Categories / Design and Interiors, Homeware

Kashiwado Modern Japanese Chair by Isamu Kenmochi

T71652b

Isamu Kenmochi founded the Japan Industrial Designers Association and collaborated also with Isamu Noguchi on several projects. In 1961, he designed the Kashiwado Modern Japanese Chair, created for a famous sumo wrestler of the same name.

The chair is as much a piece of sculpture as it is a piece of furniture, created by carving out block of Japanese cedar, which has been specifically selected for having the most rings. Each chair takes several weeks to make. It will perhaps be unsurprising then to learn that this is possibly the most expensive chair we’ve featured on this website, costing a staggering $12,400.00 (over £6,000).

If you have that amount to spend on a stylish, but not particularly comfortable looking chair, you can order one from Nova68.

Categories / Art and Photography

Sixties Photographic Prints

P_frenchyphotos1Pussy Home Boutique has a selection of Sixties Photographic Prints for sale. There is a choice of six different images, but they are all in black & white and feature pictures of glamorous girls from the 1960s.

The prints all measure 54cm by 65cm, and are sold ready framed in a wooden frame. Not sure why, but the first three prints (as pictured here) cost £45 and the other three cost £125.

Visit the Pussy Home Boutique website to view the full range.

Categories / Art and Photography, Homeware

Patrick McMullan Studio 54 Shower Curtain

14853501_18_bPhotographer Patrick McMullan was friends with Andy Warhol and a regular at Studio 54, with his photographs of that nightclub capturing the essence of those decadent times.

Books of his photography are available to buy but if you want something a bit more daring, he has just lent one of his images to a shower curtain, so you can have a piece of his art in your bathroom. The Patrick McMullan Studio 54 Shower Curtain features a black & white image from the famous nightclub, printed on a white vinyl shower curtain.

It is available to buy for $30 (approximately £15) from Izola Shower.

Categories / Homeware

Mid-Century inspired Eiffel Chair

15137946_29_bThe USA Urban Outfitters website has been looking to the past for its inspiration for much of its current furniture collection. In particular, the Eiffel Chair takes its look from classic mid-century designs. It has a bent I-shaped hardwood seat in Walnut veneer on top of a chrome metal base.

The Eiffel Chair costs $125 and there is also a pair of tables in a matching veneer to complete the look, costing $250 for a coffee table and $150 for a side table..

Sadly, these products are only available online and can not be shipped outside of the USA, but for any readers over there, they can be bought online from the Urban Outfitters website.

Categories / Architecture, Art and Photography, Homeware, Music

Buildings of Disaster: The Dakota Building

Pph_4205_l

This has to be one of the strangest items I’ve seen in quite some time. It is a model of the Dakota Building, with the date that made it notorious inscribed on the bottom. That date being, of course, the assassination of John Lennon (the building’s exterior was also used in Rosemary’s Baby, but that isn’t the disaster to which it refers).

It is one of a series entitled “Buildings of Disaster” with others in the collection including the Texas Book Depository, Watergate and Chernobyl. The art project itself aimed to look at how disasters change our perceptions of famous landmarks or unremarkable architecture, which is an interesting idea, but perhaps buying one for your home is a little morbid.

Still, if you fancy a replica Dakota Building, you can buy one for $110 (approximately £56) from Moss. They are Limited Edition, although I’m not sure demand will be that high.

Categories / Design and Interiors, Homeware

Starck’s Surreal “L’Oreille Qui Voit” Mirrors

Imgzoomloreillequivoitmodel4xoref_3

Phillippe Starck designed “L’Oreille Qui Voit” Mirrors for a hotel in Brazil and they are now being manufactured for you to purchase by xO. These designs are not strictly speaking retro, but the fluid distorted shape has clearly been influenced by surrealism, wihch is made especially clear in the surreal photos of the mirrors.

The name means “The Ear that Sees” because, aside from looking like Dali’s melting clocks, they are shaped like a human ear. The mirror comes in five sizes, ranging from 50cm high to 190cm high, and in a choice of silver leaf or black lacquer finish.

Of course, Starck designs come with a hefty price tag, with the smallest mirror in the range costing just under £1,000 and the largest just under £2,000. Made in Design will have the mirrors available in September.