Kitchen delight: Gorenje designed by Karim Rashid

Our apologies for a very straightforward title, but how better to describe a collection of luxury kitchen appliances when two of our favorite names unite to produce this colorful kitchen collection, which makes your kitchen become a favorite living space in your home (if that's not yet the case).

After very successful cooperation with Ora Ïto couple of years ago (we blogged about this here) , our favorite kitchen appliances provider Gorenje has presented a Brand New Star design collection at this year’s IFA, Berlin, signed by the king of color himself, Karim Rashid.

As Gorenje puts it, Gorenje collection designed by Karim Rashid is a minimal fusion of functionality, technology, interactivity, and purity. The full length handle is both the visual and the interaction focal point of the collection.The vertical LED light stripe allows several colour versions, providing the option to adjust the appearance of the appliance to one’s current mood, or indeed one’s lifestyle.

"I have wanted to design appliances for ages. It was a great exercise in rethinking the banal. Too often we are relegated to tired archetypes. Design is about shaping contemporaneity. Design is critical to our environments, to our daily experiences, our products, our everything,” comments Karim Rashid who has designed products ranging from vacuum cleaners to furniture, children’s toys to luggage, to television, to perfume bottles, to lighting. He also designs spaces – hotels, clubs etc. and – from now on – Gorenje household appliances which, incidentally, he is using himself.

“Over the past years Gorenje has proven to be a company that has a strong interest in contemporary design. I have been following and appreciating their successful collections. When they contacted me to design the new Gorenje collection it took very little discussion to get the project started. I knew the company also because I do a lot of work in Eastern Europe and have an apartment in Belgrade with Gorenje appliances.” Check out how he re-designed traditional Majik restaurant in Belgrade.

Majik restaurant in Belgrade by Karim

Switch Restaurant by Karim

World Lounge by Karim

With additional new collections Gorenje Simplicity and Gorenje Retro (about this one some other time), effectively combining smart technology, excellent design & style, care for the environment, high quality and great value, Gorenje really does inspire. We are shure that Gorenje designed by Karim Rashid will be a success, and we are looking forward to what their future step will be.

PUBLIC SPACE, elevated to new heights

Half a mile long, the first section of New York's latest park runs for nine blocks above the west side of Manhattan, along an old elevated railroad track.


Ever since the first (exciting) winning renderings of James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio & Renfro were unveiled in 2005, we've been waiting anxious for this project to be completed, finally the first phase of the HIGH LINE has been opened to the public this week.


Since the beginning of its development, the design for this park, has been the favorite cause of New York’s rich and powerful. Celebrities attended fund-raisers on its deck. City officials endorsed it. Developers salivated over it, knowing it would raise land values.

I was anxious to imagine it overrun with tourists and film crews. I imagined Carrie Bradshaw stumbling down its promenade with a broken heel, weeping over Mr. Big. But the actual big issue here was to really retain the tranquility of the abandoned railroad with wild nature, which had become a haunting experience just to stroll across it.


A series of low scruffy gardens, punctuated by a fountain and a few quiet lounge areas, that unfold in a lyrical narrative and seem to float above the noise and congestion below.

As Nicolai Ouroussoff (architectural critic of the NY Times) writes: “The High Line is one of the most thoughtful, sensitively designed public spaces built in New York in years.”






An unexpected aspect of the project (a positive one) is the degree to which it alters your perspective on the city. Guiding you through a secret landscape of derelict buildings, narrow urban canyons and river views, it allows you to make entirely new visual connections between different parts of Manhattan while maintaining a remarkably intimate relationship with the surrounding streets.

We most remind the struggle of the architects to regulate access to the park and their proposal. Almost every developer working in the meatpacking district, at one point or another, was begging to have an apartment building or hotel connect directly to the gardens.Remarkably, the architects won this battle and maintained only four access points between Gansevoort and 20th Streets. This adds considerably to the park’s low-key mood, and reinforces the notion that it is a place for a quiet stroll, an escape from the trendy neighborhoods below.

I keep picturing Carrie Bradshaw on the High Line, and it terrifies me!

for more images of the recent opened highline, check this galleries:

MINISONG gallery

JEBI.JEZA gallery

A NEW YORK TIMES SLIDESHOW

AND ALSO NYT HAS A NICE VIDEO

Oktober, Gorenje and Ora-ïto on Russian Fashion Week

If you haven't heard about Slovenia yet, you should start looking out for it. Only 2 mio country, but with 4 NBA players (Mexico with more than 105 mio people has only 1, and Spain the world champion has 5), 5 olympic medals this year, and so many great fashion designers, creative people and such a cool wibe.

My fav Slovenian fashion brand is Oktober. As its name holds some nostalgia and 'revolution', it indeed signifies a real romantic revolution. Together with one of the best home appliances provider, Gorenje, they do some really cool stuff.

Like last year, also this year they were winning over Russian lovers at Russian Fashion Week in Moscow. Gorenje presented theit new collection of home appliances, Gorenje Ora-Ïto White. Their models were wearing white Oktober dresses, so as DJ SHE, one of the most famous Russian DJs.

Comme des Garcons for H&M

The countdown has begun. 8 days to go. And then - NEW YORK CITY here I come!

My to-do, to-see, to-buy list is getting the shape (and length).

Today I added one more necessary stop: H&M. Not just because there you can always find at last some detail or garment which you can use to freshen up your warderobe, but especially because on November 13th they are launching their Comme des Garcon collection. Wow. Love it! The collection is quite impressive. It consists of women’s, men’s and accessories along with perfume. I sure do hope there will be something left when I get there...

I was telling you already about my fascination and admiration for Japanese designers. Among them amazing Rei Kawakubo and her work for Comme des Garcons. Before i was able just to admire her work (admit it, it is way more than just clothes), but with this cooperation with H&M, which make it more accessible and, not the least important, usable, I will be also able to wear them. Yay!

I loved this styling, which appeared in Vogue Japan.

Designer Dolls

Have you ever bought something only because it was 'designer' regardless of practicality or cost? Do you faithfully attend the various furniture fairs around the world from Milan to Shanghai? Do you have a favourite designer? Do words like Icon, Blueprint and Wallpaper mean more to you than a random string of nouns? If so, then welcome to The Cult of Design.

Sometimes we love designers more than their designs, a designer involves personality, character and presence, something which could be in some cases more peculiar or stringer than their actual work. Olivia Lee who is graduating this weeks from London's Central Saint Martin pays homage to those who might have influenced her in her school years. Design Dolls, is a limited edition set of 3 figurines of famous designers, right now featuring Zaha Hadid, Jaime Hayon and Karim Rashid.

Olivia certainly used this project as her graduating project, It came to her from the observation that increasingly today, designer personalities are quite literally become synonymous with the objects they design.

She studied the visual characteristics and distinct personalities of the designers as well as their products, and wondered what would happen if she merged these two entities together.

What would happen if the designer became a product? How would that differ from the designer being closely associated with the product? Would the designers appreciate such a project? And what implications would their varied reactions have in relation to the culture of design?

*In her own words:
The project started of as quite an introspective one and was born when I realised that I had a very well-organised collection of brochures and material from design festivals, I had massive collection of photographs of pure furniture and I faithfully attended design lectures as well as I could. I started to wonder if maybe I was a little weird, obsessive and if other people like me existed.

The process involved carefully studying the aesthetics of the designer’s work as well as their public persona. What is interesting is that without having to consult them, I only needed a search engine and the College library to do my research which goes to show how accessible their personalities and work are.


The most challenging aspect of executing these figures was finding the right balance between the figurative caricature of the designers and the references to their objects. But it was also very fun finding the links, for example between Zaha Hadid’s FLOW vases and her love for weary Issey Miyake coats and black dresses.