Spotlight: Designer Kate Cusack

Meet Kate Cusack a Brooklyn based designer-costumer who creates jewelry pieces and sculptural work from unusual material. Unusual material you say? Yes, metal-tooth zippers and plastic wrap if you will.

According to Kate herself, she makes costumes and wearable art. And that's just the term (wearable art) that can be employed to describe her line of Zipper Jewelry. It recently caught my eye on fellow blogger Choeny Wagma's blog, where i can safely say i was immediately taken by the sheer genius of her work. Made with a unique and contemporary design aesthetic Kate's pieces are truly one-of-a-kind.

Kate's zipper jewelry was first noticed in 2002, while she worked as a window-dresser, creating five Marie-Antoinette-style wigs made entirely from plastic wrap for Tiffany & Co.'s 5th Avenue store. The lady in the visual merchandising department who had hired Kate admired the zipper pin she'd affixed to her jacket so Kate made the second zipper pin as a thank you.

Since 2003 she took to making jewelry like bracelets, necklaces, brooches and pins out of metal-tooth zippers.

She points out:

"It’s ironic that most fashion designers try to hide or disguise zippers in their creations. However, I love zippers’ shiny metal teeth and I want to show off, not hide, their sparkle and their sinuous flexibility."

These handmade pieces sell for between $70 -$400, with custom pieces going up to $1000.

Zipper jewelry can be bought at Kate Cusack's Etsy shop.

Packaging love!

I simply love this 'Knickers of the Week' pack packaging idea by Stella McCartney!

Based on the concept of the knicker drawer, this delightful pack comes emblazoned with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all the way up to Sunday, ending with 'Bits and Bobs' beyond.

The lingerie inside of it isn't bad either.

All in all i think it makes for a lovely gift idea (for someone close...), and i can see it fit right into my wardrobe alongside my real underwear drawer! Can't you? :)

Sustainable Silk - a possibility

This is really interesting... young designer Elsbeth Joy Nielson from the Netherlands has discovered a way of producing silk without killing silkworms. As per the norm silkworms are thrown into boiling water when they cocooned themselves - which is the end of life.

The designer has been experimenting with an idea of sustainable silk production: before starting the cocooning she puts the silkworm on a shaped piece of carton board which is held by a stick that is centered on the downside. The silkworm then starts trying to escape from this platform - without success of course as it fall down at the edges of the carton. In the two days of crossing the carton in the search of an escape the silkworm so spins a random net of silk. The result is a very delicate texture made of silk which you can see in the picture. After this procedure the puts the silkworm back, lets him spin his cocoon and become a silk-spinner butterfly.

The only problem is that the butterfly has been breeded to produce silk for centuries and now his wings are not big enough that it could make him fly. Well - maybe biotechnology can help on that problem.

The resulting scarf demonstrates the fabric's exquisite beauty.

Via Roger Live.

Gap and Pantone T-Shop

Earlier this month Gap and Pantone set up a pop-up shop on 5th Ave in the company’s ‘concept store’ space.

Combining the popularity of Gap t-shirts and the prowess of the worldwide color coder’s energetic shades, Gap and Pantone announced the opening of a color-filled t-shirt shop in Gap’s rotating concept venue adjacent to its flagship store at 54th and 5th Ave.

The Gap & Pantone T-Shop will be open till Sunday, Feb. 8.

“We wanted to create an explosion of color and bring some warmth and optimism to our customers,” said Patrick Robinson, executive VP of design for Gap Adult and gapbody. Noble intentions those.

Pantone Inc. provides professional color standards for design industries. Each year, Pantone selects a “color of the year.” 2009’s color is PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa, a warm, engaging yellow that Gap will spotlight with exclusive Mimosa tees available for purchase at the Gap & Pantone T-Shop.

Brand tie-ins such as this should hopefully help Gap out of the financial doldrums the company has been seeing in recent years. For Pantone it brings the concept of colour-coding, from the environs of design studios, to the consumers, and makes for a good exercise in brand-building.

As an aside, i'm looking forward to more instances of Pop-up Retail globally, and wonder when the Indian market would be ready for a concept such as that. For more on Pop-up Retail visit trendwatching.com.

Runway fashion

For those not from within the fashion business, you would imagine that designers mainly pay painstaking attention to the clothes and hair and makeup looks they put together. But more-so now in recent years than ever before, designers spend a lot of time and energy working out every detail of the show, from music, to runway, to backdrop and lighting.

The runway forms a setting which supports, plays up and portrays a more complete vision of the collection on show.

Take a look at these interesting runways from a clutch of fashion weeks.

Wood chips strewn on the runway at the Ausländer show at Rio Fashion week Fall/Winter 09.
Photo Courtesy: Refinery29.com

Seen at Rio Fashion week Fall/Winter 09, this runway is a collage of passport size photographs.
Photo Courtesy: Refinery29.com

A roughly hewn wooden runway at Lanvin Spring 08.
Photo Courtesy: Piercemattiepublicrelations.com

In Delhi, designer Tarun Tahiliani goes temple-style with golden spires, lotus blossoms et al.
Photo Courtesy: Coutorture.com

Icicle-shaped chandeliers and a blue backdrop set the tone at Gaurav Gupta's Fall/Winter 08 show.
Photo Courtesy: Coutorture.com

In Mumbai, Sabyasachi Mukherjee goes regal with a burgundy velvet runway and ornate chandeliers. Fall/Winter 07.
Photo Courtesy: nj.com

Photo Courtesy: Refinery29.com

But the award for most original concept and execution has to go to designer brand Redley who's show at Rio Fashion week took place in the middle of a jungle on a mountaintop about an hour outside of the city. As lensman Pete Miszuk relates, "During the show there were huge butterflies floating everywhere in the air. It was completely surreal."