Wear + Here

March 26, 2016

Park it

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Airstream’s 2016 Pendleton National Park Travel Trailer paired with Poler x Pendleton Towel Poncho.

In the mode of summer scheming, a conversation last night introduced the reality that the national parks will likely be teeming with visitors in honor of their 100th anniversary. Surely a birthday to celebrate but also take heed of; ever the more reason to adventure early. In this special steed: Airstream has paired up with Pendleton—long-time loyalist to the national parks with its so-themed blanket series—on the 2016 Pendleton National Park Travel Trailer (getting cutesy with the centennial, only 100 of these limited-edition trailers have been produced).

Many Pendleton accoutrements accompany the cabin-chic design of the 28-foot trailer, from the custom Pendleton-designed embroidery on the leather banquettes to the Pendleton awning package (army green with primary stripes) and the stash of blankets (and pet bed). An ultra wide hatch makes the back feel almost like a convertible (lunchtime picnics, starlight dinners). Next to the stainless steel cooktop, a map of Yellowstone—the first national park, in my backyard, inviting personal annotation (bison jam here, hot springs hopping there). Too bad the price tag is so formidable (though $1,000 does go to the National Park Foundation). To enable adventuring, I may settle for this spritely towel poncho instead.

March 24, 2016

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Blue moon

The Starlight Room Dolomites outside Cortina, Italy (photo by Giacomo Pompanin) paired with a vintage Cowichan cardigan by the Canadian Sweater Company.

Ex post facto, a full moon destination: The Starlight Room Dolomites outside of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Framed in glass, the itty-bitty cabin becomes a nocturnal observatory (sans shivers). Perched at 6,742ft, guests get there by snowmobile or snowshoe. Bundle up for the trek in, and cozy up for the light show. The sunrise shan’t be too shabby either.

Morning at the Starlight Room paired with Wommelsdorff’s Polly beanie.

March 22, 2016

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Cubano curiosity

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The Taller Experimental de Grafica in Havana, Cuba paired with Rachel Zoe’s Ariel playsuit.

As I live vicariously through the First Family, I imagine stopping by one of my favorite art sites in the world: Taller Experimental de Gráfica, a print shop and gallery in Habana Vieja that has been nurturing graphic artists for more than half a century. The workshop was founded in 1962 by mural artist Orlando Suarez with the support of Che Guevara, then minister of industry. The two times I’ve visited the Taller, the expansive space felt electric in its creativity, galvanized even as artists tinkered with antique presses and stacks of prints invited thumbing through, each work on paper more interesting than the next. As I wandered around, my curiosity was mirrored by the artists’ warm welcome. Who are you? Where are you from? What art do you like? Back and forth, sparkly conversation shared in a patchwork of Spanish and English.

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The Taller interior paired with Christopher Kane’s fringed crochet-paneled sweatshirt.

We all stand to benefit from greater exchange with Cuba and the Cuban people, as President Obama underscored in a joint press conference with President Raúl Castro earlier today. “I bring with me the greetings and friendship of the American people. We have a half-a-century of work to catch up on,” Obama said. “Our growing engagement with Cuba is guided by one over-arching goal: Advancing the mutual interests of our two countries including improving the lives of our people, both Cubans and Americans. That’s why I am here.”

March 19, 2016

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Saddle up

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The communal living room at Urban Cowboy Brooklyn paired with NLST’s Officers dress.

If you build it, they will come. Two years ago, Lyon Porter and Jersey Banks did just that: They created a cool space for a cool community to stay overnight—not a particularly novel B&B concept, but perhaps for the location: an unassuming block in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Designed with a city loft-meets-hunting lodge-meets-stoop party style and “run by a dream-team of creative bastards,” Urban Cowboy Brooklyn welcomes artsy wanderlust with its communal kitchen and living room, bounty of Pendleton blankets, and even a cabin out back. The shingle-sheathed row house is now a Billyburg staple.

The Lion’s Den at Urban Cowboy Nashville paired with DSquared2’s chevron trousers.

And it’s bound to fill the same niche in East Nashville: Several weeks ago, Porter and Banks opened Urban Cowboy Nashville in a Victorian mansion they found within two hours of their first scouting trip to the Music City.

The Muse at Urban Cowboy Nashville paired with Maison Margiela’s leather boots.

The pair announced the soft opening on Instagram, introducing the concept as: “The design came out of an urge to try something new. To create a magical place, where big ideas come to grow and life-long friends are made. And so it begins…” So we shall see (and stay).

March 18, 2016

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Sea the light

Flamingos at SeaWorld (photo by Yiran X) paired with Duskii’s Saint Tropez swimsuit.

Well done, SeaWorld. A necessary sea change. No longer black(fish)listed from my FL itinerary.

Without a critical mass of informed and energized people, humanity will never make the difficult decisions that are necessary to halt and reverse the exploitation of wild places and the extinction of wild species.

Joel Manby, President and CEO of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment

March 15, 2016

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Kick start

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Room Two at the Jennings Hotel in Joseph, Oregon paired with Bridge & Burn’s Oxbow wrap scarf.

The hotel that Kickstarter (re)built. Owner Greg Hennes crowdfunded $107,000 to revive a rundown 1910 landmark at the base of the snowcapped Wallowa Mountains. Now, the Jennings Hotel boasts three design-rich rooms (and counting), like Room Two, a serene space suffused by loft light, downtown views and chic finds, inspired by the Danish concept of hygge (loosely, coziness), the work of Ashley Tackett (not to mention the whole situation sits across the hall from the stylish sauna). Despite the interior allure, the Jennings’ proximity to the natural playground of this remote patch of the Pacific Northwest is its primary draw (i.e. pack gear).

Ever the hermit though, I imagine kickstarting a book in Room Two, bundled up in this warm number by PNW darling Bridge & Burn, to the boombox soundtrack of cassette tapes pulled from the supplied collection. Consider me applied for the residency…

March 14, 2016

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Ashes to dust

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David Nash’s Ash Dome in Wales paired with Adeam’s off-the-shoulder voile dress.

Date stamp: 1977. The Cold War raged on. Nuclear war felt like a real possibility. Unemployment was skyrocketing. The planet seemed to be dying. Amid the gloom, British sculptor David Nash offered a gesture toward a brighter 21st century: He planted a ring of 22 ash trees close to his home in Wales and sculpted their growth through fletching (a technique of bending, staking, slicing V-cuts). He made the commitment to stay with the sculpture over time, over 36 years and counting.

Some urbanites balk at Nash’s treatment of nature, abiding by the “Don’t touch!” principal of environmental sensibility. But he sees his “site-appropriate” art within the practice of rural agriculture, of people working the earth. “Part of the point was that nature actually gets on very well when a human being is caring for it and lives with it,” Nash said in a 2001 Sculpture Magazine interview.

And that care comes through: Nash likes to think of people who know nothing of his work stumbling upon his sculptures. “I hope they will get a sense of the light touch, that there is something here that serves as a stepping stone for the mind into the continuum of that particular place,” he said. “To varying degrees, we spiritualize material by our work with it. Unconsciously we are creating a language that another human being can pick up on. We connect to the spirit quality that has been put into it.”

An act of connection, an act of faith: Nash and his wife welcomed the millennium within the halo of Ash Dome.

March 13, 2016

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Twist turn

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“The Elastic Perspective” by NEXT Architects, photographed by Sandra Meisner, paired with Dion Lee’s bias stack skirt.

A rusty loop draped across a hillside outside Rotterdam, designed by Dutch firm NEXT Architects. The stairway climbs toward an unhindered view of the horizon and skyline, and then descends upon the tram track taken by commuters. Designed to defy, the installation emulates the Möbius strip, a continuous surface with no top or bottom.

“When used as a path, it suggests a continuity, but crossing that path is—at least physically—an impossibility,” the architects told Arch Daily. “It’s that kind of ambiguity that we recognized in the inhabitants of this suburb: mentally they still feel very much connected to their mother town Rotterdam, but in daily life they are definitively disconnected. With the Möbius strip stair, we offer them a glimpse towards the Rotterdam skyline, but to continue their trip, they have to turn backwards, facing the context of their everyday life, Carnisselande.”

Ergo the title, “The Elastic Perspective,” and the notion of an elastic self visually linked yet stretched from the city. An urban identity so close yet so far away. A rubber sense of belonging.

March 13, 2016

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Rain bow

Nour Alkhzam plays piano today at the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border (with Hunter’s clear raincoat).

A brave recital today: 24-year-old Syrian refugee Nour Alkhzam played a grand piano in a muddy field at the Idomeni refugee camp. She performed for 20 minutes in the pouring rain, under a plastic sheet, held up by the concert’s coordinator Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Ai brought the white piano to the Greek-Macedonian border camp as a brief beacon of artistic opportunity amid the dismal conditions facing the 12,000 refugees stuck at Idomeni.

It was the first time Alkhzam had touched a piano in three years.

“It tells the world that art will overcome the war,” Ai said.

March 12, 2016

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Bright façade

Ai Weiwei’s “New Migrant” exhibition at Konzerthaus in Berlin paired with Mary Katrantzou’s Acer dress.

Impossible to ignore: 14,000 life vests, collected from refuges fleeing from Turkey, wrapped the columns at the Konzerthaus concert hall in Berlin. Ai Weiwei created the temporary installation last month for the Cinema for Peace gala, for which he served as the honorary jury president.

A bright memorial of a dark plight: this year alone, more than 400 refugees have died while attempting the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. Ai collected the life vests from the northern shore of Lesbos, a tragic stockpile he documented on his personal Instagram account during his first visit last December. He has since opened a studio on the Greek island.

“What a waste. To put life in this jacket,” he said. “It’s not necessary. We can provide a better, safe passage for those people.”

“As an artist, I have to relate to humanity’s struggles. I never separate these situations from my art.”