Hasta La Ideas

Picture Perfect Kate Spade’s capsule collection of accessories featuring “Touch of Dew,” a 1961 photograph by Lillian Bassman.

If you’re still kicking yourself for missing out on that Tommy Hilfiger/Sam Haskins collaboration from a couple of years ago, don’t let this photoprinted merch pass you by. Kate Spade has just introduced its Lillian Bassman collection, a trio of smart accessories (leather tote, silk scarf, and zip-top pouch) printed with “Touch of Dew,” Bassman’s 1961 photo of model Lisa Fonssagrives behind the wheel of a creamy convertible. Bassman began her career as a textile designer and fashion illustrator before working under legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch at Harper’s Bazaar and finding her calling as a photographer. Now 94, she has embraced digital methods, mastered Photoshop, and is at work on a new book of photographs slated for publication in 2012.

“I love the way she photographs women,” says Kate Spade creative director Deborah Lloyd, who fell in love with Bassman’s work at a 2004 exhibition at New York’s Staley-Wise Gallery. “She beautifully captures both their femininity and their strengths.” In an interview posted yesterday on the Kate Spade blog, Bassman discusses her career, the influence of Brodovitch, summers spent with pal Richard Avedon, and her commitment to black and white photography. “It’s how I see things—in black and white,” she says. “I know that there’s color around, but it doesn’t give me the same kind of excitement that pure black and white does. I find it thrilling.”

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We desperately wanted to begin this post with something like, “You’ve gotta ask yourself: do I feel lucky? Well, do you, museum?” but that would be tacky and we respect you too much. Instead, we’ll just tell you that the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum in Washington, DC has signed on Clint Eastwood as its Honorary Chairman. The under-construction museum, which just broke ground this past fall across the street from the National Memorial, joined up with the museum largely in what sounds like a fundraising and awareness effort as they try and reach their $80 million goal to complete the Davis Buckley Architects and Planners-designed museum (thus far, they’ve received $43 million). Said Eastwood about becoming its honorary chairman, “The National Memorial and Museum are long overdue and richly deserved tributes to the men and women in law enforcement.” Below you’ll find a 2006 rendering of the building, which is expected to be completed and open for business some time by the end of 2013.

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It’s always a bit weird when celebrities decide they’re going to take an internship in some profession they’re not currently employed in. Architecture buff Brad Pitt sorta kinda (but not really in the slightest) interned for a while with Frank Gehry (though he really didn’t). Kanye West has taken on a number of apprentice roles in the fashion industry, most notably as a summer intern at Gap. Now it’s apparently Lady Gaga‘s turn. Clearly a bit more free from her Polaroid creative directing duties after the spring launch of one of her products for the company, Gaga looks to be following through with her plans to intern with Philip Treacy, the famous hat maker whose work was all the talk at the royal wedding. Months ago, it was learned that the singer had submitted her resume to the UK-based milliner, and now the internet is abuzz following an interview with Treacy recently did with The Observer, wherein it sounds a bit like she might actually starting showing up, working long hours, and fetching coffee. Though we don’t have the slightest doubt that none of those tasks will ever be performed by her (that’s what her interns are for). Here’s his answer about Gaga:

She plans to. She’s already visited me. This is what happened: one Monday morning, four burly bodyguards arrived — Lady Gaga’s security team — to check out the security of the building. I looked at them as if to say: what?! Who is going to take a pot shot at Lady Gaga? Anyway, she is young, talented and peculiar — which I like. The Brit awards were the next night and she said to her people (I loved this): “Can somebody buy me some brown underwear for tomorrow?”

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In a collaboration that is just our type, Target has teamed with Wisconsin’s Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum—dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type—on a collection of graphic gear. The t-shirts, hoodies, leggings, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and totes feature images from the museum’s Globe Printing Plate collection. Part of Target’s Vintage Varsity line, the items arrived in select Target stores yesterday and will be available for purchase online beginning July 17.

The idea for a partnership was sparked when a Target designer caught a screening of Typeface, Justine Nagan‘s 2009 documentary about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Members of the megaretailer’s design team later visited the institution to select antique woodblocks (Hamilton is home to 1.5 million pieces of wood type) ripe for Americana-infused apparel. They worked closely with museum staff to create more than 100 different hand-pressed prints before toying with scale, layering, and color. Look for the collection and the museum to be spotlighted in Target’s “Cool Never Fades” campaign, which will celebrate “timeless locations” such as Nashville’s Fry Recording Studio and Gruene Dance Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. Meanwhile, type nuts can wear their Target togs to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, this November, when Hamilton holds its annual “Wayzgoose” type conference. Confirmed speakers include Tracy Honn of Silver Buckle Press, Stan Nelson, and Matthew Carter, who designed Carter Latin—his first wood typeface—especially for the museum.

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“[At Martha Stewart Living] we work in this open plan office, and it’s really more like a creative arts studio than it is like any office I’ve worked in. Every other corporate publishing company looks like corporate law offices, but this is an amazing backdrop for creative people. I spend my day going through story ideas, doing run-throughs once story ideas are developed to see what kind of ideas would be featured in a given story, and having art meetings to determine what photographer or what direction we want to move in for each story. We talk in length about just making beautiful pictures, or how to put together a page that delivers both inspiration and elevates everyday life. A lot of thought goes into the visual side and the editorial side, so a lot of meetings are bringing those two halves of the brain and two types of editors and designers together so we can all be on the same page—literally.”

–Pilar Guzman, editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Living magazine, in an interview published today on mediabistro.com

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