OUT OF THE BOX

There is quite an unusual place to discover in Rotterdam: Hubshop - located  at Binnenweg 195b. 

Hubshop works as a collaborative boutique where designers and entrepreneurs can present their work in boxes of various sizes. 

Hubshop allows a direct link between designers and customers since every item on display in the shop was designed and directly arranged by the designers and entrepreneurs themselves. “Hubshop is a retail platform for innovative products that are sustainable, handmade or forward thinking.”

And guess who just joined this team? We are pleased to announce you that our products are available at Hubshop as from today. 

We’d like to thank Charlotte and Alex for their warm welcome and we invite you to visit them soon in their very nice and surprising shop!

VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE, 13th EDITION

As many of you might know, this year will run in  Venice the 13th edition of the  International Architecture Exhibition , directed by David Chipperfield and titled Common Ground. The exposition will run from 29th August through 25th November 2012 .

We have the pleasure to announce you that together with our friends from bozin szekely architects we have been invited to participate to the exposition "Traces of Centuries & Future Steps" organised at Palazzo Bembo ,Venice during this major event.

This is a major project that we will be working on in the coming months and we shall definitely speak more about it soon!

Fashion week addiction 2/2!

LAB' GUEST COLUMN _ Fanny Caffin_ Fashion week addiction! 2/2                                                                                            

Previously in “Fashion week addiction!”, I told you that I was “running” after Fashion Shows. This was not just a way of saying.

Indeed a Fashion Show season lasts about one week, with 11 shows per day from 10.00 a.m. to 08.00 p.m., each in a different place in Paris (Photo 1). Attending most of them is tempting and requires traveling through Paris all day long.... But sometimes we have to cool down and go for another strategy: get the best spot to get the best shot!

Pic. 1: The most amazing place for a Fashion Show that I have ever seen so far is the dome of the crematorium at Père Lachaise Cemetery

For “magazine shots”, one has to be patient for instance. Photographers take possession of their territory 1 to 2 hours before the official beginning of the show: a 12m ² areas where more than 40 people crammed to form literally a "human Tetris". Arriving first, one makes sure to get the best angle (Photo 2). The other guests such as press, buyers and regular customers arrive 30min before the show. 

Pic. 2:  The more the brand is famous, the more the photographers and cameramen crammed...

Unfortunately a Fashion Show is a real show only if it starts at least 30min late ... And when the show finally starts; one has to be really reactive! The presentation of 25 new models takes usually about 15 minutes. The girls, following each other, walk a rapid stride (Photo 3). They finally come back all together with the designer for the “finale” (Photo 4). 

Once the show is finished, everyone has to pack up their material very quickly for a new start and it starts all over again with the next show… 

  Pic. 3:  Models walking on Thierry Mugler show- RTW SS 2012/2013    

                          

Pic. 4: The “finale” of Vivienne Westwood show- RTW AH 2011/2012

Spoiler alert!

If you’d rather not learn about exclusive trends of the next Autumn/Winter 2012-2013 collection, then do not read the following paragraphs!

To stick to the season of this Ready-to-wear collection, Aganovich chose to present his models in a foggy atmosphere (Photo 5), while Paul & Joe got their models walk through a forest with fall colors (Photo 6), and Viktor & Rolf preferred the clarity of moonlight to show their new creations (Photo 7).

 Pic. 5: The “finale” of Aganovich show - RTW AH 2012/2013

 Pic. 6-7: show - RTW AH 2012/2013

Rundholz seems to be prepared for a rainy season since all models where carrying an umbrella during the first part of their show (Photo 8). Issey Miyake successfully combined technical innovation and practicality as some of their outfits were made of a thermo-retractable fabric (Photo 9). While other brands created timeless lines to suit all ages: Hexa Kuho (Photo 10), Jean Paul Lespagnard (Photo 11) or Steffie Christiaens with a little touch of madness… (Photo 12).

 Pic. 8-12: show - RTW AH 2012/2013

More exuberant designers dared to present very original models such as Peachoo + Krejberg (Photo 13), Bernhard Willhelm (Photo 14) or Alexender McQueen (Photo 15).”

Pic. 13-15: show - RTW AH 2012/2013
all pictures credits : Fanny Caffin

And if now, you also become addicted to the Fashion Week Paris and want to see pictures before everyone else, feel free to discover the next Haute Couture collection Autumn / Winter 2012/2013, which will begin in July, on:

https://www.facebook.com/F.Caffin.Photography

LAB' GUEST COLUMN _ Fanny Caffin_ Fashion week addiction! 2/2                                                                                               

Fanny Caffin is a french PhD student in fondamental research and, in another way, an self-taught photographer. You can follow her artistic work on:
https://www.facebook.com/F.Caffin.Photography

Other links updated less regularly:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Fann.CAFFIN
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanny_caffin

Multifunctional object, Biennale INTERIEUR 2012 and “space savers furniture”…

Major fair Biennale INTERIEUR 2012 will take place in the city of Kortrijk, Belgium in October. Lowie Vermeersch, president of the Biennale Interieur declared that "there's need and place for an open platform which enriches and strengthens our own selection with a more avant-garde and cutting edge spirit our critical and international audience is looking for. That's why different young designers, avant-garde companies, organisations, schools and institutions are more then welcome to show their talent in this new venue." 

So designers can show their talent by taking part to the competition on living environment within two categories: category object and category space. 

Working on a project for the category object of the competition, we dug on the subject of multifunctional object. We are particularly committed to this aspect of the products we design: they must be convenient to use and store, but also -when it is possible- to offer multiple possibilities of use. 

This is how we discovered the line of Italian-designed “space-savers” offered by the American company Resource Furniture. Watch the video to discover how these “space savers” give new possibilities for small spaces. And, as says Ron Barth - President of Resource Furniture in the video: "it is not just a cabinet ..."

We especially appreciate the technological prowess behind the systems they developed. A truly inspiring interdisciplinary teamwork!

Fashion week addiction!

LAB' GUEST COLUMN _ Fanny Caffin_ Fashion week addiction! 1/2                                                                                            

"Who never heard of the “Fashion Week”?

Even if you are absolutely not interested in fashion, you are surrounded by this term everywhere: television, radio, magazines.... This term can be very confusing since it is used all year long. The term “Fashion Week” refers to the six seasons of the different brand’s shows. The shows are organized in three categories: Haute Couture, Ready-to-wear and Men’s fashion, which are presented twice a year for the two seasons: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter.

Four years ago (already) I was part of the “neophytes”… and I'm not even sure I had yet heard of the term “Fashion Week”! During a period of doubt, I happened one day to be by chance near the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris - a camera in my hand (my lovely Nikon D40X)-, when the Christian Lacroix’s fashion show was about to start. This building has the great advantage of being made ​​of large glass windows which allow people standing outside to see what is going on inside (Photo 1). 

Pic. 1: Christian Lacroix / picture 'on the spot' through a window of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

My curiosity was attracted by the event’s preparation, and I was not the only one! I got quickly surrounded by other curious onlookers pressed against the windows like me! As I couldn’t enter inside without a precious pass, I immortalized the scene by a few shots through the window. (Photos 2, 3)

    

Pic. 2, 3: Christian Lacroix / pictures 'on the spot' through a window of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

The next day, having some spare time, I sent some of these pictures to several fashion’s websites wondering if they would be interested in “testing” me as a photographer. An answer arrived a month later! The developer of one website (www.photoparismode.com) contacted me to offer me a “trial” on the new show season, starting the very next day!

So I plunged into the world of fashion, and I photographed my first creator: Lie Sang Bong in one of the Hotel InterContinental’s rooms. That day, everything impressed me: the place first of all - I never thought I would one day enter a hotel of this standard - and then the show itself  of course! (Photos 4-9)

Pic 4-9: Lie Sang Bong Fashion show - Hotel InterContinental, Paris

I felt like I was on the other side of the mirror of these magazine pages that I was looking at in the dentist's waiting room. It was before discovering the world backstage after the show! This exciting atmosphere was also another universe to discover; it is really impressive to see so many people bustling around one single model! (Photo 10)  

This is how I became addicted to fashion show photography and why, on my spare time, I walk Paris’s streets in the hunt for designers. Now, I store tens of thousands of pictures which all have a different story that I’ll maybe tell you another day..."

Pic. 10: Lie Sang Bong Fashion show - Hotel InterContinental, Paris

all pictures credits : Fanny Caffin

LAB' GUEST COLUMN _ Fanny Caffin_ Fashion week addiction! 1/2                                                                                               

Fanny Caffin is a french PhD student in fondamental research and, in another way, an self-taught photographer. You can follow her artistic work on:
https://www.facebook.com/F.Caffin.Photography

Other links updated less regularly:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Fann.CAFFIN
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanny_caffin

CONCEPTUAL RECIPES EXPERIMENT

Last month you may have read our post “Food vs colors - new perspectives”, in which we were developing a new line of work. We made the following assumption: the color of the food we eat has an effect on our moods.

Color healing has been used over centuries around the world and it is well known that some colours have a depressing effect on our moods while others are uplifting.

Continuing our research on the relationship between food color and emotions, we developed an experimenting project. The idea to test our theory is the following: developing a food-color code that we will use to imagine unique culinary compositions. We will not follow classic recipes that give measurements / quantities of ingredients, but we will invent conceptual recipes giving the proportions of colors to use.

Will food be coloring your mood? Ready for the experience?

Here is the food-color code developed in our Lab ':