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Showing posts with label color. Show all posts
Showing posts with label color. Show all posts

Good Gradations

Window drape by Rodarte for Knoll.

Remember those super-ugly blends we all made in the late 80s/early 90s, simply because we could? And then, around the turn of the millennium, there seemed to be a unanimous agreement amongst designers that dégradé was très passé. Which meant it was just a matter of time till it came back. And so it has. Much improved, I might add.

I’d like to acknowledge the new generation of blending (or “ombre” as they call it in fashion) that has been underway in recent years.

Adidas Stan Smith tennis shoes specially made by Atmos, Tokyo,
gradates from red to black.


American Apparel gift box.


“At Water’s Edge,” is the riskiest and most recent of the blends here. It is a chapbook of essays about New York’s shoreline, written by students in SVA’s D-Crit graduate program for design criticism. Walker Design leaves the safety zone of blending dark to light, and manages to successfully blend unrelated colors. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how—could be that they kept it all fairly light, or perhaps it’s the use of white typography—but they’ve kept the gradation this side of cheesy. The foil stamping is extra refreshing and modern.


Versace Atelier, Spring 2011 ombre gown.


Textile, Minä Perhonen.




I’ve also discovered some blended beauties from the pre-digital era.

Burmese art glass tumbler and saucer.


Rusty surfboard, c. late 70s.


Lake Garda, photocrom ( see older posts here and here)


It’s a good thing this length of French woven silk from the late 1800s was protected with plastic when I saw it a Brimfield, because I was absolutely drooling over it. Alas, extremely fragile and too expensive.

Peter Alexander, Green Widget, 1969, cast polyester resin.

Victoria Thorne in Germany & the light of Lavender

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In Strasbourg, the light in cathedral cast shards of soft white, grey, lavender & burnished silver on us.




In the Pfalz region of Germany, in a tiny town called Nussdorf, there is a sweet and charming bed & breakfast, the Villa Delange.





The room in which we stayed was painted in shades of lavender; you didn't really realize it, upon arrival.
It just sort of settled you in, and the softness of the walls and the light and the loveliness made the visit something out of the ordinary.






There is a great peace to lavender. It doesn't need to be much of a color, sometimes. It can disguise itself as gray, or white, or blue.
But it is in the light all around us. 

In a backward glance, you will often find that peace was right there, beside you, hidden in a color.
Lavender.


I'd thought it was something else, but looking around in the pale morning light: every wall, every sill, all across the ceiling. All shades of this color. Lavender.
Was I dreaming? 


all photographs used with the permission of Victoria Thorne

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Carolyn Quartermaine: lavender speaks

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lavender
lilac
amethyst
puce


in the Studio




...its the colour I have everywhere,
in crystal drops,
paintings,
paint splodges.....




in the south of France, the Mimosa goes very well with these colours ... 
sharp acid yellow is the perfect contrast ...





images from Carolyn Quartermaine


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Charlotte Moss: muses on Lavender

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" Lavender
A color often misunderstood."


"The fluttering chiffon-like petals of a single iris
Placed on the mantle of one Pauline de Rothschild."


Tuileries Iris  photograph by Charlotte Moss



Tuileries Irises   photograph by Charlotte Moss



Pauline de Rothschild's London Flat photographed by Derry Moore





"The beautiful sculpted soaps in a bowl in my grandmother’s bathroom"



"The inside of a chocolate violet crème – from deBauve in Paris"



Pauline de Rothschild Balenciaga dress
image from the Met



 

"Often a grey hair-color rinse gone wrong – or right – depends on which way you look at it!”

Elsie de Wolfe
a lavander


"A sultry color. where few dare to venture--"



 Givenchy Fall 2011-detail
image from Vogue


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red

riding
hood
beware of  wolves in sheep's clothing, red capes and grandmother's lingerie.
wolves- & people are not always what they first appear to be.



"Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, 
but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child."




"Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, 
which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; 
so she was always called Little Red Riding Hood."





"The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village,"






& just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her.
Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him."





'What a tender young creature!
what a nice plump mouthful -






 she will be better to eat than the old woman. 
I must act craftily, so as to catch both.' 







'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here -
why do you not look round? 
I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; 
you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, 
while everything else out here in the wood is merry.'





'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too.
It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'






"Meanwhile 
the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.
The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open,




and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, 
and devoured her. 
Then he put on her clothes, 
dressed himself in her cap,
laid himself in bed and drew the curtains."







"Red Riding Hood-then, 
remembering her grandmother, and set out on the way to her."




 'Good morning,' but received no answer;
so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. 
There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face,
and looking very strange. 



 


  'Oh! grandmother,'
'what big ears you have!'
     'All the better to hear you with, my child,'
     'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!'
     'All the better to see you with, my dear.'
     'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'
     'All the better to hug you with.'
     'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'
     'All the better to eat you with!'





 "And scarcely had the wolf said this, 
than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.
     When the wolf had appeased his appetite, 

 he fell asleep and began to snore very loud."



   

"The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought 'How the old woman is snoring! 
I must just see if she wants anything.' 
  So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, 
he saw that the wolf was lying in it."   
'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 
'I have long sought you!'




 "But just as he was going to fire at him,
it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother----"




 we abruptly interrupt our GRIMM story here-
suffice it to say- 
this is not your ordinary grandmother





or Red-
for that matter.






 this tale opens in theatres March 11-
the writer did not receive any compensation or make a cameo appearance in this movie.

movie images-warner brothers, all other works by odilon redon-or lucas cranach or medieval woodcuts


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moore blue fords

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looking for Julianne Moore,
bound to be wearing Tom Ford.




 Any one of his special Spring Collection 2011 pieces would be best dressed on the OSCARS Red Carpet or an inspired creation for one of his Muses.


modeling Tom Ford in his Spring 2011 show







at the BAFTAs
wearing Tom Ford





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 brilliant in blue with Tom Ford in Tom Ford


on Tom Ford:
"Tom's a friend of mine. I've known him for a long time from the fashion world and socially. I knew that he had aspirations to direct. He's talked about it for a long time, but never to me.
When he sent me the script it was out of the blue, it was a quite a surprise. I was very struck by it. I loved my character. She made me laugh and I hadn't seen anyone like her before and I hadn't seen a friendship depicted like that." NY Daily News




 in Tom Ford's directorial movie debut A Single Man


 on the Red Carpet in Tom Ford at the 66th Annual Venice Film Festival



in the movie The Children are All Right

with Annette Bening nominated for Best Actress in the movie


on family Moore says:
“What children need is two loving parents. It doesn’t matter if they are two moms, or two dads, or a mom and a dad”.







Ford blue

clary sage
pink & white oleander
lime blossom
 Olibanum & rich green moss
 



 MORE?
not much. enjoy the OSCARS!




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