Foot Werk

You don’t need Google to tell you anything goes on the internet. Add a hashtag to that anything and you find yourself sympathising with a global online community hungry for expression in as few and witty characters as possible. So to the recent buzz this week that has been reported by the likes of Dazed & Confused, i-D and PAPER Magazine on the curious hashtag that is #heelconcept. Punch this meme into Instagram and behold a collection of arched feet, precariously balancing atop resolutely lo-fi objects from the sublime to the ridiculous to create the illusion of a high heel shoe.

As DIY footwear floods our Instagram feeds, we ask the meme’s creator about #HeelConcept: http://t.co/nAflSa2nUx pic.twitter.com/yev2vzrZ84
— i-D (@i_D) February 11, 2015

First recorded by the grammer @m.sty in December of last year, who stood on a bronze figure performing autofellatio against the backdrop of a cutting mat, the hashtag has since inspired hundreds of avant-garde prototypes as a means of alternative self-portraiture. 

Ladies, step aside. The men are coming up with their own #heelconcept [SUB REQ.]: http://t.co/00jNCTbAKQ pic.twitter.com/i5q6VUBbB5
— WWD (@wwd) February 9, 2015

High fashion, contemporary art and a generous helping of irony at its most fabulous come together in an amalgamation of DIY beauty and anti-aesthetic style, which has left trend forecasters head over heels. Perhaps because on closer inspection #heelconcept has been attracting both sexes with fashion journal WWD headlining ‘Ladies step aside: The men are coming up with their own #heelconcept’, with their respective hairy limbs en pointe, including that of my own. Having come across the phenomenon on my feed last week I couldn't resist raiding the kitchen cupboards to channel the lexicon of none other than pop culture supreme Mr Warhol, by putting my toes to werk.

#heelconcept by @jonathanvelardi

From running water to ‘walking on water’ and even the edible, here are a few of my favourite vertiginous creations…

by @m.sty

by @puffy_vest

by @gouine.stefani

by @cannesfilthfestival

 

by @martaplaton

by @parasitictween

by @twitterdotcomslashhenry

by @ihatejakeg

by @lait2bloom

There are 764 images tagged #heelconcept on Instagram at the time of writing this post.

#heelconcept by @jonathanvelardi has been featured on:

- Dazed & Confused ('What the hell is #heelconcept?')

- i-D ('#heelconcept meme mum misty pollen explains it all')

- PAPER Magazine ('Behind #HeelConcept, the Fashion-net-Art Meme Blowing Up on Instagram')

- Smosh ('Shoes of the Future?: 20 of the Freakiest Images from #HeelConcept on Instagram')

Follow my Twitter @jmvelardi and Instagram @jonathanvelardi 

for more on Arts, Culture and Lifestyle from the www and beyond

Arcana: Books on the Arts

For the avid art explorer no visit to Los Angeles is complete without a few hours page-turning in arguably one of the world’s finest bookstores. Arcana: Books on the Arts has been the go-to purveyors for specialist, out of print and collectible publications on twentieth-century visual art, architecture, design, photography, film and fashion since 1984.

In 2012, Arcana founder Lee Kaplan relocated from Santa Monica to Culver City’s landmark Art Deco complex at Helms Bakery - a former bread bakery from the 1930s, now transformed into LA’s interior design district.

There is no hint of the Deco on entering the 5000 sq ft space. Bright, white lines welcome visitors into this extensive emporium of over 100,000 items collected by Kaplan himself. A kaleidoscope of covers and spines colour the minimal, monochrome space from floor to ceiling on banks of custom metal shelving. Curated by theme and alphabetised, lowfi subject dividers on upcycled cardboard slot between catalogue raisonnés and monographs of international artists and designers as well as statement tomes on iconic aesthetics, architecture or actors. Elusive publications are designated cabinet space akin to artworks in miniature white cube displays.

If book shops are for bookworms, Arcana is for butterflies. The atmosphere is elegant and serene yet electric with every book unleashed from its plastic sleeve, revealing high-quality imagery produced by the world's leading publishing houses. From little and large to minimal and extravagant, Arcana’s vast range of visual page candy is unparalleled to the bookshelves of even the grandest of museum gift shops and is a testament to its strong client base from the creative worlds of entertainment, design and fashion who visit the shop for inspiration, guided by Kaplan’s comprehensive expertise on the old, the new and the beautiful.

Arcana: Books on the Arts is open Tuesday-Sunday 11am – 7pm

The Historic Helms Bakery


8675 Washington Boulevard


Culver City, Los Angeles CA 

90232

Look out for more for future posts reporting on my visit to LA earlier this year where I explored the alternative art and design scenes across the city here on the blog, my Twitter and Instagram. 

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

Downtown Discovery

Earlier this month I ventured to Los Angeles to explore the city’s burgeoning creative scenes setting up in neighbourhoods from East to West across the city. Contemporary art and design activity have been attracting much attention in recent years with artists and designers relocating to LA’s expansive environment of not only matter, but of mind.

Before swapping London’s bitter chill for standard Californian fare of blue skies and November highs in the sun-kissed 80s, I made an appointment to visit a new retail destination located in the city’s urban quarter that is Downtown.  

Please Do Not Enter is a new-level concept store whose name would have been fitting only a few years ago when little life could be found in Downtown after working hours, let alone life-style. Riding the wave of the district’s renaissance, French founders Nicolas Libert and Emmanuel Renoird established their boutique-cum-gallery earlier this year and have been tempting customers to its penthouse headquarters filled with unique and exclusive contemporary art, design and fashion by international artisans and designers ever since.

Downtown Temptation: @pleasedonotenter is one of the most exciting #concept store spaces in #LA feat curated global selection of #art #design & #fashion w/ focus on craftsmanship & material incl works by @arik_levy (pictured) - thank you for the tour Nicolas & Emmanuel - pleasdonotenter.com #lifestyle #luxury #DTLA #highlife

A photo posted by @jonathanvelardi on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:00pm PST

As part of my continuing contributions of hotspots from the worlds of art and design, my visit to Please Do Not Enter is now available to discover on Melting Butter.

psyched to see @briankennny's 'The Hole Truth' w/ my own eyes @pleasedonotenter. #detail #art #deconstructed #flag #stars #stripes #America #DTLA #lowlife

A photo posted by @jonathanvelardi on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:08pm PST

Look out for a more in-depth interview with Nicolas and Emmanuel who will feature on Melting Butter’s Curator’s Guide profile where they will discuss their meticulous collection and curation of art and lifestyle goods as well as their personal take on the cultural highlights of the city they now call home.

 

Follow my Twitter @jmvealrdi and Instagram @jonathanvelardi 

for more on Arts, Culture and Lifestyle from the www and beyond.

I Am Packed

The conceptually pragmatic blog for travellers and OCD-ers alike, I Am Packed recently featured the contents of my luggage before I headed to Los Angeles earlier this month. The site features an array of global travellers represented by their effortless compositions of belongings. From the monochrome to the multicoloured, I Am Packed is more methodical beauty rather than last-minute packing madness. Not to mention a little shameless display of one's wares - yes, that is a Jeff Koons beach towel. 

Find out what’s inside my luggage between LHR and LAX at I Am Packed and look out for future posts reporting on my visit to LA where I explored the alternative art and design scenes across the city here on the blog, my Twitter and Instagram . 

 

Ain't Nothing Normcore About Rudeboys

Earlier this year New York-based trend forecasting group K-HOLE introduced normcore into the dictionary of streetstyle (The New Normal - The New York Times, April 2014). Waist-high white wash jeans, over-sized tees and non-descript sneakers were being spotted on fashion packs around the world. The look is post-aspirational, mall-in-the-middle-of-nowhere get up. Think out of office hours Obama, the late Steve Jobs or American tourists in Europe from the Nineties. Rarely do the words normal and fashion meet in the same sentence, however this neologism - borne from its distant metaphorical relation, hardcore - continues to trend amongst hipster boys and girls who want everyone to know they could give zero fucks about Yeezys or Yves Saint Laurent. 

This summer Somerset House presents the antithesis of normcore. Return of the Rudeboy is an original exhibition showcasing the sartorial subculture that bridges the swagger of the 1950s in Kingston, Jamaica to the sharp tailoring of London’s Savile Row. Unlike the peacocks that were parading down the King’s Road or Carnaby Street during the Swinging Sixties (Sex, Drugs & Fish n’ Chips, September 2011), Rudeboys (or Rudies) didn’t dress to impress but dressed for themselves. Caribbean immigration to the United Kingdom during this time led to a revival of dapper dressing between young rebels influenced by punk and reggae music of the era. The movement is an extraordinary insight of an attitude towards menswear that until only recently is being acknowledged by fashion commentators. The confidence demonstrated in recent seasons of male sprezzatura, or nonchalance, when it comes to one’s threads, borders on the aesthetics of Rudeboy culture. It is the routine and attention to detail reflected in the collaborative nature of the exhibition however, which firmly define the Rudeboy as much more than superficial swag from head to toe.

Return of the Rudeboys - Somerset House London

Central to the Rudeboy look is putting a twist on its heritage and this is successfully echoed by the visual mash up of garments and styling objects displayed in the neoclassical opulence of Somerset House’s South Wing Terrace Rooms. Creative director Harris Elliott and photographer Dean Chalkley, curators of Return of the Rudeboy, feature a host of bespoke contributions beside the quintessential suited and booted mannequins, that include objects by box maker Kitty Farrow and luggage maker Alstermo Bruk. Hats, shirt collars and even hair combs are given their very own custom splendour in exquisitely designed travel cases, perfect for the Rudeboy on the move. And how does a Rudeboy get around town? On an Opus Dopus freestep by Paul Gaba, paired with a tasseled pair of KIL-LER kicks by Mr Hare of course.

#style mix frm #RudeboysReturn exhib @somersethouse #London June13 - Aug25 2014. #doyathinkimsexy #fashion ... https://t.co/VDteCVOmdA
— Jonathan Velardi (@JMVELARDI) June 13, 2014

The Rudeboy lifestyle embodies everything from the accoutrements of fashion to the sounds that put a kick in one’s step. Alongside the large-scale photographic portraits of over sixty influential Rudeboys and Rudegirls on the scene today, a playlist of tracks selected by each subject to capture the spirit and soul of the Rudie philosophy offers a sensational experience through the multi-media galleries. The dynamic curation continues with the installation of a ‘grooming station’ from Johhnie Sapong X We Are Cuts that offers hair cuts and beard maintenance, by appointment only, in a fresh pop-up barber shop.

KIL-LER loafers by Mr Hare

Return of the Rudeboy is one of those exhibitions visitors will think twice about what to wear before leaving the front door. You have been warned: ain’t nothing normcore about Rudeboys.

  

Return of the Rudeboy runs to 25th August 2014 at Somerset House London. Visit returnoftherudeboy.com for details of special events and film screenings throughout the duration of the exhibition. 

Follow @JMVELARDI on Twitter and Vine for more 

#highlife and #lowlife art, culture & lifestyle.

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. 

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Runway images courtesy of STYLE.com