2010, along with the limited edition of 100 totem pieces, which will sell for $125 each from Ghostly’s Store .
A new crowd-sourced portal to architecture’s greatest achievements and newest additions The just-launched OpenBuildings online database organizes architecture’s finest examples from around the globe in an effort to share info and highlight stunning developments. Multiple methods of navigating the buildings—as a grid, list, slideshow or Google Maps overlay—allow for individualized browsing of the user-driven site, and a forthcoming iPhone app will make it easy to tour architecture on-the-go. Already 2,000 buildings strong, co-founder Tom Mallory hopes the architectural community will play an instrumental role in building “an all-encompassing informational resource” for everyone from professionals to tourists. The wiki allows users to edit, add or delete items for a democratic (though remarkably thorough) look at architecture around the world. Register at the OpenBuildings site to submit a building or to just check out many of the amazing architectural feats already listed. Coming soon, the free OpenBuilding iPhone app called simply “Buildings” prompts self-guided architecture tours to make it even more convenient to learn about our built world.
