10 Ideas

Ding-dong December is here and my Christmas gift guide drops for another year with ten ideas that will guarantee culture points under the tree this Holiday season. Inspired from the worlds of art and design that have caught my eye on my travels or have been featured here on the blog and on my Twitter throughout the course of the year, follow my curated countdown of discerning gifts for the naughty and nice…

1. Butt of the joke

Paris was the setting (and crime scene) for Paul McCarthy’s provocative public art work, Tree, erected in conjunction with his Chocolate Factory exhibition at La Monnaie de Paris this year. A souvenir of the work is being produced by the artist and French chocolatier Mademoiselle Chocolat during the exhibition.

2. Tribal Instinct

Discover society’s unconscious universality in photographer and flâneur extraordinaire, Hans Eijkelboom’s anti-sartorial publication People of the Twenty-First Century published by Phaidon

3. Desk sculpture

Haute-stationery from Japanese papermaker ITO Bindery for the aspiring curator – the recycled Memo Block is available at Please Do Not Enter

4. Adult Entertainment

Forgo the wood fire and turn up the heat over Robert Lazzarini’s distorted Puzzle series featuring images from 1970s porn - the limited edition of 50 jigsaw puzzles per design are produced by Brooklyn-based creative platform Grey Area

5. Child’s Play

Matt Austin Studio transforms our long-lost ephemera in the bottom of the junk drawer into a witty 8-piece collection of Chalk Ware for use or decoration - from Marc Jacobs Bookmarc

6. Stick your neck out

Be anything but square with this UNIQLO SPRZ NY X Keith Haring art bandana – available at UNIQLO stores worldwide

7. Light on your feet

ICNY defy the no-socks-for-Christmas code with these ‘Original Dot’ 3M reflective performance pair ideal for the urban athlete – available at ICNY Sport

8. Design Digit

For those who couldn’t give a festive f**k this holiday season, Maurizio Cattelan’s L.O.V.E Snow Globe is on (finger) point – available at MoMA Store

9. Model breakfast

Mark 2015’s highly anticipated return of designer John Galliano at the helm of cult fashion house Maison Martin Margiela with these alternative Fortune Eggs for a prosperous and stylish new year – by Maison Martin Margiela

10. Tea-total

Give the gift of wellness with this irresistible blend of loose leaf maté, green tea and lemongrass from the Detox collection at tea emporium Kusmi Tea

Images courtesy of Paul McCarthy, Phaidon, Please Do Not Enter, Grey Area, Marc Jacobs Bookmarc, UNIQLO, ICNY Sport, MoMA Store, Maison Martin Margiela and Kusmi Tea

Stick Your Neck Out

The long-awaited farewell to Winter may mean parting ways with our hats, gloves and scarves for yet another season, however neckwear is here to stay this Spring in the shape of the versatile cotton square. The handkerchief is understood to have been invented by Richard II of England in the fourteenth century and has since successfully transcended styles over the centuries. Most notably worn by labourers and revolutionaries throughout history for its utility and symbolism respectively, the revival for Americana in the late-twentieth century parodied its cowboy and rebel culture heritage and was subsequently adopted by a new generation of subcultures. Originating from the Hindi word bandhana, meaning ‘to tie’, the cotton square continues to be manufactured in 100% cotton and decorated using a variety of traditional printing processes. From screen print to discharge and fast colour techniques, the trusty handkerchief, neckerchief or bandana balances beauty and design detail with practicality. 

100% cotton squares – clockwise from top:

Labour And Wait, UNIQLO SPRZ NY X Keith Haring, Barbour and Hilditch & Key 

I have been collecting bandanas for many years. There is something so understated and poetic-like about its construct – its often complex design only fully revealed when unfolded – giving great satisfaction to its wearer. They are my souvenirs on my travels – a few of my favourite global pit stops are the Roman institution for vintage Omero e Cecilia; RRL's metropolitan ranch on Bleeker Street, New York; American Rag in Los Angeles and Daikanyama emporium Okura in Tokyo. 

Franklin Bandana - RRL

Prices vary from dollar store to designer creations. The market for original vintage squares is driven predominantly by Japan who have an affinity with the patterns and symbols similar to their own shibui aesthetic. Rare commemorative or political layouts incorporating stylised narratives surrounded by paisley or polka dot motifs are highly sought-after and feature in the pages of men’s lifestyle periodicals such as Free & Easy, for the discerning gentleman. 

Semper Fidelis, 2010 - Jonathan Velardi

My personal fascination with the history behind the accessory led me to design and print my own bandanas as contemporary artworks (Devon’s Political Archive Inspires Devon, BBC 2011) using the customary visual codes and allegory to create new contemporary dialogue.

Louis Vuitton Menswear SS14

For Spring/Summer 2014, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent showcased the menswear accessory of the season. Kim Jones for Louis Vuitton incorporated the luxury label’s iconic flower emblems into decorative bandanas. Worn as loose cravats, they deformalised the suits and business wear that they had been paired with down the runway. The theme continued with patchwork paisley packing a punch, emblazoned on oversized shirting. At Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane’s rockabilly-inspired collection presented a more familiar image of cardinal red squares in cashmere and silk-blend, tri-folded around the neck in bandit fashion topped with slick, pomade hairstyles. 

Saint Laurent Menswear SS14

Indigo also meets the cotton square at the trend junction this season. From tones of raw serge de Nîmes to electric International Klein Blue, there is a shade for just about anyone on the indigo spectrum. 

Basket Pattern Bandana - Okura

Accent indigo or denim workwear with examples of my classic spot squares in fresh hues of green and blue (top). Channel countryside dandyism with spotted compositions by Labour And Wait, Barbour and Hilditch & Key in timeless primary colours. For a more contemporary take UNIQLO’s latest artistic collaboration with MoMA for its SPRZ NY capsule collection includes trademark designs from the art foundations of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Drake's of London produce a range of modern and eccentric interpretations in multiple colourways - I particularly like this graduated spot print (below). Twist or tie the square around the neck or pop into a breast pocket for an effortless look.

Graduated Spot Print Pocket Square - Drake's of London

With Burberry Prorsum following the trend for neckwear in their Autumn/Winter 2014 collection – introducing a more loose style with large silk squares, worn nonchalantly on necks and shoulders - the neckerchief is very much here to stay. Square up to style and stick your neck out.

Addresses:

American Rag

150 South La Brea Avenue

90036 Los Angeles, CA 

USA

Omero e Cecilia

Via del Governo Vecchio 110

00186 Rome

Italy

Okura

20-11 Sarugaku-cho Shibuya-ku

150-0033 Tokyo

Japan

RRL

381 Bleeker Street

10014 New York

USA

Discover more about the design process behind my bandana artwork Semper Fidelis, commissioned by Devon County Council and Double Elephant Print Workshop in this series of related blog posts and read its full press release here. 

Follow @JMVELARDI on Twitter and Pinterest for the latest on arts, culture & lifestyle.

Runway images courtesy of STYLE.com

Outside The Lines

If you've been inspired by Banksy’s current New York residency Better Out Than In, this new publication may be right up your street. Outside the Lines: An Artist’s Colouring Book for Giant Imaginations features over 100 black and white drawings by international creative talent that include Keith Haring, Ryan McGinness, Shepard Fairey and AIKO. Curated by LA-based author Souris Hong-Porretta, Outside the Lines is much more than a colouring book - offering a narrative of art education without the use of words - and will introduce emerging and established artistic practice across high and low culture to kids big and small.  

This post marks my first contribution to the blogging team at creative emporium Ohh Deer - check out their zany site for a variety of gifts and products designed by illustrators from around the world. I'm looking forward to writing future contributions for Ohh Deer on arts, culture and lifestyle – follow @JMVELARDI for all the latest updates from the blog and beyond.

Read my full article on Outside the Lines for Ohh Deer here.

Image courtesy of Pengiun
.

Pages in Time

The polar opposite of stability must be the laborious act of moving home. When you have drugged your possessions as many times as I have, as if by magic that cardboard box suddenly transforms itself into a perfectly acceptable chest of drawers or side table and one surrenders, with little will left, to the cardboard-house-lifestyle that you have only just avoided or crossed over the street from when walking back home, albeit yours is under a roof. 
I have realised there are items that make the last-in and first-out from my mobile side table - a habitual hierarchy of sorts; my most cherished photo frames, a fedora that was gifted to me when I used to live in Chicago (if it’s made it this far, a house move is not going to stand in its crease-free way) a pair of highball glasses and a gin bottle (moving is thirsty work) and lastly, my Keith Haring tome. This is no paperback and as someone who is known for their packing etiquette – heavy items at the bottom – I find myself keeping this weighty publication for last and first out. Is it the grinning triclops on the cover? The graffiti characters that dance around the page edges? The instant gratification of turning through the five hundred-plus pages of the artist’s colourful career? Put simply, it’s everything and much more. It lives on top of my old school trunk and as I work at my desk on my computer, all three eyes on the cover burn a hole in the side of my head and invite me for much needed distraction into a world of prolific artistic expression - the deep end of the inspiration pool for anyone interested in the birth of public art, street culture and graphic allegory that was pioneered by Haring in the late-twentieth century.

Keith Haring - Rizzoli, 2008

Today sees the opening of the first exhibition that explores the artist’s early career in Keith Haring: 1978-1982 at the Brooklyn Museum. With over three hundred objects and works on paper, experimental videos and a rare presentation of Haring’s personal sketchbooks and journals, which encapsulate the everyday life that inspired the artist, the exhibition guarantees to be an exciting journey into the art scene, subcultures and politics of New York City in the early Eighties through the eyes of an energised nineteen year old artist. Haring’s focus on bringing his recognisable style out of his studio and onto the streets is an important shift in viewing art as well as its accessibility to a wider commercial audience which is of particular interest in respect to my own art practice. What has to be one of the best uses of social media to date, in conjunction with the exhibition, The Keith Haring Foundation has created a Tumblr site and is posting pages from the artist’s journals every day up to the closing of the show. Lists, photographs and sketches make up the intimate visuals that inspired a young Haring who was at the beginning of creating a vocabulary of signs and codes that he was later to become famous for. Like anyone who knows they have a good thing going for them, Haring writes in his Secret Code Book No. 138QT,

 “DANGER: keep out of reach of enemy agents and spies!!”

Thanks to the work of The Keith Haring Foundation, the late artist’s work is as provocative and relevant today as it was during his lifetime and continues to work on a number of contemporary collaborations and projects from the worlds of design and fashion - most recently Garage Magazine x Haring, Comme des Garçons Original x Haring and Colette x Case Scenario x Haring to name only a few - that attests to the graphic expression of the everyday into a symbolic legacy, page by page.  

Keith Haring

Written by Jeffrey Deitch and Julia Gruen

Edited by Suzanne Geiss

Published by Rizzoli, 2008

Keith Haring: 1978-1982

16th March - 8th July 2012
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, New York
11238-6052

Images courtesy of The Keith Haring Foundation