One of the most creative contemporary designers in India, Varun Sardana’s bold fall collection centered around an origami motif that he embedded in everything from capes to dresses, as well as some incredible black thigh-high boots.  Ramya Gopal and I had a conversation with the Delhi-trained and based designer about his design philosophy and the emerging fashion industry in India.

[photo by Tina Gao]

How do you find your inspiration?

I love observing things in people; it’s one of my favorite pastimes.

Music inspires me a lot, often when I start designing it starts with music.  Music kind of sets the mood for me when I start my next collection.

I look at fabric as a blank canvas or like a lump of clay that I can mold and shape and basically give it another existence.

Your work seems targeted to a more international market, do you currently have any plans to expand more within India?

I would like to be able to market more in India, but what I’m designing probably doesn’t make sense for a lot of people, though it does make sense for a lot of people too.  It’s difficult to sell here because there isn’t really a [store] space in which my clothes would make sense.

If I’m proposing something that doesn’t make sense now in India, it will make sense five years down the line, or seven years down the line.  You need the support of the media to push tastes in that direction.  […] It’s taken me over four years to get over the fact that you can show cleavage [in Dubai], whereas here it’s ok to show a midriff.

It’s not about trends anymore—where people say ‘this season is short skirts, this season is long skirts‘– it’s about attitude.  But a lot of people in India still haven’t figured out what fashion means to them on a day-to-day basis.

How easily is your work received domestically?  Are people who purchase high-end fashion more attached to foreign brands?

There is a good population [within India] who are buying high-end clothes based only on aesthetics and not just brands.  There is that niche.  It’s easier for me to do business in the West because there is already a market over there right now, people understand what they’re looking at, but there’s not such a big market over here.

You still don’t have a Lady Gaga here who is willing to experiment with a young designer who’s totally mad.  You have an Aishwarya Rai or someone like that in Bollywood who is willing to wear designers but wouldn’t wear something so mad.

Do you design with an idea of how you fit into a certain scene in mind, or does each season come together more organically?

I don’t think I design with any specific market or need in mind, it’s always very personal.  I just design what I design, and let’s see how you react to it.

“Experience the beautiful game in a truly unique way this June and July in the U.K’s most exciting football space” This is Nike Stadiums at Selfridges.

The Ultralounge is located in the lower-ground floor of the London store and pays homage to the most successful football nation of all time, Brazil. The design is inspired by the country’s passion and energy and features elements spanning all areas of its culture from dance and music to art and entertainment. The decor is based around the colours of the national flag, yellow, green and blue.

To ensure the ultimate football experience at Nike Stadium Nike have placed a state-of-the-art 4 x 4 metre screen in the space. On top of that you are surrounded by 62 plasma screens operated by a ‘Hippotizer’ that range from 19″ to 50″ creating and incredible wrap-around wall of sound.

Be sure to check out one of the rooms adjacent to the viewing stadium to play table football or the latest video games and also the bespoke retail space on the store’s first floor Menswear area, for the best of Nike sportswear.

The Welling Court Mural Project, Queens, New York sees Ron English take more of his art to the streets with his incredibly intelligent, anti-corporate take on corporate advertising. Images follow after the cut.

Your daily dose of origami! Check out the extremely creative and quite stunning origami work from Roman Diaz. If you have some time on your hands be sure to visit his blog where you’l find step-by-step guides for making some of his work.

For more or Romans work click here.

The battle for number one is on again; only this time it’s slightly more important.

Jon Morter, the guy behind the RATM Facebook group that stopped Cheryl Cole off the X Factor’s  Joe McElderry getting to Number 1 in the pop charts back at Christmas has returned with a new campaign. The ‘We Got Rage Against The Machine To Number One, We Can Get The Lib Dems Into Office’ (phew) Facebook group has already got over 72,000 members and is expected to hit 78,000 before today is out.

After a decisive victory in Thursday’s TV debates, the Cleggmeister is suddenly is with a shot at the big time, and after the heinous events of the past few years, isn’t a change something that we deserve?

SO this post is a REMINDER to

Register to Vote (deadline is April 20th), find out where your nearest polling station is, and VOTE on May 6th.

Also, for a little light relief, we bring you THIS

Happy voting campers.

Marco Santaniello, was born in Cosenza –(Calabria-Italy). A 360° artist focused on the fashion system (making t-shirts and t-skirts). Self-taught, polemic against the Italian’s  formality and bureaucracy. He got a degree in Science of Communication ( in Perugia) and is specialized in Cool Hunting ( Florence), Marketing & Visual Merchandising and Graphic Design( Milan).

During his university time he had a great idea: THE T-SKIRT, his FASHION PATENT. Marco also has a unique form of pop art that can be applied to clothing, accessories and magazine covers or editorial. It would be best to describe him as a creative as he as also dabbled into furniture design creating a rubik stool. Follow him on Twitter

British up market clothing brand Hackett recently shot one of its spring/summer 2010 menswear campaign at The Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road, Chelsea, London. The vibe was electric, typical English gentleman and Man chic.

A glimpse at Viktor’s photography featuring some beautiful scenery and image editing.

See more of his work here.

Srce: Art Sponge

NYFW | a visual essay by Tina Gao

Secret Cinema manages to screen across all genres and eras. The organisers even manage to arrange exclusive preview screenings on up and coming releases whilst you enjoy the luxurious surroundings of your secret venue. Established in December 2007, Secret Cinema has gone from strength to strength. Past Secret Cinema events have gone down particularly well, with fans debating them through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This year, Windows 7 has teamed up with Secret Cinema and they promise 2010 will ensure to continue building a very different cinema experience by creating events which allow the audiences to feel, see and touch the story.

“We have uncovered a large audience that expect something else and we will bring them something else.” Fabien Riggal, Founder and Creative Director of Secret Cinema told Esper.

Fans at a previous screening of Alien 2

This event is a truly multi-sensory experience! If you are interested in coming along to one of the screenings you are able to make your bookings on www.secretcinema.org where tickets are priced at £23.50 (£19.59 for students) and more information can be found on Secret Cinema’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Secret-Cinema/46896241052