This blog editor has recently been loosely planning a party.  Never one to shy away from an excuse for a get together and a glass of wine, next year marks the 10 year anniversary of my relationship with my favourite pair of jeans.

The jeans were purchased when I was living in Melbourne.  They were dark, wide-leg engineered denim, albeit probably one size too large. I lived in them like they were a second skin, a warm leg-hug from an Australian designer and a trophy that I was living in the fashion capital of Australia, having recently relocated from, well… let’s just say a somewhat less fashionable city of the Country.

Since that time, they’ve undergone many transformations.  They’re now faded to a much lighter denim, extremely brittle and a skinny leg (due to alterations, rather than weight-gain – that’s for sure).  My staple wardrobe piece has been mended uncountable times to repair the most ridiculous of holes and splits, most of which exposing parts of my body in which wearing them could have me arrested.  Most notably however, in the back pocket there is a Joan Jett patch, fusing the two sides of the crumbling denim together and, securing the place of my wallet.

Which brings me to my point, oh yes, this anecdote does lead us to a point!  It’s MMM at the KE-ZU Blog and here’s some Joan Jett with a serious classic.

More colour and more innovation!

Have you seen Wired Magazines recent Features Cover by Lo Siento, Spanish graphic design studio?  It’s simple genius!  However no doubt quite the laborious process.  To obtain the final result of the Features Cover, Lo Siento covered a wall in the humble but oh-so-appealing (!) bubble wrap, inserted coloured liquid dye into the air-filled pockets and slowly formed the design over the wall.

Rockin.

Pepe Cortes, Spanish born designer acquired his academic training in all three of barcelona’s design schools.  Celebrated and awarded as an industrial designer and interior designer in Spain, Cortes often finds himself working with famed Spaniards Oscar Tusquets and Javier Mariscal.

One of our favourite Cortes designs just so happens to be about a piece he designed in 1976 and fortunately enough, manufactured by bd Barcelona, Spanish manufacturer and loyal supplier to KE-ZU.

Enter the Olividada Lamp.  Designed, forgotten and put in a drawer until eight years later the design was discovered by bd Barcelona and has been in production ever since.

Outstanding as a stand-alone piece and beautifully grouped, the geometric explosion of the Olvidada Lamp holds its own in any setting.  Perfect for both residential and contract, the lamp comprises three incandescent strips, copper plated iron ceiling mount and a bulb-holder in chromed brass.  Olvidada is available as a floor lamp or suspension – both showing design brilliance with expert manufacture.

Forming part of their stand at Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2013, bd Barcelona shows that the Olvidada has its place just as much now in contemporary design as it did in the 1970’s, a true Spanish design classic.

The video below showcases their new collections and pieces: Agora lounge chair, Manfred lounges and sofas, Lineal Corporate chairs, Siesta modular lounge and sofas, New Brandy chairs, New Ronda chairs, Smile dining chairs and stools all by Lievore Altherr Molina.  The Reverse table, Sail chair collection & Flexa corporate collection by Piergiorgio Cazzaniga and the awesome Nub collection of chairs and a bench by Patricia Urquiola.

Well done Andreu World!

There’s something incredibly refreshing about reinvention.   There’s also something incredibly romantic about tradition, and maintaining some of the customs and social law we bring with us from the past.

Merge the two – and you’ve got Daniel Forkin’s new advertising campaign for the New York City Opera.

Innovatively transporting images from famous operatic pieces forming part of the NYC Opera’s 2012 – 2013 season and showing them in a new light.  Demonstrating that we can maintain custom in a new digital age, the advertisements, transformed into stand-alone pieces of colourful art now find themselves sprawled across The Big Apple.

Shoo away those colleagues, this one has subtitles.

Note, if you’re as fortunate as we are and have bilingual members on staff, bring them over for a translation session.

The story of Sixto Rodgriguez is a fascinating one.  If anyone has seen the Academy award winning film “Searching or Sugarman”, the documentary outlining his life and delayed rise to fame will know this.

For those who don’t, Sixto Rodriguez was a drifter, a construction worker from Detroit whose lyrical content and entrancing voice was discovered in the 1960’s.   Signed to Impact Records with promise of a career, dubbed “the new Bob Dylan” his only two albums, released 1970 and 1971 were a critical success yet a surprise chart failure.

Rodriguez’ Sugarman

Rodriguez quietly slipped back into his life, unbeknownst to him that he was a music legend in South Africa, selling hundreds of thousands of records. The South Africans saw Rodriguez as a prophet, a voice of reason in a disturbing apartheid, rumour having spread through the country of his suicide.

It wasn’t until Searching for Sugarman was in production, and a savvy investigative journalist tracked down the 71 year old that his music was finally appreciated the world over to adoring audiences, and is recording a new album!

Rodgriguez playing “Crucify your Mind” for French L’Express – 2013.

A MMM essay perhaps, but a worthy one.

Not quite furniture, so we (and Furniture Free Friday is safe, for another week at least).  Pattern designed by Karim Rashid?  Yes please!

Rashid, one of our favourite (and the worlds) designers, together with Sancal has brought to us a series of patterns named Cairo, inspired in Egypt – Karim’s native land.  With a strong contemporary approach, the patterns unite tradition and personal memories, adding bright colours to pictures of organic geometry – all with a  contemporary approach.  Forming into cushions and headrests perfect as accessories to the Sancal sofa collection Float, and holding their own in any setting, these guys are a sure fire hit!

Furniture Free Friday goes a bit clothes free this week.  What?!  Why not.

Imagine waking up in the morning, have a little breakfast, get dressed to go to work make your way to work, follow the same routine, all in the norm.  Until boom!  German artist Milo Moiré’s latest curated performance “The Script System” happens upon you.

Moiré recently sent a naked model to the streets in Dusseldorf with the names written on the skin of clothes to wear, confusing commuters with his provocative piece.

Aimed to draw attention to fighting stereotypes, the performance art piece forces us to take stock of our routines, what we may call mundane or a chore and re-analyse our world… nothing that every day is different, and that the world around us may hold more interest than we sometimes realize.

We’ll be on the look out for something special next time we’re travelling, be it nude or not!