the Graffiti wait continues... but

i just got back to Melbourne today and my first port of call was to check in at my LV boutique in the hopes of getting a sneak preview of the Graffiti items that are scheduled to be released tomorrow (2 Feb). but sadly the LV higher-ups have sent a memo to withhold sales until the 15th of January in the entire Southeast Asian and Australian regions =( initially only the Neverfulls were be delayed, but i guess they have decided to hold all the bags to wait for the Neverfull stock to arrive. i was a bit sad to hear about this as i was VERY keen to bring home a Graffiti bag tomorrow. i sincerely love this collection, so what's another two weeks right?

well, i just have to take something home to console me:

(hmm... should i reveal it now or prolong the reveal like others have been doing lately? you know who you are. grrr....)

what the heck, its the "Moving Pictures" book by Chow Yun Fat:

its a collection of photographs taken by the famous Chinese actor. these photos were first shown during the opening of the Louis Vuitton megastore at 5 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong back in March 2008:

the book's launch followed in June and only 1000 copies of Moving Pictures have been produced. the proceeds will be donated directly to the Hong Kong Red Cross to help the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. initially sold in Hongkong and the Champs-Elysées boutique in Paris only, a few books made their way to Australia a couple of weeks ago.

pics of the slip case:

within this fine cloth bound book are exquisitely printed images the actor took while working on several films, including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Curse of the Golden Flower, and The Children of Huangshi, as well as landscapes, Chinese rural scenes and still lifes:

(that's the stunning Gong Li)





and of course a self-portrait:

very impressive for the actor's first photography book. i hope to see more of his work in the future. if you can, i recommend you get a copy today!!!

not quite Björk; Barney's World

this video certainly made my day:



they crashed a Matthew Barney - he is Björk's partner and father of her daughter Isadora for those of you who didn't know - exhibit a few years back. this in reference to the artis's collaboration with Björk in one of his "Drawing Restraint" series of work where they spent an entire season in a Japanese whaling ship. i love the girl in the kimono's facial expression in the first few lines of the song. what a riot. i really wish they'd do another one soon.

since i've mentioned it, i urge anyone with an artistic bent to go rent/borrow/buy Matthew Barney's "Cremaster Cycle" or "Drawing Restraint" videos if they haven't yet. with such striking visuals, this highly enigmatic oeuvre is an acquired taste to most and nobody could really understand it fully. but one just grows to appreciate it. if you love symbology and surrealism with a very sexual (or reproductive/biological) context, these are for you.


here's a sneak peek from Drawing Restraint 9:




Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Matthew Barney: two of the coolest people in the world in a match made in contemporary art heaven.




links: Drawing Restraint, Cremaster Cycle.

LV hams!

something for this festive season:




i hope this didn't get them into trouble. surely the powers-that-be have a sense of humour too and see this as good PR.

more please!

variations on a theme 1

we all follow certain patterns. when we like something we tend to gravitate towards similar things/events/sensations without any conscious effort. here's an example:




18k gold pendants on silk cords by Louis Vuitton, Gucci and VanCleef&Arpels.

you can read more about the LV Richard Prince bread tag HERE and HERE.

the little Gucci coin necklace was a souvenir from a 4-day Dubai stop-over back in 2003. i spent an entire day at the world famous Dubai gold souk trying to find something for myself. but the designs were mostly too feminine (woven gold veils with matching nose chain anyone?) or too expensive (there was a 21ct Trillion-cut fancy cornflower blue diamond that i could never forget). i ended up buying this from the Gucci boutique at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers instead:



as for the Van Cleef & Arpels, this little quatrefoil is part of their Alhambra Collection:



the highly familiar shape of this jewellery collection was inspired by the windows of the great Moorish palace in Granada, Spain. this tiny 18k gold pendant is part of Visionaire #48 "Magic"





in this issue, the world famous and highly collectible multi-format "magazine" was a stack of lenticular cards created by film directors such as Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar Wai, Sofia Coppola and Gus van Sant. my particular favourite is the one by Spike Jonze:




it features actor Jason Schwartzman looking rather melancholic with rockets shooting out from his chest. poignant and romantic, just how i like it.

(n.b. Spike Jonze's ex-wife is Sofia Coppola who is cousins with Jason Schwartzman)

here's to everyone

Joan Baez "Here's To You"



an simple but extremely moving one stanza song by the American folk singer in collaboration with acclaimed composer Ennio Morricone (he of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" fame) for the movie Sacco e Vanzetti (Guiliano Montaldo, 1971). this is a song about the trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two "anarchists" found guilty of armed robbery and murder which sparked mass protests for their release due to a gamut of issues such as anti-Italian and anti-immigrant prejudice, blatant disregard for civil liberties and general prejudice. more can be read about them HERE

YSL S/S 2009 Preview

once again in lieu of a runway show Stefano Pilati opted for another avant-garde video collaboration with Colonel Blimp starring Jack Houston which explores the different notions of masculinity.



(WARNING: some nudity involved. so kids, look away NOW!)













absolutely brilliant!


SOURCE: www.ysl.com

take a stroll around Grey Gardens

i saw a screening of the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens the other night. it is about Big and Little Edie - a mother & daughter living in a dilapidated mansion in a very posh seaside neighborhood in East Hampton. it was rather difficult not to grimace and cringe at the state of their living conditions - a bunch of stray cats and the "strays" these cats leave behind is one example. but the viewers soon develop a keen interest and even a certain fondness to this eccentric couple with their candidness. especially when reminiscing their glorious past. here's the promotional trailer:




initial publicity hung on the fact that the Edies are actually Jacqueline Onassis' aunt and first cousin. but they won the hearts of America on their own. it quickly became a worldwide hit and gained cult status soon after its release. numerous books were written, other documentaries were shot and even a number of plays were produced about and inspired by these two women. Little Edie's flamboyant and original style even inspired a number of fashion magazine editorials. the most recent one featured Mary-Kate Olsen and Lauren Hutton for the October 2007 issue of Harper's Bazaar. i also read that a movie about them starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange is due for release early 2009. even the gifted Mr Wainwright penned a song titled "Grey Gardens" about them:



but the film rather ends abruptly. leaving the viewers hanging and wanting for more. so naturally i have to Google them. the overpowering Edie Sr. lived for a couple more years since. and finally being free from her mother, Little Edie was able to pursue her dreams of a stage career. with varying levels of success. but it all ends rather tragically in 2002.


"Its very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.... you know what I mean?" - Little Edie.

how many LV bags did you see?

in a very rare move for a high-end luxury brand, Louis Vuitton is releasing a television advertisement centered around a travel theme. scheduled to be released worldwide on 15 February, here is an advanced screening:



so, what do you recon? i think its is very well-made, classy and awesome in a very understated way. extremely effective in my opinion. i only spotted 2 LV bags in the whole 90 second ad which is a good thing.

more info about the advert can be found HERE

beauty in sadness II

yes, here's another sad movie i finally had the opportunity to watch just recently. "Nobody Knows" (誰も知らない/Dare mo shiranai) is a film by Hirokazu Koreeda based on a true story that happened in Japan during the late 80's dubbed as the "Affair of the four abandoned children of Sugamo". although the movie version paints a less grim depiction of the horrid event, it is still very poignant and and extremely moving. here's the synopsis from IMDB:

"Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. And so begins the children's odyssey, a journey nobody knows. Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. When they are forced to engage with the world outside their cocooned universe, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Their innocent longing for their mother, their wary fascination toward the outside world, their anxiety over their increasingly desperate situation, their inarticulate cries, their kindness to each other, their determination to survive on wits and courage." (Written by Sujit R. Varma)

i've also found this video montage with scenes taken from the movie:




although it lost the Palme d'Or to Fahrenheit 9/11 at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, 14 y/o Yuya Yagira - he played the eldest son Akira - won best actor... and most deservedly so.


have you ever been strongly moved lately? i've never cried watching a movie since probably Life is Beautiful or The Passion. it will forever be with me.

recommended viewing

i must admit, im too cheap to pay the additional €44.00 shipping fee to Australia. so i waited until my parents were in Paris to buy it for me. and here it is:




from the jacket:

"The documentary looks at designer Marc Jacobs and his career as creative director at Louis Vuitton. The DVD contains more than an hour of bonus footages from a party in NYC, to a Marc Jacobs press conference in Tokyo. It also provides an insight in to the working process of designing goods for Louis Vuitton."


i highly recommend it to every LV lover out there. i gained further respect and admiration - not to mention understanding - of Marc Jacob's creative process. im so pleased to know out that he's such a nice, down-to-earth, normal guy. you can see it in how he interacts with his design team in New York and Paris and even with the press. not once did i sense any prima donna attitude. i also urge LV "unbelievers" to go watch this documentary too.


available to order online at Colette. go get your copy NOW!

"The Darjeeling Ltd." the Duck's must-see movie for 2007

27/09/07

i've never been this excited about a movie since the release of "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". "The Darjeeling Ltd." is director Wes Anderson's latest movie. he is by far my utmost favourite movie director. he also wrote and directed "The Royal Tenenbaums" and produced "The Squid and the Whale". these two and "The Life Aquatic" are three of my all-time favourite movies. i particularly love the quirky, retroesque, Wallpaper*-magazine-the-Tyler-Brulee-years look of his films. but what makes "Darjeeling" even more exciting (well, to me anyway) is the participation of a special cutom-made set of Louis Vuitton luggage and leather goods. Marc Jacobs - a good friend of Mr Anderson - specially designed a unique set of luggage in what appears to be Nomade leather hand painted with rather naïve drawings of jungle animals by Anderon's brother Eric. here is a photo of the luggage:




here they are in a still shot from the movie:



these one-off luggages are currently on display at the LV flagship store in New York and will be later auctioned off for charity.



more information about the movie can be found HERE

i absolutely can't wait!!!!



Comments
>deLuxeDuck
rd1880 > i'd LOVE to own that Nil reporter bag on Jason Schwartzman. "9" is my favourite number. but it'll be too expensive i would think.
27 September 1:09 AM
(http://deLuxeDuck.spaces.live.com/)

>rd1880
Utterly fabulous! I wonder what they will go for at auction.
27 September 12:39 AM (http://rd1880.spaces.live.com/)

beauty in sadness

last night's viewing of "In The Mood For Love" by Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai left me in so much awe. this has got to be one of the most beautiful films i've ever seen. one of the very few that i deem "life-changing" in how it has left a mark in my memory forever. it is a movie set in Hong Kong in the 60's about two people's repetitive, empty existence and the platonic romance that develops between them. every single scene is shot so beautifully, the stills are worth its own exhibition. Shigeru Umebayashi' haunting "Yumeji's Theme" is so moving and a perfect fit for those slow-paced scenes of mundaness. a lot is said but not much spoken.

here's a clip of one of the most memorable scenes of all time:




i don't know why, but i can esily find beauty in sadness more than in mirth. i wish i can understand Chinese as im sure the English subtitles miss-out on the little details. i highly recommend this film!