'Frida's Parlour' Opens In London Until June 16, 2018, Landmark Frida Kahlo Exhibition At V&A Follows

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If you just happen to be dropping into London this weekend -- or anytime between May 19-June 16, 2018 take a stroll over to 141 Ebury Street and Frida's Parlour. 

Launched to coincide with Belgravia in Bloom, a week-long floral festival held across the district, as well as with the V&A’s landmark Frida Kahlo exhibition, the Parlour will serve as a social space throughout the day, with free entry for all visitors. During the evenings, the venue will play host to a series of hands-on evening workshops inspired by Kahlo’s unique style (booking essential here). Try your hand at floral embroidery with Lora Avedian, mix a Mexican cocktail with the Cubitt House team or craft your own jewellery with Luminaire Arts. 

Bowing to the need for a selfie, visitors can snap away inside the Wallpaper Room. The first 50 guests will receive a limited-edition tote bag designed by the artist Zabou, whose mural depicting the artist can be seen in Belgravia’s Eccleston Yards. via Town & Country UK

We're looking for the specific Zabou mentioned, but in fact Zabou has enjoyed a love affair with Frida Kahlo for some time. In these images, Zabou teams up with Mexican yarn artist Villana for some great Frida street art.

London's V&A Museum Opens Amanda Levete-Designed Exhibition Road Quarter

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London's V&A Museum Opens Amanda Levete-Designed Exhibition Road Quarter

London's esteemed museum of design, art, architecture and engineering, the V&A unveiled on July 1 its new public spaces. A street party extended along Exhibition Road, accompanied by floating art from Tomás Saraceno, a fashion spectacular from designer Molly Goddard, and a hybrid opera from Anat Ben-David.

Simply stated, the V&A is shaking off some dust, offering a revamped entrance affectionately dubbed the 'Millenials' Entrance' offering a zone for the museum as entertainment, an alternative to computer screens and coffee shops. 

Eye | 'McQueen' Play Opens In London To Mixed Reviews As Sister Janet Reveals Alexander McQueen's Sexual Abuse With Her Then Husband

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Art & Culture

‘McQueen’

The play ‘McQueen’, now open at the St James Theatre in London, is receiving mixed reviews. The Independent approves of the drama’s choice of a ‘one night fairytale, a James Phillips script that whirls across London from the four-time winner of the ‘British Designer of the Year’ award’s posh house in West London to a high-rise rooftop in East London.’

The action is inspired by Dahlia, a young woman with her own dark side, who walks into McQueen’s life from his garden to steal a dress. The plot is anchored in reality, inspired by the 600-year-old ancient elm tree in McQueen’s garden and his Fall 2008 collection ‘A Girl Who Lives in a Tree’ that honored Royal Brittania and Indian exotica. This well-received collection came shortly after the 2007 suicide of McQueen’s good friend Isabella Blow.

Alexander McQueen Fall 2008

The play explores McQueen’s own depression — the designer killed himself in 2010 — using Dahlia as his mirror image. McQueen is played by actor Stephen Wight and Dahlia by GLEE star Dianna Agron. LondonTheatre1 writes:

Moving video imagery, pulsating fashion songs that are sweetened by baroque music transfer McQueen and Dahlia to various places, from Saville Row, a party in the V & A, a lunchtime interview, his mother’s home and the summit of a tall building in Stratford. We meet his humble ex-boss Mr Hitchcock, played by David Shaw-Parker, cut-throat PR slash journalist Arabella, acted by Laura Rees, and Isabella Blow, played by Eastenders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman, who enters the stage on a white sofa with smoke and a pair of diamante platforms to match. Yet, it’s not the dreamlike journey that thrill the audience but the conversations McQueen has with the other characters. Philips’ script puts McQueen in a poetic space full of interesting utterances of what ‘beauty’ means to him. On his body he has the Shakespearean words, ‘Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind’ tattooed on his body. Here, Philips suggests that McQueen found fruit in understanding people.

Other Reviews:

McQueen theatre review: plodding piece lacks Alexander McQueen’s dramatic daring London Evening Standard

London Theater Critics Tear Dianna Agron Limb from Limb, then BURN HER Defamer @ Gawker

A New Play Explores Alexander McQueen’s Psyche The Cut @ NY Magazine

McQueen’s Sexual Abuse

Vogue UK wrote last week that Lee McQueen’s sister Janet has finally spoken about her brother’s sexual abuse suffered in the hands of her former husband. 15 years older than her famous brother, Janet says that she was not aware of the abuse until four years before McQueen’s death.

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Eye | Luxury At V&A | London Craft Week | Lagerfeld In Bonn With Wanda Barcelona

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DesignTracker

V&A Talks Luxury

Open now at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is ‘What Is Luxury’, closing on Sept. 27, 2015. Running concurrently with the blockbuster exhibition ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’, open through July 31, the collection of 100 objects set out to define luxury while predicting its future.

‘We wanted to show that no matter how gorgeous an object may be, it always exists within a larger context of ecology, economy, politics and culture,”’explains co-curator Leanne Wierzba. ‘Take Studio Swine’s ‘Hair Highway,’ (photo below) which sets human hair in natural resin, fashioning a dressing table, comb set and trinket boxes that look for all intents and purposes like wood. It’s all part of a commentary on the Chinese hair trade that highlights the material’s latent possibilities as a self-sustaining resource — one beautiful enough to put an end to the use of coral and tortoiseshell.’

The curators recognize that the future of luxury lies not with material goods but with discovery and exploration — or with time itself. Luxury has a historic and intrinsic link with craft, a relationship that will be supported and explored with the first London Craft Week, launching May 6, 2015. via

“Hair Highway” combs by Studio Swine, 2014. Studio SwineLondon Craft Week

May 6-10 London Craft Week

London has long had a Fashion Week and a Design Festival. From 2015, it will have the equivalent for the craft sector: London Craft Week, featuring the artistic flair, painstaking skills and raw talent of exceptional craftsmanship and, as a result, attracting an ever - increasing quality and volume of collectors and customers.’ says founder and chairman, Guy Salter.

Founded on the ethos of making, London Craft Week aims to introduce the talent, people and techniques behind beautifully made things to a wider audience.  They will be able to experience craft not just as static branded objects in smart shops but understand the context of how they were made, why they are special and even have a try themselves.

Lagerfeld Exhibition in Bonn

Karl Lagerfeld in Bonn through September 30, 2015.

From Germany’s Bundeskunsthalle Bonn museum exhibition website:

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Eye | Toni Garrn Closed Denim For Burkina Faso | Cindy Crawford 's 2015 Art Van Charity Challenge

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London’s ‘Blood, Swept Lands and Seas of Red’

London’s ‘Blood, Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ Creates Controversy and Contemplation About War AOC Human Values

AOC shares an extraordinary installation in London called ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’. Estimates are that over four million people will see the installation of 888,248 handmade poppies, each representing a person who died during World War One, before the last poppy is planted on Armistice Day, November 11.

16 acres of clay poppies commemorating blood spill out and around the Tower of London in a magnificent tribute individually assembled by volunteers under the direction of artist Paul Cummins working with site design by Tom Piper. Ninety tons of steel comprise the stems of the poppies, which appear to be floating over the moat or pouring out of a tower window.

The project is controversial in its beauty. Hear both sides of the controversy: Read on.

Toni Garrn for Hamburg’s Closed Denim and African Women

Toni Garrn for Closed Denim Jeans - #youandmegirl Campaign In Burkina Faso AOC GlamTribale

Hamburg-born, top model Toni Garrn has teamed up with the Hamburg-based denim company Closed andthe charity Plan International in a jean collaboration. All profits from the line will provide scholarships for impoverished women in Burkina Faso through Plan International’s ‘Because I’m a Girl’ campaign. Read on.

Cindy Crawford Is 2015 Art Van Charity Challenge Ambassador

Art Van Elslander, founder and chairman of Art Van Furniture, and Cindy Crawford, international supermodel, businesswoman and philanthropist, have deepened their decade long retail relationship by collaborating on a major Midwest philanthropic initiative. On Wednesday, October 29, Crawford launched her new, high visibility role as 2015 Art Van Charity Challenge Ambassador, officially announcing that $1 million in charitable grants will be awarded next year to nonprofit organizations in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Crawford shared the news at “A Shining Star Event” at its store in Logan Square, Illinois celebrating the retailer’s 55th anniversary and first year in Chicago.

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Eye | Zaha Hadid's Catharsis For Cambodia | WikiLeaks Gets Fashionable | London's Hackney Fashion Lab

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DesignTracker

A Viking Past Lives In Denmark’s Wind-Powered Today

Viking Horn-Inspired Turbines Make Green Music in Copenhagen  AOC Human Values

Denmark pioneered wind power during the 1970s and created a manufacturing base that today leads the technology. Wind power provided one-third of Denmark’s energy consumption in 2013 and 41% of energy consumption in the first half of 2014. The goal is 50% of Denmark’s energy consumption coming from wind power by 2020.

How poetic and relevant it is that designers Laura Mesa Arango and Rafael Sanchez Herrera are inspired by Denmark’s wind power history but also historical Viking horn forms for their new exhibit at the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative.

 Frank Tjeplema of Dutch Studio Tjeo

 

‘Bronze Age’ Sensual Furniture By Frank Tjeplema AOC Human Values

Frank Tjeplema, lead designer and founder of Dutch studio Tjeo produces inspiring bronze furniture that is exquisite in terms of its craftsmanship and sensuality. The collection called ‘Bronze Age’ is presented in the ballroom of the Colloredo Mansfeld Palace in Prague. Tnepkema explains:

Holocaust Catharsis In Cambodia

Zaha Hadid Unveils Cambodia’s Sleuk Rith Institute Designs, Inspired by Angor Wat AOC Sensual Rebel

Global powerhouse British architect Zaha Hadid shares her design vision for Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s new Sleuk Rith Institute dedicated to Memory, Justice and Healing around the genocide related to the Khmer Rouge era.The documentation center was established in 1995 and holds archives of nearly one million documents. Over two million people — about 20 percent of the population — lost their lives in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979,

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