From second-skin mash-ups in a downtown alley to the lyrical bronze totems installed in an Eagle Rock vault, there is much to love and covet from two of L.A.'s rising star artists, Bettina Hubby and Gordon Bowen, whose latest works made the drive out to see them worth every mile. […]
Posted in Art, Current Affairs, Design
Better late than never. That was certainly the thinking when we set out after a long day in the store on Sunday evening for San Francisco, a six-hour drive north from home which ended the following morning on July 4 when we arrived inside the parking garage at the de Young Museum to catch the closing day of “Balenciaga and Spain."
It was well worth the impromptu road trip, as I'd hoped after receiving the sumptuous catalog on the show from our dear manager Rafael for my birthday in May. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style, Travel
Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to Dwell on Design at the L.A. Convention Center. Some 20,000 attendees turned out, and I think most of those folks came through our mini A+R shop in the foyer. […]
On this, Andy's first Father's Day, I look back at my first honorary day as a parent last month, recalling how my magnificent partner in life went for the bronze—and scored gold. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style
This Saturday's auction—and break-up—of the most comprehensive single collection of Hollywood's greatest costumes is a major blow to all of us fans of cinema and clothes. After decades of trying to realize a museum for the hundreds of costumes and artifacts she's rescued over four decades, legendary actress and film buff Debbie Reynolds is going to put them on the auction block, not because she wants to—but because she simply cannot afford to maintain them. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Film, Style
Los Angeles Times fashion critic Booth Moore extended coverage on my second book, The Extraordinary Difference, in both the magazine and, this last Sunday, with a lengthy feature in the Image section subtitled: "Rodeo Drive used to be a regular street. […]
If you are not a follower yet, then don't delay another day on checking out the postings by celebrated fashion illustrator Gladys Perint Palmer on her new eponymous site.
They are near-daily dose of color and line from the artist's archives or current sketchbook during her travels covering the runway circus in Europe and New York and other ports of style. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, StylePantone, the international standard of colors, announced this week 175 new colors to its Color System, bringing in its total to 2,100.
The broader, complex range includes more nuanced neutrals and mid-tones, more vibrant brights, more subdued variations of popular colors. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair, known succinctly as ICFF, is the U.S.'s premiere design circus, made all the more a draw because of the satellite events and showcases scattered around New York City during the annual expo, now in its 24th year. […]
Back in L.A. during the wee, pitch-black hours last night from a whirlwind of design shows and other adventures in New York City. We were there, of course, for the latest installment of ICFF, where we managed to find some great, yet-to-be-released must-haves for A+R. […]
More Than Fashion: Madonna, circa 2007, clad in Christian Lacroix couture in a collaboration with Arianne Phillips and Steven Klein for W magazine.
For fashion watchers, the Met Costume Ball in New York Monday night may have offered more lows than highs. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style
Thank you to everyone who braved the harrowing traffic and blazing heat this weekend to visit us on the USC campus for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Soft launch as it was for The Extraordinary Difference, the book and the booth filled with yellow and white details struck a chord with passersby, who had their own memories to retell about Giorgio Beverly Hills and Fred Hayman. […]
Posted in Books, Current Affairs, Design, Style
This weekend is the extraordinarily long-anticipated unveiling of my second book, Fred Hayman: The Extraordinary Difference at The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the USC campus. Free entry to the two-day event this Saturday and Sunday, but best to drop by on the early side if you want to score an actual copy of this seven-pound tome. […]
Fuseproject's Yves Béhar, A+R's Rose Apodaca and Andy Griffith and Jimmyjane's Ethan Imboden
Still all warm and fuzzy from the glow of our jam-packed evening a week ago today at A+R Abbot Kinney featuring industrial designer and fuseproject founder Yves Béhar and Jimmyjane founder and creative director Ethan Imboden. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design
Make no mistake: We are under attack.
And by this, I don't mean we, as in those who love and live by the arts. I mean all of us as a nation that upholds ideals of education, accessiblity, freedom and democracy. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design
"We are the world’s best imitators and that is how we evolved into humans. We understand the world because we imitate it," Vivienne Westwood tells a tiny audience that includes rapper Lupe Fiasco, designers Raven Kauffman and Magda Berliner (beautifully clad in a Lanvin for H&M dress she further altered into something else) and me. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style
Visual excess? Exploring the space between social promiscuity and solipsistic trance? Sounds like our kind of night. Architect Barbara Bestor considers social and communal experiences by staging a temporary disco at SCI-Arc. […]
What happens when good design takes on taboo?
We at A+R are thrilled to host “Sex, Design and the Pleasure Conspiracy,” a frank chat with two of the most innovative and provocative designers today, Yves Béhar of fuseproject and Ethan Imboden of Jimmyjane. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Style
Our pal at L.A. Eyeworks, Brent Zerger, was kind enough to send this note just now about my posting early Wednesday on the passing of Elizabeth Taylor:
You gotta tip your hat when something is beautifully said or written. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design
Among the many, many cabinets inside Bill Cunningham's apartment stuffed with a half century of street fashion.
"Fashion," says Bill Cunningham in the new documentary on his life, “it’s the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Film
The day finally came. Elizabeth Taylor died this morning of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, according to her publicist, Sally Morrison. She was 79.
Like the rest of the universe, or at least those with a pulse and a speck of passion, I have forever been in awe of this force of nature. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Film
The splash page for my second book, a bio of Rodeo Drive marekting architect and fragrance maverick Fred Hayman, is up. Yes, that Fred Hayman of Giorgio Beverly Hills and 273 fame,
It's only the first phase. […]
Posted in Books, Current Affairs, Design
As each day passes since the horrific crisis in Japan hit, another story surfaces of friends directly affected by it all. Our Abbot Kinney neighbors Keiko and Taku Shinomoto, the owners of Tortoise General Store, were there when it took place and, thankfully, safe, according to their staff in the Venice shop. […]
Kate Betts came to Abbot Kinney tonight, with stacks of her freshman book, Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style, the latest stop across the country like a politician on a whistle-stop tour. […]
Posted in Books, Current Affairs, Design