When it comes to table settings,  I don’t have a clue.  If I remember to put a knife, fork and spoon beside the plate, I’m satisfied.  Napkins are a bonus.  The Swedish glass company Orrefors Kosta Boda sent me a press release about table settings for Christmas, which might be inspiring or helpful  if I celebrated the holiday.   They let six people of  various degrees of celebrity design table settings.   Hip-hop artist Adam Tensta seemed to do a good job. (…)

High-heels can be liberating for women, adding height, improving posture and suggesting a sexy identity. (…)

Designs by Ulrika Hydman-Vallien
 
Afficiandos of fine art glass will not have to travel all the way to Småland this summer, where the so-called Kingdom of Glass is located.  For the first time ever, all eight of Kosta Boda’s main designers are jointly presenting their work at NK department stores in Stockholm and Gothenberg.   One of my favourites is Ulrika Hydman-Vallien, whose delightfully decadent works will be shown in the bookstore on the third floor of NK Stockholm. (…)

 
A few days ago I dropped by Beyond Retro’s giant vintage clothing emporium behind the Åhlens department store in downtown Stockholm.  I was impressed.  The way the garments are displayed, the styles and the music made the shopping experience very pleasant.   As it says on its website, this London-based chain provides “vintage clothing for the sartorially obsessed.”  A sense of the store’s attitude can possibly be detected in this fuzzy photo I took of two of the staff.   When I got home I discovered that the sleeves on the  Western-style shirt I bought were too short for me.  How could I have missed that? (…)

There seems to finally be a shift away from the cold-hearted hotel rooms we’ve seen in recent years with all the white-on-white charm of hospital hallways. (…)

Twenty-two top designers from Scandinavia and other parts of the world have created new forms of the traditional curved knife used by the Sámi, the aboriginal people of northern Scandinavia. (…)

Dos Kids – Design Passion 2009 from Dos Family on Vimeo. (…)

The Beefeater Design Challenge, a design competition the British gin producer has sponsored in Stockholm for the past three years, was won in 2009 by Louise Hederström of Malmö. (…)