All posts filed under: Things for Wearing

Magical Magnetic Jewelry

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Since the first time i spotted Uno Magnetic jewelry at the New York Gift Show in New York City, i was intrigued. Created by Miami-based architect/interior designer Luis Pons, the jewelry is made of a brightly colored chain and a small magnetic ball that work together to form bracelets, anklets, necklaces, rings, and anything else you can imagine. When a sample arrived in the mail a week before this summer’s Gift Show, i was psyched to try it out for myself, and wore it to my day job at a design magazine. During the course of the day, my pink/green Uno got noticed by several colleagues (i was wearing it with a navy blue dress, and it stood out.) The hardest part is keeping your hands off of it once you have found a design you like – i found myself playing with my necklace all day (to the point of distraction). That being said, i think playing with these chains is a stylish, stress-busting replacement for other nasty habits, such as nail-biting or hair twirling. …

Empty Memory USB Collection

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I met designer Yoo-Kyung Shin last May at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, where she was displaying a stunning collection of 4GB USB memory sticks that double as jewelry and objets d’art. Shin founded the London–based design studio Logical Art with Hanhsi Chen after their graduation from the Royal College of Art. The pair’s Empty Memory collection features two designs, Structure and Transparency, that contain “a physical emptiness in its sculptural form” that you can fill with your own “memory.” Structure’s geometric form can only be made with the lost-wax casting method that is normally used for industrial components. Transparency expresses its emptiness another way — it is 50% clear acrylic. After a long search for the right production partner, the designers located a manufacturer in Taiwan that is now producing pieces for the studio. Each piece is cast in high-quality, 316 stainless steel, then hand-polished by craftsmen, and finished in various colors. The Structure version an extra benefit — you can thread a chain through it and wear it as a modern pendant, or …

Freedom Of Creation Necklaces

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FOC Talents is a global online network of talented, young designers that send in Computer Aided Designs twice a year in response to a design brief from the Amsterdam-based product development company Freedom Of Creation (FOC). The best designs are then produced through a 3D printing technique and commercialized by FOC. For the 2011 summer challenge, held in cooperation with Welsh designer Ross Lovegrove, designers were instructed to interpret Lovegrove’s vision of “organic essentialism” into a necklace design. The jury selected the Cobble Necklace by American designer Louis Filosa, a hollow, pebble-shaped, totem-like pendant available in red or gray. Says Lovegrove about the design of the Cobble Necklace: I find erosion a fantastic provider of form and it could be a metaphor for infinite form. What I also like about this work is the contained object which has an almost tribal quality and something more contemporary in the way it is worn…I like its strength and wearability almost as if emotions can crawl inside and live there… The second place winner was the Park necklace …

Skullcandy 2011 Roc Nation Aviator Headphones

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Aviator sunglasses are, hands down, the coolest eyewear ever created, and if you don’t believe me then you need to go rent Top Gun again. Skullcandy’s 2011 Roc Nation Aviator headphones (shown here in Brown Gold) transform the swagger of the jet pilot into some seriously fly audio gear. While the headphone’s performance reviews on the SkullCandy site are mixed, 92% would still recommend them, with owners citing comfort and the “optics inspired” polycarbonate housing. When I tried these on at a recent preview for the Consumer Electronics Show I thought they were stunning to look at and very comfortable (I didn’t have time to test the sound, but I’m no expert in that arena.) Would it be overkill if I wore these along with my old pair of Ray Bans while listening to the Top Gun soundtrack? Maybe, but it also might be the coolest thing ever. $149.99; free shipping in the U.S. with no minimum.

Aroha Silhouettes Jewelry

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We all have addictions, some are just more socially acceptable (and legal) than others. A few I will admit to in public include watching reruns of The Office, my weekly pint of Ciao Bella Dark Chocolate Sorbet, and checking my email as if my life depended on it. Hey, I’m a mom, I’m not exactly snorting coke off of pool boys in the Hamptons anymore (that never really happened). The Molecular Addictions Collection of jewelry from Aroha Silhouettes transforms the molecular symbols for a few common addictions — caffeine, nicotine, and THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) into a line of lightweight stainless steel necklaces. The symbol for MDMA, aka ecstasy, is forthcoming in mid-October. I’m not endorsing any of these vices, but rather the beautiful way they have been interpreted into jewelry design (in fact I think people who drink caffeine are completely morally bankrupt). New Zealand-born designer Tania Hennessy (now based in Vancouver) started Aroha Silhouettes in 2008 when she launched the Phantasmal collection of 3D jewelry designs made from a box of …