Flying to the Moon!

To the Moon or...to St Peter's Gate with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in The Ziegfeld Follies!

Toronto's Design Week is On!

Jaime Hayon

I officially declare Toronto's Design Week opened!

For Marco and I, it all started last night with Made's show Radiant Dark, entitled Assets & Values.

On tomorrow's menu: 2 mind-blowing encounters with...
- Tord Boontje, lecture at OCAD @ 6PM.
- Jaime Hayon at Jonathan+Olivia, in partnership with Lightforum, Metalarte and IDS10.

And Saturday will be another busy day full of great design shows:
-Heavy Metal Show (8-11 PM)
-Come up to My Room at the Gladstone ( 7-10 PM)

Design Week will end on Sunday with a visit to the IDS10...

I can't wait to come up to all these designers' rooms!

Putting on the Ritz with the 1920s!

Spadina Museum will be opening its doors on Saturday, January 30 for one night only to celebrate the inter-war period restoration currently underway.

When I first visited Toronto in 2006, the authentic charm and beauty of the Spadina Museum (pronounced Spa-deena) was undeniably one of the reasons why I fell in love with the city, and decided to move here in September 2007.

So, if in town, you simply cannot miss that great 1920s party thrown in Spadina's elegant Victorian decor.
Pick up your phone and book your tickets NOW! It's filling up fast.

Costumes or glad rags from the 1920s are welcome! The museum plans to photograph participants during the event to keep our audiences up to date on restoration happenings and events. Fantastic prizes will be awarded for Best Individual Costume, Best Couple and Best Celebrity Impression.

PS: I still don't know what I will be wearing...But if like me, you need to polish up your retro look, you can find affordable 1920s clothes and accessories at Gadabout on Queen Street East, at Cabaret on Queen Street West, or at Courage my Love in Kensington Market, or again at Fashion Crimes (fake pearls and cigarette holder for next to nothing!).

Hope to see you there ;o)

No Milk Today? Ok, but a lot of Mjölk instead...

Don't miss it !
Last weekend, Marco and I paid a visit to the new-born store of the Junction's eclectic neighbourhood : Mjölk ( say Mi-Yelk). The shop has been voted new shop of the week by NOW magazine and best new design shop of 2009 according to Blog TO! It has been designed and built by Studio Junction, (go see their website; I am a great admirer of their work)...

...and is run by John Baker and Juli Daoust whom we first met at the IDS09 as they stopped by our booth and eventually decided to feature Marco's chairs on their blog: Kitka. They are young, moving forward at the speed of light and have got a passion for Scandinavian and Japanese design that is contagious.

Our suggestion: if you decide to discover the area, also go to Smash, vintage furniture shop, and take a healthy break with organic foods at the Beet, miam-miam!

Take a day out, or at least an afternoon out, to discover what's new in the Junction; you won't regret it !
Croix de bois, croix de fer, si je mens, je vais en enfer...

Rising Legacy

"My road, in a way, is my roots."
( Interview by Rupert Bottenberg, in Montreal Mirror )

Lhasa de Sela (1972-2010)
Montreal-based singer songwriter Lhasa de Sela died on New Year's Day after a 21-month battle with breast cancer.

Listen to "Rising" from 2009's self-titled album, LHASA:


Rest in Peace, bella Lhasa.

If you want to be You...Be a Fantastic YOU!

Being true to oneself is not easy everyday... It could even be considered as one of the biggest ordeals we have been assigned to achieve, don't you think? Hence my interest in two films that I saw recently. Both deal with the topic with such bravado that I felt I had to share the good tips with you, my dear readers.
Fantastic Mr Fox by Wes Anderson. I saw it on January 2nd at the theatre, thanks to a couple of wonderful friends, Rob and Trelawnie, who had invited us for the occasion. They thought it would be a good way to celebrate the new year. And they were right; it was a FANTASTIC and spectacular way to step in the new decade!

I found this stop-motion version of Roald Dahl's classic tale very foxy (;o), witty and delightfully satirical, but also quite down-to-earth as it is also based on good commonsense...All in all, Mr.Fox (George Clooney's voice is perfect here) cannot help being himself, i.e a "wild animal". After this fantastic screening, we were hungry like wild horses (they eat all the time in the film!), so we decided to treat ourselves to the Golden Thai on Church Street. From Fantastic to Golden, how better could that get?

Now, just a few days ago, Marco and I felt so free, so high and so happy to be you+me that it was the perfect night for us to welcome Harold and Maude at home...The VHS video having been bequeathed upon us by the good graces of Rob & Trelawnie (the same amazing friends, yes), we watched it again for our viewing pleasure. What a roller-coaster!

Just in case you too felt the connection between Wes Anderson's films (Rushmore, for instance) and Hal Ashby's dead pan humour (see Being There and Harold & Maude, of course), you would be perfectly right. We discovered that Wes Anderson was greatly influenced by Ashby's Harold & Maude.

Now let's play a little game...
Click on the picture below. Then enter your first name, surname and password (character):

P.S: I am Lettres Ornées, and you?

New Index for Atelier Jacob!

Marco Jacob in "Poetics of Structure" by Anna Sulikowska, Slash Magazine (Summer 2007)

Last week, Marco Jacob, my husband, and I, celebrated the launch of his new website!
It took him some time to transfer the data and upload the new material, but the result is really interesting. Instead of updating his old website with the help of a webmaster, he opted for a format that is called Indexhibit. He researched a lot, browsed on many sites that had been built with Indexhibit, and learnt how to master this new tool. Being independent in how to display one's creative work is, I think, of paramount importance for an artist. It therefore was a huge step that this more user-friendly format enabled him to take. He now can go through the regular updates of his multidisciplinary work himself, which is revolutionary.

Marco and I would like to invite you to browse through his new website, so you can see some of the projects he has been working on lately:

www.atelierjacob.com

Identity design and stationery for Plutino Group. 2009.


Fabrication of maquette for artist Luis Jacob. 2009.
Used in a competition entry for a public art project.


Warp lounge chair. 2008.
Vacuum formed plastic. Prototyped by UB Signs.

Set design for photo shoot featured in Fashion Magazine. 2007.
Photography Miguel Jacob.


Temporary installation initiated by the studio. 2007.


Installation at the Gladstone Hotel's Come Up to My Room exhibition. 2007.
Photography Anna Sulikowska and Chris Curreri.


Louise armchair. 2006.
Baltic birch plywood. Prototyped by Matt Wood.

Hope you enjoyed the visit! Please, leave a comment to let us know your impressions.
We'll take good note of it.


Marco Jacob. Photograph by The Sartorialist.

Twenty Ten, here I come!

Bichonnade Leaping - by Jacques-Henri Lartigue © Jacques-Henri Lartigue Foundation

The holiday season is over. The snow has, at long last, made its way to Toronto. This new whiteness is cold and blinding, but I love it!
The holiday season is over. No more leftovers in the fridge to lure me into delicious but excessive feasting. The holiday food has been replaced by simpler food. Now is time to pull myself back together, and get back to work! I am fortunate I just got a new job as a French teacher for a private school that works for the Government. Starting this week with intense one-on-one classes that can be 6 or 7 hours a day- oulalala, that sounds like an interesting challenge to take up!

Jacques - Henri Lartigue,
Album 1967 July: London
© Ministère de la Culture-France / A.A.J.H.L.

Yes, hum- I definitely need to get back in shape. Well, let's go for the commonsense formula that is sure to guarantee great success : eat less rich food, get back to a healthier diet, and shake-shake-shake our sacred vessel with more regular work-outs.

My cousin Simone. 1913. ©Jacques Henri Lartigue.

Twenty Ten. I really feel ready for growth, ready to inaugurate the new decade with tangible lightness. Let me tell you about my end-of-the-year misfortune...Shortly before New Year's Eve, I started to suffer from an eye infection (probably due to dust or the heating system), which resulted in swollen, reddened eyes.

Photo by Jacques-Henri Lartigue

Pffew! I feel and look better now, the allergy is nearly gone. My husband told me it looks like I am undergoing a renewal procedure. Like a snake shaking off its old skin...Yes. Quite like it. I feel rejuvenated.
On New Year's Day, comfortably seated at the table of a café, my husband and I took down a few goals that we are planning to reach. We decided against any good resolutions as there always is an underlying sense of guilt associated to them. So I ended up with...Secure a good home for our potential 2010 baby. Work on my foreign languages, i.e brush up my German and get started in Spanish. Oh, and also, find new directions in my blog writing. Any suggestions?

Wishing you plenty of budding dreams and exciting ideas for the new decade, or for the next ten days - or the next ten hours...;0)

Jacques-Henri Lartigue, My seaplane and me in my bath, Paris, 1904