As we hit the early years of the 21st century, creative thinking and design start to become recycled, blended, regurgitated and influenced from past artists. Originality starts to become extremely rare as the creative field becomes more and more competitive and the ability to start your own business is a mouse click away. For example, Chris Benz line (shown above) is a great example of using 50s, 60s and 70s inspired trends to create a style of his own. In an article by Christine Barberich on Refinery29.com, her interview displays his thought process on how he came to create his first line–adding pictures, photos, and collection of items he finds in his spare time on a wall.

From this visual example of his inspirations, we can see that there are a lot of inspirations that spring from past trends and/or advertisements.

Looking at fashion, we begin to see the same recycled images we see in art. At times it is done well and at most times it is not. However, what is interesting about todays Fashion is that just because the price of a shirt is high, doesn’t mean that it is a high-fashion commodity. The birth of expensive streetwear is becoming very prominent in the fashion world. A simple Nike limited edition sneaker could cost just as much as a Versace dress made for Nicole Kidman. Street fashion has now become a growing economy-feeding culture next to the sophisticated fashion pioneers of haute couture.

I recently visited the RIF sneaker store in Little Tokyo and was in awe by the prices labeled on their limited edition shoes. These Air Jordan VII are going for $600 next to many other collectable Air Jordans in the store. This item next to the other 22 Michael Jordan shoe releases that come out every blue moon. You must be thinking $600 for shoes? Well, to parallel, I wouldn’t pay $600 for a Louis Vuitton bag either. However, this is a very common trend rapidly rising in our youth culture.

And as I read more blogs, I realize that there is a huge crossover with high-fashion designers with streetwear brands, high-fashion designers with big retailers like H&M, and corporate designers producing more personal independent lines to match the current street fashion buzz.

The book Total Living by Maria Luisa Frisa completely excited me when I discovered its content. This is exactly the type of book I want to be making when I’m sufficiently older and experienced.

I’ve searched this book on Amazon and found it covers many aspects of art that I cover for my blog. This is a fairly recent book published in 2002 displaying and discussing lifestyles, fashion, industry and culture,

“A fabulously rich and interconnected iconographic passage visually narrates the various forms and ramifications of total living today and in the recent past through a succession of utopias, life-projects, urban visions, architecture, special homes, stores, art galleries, museums, and editorial pages and ads from fashion and lifestyle magazines.”

Since it’s 488 pages, I believe I would find endless material to write on or to choose a specific subject to focus on. What was interesting is that this was the single book that popped up when I searched “consumerism”. This is a perfect match for what I want to do. The book is a more detailed examination into the art and culture and influence of all things art and design. Unlike blogs, Total Living is more permanent and academic based that could aid me in researching a higher understanding of culture and art.

This is a big change from my post talking about the toy and USB-stylist, Friends with You, switching now from playful collectable USB’s to USB’s with a fashion statement. Sometimes we have secretive and important files we’d like to keep locked and this USB makes it possible to lock away files from people we’d like to keep away from. The addition of the clock makes it a more useful accessory to put on a keychain like most people do with their USB drives.

I’ve always loved when major designers or fashion brands open their minds to create more accessories for their line — partly because I can’t afford the other big items they have on sale.

Fred de Garilhe, a French professional luxury accessory designer, produced concepts for big brands such as Chanel, Kappa, Chloe and Le Coq Sportif. Aside from accessories, he also makes fashion and apparel, industrial design and exhibition design. His most recent and prominent concept was the Chanel Choco Phone that has been hitting all the high fashion to street fashion blogs. His designs are original and push the envelope for new ways for looking at technology. The curves in the USB make it distinctively unique from other straight sided USB drives. Even if we look at the Chanel phone, his ideas are unconventional and create something that geeks and girls can drool over.

These USB drives are nowhere near subtle, but it personifies Louis Vuitton’s brand. The majority of their clients are fairly gaudy and really like to make it known that they own Louis Vuitton. It’s a great way for them to tap into the technology world, satisfying geeks, fashionista’s and collectors from all over the globe.

Source: Coroflot.com

X’s over O’x

B

The illustrations remind me of Shakespeares’ A Midnight Summers Dream, with it’s fantastical characters falling in love with everything and anything. A few days ago, Prada premiered the “Trembled Blossoms” video in which James Jean designed the frames, characters and storyboard. In terms of collaborating mediums, we can see that this whole project involves illustration art, film and fashion. The influence of James Jean definitely takes a big shift in high-end fashion by exploring the aesthetics of different mediums to raise the bar in the fashion world.I am completely enamored with the juxtaposition of the photographed advertisements and the images that James Jean produced. Even though a starving college student can’t even afford a shoe from Prada, let alone an artwork of James Jean, the ingenious collaboration definitely raised the status for both artists in their field.

Source: Notcot, James Jean

X’s over O’x

B