Chmara’s project, titled 2,5³ is a minimal living cube designed to revolutionize social canons and mobile living structures. “A negation of consumerism and the idea of contemporary nomadism led us to various visionary concepts like modular microh0uses,” the girl-and-dude designer duo (who are both under 30, btw!) write. “We just need less space, as there are less books, less paper, no fax, no television and so on.”
“At the heart of my work is a fascination with the mundaneness of the everyday,” Corey writes. “Objects are overlooked, they become invisible in this blur of overfamiliarity with the daily inattention. When we look at the everyday objects we don’t stop to think about them, in ways of colour, shape and form, we just accept what they are, no questions are asked.”
Designer Ryan Campbell began her journey as a shoe artisan by designing custom sandals for adults. But when she designed a mini pair for tiny toes, she fell head over heels – pun intended.
“What is the essence of a pair of pants (if it has such a thing)? Certainly not that crisp and well-pressed object to be found on department-store racks; rather, that clump of fabric on the floor, negligently dropped there when the boy stepped out of them, careless, lazy, indifferent. The essence of an object has some relation with its destruction: not necessarily what remains after it has been used up, but what is thrown away as being of no use.”
Designer Melanie Burk of Fifth & Hazel makes a habit of this with her Instagram series, Unexpected Type. During their morning art project, she and her daughter Maggie spell out words with everyday objects – a compilation of typographic photographs, each one more inspired than the last.
London-based jewelry designer Hollie Paxton explores these themes in her collection Rubbish Jewelry, which seeks to discover the relationship between our identity and our objects. “The collection inverts the idea of what can be precious, as the objects I have chosen to recreate, once used, are disposable and almost worthless,” she writes. “Through recreating them in precious materials, using labour intensive processes such as enamelling, it interests me as to how our relationship with the object changes, possibly for some, to the point where one would consider wearing ‘rubbish.'”
Martha Stewart has held my proverbial hand through every major transition of my life. As an evergreen newlywed who frequently relied on take-out and dry cereal, it was a borrowed copy of Cooking School that taught me the beauty of a homemade meal. When I launched my own website, brand and business, I furiously highlighted
British designer Sarah Reader’s swimwear brand Project 104 explores this relationship between our body and choices in its debut collection, “My Body, My Shrine.” Limited edition swimsuits depicting addictive lifestyles are displayed in the midst of artifacts associated with each, from candy-coated gluttony to poker-chipped greed. And the suits are lovely, yes. But the challenge is even more so.