With a tolerance for cold exceeded only by his outright fetish for high heels, the London-based street art phantom known as INSA spent the past three weeks in -35 degree temperatures carving out his own visionary art suite at Sweden’s legendary ICE HOTEL in the Arctic Circle. A boarding phenomenon unto itself, the hotel is an annual construction that allows guests to eat, sleep, and whatever else might happen on a Reindeer skin in between eating and sleeping, in the cold comfort of a hotel and bed constructed entirely of native ice & snow. A sculptural palace akin to the fortress of solitude in its crystalline grandeur, the hotel is a marvel of chainsaw-carved architecture beneath the haunting lights of the aurora borealis. Insa’s room, is of course, dominated by a pair of 6-foot-tall legs in high heels straddling a bed whose headboard bears the artist’s trademark interlocking swirly heels graphic, transforming the space into a sacrilegious space of worship for the truly devoted. If your fat layers are properly developed and you fancy a stay, unleash your reservation by clicking HERE. Meanwhile, HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Finally, we get a closer look at the forthcoming chair/sculpture by Dutch designer & artist PARRA who created the edition in conjunction with character & toy design house TOYKYO and debuted it at his show “Boo to the Hoo” at Paris’ LAZY DOG GALLERY earlier this month. No word yet on edition size, price, or colorways, but this little beauty is a must-have nonetheless. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Obsession for the iconic Eames chair springs eternal… 

We at Supertouch are diehard design geeks and avowed chair fetishists, but it appears one of our readers has one upped us. Permanently…

Sitting on yer ass as fine art…

Just in time for this week’s kickoff of ART BASEL 2009, Miami resident & baller extraordinaire PHARRELL has just taken delivery of a brand new 7′ fiberglass KAWS “Chum” sculpture at his oceanfront pad. The only one of its kind in this color, the sculpture is part of the extremely limited-edition series kickstarted by the Brooklyn-based XX-eyed artist at his NYC show last month at the GERING & LOPEZ GALLERY where a hot pink version of the familiar Michelin Man awed fans. Look for a new colorway to debut at KAWS’ upcoming show at LA’s HONOR FRASER GALLERY in February ‘09…

Girls stalk Pharrell, Skateboard P stalks KAWS…

“Kanye West is on the phone, he’ll take two…”

The most retro-futuristic place to have a pint in old London is unfortunately the prohibitively members-only HOME HOUSE where the British-Iraqui architect ZAHA HADID recently installed her eye-popping, Jetsons-esque SPACE BAR. Sculpted in metal and finished in matching silver leather all wrapped in a deep coat of glossy automotive metalflake enamel, this to-die-for watering outpost when contrasted by the club’s vintage 250-year-old interior could easily double as the set of the finale of Kubrick’s 2001…

Have a seat, but check your wallet at the door…

Being admitted design snobs and chair porn junkies here at Supertouch, we couldn’t help but stand at attention when we learned that one of the most gorgeous midcentury seats of all time, the very clinically-named CH07 SHELL CHAIR designed by HANS WEGNER, was being reissued after decades of being MIA. The elegant three-legged shell chair was originally introduced in 1963 and only a few limited series were produced before the project came to a standstill. It wasn’t until the chair was relaunched briefly in 1997 after 34 years of oblivion that the seat finally made its mark on the design world. This special masterbuilt anniversary edition is limited to 250 pieces each of which bears a numbered sterling silver plate, and is crafted from “zebrano” veneer (so named for the wood’s stripes). The only problem? The price, of course. With the world economy on the verge of collapse, the nearly $5,000 USD pricetag this little beauty carries might be more than prohibitive for the average consumer. Of course, bad economies do breed dreamers…

And while we’re on the topic of shell chairs, now’s the perfect time to watch this little period film on the creation of the ultimate mid-century seat design, the EAMES SHELL CHAIR:

If only most girls were this curvy…

Speaking of design nerds, one would be hard-pressed to be counted among the ranks of the typographic elite without this sand-cast 6 1/2 lb aluminum AMPERSAND SCULPTURE by Delaware’s own HOUSE INDUSTRIES on your shelf as a badge of honor. The perfect accessory for hurtling across the room during a domestic dispute or simply as a weight in a pillowcase to beat back escaped convicts with, the glory that is this sexily rendered ampersand (even the word is sexy) is the perfect gift for that font fanatic in your life. Or, if it’s used in the aforementioned pillowcase, to remove them from it.

Just one of the myriad uses for your very own Ampersand…

No, it’s not called the “iBike” but maybe it should be…

From Italian designers FABIO BORTOLANI and ERMANNO RIGHI of DOVETUSAI, Comes this incredibly mod fixie known as the PLUS BIKE that incorporates internal light projectors into the oversized top tube. It doesn’t look fast but it definitely looks cool. We’re guessing it’s for featherweights only.