C at the Store took offense to my last posting of 10 most bizarre museums, calling it a constipated try. ok, so I’ve hit a dry spell but I won’t take back an interest in what could have made the best sights on offer. Really. Fine, headed back to fashion then. Pfft.

Subversive Jewellery

Previously a successful fine arts painter, Justin Giunta makes collage-like pilings of vintage brooches and heavy chains, gems and beads - mostly garangutan sized - into jewellery. The seemingly haphazard manner of the put-together mechanics are surely something that every flea&flo jeweller wannabe has aimed for at rubbish tryings (stringing 10 retro buttons/swans sourced from People’s Park does not make an interesting necklace, not remotely) - But Giunta’s sense of proportion and aesthetic is unerring. No doubt a name to watch, he has collaborated with many designers including Alexander Wang and J Mendel. Some pundits even go as far as to feel pity for the collaborating designers for Giunta’s pieces are so stellar, they steal the limelight from the actual garments. Conceived on the idea that ‘more is more’, his descriptions for his pieces typically run in the vein of “…loads of antique chains tied in knots.. with additional schnick-schnack..”. These talented types don’t stop, apart from being a painter, Giunta is also a product/interior/industrial designer. His design inclinations are things I want to own if i had a fancy-sized boudoir.

See the rest of Subversive Jewellery collections here.

Red Tropical Treasure Necklace

Foliage Bracelet

Dinosaur Egg and Chain necklace

Sunken Treasure Necklace

W mag recently ran a tribute wedding album to Bruce Willis and his new missus Emma Heming - and it’s hot. He’s buffed and she’s fit sexy. Shot by Steven Klein and styled by Camilla Nickerson, the spread titled Honeymoon Hotel are titillating visuals of Bruce so manly he wears red polish on his toes while Emma, in dominatrix high-fashion, straddles him. I imagine this is what Bladerunner (sans Harrison Ford) would look like if filmed today. Damn is he buffed! And she wears the most amazing boots by Nina Ricci. In a behind-the-scenes segment on W’s Editor blog, Bruce quips that “Vanity dies hard.” Indeed it was the one-liner that we all held our breath for.

Story and image source: W magazine

19th June UPDATE! - W mag reports today that the gravity-defying Nina Ricci lace-up platform boots were created by Olivier Theyskens for the Fall 2009 Nina Ricci show. “...the platform of the shoes is handmade of wood, and there is an internal metal support to hold up the foot. The size of the platform is 11cm for a 10cm heel size.” W further reports that their Accessories Market Editor has tried on those Ricci heels and says: “They were not impossible to walk in… you just had to lean forward.”

Vanity Dies Hard!

Dolce & Gabbana scarf. On him: Tom Ford’s wool and mohair tuxedo and cotton shirt, at Tom Ford, New York, tomford.com; Bergdorf Goodman, New York. Tom Ford tie.

Emma Willis wears Alexander McQueen’s leather and silver fox fur jacket and leather and sterling silver harness, to order, at Alexander McQueen, New York; Nicole Miller Collection’s leather shorts, at Nicole Miller. Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen hat; Dolce & Gabbana scarf; Alexander McQueen gloves; Nina Ricci boots.

1 Dior’s leather jacket, at Dior; Eres’s silk and spandex briefs (in his hand), at Eres. Nina Ricci booties. On him: Giorgio Armani’s wool tuxedo pants, at Giorgio Armani, giorgioarmani.com.

Nina Ricci’s cotton tulle gown, to order. Paul Seville mask.

Dior’s leather jacket and skirt, at Dior. Rodarte gloves. Nina Ricci boots

Keiko’s lambskin bodysuit, at Keiko, New York, keikonewyork.com. Michael Kors necklace; Alexander McQueen boots. On him: medicaltoys.com gloves.

C threw a hissy fit in the store the other day. Mainly because the ipod had died in untimely fashion - 2 weeks after the warranty had expired. He could have saved his curses for the next swelthering day if he had known “technological Murphy’s Law” wasn’t a personal gizmo attack but a matter of manipulative business savvy. Cliff Kuang’s Burning Question column in the May issue of Wired explains all this easily. “Some gadgets fail just outside of warranty because that’s exactly how they are designed. Products that last forever do not a profitable multinational conglomerate make..” It all boils down to a far flung business model conpiracy, what we’ve all known intuitively.. that gizmos die so you would have to buy more. “But manufacturers also don’t want to get a bad rap for shilling crap, so they engineer their hardware to last just long enough for consumers to feel like they got their money’s worth. They guarantee the gear for that period of time - and not a second longer.” Apparently “Warranty Calculation” is a serious science and there are complex formulas calculated and set in place to ensure C’s ipod never stood a chance beyond its seemingly pre-mature death.

Own a Marty McFly ‘Back to the Future II’ cap

And while we’re on the subject of cool geek info, Amazon’s releasing replicas of Marty McFly’s iridecent cap! Nothing cooler for Butter Factory get-ups than an accessory of the Future (2015, ok!) FROM 1989 in full ultra-reflectvie rainbow splendour and ‘futuristic fastening’ velcro closures.

Doc: No! It can’t be; I just sent you back to the future!

Marty McFly: No, I know. You DID send me back to the future. But I’m back - I’m back FROM the future.

Doc: Great Scott!

Awesome. Better than Mambo on Wednesday nites at Zouk.

This just makes great pop culture trivial. Everyone should file this information to mental index for future bar-conversations-run-dry.

Do we care that the Stan Smith, name sake of the iconic adidas Stan Smith, was a hotshot Tennis Pro from the late 60’s, and had he not been the finer player, the shoe would have been called a Haillet after a French man? (Hardly the same ring for the most popular tennis shoe ever). Well yes, because it will earn you extra peanut points and a drink.

Poor Chuck Taylor -  his name immortalized in the most iconic gig photo galleries and style sites but nary a cent did he get from royalties. And no, he wasn’t the founder of Converse either. He was a mere salaried salesman who ended up as a free mascot.

Image source: nytimes.com

Doyenne of the unexpected and guerilla fashion, Rei Kawakubo, is marking Comme des Garcon’s 40th anniversary with a series of pop-up stores; introducing a temporary brand, BLACK, in collaboration with Vogue Nippon and an exhibition at parisian concept store, Colette. Writing for the NY Times, Suze Menkes pays tribute to Rei Kawakubo, crediting her with having “created black as the colour of fashion’s rebel yell.”

10 limited-time “Black” stores will roll out world wide, with the first already opened in Tokyo, followed by a pop-up store in CDG’s Dover Street Market in London, and then another in Paris. The other 7 pop-ups remain unannounced.

Dear Thesus of WERK, will you bring us good news? x

I’ve discovered lately a penchant for charred, smouldering, burnt scents. There’s something heady about a fragrance that’s reminiscent of burning smoke. Not in the olfactory sense of incense, cigarettes and cigars (although I am partial to the smell of the latter, I know alot of people crinkle up noses at cheroots and cubans). There’s been a trendy use of Tobacco as a note in fragrances for a while now, mostly men’s fragrances as befitting the somewhat masculine gender of the ingredient. While socially understood to be masculine, Tobacco/charred notes need not be genderized. Scent blog ISmellThereforeIam has a great posting on Sonama Scent Studio’s Tabac Aurea on how the fragrance makes the writer feel like she’s  Bette Davis <Insert soundtrack: Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes> (Such an old-world idol and such a good song to greet the day!).

My current personal favourites for smoldering smoke fragrances are A.P.C Bougie no.3 Toumbac candles and C.B Burning Leaves.

A.P.C Bougie no.3 Toumbac

A.P.C Bougie Toumbac scented candle is a slightly masculine tobacco-based note with a rich and deep earthy finish. Scented candles are an affordable luxury that I’m a fiend for. I’ve a huge thing for scents and if being greeted by a lush smouldering scent on entering a room is a fanciful indulgence… well, I’m happy to burn away money. The scent that wafts from A.P.C Bougie Toumbac is just the right amount of complexity to interest without smothering you. A.P.C candles burn for 50hrs and is also available in Fleur d’Oranger (a musky-sweet citrus of orange blossom) and Cologne (a sharp arbor musk).

Available at Front Row | 5 ann siang road

C.B I Hate Perfume - Burning Leaves

Christopher Brosius is a perfumery artist who captures experience in a scent. That isn’t just marketing/P.R dribble. He truely has. Fittingly so, when you take a whiff of Memory of Kindness and Mr Hulot’s Holiday… you are transported. These are scents evokative of someone else’s experience, in notes that you recognise via a stream of fleeting scented images; someone else’s experience but strangely familiar. Burning Leaves is simply described as a “the smoke of burning maple leaves”. The scent is a tribute to his childhood memories of raking and burning autumn leaves with his father: “..I love watching them crinkle up in the flames while the smoke swirled up my nose and made me sneeze.”. It is an evokative perfume that unleases a lush, smoldering note of raw smoke: not so much charred as caramelized.

Here is C.B who hates perfume, but has managed to bottle the smell of life and memory. Love.

Available at Asylum | 22 ann siang road

The rumours were flying so fast there wasn’t time to post this before it became DEMODE. It was all much ado about nothing regarding the rumours that triggered many panic attacks - that Karl was not going to renew his contract with Chanel, and Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz was going to take over Chanel while Olivia Theyskens would take helm of Lanvin. All of Fashion Opera’s favourites:  The storm flurry brewed when Diane Pernet first broke news of these rumours, who has since posted a statement that both Chanel and Lanvin have denied this as hogwash - on grounds that Elbaz has a significant stake in Lanvin which makes poor business sense, while Karl is simply too obsessed with working to stop… that he’s immortal and the fact that Chanel is his bride, according to FakeKarl. Diane Pernet has since only publicly apologise to FakeKarl who had to stop work on his treehouse to express his consternation over the alleged rumours. No word from Real Karl yet.

JOKES!!

Betty or Veronica. Message boards have been ablazed in indignation that Archie will finally choose, after 68 years of wimpy indecisiveness, to propose to rich-bitch Veronica rather than wholesome girl-next-door Betty (Yawn.) The epic moment in the #600 issue of the well-loved comic has had many netizens rooting for Betty, and many predict that while it is an engagment, it remains to be seen if Veronica will actually get married to indecisive Archie (I’m sure Ronnie’s dad, Mr. Lodge will step in at some point). Clearly in the bid to sell more pulp, the news is as “OMG” inducing as it can get. If you want to lay bets now, the eternal love triangle will continue for another 1000 issues - but  he will marry Betty eventually.

With Archie comics as the epitome of wholesome 50’s Americana and all, I can’t actually see the comic grappling with issues of divorce, pre-nuptial agreements (there are speculations that Archie will marry broke), or backstabbing drama in the run-up to the wedding/non-wedding. However, MSNBC.com reports that movie producer Michael Uslan who resurrected the Batman movie franchise in 1989 is writing the story so there might be a bit of Hollywood soap opera bite in all-american Riverdale afterall.