Hasta La Ideas

From Tom Sachs’ Mars landing to the pictures recently launched into orbit by Trevor Paglen, it’s been a spacey 2012. This is no time for a terrestrial Christmas tree. We’re decking our Douglas-fir with these spiral galaxy ornaments by Rodarte. Pasadena-based designers–and frequent visitors to the nearby Mount Wilson Observatory–Kate and Laura Mulleavy developed the out-of-the-world decorations for the holiday partnership between Neiman Marcus, Target, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The collaboration, which arrives in stores today, includes seasonally swell gifts by 24 designers, including Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera, and Thom Browne. Priced at $19.99 each, Rodarte’s hand-painted, hand-blown glass orbs are sure to rocket off store shelves.

This is the first in a series of elegantly wrapped December posts about desirable goods that we suggest you purchase with the laudable yet vague intent of giving to others and then keep for yourself. Got a “nifty, gifty” idea? Tell the UnBeige elves: unbeige (at) mediabistro.com

Previously on UnBeige:
• Seven Questions for Rodarte’s Kate Mulleavy

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Following its colorful collaborations with Jeff Koons and KAWS, Kiehl’s Since 1851 has teamed up with Kenny Scharf. The L’Oreal-owned apothecary brand has launched a limited-edition collection of its famed Creme de Corps that features label artwork by the artist. Better still, Kiehl’s is donating 100% of the net profits from U.S. sales to RxArt, which brings contemporary art to healthcare facilities, as part of a broader effort to raise $200,000 for children’s charities worldwide. The lavishly labeled lotion is available in three sizes (come on, pop for the one-liter megabottle), and prices start at $29.50. “Continued use for 10 days will provide a skin texture heretofore unattainable,” promises Kiehl’s. Not in the market for moisturizer? Snag Scharf’s “Squirt” (pictured), a signature character that he’s made available in collectible form for the project.

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Better Together. Fernando and Humberto Campana’s “Panda Banquete” and Henri Michaux’s “Composition” (1959) are among the artfully juxtaposed offerings in “Moss, the Auction.”

“In Sonnet XVIII, Shakespeare famously compared his lover to a summer’s day, not to other lovers he might have had or could have had,” notes Murray Moss. “In this auction, I propose for a moment that you compare Maarten Baas’s sculpted “Clay” table to a bronze torso by Alberto Giacometti, and not to other tables. Apples to Oranges.” In this case, the “apple”—a.k.a. “Unique Torse de femme”—is estimated to sell for between $2 million and $3 million when it goes on the block later this morning at Phillips de Pury in the Moss sale to end all Moss sales.

The 120 lots in “MOSS: Dialogues Between Art & Design,” showcased in one of the most stunning catalogues in recent memory, are drawn primarily from the private collection of Moss and Franklin Getchell as well as the studios of designers who have had longstanding relationships with the pair’s beloved SoHo design emporium, which they closed earlier this year. (Some works, including the Giacometti, come via ArtAssure.) The Moss gang is all here—Baas, Hella Jongerius, Studio Job, Marcel Wanders, the Campanas, and more—looking as fresh as ever alongside the work of everyone from Gio Ponti and Louise Nevelson to George Condo and Candida Hofer. Meanwhile, Moss and Getchell’s casket carrier coffee table (estimated to sell for between $6,000 and $8,000) is sure to be a hit at your Halloween party.

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The flash-sale phenomenon—think Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, and Amazon’s on-fire MyHabit—has targeted most of its marketing to its channel of choice: the Web. But our friends at fast-growing Fab are rolling out their design-loving message to the non-clickable world with their first TV spot. The New York-based company, which is currently offering life-enhancing, moderately discounted stuff that ranges from Keith Haring prints to a grilling accessory known as a Double Hotdog Iron, has created “Touched” (below), in which a man awakes to find his apartment transformed into a fantasy land where everything that’s touched “goes from drab to Fab.”

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“Valencia” (1961) is included in “The Photographs of Ray K. Metzker and the Institute of Design,” on view through February 24, 2013 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

• Feast your eye (well, eyes) on the new Eye magazine website. The London-based graphic design review’s overhauled online home incorporates the four-year-old Eye blog as well as an issue archive that goes all the way back the first issue in 1990. Look for more writing from the archives and many more images to be added in the coming months. Get a taste of the latest issue–#83–with Adrian Shaughnessy’s reevaluation of Herb Lubalin.

• Comics legend Stan Lee has turned to Facebook for some crowdsourced captions. Learn more about the contest from our sister site, Galleycat.

• Our friends at the art flash sale site Exhibition A are preparing to showcase their suitable-for-framing wares in the real world. On Saturday, the Exhibition A Pop Up Gallery will take over Half Gallery in NYC. Stop by between noon and 6 p.m. to preview and collect prints by the likes of Olaf Breuning, Les Rogers, and Jessica Craig-Martin. Not in New York? Peruse the latest crop of offerings at your leisure online.
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