J.Crew: I.Love.You

While we are in the midst of fall, I thought it might be fun to show something that was on J.Crew's website last year.  I know I am a little late to the game, but since they are a company known for their forward colors and just cute fashion items in general, I thought it was really cool that they highlighted their interview with their colorist when they introduced their jackets for the FH12 season.  It is obviously no longer on the site, but when I saw it I just had to take snapshots to preserve it forever. 

Below is the interview as well as pictures of their beautifully colored jackets from 2012.

J.Crew also has a really cool tumblr account which is fun to check out! 

Air Force Academy Chapel

I took a field trip for the first time in nearly 15 years, and yes, a group bus was involved.  To serve up some inspiration and to get away from the office, our team at work went to the Air Force Academy Chapel!  I have lived in Colorado for most of my life and I can't believe I had never been here.

Designed by SOM of Chicago and built in the 60's, the chapel was very forward for its time and not accepted by the public at first. It is open to all religions and has Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist chapels.  What the chapel is really known for is the Protestant worship space pictured below but the other chapels are quite beautiful as well.  It is interesting because the size of each chapel is relative to the percentage of people in each religion/denomination enrolled in the military.  Here are a few snapshots I took in an attempt to capture the beauty of the stained glass and spires.

 

Look familiar? This is Olafur Eliasson's One Way Colour Tunnel and I can't help but wonder if he was inspired by the chapel.

And here are a couple of pics of two of the other chapels.  I feel like you never see pics of these but they are also very beautiful!

The Catholic Chapel

The Jewish Chapel

RRROAARRR and HISSS! (snake and leopard ;)

There has been some publicity on my leopard/snake print Wellie Boot! Apparently they are just the thing to wear to a festival! Here are some highlights:

From Bazaar

Color Me Rad

I think everyone is aware that color has made an explosion in the fashion industry the past couple of years.  What I find really exciting is that artists and architects have also embraced color.  Now artists are not just creating a colorful painting or a stained glass window, they are engulfing people in color.  Some artists like James Turrell have been doing projects like these for years. As a personal fan of all things color (it is my m.o. after all :), the impact that this has is very exciting! Here are a few examples of works that have helped bring color back to light (pun intended.)

Your Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson

 See! Colour! By James Turrell

  

RGB by Carnovsky

I am Feeling Blue ;)

So unbeknownst to Pantone, my boss and I have a wager with them on what their next Color of the Year will be.  Pantone is known internationally as one of the fashion world's leading authorities on color standardization.  It is how we, at work, communicate with developers and manufacturers to get just the right hue we are looking for on our footwear.  In our office we have several pantone books with thousands of colors and each one has an associated number to it.  Our manufacturers in China have the exact same books and when we reference a number they look it up in their book so they know what to match and voila! color magic. :)

Every year, based on their own color trend research they introduce a new color of the year and my boss and I just get giddy when it is announced because we are color dorks.  Here are their colors of the year for the past 6 years:

Pantone's Color of the Year!

It is cool to look back on some of these colors because you realize that they really have been popular over the past few years.  I am thinking the 2014 color of the year will either be a blue or purple but I really hope it is something similar to this color below. Some call it cobalt, Yves Klein Blue, sapphire, while others call it abyss blue, or cerulean (that's what we call it crocs :) but however you slice it is just plain beautiful!

Architizer is predicting that blue will be big in 2014 as well!

John Mayer is singing the blues at the 2013 Grammys

Jennifer Berry, another blogger has showcased this color as a fashion trend for 2013 and I am hoping that it will still have legs in 2014!

Part of Yves Klein's blue legacy with the Venus of Alexandria (1960)