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Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors by Evan Schwartz
Summation: if you are wondering what makes inventors tick or if you fancy yourself as an inventor, check out this book. Schwartz is brilliant and this book is a must read for any inventor of paradigm-changer.
Proving that globalization isn't necessarily a bad thing, the three up-and-coming designers who've caught our eye this season hail from Brazil, Portugal, and Canada, respectively. Their clothes are just starting to appear in high-end stores from London to L.A., and they're well worth seeking out.
Gustavo Lins: After 14 years of cutting patterns for the likes of Vuitton, Galliano, Gaultier, and Hermès, Brazilian-born, Paris-based Lins honed his aesthetic to the point where he was ready to strike out on his own. This season, his quietly growing three-year-old label highlights fitted jackets and the sleekest three-quarter-length coat, but the real seduction lies in the arcane poetry of the finishings (kid-leather-trimmed pockets, hook-and-eye closings). They reflect Lins's interest in the dandified extremities of "les incroyables et merveilleuses" in post-Revolutionary Paris. "I feel that economically, sociologically, even aesthetically we're very close to that period," the designer says. "But I'm not a destroyer I'm trying to help tailored clothes be more soft."
Flight: We first came across Lins's line at London's The Library, where menswear visionary Peter Sidell has been offering bulletins from the fashion front for the past decade. Another Sidell find is Flight, a new Portuguese label offering custom-made-level tailoring at off-the-peg pricesa timely reflection of the fact that men are feeling a little dressier, even if they're not necessarily feeling flush enough to make the leap to bespoke. And, as easy as it is for mass retailers to copy rough and ready casualwear, just watch them try to match Flight's cut and cloth.
Richard Kidd: Prior to launching his pseudonymous debut collection, available at Barneys and Maxfield's this spring, Canadian Raif Adelberg spent nearly a decade selling pieces from Helmut Lang and Vivienne Westwood out of his Vancouver boutique. Presented under the "Richard Kidd" monicker ("I didn't want to name it Raif, because then if you decide to sell your name, someone else owns your identity," he told us, ambitiously), the line ranges from hand-spun scarves and sweaters made of Loro Piana cashmere to T-shirts embroidered with sterling-silver thread. Thus far he's managed to attract both Brad Pitt and li'l Maddox as fans (there's also a "Kidds" line). Be prepared to loan it out, however. "A lot of girls like to wear the stuff," he said, before sending this photo of Erin Wasson in a T-shirt to prove it.
Gustavo Lins and Flight available at The Library, 268 Brompton Rd., London, (44) 20-7589-6569; Gustavo Lins also available at Maxfield's, 8825 Melrose Ave., (310) 274-8800; Richard Kidd available at Maxfield's and Barneys New York, 660 Madison Avenue, (212) 826-8900, www.barneys.com, www.richardkidd.net.
Why Do Men Have Nipples : Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor after Your Third Martini
by Mark Leynet and Billy Goldberg
this is a terrific book that answers every medical question you've ever had (and many that you cannot believe others have thought of).
The writing is fresh, funny, and very informative. and the book is thin and easy to read: and makes for great plane reading.
From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Deidre Hall has sold her Bel-Air home which was listed at just under $8.5 million. The home used to belong to Bob Newhart and was designed to look like an English country home.
--NBA player Slava Medvedenko has bought newly-built home in Manhattan Beach for around $2.5 million and sold his Playa Vista condo for nearly $1.7 million. He was released from the Lakers due to a back injury.
--Screenwriter Tedi Sarafian recently bought a $1.6 million Sunset Strip-area home that once belonged to Bette Davis. He also has owned the West Hollywood apartment she spent her later years in.
--Designer-builder Nicole Sassaman is rehabbing a Beverly Hills house that was built by orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski and was briefly home to Greta Garbo and later fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt. The newly updated home which will now have a master bedroom suite with a sundeck and a bathroom with an infinity tub and a steam shower should hit the market in May for just under $8 million.
From the NY Post Gimme Shelter:
--Frederic Fekkai has purchased the Fifth Avenue apartment of billionaire John Kluge for around $7.4 million.
--Entertainment mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. has paid $26 million for a 3.4 acre compound in Bridgehampton. It has "minimal water frontage" and if you look out the second story windows you can catch a glimpse of the ocean. Luckily it has more to recommend it including eight bedroom, a media room, wine cellar, pool and a tennis court. He also bought another 1.3-acre piece of land with a smaller house and a pool, for $5 million.
--Donny Deutsch paid $1 million over the asking price for a six-story townhouse on East 78th Street. He was outbid on his $21 million offer but the owner liked Deutsch's broker better.
--In the Hamptons, East Hampton Point, a compound that includes a restaurant, guest cottages and a marina is for sale for $55 million. The listing is here.
From the NY Times Big Deal:
--Scarlett Johansson picked a duplex in TriBeCa for $1.95 million in January/
--A new condo building, the Caledonia next to the High Line in Chelsea will have bamboo plank floors, stainless-steel appliances, a fitness club, terraces, a meditation garden and its own entrance to the proposed High Line park.
--Author A.M. Homes who has written short story collections and written for "The L Word" has purchased a three-bedroom house that was listed for $1.3 million in the Village of East Hampton. She already has a one-bedroom house in the Town of East Hampton.
--Sol Kerzner, a resort and casino developer will buy the $10.5 million penthouse at the Urban Glass House for his daughter Beverley.
And in Aniston, Jolie, Pitt News
--Forbes reports that the Wallace Neff Beverly Hills mansion that belonged to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston is in escrow for $22.5 million.
--The rumor that Angelina Jolie is buying Yves St. Laurent's house on the Normandy Coast is alive and well once again.
Of all Barcelona's recent architectural additions Jean Nouvel's conical, multicolored Torre Agbar, Richard Rogers' Hesperia Tower one of the most intriguing is an interior-only job. What was once a hospital just off the landmark Las Ramblas strip has been transformed into the city's coolest new hotel, the Granados 83. Behind the neoclassical facade, architect Carles Bassó has set out to create a vibe "present in SoHo's lofts in New York," and the 85 airy rooms crafted from steel, marble, and glass stand in cool contrast to the original building's traditional brick. That combination of sleekness and warmth plus a rooftop pool, Asian and Spanish restaurants, and Japanese gardens have combined to turn the property into a destination for locals as well as guests.
Beyond the hotel walls, Barcelona is hip as ever as GQ illustrated with its recent Kuno Becker shoot. While you're in a design-appreciating mood, be sure to check out Evo, the new restaurant situated within the domed roof of Rogers' Hesperia. It offers 360-degree views of the city, including what'll always be its most famous architectural landmark, Gaudí's Sagrada Familia.
Granados 83 Hotel, Enric Granados 83, (800) 337-4685, www.designhotels.com/granados83, from $135 per night; Evo at Hesperia Tower, Vía Augusta 13-15, 4 Planta, (34) 90-251-3444, www.hesperia-tower.com.
If you love luxury, but just want to stand out a bit from all the Vuitton out there, why not get some hand made luggage from Globe-Trotter. These British classics have been around since 1897 and have been the choice of royalty, political players, and even Sir Edmund Hilary. I call them the un-Vuitton, as you can get practically any color you want and still get the same great construction and style. Their basic design hasn't changed over the past century, but these cases stay up-to-date with new sizes and colors every season. I love the Cruise and Safari collection, they'll look great on the yacht or in any dull airport terminal.
In an effort to draw customers to their airlines, United Airlines announced today that it will be upgrading the international first and business class cabins in a program that will cost $165 million. They've partnered up with B/E Aerospace, a manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products to design new premium seats. Don't go looking for these seats yet, the new premium cabins will come out in 2007 and reconfiguration of United's entire international wide-body fleet will take a few years.
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