Black Wedding

I knew when I received the invite above, that my niece's wedding would be stylish. The black and white theme followed through all the wedding stationary, table sttings, cake.....

and to these wonderful boxes to take a cup cake away in....

The colour black exudes sophistication and style; beloved of luxury brands for their logos, it is one of the most important colours in the fashion world.  

Exquisite Exhibitions

I've visited two exquisite fashion exhibition's recently, the Christian Louboutin retrospective at  the Design Museum and the Hermes Leather Forever exhibition at The Royal Academy's 6 Burlington Gardens.

In both exhibitions the curation is as exciting as the exhibits; at the  Christian Louboutin, curated by Donna Loveday, the special effects included projected images and films as well as fairground carousels.

But the hologram of Dita Von Teese was completely mesmerising.

At the Hermes exhibition the effects included red sand, leather strap curtains and beautiful exhibition cabinets.Curation - Alexandra Plat, Scenography

The two exhibitions brilliantly draw the visitor into the world of these luxury brands and their breathtaking accessories - taking you on a journey into their world. 

With both brands the colour red is indelible; for Louboutin it is the signature lipstick red soles to all his shoes, and with Hermes its the intense orange red for its packaging and branding. These powerful reds both elude to luxury, but to me Louboutin's red is about sexual danger and the Hermes red is about the richness of heritage.  

Clerkenwell Design Week

Here are some of my highlights from Clerkenwell Design Week

 I love these mirrors from Haidee Drew they would look great in a dressing room or hall.

And I found these Chool seats ingenious - when you sit on the seat, the body of the chair slowly drops down and the back moves up. A neat cube shape when not in use, but really comfortable to sit in - great for a reception area.

Finally how marvelous to see the BarberOsgerby Olympic Torch prototype and developments at Vitra - Stunning!

Snowdon Blue

In last week's Observer Eva Wiseman interviewed Lord Snowdon about his trick of getting his photographic subjects to wear a blue shirt if a session wasn't going to plan. Snowdon says "The blue shirt is anonymous and yet a kind of uniform. It's a simple backdrop that leaves us to focus on the sitter's face without distraction".
Sixty of Snowdon's portraits have now been presented in a book, published by the Swedish fashion company Acne Studios, called Snowdon Blue. To coincide with the book and the exhibition of the portraits in the Acne Studio's store in Dover Street, London, the clothing company have designed a limited edition of blue shirts.
The portrait of David Bowie is extraordinary, but I think portraits of him always are, I find his eyes disturbing and compelling at the same time.

By coincidence I picked up the COS Spring & Summer magazine yesterday, inside is a series of portraits by Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm of students from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, all wearing blue COS garments. Studying these portraits made me realise how right Snowdon's observation was, the cool calmness of the blue allows the person to come to the fore. In both sets of photographs, the sitters are white, it would be interesting to see if a blue shirt has the same effect with Asian and black skin.   

Golden Excess

On my way back from Vietnam, I stopped off in Hong Kong to spend a few days with friends. We had lunch at the Tin Lung Heen restaurant in the Ritz Carleton. The interior is very opulant, with some great dramatic spaces like the corridor pictured above but the rest of the interior design was not my style. This place is so bling they even put gold leaf on the dim sum!

  The food was fabulous and so were the astonishing views across the harbour.

    

Colour in Design

I'm giving a lecture on Colour in Design for the South East Design Forum next Wednesday. I worked with Richard Wolfstrome to create this poster, I hope it's a really inspirational evening for everyone who's going to be there.

Temple Pink

How to describe this incredible shade of magenta pink, it's not just the vividness of this colour, but the quality of the chalky pigment-rich paint on the walls.

These pictures are taken in a temple in Saigon, I've seen this pink in India too, but here in this city temple it had the most wonderful quality. I could have stood there for hours just absorbing it's intensity.