Hasta La Ideas

For the Max Azria Fall 2009 collection, designing duo Max and Lubov Azria went futuristic, goth, and seriously sexy. The mostly-black collection struck a balance between the rough and refined with looks ranging from transparent and revealing to those with decadent layers of lace, silk chiffon, crepe, and velvet. Black bodysuits, see-through lace, leather pants, and velvet jackets were all key players in creating the overriding vampy feel while softer styles like draped dresses and embroidered gowns conveyed the sort if modern romance the brand is known for. The accessories also worked to keep the rock-n-roll sensibility alive and even the more romantic styles were toughed up with edgy add-ons such as extra long leather gloves, turn-lock belts, zippered leggings and platform boots rounding out every look. The program noted that this collection was about exploring the ethereal seduction of the dark side and we loved every minute of it. Click the slideshow to see more.

Color Palette: Black, White, Plum
Trends: Velvet, Lace, Sheer Fabrics, Leather
Celebs: Rachel Bilson, Alicia Keys, Aisha Tyler, Joy Bryant, Alison Brie
Photo credit: Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

In case you were wondering, this new “green” beer has absolutely nothing to do with shamrocks, leprechauns, or four leaf clovers. The innovative packaging for Cascade Green, brewed in Australia, was design by none other than Landor.

The project included brand strategy, naming, and tone of voice, through to packaging, point of sale, and merchandise design. When designing the packaging, the objective was to, where possible, minimize the carbon footprint… And wherever possible materials were selected based on their recycled content, including the 100 percent recycled stock for use of the point of sale materials and cartons.”

via The Dieline:

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You can now take your broken or out-of-date electronics to your local Best Buy for recycling. From their site:

Now you can bring everything from TVs and computers to DVD players and more to any U.S. Best Buy store, and we’ll recycle it. Best Buy does not charge a fee for recycling most consumer electronics. However, we do charge $10 for TVs, CRTs, monitors and laptops, which is offset with a $10 gift card.

We accept up to two items per household per day.

Best Buy locations also offer recycling kiosks that can be used for inkjet cartridges, batteries, cell phones, CDs/DVDs, PDAs, smart phones and used Best Buy gift cards. If you live near one of the over 1,000 Best Buy locations, you can easily drop off your old electronics.

Also, be sure to check out our post from the summer of 2007: “How to dispose of old electronics.”

Designer Isaac Mizrahi, a known consumer of chocolate, has been announced as one of the two hosts of the Bravo network’s Project Runway replacement, The Fashion Show. He’ll be placed alongside actress Kelly Rowland before a group of struggling designers who undergo challenges, get voted on, someone gets sent home, etc. From the description, it sounds like it’s essentially the same thing as Project Runway but with one exception: The Fashion Show will have a studio audience (two differences if you count different hosts, we guess). Meanwhile, Project Runway was busy shooting the sixth season of the show during Fashion Week in New York last week, putting together its final episode, but without a network behind them yet and still trying to figure out who will win the legal battle between their two current owners, the Weinstein Company and NBC Universal. This also created a bit of trouble for the show, as the push back on the shooting schedule while all of this wrangling has been going on, forced the producers to put each contestant’s work on the runway, so as not to give away who were finalists:

“I’m a little bit sad for our designers, that they don’t get that recognition today,” [Heidi Klum] said. The introductions of the finalists were taped in advance.

In addition, all 16 contestants were expected to be backstage, making it more difficult for models or makeup artists to spot the finalists. Unlike in past years, reporters were prohibited from going into the area.

“I feel really bad” for the contestants, one audience member said as the lights were dimmed. “What a bummer,” a woman seated in the first row added.

Wait. Why does Klum just feel “a little bit sad” and some random viewer feels “really bad”? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Is it a German-to-English thing or is Heidi Klum a horrible, horrible person? We like being judgmental so we’re going to go with the latter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Two notebooks that allow you to express yourself freely, the new Walls Notebook by design studio the. and Moleskine‘s upcoming Folio are intended to provide an outlet for the creative class and doodlers alike.

While Moleskine’s latest addition to their notebook collection is a large-format, bound tablet with blank pages for your complete imagination, the.’s Wall Notebook comes with 80 pages of NYC backdrops for you to live out graffiti artist dreams.

Moleskine is set to release the Folio Collection in stores in May 2009 and the series will include both a ruled and plain book, a portfolio, a sketchbook and watercolor album. Walls Notebooks is available now from Amazon for $17, which they aptly point out, is much cheaper than jail time.