History of the World

26 Gasoline Stations
Andrei Markov (chain)
‘One Hundred Years’
The Dymaxion House

Giordano Bruno
The Lightning Field
Mr. Sir
‘A Short Term Effect’

Alan Turing (machine)
‘Neon Lights’ (1978)
Island of Never Anger
Edgard Varese

Rachel Carson
Victory over the Sun
Taliesin West (1954)
Small White Pebble Circles

Carbonated Soft Drinks
Model N°670, 1956
Rosa Parks
Viking I, Viking II

Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois
Supremus N°58
Nikola Tesla (coil)
‘The Hanging Garden’

International Mobile
‘Sparrowfall’
‘The Hall of Everlasting Life’
Valentina Tereshkova

Richard Prince
Water Supply & Distribution
A Promise Ring
Puberty

Swimming Lakes
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (jet)
St Louis Gateway Arch
Drinking Straw

Red Petals
Niels Bohr (atoms for peace)
‘Magnetic North’
Fallingwater

Remote Control
‘Events In Dense Fog’
Ralf Hütter
Kilimanjaro (19,335.6)

Laughter And Forgetting
Carle David Runge (helium)
Sign Language
‘Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960’

‘Slowdive’
Robert Jarvik (7)
Grey-scale Ultrasound
Greeting Cards

Terrestrial Radar
Jonas Salk (strong children)
Monument To The Last Horse
Tin And Copper

The Texas Pieces
Louis, Mary & Richard Leakey (skull)
Ghost Telephone
Alpine Architecture

Rudolf Schwarzkogler
After Ford (Huxley)
Things That Are Near
Rouen Cathedral, Morning

White-haired Girls
Sojourner
M.L. (the freezing of mercury)
Floating Tetrahedral City

Monogram ‘55
JBJ Fourier (chaleur)
‘Tiny Golden Books’
To Be Close

“History of the World”, a poem by Peter De Potter, 2004. Six stanzas were selected by Raf Simons for prints Spring-Summer 2005.

Lutz A/W 2003

Rochas Resort

I received my first Rochas piece in the mail today — a crinkled beige tank top that I bought on ebay. It's beautiful, as is Rochas' latest "grandma" influenced collection. Standouts include the orthopedic sandals and the over-sized handbags.

Laura Palmer Rice Paper Roll

Anders Edström

Anders Edström is a photographer and film-maker from Sweden who now lives in Tokyo. Over the years he has worked closely with designer Martin Margiela and Purple magazine, of which he is a contributing editor. His photographs have also appeared in magazines such as Self Service, Dazed & Confused and Dune, and his work been shown in galleries and museums around the world, most recently in solo exhibitions in Tokyo and Stockholm.

Tabi

I recently acquired a pair of Margiela Tabi boots. I found myself strangely attracted to them after seeing this picture of the late Daul Kim. The attraction was heightened when I visited Japan last year and traditional 'ninja shoes' (flat soled canvas shoes with a split toe) haunted nearly every market. Of course, Margiela got the idea for his tabi boots from traditional Japanese work shoes. I love the inherent conflict of the tabi — once ubiquitous, working class and utilitarian; now, thanks to Margiela, rare, high fashion and largely impractical (although surprising, I find them easy to walk in, despite the 3 inch heel and my predisposition to falling over). There's a playfulness to Margiela tabis too — podiatrically incorrect, they look like hooves, or as my boyfriend so kindly pointed out, camel toe. They tread a fine line between the ugly and the beautiful — and I think that's why I like them so much.

On the subject of Japanese fashion, I would really, really like a copy of this book:





Sonomama Sonomama: High Fashion in the Japanese Countryside, Taiski Hirokawa, 1987. It was available here, but has since sold.

Crystal Visions

There is something about naturally occurring minerals that is both soothing and mysterious. I love these bullet necklaces by Unearthen and these raw rock rings by Billy Bride. There's also a little piece in issue #6 of Apartamento about an unabashed amethyst enthusiast that is worth checking out. To quote from it, "But it didn't matter, because that day we realised that, amongst many other things, we also shared a love for minerals, so we decided to go to the Museum Fur Naturkunde in Berlin to celebrate it. When we went in, there were lots of people taking pictures of the dinosaurs like crazy. We didn't care about the dinosaurs at all. The minerals were in the next room and we stared and praised and enjoyed for hours each and every one of the 1077 pieces they have."