required reading // cultureisland x yoga margo 2016 reading list

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for our sideways event, margo and i decided to pull together a list of our favorite reads for those who attended the event, but i also wanted to share it here along with the polaroids chris took of everyone and their boards.

polaroids by chris cawley

polaroids by chris cawley

cultureisland x yoga margo 2016 reading list:

1. the moral bucket list // david brooks // nyt

2. the crossroads of should and must // elle luna // medium

3. the other education // david brooks // nyt

4. six figures to none and loving every minute // allison kendro // the inertia

5. lady gaga and the life of passion // david brooks // nyt

6. want to get more creative? get bored // martin lindstrom // fast company

7. happiness isn't the absence of negative feelings // jennifer moss // harvard business review

8. big magic: creative living beyond fear // elizabeth gilbert

10. wherever you go, there you are // jon kabat-zinn

happy reading + new year!

required reading // links worth sharing vi

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1. red comme des garçons: innovation, provocation is an exploration of rei kawakubo’s radical approach to design with an exhibition format that takes inspiration from her 2001 comme des garçons presentation at walter van beirendonk’s antwerp fashion festival mode2001.

2. the department of signs and symbols is a new art project space that recently opened in vinegar hill, brooklyn // founder mitra korasheh says, "what we want to do is use the section in the back as a studio space for artists because we want to show emerging artists who do not necessarily have a studio space in new york. so part of our programming is going to be that the artist can have the space while a different exhibition is going on, preparing for their show.”

3. in the studio: photographs is a three-part show organized by gagosian gallery that explores the relationship between an artist and ones studio // hyperallergic writer jeff mcmahon questions, "any of these photographs of artist studios call into question just what is this thing called 'studio.' perhaps the establishment of such a place displaces the centrality of 'home,' setting a place apart for creation (and commerce). is the studio an externalization or perhaps a partitioning of the artist brain?"

4. marc jacobs recently announced the dissolution of his marc by marc jacobs line // w interviews him about his future plans + re-making his mark: “marc’s is a brand of his own experience, a brand of his whole world, and we want to show that on a bigger stage than we have so far,” says pierre-yves roussel, chariman + ceo of lvmh.

5. an excerpt from brittany howard's interview with joe rhodes of nyt on the new alabama shakes album, sound & color: “i don’t care if we get another chart-topping hit,” she told me. “i suppose it would be nice for my family. i could buy my dad a truck.” but if she and the shakes had to go back to being a barroom band in northern alabama, she would be fine, she insisted. she would get a day job and write songs, just like before. “i’d write probably even better songs,” she said, “ ’cause then i could write about how i had everything and lost it.”

6. visual history repeats itself: “we live in times now that show we clearly haven’t learned. what function do these images have if they are to inform us?” says clare grafik, head of exhibitions at the photographer's gallery in london // nyt reports on a new exhibit there, human rights human wrongs, open thru april 6

7. fran lebowitz, cultural critic, writer and occasional actress, tells elle "what's the point of being young if you're not going to make new things, i wonder? // wise words.

8. heated words // a recent london exhibit examines iron-on typefaces from the 70s + 80s.

9. "the gift shop" is a recent pop up at redbull studios new york by alldayeveryday // it's "a take on the traditional museum shop that sells specialty goods carefully curated  by creatives... the new, permanent fixture engages independent artists from within its own community with the purpose of creating a participatory experience that evolves with time and space."

10. and an entertaining tumblr worth sharing: animated text

* random research led me to the above documentary

required reading // links worth sharing pt. v // current curiosities

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1. beatrix ruf, amsterdam's newest director of the stedelijk museum, on how her "training as a choreographer... has likely contributed to her facility to envision how things could be without having to look at them." // "you have to ask questions,” she [insists] "i don’t think it’s interesting to confirm what you know. i’m just too curious for that."

2. curators of a new exhibit, ‘the cranbrook hall of wonders: artworks, objects, and natural curiosities’ at the cranbrook art museum, "have created the equivalent of an art mix tape, with exacting attention paid to the relationships and transitions between objects, which constantly shift as the viewer moves through the allover installation."  // it also includes scheduled "acts of curiosity" i.e. live events that allow the artists to create work in response to the exhibit.

3. alexander wang's moodboard for spring 2015 // "i’m drawn to objects that juxtapose seemingly contradictory ideas. it’s arresting when something mundane is done in an über-luxurious way. that has become a through line for how i approach design—i love a good surprise."

4. spring/break art show was my favorite of the recent art fairs in nyc // it featured some unusual yet approachable curations at an atypical venue >> more about it here.

5. while i've been finding style blogs less inspiring + meaningful as of late, one thing is for certain: ivania carpio is a style innovator who lives and breathes her minimal aesthetic in everything that she does. // here her "ode to nothing / nothing is everything," explains her unusual love for the aesthetics of nothingness.

6. the beat generation was one, "of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming america, serious, curious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way." // photographer larry fink documented individuals of the era.

7. floriana gavriel and rachel mansur, the designers behind mansur gavriel on their creative process // "we didn’t know where to begin...but we knew what we identified with intuitively." while mansur was living in la and gavriel was in berlin, the two spent two years posting images to a private tumblr, "developing and honing their concept into one that...was “beautiful and clean but also had a warmth to it." #happygirlhappybag

8. rip filmmaker albert maysles // in 1994 he told the nyt, "making a film isn’t finding the answer to a question; it’s trying to capture life as it is.”

9. the book as a work of art // pilure (meaning "fold" in french) is a book-based small show, curated by paulo pires do vale, about the artistic metamorphosis of books dating from the 15th to the 21st centuries. the exhibit questions: how is art transformed in dialogue with the paper book, and how is the paper book transformed by art?

10. i'm digging deeper into the art of mindfulness + meditation as of late ~

required reading // "steve terry, wild life archive clubs on cloth" // the garment district journal issue #1

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i spend all my money on magazines, and although i am broke at least i am inspired (and gaining knowledge). last week i discovered the garment district journal at kinokinuya, my favorite japanese magazine and book store. on the cover, the journal declares its focus on "investigating the world with observations and conditions of our time between objects, people, words and conversations." from a close examination and internet search, i learned the journal is actually published by well-known new york menswear store, nepenthes. i found the article below super interesting:

required reading // links worth sharing iv

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from merrill c. berman's collection: a pin opposing alf landon, a kansas republican who challenged franklin d. roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.

from merrill c. berman's collection: a pin opposing alf landon, a kansas republican who challenged franklin d. roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.

1. "i have a love of the history, and the authenticity of subculture in the street." // says vintage streetwear genius brian procell.

2. according to i-d, fashion is undergoing a subcultural revival // "our ways of dressing are as likely to bubble up from the streets as they are now to descend from high fashion. indeed the brands that tow the delicate line are the ones that aren't just making money, but are responsible for defining our current generation."

3. "adapt, adopt, subvert, iterate. the relationship between function and fashion is rarely direct -- or even correlative. when a wearable object's original intent evolves, shifts or otherwise becomes altered, it can splinter into multiple identities." // re-intention, a recent exhibit at nyu, examines wearable objects as works of art.

4. the first new york men's fashion week has been announced for july 2015 // so who are the most influential people in menswear right now? style.com investigates.

5. "everything is always linked to music, even if it's not a direct story." says paul o'neill, levi's senior designer // he recently talked to cool hunting about utilizing levi's rich apparel archive and the soundtrack to his collections.

6. instagram is partnering with the moma irl // #arquimoma

7. a trip to mexico city is at the top of my list // artsy picks the 8 best works at the recent zona maco.

8. in honor of fashion week, a fashion gif tumblr worth sharing.

9. artist chloe wise is a self-described "canadian jewish angel" who makes non functional bread-bags modeled after famous it-bags of the early 2000s, all with pun-driven titles (louis vuitton baguette, etc) // her art/accessories question the boundary between tacky and luxe.

10. merrill c. berman says a teenage interest in political campaigns trained his eye in graphics // he now has a collection of over 20,000 related mementos.

required reading // links worth sharing pt. iii // art + some other stuff

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1. who are the masterminds behind the google doodles? // "we continue to ask how we can delight users and show humor and humanity," says ryan germick, chief doodler.

2. what people asked the new york public library before google existed // via hyperallergic.

3. "girlfriends" is a collection of work by a collective of global female fashion and art photographers exploring the concept of the female gaze // "it's funny cause when you look at some of the work you can see we all have similar influences and references but we all translate those ideas into our own cultures," says dafy hagi from tel aviv.

4. tumblr's picks for artists who made it big in 2014 // and a cool tumblr worth sharing.

5. w magazine declares lykke li's recent collaboration with &other stories a fashion statement born out of utility // "nick cave and patti smith and millions before me can't have been wrong on black being their first and last love... i was a total floral hippie as a child so when i finally could make my own choices, i've been living in different black suit jackets and been really drawn to masculine clothes. i'm not interested in trends," says the swedish pop singer who lives out of a suitcase and says she has long dreamed of a single, portable uniform she could cart along in a minimalist bag.

6. nyt states "somehow, in the last few years, it has become an article of faith that new york has lost its artistic spirit, that the city's long run as a capital of culture is over." // whoever said art is dead in new york is very wrong.

7. matthias merkel hess creates glazed ceramic objects like recasts of buckets, milk crates, trash cans, and domestic items that play on the place of the vessel in the history of pottery as much as they refer to the readymade in modern art // via artsy.

8. contemporary artist korakrit arunanondchai on his recent work and hybridism // "i like the idea of hybrids a lot, like hybrid media, and hybrid experiences..."

9. while helmut lang quit fashion in 2005, he is now presenting a collection of art created from repurposed clothes. // his self-titled exhibit is on view through feb 21 at new york's sperone westwater, 257 bowery.

10. video to watch // "andrew solomon: how the worst moments in our lives make us who we are"  (a ted talk worth sharing).

required reading // "sh-sh-shake it up: important moments in snowglobe history" // sophie kalagas x frankie magazine

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magazine scan // frankie magazine // issue sixty two

magazine scan // frankie magazine // issue sixty two

some thoughts: there's something special about snow globes. and for as long as i can remember, i've had a love affair with cheap souvenirs. i find their kitschy design and use of color intriguing. my personal collection can be traced back to pins i picked up on family vacations as a child, all of which i recently adhered to my grandma's retro red track jacket. i'm a collector of things (and while what i collect is constantly changing), there's something about the history and narrative of objects that just gets me excited. i also love hearing about other people's collections.

my current job is located in the garment district, home to thousands of wandering nyc tourists. while at first i was overwhelmed by the congestion and commotion of the neighborhood, i've learned to see the beauty of it all. it is the best place for every day people watching and it is a true mecca of souvenir shops and odd fashion joints. one day i'll make a list of these unique destinations.

required reading // links worth sharing

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required reading // clothing narratives

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what poignant moments do our clothes instill in our minds? how do we collect clothing items like memories? how does fashion become part of our collective history? why do we wear what we wear? how is the process of getting dressed emotional? i just purchased two recently published books that explore personal memory through our sartorial choices:

photo from worn stories by emily spivak

photo from worn stories by emily spivak

1 // worn stories by emily spivak is a collection of stories about clothing and memory featuring accounts from sixty cultural figures including andy spade, simon doonan and cynthia rowley. (new york times article here // npr interview here)

excerpt // from david carr's memoir (p. 27-28):

"and then i saw one -- extra large, thank god -- in which the classic new york script had been misprinted upside down. i knew what to do. i turned to the guy running the shop and said, "this one is a misprint. i'll give you three bucks." he said nothing, but nodded. i paid in two crumpled bills and quarters, ducked behind a rack, and put it on. as soon as i stepped out on the street, people stared. i got on the c train to 23rd, and a kid next to me stared at the logo over my burgeoning middle-aged middle section and said, "i like your shirt." "thanks, man. three bucks."

whenever i wear the shirt in new york, waitresses, bartenders, cab drivers, they all say nice things about the shirt and ignore the fact that the rack it's hanging on could use some work. when i travel, which is fairly often, and wear the shirt, which is less often, nobody ever says anything. i like that about my shirt: it is something that is intuitively understood in the city, as we insufferable locals call it, and is baffling to others, akin to many other aspects of living in new york.

i day dreamed for a while about getting some pals of wife in the clothing business to crank out a few hundred. i even had a slogan for the back: "turning new york upside down one shirt at a time" but then someone in the business explained to me you couldn't trademark the idea of turning lettering someone else created upside down. so i just wear mine instead.

it won't last. it's white, for one thing, and a series of small food and beverage disasters have already begun to dapple its surface. one day, it will acculumate enough stains and history soo that it will mysteriously disappear from my drawer. i will miss it."

2 // women in clothes by sheila heti, heidi julavits + leanne shapton features original interviews, conversations, surveys, projects, diagrams and drawings by over six hundred and thirty women, including lena dunham, molly ringwald and cindy sherman. (new york times article here // npr interview here).

women in clothes

excerpt // from the color survey (p. 141-143):

gillian king: "when i was in art school, and i realized that painting was my medium of choice, i began dressing in a palette similar to my paintings. i was obsessed with dyeing my hair different colors, and for about a year or two my head was the rotating colors of the rainbow."

nicole lavelle: "one winter my friend elizabeth said 'i am going to wear only gray this year.' she did it, and it worked, and she didn't have to think about clothes. i tried it too, but it made me feel upset."