Guten Tag! A quick check in from Vitra Design Museum at Charles-Eames Strasse in Germany. I am working all week in the Alexander Girard archives housed at Vitra. These are some of the wonders I’ve been soaking in over the past few days. Just the tip of the iceberg.

1. My work station. Just like a real archivist I’ve been scanning photographs & sketchbooks all week.
2. Excerpt from a Girard sketchbook.
3. Memphis Group in the hallway!
4. Small section of the Vitra lamp archive.
5. Boxes of textiles from Girard archive.
6. Girard wooden toys.

More to come, I will post building/outdoor, above the basement pictures soon.  Bye!
PS: I’m still going to Switzerland, but that’s on Sunday. Mountains & stuff.

Calligraphy, gradients, marbling, photo-montage—it’s all so contemporary!
Displayed here are dust jackets from the 1940s collected by anonymous librarians.

Despite the fact that dust jackets often include useful information about a book and its author, including biographical notes and often a portrait, it has long been Research Libraries practice to remove the jackets from new books during processing for their permanent place in the stacks. However, from 1926 to 1947, anonymous librarians selected and saved interesting jackets from books of all sorts.

via NYPL Digital Gallery – Dust Jackets from American and European Books, 1926-1947

She’s the corny girl who wants to hang out.
These clothes are for the corny girl, are for the stale girl who wants to be gross.

This is ‘nude housewife’. It’s ready to just fall off the body.
I knew it was gross but I just had to take that risk because basically tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be grosser than today.

Picture this : The late ’90s, Paris. And MTV’s House of Style with Todd Oldham’s segment Todd Time. Andre Walker is fashion genius. He talks with Todd about his recent collection entitled, Someone I’m in Love with Then. Watch the Todd Time interview here. (Galliano is at the end of the segment but I didn’t even get that far) All quotes above are by Andre Walker.

more to read : 2006 NYMag article on Andre Walker & his Brooklyn home. He left Paris and life as a fashion designer in 2004.

The evolution of a pouch. Never mind the fanny pack.
The pouch. The most useful form of a purse—especially on road trips.

The Invocation of Chief Peo-Peo Tholekt via WSU
Jean Cacharel, long bright blue cardigan, pullover, trousers, beret & pouch via VADS
MANIMAL, pouch belt new for Spring/Summer 2010! Love it. via MANIMAL

Weaving, beading, dancing, haircuts and more! Yesterday at Housing Works Bookstore I stumbled upon this wonder – Crafts and the arts of living in the Cameroon. Published in 1982 and curiously funded by Mobil Oil Cameroon. Photographs by Harri Peccinotti.

Whew! I just dove into a deep deep pool of textiles, patterns and power. My eyes are now beaming pattern light. Check this place out and if you have the money—spend it on South Persian Tribal rugs. Totally worth it.
via Rug Rabbit