Pretty Ballerinas summer edition

It's not a secret (especially if you know me well) that I am crazy for ballerinas... but for the hot summer days in Barcelona nothing like flat sandals or Havaianas. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that my favorite brand of ballerinas launched a special summer edition of the Lilly collection available in many colors such as fucsia, green, red, gold, silver, white....

If you are somewhere in the south hemisphere you can shop online for the winter collection - simply fabulous... this blog recommends!

Pretty Ballerinas
www.prettyballerinas.com

Brazilian Vice hits the streets of Sao Paulo

Canadian Vice, a free-sheet publication distributed in funky places, and best known for its controversial content and its strong, attractive artwork will be launched in Brazil in June.

Brazilian Vice will be distributed in nightclubs, art galleries, trendy shops and around the skate scene haunts of São Paulo only (at least for now).

Vice No. 0 counts with Vice reporters and editors from around the world, who visited Brazil solely for this purpose.

The Brazilian Issue -http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n5/htdocs/index.php?country=us ...and Vice in Brazil - http://www.viceland.com/br/

Art dolls by Dina Ladina

I was in Portugal for a week, traveling with my 'made in Brazil' friends and in one of my gallery hunting afternoons in Porto, I had the chance of meeting the girls from Aguas Furtadas (lovely by the way!). They had such great collection of work by young talented Portuguese designers and artists that no need to say that my friends L, P and J had to push me literally out of the gallery.

Some of the most fabulous art dolls they had were the hand made ones by Dina Ladina. I uploaded some photos of her work below that I kindly borrowed from her personal crafts blog, but you can find more images in her Flickr photostream, where she has lots of pics of her beautiful work.

Enjoy it :-)

Porto

The streets of Porto...

Photos by Vane

Gisele Bündchen: The charmed life of the mega-model

Our 'querissíma' super top-model Gisele receives a dedicated feature in the British daily The Independent. The article is all superlatives, but well, what isn't in the mega-model's life?

For the original article, click here.

First selling exhibition of work by Cecil Beaton in over 25 years

The british gallery Chris Beetles, in collaboration with Sotheby's, announces an exhibition of photographer, painter, illustrator, writer and Oscar-winning designer of sets and costumes Cecil Beaton (1904 - 1980).

Beaton the photographer cultivated a genius for staging compelling scenes. An extensive list of movie stars, artists and members of the Royal Family were portraited by him, amongst them Buster Keaton, Marlene Dietrich, Pablo Picasso, Edith Sitwell, Truman Capotte, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.

The show in London combines 64 vintage and modern prints, the latter produced from original negatives drawn from Sotheby’s unique archive.

Accompanying the exhibition will be a 92 page, fully illustrated catalogue containing a foreword by Mario Testino. It is available from the gallery at 10 pounds.

Cecil Beaton selling exhibition
Beetles Gallery, London
22 April to 16 May 2009
www.chrisbeetles.com

Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1956

Slow the crisis down

Great article by La Casita de Wendy on "Crisis, Fashion and the Slow Movement", with the colaboration of Spanish sociologist and cool hunter Miguel Fdez. de Molina.

To read the article, click here.

Handmade editorial

A fashion editorial totally handmade? Jalouse invited a selection of artists to create a special handmade edition, from the cosmetics session with each product replica carefully embroidered by Emma Ferguson and Kate Talbot, to the magazine's title, knitted letter by letter.

Marie Christophe, well known in the world of fashion for her contributions for Dior, Baccarat, Cartier and Hermès, created the magazine's editorial page (absolutely amazing) with her delicate and light iron sculptures. Below you can find some of her work.

For a glimpse of Jalouse's handmade edition, click here.

http://www.mariechristophe.com/

Mix It Up

The consumer team at the agency organized a Swap Party last week to present the new adidas Mix It Up collection designed exclusively for Foot Locker. The party guests danced at the rhythm of rock, dance and hip hop, while exchanging parts of garment on the dance floor. The winner was the person wearing the crazyiest and most original outfit at the end of the party.

The gig - that gathered over 200 guests at Bar Pepino in Barcelona - was inspired by the adidas Mix It Up concept.

Check out some pics from the party...

Images: Edelman/Foot Locker

Coco avant Chanel

Hopefully you are not yet bored with all my French stories since I came back from Provence, but I had to dedicate a post to the premiere of 'Coco avant Chanel', the new Warner Bros feature film directed by Anne Fontaine.

The feature tells the story of the path taken by Coco from her obscure beginnings to the blinding lights of Paris, interpreted by the magnificent French actress Audrey Tautou.

Lucky me! Next week I'm in Paris for work, and I will have the chance of watching the film, that opens April 22 in cinemas across France.

And for the ones dying of curiosity, I have included the French trailer of the film that shows amongst other things, scenes of ateliê Chanel with the notorious staircases where Coco used to present her collections.

Fotos: Flickr


Audrey Tautou looks stunning in this white and black floral Chanel from Lagerfeld's spring 2009 couture collection that the actress chose to wear for the film's avant premiere in Paris.

Their most intimate secret: their real beauty

My short trip to France was really productive. I returned inspired and with lots of new tidbits to share with you.

The first one is about the photo shooting by Peter Lindbergh for the April edition of the French Elle. Eight iconic stars pose to the photographer without make-up and without photoshop retouching, showing their most intimate secret: their real and natural beauty.

The photo session resulted in a special three cover edition, featuring Monica Belucci, Sophie Marceau and Eva Herzigova! For the vídeo, click here.

Rousset les Vignes

Fotos by Vane (Flickr)

Designer jewellery by Maria Dolores

In December I travelled to Brazil to celebrate my wedding and I spent a month in my hometown Curitiba, where I had the immense joy of getting to know the work of talented designer Maria Dolores.

Her work is of incredible beauty, delicacy and harmony. Each of Maria Dolores's creations is carefully studied and carries the taste, soul and creativity of the designer.

The girl who helped me in the store in Crystal was such a doll, showing me every piece of the new collection, explaining the origin of each material and the technique employed by the designer - a luxury I must confess. I ended up buying a beautiful pair of golden hoop earrings (not joking, people stop me at the street to ask me about these earrings) as well as a gorgeous bracelet from the Metallo collection.

I must confess that I regret not buying the jellewed headdress with a rose on top or the super cool hummingbird shaped earring - well, next time.

The work of Maria Dolores design art concept is available in Argentina, Italy, Peru and US, as well as in many stores across Brazil. Also, if you feel terribly in love with one of her creations (and I know you will), you can order online by sending an email to her with the reference number.

Images: Atelier Maria Dolores design
http://www.designmariadolores.com.br/

Wall-à-Porter

Now that we are decorating our new flat at the bottom of the Gràcia hill, I can't help but nose around in search of ideas, creative solutions and advice from interior design blog gurus.

What reminds me that the other day I was talking to V. about what picture to hang at the entrance of our flat, and V. suggested I used wallpaper instead.

I really enjoyed the idea, and it was a great surprise when I realized that "Tres Tintas Barcelona", a Catalan manufacturer of creative and artistic wallpapers had just launched their new collection entitled Wall-à-Porter - a selection of famous Spanish fashion designers creations transfered to paper.

The project worked so well that the three brothers from Tres Tintas Barcelona decided to also launch their first textile collection with the patterns. La Casita de Wendy, Txell Miras and Miriam Ocáriz are some of the names behind the beautiful wallpaper collection.

C'est le printemps!!!

The most beautiful city in spring? Paris!

Since I'm feeling slightly nostalgic for its parks, for the hilly narrow streets of Montmartre and drinking pastis at Canal de l'Ourcq, I decided to welcome spring this year with Sofia Coppola-directed ad for Miss Dior Chérie!!!

Images: Flickr

Carine Roitfeld on CNN's: revealed

"Great mother, great editor, great woman", this is how Marc Jacobs describes the French Vogue editor in-chief, Carine Roitfeld - opinion shared by many other personalities in the fashion world, among them Tom Ford, Mario Testino, Karl Lagerfeld and a huge list of etceteras.

Carine is the latest guest on CNN's revealed, that accompanies the French editor to the haute couture shows in Paris, New York (where her kids currently live) and to an unusual fashion shooting for Vogue in Paris. And, of course, last but not least, it also featured Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld exchanging pleasantries before a fashion show.

Image from Flickr

Part I

Part II

Part III

Exclusivity at your feet

One of my favorite streets in Madrid is Calle Espíritu Santo, in the Malasaña neighbourhood. The place hides wonderful surprises like the small shoe shop Ioli-Guide, a place where you enter and the first reaction you have is to try every single pair of exclusive shoes available. That's right, exclusive!

At Ioli-Guide, anyone can create his/her own pair of shoes, choosing from six existing insole shapes, with a combination of over a 100 fabrics and a range of heels available (with a 15€ suplement for platform shoes).

In the web, that is still not a 100% ready, you can play with the different combinations (my favorite one is the Pispireta 4, just like in the picture below), created by designers Veronique Guide and Cynthia Ioli.


Exclusivity has its price, of course: for a model available in store the price is aprox 150€, and to design your own pair of shoes, the price increases to aprox 185€.

Men are also welcome to design their own exclusive pair of shoes. Also, the store has a beautiful collection of bags and accessories, all hand-made.

Images: diario El Mundo

Vive les courbes

Since a friend of mine at the agency told us that he was 'hooked' on Mad Men, my weekends are not the same. We are addicted to such a level that we are having sessions of 3 episodes in a row without getting out of bed, except to get popcorn and drinks.

Don Draper, mysterious as ever, with his irresistible charms(my favorite is the spicy sofa scene with Maggie Siff),barely lasting an hour without a cigarette or a drink (deliciously politically incorrect),

or sexy Joan Holloway's (played by Christina Hendricks)walking through Sterling Cooper's hallways, driving all men and women crazy with her curves and looks, proving that sexy doesn't have to come in a size zero package.