Branded residences have become the luxury hotel industry's favorite revenue strategy, characterized by recognizable names and a 30% premium for the brand badge, often resulting in real estate that borrows a brand's reputation without its design philosophy.
"It has been estimated that one million five hundred thousand houses each year for a period of 10 years will be needed to relieve the urgent housing problem of this country. The enormity of such a need cannot even be partially satisfied by building techniques as we have known and used them in the past."
The dress, conversely, is 80 years old, and it isn't his. It's by Pierre Balmain - Tron shows me a René Gruau illustration of the look where, with a platter hat, white fox stole and opera-length gloves, the look is borne back ceaselessly into the past. It's an illustration in a book titled The New French Style, of Balmain outfits with an essay by Alice B Toklas, the partner of Gertrude Stein.
The Phone (4a) is the clearest expression of that shift yet. The pink colorway, the refined glyph interface, the periscope camera quietly migrating down to the base model, none of it screams for attention. It rewards it. This is a phone designed for people who will notice things gradually, over weeks of use, rather than in the first thirty seconds of an unboxing video.
At first, you register dark, richly grained wood. Beautiful, but expected. Then your eyes drift downward to the legs, and something shifts. They're not straight. They're not tapered. They're curved, splayed, mid-stride, like a large foot caught in the quiet moment between lifting and landing. It's subtle enough to feel elegant. It's strange enough to feel unforgettable.
The Ichiban electric motorcycle prototype features a dual motor system that delivers 45 kW of power and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds.
"The Nintendo Switch is basically a handheld shrine to our favorite digital worlds; a device we'll clutch on commutes, huddle with on couches, and rage-quit less when it’s protected."
