OUR FAVORITE THINGS

OUR FAVORITE

THINGS Elevate your space with a touch of luxe.

CUSTOM SPORTS MEMORABILIA|

Attention sports fans: If you really want to put your team or sport on a pedestal, Alex Dabagh, the designer behind Made by Alex in New York City, is creating custom leather sports memorabilia such as team themed footballs, fullgrain Italian leather soccer balls, silver and gold basketballs, and python baseballs, rugby balls and footballs. “I’ve been a sports fanatic all my life,” Dabagh says. “I created these footballs to start up conversation by taking something generic and turning it into usable art.” (madebyalexnyc.com)

MAKING SOUND WAVES|

OJAS, the creative pen name of Devon Turnbull, who in 2003 co-founded the clothing brand Nom de Guerre, thought a DIY speaker made pandemic sense. In April of 2020, inspired by a visit he made to Akihabara—the Mecca of Japanese audio maniacs—years earlier while working in Tokyo, he first announced plans for a project geared at audiophiles sheltering in place. His Artbook Shelf Speaker Kit, which can be constructed with a screw gun and some wood glue, is available on the late Off-White founder, architect and fashion designer Virgil Abloh’s web store. Abloh met Turnbull when he asked him to create a custom sound system for his “Figures of Speech” exhibition in 2019 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Ojas’ other high-functioning audio equipment has been making waves throughout the fashion industry, becoming coveted design objects that can be found in Supreme and Saturdays stores, in the lobby of the Ace Hotel New York and inside listening bars around the world. (canary---yellow.com).

FLOOR ART |

Inspired by the beauty of the Nordic light, colors and landscape, Nordic Knots, founded on the Scandinavian tradition of functional design with a minimalist aesthetic, started as a Swedish family of three and today designs rugs in the company’s Stockholm Atelier. A new rug collaboration with Danish artist Carsten Beck Nielsen consists of three works of art—Simple object 11, Simple object 18 and Connection (the latter two pictured above). The rugs are hand-knotted with high-quality New Zealand wool with a shaggy 1.6 inch wool pile and handmade by experienced Goodweave certified weavers in Bhadohi, India. “It’s a different way of experiencing art in a home,” says Nielsen. “It’s fascinating to see how different an artwork is experienced when it’s on the floor rather than on the wall.” Because it’s made in small batches, only a few in each size are available. (nordicknots.com)

UNIQUE WHEELS |

Chip Foose, founder of the television series “Overhaulin,” launched Foose Design, an automotive and product design development company, in 1984, before relocating to Huntington Beach in 1999. His background as an automotive designer and fabricator of electric vehicles used in the NFL and MLB, and his work with his father designing and building street rods, studio vehicles and show cars for Hollywood, allowed him to specialize in the complete construction of automobiles and related products. Hemisfear, the most renowned Foose vehicle, is the culmination of a personal dream that began in 1990, during Foose’s senior year at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 2005, Foose signed a die-cast toy deal with RC2 Corp that also included seed money to complete the Hemisfear, which was first designed on the computer with CAD drawings. It was a full 16 years for this vehicle to make it from original concept to working vehicle. In total, five Hemisfears were built and produced. (chipfoose.com)

MADE IN ITALY |

Who doesn’t love the design images of Sicily—from lemons, prickly pears and bright red cherries to the iconography of acanthus leaves and sailboats quietly rounding Mount Etna? Italian-based SMEG, known for its ‘50s-retrolooking domestic appliances designed in collaboration with some of the world’s top architects, teamed up with Dolce & Gabbana to create Sicily is My Love, reflective interpretations of Sicilian folklore framed in triangular motifs known as Crocchi, on appliances such as toasters, coffee machines, kettles, blenders, stand mixers and this citrus juicer. (smeg.com)

RETRO ESPRESSO|

La Belle Époque, a period of western European history known for technological and cultural innovations, included the design of Italian espresso machines. While Elektra, incorporated in 1947, added an American Eagle crowning the dome for a series of commercial Belle Époque espresso machines found in coffee houses and cafes throughout Europe, for home use, they downsized the concept with the Mini Verticale Semi-Automatic espresso machines in copper and brass and chrome finishes, which stand at 27 inches high. Besides standing as a gorgeous centerpiece in your home, you can extract espresso in coffee mode while the steam mode lets you brew cappuccino and latte beverages just like your favorite barista. (elektracoffee.com/products/micro-verticale)