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New Ace Hotels, One on Both Sides of the World
More than 20 years after its launch, Ace Hotel Group maintains its reputation for serving creatives with its cool, unconventional design. At one of its newest locations, in Toronto, and more specifically the city’s boutique-lined Fashion District, guests are greeted by a lobby with high concrete arches with steel edges, red oak wall panels and a three-story art installation by A. Howard. Sutcliffe that recalls the shimmering waters of nearby Lake Ontario. With interiors designed by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and Atelier Ace, this and the adjacent bar are accented with sumptuous vintage mid-century sofas and chairs, and opaque plexiglass and wooden lamps inspired by kites. The 123 rooms are designed as urban cabins, so each room has a deep-set window sofa and a vinyl collection curated by local record label Arts & Crafts. In Sydney, Australia, Ace teamed up with architectural firm Bates Smart and interior design firm Flack Studio to renovate — and add eight floors — the Tyne Building, which was built in 1916 atop the country’s earliest kiln site to serve as a pharmacy and warehouse for a well-known pharmacist. Now 18 stories high, it has 257 rooms that, with their textured straw panels and tangerine-colored carpets, have an appealing retro feel. Upstairs and downstairs, guests can enjoy inviting dining options, whether it’s the Italian and Japanese-inspired dishes at the upcoming rooftop restaurant, Kiln, or the vegetable dishes at the ground-floor restaurant, Loam. From $290 (Sydney) and $305 (Toronto), acehotel.com.
It’s only natural for Ulla Johnson to expand into premium denim. So many of the brand’s pre-existing pieces look great with jeans, and the designer himself has always loved them. However, until she designed her own shoes, she struggled to find the kind of extra special pairs that you wear and love for years. “Everything I’ve Always Wanted [in denim] is in this range — impeccable quality of manufacture and craft, and handcrafted pieces with sustainable washing and finishing,” she says. Each garment in the range, which is produced in a long-established Los Angeles factory that uses eco-friendly stones for washing and minimizes the use of chemicals and water, indeed takes more than a day to make. There are four jeans styles, including one with pin pleats at the center front and another with wide legs and a jacket. They are all designed to be worn all year round and reflect, Johnson says, “the essential non-seasonal role that denim plays in our lives.” But that doesn’t mean they are inconspicuous. Rivets and buttons are available in copper, matte gold or burnished gold depending on the wash, and all jeans have a hand-hammered ring made in collaboration with the Kenyan artisans who work on the brand’s jewelry and bags. belt loop at the back. ullajohnson.com.
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Artistic tiles on and next to the wall
Gilles de Brock is best known for in-depth screen-printed poster designs that combine found images, pop culture references and a dazzling palette. In recent years, the Netherlands-based graphic designer and art director, who previously created designs for companies such as Nike and Red Bull, has turned his attention to exploring how color and form can be represented in other media, namely clothing, carpets and ceramics. floor tiles . For the latter, de Brock, who is interested in giving designers access to their own production resources, has spent much of the past three years working with Studio GDB, the design studio he runs with Jaap Giesen, to create a CNC ceramic tile build printer that translates its digital designs into the physical world. The resulting pieces are covered with abstract motifs rendered in brilliant green, soft red and cobalt blue glazes that seem to capture movement and light. Since the printer’s completion, Studio GDB has turned into a small ceramic tile factory, working with customers to bring its wares to storefronts, interiors and cafes. More tiles by De Brock, as well as a selection of his posters and textile works, are now on display at an exhibition at Le Signe National Center for Graphic Design in Chaumont, France. It’s aptly titled “If it works, it’s not just a workaround.” On view until 23 Sept. centrenationaldugraphisme.fr.
In the early days of the pandemic, cooks flocked to Instagram to sell homemade goods like flaky croissants and golden Jamaican beef patties. Some were unemployed because of restaurant closures; others were amateur bakers trying to turn in the food industry. Despite the challenges involved in navigating food production and picking up orders in cramped apartments, a few gained an avid following and have since opened physical locations. In May, the French bakery L’Appartement 4F moved from l’apartment, located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, it was located in a small store a little to the north in Brooklyn Heights. People regularly queue outside before it opens hoping to catch sourdough baguettes and raspberry-almond croissants. Earlier this month, Bạn Bè confectioner and archivist Doris Hồ-Kane, who gained fame for tins of Vietnamese biscuits flavored with coconut pandan and black sesame ube (at one point the waiting list numbered 10,000 people), began selling her coveted treats, as well as new offerings like bánh mì chay and durian ice cream, through the Dutch door of a Carroll Gardens storefront. “I felt that a physical representation of our work and art as Vietnamese people was important,” says Hồ-Kane, “and personal interactions are so valuable.” On the West Coast, Jihee Kim of Perilla, known for its seasonal banchan-esque dandelion green namul, is gearing up to open a lunch spot at Los Angeles’s Echo Park this fall. Get ready for loaded rice bowls and hand-rolled gimbap, plus lots of fresh tomato kimchi to take home.
While all of the prints in Louisa Ballou’s line of moody resort clothing are adapted from her paintings, she doesn’t really envision the finished garments while working at her studio in Charleston, SC. “I’d lose the playfulness of it,” she says. When she paints, she thinks more of the color and vibrancy in the landscape around Charleston, her hometown, which she didn’t fully appreciate until she spent a few years in London studying fashion at Central Saint Martins – indeed, her canvases. often signs of the region’s waterways and barrier islands, or of flora such as the night-blooming cereus that has been native to South Carolina for generations. She also reflects on how other artists have conveyed movement and rhythm in their work, such as in Charlotte Rudolph’s 1920s dancers’ photographs or Brice Marden’s layered lines. It’s not until a painting has been digitally scanned that she turns her attention to how, as an abstract print, it can “sit on the body and embrace the body,” she says. “I want you to feel painted in the pieces.” While the brand, which she started in 2018, has found success in her swimming sport and swim-adjacent (with clients such as Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa), the designer wants to expand her ready-to-wear categories and is working on an accessories collection: an attempt, she says, to present the Louisa Ballou woman not only on a tropical vacation but during the lunch in Paris or dinner in New York. louisaballou.com.
From T’s Instagram
An anniversary in the Cotswolds