Last Friday, we’ve hosted the 4th edition of LIGAconvent - our in-house workshop series with lectures by internal experts and international guest speakers. We’ve enjoyed a day expanding horizons and full of energy – with interesting talks about current trends and developments in the industry. Amongst our this year’s guest speaker: Dr. Ulla Ertelt, Partner and Managing Director of HML Modemarketing and President of DMI, the German Fashion Institute, and Chris Aubrey, VP Global Retail Marketing adidas. Thanks for interesting insights and lots of inspiration! Take a glimpse into the day’s atmosphere …

Beijing’s shopping mile turned significantly cooler this week after Maison Martin Margiela opened up its new store. Currently it happens to be largest retail location of the French brand and catches attention with some nice design details and a fabulous material combination.

Another good reason to visit beautiful Paris soon! Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela has completed his first hotel interiors at the Maison Champs Elysées in Paris. The designer furnished 17 new suites at the existing hotel, as well as a restaurant, bar, smoking room and reception.

A diamond-shaped light hangs from the ceiling of the reception hall, where stainless steel lines the walls. In the suite named Loose Covers in White, as well as in the hotel’s lounge bar, chairs and objects are covered in the designer’s trademark white fabric.

Last Sunday saw the premiere of a documentary on Tom Ford on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. It had been promised since summer already but the delay wasn’t due to last minute changes the perfectionist designer had in mind. Reportedly he was happy with the first edit he saw. This isn’t too much of a surprise as director Michael Bonfiglio has come up with a portray of Tom Ford that’s utterly respectful and oftentimes seems taken from the perspective of an admiring bystander. Some of Tom Fords musings are on point, for example the one on the double standards on nudity. Unfortunately this is one of the scenes deleted from the documentary. Nevertheless ‘Visionaries – Inside The Creative Mind’ offers an interesting insight into the cosmos of Tom Ford. It meets all expectations as Tom Ford’s world seems both seamlessly stylish and a tad hollow in all its aesthetic complaisance.

“For the past four years, innovative fashion photographer Koto Bolofo has had behind-the-scenes access to the Hermes fashion empire. Bolofo, well-known for his portraits and fashion shoots and publishing in such prestigious periodicals as Vogue, Esquire and i-D, came to Monde d’Hermes in 2004 where he met Hermes head, Jean-Louis Dumas – one of 17 cousins who constitute the fifth generation heading the company. La Maison contains exclusive images made as Bolofo worked his way through Hermes’s workshops, discovering how their wares are made, from handbags, perfumes, scarves, pret-a-porter and shoes to the first accessory ever produced by the house: saddles. Nothing escaped his lens, not even the museum – a treasure trove of Hermes history, tucked away on Rue du Faubourg St. Honore.”

source: http://hypebeast.com/2011/03/koto-bolofo-la-maison-hermes-book/

With his fourth album in 3 years Robot Koch once again proves he is one of the most skilled and daring German producers of electronic Pop-Music. Unlike in his band Jahcoozi here he is more personal, his productions closer to the emotionality of a Jamie Woon then to the excess of a M.I.A. But hear for yourselves, since we are able to stream the album in full – and the free download of “Heal” is the cherry on the cake.

Here are some first impressions of our visit at LE BOOK CONNECTIONS at Café Moskau in Berlin!

LE BOOK, the international reference for fashion, photography, and advertising, is currently hosting the international networking event CONNECTIONS, the customized tradeshow for the professional creative industry,  at Café Moskau in Stuttgart. Day one started off by discussing the relationship between Fine Art and Branding, amongst them Berlin-based Photographer Andreas Mühe and Patrick Marinoff from automotive brand Maybach. The Global Brand Director, presented the company’s communication strategy, based on its engagement with contemporary artists such as Julian Schnabel or David Lachapelle to raise more brand awareness and re-build the brand’s image in a more modern way. „Our approach is, to give the artist the freedom to do what they want. If you want to connect with art, you have to take it like it is. Don’t try to change it and take the risk“, he said.

Back in September, LIGANOVA has been co-hosting the Pre-Connections Cocktail in Stuttgart at Waranga. Get some impressions of the creative get-together by this former blogpost!

French studio FREAKS freearchitects have inserted a rectangular timber tunnel inside this Paris cosmetics shop. The shop, called Heliocosm, also features bright turquoise walls and a table where customers can mix their own natural cosmetics. An opening cut away from the wooden box provides the location for a salvaged second-hand table, while integrated shelves display products. The tunnel leads from this workshop area to a lounge, where a wall-mounted photograph creates the illusion of a window facing snow-covered mountains.

This year’s London School of Economics students can take time out from studies in a custom-built lounge, where boxy white stools slots into walls and a central table.  Students with work to do can plug their laptops into plug sockets and data points located within framed recesses in the walls.

Angled mirrored panels on the walls and ceiling create a slightly surreal perspective as you walk in. A central desk has been custom made with pullout seating for all that hot-desking students do nowadays and a bench at the rear is the perfect place for a little bit of inter-disciplinary fraternisation.

Zaha Hadid Architects have completed a showroom in London for Spanish bathroom brand Roca. Undulating white walls surround a reception and lounge area that snakes through the interior of the Roca London Gallery, which is located on the ground floor of a mixed-use building near Chelsea Harbour. It consists of a single floor measuring 1,100m2, where it appears that water has sculptured and defined each and every detail of the space.

Arched openings lead from the reception into concrete caves, where products are displayed on integrated shelves and lights sit within recessed grooves. These rooms are formed from a jigsaw of glass-reinforced concrete elements that slot against one another with visible seams.

Roca intend to use the showroom as a venue for exhibitions, seminars, meetings and other events.