warm weather black on this week’s red carpet, studded accessories from Intermix and Lady Dior Marion
Black Is Cool This Summer: I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who took the initiative to scientifically prove that the darker a color is the more light it absorbs. All it took Mr. Franklin was a few fabric swatches, a patch of snow and a bright sunny day and viola! a fashion rule was born. But science be damned- because it’s looks as if this spring/ summer black is the new, well black. From black patent leather accessories ( hey, isn’t patent for winter, too?) to dark as night summery dresses, cover-ups, sandals and sunglasses complete with studded details- black moves from urban jungle to pool party. My favorite use of springtime black goes to Dior, whose ‘film noir’ advertisement featuring Marion Cotillard has me daydreaming of being a femme fatale clad in head to toe black, teetering the edge of the Eiffel Tower in strappy high heels as well! Watch It Here
Color as Sound: There is a super cool festival happening this weekend on NYC’s Governor’s Island called FIGMENT. In it’s third year, FIGMENT is a free non-for profit event featuring artists and performers wishing to explore art as a participatory collaboration with it’s audience. One artist in particular setting out to ’strike a chord’ with color lovers everywhere is artist Ellen Hackl Fagan, who believes every color emits it’s own sound. For the festival she has created a piece of work called The Alphabet Song Game, where participants hum their ABC’s while picking out the colorful square that they believe best represents each note. “This concrete game offers participants the opportunity to contemplate abstract color/sound relationships, often the first time. Motivated by the purity and beauty of color, I’m tuned in to its communicative nature. I regularly use alphabets as infrastructure in my work to explore new ideas and palettes as I continue to build a visual language in my painting.”
Color In The Hood: Sherwin-Williams has a great online magazine called Stir. This week’s issue features a look at the use of color in the ‘new urbanism’ building movement that has been happening throughout the United States over the past 30 years. In an article called ‘Goodbye Builder Beige’, writer
Little Boy Blue: Sure we all can probably name our favorite color, but probably non of us will ever be able to say we hold the patent of it as well. So goes the story of Yves Klein and his affair with the color Blue. Raised on the Cote d’Azure ( how appropo! ) Klein believed that through the single color of blue- which he once described as ‘ beyond dimensions’-lies the path to transcendence. A retrospective of Klein’s work, on view throughout the summer at the Museo d’arte in Switzerland, follows the path of his vibrant, experimental and all too short career.
Camo Goes Couture: This past week The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert is in Iraq helping to give our hard working troops a good laugh. But even with loads of ‘high ranking’ guest and even suprise video appearances from President Obama and former President Bush, nothing overshadowed the real star of the week- Colbart’s hand tailored, one -of- a kind camoflauge Brookes Brothers suit. Watch a clip here
