SKAGGS

Iceland is more than just volcanic spa baths, vikings and vodka…

It’s my motherland and home to some of the most cutting edge artists, talented musicians and fashion designers and interestingly enough, hair stylists. We’ve just completed a website for Harbeitt, a premier hair salon in Hafnafj??rdur, Iceland, that truly represents the cool fun and down to earth people that work there.

Harbeitt is a unisex salon prides itself on it’s warm and witty team of hairstylists, who keep their fingers closely on the pulse of hair and beauty trends. The owners (both award winning stylists) celebrate their 18 years in business early next year and are looking forward to their 50 years in business. They clearly LOVE what they do and it most definitely shows.

Aside from numerous hair awards Harbeitt’s cutting edge (excuse the pun) logo, created by Dagur Hilmarsson was nominated for a L??durinn (equal to the US’s Clio award) and all of Harbeitts fantastic copy was written by Anna Agustsdottir of Hvita Husid, giving further proof that creativity really is the key to their success.

If you’re on your way to Europe, why not book a ticket with Icelandair stay in Iceland for a few nights and stop by their salon for a style, cut, color or just makeup, if you need any more recommendations - shoot me an email jonina@skaggsdesign.com

New York Fashion Week is upon us and while it maybe Spring ‘08 at Bryant Park, we’ve got a remarkable Fall ‘07 project to showcase. In collaboration with Kim-Van Dang at KVDNYC, we designed and produced a visually stunning identity and collateral system, Spring ‘08 Look Book and website for Lovenia. KVDNYC developed the brand ethos of Lovenia, citing that in the Lovenia world simple and complex themes co-exist with fabulous ease and elegance, resulting in a modern take on true personal luxury.

The identity development was a process that involved competitive brand research and color and typographic studies that aided the successful definition of the Lovenia brand. Using information from the studies we designed a logo type that involved customizing an existing font. The “heart” stamp was a mark that Heidi Handler had designed many years back and wanted to keep as a testament to all that she’d produced previously. We refined the mark so it fitted with the brand’s current look.

“It’s the Jazz age re-imagined and Jean Harlow and Edie Sedgwick are having tea at Tamara de Lempicka’s before catching a Josephine Baker show in Paris”
— Heidi Handler of her inspiration for her debut collection of Lovenia

For the Lovenia Spring ‘08 Look Book, we worked with a team of outstanding professionals to produce a spectacular photo-shoot. With creative direction by SKAGGS and KVDNYC, renowned photographer Rick Haylor beautifully captured the spirit of the quintessential Lovenia girl (both an international glamor girl and someone earthy), while Sean Spellman (stylist), Yuka Washizu (make-up) and Benjamin Pinon (hair) collaborated to produce the amazing results. The final production by Kapsure successfully defined everything the team had worked on.

We’ve got some behind the scenes shots from the shoot taken by Grace Handler…take a look!

There’s been quite a lot of media coverage over the last few weeks on retouching and just how far editors, and advertisers go to ensure that the photographed subjects look absolutely perfect. We recently wrapped on a fashion shoot for Lovenia (more news on that to come!) and whilst the model was absolutely breathtaking in person and on her original pictures, the retouched images show her looking simply divine ‚Äî no bags under the eyes, no pimples etc etc.

I completely understand and appreciate body/skin retouching and have realized that almost everything needs some retouching of sorts, even our last TOTO USA project did.
What bothers me is when it’s almost too far…take for example the Faith Hill RedBook cover that Jezebel kindly drew our attention to (scroll down for cleverly animated gif). What a dramatic change!!

V Magazine, did an excellent take on Before and After for their most recent issue - it’s not so much retouching, but it’s pretty cool all the same

Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that the world of fashion is extremely fickle and that exclusivity is pretty much key. I recently found an interesting article on HRH Posh Spice and her ability to kill a brand.

It brought me back to a long and heated discussion I once had regarding Burberry and their right to stop producing their infamous check because it was being “cheapened” by individuals they did not consider their target audience. My opposition on the matter felt that Burberry’s behavior was elitist, despicable and that if you could afford and want to buy Burberry, (in particluar the chequered items) you should. (BBC article on the matter)

I on the other hand felt that they had a right to do so, after all it was damaging their image. Unwanted individuals (Chavs) were buying the more affordable smaller items with the recognizable check and the wealthier consumers were buying pricier items (still with check).

Imagine Lady Muck with her “Burberried” handbag stepping out of her chauffer driven limousine to see Sharon and Pete head to toe in Burberry pushing a “Burberried” stroller on their way to the welfare office.

That doesn’t bode well for “luxury” or “exclusivity” at all, which I think is key to Burberry’s business. The Brand Killer article confirmed my thoughts on the matter. I know it’s snobby and in all fairness you should be able to wear what you want regardless of a brand’s disdain, but when it comes down to dollars, cents, pounds, euros and shareholders, I think a business has the right to protect it’s image…

Thoughts?

The Times (UK) has a great and lengthy article on Anya Hindmarch and the controversy surrounding her “must have” non-plastic bag (side note - there’s humorous knock offs already).

In short, designer, Anya created her re-usable bags to inspire eco-friendly shopping thus resulting in crazy British women (I’m allowed to say crazy, it’s my motherland) storming Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. The bags are released here in the US in June, I wonder if they’ll be stampedes then too.

There’s been a proliferation of “Eco” products and services recently and I’m all for it, however I can’t help but wonder do people really care about being green and the environment, or is it just “in” right now.

Anya herself said:

‚ÄúI‚Äôm not the greenest person around, I drive a diesel car (I have five children) but the point is that ‚Äòwe are what we do‚Äô and if we all do a little thing then we‚Äôll solve the damage, we‚Äôll stop making it worse. And it really doesn‚Äôt take you long to rethink the way you behave.”

So maybe I’m wrong…

As the internet continues to make stars out of ordinary folk (Lonelygirl15, Tila Tequila, Perez Hilton) and a plethora of party-kids on the big city night life scenes The Misshapes, Last Nights Party and The Cobra Snake), the general public continues to lap it up and demand more, there’s a new star born almost every week.

Ok, so I’m late in blogging about this, but I’ve been well aware of her presence and at first I thought it was a passing fad…but it seems Cory Kennedy has been around for awhile and by the looks of things she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. There’s been a large amount of coverage on the hipster chick that won’t quit - including this really good article in the LA Times.

Yes, her run-on sentences, bad spelling, name dropping and party hopping can get tedious, and I’m forever thinking “why aren’t you at home in bed!” when I read her blog. There is however something enchanting about her - she’s not classically beautiful, she doesn’t really do much except look bedraggled in photos (she’s being hailed as a style queen??), but still I can see why America and much of the Euro fashion blogging universe find her captivating.

Perhaps it’s her youth (she’s 17)? Her candidness maybe?, The new Kate Moss?
Either way, her rise as Internet Celebrity is something I’m interested in.
In a celebrity obsessed culture, ordinary nobodies (not in a negative way) are being turned into somebodies (sorry it’s the best example I could think of right now) and I think I kind of like it, after all they’re just like me and you.

I consider Kate Moss one of the most beautiful beings to walk this earth, and at the moment she’s everywhere! From drug scandals, to ridiculously amazing comebacks, bust ups and make ups with Doherty, to her hugely anticipated TOPSHOP Collection, endless magazine covers and now there’s the Kate Moss font created by Peter Saville and Paul Barnes (read more here). Long Live Moss Mania!

A couple of weeks ago I visited the de Young Musuem in San Francisco to see the Vivienne Westwood: 36 Years in Fashion exhibit. What a great show! It was just so incredibly inspiring to look at Vivienne’s work and to see how she grew from a “sex clothes” designer to a punk and then into a haute couture designer. I wish there were more females in the fashion industry that would take such a strong voice and the risks that Vivienne’s took and still is.

I have often wondered why 90% of fashion designers are male who design clothes for females. No wonder we often suffer from wearing dresses that we can’t breathe in or are designed for body’s with no hips. With this said, I hope Vivienne’s show will inspire more female designers to create their own style and voice! I look forward to seeing what the future holds for female fashion designers. Will Heidi Klum/Bravo be the catalyst for this change?

See for yourself - Vivienne Westwood | Heidi Klum

Sam and I had more fun than should be legal at the opening for Fafi’s gorgeous new collection for LeSport Sac. Liquorice cocktails, waitresses in hotpants and sculptures of busty pin-up girls frozen in ice turned the venue in Chelsea into a Fafi-esque dreamscape.

Fafi is one of my idols - not only because of her superb illustration style and her gutsy street art, but also because of her sheer joi de vivre which is evident in all of her art and writing. Fafi herself was at the event, the highlight of which was her live performance painting.

(As usual, Sam and I were hounded by the paparazzi, desperate for a shot for People magazine, the British tabloids, or WireImages. Reluctantly, we acquiesed - we posed for a shot which you can find here, in the “celebrities” section.)

I love FCUK’s lo-fi punk/zine aesthetic for their 2007 Collection, especially in print. Posters around town appear as if they’ve been duct-taped to the wall.