New York: Ozone Socks – Lolita Fashion

 Photographs courtesy Ozone Socks

New York: Ozone Socks – Lolita Fashion. Ozone Socks are a cool brand of luxury designer socks, designed by artist and designer Peter Rittmaster.  Their latest collection has been adopted by the Japanese Lolita Fashion sub-culture, now taking hold all over the world.  Lolita Fashion grants the wearer the wish to be forever a princess, whatever her age.  The “Victorian–era” inspired clothing phenomenon started on the streets of the Harajuku district in Tokyo and the name was picked for its cute girly ring rather than after the famous Nabokov character.  The signature look is made up of pretty ruffles, bows, frills, petticoats, banana curled hairstyles and bonnets in pastel colors or dark Goth colors. There are a variety of categories within the Lolita Signature Look, from Sweet Lolita, to Classic Lolita to Gothic Lolita.  Above. Sweet3 socks. 

Ozone Socks – Lolita Fashion. Ozone Socks president and CEO Laurie Mallet and creative director, partner, artist and designer Peter Rittmaster. The husband and wife team tell Contessanally about the success their socks have had with the Lolita Fashion-istas.
Peter. We have a wonderful mill in Japan, who makes our socks and they are capable of doing some amazing technical things that no one else can do. We have been designing socks for that mill, for our line, and they have become - kind of Lolita socks - and all these young sweet Lolitas have been chasing our socks, which coincidentally are made in Japan.
Laurie.  We are able to produce very feminine transparent pattered socks with the use of embroidery techniques and extremely fine yarns.  The lacey effect and the pretty patterns make them ideal for the Lolita Fashion phenomenon.

  Photographs courtesy Ozone Socks

 

Laurie. When, a few months a go, Aeryn Sylvaen started working with us at Ozone Socks in New York City, she really loved the socks and being a Lolita herself, she started wearing them, Aeryn lives in a small apartment, which is converted into a closet full of clothes and hats.  She is really amazing.
Peter. Because Aeryn is good at organizing and because she has a huge amount of Lolita clothes, she styled our photographs.
Above.  Kodona3.

   Photograph courtesy Ozone Socks

 Peter. This Lolita phenomenon is gaining momentum around the world.  For me it is very exciting and reminiscent of what happened in America in the ‘50s and the ‘60s with custom cars and hot rods.   They are an amazing American Art form.  And I see this fashion phenomenon as something very much akin to individual people just changing the way they approach fashion, just like the way they approached cars; they are individual people in a global world and they want to stand out.
Above. Dean Jefferies pin striping his high school sweetheart.

 

 Photographs courtesy Ozone Socks

 Ozone Socks – Lolita Fashion – Over-the-Knee Sweet2 socks

Photograph courtesy Ozone Socks

Ozone Socks – A custom BMW 4 door convertible. The top has been chopped off the original BMW and the car has been transformed into a four-door convertible.
Peter. These car people are not going into car dealerships to buy cars and these Lolitas are not going into shops around the world to buy fashion, because what they want is not there for them.  Both car customizers and Lolita Fashion girls did not like what was offered to them, so they created a new look that had not been seen before.
The BMW is part of the Rittmaster-Mallet car collection.

Pin It

New York: MAD Museum of Arts and Design – Joyce J. Scott – Maryland to Murano

New York: MAD Museum of Arts and Design – Joyce J.  Scott – Maryland to Murano.   At the MAD Museum of Arts and Design the exhibition, Joyce J. Scott - Maryland to Murano, until March 15.   Organized by Lowery Stokes Sims, MAD's William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, Maryland to Murano is the first exhibition that examines the relationship between Scott's beaded and constructed neckpieces created in her Baltimore, Maryland studio and her more recent blown glass sculptures crafted in the Berengo Studio on Murano in Venice. It demonstrates the interplay between these two bodies of work and reveals the range of Scott's technique and skill as well as the complex relationship she has shaped among adornment, content, and methodology.

Above. One of the highlights: Buddha (Wind) – 2013 - hand-blown Murano glass processes with beads, wire thread.   Buddha (Wind) is one of the three sculptures in the Buddha Series (2013). The multi-figural compositions allude to the four elements-earth, fire, water, and wind. Each work combines blown glass renderings of Buddha besieged by earthly beaded figures. The resulting experience is as powerfully metaphysical as it is technically astounding.

 

Maryland to Murano.  Artist, Joyce J. Scott has lived, studied, and worked in Maryland all her life. Challenging perceived dichotomies between art and craft, sophistication and naivete, politics and adornment, she has succeeded in incorporating these elements within a vast and varied body of work.  It is through her jewelry that she has garnered her widest audience and recognition. In Scott's hands, human adornment becomes a vehicle for social commentary and a means for confronting contentious issues affecting contemporary society. Navigating controversial themes including hunger, rape, and racial stereotypes, Scott's jewelry transcends the typical function of adornment and embellishment.

 

Maryland to Murano.  Vessel – 2006 - woven glass beads, thread, wire, mixed media – front and back.   Perhaps no other work in this exhibition indicates the connection between Scott’s neckpieces and her sculptural work better than this beaded vessel.  The accumulation of multiple elements and heads demonstrate her skill in manipulating beaded technique into three-dimensional form.

 

Maryland to Murano.  Rain – 2014 – beads, thread. One of her most recent pieces, Rain is a proliferation of turquoise curlicues, tendrils, and twists, intermingled with disembodied yet active figures. Having been detached and reworked from one of Scott's sculptural glass busts, this piece is a prime example of the connection between her bodies of work.

 

Maryland to Murano. Curator, Lowery Stokes Sims. "Joyce Scott has maneuvered within the most traditional of materials and techniques to create a body of work of great expressive potential," says Stokes Sims. "She has positioned herself within the context of the art world in such a way that the viability of her materials and the place where she creates is widely recognized and celebrated."

 

Maryland to Murano.  Dance Neckpiece – 2013 – woven glass beads.

 photograph by Michael Koryta - courtesy Goya Contemporary and MAD Museum

Maryland to Murano.  Lewd #1 – 2013 – hand-blown Murano glass processes with beads and thread. Demonstrating Scott's skillful combination of beadwork and blown glass, Lewd #1 (2013) is a tour de force of glassblowing techniques and salacious nuances. A beaded imp torments the glass female figure to create a vignette rife with sexual tension.

 

Maryland to Murano.  Detail, Joyce’s Necklace – ca. 1990s – thread, beads, silver, enamel, metal, horn, mixed stones, ivory, created collected and gifted charms.  This necklace is typical of those that are custom-made by Scott.  The components represent highly personal memories of the owner, who in this case is the artist herself.  Evoking assemblage and collage this “accumulation and aggregation of elements” is described by artist Howardena Pindell as “a distinctive characteristic of African aesthetics.”

 

Maryland to Murano.  Glenn Adamson. "Over the last four decades, Scott has honed her craft and delivered striking visual narratives through masterful technical skill, while demonstrating an ongoing interest in collaborating with craftspeople across the globe," says Glenn Adamson, MAD's Nanette L. Laitman Director. "Maryland to Murano indicates the Museum's commitment to presenting jewelry as an innovative art form and to examining how the medium is continually expanding."

 

Maryland to Murano.  Virgin of Guadalupe – 2009 – woven glass beads.  Virgin of Guadalupe depicts a motley parade of devils, skeletons, and devotees alongside the Virgin Mary. This beaded neckpiece defies compositional logic as the figures pile onto one another.

 

  Maryland to Murano.   Breath – 2014 – hand-blown Murano glass process with beads and thread.

Pin It

New York: ABC Cocina restaurant

New York: ABC Cocina restaurant. Casual and trendy full of energy with very tasty and delicious Pan-Latin inspired farm-to-table food, ABC Cocina is one of Michelin star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s latest restaurants.  Divided only by a corridor space with Jean-George’s other restaurant, ABC Kitchen, both are located inside ABC Carpet and Home. The space, like any ABC Carpet installations, is appealing. With it’s eclectic mix of styles and furniture, it is dark and industrial looking, yet cozy and fun. LED low voltage chandeliers, black steel top tables and Thonet chairs, with an occasional pink one thrown in, mix terribly well with the “quaint” mix of mismatched antique plates and cute little wild flower arrangements on the each table.

Above. Hibiscus Iced Tea.

 

ABC Cocina. Lunch was shared with my famous friends from the world of design. Design consultant extraordinaire Jeffrey Osborne and renowned design journalist Pilar Viladas.

ABC Cocina.  Esteemed artist, fabric designer and weaver Suzanne Tick.

 

ABC Cocina. A must have – Guacamole with Sungold Tomato Salsa and Warm Crunchy Tortillas. English peas are added to the avocado giving it a sweetness and a chunky texture that intensify the color.

 

ABC Cocina –  Raw Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad, Shepherd’s Cheese and Marcona Almonds

ABC Cocina – Raw Shaved Fluke with Green Chili Dressing, Crunchy Rice and Herbs

ABC Cocina – The Salted Caramel ‘Impossible’ Flan is served on pink pressed glass little dishes.

 

.

  

 ABC Cocina – Coffee is served in antique mismatched cups and saucers.

  ABC Cocina – A delicious Assortment of Cookies ends the meal.

Pin It

New York: Sperone Westwater – Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014 Exhbition

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

 

New York: Sperone Westwater – Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014 Exhbition.  At Sperone Westwater the exhibition “Heinz Mack: From ZERO to Today, 1955–2014.”, until December 13. Mack co-founded the ZERO group, organizing an inaugural series of one-evening exhibitions with fellow German artist Otto Piene in Dusseldorf in 1957. An extensive network of like-minded artists grew out of these early exhibitions, envisioning a conceptual “ground zero” that would revitalize postwar artistic practice. Featuring a comprehensive overview of Mack’s work from the ZERO years (1957–66), the exhibition at Sperone Westwater runs concurrently with the survey “ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s–60s” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Above. Angela Westwater and Heinz Mack.

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

 

Sperone Westwater – Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014.  In 1958, Mack coined the term “light reliefs” to describe shallow wall-mounted works with patterned metallic surfaces dramatizing the play of light and shadow. The early paintings on display similarly repress color in favor of “pure” dynamism, particularly a series of Dynamic Structures, which simulate a kinetic quality in their sharp configurations of parallel strokes. As Mack describes, “Individual parallel zones gradually transform themselves from zone to zone, while at the same time they retain their distinct but mutual character – in this way they are brought into vibration.” A black and white Dynamic Structure painting from 1959–60 evokes light flashing across a dark support, heralding Mack’s growing desire to extend the effects of metallic relief into other media.

 

Gian Enzo Sperone

Sperone Westwater– Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014.  Kinetik Movement (Lammellen-Relief) (1967) develops the effects of light flashing across a dark support further through the literal application of neat aluminum strips to a wood surface. The exhibition presents a full circle of Mack’s engagement with light, from the development of source imagery to the animation of kinetic and static works alike.

Above. Heinz Mack – Poeme De Silence – 94-10 - front and back

Sperone Westwater– Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014.  The exhibition also features rarely exhibited 1960s photographs recalling similar experiments of the Bauhaus period. Mack’s photographic experiments resulted in compelling works whose imagery hovers between the organic and graphic, as well as generating new sculptural forms.

Pin It