We don’t post much by way of fashion here, but I came across the Uniform Project today and love the idea – Sheena Matheiken has pledged to wear the same dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. I’m really impressed with her creativity – and inspired to stop complaining that I have nothing in my closet. From the website:

Every day I will reinvent the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies. Think of it as wearing a daily uniform with enough creative license to make it look like I just crawled out of the Marquis de Sade’s boudoir.

The Uniform Project is also a year-long fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India. At the end of the year, all contributions will go toward Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums.

I was raised and schooled in India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. Boys rolled up their sleeves, wore over-sized swatches, and hiked up their pants to show off their high-tops. Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos. Peaking through the sea of uniforms were the idiosyncrasies of teen style and individual flare. I now want to put the same rules to test again, only this time I’m trading in the catholic school fervor for an eBay addiction and relocating the school walls to this wonderful place called the internet.

Inspired by this post on Jalopnik, about an upcoming gullwing Mercedes coupe, I thought I would look up its predecessor. The original Mercedes-Benz 300SL was manufactured, in its various forms, from ’52-’63. But the gullwing version only for two of those years. The structural members of the car’s frame necessitated the peculiar door operation and you can see where the doors don’t reach quite to the underside of the body. It is a thoroughly gorgeous machine. I love how light and trim it looks. Nothing is overbuilt, unlike the cars of today. We aren’t super car people, but I think we know something good when we see it.

Sean and I finally made it to walk the Highline a few weekends ago (it’s taken me forever to get our photos together – sorry!). The Highline is being built in phases, and the Gansevoort St. – 20th St. section opened on June 8th. The Highline is an amazing asset to NYC – it offers great views of the city that you don’t normally get, and is a truly urban park experience. It also interacts with the Standard Hotel in a great way (unfortunately, our camera chip died, so all of my photos of the latter half of our walk are gone, including the photos of the Standard).

Diller Scofidio + Renfro did a wonderful job designing an interesting architectural experience within a very small space, by creating a series of events – a meandering concrete path, wildflower gardens, the 10th Avenue square/viewing portal…James Corner Field Operations did the landscape design. The Highline is only 1/3 done, so there are still a number of architectural pieces missing – the sundeck water feature and rail preserve, the Chelsea thicket, the 23rd St. lawn, the woodland flyover, the 26th St. view spur…Can’t wait for those portions to be done! My one criticism is that the park is so streamlined (this may change when the rest of the park gets built) – while there are some benches and stopping spots, they fill up pretty quickly, and you aren’t encouraged to sit anywhere except on those benches, so most of the time you keep moving. This detracts somewhat from the park experience, but I suppose it is an urban park, after all.

All renderings are by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and all photos are by Sub-Studio, except where noted otherwise.

Some shots of the concrete path and the way that they mesh with the plantings. To me it references the way that old railroad tracks often become overgrown by their surroundings.

Shots of the various types of benches. I love how the concrete planks are peeled up to become the wooden benches.

I thought the water fountains looked pretty haphazard…It would have been a lot cooler (although maybe impossible?) if the fountains were made out of the same material as the concrete. Would have been nice to have seen the water fountains treated in the same way that the benches are – as integrated pieces of the landscape.

Some of the larger lounging areas – I love the construction of the benches and lounge chairs – layered pieces of wood. They are beautifully made!

The 10th Avenue square/viewing portal is amazing – the path twists its way down to the viewing portal in a series of ramps. A series of steps allow you a space to sit and look out at 10th Ave. (That’s Sean hanging out on the steps below.)

Beautiful wildflowers…

Above are renderings of some of the areas that have yet to be built – the sundeck water feature and rail preserve (I think I’m most excited for this water feature/wading pool), the 23rd St. lawn, which will provide more rest area along the Highline, and the 26th St. view spur.

The woodland flyover, which looks like it will be amazing…

Some detail shots of artists’ installations, and remnants of the existing Highline conditions.

Sean and I are definitely going to have to make a trip back to the Highline to see it at night – I’m pretty sure it will be an entirely different experience.

Photos of the construction of the Highline (via thehighline.org).

I came across Leah Virsik in my search through our Twitter followers today. Leah is both an artist and a book binder. I am really drawn to the softness of her paintings and the way that she layers them in such a way that only traces of objects peak through. Are they revealing themselves or being submerged? Not quite sure, and I like that.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Follow Friday is a weekly post featuring the great designs/artwork of some of our Twitter followers.

How awesome is Rebecca Murphy’s submission to Follow the Leader? It’s titled: “I like motorbikes and carousel horses.” Heh. I love it.

Rebecca is an Australian artist whose paintings are explorations of the internal landscape and the world around us – of desire, destruction, vulnerability, sensuality, and humor. Definitely take a moment to check out her portfolio here.

A great multicolor striped facade was part of an expansion of The Oslo International School by JVA. This is a great example of a simple, well-executed design move that didn’t have to be some insane blob/tooled formal operation to be successful.

via Arch Record

Share Some Candy, a great new visual site that we are helping to curate, is having its first giveaway – a ceramic sculpture by Artmind. I want.

For the giveaway rules, go here. You have until the 20th!

I am unfortunately, or fortunately(?) not one of those people who can drink beer and skate at the same time. However, for those of you who can, the Brue Killers decks from Creature are for you. They have a little bottle opener routed into the plys just below the front truck. That way you never have to improvise with a skate tool (which no one ever seems to have). Plus they are available in a couple of fun shapes.

demo photo via flickr.

Fun typographic soap over at Fred Flare. That must have been a complicated mold!

Via Swissmiss.

I love Studio Job’s surrealist sculpture/furniture pieces for an upcoming exhibit – Telling Tales, at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibit will run from July 14 to October 18, 2009. According to Designboom, the pieces “tell tales through their use of decorative devices, and historical allusions, all of which that share common themes such as fantasy, parody and concern with morality.”