Like sleeping in the lap of nature

Here's an amazing bed I just fell in love with. I mean, typically you figure whatever anyone was going to do with bed design has been done, right - the carving, the fourposters, the mirrored ceiling and so on. And then someone comes along and surprises you with such a simple gem of an idea! Designed by Shawn Lovell

Michaela Frey

I discovered this Austrian designer of jewelry when we lived in France. She uses a technique as ancient as the hills - that of enameling - but brings to it a fine sensibility and a great passion for different cultures from around the world. I have coveted her jewelry for years...hopefully one day that will turn into the passion of ownership as well!

I love jewelry or fabric that's intricately detailed, with layers of meaning, and which has a sense of history, of connectedness to the world's past. Michaela Frey's work completely fits the bill and she creates stunning odes to her favourite artists and cities.


Here are some examples of her wearable art...

Adding personality

As lifestyles become more and more harried and technology centric, it is but natural for people to start feeling increasingly isolated, if not outright lonely. Lives become more about collecting and displaying things than forging connections with real people. The vision of the future as expressed in sci-fi films, with people living in minimalist, being spaces and wearing silver jumpsuits seems to loom frighteningly near.


And it is to mitigate that vacuum that designers like Alessi come up with the trend of 'personification', and reinterpret and design ordinary household gadgets and tools. Useful, yet playful, with loads of personality and pep, these are guaranteed to add a sparkle and the reassurance of the human factor to any home/ desk.

Now why can't an enterprising designer do that for the real technology tools - computers, mobile phones and the like?

Prickly Huggies

I have a fondness for cacti and succulents. Unlike common garden plants, they have such rugged individuality, such a quality of homespun honesty. And their beauty can just astonish you. Despite their prickly exteriors, I find a lot of cacti very huggable, like little idiosyncratic teddy bears. Weird, huh?

And as for succulents, I find them totally adorable. Once when I had gone to Bangalore for a vacation, I brought back close to 100 different varieties of them. Of course, my gardener who didn't know them from asters managed to kill off all but 2 or three. The sheer variety of shapes and sizes is enough to astonish you.

This weekend I totally bored the husband by visiting a cacti and succulents exhibition at Dilli Haat. I would have bought some but the prices were extortionate - Rs. 500 per tiny pot, when I've bought similar ones for barely Rs. 10 a pop in Bangalore.

Here are some of them. What do you think?

Adenium Obesum


Euphorbia Milli ( Crown of Thorns)


Monstrose

Architecture is In!

Architectural detailing is really in, be it in furniture or fashion - bags, shoes, and now clothes. This is one of my favourite dresses this season, for the clever design, detailing and the choice of materials:

Oranjuicy

I have a pash for the colour orange - there's something so punchy, fresh and yet a little unexpected about it, unlike purples and reds. In terms of colour it stands for innovativeness. And what could be more innovative than this pair of shoes from Nine West? Bright, saturated colour, and a cheeky little strip of purple on the side to jazz it up a little more!

And though I'm not really looking for comfort in anything so pretty, these shoes unexpectedly are comfortable!

Lotus Feet

In China, from about the 17^th century up until 1949 when it was outlawed, Chinese women had their feet tightly bound from childhood. The objective was to force the toes to be squished up against the heel so a deep cleavage would be formed. Women with lotus feet had tiny little feet which couldn't bear their own weight so they had to be supported by attendants and would walk with a swaying gait that was meant to be alluring, called the Lotus walk. It was a sign of aristocracy and a disdain for manual labour since women with bound feet really couldn't get down to work in the fields or the kitchen.

Looking at some of the latest fashions in shoes, Lotus feet seem to be making a comeback, though this time with high-ticket price tags in tow. While I'd love to own one of these marvels and put it into my display case in the living room, could you see yourself walking anywhere – even in a hotel ballroom – in these for longer than a nanosecond?