The Beauty of Table Tennis. Literally and Figuratively. Meet Sooyeon Lee.

Filmmaker and photographer Matthew Donaldson filmed model/actress and professional Korean Table Tennis champ Sooyeon Lee in a slow motion homage to both sport and fashion. The skilled and sexy Sooyeon is wearing fashions by Versace, Jil Sander, Christopher Kane, Mark Fast, and Christian Louboutin as she skillfully demonstrates her Ping Pong prowess in the one minute and 48 second film created for Nowness.



Designer Geraldine Chevrolet was commissioned by stylist Katie Shillingford to create the bespoke fringed tights, gloves and hat that are paired with the couture.



Tennis Table champ Sooyeon Lee serves as an Ambassador for actress Susan Sarandon's SPiN, a chain of ping-pong clubs which counts Lee as its ambassador and has locations in New York, Toronto and Hollywood. "It's become very trendy," Lee observes. "It's sociable, you don't need to be super athletic and it's good for the brain."




A clip of Sooyeon Lee from the Killerspin championships:


And a few of her modeling photos:




Nowness
Sooyeon Lee

Levi's Project 501: Project Runway Inspires the Public

Fans of Project Runway will recognize this design challenge set forth by Levis as the one that took place on this season's Episode 9 titled "Even Designers Get the Blues".


Above: Levi's SVP of Design Caroline Calvin explained the challenge to the designers as Tim Gunn looked on.

The challenge? To create an iconic denim look that captures the spirit of the Levi's 501 legacy. In addition to the Project Runway episode, the challenge was opened up to the public via the web.

Although the deadline for submissions has passed, you can still vote on the entrants which also automatically enters you into the sweepstakes to win a Levi's 501 gift certificate. The top 20 submissions will be announced on February 21st. Then they go into another final selection before choosing the winning entry. The winner actually gets his or her design produced and sold on levis.com

The final pieces designed by the then remaining 7 challengers on Project Runway:


..and the winning design shown above right.

So, how's the public doing?

Below are just a tiny sampling of the many entries. It's clear that there's no lack of talent out there. There are literally hundreds of these beautifully rendered, wonderfully- if not interestingly- designed entries. I'm showing a mere fraction of them here.

Sure, there are some crude drawings with brilliant ideas and some sophisticated drawings of horrendous designs. But I just wanted to give you a small example of the many talented people that are participating. Forgive me for not crediting the following drawing/renderings. Please go to the website to see who is behind these and the hundreds more.











Go see them all for yourself. And vote!