My friend Tatjana Kotoric is the founder and designer behind the label Tatjane. This weekend she presented her 2nd collection. I love her designs and the quality of the fabrics. I like the chic appeal of the items and the fact that they’re great for everyday use as well as evening wear. I wish her all the best with her new Label!
London-based Alphabet Bags was created in 2008, starting simply with 26 bags with the letters A-Z. The bags are made using 100% heavyweight cotton and are stitched and screen-printed in the UK. They’ve now come up with other products and styles, but I still like my original L and M bags and use them as a sign for my atelier space.
Even it still can’t compete with the light of an incandescent bulb, this is a good Thing.
Energy saving light bulb. E27. Lifetime of 8 years. 11 Watt. 680 Lumen. Colour Temperature 2700k.
I recommend staying at www.townhallhotel.com or at least sipping something cool in their bar http://viajante.co.uk. Say hi to Rasheed, the superb barkeeper who mixed us a couple of specials that weren’t on the list.
Start the day with a walk through www.broadwaymarket.co.uk. Such a great atmosphere and plenty of good shopping, cafes and just wonderfully friendly people! On the way to Brick Lane, pass by the V&A Museum of Childhood www.vam.ac.uk/moc in a beautiful old building with a huge collection of toys… For lunch, try a crispy pizza at www.storydeli.com. Right next to them are some great shops and, a little later in the day, www.cafe1001.co.uk for dancing and clubbing from five in the afternoon ;)
Always a must is Tate Modern, especially at the moment with Ai Weiwei’s installation “Sunflower Seeds” in the Turbine Hall. Take time to watch the making-of movie shown right next to it www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/default.shtm
After a nice dinner at www.smithsofsmithfield.co.uk and a quick look at Fabric (building and staff are nice but the crowd is not), we joined an amazing warehouse party (thanks to Marie-Laure) organised by a group of guys – if you want to know more, come up with a very good reason and maybe I’ll let you know…
That was a perfect Istanbul-style London weekend with my best friend Nina… here are some of my Things…
Near Broadway Market
www.labouche.co.uk
www.misscrofton.com
www.artwords.co.uk
Near Brick Lane
www.hostem.co.uk
www.folkclothing.com
www.halo-jones.com
Food
www.fernandezandwells.com
www.nordicbakery.com
http://beunpackaged.com
Next time
Hampstead Heath and lunch at www.thebullandlast.co.uk
Bag by americanapparel.net
Inspired by The Desert Sessions (founded by Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age in 1997), sixteen musicians, one sound engineer, and one graphic artist all found themselves at One Drop Studio in Basel, Switzerland in April of 2010. The task before them was to write, record, and mix an album in four days. The initiators of the project, Luc Montini and Olivier Joliat, had only one goal in mind: «We aren’t looking for perfection, we just want to capture the moment». Although the musicians barely knew each other, the moment was captured and hardly a song took longer than two hours to record. Not all the tracks recorded were included on «All You Can Eat», but there will certainly be a next session!
What a great idea and not only because I’m proud of my brother I think this is a very special project! If I wasn’t in London I would love to go to the release party on saturday 20th november at Kaserne Basel… they rock!
www.myspace.com/thedessertsession
www.onedrop.ch
dessertsession@onedrop.ch
Yay! I got my www.MAGAZIN.com – perfect for snuggling up on the sofa when the weather’s bad and scrolling through all these beautiful Things. It’s a fab collection of well-designed, well-made products. You sense that the selection’s been carefully thought through, and that you can trust its quality and ethical credentials. I could buy everything, and if anything’s missing I’m sure I’ll find it at www.manufactum.de! Manufactum and MAGAZIN both have the tradition to tell the stories behind their products – I think more and more that’s what makes the difference in our consumer world – to know where and from whom it comes from…
www.MAGAZIN.com
www.manufactum.de
The Thing I like: Their recommendation to subscribe for www.damnmagazine.net!
By chance Christian took me to the opening of the new NOMOS Glashütte store in Zurich. What a wonderful surprise for a Friday night – dropping in and discovering such a fantastic product. NOMOS is a manufacturer of beautifully designed and very fine watches.
As I learnt…
A mechanical watch is powered by its movement, also known as the ‘calibre’. This is what determines the skill of the watchmaker. Generic movements can be sourced from specialist manufacturers or designed and made in-house, which is what the brands with the highest reputations do – including NOMOS Glashütte. NOMOS is responsible for generating between 75 and 95 per cent of the value of the calibre in its own workshops in Glashütte, birthplace of the German watchmaking industry.
NOMOS now has a good-looking store at Spiegelgasse 13 in the old part of Zurich. I’ll definitely have to go back for a closer look at all their timepieces – I must admit that I was rather distracted by the yummy wine they were serving… I recommend the Schieferterassen Riesling from www.heymann-loewenstein.com!
The Zurich/CreativeMornings November speaker was Michel Bachmann, co-founder of www.hubzurich.org. Michel talked about collaborative innovation: taking the ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship seriously.
HUB is present in over 20 cities and is what they call a global ecosystem of people, places and ideas dedicated to sustainable change.
HUB Zurich provides its members with a wonderful space at www.im-viadukt.ch for working and networking with other entrepreneurs and social innovators. A host makes sure that the right members meet and connect between the different projects. If you have a great idea for tackling our biggest environmental challenges, such as climate change and sustainability, then submit your project and you could join the fellowship programme and win a membership!
Creative Mornings are an initiative of www.swiss-miss.com, which started these monthly gatherings of creatives in 2008 in NY. Each event includes a 20-minute lecture, followed by a 20-minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30 a.m. with coffee + croissants and everyone goes off to work at 10. There are currently three chapters: Zurich, Los Angeles and New York. I like these brief insights into different topics and the opportunities for meeting interesting people. It’s a good way to start your day.
http://creativemornings.com
This morning’s coffee was sponsored by www.cafe-noir.ch
Check out when the next Creative Mornings take place and sign up early because they fill up quickly!
www.facebook.com/Zurich.CreativeMornings
www.twitter.com/zurich_CM