As summer approaches, your feet want to breathe more. Espadrilles, with their fabric uppers and braided soles made of flax, hemp, raffia or jute, are the perfect summer anticipation shoes. With those here from Maison Margiela but you have to look twice. Don’t you know the shape from somewhere? Exactly, it corresponds to the shape of the indoor sports shoes that were manufactured by Adidas and Puma for the German armed forces in the 80s and 90s – without official branding. Martin Margiela took these shoes into his repertoire at the end of the 90s, called them “Replica” and made them out of finer leather. Now there is the replica of the replica. So that you don’t slip with this pretty context shift from the area of defense to that of fashionable summer resorts, a wafer-thin layer of rubber sticks under the jute sole (420 euros, maisonmargiela.com).
Perspective in summer like Hailey Bieber, who is launching her own eyewear collection with Vogue Eyewear.
(Photo: manufacturer)
15 pages. That’s how many the magazine dedicated to the Wall Street Journal recently Hailey Bieber, including the cover, which says something about the current status of this “American beauty”, as the headline read. Bieber is not only the wife of one of the most famous pop idols of our time and a halfway talented model. Her 43 million Instagram followers admire the 25-year-old mainly because she looks great in almost every situation and is well dressed. The accident rate at performances in recent years is almost zero. That’s why Levi’s signed her a long time ago, now the collection just came out Hailey Bieber x Vogue Eyewear on the market. The four sunglass models are each available in four different colors and as corrective glasses (99 euros, vogue-eyewear.com).
Now bubbles in glass and is therefore extra safe: Carbonator Pro from Aarke.
(Photo: manufacturer)
CO₂ water bubblers have found their way into many kitchens and have proven themselves there as quick tap water refiners. While most of the devices are more functional than pretty to look at, the Swedish brand stood Aarke since its foundation in 2013, the focus has also been on design. The slender models of the “Carbonator” series made of metal still differ significantly from the competition in this respect and fit in quite stylishly next to the kitchen sink. In order to meet the customer request for a glass bottle instead of a PET bottle, which is often expressed in the German market, the “Carbonator Pro” has now been developed over three years of development work and is intended to set new standards in self-sparkling. Because with the replacement of a pretty glass bottle, the device had to be almost completely redesigned – for safety reasons, the Swedish engineers designed a lowerable protective chamber in which the glass bottle is firmly enclosed during the carbonation process. Despite this effort, the “Carbonator Pro” can still be operated comfortably with one hand and, with its stainless steel housing, is designed for maximum service life. According to the company, a specially designed test robot simulated 10,000 filling processes with the prototype – this corresponds to around 27 years of daily use. The super-slim form of the previous models could not be fully retained with the extension, but the good design genes of the new model are still evident (available in matt black or stainless steel, 300 euros, aarke.com).
It took a while for the shock in the luxury sector to break: after Russia began its attack on Ukraine, little or nothing was heard from the fashion side for two weeks. Then the first houses announced that they wanted to close their shops in Russia, and all the others followed one after the other. A great sacrifice? How you take it. In the industry they said behind closed doors: what do rich Russians care if the boutique of chanels shut down in Moscow? They’ll just get the bags and tweed suits from abroad! And this is exactly what has actually become difficult. Like the branch service business of fashion reports, testimonials from Russian Chanel customers who were asked for written proof of their current place of residence on shopping trips in Paris, Milan and Istanbul have popped up on Telegram and Instagram. If they could not prove that they lived outside of Russia, the Chanel part stayed in the store. Chloé customers reported similar things. The measures are slowly beginning to hurt. They remain manageable for the luxury sector: only four to eight percent of sales are generated by Russians.
Springlike: crockery from the new India Mahdavi x H&M Home collection.
(Photo: manufacturer)
India Mahdavi designed “the most instagrammed restaurant in the world” in 2014, the powder pink brasserie “Gallery” in London, and has just given the restaurant a new sunny yellow look. Anyone who has designed a restaurant with maximum Instagram frequency can be considered a safe bet for style-conscious design that is still suitable for the masses. That’s why now appropriately H&M Home teamed up with Mahdavi. The Iranian native, known for bright colors and a fondness for textiles, has presented a spring-like optimistic collection: checkered cushion covers, vases in pastel colors, crockery with gradient colors for breakfast on the balcony. And of course everything very photogenic (available from April 28th, hm.com/home).