A look at Spring Summer 2013 from Australian label Vanishing Elephant. Best known for their prints and patterns, particularly across button down shirts, there’s plenty of the usual here for fans of the brand. Additionally, a slim selvedge jean has been added alongside cotton outerwear and some military inspired cuts.
The BMW Concept Ninety is a concept motorbike that celebrates the BMW Motorrad’s 90th Anniversary as well as the 40 years of the BMW R 90 S.
Revealed at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the BMW Concept Ninety was designed by the BMW Motorrad Design Team in collaboration with the customer bike company “Roland Sands Design”.
The concept pays homage to the BMW R 90 S presented in 1973, the first motorcycle with a front fairing fitted as standard, and reiterates its spirit of pure performance.
Below we report a video on the development process as well as the official design story. Also check the full gallery of images, which includes photos from the design process.
Back in 1973, BMW unveiled its flagship model in the “Stroke Six” range to the global public.
Boasting a top speed of just over 200 km/h (124 mph), it was one of the fastest production bikes of its day and won numerous prizes in a variety of race series.
The R 90 S was the first motorcycle ever to feature a front fairing as standard. Together with its sporty tail end and striking Daytona Orange paintwork, it endowed the sports-bike with an unmistakable identity.
The design pointed the way forward, and it wasn’t long before other manufacturers were gracing their motorcycles with aerodynamically honed front and rear fairings.
“The BMW R 90 S hails from an era in which bikers were regarded as outlaws,” comments Edgar Heinrich, Head of BMW Motorrad Design.
“There was something rebellious about it – it was fast, loud and wild. Pure emotion. And it has retained its fascination to this day.”
The BMW Concept Ninety resurrects this spirit of its predecessor, offering a “modern reiteration of the traditional essence of the motorcycle: the harmonious unison of man and machine – pure and emotional.”
“Today BMW motorcycles stand for perfection and function. That is what we have worked hard to achieve and something we are very proud of,” says Ola Stenegard, Head of Vehicle Design BMW Motorrad.
“But we want more than that. With the BMW Concept Ninety we want to show how reduced and pure an emotional BMW motorcycle can be.”
The BMW Concept Ninety takes to the stage as a sporty boxer with a battery of sophisticated details. Its basic proportions clearly take their cue from the BMW R 90 S, in particular for the fairing, tank, seat and tail.
The concept also picks up on the demarcation of the bike’s proportions that was a hallmark of the time.
The upper ergonomic and aerodynamic bodywork is visually separated from the black engine and chassis. The bodywork is hand crafted from aluminum.
Its brushed areas can be seen in the tinted areas of the front fairing and tank, as well as at the tail. The rich orange shade of the BMW Concept Ninety is also a nod to the legendary Daytona Orange paintwork of the BMW R 90 S. The BMW Concept Ninety delivers a very sporty interpretation of the front fairing.
But whereas halogen was technically cutting-edge in the BMW R 90 S era, contemporary LED elements light up the face of the BMW Concept Ninety, honoring its ancestor with a round headlamp design.
Seamlessly mounted behind it, the dynamically shaped tank ensures an optimal connection between rider and machine. Further along, the tank and seat melt harmoniously into each other. A steadily ascending line from the handlebars to the tail creates a slight wedge shape, lending the BMW Concept Ninety an almost ready to attack stance when viewed from the side – like a sprinter about to explode into action. Below the bodywork sits the air-cooled flat-twin boxer engine.
Entirely in black with contrast cut details this section of the bike symbolises concerted power, precision and performance. The mechanics and technology as a whole are purposely rendered visible and reflect a keen attention to detail.
Many of the parts of the BMW Concept Ninety were specifically manufactured by California-based custom bike specialists Roland Sands Design.
Key highlights include the front cover of the engine and the valve covers, that got painstakingly milled, as well as the exhaust system.
The parts were milled using a contrast cut process, which strikes an alluring contrast to the black mechanical components.
This technology was also applied to the rims, whose classic design recalls the racing triumphs of the BMW R 90 S in the 1970s.
The machining and technical implementation of the parts, are state of the art – like all the details on the BMW Concept Ninety.
“It was important for me to translate the special statement made by the BMW R 90 S into the present through the use of unique parts – employing emotional design and cutting-edge technology,” says Roland Sands of his approach to the bike.
Likewise designed and made by Roland Sands are the brake and clutch controls, the Paralever arm and the air filter under the seat. All these meticulously manufactured individual parts blend smoothly into the form language of the BMW Concept Ninety.
“Everything just fits together perfectly: the BMW technology, the BMW heritage and our custom parts complement each other beautifully,” comments Roland Sands on the result of this collaboration.
Edgar Heinrich adds: “The BMW Concept Ninety is sheer enjoyment in every respect – from the development of the idea to the sketching stage to the construction process. But above all when you’re riding it. It’s an absolute riding machine – just like the R 90 S was in its time.”
(Source: BMW)
After a universally acclaimed debut album and a lengthy period of career doldrums, Raekwon is enjoying a critical renaissance almost wholly predicated on his decision to play squarely into the expectations of his fans. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. 2 and Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang were a pair of traditionalist correctives that established him as the reigning torchbearer for the kung-fu-and-rare-grooves ethos that vaulted the Wu-Tang Clan into prominence 20 years ago. Rae’s latest albums have been stellar, but the spattering of interstitial mixtapes he’s released as supplements punctuate just how many swings it takes to score a run like Cuban Linx 2‘s “Surgical Gloves”. Rae has described his Lost Jewlry EP, a collection of recent unreleased tracks not being used for his next album, F.I.L.A. (Fly International Luxurious Art), as having the spirit of Nas’ The Lost Tapes. Unlike the Nas compilation, which housed a number of songs very much deserving of placement on the albums that left them behind, Lost Jewlry occasionally feels like a dumpster dive.
A closer parallel from Raekwon’ own discography would be Wu-Massacre, his 2010 one-off with Method Man and Ghostface Killah. Wu-Massacre was both hastily conceived and frustratingly short, and Lost Jewlry‘s brevity is similarly exacerbated by a dearth of fresh ideas. The EP leads with a round of lazily executed mafioso rap boilerplate. On “Prince of Thieves”, Rae lets go of a clever line about “Rondos with condos” but wastes the rest of the song on empty rich guy platitudes, his vocals lagging embarrassingly behind the beat. He changes gears for the ballad “Hold You Down”, but an emotionally vacant Faith Evans, uncharacteristically standard issue production from Buckwild, and a volley of lyrical clunkers like “Come here, young lady with the skin of a baby” and “No I’m not racial, I’m pro-black” collude to wreck the song. The first 10 of Lost Jewlry‘s 30 minutes are a total bore.
When Rae applies himself, he’s unflappable, though, and Lost Jewlry‘s mid-section sees a slight return to the pointillist renderings of street hustler narratives that color his finest work. Rae spends much of the remainder of Lost Jewlry chewing through a series of uptempo productions and neoclassicist break beat workouts like a legend doing warm-ups. But the spots where he shines also serve to illuminate the castoff nature of the project. Late in the EP he tries his hand at another song about women with “86′” and turns in a wistful verse detailing the rise and fall of an easygoing friends-with-benefits arrangement. It would be a winner if he didn’t squander a third of it talking trash over DJ Thoro’s plush Mtume loop. What’s true of “86′” is true of Lost Jewlry as a whole. There’s quality material here if you’re willing to sift through the filler.
The accelerated release cycles and constant crop-dusting of new material that are becoming industry norm in hip-hop have created a pace that many artists struggle to keep. It suits some and hinders others. Flooding the market worked to the advantage of a beat-jacking demagogue with nothing to lose like 2002 50 Cent, a midlevel talent suddenly gone supernova like 2006 Lil Wayne, and a dependably consistent workaholic like 2012 Curren$y. But a deliberate, formalist storyteller like Raekwon shouldn’t fret over cobbling together mixtapes and EPs to keep his buzz warm between albums, especially when stopgap releases like this and 2012′s Unexpected Victory come out as gossamer and inessential as they do. Lost Jewlry feels so undercooked next to even the slightest of Raekwon’s recent album cuts that you wonder why it had to be released at all.
The concept was created directly in 3D as a virtual model. Razvan Radion explains: “I have tried to create a concept with a slightly different philosophy than the current BMW design”.
Among the design references of the amateur designer is the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti.
Even though it was styled independently, the car has some reminiscences of the current BMW design -especially in the front end, which has a face similar to the i8.
(Source: Razvan Radion via BoldRide)
We look to Comme des Garçons once again for ingenuity and a fresh outlook on design. This seemingly simple baseball inspired shirt adds a touch of sport to any wardrobe with the seam detailing around the neck and placket. Made from lightweight cotton poplin, the shirt has a seamed back yoke with double pleats, a curved hem and chest pocket. Now available online.
London designer Chieh Ting Huang presents simple accessories via his ‘Nothing Fancy’ collection. In an interview with Fast Co. he talks about his desire to create a durable alternative to the travelcard wallet he’d be carrying around in an attempt to cut down on bulk. One piece of leather and a custom elastic band, no clasps, snaps or any other unnecessary fittings, he offers an iPhone holder, wallet and coin purse. Still in the prototype phase, while the idea isn’t a fresh one, its execution and design most definitely make it worth a look. More in the gallery, press play below.
