Ladies Plaza

OUTSPOKEN British singer Lily Allen has been signed up as the new face and body of Agent Provocateur lingerie, following Kate Moss and Dita Von Teese.

“Hey, hey, hey, we want some pu-pu-pussy!”

Originally called “oreore-nai,” meaning “I can’t fold properly,” this easy origami kit comes with 15 square sheets of paper printed with photo images of cropped faces. When folded the sheets transform into bizarre kaleidoscopic versions of a face, as if a few people got together and went crazy with Apple’s Photobooth effects.

Designed by the Tokyo-based origami group Studio Cochae, Strange Faces Origami is available for $9 from Unica Home and Paper Animations.

NASA has released some pretty amazing audio recordings of sounds from the moons of Saturn. The weirdest thing about them is that they actually sound like Theremin warbles and echoey whooshy sounds from ’50s movies about space.

What’s what Format family? We have three Jay-Z - American Gangster CDs to giveaway to the first three people to e-mail us (paperboy@formatmag.com) the correct response to the following question:

Which Cash Money Millionaire helps Hova rep BK on “Hello Brooklyn” from American Gangster?

To commemorate Hicalorie’s new 6″ Lefty vinyl drop, Bodhi Gallery will be hosting the D.I.Y. Calamari event opening on November 15th, 2007. The event will feature other custom versions of the lefty vinyl. Here we have the version from Mike Burnett. To see Hello Brute’s version hit up the Vinyl Pulse link.

Info.Image: Vinyl Pulse

Eliminating multiple bottles of nasty cleansers from under the sink, Shaklee’s line of cleaning products uses natural, non-toxic and often organic ingredients to rid your home of bacteria and dirt as well as toxins.

Founded on the principals of its founder, the late Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee Sr. (1894-1985) with Iowa farm boy roots, today his legacy is a multi-million dollar operation that for us is a great resource for environmentally-friendly products designed to maintain hygiene in the healthiest conceivable way.

A prime example, the basic cleanser is an organic concentrate cleaner for anything from insect innards to spilled borscht. By varying the amount of water used with the concentrate, the one cleaner works for multiple surfaces. We think these products jive nicely with the Lotus’ non-toxic sanitizing system featured last month.

There’s a lot to explore on the site including laundry products, kitchen accessories and plenty more.

She is perfect. I am drooling.
Sigh.

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If remembering the fun and simple learning experience from playing with Lincoln Logs as a kid brings back good memories, then the Recycled Wood Tree House—a modern update to those brown stacking pieces of our generation—will likely bring the same to any easily bored rugrat over age three in your life.

This 22-inch-tall, recycled cherry and elder wood tree house made with removable parts like retractable stairs, blocks, pegs, crane and load and other pieces is built to be assembled and reassembled by children’s hands while pushing the limits of their imagination in the exercise. It’s a beautiful toy that will stand the test of time.

Reform School has it for $170.

A well-made tool can last a lifetime, and it’s often true that they just don’t make them like they used to these days. The cleverly named Mantiques carries quality antique tools from well-known brands like Stanley, Bailey and Millers Falls.

Levelers (left), bone handle knives (right), vintage flashlights, old-school binoculars (center) and even some fishing tackle are available for purchase. As functional designer objects they make great gifts for use or for show. Inventory is always changing so be sure to check back at Mantiques often.

Also on Cool Hunting: Stanley Wristwatch Tools

Attention established and aspiring designers! One Anthem and Format are getting together to offer $100’s in gift certificates and royalties to the best t-shirt design submissions in November. Full Contest Info.

Carmody Groarke, a young British firm, just won an Architecture Foundation competition to design a new pavilion in Regent’s Place, London. The firm is a finalist in BD’s Young Architect Practice of the Year, and designed the pavilion to be made of a series of vertical rods that reflect light during the day and emit light at night. The design is further enhanced by the ability to move the rods within the building and thus change and utilize different spaces.

Predators of the Sprawl Issue 10, presented by Format and The Nursery. Illustrated by Jerm.

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Created by 4CAST Limited and Ghostface Killah is this new replica doll of everyones favorite Wu member.  Constructed true to scale with tons of details, this doll was mainly developed to bring back the nostalgic feel of 90’s Hip Hip.  530 medialab chipped in on the venture by creating the official website for the figure, just in time for the holidays.  Available now.

Info.Image:  Ghostface Doll via High Snobiety

Mode2 kicks off his showing, “Party and Bullshit,” at London’s DPHMI with accompanying prints and tee’s for sale.

Info.Image: SlamXHype

Buff Monster goes mini with these 1.5″ figures. Blind-packed in ice cream inspired containers, this is the first set of several, and retails at $5.99 per figure.

Info.Image: Vinyl Pulse

James Jarvis is set to release a 240 page book documenting his designs and inspirations from 2001 to 2007. Including commercial work, comic strips, t-shirt graphics, and toys, the book will be available in Spring 2008.

Info.Image: Amos via Hypebeast

TiWalkMe is a clock (still in conceptual stage) designed to track 1,000 years using a forest seeded along a ribbon of land to tell time. Annual tree plantings set the pace, visually representing time passing as they mature and functioning as the clockwork mechanism. The purpose of the project is to make a long progression of time visible as a way to help focus on long-term planning in reaction to the failure of our species to do so.

Over the next millennia the TiWalkMe Escapement will grow in one direction with some sections aging, others regrowing and above all, changing. Future generations are the stewards of future details, but the proposal tasks this generation with locating a site (several have already been determined as good choices), etch the overall plan of paths and trees and set the clock into motion.

Although handling the project will be passed down from generation to generation, three principles will guide its evolution: 1)The slow march of trees across the Escapement must always be visible and unobstructed; 2) The Escapement must adapt to future knowledge and needs, yet remain balanced with the past; 3) TiWalkMe’s mission is to bring perspective and insight to its visitors.

The man behind the TiWalkMe is inventor, physicist, entrepreneur, designer, former Bell Labs chief scientist, and now venture capitalist Greg Blonder of Genuine Ideas. Presently, the search continues for funding, volunteers, and site selection.

Learn more about the project at Watchismo.

Format friend Marnix Postma visits Meet The Streets in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Rejoice Internet nerds, you are no longer alone! According to his “personal” blog at Kanyeuniversecity.com, Kanye West (or, more likely, his publicist) reads Format. In other news, Kanye is dropping a book entitled “Thank You and You’re Welcome” with J. Sakiya Sandifer so, if you’re inclined, go pre-order it. Now if only we could set up an interview with dude - drop us a line if you’re out there ‘Ye!

Our friends over at Imeem, the internet’s fastest growing social networking site according to the latest Comcast figures, have an Eskimo Joe design contest running at the moment on their group page. It’s all very simple: Listen to the album, which is streaming on the page, choose your favorite song, and create album art for it as if it was going to be produced as a single. They’ll then pick the best design and turn it into a digital single at the iTunes Music Store. The contest runs until 8 November 2007.

Nowadays everyone carries a bag of some sort around with them daily, so naturally a stylish sack is gonna be of high demand.  To accommodate that ever-growing need, The North Face has dropped this pack of carry-alls in a crisp winter motif.  Check out the trees with no leaves planted firmly in the snow-covered ground matched with cool grey and plenty of straps.  Get yours today at Ripe.

Info.Image:  Ripe via Hypebeast

SHE’S just 19 years old, but Kirk Pengilly’s daughter April Rose has already embraced the jetsetting rock-star life of her famous father.

Hands down, tonight’s Roberto Cavalli Vodka-sponsored Halloween dinner and party at Cipriani 42nd Street was the best Halloween party I’ve been to in my whole life.

Here’s Russell Simmons hanging out dressed like he’s in Run DMC.

And Roberto Cavalli himself — who has an excellent sense of humor, by the way — dressed as Karl Lagerfeld.

Other party guests after the jump.

Before, I didn’t really see the need for eyeshadow primers. You see, I bought the Smashbox eyeshadow/lip primer before and it did nothing, absolutely nothing, for me- except maybe reduced the redness of my eyes so then the color appears better. But I can achieve that with a little application of my YSL Touche Elcat. Nevertheless, being the beauty addict that I am, the other day I got the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion after hearing so many rave reviews about it- and now I am a convert.
At first I wasn’t sure if I was just having a good eyeshadow day or it was the potion, but after having had 3 good eyeshadow days I am pretty confident that it was the potion. And by “good eyeshadow day” I mean going a whole day (morning till night) with no crease, no smudging and sharp color! Its really quite incredible. I didn’t think it was possible. Oh and another point is that it literally glides on and really creates a nice smooth surface for eyeshadow application that really sticks. And no, I did not just copied that from the blurb on Sephora. And since I’m about the most oblivious person around when it comes to the whether a beauty product works game, this product really DOES make a difference! So if you haven’t already- I highly recommend it!

Ps. Happy Halloween!

Image Source: Sephora

Lexus‘ bid for the mid-life crisis market is finally coming to fruition in the form of the new IS F, a sport performance vehicle with a 416-horsepower V8 engine that’s due to hit the market next spring. We had the opportunity to be some of the first to experience the prototypes when Lexus brought us out to California last week to test the vehicle on the Laguna Seca raceway.

With the body’s “muscular” design (we could do without the sculpted fenders) and the pleasing low rumble of the engine while idling, it’s clear this is a car meant to appeal to would-be racecar drivers—much like BMW’s M series with which the IS F is obviously in competition.

On the drive to the track, the car was butter-smooth around sharp curves and accelerated forcefully with all the aggressive confidence that you’d expect from a luxury sportscar. The set up at Laguna Seca provided several opportunities to see what else this car can do.

Four operational modes, full assists, sport mode, no assists and snow, provide a driving experience for everyone from the casual enthusiast to the driving aficionado. We tested it in all modes and overall were impressed by the ability of the assists to provide the utmost stability during tight cornering and in wet conditions. A few other journalists in attendance weren’t quite convinced by the zero-to-60 mph in 4.6 seconds claim, but we weren’t counting.

While the transmission, the first “eight-speed Sport Direct-Shift,” seemed to perform well in automatic mode, we found the paddle shifters mounted on the steering column for manual use to be awkward to use at high speeds.

Other than those minor details, with IS F Lexus has met its goal of making a car that’s “everything you thought we weren’t.” The first car to earn its internal esteemed “F” (for Flagship) marking, the story behind it shows some real passion and dedication on the part of Lexus engineer Yukihiko Yaguchi who, in 2004, set out to build the kind of car he wanted to drive. With help from Toyota Technocraft, the team that usually develops police vehicles, race cars and the like, Yaguchi developed the impressive engine. After extensive testing on top racetracks around the world, four years later the IS F is the kind of car “that drivers will not want to stop driving after 10 laps on a circuit course”—which I think I did.

Freshjive is releasing their Stormtrooper Division, a line that consists of waterproof materials and breathable nylon. And lots of zippers with zippers on top of them, and pockets inside of pockets, inside of pockets with little pockets.

Info.Image: Freshjive

Well I’m actually a little confused… back in September, we broke news of a Nike sneaker that was dubbed the “Forrest Funk” Air Max Light, but it does not look like these pictured here!  Whatever these are named, or if they are part of a pack, muted earth tones take center stage.  Allowing those who like to stay below the radar, but also like just a splash of something different (digital camouflage) to have a fashionable sneaker.  Available now

Info.Image:  Sneaker Files

Have you always wanted to look like Kanye West, but never knew how?  Or maybe you just couldn’t afford to?  Well throw all that out of the window because these Shutter Shades (Kanye West “stronger” video) are now for sale in a variety of colors for about $25 USD.  Get ‘em while they are hot!

Info.Image:  Shutter Shades

Once again Virgin Mobile is doing their share of goodwill with their annual Re*Generation Art Auction benefiting homeless youth charities across the U.S. With works from an all-star line up of artists like Jordan Isip (pictured right), Melinda Beck, Calef Brown, Thomas Campbell, the Clayton Brothers, Greg Lamarche and Matt Leines, among others, it’s a chance to get your hands on some great work while helping to assuage the often overlooked problem of homeless youth. Marking the beginning of National Youth Homeless Awareness Month, all donated works are up for public bidding at Re*Generation until 1 November at 10pm EST.

The benefit ends with a party on 7 November at Skylight Studios in NYC where all auctioned works will be on display. There will also be a few LG mobile phones redecorated by five of the artists up for grabs (above). Everyone is welcome but capacity is limited. You can pre-register as a VIP to ensure your spot by making a $25 donation. Check out and bid on all of the works up for auction at Re*Generation.

Re*Generation Benefit Party
Wednesday, 7 November 2007, 7-11pm
Skylight Studios
275 Hudson St.
New York, NY 10013 map

Multifaceted New York-based designer Laurie Rosenwald is one of my favorites—her illustrations and graphic design has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times and almost everywhere else. She teaches a great workshop on creativity called “How to Make Mistakes on Purpose” (try to take it if you can) and
her first book New York Notebook has a fun local perspective. She both wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, And to Name but Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and it’s like no other.

The mix of collages with found pictures, photos, scraps of paper, crayon and ink drawings and the rhyming text in bold type explore color. Lines like “Do you have a bright blue suit? Do you have a small blue fruit? Blues are just the song to sing, when you don’t have anything!” make for a wild kids book that ignores convention. I read it to my four year-old niece, Eva, and she loved it and took it with her.

See more (and read her grownup stories) on her hilarious site. Buy And to Name from Amazon, Powell’s or Chronicle Books.

Hong Kong toy designer Kenny Wong, through his studio, Kennyswork, has teamed up with Medicom Toys and Levi’s to create a Bearbrick based on Kennywork’s Copperhead-18 figure. As for what Levi’s is going to add to the project? Your guess is as good as ours, but the Copperhead Bearbrick is set for release in late November.

Info.Image: Hypebeast

Thinking bubbles have popped up over on Princess Street In Edinburgh, Scotland. If you have trouble thinking and need a bubble to get through this grueling process, Scotland is the perfect place for you.

Info.Image: Wooster

Andrei Molodkin’s graphic work for Burton has now been printed on the Burton Twin™ snowboard. When asked about the art work for the boards, Andrei stated “For each of the 5 Burton boards, I drew the pieces to be the exact size of the boards so they look like the original pen lines.” Well the work transfered over lovely and you can cop one at Snowboard Connection.

Info.Image: Mash Kulture

The Nike Air Max Light has been a hit since it was recently re-released and here we’ve come across a new dope colorway. The shoe rocks with a black upper and electric blue, green and pink accents, making it stand out amongst the crowd. More info on a release date as it comes in.

Info.Image: High Snobiety

12 fitteds for 12 days, what more do you need? True San Francisco will be dropping the 12 days of Christmas pack on Black Friday, November 23rd exclusively at True & True East. Every Saturday between now and Black Friday True & True East will be dropping sneak peeks of 2 styles for us to gaze at. As they drop we’ll keep you updated.

Info.Image: High Snobiety

Dope kicks are often ruined by old dirty laces. Get out of that habit and make sure to check out the 3rd series from shoe lace label Starks. They only give us a preview here, but if you’re on top of ya’ sneaker game you can see that these laces go perfect with more than a few recent releases. Stay tuned for updates.

Info.Image: SlamXHype

by Passa Chattra

After realizing this wasn’t an egg screwed into the wall, I had the “ah-ha!” feeling upon learning it is in fact a vintage soap hook. Made by Pro Ven Di, it was originally designed for French public school bathrooms and adds a little charm to a daily (at least, we hope) process.

The solid chrome bracket can be mounted near the sink while the refillable vegetable soap screws on and spins when used, eliminating the soap swamp created by dishes. The hook is now available in the U.S. after five years of searching by Apartment Therapy. They’ve got it in their store for $40 and you can find refills there too.

For those of us in more extreme climates, Q Celsius is an all season, retractable stud tire, that performs well on wet and dry days. Not only have studies shown that using studded tires in dry conditions negatively affect performance, the loud noise of winter tires on bare pavement is irritating and then there’s the added inconvenience of having to change them in and out every year.

Making driving both easier and safer, Q tires mean there’s no longer a need to swap tires according to the season. When needed, the Celsius uses existing tire pressure to inflate a secondary chamber, pushing studs through the surface for snow and ice, all at the push of a button. If conditions improve, air from the second chamber can be expelled and the studs will be pulled back inside.

Available this time next year, for more info and to see an informational video visit Q Tires.

Roads that produce electricity from the kinetic energy of cars, DNA-scanning ballot boxes to wipe out voter fraud, superbly energy-efficient houses (pictured right) to stave off the impending energy crisis… these are some of the entries vying for the $20,000 prize offered by NASA in the Create the Future Design Contest

While the entry date has come and gone, there are literally hundreds of concepts to view. Many are blatant pipe dreams, others have some commercial appeal. None of them have been developed or are sold on the commercial market—that’s one of the rules of the contest.

Cool Hunting thanks Jake Zien, Carnegie Mellon University student from Milwaukee, who brought NASA’s initiative to our attention. We liked his entry, a power strip design that eliminates “power bricks” in which the individual AC adapters crowd each other out making a seven-plug strip only able to handle three or four. (Pictured left.)

NASA has opened the prizes up to designers from around the globe (except for the world’s most populous nation—why are they so afraid of China?) and the winners are scheduled to be announced the week of 20 January 20 2008 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine.

Living and working in Brussels, Belgium, Tom Gallant creates hand-cut floral prints out of archived porno magazines. Using a surgical blade, he cuts into the imagery, layering extremely delicate cut-outs on top of one another to assemble a dramatic visual experience that almost blurs your vision. If you look closely you can see hints of hair, lips, neck and genitalia, but it’s the paper’s flesh tones and curvature that stand out.

Soft spoken and a self proclaimed compulsive collector he describes his work as a visual language “dealing with a private matter in a very public way.”

Having had a stressful few weeks, I decided to treat myself to a day of guilty pleasures.

1. My top guilty pleasure is sleep. And by that I don’t mean the usual 8 hours. I mean sleeping for however long and whenever I want. See, I’m not a morning person. Hence I never feel like waking up in the morning. So this morning (afternoon), I woke up late. And then I went for guilty pleasure number 2……
2. Romance novels. I find the newer novels these days to be much too formulaic and tedious to go through to find a good one. Hence I love reading the old ones that I knowclosed my eyes for a few minutes whenever I wanted to. are good. The classics never get boring. They are all the same anyway, its just the quality of the writing that differs. Besides, all I’m looking for is a happy ending to escape from the real world. One of my all time favourites is Jill Mansell’s, Miranda’s Big Mistake. Its super sweet. Mansell is generally pretty good, though I can’t say much for her newer books……And while I was reading by the window next to the warm sunlight, I indulged myself some more and
3. Next on my list is endless hours of mindless TV shows. These days I watch just about anything, Greys Anatomy, Samantha Who, Gossip Girl (love it), ANTM etc. But my ultimate favourite is still the chic lives of the girls on Sex and the City. I can never get bored of them. They are classic!
4. And we must not forget nourishment. Guilty pleasure number four: eating ice cream out of the carton. Then you can really eat as much as you want. And the ultimate pleasure of all? Sleep after you eat. I know that it is highly not recommend it. But succumbing to food coma is just the best thing I can imagine. Even if you cannot sleep for the rest of the night after….
5. But thats ok, because then you can indulge in guilty pleasure number 5: talking on the phone with an old friend and going down memory lane- for hours. 4 hrs and 5 minutes to be exact. There is no path better than memory lane. Now I really want to read all those Christopher Pike books I loved to read when I was 13…… especially Starlight Crystal. Its about this girl who falls in love with this guy but a few days later she had to go on a spaceship that is designed to be a time capsule that observes human evolution over time. And then something goes wrong and there is this huge time warp and….I just remember it being more cool than it sounds now.
6. And the last of my guilty pleasures? List making. I love list making. I make lists about everything (observe this blog). And diary writing. It really keeps track of your thoughts and clears your head up. Besides- its awfully entertaining to read a year later….especially if you make interesting lists, like new years resolutions and checklists… I highly recommend it.
7. Staring into space and letting your mind wander…and perhaps closing your eyes for a few minutes whenever you like. Especially nice if you have a nice view or a clear sky to stare at.

And this is my list of guilty pleasures I like to indulge in on my “me” time. What are your guilty pleasures?

Image Source: Amazon.com

On November 4, at Asbury Park, NJ Zoo York and Animal Bikes present the Red Bull Down & Dirty BMX Contest! The event is hosted at the defunct Asbury Park Casino, which has been turned into a street course with transit buses, cabs, barriers and other obstacles for kids to beat up with their bikes. Oh-yeah-and-things, there is $10,000 in prizes and money to be won!

Info.Image: Zoo York

If you haven’t checked out Buff Monster’s site recently, now would be a good time. The site has gone through a complete overall (now with over 50% more pink!) and contains sections where you can find information about shows, check out some of Buff Monster’s dope artwork, or purchase a few prints. There’s even some Buff Monster wallpaper for your desktop!

Info.Image: Juxtapoz

Finally, there’s a fragrance for the Andy Warhol in all of us. High-end fragrance house Bond No. 9 has partnered with The Andy Warhol Foundation to create a line of scents inspired by the man himself. The bottle design for the inaugural scent, Silver Factory, already shows a brand affinity for Warhol’s signature pop culture-skewering art. Let’s wait and see if Bond No. 9 comes up with a scent to match.

Info.Image: Hypebeast

by Passa Chattra

Face it, any dog owner will tell you they have the smartest dog in the world. Well here”s a toy that’s fitting for those canine prodigies. Made by Canine Genius the “Leo” (in honor of Leonordo da Vinci) is like legos for dogs. The individual Leos can be fetched, tugged, and stuffed with treats like other dog toys.

What makes the Leo different is that it can be linked to multiple other Leos. You can create puzzles and shapes that also allow treats that are stuffed inside to move around inside one piece to the other. Looks like its creative problem solving for both humans and animals. Available in original ($19) and mini ($13) from Canine Genius.

If any of you have checked out the Triumvir website over the past few months, then like me you noticed a picture of a certain young lady rockin’ a black t-shirt that had F U C K printed across her chest, but couldn’t see the whole tee…  Well boys and girls, here it is!!  New to the Fall lineup for the So Cal brand is this dope tee that gets its design from everyone’s favorite eye chart.  This is an online exclusive and is available now in both t-shirts and sweatshirts in a grab bag of colors.

Info.Image:  Triumvir3

Coated in rich, dark chocolate and with addictive spiced pumpkin seeds, Veré’s take on caramel corn, called Pumpkorn, is just in time for Halloween. Samples of the new product at CH HQ were quickly gobbled up—our tasters were surprised but enjoyed the pleasant heat of the Chipotle chile powder. The spice contrasts nicely with the sticky sweetness of the caramel, the crunch of the corn and the nuttiness of the seeds. It’s a perfect Autumnal treat by one of our favorite chocolate-makers, but we’re already hearing rumors from Veré that it might become a year-round specialty.

Currently Pumpkorn’s limited to Veré’s local markets in Manhattan (see a list of stores after the jump), retailing for $5 per bag.

Also on Cool Hunting: Chocolate Show