Spomenik: The End of History

A series of photographs by photographer Jan Kempenaers. Apparently these bizarre monuments were erected by the communist regime in former Yugoslavia.

Yes. They are real.

Paying attention to their careful integration in the landscape, he demonstrates that landscapes are turned into sites of memory. Commemorating the common traumatic experiences during the Second World War and the partisan battles, these monuments were intended to provide the people of Yugoslavia with a common history and identity that would be productive in its future evolution. However, in the late twentieth century, these landscapes were torn by nationalist and ethnic violence and their monuments are now neglected. The idea of progress has been buried under the weight of history and the monuments, which were once machines of sightseeing and (photographic) image production, have become obsolete and invisible.

How on earth these sci-fi like structures are supposed to achieve the desired effects above eludes me.

Some structures looked like they came straight from the set of the TV series LOST.

World economy down. Hermès sales, up. wtf?

Forbes is reporting that Hermes will post an increase in sales during the first quarter of 2009 while other brands are going down.

Sales fell modestly in Europe and experienced a double-digit decline in luxury-goods-obsessed Japan, but the brand saw increases large enough in non-Japanese Asia to more than make up for decreases elsewhere. The increases were seen mostly in South Korea and China.

看设么看？没看过美女啊？hmm!

China is set to become the 3rd largest luxury goods consumer by 2015. Well, Korea and China have been top luxury goods bootlegger for ages! Look at this informative presentation about luxury goods in China.

I appreciate the breakdown of the luxe consumers.

Noveau (just a pretentious way to say 'new') Rich: Never heard of Hermès. LV rocks their world. Have it, flaunt it. More monograms please!

Understaters: Heard of it all. BORING! No mainstream lux for me.

Connoisseurs : Only the best. I don't starve for my G5. The high life.

Spirituals: Finding the meaning of life is of utmost importance. Generally more guai lan in their consumption of lux.

Wow I used the term 'consumption of lux'. Very JC economics indeed!

The slideshow is very insightful and the strategies of the companies are formidable. I'd put our local market as mostly Noveau Rich (but in the know), a fast growing market of Understaters and a tiny group of Connoisseurs (growing but still not fast enough: richman's girls have not grown up yet) and Spirituals.

Hermès wants you!

to design their tie.

Hermès, house of quality, is world renowned for its fine silk, and particularly for ties. They embody fine craftsmanship, masterful design and timeless style. We expect to receive innovative and original pattern designs for ties that brighten up men's wardrobe. we want to be surprised by refined 'all-over' designs -
repeating or non repeating patterns in which the motifs recur in a design covering the entire cloth. You are asked to develop a new pattern that could be either a re-interpretation of the Hermes classic patterns (equestrian -, sport -, marine theme, whimsical animal motifs, geometric variations including stripes, plant and flower designs and the H delicately imprinted across the surface of the tie) or something completely different, that could be used for the silk-screen printing - or weaving technique.

For more information, go here.

Hermès : forever changing your understanding of how much a god damn silk-anything cost. But it is surprisingly cheap in China. *wide innocent eyed look*

LOUIS VUITTON /underground/

Like I said. Times are changing and even brand with long tradition should too in order to stay fresh and relevant. LV did. The more recent ones being their collab with COMME des GARÇONS and Kanye West. It is hard to stay relevant and still not cheapen the brand. A fine balance indeed. Their latest move, LOUIS VUITTON /underground/.

Louis Vuitton’s newest venture in Japan is the opening of their LOUIS VUITTON /underground/ store located in the Seibu department store in Ikebukuro. LOUIS VUITTON /underground/ is a concept store and will only be running for a limited period of time. To celebrate the opening, Louis Vuitton invited American rapper Kool Keith for a performance last night.

they take the underground part quite literally

the forklift looks so fake

a huge departure from their classic setup
not wise to do it long term as well

forget Verbal (the clown from teriyaki boyz) and kool keith (who the fuck is he?)
check out mademoiselle Yulia. kawaii!

ok. armor/jacket is not cool

the green hair is tho
like 华语cool!

work it girl!

LV is really a master of their game. Which brand never go on sale, raise prices yearly and yet maintain it's heritage AND hype at the same time. Some young girls say that the LV monogram is very auntie and choose to go for younger *ahem cheaper* brands like coach (bigger uglier monogram) and burberry (checks in various colours). Stop lying girl. You're gonna go LV soon enough.

the bob

Meet bob.





Due to the nature of her hair, it is difficult for shuyi to sport a bob. The last time shuyi had the courage to chop her mane was like 9 years ago. It was cute but the maintenance was crazy.

So today, 30 May 2009 is quite an occasion for shuyi. She finally had the courage (from where she got it, i have no idea) to get her bob.

note the very heartlands background

meet bob

accessories: rings

Rings. Don't wear em, never did. But should we?

'kiss the pinkie ring bitches!'

Check out this cool ones from Victim.

These would make real cool pinkie rings. Anchors & eagles. Any significance? Who cares? I don't see too many shops selling these kinda rings locally. Thomas Sabo at Raffles City really sabos your wallet.

Speaking of rings, shuyi got this recently.


Is it nice? It sure is! Is she ever gonna wear it? Don't think so.

We should probably start wearing these. I am not an accessories person thus I only wear it once in a while (i still dream of getting picked up by girls haha). Shuyi, in fear of scratching the ring, NEVER wears it at all.

muesli bar

To save on food while abroad, shuyi brings instant noodles to cook. No more. How bout something more healthy instead?






I decided to make her some healthy muesli bars. Portable, no cooking required. Packed with vitamins and fiber. It got so much butter and hunny in there, it tastes great too!

muesli + unprocessed barn + butter + honey + leftover cereal

after baking

packed to go!

your're a lemur! you're a tiiiger!!!

Shuyi's austin powers *yea baby!* shoot.

work it!

A tribute to our my favorite photo shoot.

grace overload

Grace Kelly X Audrey Hepburn. Does anybody have anything bad to say about them?

Backstage at 28th Academy Awards, Hollywood, 1956

Grace "you-don't-know-grace-till-you-meet-this-grace" Kelly in that dress

Grace married a prince (for real), have an Hermes bag named after her but died in a dramatic car over cliff car crash.

LBD! LBD!

Audrey had a successful career (not everyone gets to be a princess tai tai like Grace Kelly yea?), cemented the Little Black Dress as a fashion staple, did lotsa humanitarian work and died of cancer.

These old school stars are really graceful and glamorous huh? They have this aura about them that makes them beautiful and unattainable. Maybe it's because of the lack of youtube? Compare to the recent batches of Hollywood stars. Wild party, exposing themselves, tattoos everywhere.

Coach is on sale

Coach is on sale.

This might sound strange but would you like a brand that goes on sale?

come. we cheapen our brand for you.

In my opinion, a luxury brand should NEVER go on sale. Granted Coach is not a top brand like LV, Prada or Bottega Venetta. Putting your items on sale only cheapen you brand. And for 'branded' labels, ain't the brand EVERYTHING? How else does Prada and Longchamp sell you polyester totes for hundreds of dollars? How do you justify canvas LV wallets going for that kind of price?

By putting items on sales, you increase sales on the short term. The streets will be flooded with young girls who just started working and want something with lotsa logos on it. Is that the image you want for your brand in the long term? These same girls will ditch your brand when they move on up. To where? To the brands that will never go on sale!

Instead of coming up (and phasing out) with new designs, why not focus on a few classic ones and make them stand out as your brand's unique product. If you don't, you end up with lodes of different products with your name on it but not one that people can name. We got your LV Speedy, Fendi Spybag, Chanel 2.55 and Hermès Birkin for example. Name a Coach IT bag. Hell, even Longchamp and agnès b. have their enduring pliage and voyage collection.I have a bone to pick with them but that's another post for another day.

You go to Longchamp and you see a huge wall of polyester bags in every possible colour. But at least we can still put a name on 'em.

if the koreans wanna bootleg your bag,

your bag is a success

Even if they wanna bootleg Coach, they don't have a specific design to bootleg.

Putting items on sales bring about long term decline in sales. Not only does your luxury product now appear cheap due to oversupply. The brand is also greatly weakened.

Secondly, why would I want to buy this product now when I can just wait for the next sale? Wait a minute... why would I want your product which I pay good money for the brand? Eventually due to the abovementioned reasons, the brand will lose it's prestige. What will it reduce to? You don't want to try to capture the lower rung of the luxury market. Sooner or later, you will be made irrelevant.

Controlling the price is great because when making the decision to buy a branded good, consumers should be in a state of impulse. Is it wise to put the question of 'when' to handbrake the impulse? 'Should I buy it now?' should not be there. For LV, they increase the price almost (or is it always?) single year. The question becomes an answer: I should buy it now. It is only going to be more expensive tomorrow. LV for the win!

LV! LV!

They paid top dollars for em. Look how happy they are.

Look at the logo. It says Coach leatherware. When you think Coach, do you think leather? Coach may have started with leather (you know, the whole coach saddle thing) but they have a good few decades to change their image. If your leather products are not cutting it and surprisingly the fabric ones are, drop the 'leather' mindset of the brand and work on what people think your brand is about. C'mon don't try to fight your Hermès and Bottega on their battleground. Challenge Beckam to chess. Don't play soccer with him. Poloroid came out with digital cameras and got owned. Why?

Play on the EST 1941 part to up the heritage mystique vibes. Not alot of companies can say they went through WWII.

Lastly why do you have to phase out the single design which I thought was nice? The hobo was your best bet at stardom dum dum! We don't see other brand that have nice fabric hobos that look like a stitched up hybrid of a football and a cossiant. They have something good going on there and they phased it out?! It could be Coach's lucky break at getting an IT bag. A chance at getting a mindshare of the consumers. Lucky we got ours.

It was a good run fellas, but now we have to end this and go on to spend more time and money to design more forgettable bags.

You sure bout that?

Oh. When you think of hobo, you think of Coach? Well, we don't sell them no more.

I am confused. Is this a brand's way of living dangerously? Suicidal? Does it make the brand sexy?

hats@sg

Marc Jacob sells everything. Clothes, bags, perfume... even hats. And he is so on fire these days that he can't go wrong. But at what cost?

Aside from materials, everything from the initial blocking to the finishing trim is made entirely in New York. Some of the styles include the Parri Buntle featuring hand-woven South American straw, the Panama Straw which features a hand-dyed and woven material and the Rice Straw which features a special braid and shape. The hats will drop next week at Marc Jacobs stores early next week with a suggested retail price of $225 USD.

Seriously. Are we still talking about straw here?

but the top roll of hats are really nice eh?

detailing you can get at the world's sweatshop at 1% of the suggested retail price

dandy

But how does one wear a hat in Singapore without looking like a total poseur/jackass? I mean if you wear it indoors, you look damn kuku and act seh. If you wear it outdoors, be sure to stay in the sun. Else you look damn kuku and act seh. That's for straw hats. What about actual felt hats? You need tonnes of self confidence and be oblivious to EVERYONE's sniggers.

making fun of cats

Kitler: kats the look like hitler

Everyone knows that cats the the most guai lan animals. You cannot keep them as pets: they merely choose to hang around. But...the nonchalant cats are also one of the most enduring comedy gold on the internet. Check out icanhascheezburger. I dare you to finish looking at all the pictures.

irrelevant. goddamn funny.

And check out catsthatlooklikehitler. Not as funny as the previous site though. Some cats don't really look like hitler.

sig heil!!

3-D fonts

Think literal.



Other than being a visual treat, the arrangement of the cut out words can be arranged in a manner that suggest some form of mood or even tone.

This is like a lousy sales person's speech:

direct and way too much

this is a politician talking:

full of fluff, nothing else.

Explain yourself!

The structures are a physical representation of our language as object. This “visual noise” permeates all aspects of modern culture, especially urban living. From the signs, billboards, stores, and t-shirts that yell with type for attention as you walk down any high street. All the audio and verbal noise, from music we plug our ears with to the din of countless conversations, screams and whispers. With new media of texting, online, and transmitted technology there is even invisible noise silent to the eye surrounding us all. It is this cozy womb of information, data, or chorus of cacophony that my mobiles hope to represent as well as reveal. Making the invisible visible.

One thing I'll like to know is: how much weed do you need to smoke to think like that?

Bell&Ross

I've always like the Bell & Ross Instrument. Normally they come in black. For the limited edition, it now comes in white instead.



I do not have this watch because:

1. siao. Do you know how much it cost!?
2. I have a mighty skinny wrist
4. I have not found a good enough fake for this
3. siao. Do you really have any idea how much it cost?!

left: expensive

right: even more expensive

The special edition watches are called Instrument BR Commando. Why do they call it commando? Below is my own point of view.

Why does commandos don red berets? In warfare, it is preferable to be inconspicuous. People wear uniforms according to where they are fighting. But not the psycho/egoistic commandos. They want you to spot them.

ok. Now you saw me. What cha gonna do? Punk?

Same thing with the watch. Screw camouflage. Camo are for pussies! We are going for the now-you-see-me-try-killing-me masculinity.

The whole military theme worked great for the company. How else does a big watch that looks like a muji aluminum can on rubber straps sell for that kinda price?

blended in flawlessly

Just a simple play with fonts and voila! Bell & Ross manupilated fonts with much success. Why bother with designing a logo?

see?

meet Ansari

Meet Aziz Ansari (real name, no shit). If you read his name real quick, it sounds very apologetic.




Anyway, here is an article about him. And in the article, a clip of him on a show.

Bullshit.

Inspiration? 8 years? Jerry Seinfeld was never as funny as Aziz. Jerry Seinfeld was funnier than Aziz is currently when he was a fetus.

All he could do is talk non stop at a high pitch. Chris Rock could do the high pitch non stop talking better than he. He is, to me, very much like Russells Peter. Russells is one funny dude. His racial jokes and impersonations are god damn funny. Firstly, anyone impersonating indians are god damn funny. An indian dude impersonating chinese?! omg. Comedy gold. But that is about all Russells can do. Racial joke. It gets lame after a while.

Who do I like?

Jerry Seinfeld. Now this dude is seriously funny. He is a genius. His timing and his jokes were top notch. The 9 seasons of Seinfeld sitcom is about as good as it gets. Too bad he got defeated by jennifer aniston's nipples in F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

No sitcom since Seinfeld have went past 2 seasons with a cast that has NOT A SINGLE attractive crew. Seinfeld did 9 of 'em.

genius: hate those nipples.

Eddie Izzard. A cross dressing brit dude doing standup? Check his youtube clips. Watch the ones where he is in drag. superb.

is it the mascara? what?!

I am not really in-the-know about the world of standup but I know suckyness when I see it.