Wear + Here

April 11, 2014

Mountain tide

Grüner See in Styria, Austria. Photo by Marc Henauer.

Zimmermann Filigree Stud One Piece Swimsuit in Mismatched.

Seasonal submergence. My kind of cleanse. Every spring, snowmelt from the Karst mountains in Austria swells the Grüner See (Green Lake), flooding the park that rings the lagoon. For most of the year, visitors can stroll across bridges, sit on park benches and jog along footpaths. Not so from mid-May to June: the park becomes an underwater wonderland populated by waving green grass, wildflowers and leafy trees. Swiss scuba diver Marc Henauer spent a week exploring the magical expanse in his scuba gear, snapping light-dappled photographs. This Zimmermann one-piece seems suited to the park’s bifurcated existence.

April 10, 2014

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Misty mission

Stairway to Heaven in Anhui, China. Photo by Lance McMillian

Stairway to Heaven Photo by Lance McMillian

Nobis Chloe Reversible Raincoat in Olive.

A tiresome day of (tax) tasks leaves me feeling like I’m climbing, always climbing, destination unknown. Instead, I’ll imagine ascending these millennia-old stairs up Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in the Anhui Province of southeast China, in this stylishly reversible Nobis coat. The moody mist would pull me out of my cloud.

April 9, 2014

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Asado Arcadia

Parador La Huella in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay.

Scout and Catalogue Nomad Scarf in Indigo.

Rolling the grill out of the garage yesterday fired me up for the charbroiled parade of summer. With meat on my mind, I sought out an exotic outlet for my carnivorous cravings and found this Arcadian jewel in the fishing village of Jose Ignacio, Uruguay – beloved by some jetsetters in the high season (December to February). Dubbed the best beachside restaurant on the planet by Bon Appetit in 2012, La Huella sits at the end of the six-by-seven street downtown, on the sandy doorstep of the Atlantic Ocean (Bon Appetit food editor Hunter Lewis described the scene as a “bohemian pirate ship run aground – a warren of dining rooms, decks, and open kitchens made of wood and canvas”). Against a soundtrack of Tropicalia music, chef Alejandro Morales has mastered the art of the asado – the South American tradition of cooking meat of an open fire – in addition to many other gourmet traditions from around the world. The menu is a palimpsest of influences: Morales learned to make paella in Spain and shellfish pastas in Italy; for his breads, he drew inspiration from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, and Chez Panisse compelled him to forge connections with organic farms. Now (spring, their autumn) is the time to visit Jose Ignacio: the 300 year-round residents resume their small-town rhythms, and with a new international art fair set for next January, the village – and La Huella – will surely see a spike in appetites.

April 8, 2014

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Hybrid bird

Fuglen in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Magne Risnes.

Sexy Pencil Rubber Skirt by Christina Ledang

Daylife. Nightlife. Lifestyle. This is the triad encapsulated by Fuglen, a Tokyo outpost which takes the coffee it presses as seriously as the cocktails it shakes and the mid-century finds it sells. The immaculate mix that is Fuglen – “the bird” in Norwegian – began in a decades-old coffee shop in Oslo: a barista and a curator revived the place in 2008, and two years later, a bartender joined them, hence the trifold offerings. From the get go, the trio talked about translating their concept in their two favorite cities outside Norway – Tokyo and New York City. Luckily kismet smiled on the idea and the pieces started falling into place: in Spring 2012, they opened Fuglen in their friend’s grandfather’s house in the up-and-coming Shibuya neighborhood. Not ones to rest on their hybrid laurels, the trio recently teamed up with famed artist Takashi Murakami on Bar Zingaro, a blend of Murakami’s Japanese kitsch aesthetic with their Norwegian living room vibe. With Tokyo saturated, the group is turning to New York, paving the way for a US of A Fuglen through a May showcase of Norwegian designers. I’ll welcome them stateside in this equally inventive rubber skirt by emerging Norwegian designer Christina Ledang.

April 7, 2014

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Desert temporality

Desert Breath by Danae Stratou, Alexandra Stratou, and Stella Constantinides in the Sahara of El Gouna, Egypt.

Desert Breath by D.A.S.T. Arteam in the Sahara of El Gouna, Egypt.

Shinola's The Birdy Double Wrap Leather Strap Watch in Women's White with Date

Shinola The Birdy Double Wrap Leather Strap Watch (White with Date)

Over time, wind and weather will erode Desert Breath, a breathtaking land art installation in the eastern Sahara desert. Sited at the meeting of mountains and sea, Desert Breath is a monumental meditation on infinity made by D.A.S.T. Arteam – installation artist Danae Stratou, industrial engineer Alexandra Stratou and architect Stella Constantinides. The team spent two years sculpting a pair of interlocking spirals formed by 178 conical mounds and depressions, precise inversions of positive and negative space radiating from a vessel of water. From above, the work presents a visual image, but on the ground, it becomes a physical experience as visitors walk the spiral pathway. So far, Desert Breath has survived seven years of desert conditions, still “becoming through its slow disintegration, an instrument to measure the passage of time,” D.A.S.T. Arteam writes (for a complementary timepiece, this Shinola wrap watch – intrepidly handcrafted in Detroit – seems like the perfect way to mark such stunning temporality). “The project is rooted in our common desire to work in the desert,” D.A.S.T. continues. “In our mind’s eye the desert was a place where one experiences infinity. We were addressing the desert as a state of mind, a landscape of the mind.”

April 5, 2014

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Koh calm

The Library at the Library in Koh Samui, Thailand

Lemlem Tebteb Split Coverup in Earth

A beach and more books than I could ever read: sounds like an ideal Saturday (as my thermometer stubbornly sticks below zero). The serene scene at The Library boutique hotel in Koh Samui, Thailand pairs the lapping sounds of waves with literary-styled amenities: the communal Library stacks tomes alongside DVDs, the beachside pool is dyed as red as the Scarlett Letter, rooms are delineated by page numbers and alabaster sculptures of figures reading pepper the property. If today I woke up in Thailand, I would pad down to the Library in this tunic by Lemlem (a feel-good brand made by traditional weavers in Ethiopia) and spend the day reading, inside the cool confines or outside in sand and sun.

April 4, 2014

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NoLa alchemy

The Music Box, a now shuttered musical architecture installation in New Orleans, LA.

Kaarem Dust Sleeveless Dress in Orchid Leaf Print.

Alchemy is at work in New Orleans in the form of a community arts project called Dithyrambalina. Part sonic playground, part performance venue, part conceptual laboratory, Dithyrambalina nurtures musical architecture in NoLa. What is musical architecture? When community arts org New Orleans Airlift first explored the concept through The Music Box: A Shantytown Sound Laboratory, the Smithsonian Magazine offered a defining description: “Rigged by a team of musicians, artists, inventors and tinkers to coax novel sounds from salvaged building materials – musical architecture.” The Music Box embedded instruments within the splintered walls of shacks; imagine playing loose planks like organ keys. The magical miniature village, built by more than 25 artists, electrified the neighborhood: 70-plus world-class musicians played the architectural orchestra, for an audience of more than 15,000 visitors. Critics sung its praises: “A breathtaking feat of DIY engineering, a living, breathing, sound-making member of the neighborhood” (ArtNet); and “Bravo to all of the brilliant builders, musicians and visionaries. The Music Box is many dreams come true” (New Orleans Times –Picayune).

The Music Box has since closed, but this year will see its resurrection in Dithyrambalina, a roving village made up of five playable houses set to visit neighborhoods around the Big Easy and beyond (the ultimate goal: to find a permanent site). The first new house is slated to open by late April, hopefully in time for my first-ever trip to New Orleans. I’m packing this Kaarem dress, a piece channeling the alchemic nature of musical architecture.

April 3, 2014

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Tee time

The Textile Arts Center in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Rachel Rose Navy Waves Silk Tee

Time to unlock my latent talents. If I still lived in Brooklyn, I would beeline for the Textile Arts Center and take a class with one of the rising star designers on the faculty roster. Oh, the dilemma of what to do: Coil baskets? Dye indigo? Weave with nature? Paint tees with Rachel Rose, maker of this wavy silk top?

Beyond the bevy of adult and youth classes, the Center also houses Sewing Seeds, a program dedicated to disseminating information and inspiration on natural dyes. Did you know carrot tops, onion skins and rhubarb leaves can be used to dye fabric? News to me too.

April 3, 2014

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Headstrong history

Seven Park Place at St. James’s Hotel and Club in London.

Cedric Charlier Crinkled Wide Leg Pant in Jaune.

I was named after Katharine Hepburn, a fiery legacy I’ve gladly embraced my whole life. But today, I came across a quote that deepened my sense of the star, widely considered to be the greatest female actor in Hollywood history. In the quotation, Lauren Bacall paints a portrait of her friend layering vulnerability and devotion atop the headstrong hue so widely depicted.

“There was always vivid Kate carrying her broken full length mirror to the set every day in Africa – Kate in tears at the death of friend Fanny Brice – Kate eating peaches out of a can in Africa – cooking for Spence – sitting at his feet keeping his coffee hot while hanging on his every word – Kate holding a small bouquet of flowers my first day home from the hospital with her godson, Sam. Kate was a doer – a worker – a riser above all things – exasperating – intimidating – loyal – funny – loving – sentimental – proud – passionate in her likes and dislikes – a lover of beauty – nature – she was all those things and even more.”

So in honor of Hepburn, I present a vignette inspired by her transcendent spirit: daffodil yellow, menswear-inspired-but-oh-so-feminine crinkled crepe pants worn (in my imagination) inside Seven Park Place, a Michelin-starred restaurant by famed chef William Drabble within St. James’s, a former men’s club now boutique hotel in London. A historically exclusionary space reborn in style, fit for a sparkling feminist.

March 29, 2014

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Swedish solarium

A sunny reading loft in a Swedish apartment.

Equipment Liliane washed silk pajama set

Another dreamy window seat on a Saturday (perhaps this will become a weekly installment). Plucked from a two-story apartment in Sweden, this light-washed nook is lofted above the living area – the perfect roost for reading. Endearingly disheveled, I wouldn’t change a thing: the rooftop vista, the nest of pillows, the knitted throw, the bowls of coffee, the stacks of mags. But I would add me to this scene, lounging in these cheery silk pjs, made playful with cartoony toadstools and rabbits.