Saturday, June 28, 2014

Les Créatives

La Vie Est Belle
à Bushwick
Life is beautiful in Bushwick (Brooklyn that is). Yesterday I paid a visit to my friend, milliner Lola Ehrlich, in her Bushwick studio. I really love going to Brooklyn as it evokes my long-ago days on the urban frontiers of Philadelphia. Industrial buildings, streets empty of traffic, and colonizations of creative types with the vision to grab a good thing when they see it: space at reasonable cost.

Lola is French so I can speak a few mots with her. And while we were at lunch at a charming restaurant called Northeast Kingdom, she taught me some naughty phrases like what you call an overnight bag (baise en ville) and a phrase for an assignation (cinq à sept). You can look up the first one, but the second one means 5 to 7. Don't ask me how we got on this topic!

Bushwick is burgeoning. It's becoming sophisticated and arty. The large warehouse and manufacturing buildings lend themselves perfectly to modern living lofts with white walls and Roche-Bobois velvet sofas.
 Bushwick is also famously home to murals
 which appear on nearly every building in the area.
Styles range from abstract...
 to cartoon.
 I like the absolutism of this all-blue building.
Maybe because of it's "blueness" it 
does not attract mural-making.
This building is home to Lola Millinery.
Lola speaking with a member of her staff
and a person who stiches straw who stopped by.
 Lola's summer collection.
It's called Bonjour Tristesse.
It does not make me triste.
It makes me heureuse.
 I love this super-large straw with navy bands.
 A lovely tableau.
I especially like the hanging ribbons.
 Sophisticated -straws in
an off-beat color combo.
 Lola's workroom with her color-block
fedoras in the foreground.
One of these was featured in Bergdorf Goodman's
window last year.
An intern works on straw boaters.
This is textile designer, Muriel Favaro, who shares space
in Lola's loft. Muriel, who is from Switzerland,
is an old friend of Lola's.
Muriel silkscreens designs of her
own making on canvas to create
bags and pillows.
A selection of wall hangings.
Here are a couple of her tote bags which
have leather straps.
Muriel has done work for Kate  and Andy Spade.
Kenneth Cole, Saks and Le Sports Sac.
I love the bold graphic style of Muriel's designs.
Muriel is also silk screening big dots on
men's shirting fabric.
She loves bold, fully saturated color,
as do I.
Muriel makes lavender sachets from
 the silk-screened shirting fabric. 
She also silk screens on bandannas. 
She is into dots
dots for sure.

It was an inspiring day in Bushwick!


À Bientôt!


1 comment:

  1. The graphics are amazing really. Looks like a very exciting place to be.

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