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Sunday, 30 December 2012
Un très Joyeux Noël .(scribbled at 13:07 )


So, it’s that time year again already. The party season in full swing (December in itself is one big hangover), this Christmas period is turning looking fairly similar to all the others I’ve previously experienced…I’d rather not divulge just how many kilograms of cherry infused Green and Blacks I’ve consumed in the past few days (yes, kilograms) but my god, it’s enough to make any gym bunny recoil in terror.

I can’t quite get over the fact that we’re edging that little closer to 2013 either, so I’m going to skim over the past few weeks.



Waitrose Christmas cake tastes much better than anything homemade. Seriously.

So, starting with mon très Joyeux Noël, I’d already mentally gone through it in my head on my homebound train from Marylebone last week, preparing to blog endlessly about a time spent pulling crackers with my siblings whilst Shakin’ Stevens pumped out on the radio in the background.

Of course, the harsh reality of all of this is that come 1 o’ clock in the afternoon on Christmas Day, 'twas very much a different picture to one I had envisaged; with me downing my fourth glass of Baileys whilst listening to my mother sporadically swearing numerous insults at the Turkey. It was a really great day though, my mom bought this Christmas Pudding Wine from Marks and Spencer which was essentially a bottle of pricey sherry, but it made a nice addition to the Christmas cake.

This is a very poor photograph of what I wore. But considering how much Baileys and mince pies I’d gotten through before I’d even given into the artery-destroying Christmas lunch, it’s probably for the best that I don’t display any full length photographs for a while. I mean, after an absurd portion of Christmas pudding and half a tin of Quality Street later, who actually wants to think about what they look like in clothing?


Anyway, so I wore this emerald green dress from Zara that was quite loose fitting pre-party-season. Along with half a Lancôme counter’s worth of mascara and lipstick and vertiginous heels, to hide how fat (igued) I felt that morning. 

As my 2 younger siblings played around on their swanky new tablets, I took delight in some of the more simpler things in life. Now that I am in my twenties, family have resorted to drowning me in wine, chocolates and paperbacks. My Liverpool-based bezzie bought me the Design Museum publication ‘How to Design a House’. When a much anticipated stroll to the village of Kinver fell through when it started pissing down on boxing day, this proved quite inspiring. I’m currently working through a major blueprint of my dream house and it’s going fairly smoothly so far:


Speaking of the Design Museum, I took a visit to Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery. I really like this Ron Arad bracelet:
And whilst I was there, I revisited the utterly amazing Swarovski and Designers in Residence exhibitions. The enormous Swarovski chandelier is worth paying the entry fee for in itself.







Oh, AND I SAW MARY KATRANTZOU AT THE V&A THE OTHER WEEK. It was absolutely amazing, I actually can't quite describe how beautiful she is.




Eum, where did I get in my ramblings? Right, so I made my first attempt at fancy dress in this year’s staff Christmas party. This is Marilyn on a shoestring here… my dress was a fiver in the H&M Summer sale. We all went out for lunch to the Hand and Flower on Kensington High Street that afternoon. If you find yourself over that end of the city, do give their vegetarian Wellington a taste. The smoked salmon starter I had came in Michelin-star proportions, so I was a little relieved to see a generous dose of pastry later.


And whilst I’m on the subject of stuffing my face with food, I spent an entire week in Salisbury last month doing exactly just that. Although I did do an immense amount of work whilst I was staying over there, I managed to squeeze in a visit to Stonehenge one evening, and a walk around the Cathedral grounds before work. This meant paying a visit at 6 in the morning, but my hotel was right opposite the cathedral so it wasn’t too bad. They have an endless supply of fresh chocolate croissants at The Cathedral Hotel, which is enough to make me book a return visit next year. I also remember having some mulled wine in a pub where there's a severed hand in the corner. The folk of Wiltshire never cease to amaze!






Before you shut your browser window through this incessant talk of food, I recommend a visit to Greenwich market for their pesto and mozzarella focaccia bread. I went on a department day out for a walk across the 02 Arena, which was preceded by a visit to the Maritime Museum and The British Music Experience. For a mere couple of quid for some freshly baked lunch, it’s a no brainer really. Normally, I’d have had Borough Market as the go-to place for street food, but I don’t think the (extortionate) prices are fit to anyone’s budget, really.






Standing on top of the 02. In some rather fetching climbing gear.
and the week before last, I ventured up to Birmingham for Winterfest at Warwick Bar.












The last blurry photograph is of a card I’d written on for part of the Black Dogs installation. Inside, was a cosy little room with Christmas cards hanging everywhere, and each divulging its own tale of an unwanted gift at Christmas. Invited to write my own card, I spoke about a certain someone who has bought me earrings for the past 3 years, but has failed to realise that I don’t even have one piercing. I feel a little smug right now, as I didn’t receive any earrings, baths salts or ill-fitting jumpers this year. In fact, all my gifts have been fairly practical and useful (see earlier mention about only getting wine and chocolate)

I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas, and like me, feel full enough to vomit if you see another mince pie again.

Xx



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Monday, 10 September 2012
From Katrantzou to Kassel. .(scribbled at 00:03 )

Has it actually been a week already? Again, I apologise for the sporadic and utter lack of frequency with my posts. It's been a really crazy week, so I'm afraid my ramblings about what's affecting my current joie de vivre may be arduously long, with references to architecture, birthday-brownie-baking and sartorial antics. How scandalous it is to cover all these in one post, but I'm flying to Hannover at the beginning of next week for dOCUMENTA (13), the art spectacle that continues to take the folk of Kassel by storm. So I think it's a bit necessary to release any internal monologue (stream of consciousness?) prior to this...

Katrantzou-Pencil-(Pencil)-Skirt
Image Courtesy of JoJo Magazine
The Edge Condition
Alas folks, as of today The Developing City exhibition at the Walbrook building ended, so my fortnightly adventures there to see the exhibition/be educated at their breakfast talks are now at an end. The final in the series of the NLA's Friday morning breakfast talk events for this exhibition was aptly titled "The Edge Condition", where folk involved in developing the fringes of London spoke about the enormous task of how you go about expanding and developing a city.

Spoiler alert: it's bloody difficult to expand any city, let alone a capital.

I want to write so much about that morning (I took four pages of notes in the space of an hour) but I won't, for fear of breaking Blogger with a post any more enormous than this one. The challenges of expanding London were initially discussed, and how the fringe's local needs are constantly being affected. Others are the demands put under buildings, local organisations, the fringe's dynamic nature. Like, let's just say that Tower Hamlets are put under immense pressure at the moment. As someone who works on the fringe, I understand perfectly well that people want to live in Shoreditch and other areas that sit on the city's outskirts. The location is absolutely brilliant, it actually enables people to walk to work and that couldn't be any more appealing. But as more and more people continue to work in London, there's only so much capacity a city can take. It needs to expand to contain all these people, thus places on the fringe get more expensive and we can no longer afford to reside there. Yet, simultaneously- we need people to live in London, we need this dynamism. The city's population is ever expanding though; London attracts the best of the talent pool and will continue to do so. (Ahem, that last point wasn't made by one of the speakers but I'm biased enough to agree wholeheartedly)

Another interesting thing is the development of the city's transport hubs. Through extensive masterplanning of Farringdon and its station, by the time we reach 2016, Farringdon Station will be taking 56, 700 people through its doors each day (it currently stands at 22, 000 which in itself if epic). And Clerkenwell too was discussed about plans for its development and how this will eventually occur. Did you know there are more designers in Clerkenwell than any other area in Western Europe? That's pretty impressive, but as our society have evolved in the last century, our designers no longer make things. The dialogue between makers and designers expands with each generation... of course, there are exceptions to this rule, such as some of the fantastic designers short-listed to exhibit at the Design Museum this year, but I'll discuss that shortly.

Also raised in this incredible hour of enlightenment, was how much we need designers, artists and as many creative people as possible in London. Without them, the city would falter altogether. Creativity attracts people to a city, it creates an exciting edge that you just can't achieve with only corporate organisations in any city (I feel like I'm stating the bleeding obvious here). Before I go off on a tangent about this, I'm going to have to cut it short with a quotation I picked up with one of the breakfast speakers, talking about the electric nature of developing through London's fringe:

"We have to accept there is more complexity than we know" 


Returning to South Kensington
Seriously, with repeat trips to SW7 occurring this often, I am actually on the verge of re-inventing myself as a Sloane. Soon enough you will find me casually draping my Whistles cardigan draped over my shoulders nonchalantly next time I'm dining out at the Duke of York's headquarters.

Anyway, our department at work were lucky enough to spend a beautiful Monday morning in this part of the city. I ended up seeing the Science Museum for the first time, and revisiting Yoko Ono's retrospective at the Serpentine. It was also rather wonderful sitting under this year's pavilion again too:

Serpentine 2012 Pavilion

Returning to Katrantzou
Back to School chic: Katrantzou Scarf (£340, Selfridges)
This past week has also marked a return to styling influences driven by the dazzling Mary Katrantzou. Other than the incredible HB Pencil pencil skirt, which really does showcase back-to-school/work-chic at its finest (see top photograph), I've been trying out a few of the eyeliner techniques that have been incorporated into her shows. I'm really into the SS2012, and admittedly I did only attempt this once for my friend's birthday party on Friday, and then I rubbed off everything but the outer triangular flicks, deeming to myself that going for the full geometric eyes on a night out might be a little too much. It's subtle (ish) too, meaning I can get away with sporting it to work occasionally. For the photographs below, I used Rimmel's waterproof gel eyeliner which created a really nice dense finish, but it takes an absolute age to dry so in future I'm going to stick to my trusty Bourjois Pinceau liquid  eyeliner.




Also, following on from that post in mid-August when I waffled on about how much burgundy and berry tones are taking over my life, I actually didn't stick to my guns when buying a new treat from the Lancôme counter at Harrods. Believe me, I had every intention of splurging on a rich, dark vampy shade, but somehow the make up artist tempted me into buying a bright purple shade. She kept on saying to me that dark colours are just ageing, and how someone of my youth (¬ _¬) should be opting for a more punchy colour. I already have one of their bright red ones, so I risked the Violette Coquette from their Rouge in Love range. It's a really bizarre shade, much more eye catching than the photo below would let on, but it's most definitely became a staple item for the next season or 3.
Emerald Green Dress: Zara
Studded Leather Collar: Zara

and finally, for all those inbetween bits...

I went on a behind the scenes tour of the Royal Opera House by my friend who works there, and have since decided that the best views of London aren't from Tower Bridge afterall, but are in fact from the roof top terrace next to the ballerinas' dressing room. I also really like the idea of sitting in an office where you can overhear amazing opera singers practicing in the room next door, it must be so inspiring working there!

Autumn is the season for design it would appear. With the London Design Festival a mere weekend away, I can already anticipate the thrills that are going to grace the city shortly. Their relationship with the V&A has also got stronger too, meaning we can expect more spectacular installations than ever before- hurrah! 
I was also invited to the private view of the Designers in Residence exhibition at the Design Museum. With an incredible alumni of previous designers, we can be sure to expect great things from the chosen few this year. Admittedly, I only had an hour or so to spare in the exhibition and on the rooftop terrace so I will be making a repeat visit in the next week or so (my jet set lifestyle of to-ing and fro-ing from the Midlands is beginning to dictate my social life). But there are some fantastic pieces and ideas executed throughout the exhibition. There's a dramatic use of plywood, and an utterly brilliant take on the London Underground map, inspired by radio circuits. Both the Designers in Residence and Digital Crystal: Swarovski at the Design Musuem exhibitions opened to the public on 5th, so there's no reason not to get your fix of starch bound wool or crystal before September's over.

I've also reached a whole new level of nerdiness, and have actually fallen a little bit in love with the exhibition publication of the designers in conversation. The weight of the paper, the typeface and even the way the photos have been embedded with the text are making me go a little gooey with design happiness:


and finalement, on another sartorial note, I've been inspired by Lulu's Loves post about knitwear recently, and found myself in Zara on Bond Street a week ago trying on a vast array of jumpers. 


I bought this one, which is just so cosy, and I really like that even though it has a loose enough fit already, the designer has added a completely superfluous zip at the back. By the way, I'm sure this knitwear link is a little tenuous, but I've invested in my first pair of cable knit tights which are a lovely shade of British-Passport-Burgundy, meaning they'll tick off another sartorial box or 5 for me this winter. 

I also spent a little time at ArtsFest in Birmingham last night, before surrendering to a 2 and a half hour journey back to London. Oh, the efforts I will go to in order to avoid forking out for expensive travel...

Watt always was a golden boy.
Image taken opposite the library of Birmingham.
...If you've managed to read the entirety of this post, then reader- I salute you!

Vikki xx

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Saturday, 21 April 2012
How do you squeeze your lemons? .(scribbled at 12:55 )

Are French Men Superior? Discuss.
© DESIGN BOOM
It's now approaching 4 years since I first developed a crush on Philippe Starck so perhaps it’s time to give him a mention on Vermeer’s Victoria Sponge. I’m under the impression that if I write a little about well-designed lemon squeezers it might, just might give him the inclination to realise his undying love for me, and thus propose before I find another designer to get obsessed about.

 So yes, happy Saturday morning all! Here are my picks of my favourite squeezers...

Alessi; Designed by Rolan Kreiter; £35
LEKUE; £5.25 ©Selfridges

Alessi; Designed by Eero Aarnio;£24
Joseph Joseph; £8.50



Evidently from this selection it would appear that Alessi are running the niche market of citrus juicers, but the Lekue squeezer is rather innovative. Being silicone based means that you’ve no need to worry about rust, and it’s incredibly soft to handle and utilise (as I type this I’ve got sudden recollections of a childhood using those fiddly glass ones, wherethere was always an inevitability ofcrushing one’s palm against the glass peak if you got a little too lemon-squeezing-happy).

I’ve also heard on the grapevine that professional chefs opt for that Joseph Joseph one featured there, as you can easily dictate how much lemon juice you want. Handy, non?

And OBVIOUSLY the Juicy Salif is going to feature (duh!). Although, it persistently annoys me that after 4 years of lusting for this, I still haven’t had the inclination to wander over to Selfridges and treat myself to £47 worth of cast aluminium?

Alessi; Designed by Philippe Starck; £47
Img © UtilityDesign
On a less sad note: JUST 3 DAYS TO GO UNTIL DESIGN OF THE YEAR 2012 IS ANNOUNCED. Boom!

www.utilitydesign.co.uk
www.selfridges.com
www.designboom.com
www.josephjoseph.com

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Monday, 2 April 2012
CHAIR LUST OF THE MONTH: APRIL .(scribbled at 23:07 )

Well, I've made it to post number 21!

© UtilityDesign
So, March's major chair lust was the Osso chair, which has been nominated for Designs of the year 2012. However, with a new month upon us, something else has caught my eye a little...

This is Sjoerd Vroonland's design for Moooi: The Extension Chair

Très intéressant, ouaih? At this moment in time I'm pondering how about this cantilever action is incorporates (it must have additional weight pumped into the one side, surely?)


Survey; A series of 6266 postcards between 2009- 2012
Could I get away with justifying this as an office purchase? Not really. But the chair's quirks are growing on me a little, it's both useful and useless at the same time. What I mean by that is; one of the chair extensions acts as a coat hanger, and I can't think of one person in the office who doesn't throw their coat over the back of their chair. But maybe this is sparking a change? Perhaps Moooi are encouraging us to embrace the 6ft stick? Who knows... but I'm heading off for a meeting at the V&A tomorrow morning, so I'll undoubtedly rekindle a lust for an old classic at their British Design Exhibition at some point that day.

Also if you get a chance, go have a look around Zoe Leonard's exhibition at Camden Arts Centre. I went there yesterday to bask in the glorious weather. Their café= divineee!


Leonard chose to include a few drilled holes from the previous deinstall as part of her work. Quite like this.


♥ camera obscura love.
Blossom and art galleries: the finest combination.

You walk into Gallery1, where Leonard has created a backdrop of CAC's surroundings through the medium of a camera obscura. It's rather mesmerising, you just watch thus urban landscape which kind of feels like a form of escapism. You forget your surroundings for a moment, and just gaze out at the city landscape in front of you in a moment of serenity (albeit, assisted by the great bean bags...). It's rather odd actually thinking about it, because even though the work is a direct projection of Arkwright Road, that piece in the exhibition is actually courtesy of Galerie Gisela Captain Colone and Galleria Raffaela Cortese Milan.

How can a work like this be owned by a gallery? Humm...




The MOOOI chair can be purchased from Utility Design, Liverpool 

Zoe Leonard: Observation Point runs at Camden Arts Centre until June 24 2012

www.vam.ac.uk
www.utilitydesign.co.uk
www.camdenartscentre.org

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Sunday, 4 March 2012
The only four legged friend that will ever make it into my life: A Chair .(scribbled at 22:47 )


It’s annoying how the weather can dictate your day.  I’d originally imagined my Sunday to be spent lazing around in Hyde Park outside the Serpentine for the duration of the afternoon, but being good ole’ British Weather, it pissed it down. 

Instead of wallowing in sloth-like characteristics, I caught the bus to the Design Museum for a bit of chair-on-chair action. 

Before they announce who’s won Design of the Year 2012, I’d been itching to go there to check out what they’d put into this year’s line-up, as well as mooching through their current Terence Conran: The Way We Live Now exhibition.

The exhibition (obviously) tells us about the origins of Habitat and Conran’s design influences at the beginning of his career. Being ever so slightly bias towards chair design, I knew very little about ‘The Soup Kitchen’, Conran’s first ever restaurant (their menus were designed by David Hockney!) nor did I know much about his manifesto, which it gives us gems such as:

‘We believe that better designed products catch the eye better and improve the balance sheets’

And

‘We believe that effective design improves efficiency and thus saves money’.

This possibly explains why M&S were a perfect match for the sponsorship of this exhibition. Like Conran et al, they really are flying the Habitat-inspired flag of design for Britain.

Right, so design of the year nominees?
My favourites from each section are the following:

Image courtesy of Lewis Jones
 Architecture: Folly for a Flyover
I actually love this. Commissioned by CREATE festival and produced by Assemble with support from Muf Architects, this renovated space underneath the A12 will function as a space for concerts, events and boat rides for a mere 6 weeks.

Fashion: Mary Katrantzou (big shock, no?)
Rather than falling into the realms of repetition, let’s just say I’m quite big on Katrantzou’s designs.

Digital: BBC Homepage
Sleek, modern and easy to navigate, ensuring that one of the UK’s most popular sites retains its user-friendliness.


Image: Jonas Ingerstedt

Product: Hövding Invisible Cycle Helmet
Personally, I’m all for the Automated External Defibrillator that’s been shortlisted. But I reckon the invisible helmet could really take off. Not with me though, if I’m ever going to be caught in an accident on a London road, I’d rather it didn’t look like the Michelin man had given birth on my face in the process.





Transport: Muramato Bike Hanger
Boris Bikers, eat yer heart out! This speaks for itself really, rather than have masses of bikes chained and crammed onto one stationary pole in the street, with this, you just put your trusty wheels onto a ferris wheel. Don’t know why it hasn’t been though of before.


Bourollec Installation in Raphael Room at the V&A
If someone were to buy me this, I would marry them.

Furniture:  anything from Bouroullec
Okay, so I couldn’t make up my mind! But both of these are equally worthy are the crown of glory. I’m in love with the Osso chair (why aren’t they retailing this in the UK yet?!) and am equally lusting for the textile field they created in the V&A to be re-installed.


My overall favourite is leaning towards the Osso chair, with its sleek and organic design, we not only experience a homage to the great Aalto, but also a nod to flatpack that even Ingvar Kamprad himself would have lusted for!


www.designsoftheyear.com
www.designmuseum.org

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about
diaristic ramblings about architecture, design, art, baking and shoes.

...all posts penned by Vikki, a twenty-something girl based in London (but currently having itchy feet and wanting to move back to Neuilly).

all these poorly taken photographs are indeed my own.


Vermeer's Victoria Sponge.