Meet Dutch Designer Marjet Wessels Boer

Sometimes I think, 'There are so many products on this planet, do we really need anymore? What can I add to that?' In the end, I want to create things that people cannot put aside. –Marjet Wessels Boer

Below are just a few of those products:







And one of her fabulous projects; Doors of Secrets:

I wanted to create an everyday product, like a door, that would appeal to people's imagination. The Door of Secrets contains hidden storage compartments, raising people's interest and curiosity. It makes you wonder what is hidden inside and invites exploration. You can shuffle the elements about, so there is interaction between the actual door and user.
- Marjel Wessels Boer

Click on the above images to enlarge.


Above: Dutch designer Marjet Wessels Boer

Visit her site here.

You'd Better Sit Down For This One: Magali Jeambrun's Unusual Chairs

Magali Jeambrun is clearly more than a furniture maker, she's an artist. Creating original unusual and stunning chairs that combine traditional shapes and silhouettes with contemporary designs, fabrics and materials, she has created pieces used in some of the hottest restaurants and retail establishments around.

Despite being written up in every hot design and interior magazines at some point or another for her chairs or mirrors, her pieces are very hard to find outside of France. IOn addition to her stock pieces, she also sells some one of a kind unique items.

She is described on her own site, www.etc-creations.fr, as such:

Neo-retro is obviously the keyword for Magali’s creations.
Rich in knowledge and artistic sensibility, she can create unexpected synergies between classical styles and modern design. The result is an amazing mix and transformation of the styles and matters that gives this particular characteristic to all Magali Jeambrun’s works of art. Like Cocktail dresses, casual suits or fashion dresses, all these products dress their new environment: some unique jewels for your interior.

The Be Flower Collection (click to enlarge):



details of motifs:



Unique materials, colors and combinations thereof along with etching and stencils make her chairs unmistakable.

The Capiton Collection (Noir, Bleu, Rose & Ivoire):




The Duo Collection (Skai and Croc):



Duo Barstools:

For central kitchen bar chair or standard bar chair, DUO line (papered base / clear Plexiglas back) gives way to bar chairs, available in two base heights 65 or 80 cms, with or without moldings.

Shining united vinyl, colored in black, white, red, tangerine, chocolate, silvered and soft gold for the Duo Skai. Imitation croco vinyl, colored in black, white and brown for the Duo Croco.

The Duo Lux Collection (Broc, Duchess & Cecilia):



The Impressum:

The Laser Butterfly Chair and pouf:


The Junior Collection are her chairs for children's rooms which incorporate plush teddy bears and toys:



All her chair frames are built in Northeast of France using traditional, centuries-old methods and are fully hand made without any mechanical support. The wood used for the chairs comes from the communal forest of Liffol-le-petit and benefits from quality and environmentally sensitive harvesting methods. The trees are cut down by employees of the workshop, sawed up in the communal sawmill and dried on site.

A little bit more about the artist/designer:

Magali Jeambrun was born in 1981 in Besançon and grew up in a family of four children where she was exposed to a variety of artistic activities from an early age.
This quite naturally led her to complete a baccalauréat in Applied Arts.
From that point on, her course was eclectic.

Between various experiences with trompe-l’oeil, faux marble, jewelry, sculpture, set design, hat creation, etc., she obtained a BTS in fashion design at the Lycée La Martiniére Terreaux in Lyon. But her desire to express forms and colors in other fields remained intact. She thus trained as an interior decorator in Strasbourg, then got into the Olivier de Serres school of art and design in Paris where she obtained an arts diploma, specializing in synthetic materials. She naturally gravitated towards customization as a result of her thesis subject: the corset through the ages, revisited using synthetic materials.

She later expanded on this “revisiting” approach, spending an entire year hunting for objects at flea markets which she then transformed, dyed, dressed up, etc. She now has a large collection of unique pieces, each highly original.

You can purchase some of these chairs at the Coliseum Shop

Contact info:
MAGALI JEAMBRUN
5, rue de l'Helvétie
25120 Maîche
FRANCE

Tél. : +33 3 81 64 26 96
Fax : +33 3 81 64 30 28
etcmagali@yahoo.fr

Body Painting With Soul.. er, Sole: Temptu Paints Feet For New York Magazine

When New York Magazine needed to recreate the appearance of shoes on actual feet in the April 21st issue, using just makeup, they went to Temptu. Amazing body art artists John Maurad and Jenai Chin created airbrushing with Temptu Paints for the article titled "You Walk Wrong" in last week's issue, written by Adam Sternbergh.



A traditional men's wing tip, a pair of Christian Louboutin heels (complete with the signature red bottom) and an old-school style of an Adidas Gazelle are so incredibly rendered on these bare feet it's hard to believe it's not the real thing (or photoshop)!!


photos by Tom Schierlitz

About Temptu:

Temptu is the leader in airbrush makeup and cosmetic innovations, dedicated to creating the highest quality products on the market. Temptu products include revolutionary liquid formulas, beauty and special effects makeup palettes, ink tattoo transfer systems, and application technologies.

Temptu is beauty, body art, temporary tattoos, airbrush stencils, and special fx makeup, by air and by hand. This is where beauty meets technology. This is the next generation of premier airbrush makeup.

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Hello Kitty Spreads From Japanese Vogue Disappoint

As promised, I told you'd I'd share the images from the Hello Kitty article in May's Japanese Vogue (Nippon Vogue) as soon as they surfaced. Well, thanks to Sassybella and The Fashion Spot, here they are. But I must confess, I'm incredibly disappointed.. what a letdown.




I guess I was hoping to see something more like what Harper's Bazaar did with the Simpsons. If you didn't see those, catch them here.

The Naked Truth About Marc Jacobs' Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign: Who Posed Nude, Where Can You Buy The Shirts & Who Benefits

There was a lot of buzz about Victoria Beckham baring it all for the Marc Jacobs skin cancer awareness T-shirt this past March. And since then, as well as prior to that, many other celebrities stripped in support of the Cancer Awareness campaign.

There are numerous iterations of the t-shirt that bear the slogans: "Protect the Skin You're In", "Protect Your Largest Organ" and "Save Your Ass" all strategically placed over parts of bodies of many celebs. Some are printed front and back, some on color and some on grey.


Above: Winona Ryder, front and back

Despite the fact that the celebrities, models and Marc Jacobs get most the press, the unsung heroes of this campaign are Robert Duffy, President of Marc Jacobs International, LLC and the late Dr. Jesse Ruben, who inspired the campaign and photographer Brian Bowen Smith who shot these celebrities. Not to mention the New York University Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group, shown below:

Chances are you are not aware of exactly how many female celebrities have since showed some skin in support. I certainly wasn't. I noticed most blog and reports have incorrectly reported the number of celebs who have donated their time and beautiful bodies to this campaign. There seem to be far more than most people know.


Above: Victoria Beckham
First off, I didn't realize that the shirts did not begin with Mrs Beckham, but she was instead later added to the impressive roster of celebrities supporting this cause. The campaign actually began in 2006 with Naomi Campbell, Winona Ryder, Rufus Wainwright, Julianne Moore and Selma Blair. The shirts were sold at the initial fund raiser only and subsequently in marc jacob boutiques.

The windows of Marc Jacob's Bleeker St. store showed banners and tees to herald the event:



These are some of the shirts from the initial fund raiser:

Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington

Dita Von Teese and Hilary Swank

Julianne Moore and Winona Ryder

Robert Duffy & Marc Jacobs and Marc Jacobs

Rufus Wainwright and The men of Marc Jacobs


Since then, more models have joined the cause and several new shirts have been issued- however now only in grey, at marc jacob boutiques (and probably on ebay as well).

Who actually posed in the buff?

I have found the following females, in addition to Mrs. Beckham, shot by Mr. Bowen Smith for the shirts are: Winona Ryder, Helena Christiansen, Eva Mendes, Selma Blair, Heidi Klum, Dita von Teese, Naomi Campbell, Carolyn Murphy, Joss Stone, Julianna Moore, Christy Turlington, Hilary Swank, Alison Lohman .. and yet there are probably more.

The males are: Marc himself, Brandon Boyd, Rufus Wainwright, Jason Thompson as well as many other male models

Initially available in colors and for 20$, they are now harder to find, include the models name on the right arm and retail for $35 at Marc Jacobs boutiques and only 15 now seem to be available (shown below).

Heidi Klum

Alison Lohman

Dita von Teese

Joss Stone

Helena Christensen

Naomi Campbell

Eva Mendes

Robert Duffy

Jason Thompson

Other Males (whose identity I do not know)







About the campaign:

The “Protect The Skin You’re In” campaign began last year when Marc Jacobs and fellow business partner Robert Duffy, President of Marc Jacobs International, LLC, persuaded celebrities including Naomi Campbell, Winona Ryder, Rufus Wainwright, Julianne Moore, and Selma Blair to disregard warnings from agents and managers and pose naked for a series of T-shirts about the dangers of skin cancer. The campaign raised awareness and almost $400,000 for the NYU School of Medicine’s Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group, led by Dr. Iman Osman. Photographer Brian Bowen Smith traveled around the world multiple times for photo shoots for the shirts, a tribute to late NYU physician Dr. Jesse Ruben.

Mr. Duffy, a patient of Dr. Richard Shapiro, spoke about his treatment for melanoma at the NYU Cancer Institute Gala. He said the melanoma campaign will be an annual affair for Marc Jacobs: last year's sold out designs are being reissued along with new T-shirts, featuring the models Helena Christensen, Eva Mendes, Heidi Klum and Alison Lohman in the nude.

Every hour, someone dies of melanoma, but if caught early, the cure rate could be 100 percent. Melanoma is the easiest cancer to detect early because all you need is a trained pair of eyes. The message is don't let embarrassment stop you from stripping down before your physician or someone you love, and use the ABCDE rule--developed by physicians at NYU Medical Center--to determine if a mole could be cancerous: A for asymmetry; B for irregular border; C for color variation; D for diameter larger than a pencil eraser; and E for evolution of existing mole.

For more information about melanoma and other cancers go to www.nyuci.org

All proceeds from the T-shirts will go to support the NYU Cancer Institute.

T-shirts will be sold nationwide at all Marc Jacobs stores. For store location go to www.marcjacobs.com