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archives |
Monday 04.19.10
stealing style: muji.
one of my favorite bits about london, is shopping at muji, and i tend to stuff my suitcase before leaving. i so wish there was a muji in san francisco, but i’m not too worried, because i can always find muji products available online, too.
muji carries a extremely affordable and wide variety of products with very simple, clean aesthetics, and aspires to modesty and plainness, the better to adapt and shape itself to the styles that appeal to as many people as possible. think ikea, with a japanese flair. here’s a glimpe at some of my favorites from muji.
gingham checked slippers ($13.95), cotton re-useable tote bag ($26.50), craft sketchbook ($4.25), and beechwood wall clock ($48.75).
clear stickies for marking your favorite spots ($3.50), reused yard scarf ($19.95), 36 colored pencils in kraft tube ($11.25), and really cute good fit red sneakers ($26.50).
beech jewelry tree, ($16.75), tin box with lid ($20.95), pinewood folding table ($82.50), and aluminum business card case ($5.50).
square mahogany wood tray ($11.50), wool jersey bag ($19.25), cozy wool checked blanket ($24.98), and city in a bag, paris ($14.00).
Thursday 03.04.10
good reads: appartements de filles à paris.
i love paumes books, even though i can rarely read a word of them. the photographs speak volumes, though, so a pretty picture book is never a waste of inspiration. paumes is a small, family-run Japanese publisher, working in close contact with artists and designers all over the world to bring you these beautiful books featuring designers’ homes, apartments, studios and ateliers.
the lovely yvonne from yvestown blog is a distributor for paumes, so you can easily order these books directly from her website. she recently sent me this beautiful new paumes, called ‘appartements de filles à paris‘ which is the sequel to the well-received book ‘Petits appartements à Paris‘. the new books are so popular, they hard to keep in stock, but if you don’t mind a short wait, you’ll find the wait well worth it, and plenty of older titles are readily available in the yvestown shop! thanks yvonne!
Monday 06.01.09
A Yen For Yurio.
I was recently seeking out inspiration for the blog redesign (it is coming soon, I swear! Perhaps another couple of weeks and we’ll be launching!) so I headed over to the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Japantown. I discovered a great book about Yurio Seki, a Japanese graphic design who draws mellow, brightly colored designs, and whose portfolio of work includes everything from magazine art direction to bookbinding and package design. In 2001 Yurio launched her own brand in Japan, Salvia, which carries her textile, apparel and interior accessories, and book designs.
Update: Thanks to reader Yuko for finding this working website for Salvia. This books covers Yurio’s designs, career and portfolio of beautiful and really inspiring work, and is simply called Yurio Seki Japanese Graphic Designer, and you can find it here at Pie Books, but here’s a little peek.
Friday 01.09.09
Paris Brocante.
Apparently an antique shop in France is called a brocante. I recently discovered this little Japanese published Paumes book at Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco’s Japantown, entitled Paris Brocante, and knew instantly I must have it. I don’t know when my next trip to Paris might be, considering this economy, but it’s a nice visit to dream about and this little book takes you on a visual tour of lots of little Paris brocantes, markets and shops specializing in vintage and antique wares.
Paris Brocante is also written in Japanese, so I can’t read it, but I do like to look at all those many pretty pictures. Fortunately, the shop names and addresses are all listed, so should lucky you be making the trip to Paris soon, you will be able to locate the over 45 shops and markets listed in the book. I’ve listed the Paumes ISBN number below should you like to find and order Paris Brocante online.
Tuesday 12.02.08
How Do You Say Love in Japanese?
I was over in San Francisco’s Japantown over the weekend to see a movie, and while we were waiting, I naturally had to stop at my favorite Japantown spot, The Kinokuniya Bookstore. I love this place, and love the aesthetic of Japanese design books. They’re so simple and clean and full of great photos. I’m hugely fond of their ‘mooks‘ (magazine/books) and picked up one I can’t even tell you the name of (but I will list the ISBN number below and this is the link to see the mook online).
It’s a beautiful mook of a very soothing Japanese home with lots of natural woods, lots of fresh white and simple, well designed (and space saving) rooms. You can find mooks in most Japanese books stores like Kinokuniya, who has book shops in San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, and New York, as well as many overseas locations in Asia and Australia. You can also order these mooks online, and Kinokuniya has recently introduced a new English interface for order-checkout. Here’s a look a few snaps I took of this mook’s pretty and inspiring pages. Of course, I couldn’t just grab one, so more on mooks later this week.
*You can locate this mook online via the ISBN# 978−4-594-60571-1.
