Sorry for the prolonged silence — it’s budget time at the design center and I’ve been buried in Excel spread sheets. But one thing that’s got me coming up for air is the innovative nature of Charles Luck — when my former Washington Spaces colleague, Meghan Marino went to them after the magazine closed, I started paying more attention. I was somewhat surprised to hear that they search out trends from the likes of Maison et Objet in Paris — a stone center? Ok, well, check it out:
Not something a typical homeowner would expect when he or she is looking for stone in a kitchen, bath, or patio, huh?
Well, Charles Luck has teamed up with Virginia Commonwealth University’s fashion design and merchandising department to promote some of its stone as inspiration for fashion. Students were assigned to find a pattern in stone and interpret it into clothes. The photo directly above, for example, was inspired from Charles Lucks’ Struttura line of mosaics by Kate Bruce of Mechanicsville, Va.:
All of the students’ work is chronicled on Charles Luck’s blog, Perspectives.
Here’s another great pattern, which has been turned into fashion:
First there was Blue agate,
Which Vanja Smitran of Richmond turned into this preliminary sketch:
And then there was this amazing result:
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a photo shoot taken in a rock quarry, but Vogue should watch out: Charles Luck’s Boscobel quarry is a stark, elegant backdrop, especially for fashion inspired by its geology.
Here’s another interpretation from Jennie Onisk of Baldwinsville, NY, with classic marble as the starting point:
The sketch that followed:
And the result:
And here’s a really cool project, taken from the ladies’ room at Charles Luck’s studio:
Tess Priselac, a junior from Virginia Beach, Va., put the pattern of this marble, which was inspired by Turkish rugs, into the computer to come up with her sketch:
And then she produced this outfit:
Wow! And that’s not all: She was so inspired by the stones that she sewed the real thing into the jacket that goes with this ensemble:
VCU is really coming up with great design talent in all areas. This summer, I wrote a story for The Washington Post (right here) on the production designers for “Mad Men” and “Sex and the City” — who grew up together and then went on to VCU to study set design. The university is clearly an incubator of great design talent, and three cheers go to Charles Luck for recognizing — and leveraging — that talent.
Similar Posts:
- Charming Chalk | via Desire*Design*Delight
- Fires up a Stone Fireplace
- Hydroculture Contest: Leave a Comment to Enter
- Blooming lotus-shaped prayer hall to be unveiled in India
- What Will My Home Look Like?
