Fashion, Art, Design, Lifestyle

Vesper · June 20, 2021

Mason Ale Works

Little Daughter And the Grizzlies

https://www.beergium.com/en/mason-ale-works/5213-mason-little-daughter-and-the-grizzlies-cans-47cl.html

Imperial Pastry Stout with Guatemalan Iverson Coffee, Vermont Maple Syrup, Cacao Nibs and Mexican Vanilla

13,5% ABV

Vesper · June 20, 2021

CAFÉ DE FLORE X HIGHSNOBIETY

https://www.highsnobiety.com/shop/category/cafe-de-flore-not-in-paris/

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Café De Flore Hoodie Green - Image 1

Café De Flore x Highsnobiety — Espresso Cup - Image 1

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Cafe De Flore Hoodie Eggshell - Image 1

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Café De Flore T-Shirt Green - Image 1

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Café De Flore Cap Natural - Image 1

Café De Flore x Highsnobiety —Ash Tray - Image 1

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Café De Flore Tote Bag Green - Image 1

Café De Flore x Highsnobiety — Egg Cup - Image 1

Highsnobiety — Not In Paris 3 x Café De Flore T-Shirt White - Image 1

Vesper · June 20, 2021

PS Paul Smith

MENS SHOE LONDON

https://www.magasin.se/mens-shoe-london-white-multi/p9qka0lqx5b.html?dwvar_p9qka0lqx5b_color=01

Vesper · June 21, 2021

BOGLIOLI

K.Jacket Suit Black

https://www.hugo-sthlm.com/product/k-jacket-suit-black-2

Boglioli is based in Brescia, Italy and is based on four generations of tailored expertise. Boglioli is run as a family business, leading to the maintenance of traditional methods and strict standards. Boglioli's light fabrics and unstructured costumes are much appreciated by those who like to explore the boundaries between formality and informality. Boglioli is for those men who value style but are always looking for garments that last over time.

Vesper · June 23, 2021

Craig Green x
Rockstud X Valentino Garavani

https://www.valentino.com/en-se/experience/craig-green-x-rockstud-x-valentino-garavani

A DISTINCTIVE DESIGN CELEBRATES A DECADE OF ROCKSTUD

The collaboration, as a medium and result: cultural exchanges with other creativities become hope, expectation and method. The cultural reading of the first landscape of Valentino Garavani Rockstud X starts with British Designer Craig Green. A first co-creation that brings to life an exclusive limited edition of men’s sneakers. A pragmatic result of the conceptual process of re-signification through which Pierpaolo Piccioli is defining Valentino today and its future.

In dialogue with Pierpaolo Piccioli, the British designer envisions the stud as both the aesthetic and functional factor of the new limited-edition Fall 2021 sneakers. With pronounced personality, the maxi motifs sculpt bold soles in green, grey, white and black hues. The comfort and stability are heightened by tubular reinforcements and an ultra light, elastic upper.

Vesper · June 24, 2021

RESTAURANTS

CHAMELEON

1 Marylebone Road, Marylebone, NW1 4AQ

https://thenudge.com/london-restaurants/chameleon/

We were going to start things off with a joke about chameleons.

But nothing stands out.

So instead, we’ll get right to it, because this is quite an unusual venue. You’ll find it at One Marylebone, a Georgian-era church, and one of the most impressive & grandiose buildings in a neighbourhood filled with impressive & grandiose buildings. It’s normally used as an events space, but the company that runs the place decided to add on a restaurant around it. As in outside, wrapping around its base. And sure, that means you don’t go inside the building itself, but it also gives you the benefit of actually being able to see it. Which is a very good thing.

Wandering in past the towering hedges that separate the venue from the street, and you’ll be met with two paths: to the left of you is The Garden, which is the casual ‘outdoor’ area. It’s pretty huge, and is thankfully covered with a removable awning and dotted with heaters. The tables are arranged between the trunks of huge trees and planting beds filled with all manner of greenery. It’s pretty beautiful. Plus, like we said, you get to stare at the building.

Head to the right, and you’ll find yourself at the ‘indoor’ area, the Greenhouses. There are nine of them in total, ranging from a cosy little beach-hut sized number (it’s supposed to be for four people, but it would be stellar for two) all the way up to a 30-capacity giant. Each of them is beautiful, intimate, and verdantly arranged with vines and flowers hanging from the ceilings – although the plan is to redress them with the seasons, hence the name of the place.

All the way around the back of the building are the kitchens, headed up by Israeli chef Elior Balbul. After stints as head chef in restaurants in Tel Aviv & New York, he set his sights on London in early 2020. The timing wasn’t amazing. Luckily, it’s given him a full year to prepare his team and his menu of Tel Aviv-style dishes, and damn, are they good.

You’ll start with a freshly baked miniature loaf of kubbana brioche, which you can smother with dips like zhug with green chilli & tomato, or coal-roasted aubergine with goat cheese & toasted walnuts. Then, there are starters like beef tartare with harissa, or yellowtail sashimi with passionfruit. And the big stuff includes a perfectly cooked plateful of Spanish octopus with black hummus and pickled red cabbage.

There’s a bar too of course – a lovely little nook set among the greenhouses – where they’re shaking cocktails designed to go with all that that food, mostly riffing on the classics. The Old Fashioned is infused & sweetened with dates, their Collins includes a citrussey note of bergamot, and the Negroni has a little fig in it.

And, lest we forget, there is an events company at the helm, and the restaurant is but a corner piece in the jigsaw of ambitious plans they’re assembling here. In time we’ll apparently see in & around the building (deep breath) immersive cinema nights, multi-sensory surrealist events, a gallery space, a “futuristic fitness experience”, live music, dance classes, a flower market, and a private members club underneath the church with it’s own restaurant to boot. And, yes, that all sounds like a lot…

…but we’re sure it’ll all blend right in.

NOTE: Both the Garden and the Greenhouses at Chameleon are open now (Weds-Sun). You can find out more, and make a booking at their website right HERE.

Chameleon | 1 Marylebone Road, NW1 4AQ

Vesper · June 24, 2021

Good artists copy, great artists steal
– Pablo Picasso

Vesper · June 24, 2021

SANAA's overhaul of La Samaritaine department store opens in Paris

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/06/22/la-samaritaine-department-store-sanaa-opens-paris/

The historic La Samaritaine department store has reopened in Paris with a new undulating glass facade following an extensive renovation led by Pritzker Prize-winning studio SANAA.

Commissioned by the owners, French luxury goods company LVMH, the overhaul transformed the store on the banks of the River Seine following its closure in 2005 over safety concerns.

SANAA's design involved the restoration of many original art nouveau and art deco details, alongside a remodel and refurbishment of the buildings to bring them to modern-day standards.

Above: La Samaritaine has reopened in Paris. Top image: it has a new glass facade by SANAA

"I am both delighted and proud to see La Samaritaine, a true institution to which Parisians have always been deeply attached, restored to its magnificent beauty and iconic stature," said LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.

"The long history of La Samaritaine has been shaped by bold vision, prosperity and a sense of solidarity. With this new chapter, the story will now continue long into the future."

The glass facade marks one of the entrances

La Samaritaine was established by Ernest and Marie-Louise Cognacq-Jaÿ in 1870. It comprises an ensemble of decorative buildings designed by architects Frantz Jourdain and Henri Sauvage.

Today, it is a mixed-used complex that contains 20,000 square metres of retail space over three floors, alongside a nursery, 96 social housing units and 15,000 square meters of office space.

The undulating curtain wall has been a controversial part of the project

Its revamp has been carried out by a team headed up by SANAA and including SRA Architectes, Édouard François and Jean-François Lagneau and FBAA.

It was originally expected to reopen in 2013, but construction has halted several times due to various court cases and campaigns opposing the new glass facade, which critics said resembled a shower curtain.

One of the building's original facade details have been restored

This glass facade now marks an entrance on the Rue de Rivoli and leads into the updated retail spaces, which extend across the lower levels of three of the site's four buildings.

The undulations of the facade are intended as a nod to the rhythm of the Haussmann-style windows of surrounding buildings while helping to soften the building it covers.

SANAA has also introduced glass-domed courtyards between two of the buildings to help filter light in through the depths of the complex.

One of the biggest parts of the project was the restoration of the existing art nouveau and art deco building closest to the Seine, which is registered as a historical monument.

A staircase-filled atrium has been preserved

This included restoring its cast-iron signs, ceramic decorations, decorative pillars and the original multicoloured enamel tile facades that had been hidden under a stone-coloured wash.

Inside the same building, its staircase-filled atrium that is crowned by a rectangular glass roof built in 1905 has been restored to its former glory.

The atrium's glass roof has been uncovered

The roof structure, which had been covered to reduce light levels in the building, has been recreated with electrochromic glass that becomes tinted in sunlight.

Various firms have contributed to the retail interiors, including Yabu Pushelberg, Ciguë and Malherbe Paris. François collaborated with interior architect Peter Marino on the interiors of the new hotel, which occupies the other Seine-side building.

A number of architects have collaborated on the retail interiors

The social housing and nursery, overseen by FBAA, now occupy a group of 17th-century apartment blocks that link up to the undulating glass facade on the Rue de Rivoli.

SANAA was founded by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995. Elsewhere, it is currently designing a cloud-like structure for Shenzhen Maritime Museum.

La Samaritaine featured in our roundup of the most interesting architecture projects slated for completion in 2021. Other recently completed projects that featured on the list included Wormhole Library by MAD, Little Island by Heatherwick Studio and the Bourse de Commerce revamp by Tadao Ando.

Project credits:

Clients: Grands Magasins de La Samaritaine, LVMH Hotel Management and DFS
Architect: SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa)
Operations architect: SRA Architectes
Hotel decoration and design: Peter Marino and OAL, Maison Edouard François
Retail interiors: Yabu Pushelberg, Agence de création Malherbe Paris, Studio Ciguë
Historical monument architect: Jean-François Lagneau and Lagneau Architectes
Social housing and creche: François Brugel Architectes Associés
Executive project management: Egis
General contractor: Vinci Construction France
Specialist contractors: Frener & Reifer, SMB-CCS, Viry, Socra, AOF and Atelier Bouvier

Edited June 24, 2021 by Vesper

Vesper · June 24, 2021

Nike

Women's Zoom Air Fire Sail Hyper Crimson

https://shelta.eu/brand/nike-sportswear/nike-womens-zoom-air-fire-sail-hyper-crimson-cw3876-100

Vesper · June 24, 2021

SUPERLEGGERA LEATHER FOOTBALL BOOTS

https://www.pantofoladoro.com/collections/football-boots/products/superleggera-leather-football-boot

Vesper · June 24, 2021

Magnus Walker, Nike SB’s Unlikely Collaborator, Explains His Sneakers

Ishod Wair x Magnus Walker x Nike SB Dunk High Pro

https://www.complex.com/sneakers/magnus-walker-nike-sb-dunk-ishod-wair-release-date

The pair of sneakers clanging around in the washing machine is not going to come out any cleaner. The shoes, which have already been doused with coffee and motor oil, are not in there to be rinsed, to be made new again. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are pressed together in a laundry bag, locked in a centrifugal embrace with spare nuts and bolts that beat into their leather and wear them down while the cycle winds. The abrasion is the point.

The shoes belong to Nike SB’s latest collaborator, Magnus Walker, who is a difficult character to explain to the uninitiated. Based only on looks he could be a wizard, a shaman clutching a staff, were it not for his flannel and head-swallowing beanie. His name is more fitting for a hero in a roleplaying game than a man releasing his own pair of limited edition Nike SBs. And yet, despite appearance and moniker, his history with the brand runs deep.

“As a kid, I was a runner, cross-country middle-distance runner,” Walker says, “and this is going back to the late ‘70s. And I used to run in some Nike Waffles, and at the time, one of my childhood heroes was Sebastian Coe, who was a Nike athlete.”

Coe, a tall figure in the world of track and field, gave him a congratulatory certificate when the 11-year-old Walker finished third place in a local race. He says he still has the memento over 40 years later. The racing, if not the running, has endured as a passion for Walker.

He was obsessed from a young age with Porsche. He is most famous for this, best known as the long-bearded collector and customizer of vintage sports cars. He is the subject of Urban Outlaw, a short documentary from 2012 exploring his love for motorsport. He was at one point a peddler of vintage clothes and a fashion designer in Los Angeles—where he’s been based since leaving his native Britain in 1986—distressing his garments much in the same way he’s now doing his soon-to-release Nike shoe.

The shoe, a Nike SB version of the classic Dunk High basketball sneaker, is not his alone. It was made in partnership with Ishod Wair, a Nike-sponsored skater who connected with Walker over a shared interest in rare automobiles. It is fashioned after the Porsche 277, the custom car Walker is most closely associated with. It is the latest in a line of recent Nike SBs inspired by famous cars, this one using the red, white, and blue color palette of its muse. There is a Union Jack detail on the heel and tartan lining, both references to Walker’s roots in the United Kingdom. The white leather of the upper is made to wear down, peel away, and reveal a gold base like that of his Porsche 277.

Walker is keen to accelerate that process, which explains why he is letting one of his personal pairs tumble through an aggressive spin cycle. He will not be offended if other wearers of the shoe don’t want to do the same.

“The shoe is versatile and you can take it either way,” he says. “You can sort of baby it and it’ll still look relatively new, or you can wear the crap out of them all the time and get them really bedded in.”

The beat-up look has been polarizing so far on Walker’s social media, where some commenters position it more as shoe abuse than legitimate wear. His Instagram has recently become focused on the sneakers. There, he’s shared detailed looks and updates on their arrival. The latest is that the Magnus Walker x Ishod Wair x Nike SB Dunk High (retail price $120) will release on June 25 via the SNKRS app and skateshops in North America.

In an interview with Complex, Walker offered more details on the project, discussing how he first connected with Nike, his friendship with the late Sandy Bodecker, and the many requests for the shoes he’s received since their unveiling. The conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, appears below.

How far back do your sneaker interests go?
Well, I’d like to start the story with how I sort of got involved with Nike, which went back to 2012. So in 2012, we’d released the trailer for what became the Urban Outlaw short documentary film, which is a 32-minute film on the story of, sort of, my journey.

So we put a three-minute trailer out that came out in June and we actually received a—or I received—an email from Sandy Bodecker, who at the time was the president of Nike SB and the whole action sports division.

And he was interested in the film. I’m like, “It’s kind of strange because the film has nothing to do with sneakers.” But he was a Porsche guy, understood my passion, and long story short, asked if we could host a design summit seminar meeting for 30 of Nike’s designers and merchandisers, and would I give them my tour of the space? And would we be able to screen them a rough cut of the film before it even came out?

So all of those three things ended up happening. We hosted this event for Nike over two days, they rented the Soho House. We screened a rough cut of the film Urban Outlaw, and at the time it was kind of like, “Wow, I guess we’re onto something here,” because we didn’t know how the film was going to connect with people. Certainly we’d never thought about how it was going to connect with people outside of the car enthusiast, automotive world.

And when Nike approached us, straight away it was like, wow, there’s something going on here. Even though there wasn’t really a connection between me and Nike, it was sort of like, “Do something you’re passionate about and do it to the best of your ability” was the connection. And then we sort of never really heard from Nike up until probably 2018 when I got approached by [Steve Pelletier], who was in charge of SB at the time, who said, “Hey, how do you feel about a sneaker collab?”

And he said, “With one of our pro skaters, Ishod, who’s a fan of yours and he’s a Porsche collector.” I said, “Sounds great, but you know I don’t skate.” And he goes, “It doesn’t really matter. It’s more a combination of your outlaw style and our pro skater, and freedom from movement and that type of thing.”

So that was the beginning of how the sneaker was really born, was the connection with Pelle back in 2018. But I don’t think that might not have happened if we’d never met Sandy six years prior.

And Sandy was something of a Porsche guy as well, right?
Yeah, Sandy owned a 996 GT2. So he’d seen the trailer and was sort of inspired by this spark of creativity of which I was demonstrating I guess, in that trailer. Sort of thinking outside of the box, doing things your own way, not necessarily following the norm, was I think where he found a common bond of inspiration to the point where he set up this whole design summit and had me part of it, giving a little tour and I suppose a baby TED Talk at the time, to 25 or 30 of these Nike employees. So that was the original connection.

How aware were you of the stuff Nike was doing at the time? Was this whole limited sneaker space on your radar at all?
I was aware of it, my background as a kid, I was a runner, cross-country middle-distance runner, and this is going back to the late ‘70s. And I used to run in some Nike Waffles, and at the time, one of my childhood heroes was Sebastian Coe, who was a Nike athlete. And he ran for the same club that I ran for, the Hallamshire Harriers, probably five years ahead of my time.

But I met Seb Coe when I was 11 years old, and to this day, I still have this certificate of, I finished third in this cross-country race. And all it said was, “Well done, Sebastian Coe,” but I never forgot about the motivation from—at the time, Sebastian Coe, it was ‘78, so it was before he became Olympic world-record holder and Olympic champion in the ‘84 LA games.

But just the fact that I was 11 years old and he wrote, “Well done” was a pretty motivational thing for me. To this day, I still have that certificate. And when I went to visit Nike for the first time in 2018, they had a whole Sebastian Coe exhibit there.

I think they have a building named after him.
Yeah, so to answer your question, I wasn’t necessarily one of these Nike guys, just everything has to be Nike, but I’d worn Nike as a kid. One of my childhood heroes was Sebastian Coe, who ran in Nikes. And to answer your question about Nike and limited releases, I’ve watched every episode of Entourage, so I couldn’t help but not relate back to the Fukijamas where Turtle goes to Undefeated and goes all over LA trying to get a pair of Nike sneakers.

So I was aware of the subculture of the whole Nike sneaker world. It’s a little bit like Star Trek fans, everyone’s super passionate about it. So that was kind of my awareness level of all things Nike up to that point.

Now you’re kind of in that same position of, you made a shoe, and I assume there are people hounding you about how to get the shoe or where to find the shoe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The process of designing the shoe was super creative and we’ll get into that, but what’s happened in the past month, Nike had a moratorium on releasing that was supposed to be June 12, for the whole press release. But obviously things sort of got sneaked out a few weeks earlier with some unofficial photos, but there was still no release day. And then probably, I don’t know, last week or the week before, it sort of became everywhere with everyone writing about it, from Hypebeast to Sneaker Pimps this, to SB Features that.

And my Instagram sort of DM over the past week, there’s been hundreds of people reposting all those same images, whether it’s here or in Japan. It seems to have gone sort of global to the point where everyone’s hitting me up for, “How can I get them? Where can I get them?” Everyone’s bitching about how you can’t get them on the SNKRS app, because it’s a raffle and no one’s ever lucky enough to get that.

So there’s definitely a lot of that happening right now. And I would say for me, it’s going to be exposure into a world of people that maybe don’t know who I am. I think there’s definitely a car culture, crossover skate culture thing, because it happened with Sandy in 2012, and it happened with Pelle in 2018.

Steve Pelletier is the whole link on this thing to me, because he is the embodiment of, I think what you just mentioned, between car culture, sneaker culture, and skate culture. You guys must be related, too, looking at the photos.
With the beards, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’d actually never met him prior to when he reached out, then we flew up and we actually went to Sandy’s, not funeral, but I suppose the remembrance gathering after. And so we were there for that, we met a lot of Nike employees. We actually toured the campus, went to the Kitchen, and that was just at the early days of discussing the shoe. It was one of those, “Yeah, it sounds great. Why don’t you come up? We’ll fly you up, tour you around.” Met a bunch of Steve’s buddies, they’re all car guys. I hosted an Outlaw gathering that November. And then we went up another time and hosted an Outlaw gathering in 2019, on the Fourth of July, at the OMSI Center in Portland.

And then sort of hung out with those guys, went on quite a few drives. And the sneaker was sort of, not a stop-start, but you go up there then you don’t hear anything for six months. “Is the sneaker still on?” “Yes, it’s still on.” “When are we going to start working on it?” And that process took probably 18 months. And the very first drawing that I did was actually early days of COVID. I did two illustrations and I dated them, and one is March 30, was the first illustration. And Pelle basically said, “Do whatever you want to do.”

And my way of designing things, my background is fashion and then automotive re-interpretation of cars, but I’m visual, I see things clear in my mind, but I’m not the guy that that can sit at a computer with Photoshop or Illustrator and do a CAD illustration. So generally what I do is I’ll do like a photocopy of a photo. And then I literally get out the Sharpies and stuff and start doing colorings right on the black and white rendering.

And that was how I did the Nike, truth be told. They sent me some drawings, and then I just colored them in. And then basically, there were a couple of changes, but not too many. The shoe didn’t really change drastically. It became a little bit more of a white shoe as opposed to a red, white, and blue shoe, with the Union Jack on the back and then the whole purpose of the shoe, distressing like the car distresses.

The shoe is made to age, made to have patina, and made to distress. That’s part of the whole process of how the actual shoe is put together, because the ground color of the shoe is actually gold, which is the same color of the car. So the goal was to have the white paint on top fade and crack back to reveal the gold underneath.

The distressing kind of ties back to your own practice in fashion, too. You talked about it in Urban Outlaw, how important it was to take sandpaper to leather, to give these things a real human quality.
So the shoe was really no different. We made a video with Nike that comes out next week, where I talk about how I like things to be old and beat up and have character, and the shoe essentially is the same thing. So that was one of the things we wanted to incorporate into it straight away, was that the shoe would age and distress pretty much right out of the box, depending on how much you wanted to wear it in and break it down, type of thing.

So that was the ultimate goal of the shoe. And then we received the very first sample last August, which for me was great. And we only changed maybe one or two little things on the first sample. And then the second one was just a case of trying to match the blue right, which took to the third sample, and that was it. It all came together really seamlessly.

And the goal was to incorporate my fashion background and a little bit of the punk rock DIY attitude of what I’d put into my Porsche builds, by incorporating the tartan interior, which are things that I’ve added my own touches to my automotive builds on the seats and interior, like plaid interiors and plaid doors strap pulls and stuff like that. So that was how the shoe got it’s tartan interior. One side’s red, one side’s blue.

So that’s kind of the backstory as to how the shoe came together and the process of how pivotal it was having Pelle involved in the whole process. And I think in the end, we were kind of lucky that the shoe went through, because once he was let go from his position at Nike, we weren’t really sure as to where does that leave us in the shakeup.

So we were fortunate that they moved forward with the shoe, and it seems from the conversation I’ve had with Nike and various other people, that the shoe up to this point has been super well-received.

Where is Ishod in all these conversations in terms of the design that you were working on, sketching out and sending back and forth to Nike?
Well, I first met Ishod literally right before COVID hit, like early March, before I’d even done the sketch. So he came down, brought his Porsche, we hung out, and that was sort of the pivotal moment to, “Yes, we clicked, we’re going to move forward with it.” So that was kind of like a meet and greet to see how were we going to get along.

Did you go skateboarding?
No, no, no. I usually don’t skateboard. He came down in the Porsche, and then at a later date we went driving. His involvement in the shoe is, I think he sort of was favoring the shoe to be more of an all-white shoe with colored accents as opposed to my original renderings. The shoe itself was different red, white, and blue leathers, and then the tartan and then the plaid and the canvas, because I think this is one of the few SB Dunks that Nike’s done with combined canvas, leather, and tartan together.

And then with the deconstruction seamless sort of raw vibe to it, which some people either love, or some people hate. So that was Ishod’s involvement in the process right there.

The reference point is the Porsche 277. For people who don’t understand the nuances of why that car is important or important to you specifically, can you explain that?
The sum of the parts of 277, it’s nothing special. It’s a 1971, 911T, 50 years old. I bought it in 1999 at the Pomona Swap Meet for 7,500 bucks. So I’ve owned it 22 out of its 50 years, but the relatability of a car is all my sort of aggressive street driving, which I took to the track and then became a sort of, I guess, an amateur racer time-trialer, the car was developed along the way with the sole role of just increased performance, in the sense of, it wasn’t something that I just went out and threw a bunch of money at, like a lot of people do and said, “OK, I’m building a race car.” This was a track car that I would drive to the track, race, and then drive back. And as my skill level advanced, I would make performance upgrades to the car with suspension, wheel package, brake and tire, not so much, “Let me put the biggest, fastest engine I can put in it.”

So I describe 277 as, it’s like my favorite pair of old shoes, old jeans, it’s the car I’m the most comfortable in. And by modern standards, it’s not the quickest, most powerful car, but the relatability is the fact that I’ve owned it for 22 years and it developed over time with the purpose of doing track days, i.e., you can still drive it on the street, you can drive it on the track.

And I think that’s what people relate to with the car and why it’s become sort of well-known, is everyone has that story where they built their dream car or they built a car with their granddad, or it’s the father’s car, or there’s some memorable connection to it—has nothing to do with paint to sample, hanging out at cars and coffee, going to your local Porsche dealer and just ticking a few boxes.

So I think that’s the relatability to the car. The car’s become, out of all my collection, it’s the one I’m most associated with. It’s the one I’ve owned the longest, it’s been in the Need For Speed video game back in 2015. Hot Wheels has made six different versions of it. So the car has become a signature car that’s become identifiable, recognizable and relatable too, throughout the Porsche community.

You mentioned being comfortable in the car and how that was an important thing to you. When you’re driving or racing, are you thinking about the shoes you’re wearing? Does that play into it?
Yeah, it does, because you have to be comfortable. You drive the car essentially with your two feet, your two hands, your brain, and your two eyes. So all those elements, you don’t really want to be thinking, “Oh, these shoes are uncomfortable” or “I’m not able to heel and toe.” It has to be something that you don’t think about in the sense of, you don’t want to be distracted by uncomfortable shoes or shoes that are not flexible enough to be able to operate the brake pedals.

Is that an important part of the process, to kind of wear the shoe while you were actually driving around?
Yeah. For me, when I got the shoes out of the box to begin with, they were too new looking. So I knew straight away that I was going to accelerate the distress process, which will happen naturally over time. But for me, I was able to sort of distress it a little bit quicker by getting the sandpaper and the grinder, and literally kicking it around a bit and then distressing it up that way.

And today, I was working on a pair where, let me throw them in the washing machine with a bunch of nuts and bolts in the laundry bag and see what that does. And believe it or not, it actually softened them up. It didn’t crack up the level like I thought it was going to, but it certainly freed up the tongue and the foam, and actually suppled up the leather.

But what I did with mine is I just bent them backwards and forwards for like an hour, to really crack them up and supple them up. They’re pretty comfortable to begin with, but that made them more comfortable because it just kind of broke them in a little bit better.

It’s interesting because what you’re describing is, in some ways, antithetical to how some people treat their sneakers, where they would cringe at the idea of somebody folding up their shoe or beating it up so much.
Well, yeah. Mine, I hand-distress them, and then I literally got out coffee and coffee stained them and then got some used motor oil, which actually came out of 277, just to sort of make them look like they were 20 years old. And that’s a love-hate thing. If you’ve read any of the comments on my Instagram posts, from when I released it last Thursday, there’s over 700 comments.

And obviously most people really—they’re polarizing. They either hate them that they’re beat up, or they love them that they’re beat up. But the point is, I did a post today, “Hey, if you like your sneakers clean without no patina and shiny out of the box, this is how they come out of the box.” And you can read those comments as well, because like you say, some people are not even going to wear them. They’re going to collect them and leave them in the box. Other people might just wear them on special occasions, as their Sunday best, and they don’t even want a speck of dirt on them.

But it’s sort of each to their own. The shoe is versatile and you can take it either way. You can sort of baby it and it’ll still look relatively new, or you can wear the crap out of them all the time and get them really bedded in.

You wrote a letter to the Porsche factory when you were 10, I presume your name is known there now. Have you shown them the shoe or is that kind of a touchy subject since it’s one of those tribute things where it’s not technically a collaboration?
For me, it’s not a tricky thing. Ironically, Porsche is supplied by Puma, before they were supplied by Adidas. And then I think a year or two ago, they became a Puma sort of affiliated brand.

I’ve shown it to some people at Porsche, everyone seems to like it, thumbs-up. This for me, seems to have become a moment where everything up to this point that I’ve done, the film, the book, the TED Talk, collaborations with Porsche on certain things, Hot Wheels where I’ve done over 30 cars. Hot Wheels is a pretty big global brand, but Nike supersedes that I think, in the sense of a lot of people seem to be really supportive of, “Wow, you’ve really made it when you’ve got a sneaker collab with Nike. How did you get that? How did that happen?”

So in a weird way, it sort of felt natural. There was a seed that was sown back in 2012 with Sandy. And then I never really followed up, never really had any feedback from Nike in that six years until we hooked it with Pelle. So it was like a gradual thing, but it wasn’t like I’d planned, “OK, these are 10 collaborations that I want to do, Nike being No. 1 because it’s such a global brand.” It just really happened organically.

And everyone’s been, up to this point, super positive about, “Wow. So glad for you.” “These are two of my favorite things, Porsches and skating,” or “cars and Nike,” or “cars and sneakers.” I’m seeing a lot of that positivity out there around the collaboration. And then of course, the other thing I’m seeing is all the people coming out of the woodwork who you don’t really know, saying, “Hey, can you get me this? Can you get me that? Where can I get them?”

So there’s certainly been a fair amount of buzz before we’ve even put out the video, and before Nike itself has even really posted anything.

In terms of people hitting you up, did you get an allocation to seed out? Are you able to hold down Porsche people like Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld?
Yeah, yeah. There’s a couple of interesting people who are going to be getting some shoes. One of the first guys, ironically, that sent me a DM was Michael Rapaport, so I’m sending him a pair, I’m sending a pair to Michael Strahan. And the challenge will be just making sure I’ve got a size run of what people wear, right?

I’m like, an 11, 11 ½, which to me, 10 and 11 seems like the average size, but Strahan is a 14, thankfully I’ve got some 14s. Someone was hitting me up yesterday that was a size eight. So my goal is friends and family are already going to get X amount of pairs, and then buddies will get X amount of pairs, and then I’m going to basically, I think one of my plans is just to hold them. I’m thinking of doing an auction where I give all the proceeds to LA Mission Homeless Charity. So I’m going to see how that thing’s going to pan out.

And then just basically give them to people that are interested in them or actually really, really want a pair and will wear a pair. And I think the demand for me far exceeds how many pairs I’ve got.

How many personal pairs do you think you’ll keep for yourself?
Well, I’ve already gone through… I’ve beat up two pairs already. Normally I would wear an 11, but I ended up in an 11 ½, which became super comfy. So I’m one of those guys that literally—it’s a good question because one time I found a Diesel sneaker, which was a leather Diesel zipper, sort of punk rock shoe, which looks a bit like a Converse. And I went through three pairs of them, I liked them that much.

I did a similar thing with the lightweight Dr. Martens, where I had a burgundy pair, a black pair, and another burgundy pair, so I went through three pairs of those. When I first met Pelle, he gave me an all-black SB Dunk, which I’ve worn that out, and I wish I could get another pair of that.

So when I find something, it’s like my favorite pair of old jeans. I’ll end up with two or three pairs of the same thing, and the 277 Nike is going to be the same thing, because I don’t really wear sneakers that are colorful, like an all-black Dunk was sort of as skatey as I got. So for me, it was sort of like a bit of a mental thing to actually wear, even though it was my own shoe, to wear something that was not black, because I’m always wearing black footwear. Which was another reason why I sort of really wanted to beat it up pretty quick, where it just didn’t look too much of a white sneaker. But to answer your question, I’m probably going to have at least two, three pairs, the same size that I rotate.

And then I’m already thinking about a follow-up shoe, because all of a sudden I’m like, “Wow, this is great.” I’ve got other art-related cars that would translate pretty well into a sneaker. So I’m already sowing the seed of, “Hey, let’s collaborate on something else.”

Vesper · June 24, 2021

Leckie Studio designs penthouse inside BIG's Vancouver skyscraper

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/06/19/leckie-studio-designs-penthouse-inside-bigs-vancouver-skyscraper/

A rainforest-style atrium with a cedar tree lies within a two-storey unit designed by Leckie Studio, located inside the new Vancouver House tower.

The penthouse is found within the sculptural, 59-storey tower that rises up from a triangular site in downtown Vancouver, near Granville Bridge. The building was designed by architecture firm BIG and was completed last year.

A rainforest-style atrium sits at the heart of the penthouse

The two-level apartment is on the northwest side of the skyscraper, where it is afforded views of English Bay and the North Shore Mountains.

The unit's owner desired an inviting atmosphere and spaces to accommodate natural artefacts and artwork from her travels. She turned to local firm Leckie Studio to oversee the design.

The apartment has views far-reaching views of Vancouver and beyond

The team set out to create a layered environment that looked both inward and outward, and was infused with organic elements.

"Through an iterative design process, the studio and client arrived at a highly bespoke, biophilic design that is attuned to the passage of time," the team said.

A kitchen on the lower level features a giant island

The unit is divided into public and private areas. On the bottom level, one finds a living room, dining area, kitchen and an office. A half-turn stair leads to the upper level, which holds two bedrooms.

There also is a 167-square-metre roof deck that is accessed via a private elevator.

"The experience of the penthouse is quite varied, depending on the time of day and which space is being occupied," said architect Michael Leckie.

The unit's focal point is a tall, glazed atrium filled with lush vegetation.

The atrium runs alongside the stairwell leading to bedrooms

Acting as the "spine" for the penthouse, the atrium runs alongside the stairwell and extends from the unit's bottom level all the way to its roof terrace. At the top, it is open to the sky.

"Conceived as a microcosm of the Pacific Northwest rainforest, its centrepiece is a full-size, red cedar tree that lends a contemplative and grounding element to the onlooking interiors," the team said.

Finishes and fixtures are kept minimal in the bathroom

"The ecosystem surrounding this tree will be sustained long term by a 'nurse' log, which replenishes the space with nutrients from decay."

Beyond the atrium, earthy elements are found throughout the dwelling and form a rich backdrop for the client's belongings.

Marble lines the walls of the powder room

American black walnut makes up the woodwork in the living room, kitchen and bathing areas. The high-quality wood was also used for the stair treads.

Travertine was used for flooring and custom-milled bathroom sinks. Smokey grey marble lines the walls in a powder room.

Blackened-steel accents can be found throughout the apartment

Blackened-steel accents run throughout the unit and act as a counterpoint to the natural materials.

The penthouse's sparse furnishings include an oak-topped dining table with a cast-bronze base, and a low-lying, multidirectional sofa that support various postures and orientations.

A lighting installation from Bocci illuminates the stairwell

Floating in the stairwell is a lighting installation from Bocci that evokes a cluster of sparkling fireflies. The piece is made of copper and 122 glass luminaires.

The rooftop terrace is meant to serve as an extension of the living space. It is fitted with a stainless-steel jacuzzi, an outdoor shower, a kitchenette and plenty of seating.

The lighting installation is made from copper and glass

Founded by Michael Leckie in 2015, Leckie Studio has designed a number of residential projects, including mirrored cabins that blend into the forest. The firm also designed Slack's Vancouver office, located within a repurposed industrial building.

Vesper · June 25, 2021

10 Beers You Need To Be Drinking in Summer 2021

Sip these in sunshine.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/best-summer-beers

If there were ever a summer in living memory to take the time out to enjoy a beer, it is undeniably this one. And while the past year hasn’t exactly made things easy on the brewing industry, it’s also ushered in an unprecedented era of widely available, diverse styles that suit all tastes. Since summer is arguably the most beer friendly season of the year, we’ve come up with some of our very favorites that we humbly recommend checking out among your own research.

As per usual with our beer roundups, we’ve done our best to spread the love out geographically so that you’ll be more likely to actually be able to find these. But in what can be considered a molecule-wide silver lining to the events of the last year, many breweries have begun shipping their beers via mail throughout their states and across the country. There’s a good chance you could get these cans brought right to your front door as long as they’re still in stock. After the year we’ve had, the breweries could use your support.

Talea Berry Cherry Gose

Gose, 4.2%
Brooklyn, New York
Gose may not be the biggest style on the market yet, but it’s certainly one of the fastest growing in terms of popularity. This is arguably because their unique flavor profile is incredibly refreshing, especially when they’re made with fruit. Talea has proven itself to be a brewery that’s especially at home with the style, using sweet cherry, raspberry, and Pink Himalayan sea salt in this release. And experts agree: “I am a sucker for gose like this in the summer,” says Advanced Cicereone and beer educator Angela Steil. “That little hint of salt is just the perfect thing, especially after sweating all day.”

Monstruo De Agua Nochtli

Golden ale, 5%
Cuauhtemoc, Mexico
One of the worst mistakes that someone can make with picking a beer for summer is assuming that “refreshing” is interchangeable with “boring.” Instead of going watery, go for something with bright, fruity notes that don’t overpower the malt backbone and are finished with lemony, minty aromatics. Exactly like this golden ale made by Montruo De Agua. This beer is made with prickly pear from the nopal cactus, giving it an almost spa water-like cucumber flavor that makes it an ideal thirst quencher on a hot day.

Allagash River Trip

Belgian-style session ale, 4.8%
Portland, Maine
Summer might feel like a one-size-fits-all beer season, but in reality, it’s a little more complicated than that. What if you’re thirsty by the pool? What if you need a table beer for an outdoor dinner party? What if you’ve got a killer view at the end of a hike and you just want to relax? Like most beers they make, Allagash’s River Trip manages to pull off being complex enough to stand out in a crowd while not sucking all the air out of the room. Bright, peppery Belgian yeast notes and strong effervescence over a medium-light body make it a fantastic between-meals beer, but also perfectly prime it to go side-by-side with summer grilling favorites.

Other Half / Rothaus Zipfeltännle Pilsner

German-style pilsner, 5%
Washington DC
We’ll admit it: Picking this selection to be on a summer beer list is kind of cheating. On one side, you have one of the hottest breweries in America fine-tuning a style they don’t get enough credit for making well. On the other, you have a storied German pilsner producer whose beer is gleefully passed around by brewers at their after-hours parties. But this supergroup of a collaboration is simply too good to pass up for a summer beverage choice, blending grains from Rothaus’ world-famous malt supplier and their favorite local noble hop with Other Half’s added twist of Wai-iti hops from New Zealand. The result is a stunningly good upgrade on a beer most never believed could get any better.

Green Bench Bench Life Premium Lager

American light lager, 4.6%
St. Petersburg, Florida
The marketing tropes of condensation-dappled cans of beer on a hot day have stuck around for decades for a reason: When the temperature spikes, the vast majority of people just want to drink something that will make them feel good. So when it comes down to developing a perfect beer to beat the heat, it’s not surprising that Florida’s world-class Green Bench Brewing would come out with one of the most excellent options. Bench Life offers the easy-drinking, crisp flavor profile you crave with a low ABV and a dry finish that still offers a lot more than your typical light lager. It’s also the kind of beer that can act as a perfect gateway brew for anyone who’s still shy about dipping their toe into the craft beer waters.

Jack’s Abby Zwickel

Zwickel, 5.1%
Framingham, Massachusetts
It may surprise some people, but not all lagers have to be straw-colored. Historic styles like Zwickel are a great way to start wading into beers that manage to straddle the line between complex and outrageously drinkable. In the hands of a lager-only brewery like Jack’s Abby, it’s especially worth checking out. “It’s so, so refreshing, but it completely takes you out of the New England IPA realm, which is a nice place to be if you’ve been surrounded by those all summer,” Steil says. On the geeky side, she adds that this is a great way to learn about “what water adds to the equation” because this style lets its subtle components of subdued yeast and mellow hops shine through. “It’s so clean and crisp that it allows me to focus on the main ingredients.”

Hopewell Brewing Company First Pils

Pilsner, 5.1%
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the type of beer town that’s so good, it knows it doesn’t even have to leave its borders to prove that it’s one of the best destinations in the country for brewing. But when Hopewell first began rolling its kegs and cans out to new markets, people outside the Windy City began to fall hard for the delicious IPAs, sours, and saisons that had made it a hometown hit. The First Pils, in particular, is the perfect example of a summer party beer. Putting this into the cooler will keep the beer geeks happy with its crisp, hoppy finish, while those who are simply looking to enjoy a can of something cold will love the bready malt profile that makes it much more remarkable than your typical light lager. It’s a rare brew that’s both perfect for starting the night or winding things down after sunset.

Weathered Souls SpottieOttieHopalicious

New England-style IPA, 7%
San Antonio, Texas
Of course, you don’t have to travel all the way to Texas to drink New England IPAs. But in the case of Weathered Souls’ SpottieOttieHopalicious, you should probably consider it. This hazy refresher of a beer is packed full of tropical fruit flavors that hit just right on a summer afternoon, with notes of pineapple, passion fruit, and lime zest floating atop a silky mouthfeel. It’s a mellow crusher for a style that you know all of your beer geek friends will be reaching for all summer long.

Resident Culture Island Time

Mexican-style lager, 4.5%
Charlotte, North Carolina
Is it really summer if you don’t drink at least one beer with a lime in it? If you’re angling for that overtly citrusy experience, it’s worth your while to pick up one that’s made thoughtfully and can even save you the hassle of having to buy any fruit. Resident Culture’s collaboration with Casita Brewing offers a fantastic Mexican-style lager experience sold with the lime already added right to the brew, offering that crisp, bright refreshment you’re probably looking for as you hang out on the beach or at the pool. Needless to say, cans like this also pair exceptionally well with summery foods with bright ingredients like salads, grilled fish, or tacos.

Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l'Ancienne

Geuze lambic, 7%
Brussels, Belgium
Have you ever been drinking beer and thought to yourself, “I wish this were more like champagne?” It happens! You can have the best of both worlds with offerings like Gueuzerie Tilquin’s lambics in the brewing world. Similar to winemaking, this style features a blend of three spontaneously fermented vintages that have been resting in barrels that are then bottle conditioned to create incredibly vivacious carbonation. To call this process an art form is an understatement, and to try even a sip of it is to understand why. The resulting beer is truly a global “best of the best,” with bright fruit flavors, a medium body, and a dry finish that make it perfect for celebrations with friends—or just because you want to treat yourself after a pretty challenging year.

Vesper · June 26, 2021

Nike Dunk Low Scrap Seaglass

Color: Sail/White-Seaglass-Seafoam
Style Code: DB0500-100

https://sneakernews.com/2021/06/24/nike-dunk-low-scrap-sail-white-seaglass-seafoam-db0500-100/

The term “scrap” is often not far behind Nike’s sustainable releases. And with the aptly named Dunk Low Scrap, the brand is taking the “Move to Zero” concept to new heights, patchworking together not just select parts but the entire silhouette itself. And while we’ve seen one iteration already, it can barely rival this newly unveiled “Sea Glass” colourway.

Through palette, the pair gives off a lighter feel. The leather overlays, which arrive featuring additional layers at certain points, are doused in the titular shade, while complementing hits of white dress adjacent atop the Swoosh, lace unit, and midsole. Elsewhere, gum bottoms lay out underfoot and “Seafoam” adds a minty finish to the toe, collar, and mesh-constructed mid-panel. For a closer look, see the detailed, retailer image below. A release date, while currently TBD, should be announced shortly.