A view from the Swedish west coast, Land of the Midnight Sun.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
Eriksbergshallen in ultramarine
Eriksbergshallen, at Quality Hotel 11.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Summer is here and I don’t think any form of soft or coercive persuasion would keep Swedes on office grounds unless absolutely necessary. My years working in executive education also taught me that holding organisational seminars outside of office grounds could prove more productive for project work. The change of environment provides a welcome break in everyday routine that encourages the workings of the creative. It was for this reason that I found myself standing in the lobby of Quality Hotel 11 at Eriksbergshallen this morning, looking to congregate with the rest of my colleagues whose main focus is research in the European context. Continue reading “Eriksbergshallen in ultramarine”
Swedish west coast | azure
Warm azure.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
It’s been clear blue skies and intense sunshine for some days now along the west coast of Sweden.
“Ah no! It’s not supposed to be like this now. It’s too early! You know, it’s like this now, then later in the summer, you know it’s going to be miserable. It should be bad weather all the way to Midsummer, then after that, you have good weather. Now that’s a good summer!” ~ A neighbour.
Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc – the balance in a new paradigm of luxe and anime
Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc. Datecode: CA1015.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
Of all collaborations Marc Jacobs had done in the past decade till 2013 for Louis Vuitton with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami , Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama, the Murakami range remains one of my favourites in terms of the execution of precision chaos in art if there ever was such a thing.
Not particularly attracted by poparstic works per se, what draws me to the Murakami Vuitton range is the result of the unusual synergies between traditional handcrafted work grounded in rich European travel history with all its roundness of sensory experience, and the contrasting surreal ‘flatness’ of animations of a completely different era in pop culture, from Japan. If these two worlds can come together in any sense of classical physics and philosophy, then almost anything else can come to be of other areas of unlikely synergies. And the results are a certain finesse of execution in design that is not symbolically regressive Mad Max grunge that comes across in Sprouse-Vuitton collaborations or Gaudí organic progressive reminiscent that comes across in Kusama.
Continue reading “Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc – the balance in a new paradigm of luxe and anime”
Louis Vuitton Trianon Sac de Nuit GM
Louis Vuitton Trianon Sac de Nuit GM (grande model)
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
The first thing you’d notice about this bag is how weighty the canvas and sturdy the construct of the bag is for its satchel size, where even in GM, it was clearly meant as something more fashionable heritage narrative than a luggage carry-on.
The Trianon Sac De Nuit was created and produced in limited edition in conjunction with the celebration of Louis Vuitton’s 150th anniversary, paying tribute to Vuitton’s early days of 1854 – 1892, when Vuitton began selling light weight flat-topped trunks covered with their signature grey Trianon canvas. Prior to Vuitton’s flat-topped trunks, most trunks for travelling had rounded tops so that water would run off, the disadvantage being that they could not be stacked. It was Vuitton’s Trianon canvas, airtight flat trunks that allowed stacking with ease, for voyages.
Continue reading “Louis Vuitton Trianon Sac de Nuit GM”
“Rose Rose I Love You”
The First of May 2014.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
The symbolic flower for the month of May is the Rosa Chinensis or the China Rose, which shares the same name / title to one of my paternal grandfather’s favourite songs, “Rose Rose I Love You”.
That song was first recorded in 1940 by Yao Lee and then by Frankie Laine in 1951 with the lyrics of the latter unrelated to the original.
What I found interesting in Laine’s version is that the song references a girl, possibly named Rose, as a “flower of Malaya”. This reference brought me back to the origins of Clifford Pier in Singapore, built between 1927 and 1933 and named after Sir Hugh Clifford, Governor of the Straits Settlements at the time. The pier was one of the busiest embarkation and disembarkation points in Singapore that belonged to the Straits Settlements Crown Colony during the early 1900s, from immigrants to the trading of goods. That Customs House at Collyer Quay stands in close proximity to what was once Clifford Pier today is testament to its history.
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Louis Vuitton Monogram Manhattan PM
Louis Vuitton Monogram Manhattan PM.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro-Nilsson 2014
I generally dislike totes. Personally, the very purpose of carrying a bag at all is to be able to go hands-free of carrying the goods, either by slinging it over the shoulder or in rucksack fashion, carrying the goods weighted on your back square between the shoulder blades.
But there are always exceptions.
The Louis Vuitton Monogram Manhattan PM is one such exception. Continue reading “Louis Vuitton Monogram Manhattan PM”
Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis Koala wallet, framboise
Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis Koala wallet in framboise.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro-Nilsson 2014
The Framboise colour, a rich and beautiful shade of deep Raspberry, was launched in the Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis line in 2006. The Koala wallet with its signature S-lock was one if not the most functional and stylish wallets of the Vernis line and definitely one of my favourite items in the Vernis line.
As with Vuitton craftsmanship, a detail about this wallet that I find absolutely charming is how the leather has been neatly pleated at each corner on the inner facing flaps of the billfold compartments.
Continue reading “Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis Koala wallet, framboise”