28 January, 2014

Cartier: Style and History at the Grand Palais

1 Cartier-Style-and-history

Jewelled cigarette cases, necessaires, cigarette cases, necessaires… Cartier could quite easily have staged its Cartier: Style and History exhibition at Paris’s Grand Palais around these stunning, opulent objects alone. A historic display of around 600 pieces, most from the Cartier archive, it comprises grand tiaras from the world’s royalty (both regal and Hollywood), epic jewels, and magical timepieces, alongside original sketches, plaster moulds, photos and ledgers. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 1 Comment Brands, Design, Designers, Events, Trends accessories, Cartier, design, Duchess of Cambridge, Elizabeth Taylor, exhibitions, Grace Kelly, Jeanne Toussaint, jewellery

5 December, 2013

Cartier: style, history and Jeanne Toussaint

Jeanne-Toussaint-cartier-style-and-history-exhibition

Get me to Paris and fast! Forget the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the only luxury trinkets I want to see this month are safely ensconced in the Grand Palais for the just-opened Cartier. Style and History exhibition.

Amongst the 600-odd pieces of jewellery and 300 contextual objects (paintings, dresses, archive documents – oh my!) on display at this exhibition, there’s a focus on Jeanne Toussaint. Cartier’s head of accessories and later director of jewellery, her bold and clever work has been frequently referenced by modern jewellers.

This 1944 singing uncaged bird brooch represents the liberation of France:
Cartier-brooch-1944-Jeanne-Toussaint-Cartier-Style-and-History-Grand-Palais

(more…)

Disneyrollergirl 2 Comments Brands, Design, Events Cartier, exhibitions, Jeanne Toussaint, jewellery, luxury

2 November, 2013

When Britain Went Pop!

David-Hockney-Swimming-Pool-1965

I haven’t been to the Barbican’s Pop Art Design exhibition yet but it’s top of my list of things to do. Meanwhile, I have been to the new Christie’s Mayfair gallery space in New Bond Street which is currently showing When Britain Went Pop!

Oh. My! This is bloody good. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 3 Comments Art, Events art, Christie's, David Hockney, exhibitions, Peter Blake, pop art

20 September, 2013

Nostalgic ephemera: useless crap or valuable treasure?

1 Ica-Off-site

David Bowie Is at the V&A was a brilliant trip down memory lane as well as a peek into the brain of the enigma that is Bowie. However much we see of him, do we really feel like we know the man? Apparently, he kept an archive of everything he had ever done from his early youth.

Every song lyric, sketch, photo, sleeve design was carefully stored for…what? He didn’t know at his early age that he would become an icon of his time, but I guess the ambition was there.

Looking at the vitrines curated by a cast of London creatives at the ICA Off-Site project, ‘A Journey Through London Subculture – 1980s to now’, it’s clear that a lot of people have also kept the ephemeral fragments that sum up their artistic journey. From flyers to Polaroids, to scratchy notes and stickers, what to some looks like old junk, is of intrinsic value, especially in the digital age of cloud storage. (When was the last time you printed out your iPhone photos?) (more…)