The Art of Fashion

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
- coco chanel

Indie- Fever



A few postings ago I proclaimed, “Boutique is Back” – noting the increase in small businesses blooming on Weddington Street here in NoHo. These include a designer, hair salon/gallery, art gallery/event space, dance studio, martial arts and a spa – all small independents.

This past spring I attended Entrepreneur magazine’s annual Growth conference in which magazine editor-in-chief Amy Cosper re-enforced that now is a prime time for small business to start and prosper. Citing many successful companies who started during economic downturns, including UPS and Playboy. Differentiation, timing and market need.

According to Andrew Nachison, CEO of the media think tank iFOCOS, “ Small businesses are definitely going through a time of “high popularity”. It is part of a larger fundamental shift and dissatisfaction with government, big business and the media. My belief is that consumers, with much less disposable income and credit, are giving very careful consideration to where they do spend and will want to patronize the indies’ vs. conglomerates.

Indie-Style:

NoHo-based designer and style maven Harold Fedison has been interested in fashion for as long as he can remember. As a youth he became a formal student of design then fell into retail when he hit the ‘real-world’, managing a number of large national big box retail stores.

Years later he was catapulted into following his passion for design and starting his own business after experiencing the successive loss of some very close friends.
Which had him re-evaluating what was really important in his own life.

Today, I speak with Mr. Fedison while sitting in his design studio on Weddington St. where he creates, produces and sells his garments all under one roof. Sewing machines of all varieties and functions fill the back room of the studio, which overflows with bolts of beautiful fabrics, trims and embellishments. The aesthetic of the boutique is very tasteful and ingeniously neat.




Looks inside Fedison’s storefront boutique














The Art Behind The Style –

Each one of Harold Fedison Designs begin with many sketches, some in pencil, pen, combined with acrylic paint pens. The sketches themselves are pieces of art and show the thought process behind the design of a line.

We discuss how fashion has notoriously been a pretentious field and how the craft of design has largely been lost. His look is one of timeless elegance. Not frivolous skimpy fashion garments but real style additions to a wardrobe that leave much to the imagination. Some of his styles even venture off into a bit of what I call ‘boho-chic’- the perfect attire for the creative woman - a bit of NoHo’s eclectic soul.

As a style designer, Fedison feels his clients want to wear something that reflects their individuality. Emphasizing that authenticity opposed to attitude rules the matter of the day. While the fabrics and styles exude taste and class - the designs are very approachable- practical and affordable.


Upcoming Fashion Show:
Harold Fedison will present a number of ‘looks’ from his resort-collection 2010 on Sept 12th in NoHo. You may end inquiries to: haroldfedison@aol.com



Storefront of Harold Fedison’s Boutique

A Puzzling Way With Words

The Puzzlemaster Scott Kim


I met Scott when I was working in Font technology for Adobe, then at Apple; circa early 1990's Silicon Valley. Scott was designing typefaces along with many other quite intriguing projects.



Scott gifted me with a personalized copy of his trippy "Inversions" book. And that is quite some gift he has, he wowed me in about 2 seconds when he signed it drawing my name as an inversion (spelled front and backwards the same). If you look closely, the book title "Inversions" is Scott Kim as an inversion. Brilliant!

Later Scott redesigned a logo for the window of the "new" Paradise Lounge (historic music venue in San Francisco) so that the sign would feel Bohemian and be read if on a window or glass from both sides,he came up wit this design. Unfortunately, that venue closed under new ownership after a few short years.

Smog Shoppe- LA

Miguel and Sherry from Marvimon have designed an amazing Green production event space in Culver City aptly named Smog Shoppe. Indeed a former shop of smog reduction, the space is private 6500 sq ft indoor and outdoor space, with cinephile quality surround sound, 20 foot digital cinema screen and is 100% solar powered.

Smog Shoppe is a great Sequel to their stunning existing event space in ChinaTown Marvimon, an old italian car dealership which they entirely revamped into an urban oasis, theatre and special events playground.



Both incredible inventive spaces. Stylish and professional, bravo!

Bejeweled

Some custom design beauties from our favorite designers...

Doria Ragland,
Lovely and distinctive as is she. I became a devotee of Doria when I discovered her at Agape soon after setting up shop in LA. Contantly get compliments when adorned in her designs. Bonus- and she also teaches classes on jewelry design...



Ruby Gallery on Haight St, San Francisco
One of my favorite spots, where 'The'famous MagicRuby necklace was found. We love these hand-painted, one of a kind pendants. Black Bird here


The artist makes tiny paintings on wood and uses it as the background underneath what ever has been embedded in the resin in the foreground.


Petals of Platinum, Diamonds and Rubies from 23rd Street Jewelers, Manhatten Beach, Santa Monica. So Sweet.

Julie Brown; Elegant and classy designs. Pictured: onion cut green amethyst with sterling hand clasp.

Trendy & Torch-Free Domiciles

Berkeley architect David Stark Wilson designed this 2007 house, above and at top, which Metropolitan Home magazine featured in a large spread in June, naming it one of the top 100 houses of the year.


Wilson and his associate Chris Parlette designed it partially for fire resistance and partially for durability and low maintenance. The red steel columns have a coating of intumescent paint, which swells in heat and becomes fire resistant, preventing the metal from melting. Wilson says the zinc siding should never require work in the future. He and Parlette prefer metal for siding and roofs; they frequently use galvanized steel, preweathered steel and zinc siding. Wilson doesn't see metal exteriors as inherently harsh and says that with this house, the shingles, the ripples in the metal and the shadows all read as "rich and almost soft compared with a big stucco wall that might have a warm color but is basically just a flat wall plane." This project, he says, "is all about expressing the skin of the building and making it textural and rich." (source, san francisco chronicle)

Designs by OHIO

David Pierce, founder of OHIO and furniture designer, works primarily in wood and metal crafting.


OHIO's warehouse in the Mission was open last weekend for their annual Summer sale, where we picked up a set of low coffee endtables and perfect for the spot in mind (and we think that we can even dance on them too).

David has also crafted custom designs for the new NapaStyle stores including coffee tables based on a champagne riddling racks.

http://www.ohiodesign.com/

Some other Ohio Designs include:

Sophia Bedroom



Natural bench designs feature a solid wood slab taken right from the tree and finished to perfection. Functional sculpture, each one is unique and can be used indoor/outdoor.

The Soul of Architecture

While many of us would love to live or work in an architectural wonder, few of us have the opportunity.

If William McDonough's Cradle to Cradle (C2) is any indication of a future life, we might have the experience.

Below is an excerpt from Architectural Week about C2C along with the winning design.

In 2002, architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart published Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, in which they argued that energy efficiency and waste reduction are not sufficient as sustainability goals. Architects should instead aim for waste avoidance. To explore possibilities for implementation, an international Cradle to Cradle Home Design and Construction Competition called for submissions with innovative approaches to materials and systems for sustainable residential design. The winning team, from Seattle, presents their design that reflects the paradigm and vision laid out in the book. — Editor

The Cradle to Cradle (C2C) standbased on the premise that the "three Rs," reduce, reuse, recycle — all preferred alternatives to ards are simply dumping waste — are mere Band-Aids. McDonough and Braungart say we should instead eliminate waste in the first place by crafting our modern systems and patterns of living to more closely mimic natural systems, where waste does not exist.

Our design for the C2C competition doesn't just eliminate waste in its operation; it creates energy to share with neighbors and the community at large.