Dog Fancy: Four Pups That Have Way Better Style Than We Do
One of the Of a Kind perks we didn’t necessarily anticipate: We encounter a lot of cool-ass dogs when we visit designers’ studios. So we’re going to introduce you to four right now, and we trust that you won’t get upset with us if we do a round two someday soon. Because, PUPPIES!!! —jiayi
1) Mandy Coon’s Petunia, whose street name is Stinky—here decked out in pajamas and a Mandy Coon houndstooth jacket and cashmere sweater. Stinky has credits in a music video—in which she wore, oh, a silver lamé cape—and in Mandy’s S/S ‘11 lookbook shoot. MAJOR.
2) Erica Weiner’s dog Bunny, a five-pound Yorkie who’s a pro at steering attention his way (see: nudging iPhones out of hands, closing books). His first gift would have been any girl/tranny’s dream: a red sequin ballerina dress.
3) Lest you think we were only going to feature TOMTOM designer Elena Coleman Howell’s cat, meet her dog, Duck, clad in her two favorite pieces: A Snoop-channeling navy hoodie and a post-groomers handkerchief. To both we say: bad-ass.
4) It’s been nine months since we last wrote about Ellen Van Dusen’s pup Snips—named after a pair of thread-cutting scissors—and, as the designer puts it, Snips has become a “full grown dog-woman.” Here, she models a bow tie Ellen made for her from fabric that will make its appearance on a Dusen Dusen backpack any day now.
comments, reblogs & likes
Elena’s Ring: Now Showing in 3-D
All she ever really needed to know to make this ring, she learned in architecture school.
Before doing a deep dive into the world of jewelry, Elena Coleman Howell was an architect. “The Southern California Institute of Architecture, where I received my master’s degree, is known for being avant-garde and innovative—the curriculum emphasizes digital design and digital fabrication,” the she explains. “When I make jewelry, I utilize the same processes I learned in school, the only differences being the scale of the designs, the materials I use, and the hand-finishing.” Here, a pictorial guide to the creation process.
Like what you see? Scoop up one of the 25 rings here.
“First, I design the ring in a 3-D software program called Rhino. This is the initial ring form.”
“Here I’m experimenting with different shapes.”
“The final ring form, as viewed from four angles.”
“Then, the digital design is ‘printed’ out of wax using a 3-D printer.”
“This is a finished wax model—the one for this ring ended up being too delicate for human fingers.”
“The ring is cast in brass using the lost wax casting technique. Then it’s hand-polished to a satin finish and plated with 18-karat gold.”
comments, reblogs & likes
Elena’s Easiest Pasta Sauce Ever
When she’s done making jewelry, she makes dinner.
Elena, demonstrating the joys of starch and butter.
To create the jewelry for her line TOMTOM, Elena Coleman Howell employs high-tech design programs, 3-D printers, and water jets that cut through metal. But at the end of the day, Elena takes comfort in Italian food—the making of which is more of an art than a science. “I am an unabashed Italophile. I studied Italian language for two years in college—so I know enough to get by after two glasses of wine,” she says. “I love pasta. When the South Beach Diet came out, I told everyone I was on the North Beach Diet: All carbs, all the time.” Here’s the sauce she makes—from her bible, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcela Hazan—that pairs especially well with architectural tortellini, made on a Marcato Atlas pasta maker.
Before!
After!
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes* or 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juices
5 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt
1 to 1 ½ pounds pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table
Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with the pasta.
*If using fresh tomatoes, blanch first by plunging the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them, and, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them and cut them into chunks.
Don’t miss out on the ring Elena cooked up for us. There are just 25!
comments, reblogs & likes
Elena Howell’s L.A. Mid-Century Tour
Her jewelry line and The Big Lebowski have more in common than you’d guess.
Before Elena Coleman Howell started making clean-lined jewelry under the name TOMTOM, she was all about creating buildings, working as an architect for the firm Marmol Radziner and Associates. “They were the architects famous for restoring such mid-century gems as Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs and another Neutra home in the Hollywood Hills belonging to this guy Tom Ford,” she notes. Her own affection for the mid-century look came from her hometown—and a movie you probably didn’t pay money to see. “Although I grew up in Los Angeles, the epicenter of mid-century modern architecture, my obsession with the style didn’t begin until 2001 when I saw the film The Anniversary Party. The movie is about actors playing actors, on ecstasy, with Jennifer Jason Leigh crying a lot,” the (straight-up hilarious) designer explains. “But what really captured my attention was this beautiful, light-filled home in the Hollywood Hills where all of the drama unfolded—a mid-century modern home by Neutra.” Here, the local places she suggests you hit up for inspiration and era-appropriate furnishings.
Sheats-Goldstein Residence
Check Out These Homes:
Schindler House and Eames House: “Most of the mid-century homes in L.A. are lived-in, making them impossible to tour. These two are open to the public and worth checking out.”
Sheats-Goldstein Residence: “In grad school, a few friends and I somehow finagled a private tour of John Lautner’s property, which has made appearances in such films as The Big Lebowski. This house is amazing. I try to make my jewelry look like it. If you can’t get a tour, this video is a close second.”
Dinnerware by Heath
Shop at These Spots:
Heath Ceramics: “My husband and I registered for their dishware for our wedding. I will never regret forgoing china for this.”
The Rose Bowl Flea Market: “The second Sunday of every month, score mid-century furniture gems on the cheap.”
Danish Modern: “It’s not inexpensive, but you can find gorgeously restored mid-century furnishings—and you don’t have to wake up early on a Sunday to get the best pieces.”
Make sure you don’t miss out on the architectural ring Elena created for Of a Kind.
comments, reblogs & likes
TOMTOM
When you first encounter Elena Coleman Howell’s jewelry, you’d probably suspect that the angular, polished pieces were created by the sort of person who works in a white box studio and rarely cracks a smile. But while her work is full of sharp angles and exacting cuts—you may recognize her line from the pieces she did inspired by TRON: Legacy—the designer herself is pretty warm and fuzzy…just like her company’s namesake and muse: Tomato, the pet cat.
“My parents went on vacation, and I had this big plan to get them a kitten—there would be no way that they could turn it away,” the designer recalls. “But when I went to the animal shelter to get them one, there were no kittens at all, and this large, three-year-old cat started meowing at me. So I adopted it and left it at my parents’ house. When my parents came home from vacation, they said, ‘Get over here right now and take this cat away.’”
