Dutch designer Claudy Jongstra recently showcased her tapestries of raw wool and silk here in New York at the United Nations. A participant in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2009 Fashioning Felt exhibition, Claudy has a unique design process that is committed to sustainability, biodiverisity, and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. Claudy keeps her own sheep, her...
Moorhead & Moorhead, brothers Granger and Robert, welcomed Cooper-Hewitt Members to their studio last evening. Their work explores issues of function and materiality, at scales ranging from furniture to architecture. An exploration of elasticity, the Rubber Lamp is a flexible silicone shell that flips up or down. Tape Wound Borne, featured in Design Life Now:...
Cooper-Hewitt Members and friends celebrated at the Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef and Arpels opening reception on February 17. Guests explored the expansive exhibition, meandered among gem stones, and danced to the beat of a DJ in a tented garden. Read more about Set in Style in T Magazine. Members have unlimited...
Textile design #253 from Sonia Delaunay, 1928-30. Gouache, ink, and pencil on paper. Private collection © L & M SERVICES B.V. The Hague 20100623 Photo: © private collection As New York Fashion Week Fall 2011 draws to a close, I wanted to compare some beautiful textile patterns that fashion designers this past year have shown...
An interview with the designer of the exhibit, Patrick Jouin. Patrick is a partner at Jouin Manku, a design firm based in Paris, France. Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, the most comprehensive exhibition ever organized of Van Cleef & Arpels' masterworks, is divided into six themes which resonate through the...
Amethyst, diamond, emerald, jade, onyx, ruby and sapphire—the very words conjure up an exotic world of beauty, fashion, mystery, and intrigue. Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels provides ample evidence that the celebrated jeweler does indeed exemplify that world. Marriage brought the Arpels and Van Cleef families together in 1896, leading...
Marlene Dietrich & Marjorie Merriweather Post What do Marlene Dietrich and Marjorie Merriweather Post have in common? They both wore jewels that will be exhibited in the upcoming exhibition Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, opening on February 18th at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The jarretière bracelet (on the...
Japanese Landscape in the Snow I was delighted by this New Year’s card from Takeshi Ishiguro in Tokyo. On the front was an image of a snow covered landscape, with one of those crisp blue skies that only seem to visit Japan when it’s cold. The card came in an envelope, as the postage stamps...
Exhibition Catalog, designed by Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig of Pentagram Sunday January 9th was the last day of our National Design Triennial, open since May 14th. How can almost nine months go so fast? The show answered the question “Why Design Now?” with 134 examples, assembled from around the world by our curatorial team,...
Only a few short weeks left to see Ted Muehling Selects: Lobmeyr Glass from the Permanent Collection. Watch designer Ted Muehling and curator Sarah Coffin as they discuss highlights from the exhibition in this 5 minute walkthrough: Curated by Ted Muehling, the exhibition draws from the museum’s recent acquisition of 163 rare examples of...
Why? Flax is a light, natural fiber used to make linen cloth, but in the hands of François Azambourg, it transforms into high-performance, recyclable furniture. Lin 94 is a composite chair made from 94% renewable materials and an 80% plant-based epoxy resin. Lighter than glass fiber and similar in strength to carbon fiber, flax requires...
We all enjoyed the opening of Alessi: Ethical and Radical this past weekend at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (on view through April 10, 2011 in the Collab Gallery/Perelman Building), and last night Alberto joined us at Cooper-Hewitt for a scintillating presentation of the company’s work over the decades, reiterating the Alessi ethos that Design...
We’re thrilled that Alberto Alessi will be giving a presentation at the Museum on Monday (22nd) evening! He is the ultimate mediator between designs that can succeed commercially as well as expressing artistic values. What’s more he is an engaging presenter with an impish sense of humor. I was at the opening of...
Cooper-Hewitt Members enjoyed a private tour of the International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show with Sarah Coffin, Curator of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Decorative Arts and Head of Product Design and Decorative Arts. Highlights of the tour included MALLET, Primavera Gallery, Lillian Nassau, Jason Jacques Gallery, H. Blairman & Sons, James Robinson, Apler-Fredericks, Hancocks &...
There was a deluge at dawn on Friday, canceling many trains and tempting people to stay at home, in spite of their commitment to arrive at Jazz at Lincoln Center by 9:00 am for the start of the WHY DESIGN NOW? Solving Global Challenges Conference. Luckily, the event was streamed live, both on CooperHewitt.org...
