Untitled from V Magazine on Vimeo.

A relative newcomer to the world of shoes, Alain Quilici takes clear inspiration from our world of architecture and expresses it through a clever exploration of material.

Description of the Designer by Public Image:

ALAIN QUILICI, Shoe designer:
A fan of cinema, art and design. A lover of travel as an expression of culture and an inexhaustible source of knowledge. Attracted by the infinite possibilities of the world, Alain Quilici is a visionary, curious spirit, continually seeking links with the inner self. His collections are the result of unconscious observation of the nature surrounding him, which comes to him in the shape of new stimulation that he processes and modifies along the way. Alain observes and elaborates relentlessly, analysing and recreating, to express a unique, personal style.

Transformation is the essence of his work. An ever-changing world that happily allows itself to be contaminated. Cinema, in the sense of the visionary representation of reality where anything may happen, has been a determining factor for the definition of his style. Contamination between humanity and technology leads to the representation of a post-decadent society, balanced between dreams and reality. Alain Quilici likes to describe his work as “post-grunge”, referring to a style that in its modernity hides and encloses a visionary, melancholic soul.

His passion for footwear first developed in the family company, where he started to work at a young age and gained a basic knowledge of the sector. His hands-on experience was enhanced by courses at Polimoda in Florence, where he studied pattern-making and fashion design. This was followed by a year of training at London College of Fashion and a year working in the industry at a well-known Paris trend studio, where he put into practice the notions he had acquired in menswear design. Curiosity and a strong impulse to explore led him to go on long journeys to numerous destinations. This provided him with various stimuli that soon forged his style. During his formative years, London became his adopted homeland, where he would always feel at ease even when, driven by curiosity, he researched new input by exploring distant cultures and places. He thus started out down a path towards new expressive methods that would inevitably condition his work as a designer. Japanese cinema in particular, as a form of visionary art, became a never-ending source of knowledge that allowed him to come closer to the concept of the inanimate human. Taking inspiration from oriental cinema, with special attention paid to Japanese anime, he developed a new sensitivity that identified in the apparent dichotomy of man and machine the starting point for new aesthetics.

In 2007, at the age of just 26, Alain Quilici created his first women’s footwear collection, strictly made in Italy. He chose to work with the world’s best patternmakers and most reputable leather producers. He followed each step of the production process personally, from selection of the finest materials to designing the patterns, right through to the choice of finishing details. The special, elaborated working of the product places Alainq footwear in a medium-high band of the market. The styles have been created for a woman of our times, someone who is looking for refined products, the result of study and innovation. She does not like pigeon-holing, and declares total independence with her style choices.

Via: Public Image

SHOP ALAIN QUILICI

Let’s welcome the newly remodeled, expanded and reopened Marc by Marc Jacobs Provincetown store. I just love the marc by marc branded branded blue bench, and really who doesn’t love a five foot tall gigantic swan…

Via: Yfrog

The well know Miami villa of Gianni Versace has been transformed into a 10 room luxury boutique hotel by famed Florida restaurateur Barton G Weiss. Prices start at $2,100 a night, what may be considered a bargain to stay in Versace’s old bedroom. The villa is rather extravagant with fantastical details and decoration, specific to Gianni’s own asthetic. It’s may not be quite my cup of tea, but it is rather extaordinary…

Via: HomeVaganza

California born fashion designer, Rick Owens is set to showcase his furniture for the first time in Berlin beginning May 30th, in a show entitled ‘To Pop a Boner’. The show will be curated by publisher Angelika Taschen for Gallery weekend in Berlin running until May 2nd. Owens’ furniture collection was developed originally for the raw space of his Paris headquarters, made predominantly of plywood, and resin on fiberglass.

Apartment Alexanderplatz
Memhardstr. 8
10178 Berlin

Here’s one way to use fashion as inspiration for furniture design, literally cover a chair in it. Granted there’s more grace and craft that goes into creating pieces like the armchairs pictured above, by Clarke & Reilly. The Georgian Chair is a one-of-a-kind set of two, created as part of an exclusive collection for Blackman Cruz (visit and drool). These elegant pieces are upholstered in 19th century Mennonite petticoats, which gives the chair its incredibly extreme depth and texture. A Mennonite probably would have found this a little frilly, but I’m a sucker for anything that takes a poke at utilitarianism…

Via: Remodilista

Today, Thurs. April 22, 2010 Linkage:

• He’s At It Again- Murakami: Louis Vuitton Rugs

• Graphite Chic- Student Spotlight: Luxury & Pencils, TheDieline

• 3D Print at Home- HP designjet 3D printers, Designboom

• Yeah,Well My Yacht Has Lasers and Missiles- Abramovich’s Yacht, YouTube

• My Wife, Workin It (Wishful thinking)- Magdalena Frackowiak, Fashion Gone Rogue

• Only Because It’s Earth Day-Going, Going, Green, Fashionista