Getting There: Isabel Marant

French designer Isabel Marant (who launched her independently owned label in 1990 under the name Twen before renaming it in 1994) invited NOWNESS to follow her daily routine and talk about authenticity, femininity, design and perfection. Beginning her day with a swim, Marant says that she is inspired by everything from music to women in the streets and explains, “I love femininity in a woman, …

Hello! Selfie Miami

Like a real-life Tumblr page, artist, author and feminist Kate Durbin created “Hello!Selfie Miami,” a performance piece that occurred last week during Miami Art Week. The response to a man’s attack on Durbin’s piece about teen girls’s selfies manifested in a bunch of young women—dressed as mermaids and covered in Hello Kitty stickers—taking selfies for hours on end, with no interaction with their audience. Durbin …

“Metal is The New Black” by Quiet British Accent

Motorhead and Iron Maiden meets embroidery in this homage to heavy metal designs

Taking something traditionally wholesome and making it a little subversive and much more playful, London-based design duo Quiet British Accent has recently unveiled their Metal is The New Black project. For the series, QBA—aka Sharon and Jason Gale—have created three traditional home embroidery hoops, but are paying homage to metal lettering and graphics. The hand-drawn designs are machine-embroidered to perfection, and the results are playful, …