Hasta La Ideas

A €16,500 mountain bike that might be more suited for the wall than the trail

Describing their products as “perfectly handcrafted and strictly limited objects of art,” Germany’s Vandeyk Contemporary Cycles this fall will release the Nightstream, a retro-inspired mountain bike with a whopping €16,500 price-tag. The bike brand, comprised of “a handpicked brigade of experts in fields as diverse as design, bicycle frame building, photography, and writing,” seeks to produce revolutionary, highly-sophisticated designs with each hand-constructed bike.

Constructed with only state-of-the-art components and masterful German craftsmanship, the Nightstream is equipped for off-road use, but you’ll be hard pressed to find one of these outside of a display. With only twenty-five being produced, exclusivity is guaranteed.

Vandeyk’s cyclo-cross and road models are currently in development, while the Nightstream will be released in September. Direct inquiries to the Vandeyk website to order.

Hardwood frames tap architecturally-inspired design for a better fit

Anyone who struggles to read the third row of an eye chart knows that glasses are more than just a fetching style choice. Those plagued with poor eyesight tend to live in their specs and want a pair that adds something special without sacrificing the wearability of the otherwise utilitarian accessory. Drift Eyewear does both with their collection of handmade frames, constructed from sustainable wood and the brand’s patent-pending laminated steel core.

Founder Chris Mantz (tinkering in his apartment laundry room) modeled the steel structure after architecture’s curtain wall technique, which transfers the weight of the walls back to the building’s core. In Drift designs this translates into better load distribution on the three contact points of the face that allow for use of distressed fragile woods without worry about them snapping. This also helps keep the frames from sliding down noses (and cuts down on the proper nerd move of constantly pushing them back up).

The latest example of this clever design, the Timber collection is a trio of frames in a limited edition of 100 pairs each. The styles—Truss, Nail Hole and Whitewash—are all crafted from salvaged hardwood sourced from different locales. The dark brown wood for Truss comes from designer Daniel Grady Faires, who painstakingly removed the timber from a renovated building in NYC’s Meatpacking District. Nail Hole’s raw aesthetic is inspired by a collaboration with designer Jessica Park of Seattle’s shop-slash-gallery space Coming Soon, while Whitewash’s frames are devised from a vintage picket fence rescued by Chicago-based artist Raun Myn.

In addition to using responsibly-sourced wood for the frames, Mantz tells us “they are about as eco-friendly as you get,” with fronts made from a plastic derived from the wood pulping process and other components using FSC-certified hardwoods along with reclaimed timber.

Drift Eyewear can be found at retailers around the U.S.; specs in the Timber collection sell for $600 a pair.

Our video on a young Turkish eyewear fanatic’s line of vintage-inspired frames

Vidal Erkohen is equal parts eyewear designer and collector. With a love for eyewear that has been nurtured since childhood, Erkohen has channeled this passion into RVS by V, a small-run eyewear line based in Istanbul focused on producing classic high-quality frames. In our latest video we talked to Vidal about the history and significance of eyewear, and the formation of RVS by V.

Rare and limited edition books from the premier member’s-only site for contemporary art

Building on its model of selling affordable limited-edition artworks produced by marquee names in the art world, yesterday Exhibition A launched its newest extension, BookShop. Comprising one-of-a-kind or limited-edition monographs, the books contain signatures, inscriptions and sometimes even artist-sketched drawings inside their pages.

The membership-based site, founded last December by Half Gallery owner Bill Powers, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and Laura Martin, introduces one or two new pieces on a weekly basis, allowing them to sell for either a limited-run of four weeks, or, in the case of limited editions, until they sell out. With every piece retailing from $100 to $500 dollars, Exhibition A’s concept not only delivers an antidote to generic landscapes, but also a greater accessibility to prominent artists’ works through such inexpensive pricing. Offerings have included limited-editions by Terence Koh, Olaf Breuning, Hanna Liden, Jules de Balincourt, and David LaChapelle, who created surprising collages—a departure from his typical photography—for it.

The first batch of titles available include a copy of George Condo’s 2004 “Happy Birthday,” signed by the artist, with a whimsical sketch of a figure about to strangle the artist as he appears on a page spread. Chloe Sevigny’s lookbook for her first capsule collection with Opening Ceremony, signed by photographer Mark Borthwick, also features drawings by Dan Colen and Spencer Sweeney.

While most of the editions land in the $150 to $750 price range, Damien Hirst’s “The Bilotti Paintings” is a major exception. Retailing for $9,000, Hirst inscribed the copy with a drawing of a shark tank, a reference to his iconic sculpture, “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.”

Like the popular fashion-based site Of of a Kind, which employs a similar model by selling limited-edition designs by up-and-coming indie designers, Exhibition A fluidly combines art and commerce with editorial. Commentary and profiles on its artists, as well as interviews with collectors and influential tastemakers such as Simon de Pury, Paper magazine’s Kim Hastreiter and Vice Media’s Ben Dietz help round out the concept. Call it the Gilt phenomenon 2.0, expect to see more sites like this reflecting the growing consumer demand for products that are unique and accessible at once.

Brooklyn hip hop trio release their latest album on a pixelated feather

Besides eliminating clutter, one of our favorite upshots of the post-CD era is the micro-movement of creative USB stick design. We’ve seen Doc Martens, surfboards and Red Stripe bottles among other adorable forms for the little devices, so it’s somewhat surprising that more bands haven’t paired sound and vision like Junk Science and Scott Thorough recently did by releasing their new album Phoenix Down on a mini-hard drive.

Loaded with the tracks, as well as instrumentals, a cappella versions and a bonus folder of remixes and more, the limited-edition flash drive is a soft-rubber pixelated feather—a fitting mix of nature and digital for their 8-bit-heavy sound and lyrics like “the future’s pixelated.” Preview songs You Could Have That (feat. Homeboy Sandman), Pixelated and Steel Will (feat. Cavalier) (Pre Remix) to get a sense of the offerings.

Pre-order Phoenix Down from Modern Shark, and if you’re in NYC on 27 May 2011, catch them live at Mercury Lounge.