The View

Perched at the top of The Marriot Hotel, the View Restaurant & Lounge is New York City's only revolving rooftop restaurant. It is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. Since I was about 10 years old I have had this fascination with NYC and its larger than life everything!! Standing at the top of the Empire State Building is amazing but always wished there was a way of seeing the whole of NY without having to go in a helicopter! The View Restaurant lets you do just that whilst also sitting having dinner and being able to see The City in every direction. New York is famous for its Skyscrapers and from The View you are able to see every single one! They even give you a napkin with the picture shown above so you don’t miss one building!

Obama's People

The New York Times has approached Israeli-born photographer Nadav Kander to document President Obama’s entire cabinet in recognition of the inauguration, anticipation ran high. Kander’s keen-eye for subtle beauty and bold colours seemed the perfect match for the weighty responsibility of documenting the leaders of the free world. The shots don’t disappoint. ‘I wanted them to be uplifting, but, I also wanted them to have a historical context in thirty, forty years, which is when I’m hoping they’ll be most interesting’ Nadav told us. ‘I was really trying to make accurate portraits of these people; accurate and uplifting portraits. What’s been most interesting for me is how differently people view them, that’s what it’s really about, making people react in some way.

Bridal window display

As I walked passed this bridal dress salon in New York their window display really caught my attention. It is elegant and is kept very simple but this works as a very effective idea. The beautiful wedding gowns towering over the miniature grooms just enhances the message to every woman walking passed how much more important the bride and her dress is on her wedding day than anything else. Even the groom!

REISS 1971 partners with Dazeddigital.com

1971 Reiss is a new capsule collection from high-end, high street boutique Reiss. The 1971 Reiss collection is neither retro nor revivalist. It brings a modern, chic, sexy, fashion forward evolution of the brand into denim. The year marks when the company was founded but also captures the ethos and spirit of a time when music and fashion started to make heady connections, and musicians began to establish themselves as bona fide style icons. This is reflected in their jean styles, with names such as 'Goldrush', and 'Patti'.

Dazed has teamed up with Reiss to launch a t-shirt design competition that will be the perfect counterpart to its 1971 jeans. We're looking for illustrators and designers who can interpret the brief “1971” in the most original way possible – the eventual winners will see their designs transformed into a limited edition 1971 Reiss t-shirt.

The winners were Sarah Barton and Antigone Pieri and the designs shown below.

New York Film Festival

The HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival is a New York summer tradition. I have never experienced anything like it. All films begin at dusk (usually between 8 pm and 9 pm), but the lawn opens at 5 pm. I have never seen so many people rush into the middle of the park to get a good spot for their blankets to go down on. (And I was one of them!) The atmosphere is unbelievable. You are surrounded by New Yorkers all eating picnick and chatting with their friends. The night I went they were playing an old school black and white movie called How Green Is Your Valley. For me it was more about the experience than the movie that was being played. There is nothing better than lying in a park looking up at the stars whilst being surrounded by skyscrapers of the City! 

Inglorious Basterds

I know I am late blogging about this one..I did see it over a month ago now! Honestly came out of the cinema thinking…WOW!! Quentin Tarantino what a legend. I don’t think I have ever seen in movie in which every emotion goes through me at some part of the film. I laughed, I cried, I screamed etc.

A quick summary of the film: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

A lot of Jewish people I know were not that thrilled by it, but to be fair it was most of the older generation I heard this from. I think they went expecting a tradition holocaust film. In my opinion don’t go and see a Tarantino film and expect traditional and realistic.

I saw an interview with him where he said that this was his own fairytale version of how Hitler was killed. Whilst watching it (I don’t know if this is because im Jewish) some part of me wished that it were a true story!!

Absolute genius! From the acting to the angles and the graphics and the humour! 

Phillipe Starck - School Of Design

So last night whilst flicking through the TV channels I came across this programme, School of Design. Phillipe Starck who is on of the best-known contemporary designers in the world has chosen a handful of students to come to Paris with him and create an innovative new product.

I have to say I was cringing at the TV screen at the ideas that these students were coming out with. Phillipe has picked them to attend because of their talent for design. As incredible as Starcks designs are whilst watching him I felt as a teacher he was very uninspiring. His French attitude seem to anger the students and while I could understand his point of view that there designs ideas were awful I kept wanting more from him. It was only the third episode so maybe in a few weeks hopefully my opinion of him will change.

Below is some of Starcks work: