The Holden Archive

Prada WTF seriously.

sflovestory — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:45:05 -0800

Originally appeared in Urban Air Market: urbanairmarket.com/blog
Written by Holden Pumphrey
Monday, 16 January 2012 12:22

hanks to my bridgeroom and of all places, Gizmodo (!) I’ve found what are quite possibly the silliest women’s shoes ever designed. Oh Prada. Oh Miuccia Prada.

A woman whose ready-to-wear aesthetic I generally like, and might love if I thought it wasn’t ridiculous to own such things.

I appreciate a woman at the helm of a company that once swore it was not a woman’s place to work in industry. And I’m not a total fun-less girl. But let’s just look at these.

Here is one, below.

Yes, friends. The Prada 2012 Spring Shoe Collection is modeled after “classic cars”.

Seriously.

And this is hardly the worst offender. This particular red shoe, is rather meek, if atrociously designed, compared to its sisters.

My first question was: Do the tail lights light-up?! I might have given extra points for that.

It’s a darling concept. So Italimericana! And what do Italian and American women love?SHOES! What do Italian and American men love? CARS! Will these shoes cause an uptick in heterosexual couplings? Or is this just another sad and pathetic way for a girl to appeal to a man.

I think football ~~slippers~~ stacked wedges should be next.

Let me be clear when I say the concept is cute. It just is incredibly poor design. How many thingamajogs can be found on one of these babies? From a company that was once known for its clean line and aesthetic?

Calvin Klein, help us!

But so, so poorly executed are the shoes that they, failure of failures, look cheap. Here are a few others, below.

Perhaps Prada is returning to its 1980s proclaimed roots of reverse-snobbery, but one could hardly call these the anti-status shoes that the once exceedingly popular, verging on democratic nylon backpack once was. (No, really, people ate that up then.)

In the late 90s, Prada’s continued success was attributed to its “working-class” theme which, Ginia Bellafante at the New York Times Magazine proclaimed, “was becoming chic in the high-tech, IPO-driven early 1990s.” I see that is a theme they’ve dumped in the trash, here. Or, maybe the shoes are for mechanic’s wives.

Much like, okay exactly like Louis Vuitton, Prada began way back in Italy by Mario and brother Martino Prada. LV and Prada made luggage for the wealthy. LV and Prada (and near every other luxury brand you can think of) is now owned by enormous big-business conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennesey, after being sold from the equally large Gucci Group.

Today, Prada is attempting to learn from Dr. Evil Bernard Arnault, and has begun its own conglomerate, The Prada Group. As of press time, Prada owns Miu Miu (Prada’s second-line), Church’s shoes, and — HOW RICH IS THIS? — The Original Car Shoe.*

All groups (LVMH, Gucci Group and Prada Group) make everything on an assembly line (aside from a miniscule amount of special ordered luggage).

I’m sorry to tell college girls that might be reading this, but your “very special” Prada/Gucci/LV bag has many, if not most parts, made and assembled in China, not Italy.

Yet there’s hope. Spring 2012 is really “over” as a season. Do a little dumpster diving around, say, Pacific Heights in San Francisco and you’re bound to come up with one of these hot rods.

You could also wait for the soon-to-be-here knockoffs. Or you could buy yourself an old classic car for a similar price to these shoes and most likely have cash left over to fix’er up. Vroom Vroom.

—

* One of my sources, a luxury-brand “insider” to a company I cannot divulge, says The Prada Group may have gone PLOP! on its own and defected to one of the two biggies, Gucci Group or LVMH but we can’t confirm that at this time. They tend to act a bit like Ouroboros, no? Even if Prada is not, in fact, in the lair of Dr. Evil Bernart Arnault, we can confirm that Prada is quite far form anything we’d consider “independent” design and at some point it becomes like sniffing apples and apples made out of 24K.

Keep your noggin' fresh whilst listening to these writers (better than doing housework without them)

sflovestory — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:06:05 -0800

amous bookshop in my town, City Lights has a podcast series. And below there are not one, but two new shows for your enjoyment. The first is Nelson George reading from The Plot Against Hip Hop (which is my first choice) and the other is Stephen Elliot reading some of the late Charles Bukowski’s work.

Thanks City Lights!

Links are below. Enjoy everyone!

1. Nelson George reading from The Plot Against Hip Hop
http:// www.citylightspodcast.com/ nelson-george-reading-from-the- plot-against-hip-hop/

2. Stephen Elliot reading Bukowski. Happy New Year!
http:// www.citylightspodcast.com/ stephen-elliott-reads-vernes-wi fe-from-charles-bukowskis-abse nce-of-the-hero/

TONIGHT: 120 MINUTES

sflovestory — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:44:37 -0800

o yo yo yo. How long has it been since you’ve gone out and listened to something truly badass and not totally commercially hyped ala Kayne?

OK, OK, maybe you have done this recently. But how long has it been since you’ve seen the art of laser badboys Future Weapons? You could be deaf and this would still be worth the mere $5 entry. In San Francisco.

also in GOLD version!

t’s absolutely charming to hear some humility from the...

sflovestory — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:15:00 -0800

t’s absolutely charming to hear some humility from the young Mick.

his is a city of marvelous photographs. sfhaps: via...

sflovestory — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:13:00 -0800

his is a city of marvelous photographs.

sfhaps:

via taapotsonfire, avgoustos

want to buy this. I am so addicted to red, I really...

sflovestory — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:10:00 -0800

want to buy this. I am so addicted to red, I really am.

summ3rg0th:

Dasha Shishkin

ixed thoughts here. First I think, “Graphically,...

sflovestory — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:00:00 -0800

ixed thoughts here. First I think, “Graphically, cool.” Then I think, “Body painting is creepy.” After that I realize this body is not painted. Then I wonder how difficult it was to get the nipple in the right place of the light projection. Then I think of the circus. Then I think of Germans and the German word for nipple (direct translation: breast wart). I don’t know if this is good. “I don’t even know what’s good anymore.”

My Top Ten for the Week:

sflovestory — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:00:00 -0800

et another (overdue) installation of music you might like.

1) Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train”. I’ve been working my best on this for karaoke. I’ve been into old country-type rock’n’roll lately. Wonder if it has to do with my recent trip to the South. This song is on the soundtrack for the Jim Jarmusch film “Mystery Train”. It’s just awesome, and so are all the other versions on the soundtrack. First watch the film, then buy it.

2) The Association’s “Never My Love”. I could listen to this a hundred times and still think it’s one of the most romantic songs of all time.

3) Beirut’s “Postcards From Italy”. Here’s a live version, which is done nicely.

4) Coralie Clement’s “La Mer Opale”. Whisper-singing French girls are hot.

5) The Insect’s “Never Met A Girl Like You Before”. I very much like this cover.

6) Jose Gonzales’ “Hearbeats”. I just loved the television commercial associated with this song. Which I’m going to show you because, though it is commercial, it’s also beautiful art. Plus, filmed in San Francisco!

7) ? and the Mysterians (yes that’s the band name) with “96 Tears”. This guy’s outfit is AMAZING. More rockers need to go out like this. Enough of the Kurt Cobain reinventions. Glam, baby!

8) Bobby Darin’s version of “La Mer”. Not immensely different from Charles Trenet’s but I own just about every incarnation of this song. This is a funny live version.

9) Clifford Brown and (my favorite drummer) Max Roach’s “These Foolish Things”. Sadly, I couldn’t find it on YouTube. This is definitely an album you want to put in your collection, though. Go listen to samples on iTunes or whatever. These two are fantastic.

10) Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon”. If you don’t like this song you have no dreaminess about you. Also, fuck Michael Buble. Here’s a charming live version before the drinking caught up with Old Blue Eyes.

ENJOY!

Urban Air Market

sflovestory — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:46:00 -0800

t always happens this way. As soon as I get into blogging again, I get hired to blog again. Writing begets more writing. This is a good thing.

Urban Air Market is the lucky forum. I’ve been involved in this project for years in many different capacities and I’m passionate about the event and the company’s mission. Essentially, the Market is a curated design/fashion/art show held in SF and LA twice a year. They feature sustainable and independent designers and artists, vetted by my dear friend Danielle Cohen thus always of the highest quality of skill, so they get a lot of love.

The site isn’t live yet, but you can check out their Facebook page here.

I’m already excited about who we’ll be featuring (a secret for now) when we go live in January.

There’s certainly no shortage of fantastic artists in the LA and Bay Area, but if you know of anyone who is particularly special, please please let me know.

lindstifa: murryblue: this sweater. this sweater. Gus I can’t...

sflovestory — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:07:00 -0800

lindstifa:

murryblue:

this sweater.

this sweater.

Gus I can’t get over this. I just can’t. I can’t stop laughing and I can’t decide if this is the best idea ever or if it’s just really really hilarious, or both.

This sweater was made for a variety of jazz hands.

eah, I’m pretty much WTF, NOOOO on this.

Poem Book Recommendations from Lime Tree

sflovestory — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:00:06 -0800

ime Tree is a poetry-focused blog kept by the poet and my friend K. Silem Mohammed. He pretty much has his finger on small press publications and has kindly put together a list of ten recommended books from this year.

And then he went ahead and added ten more.

Thanks, K.!

(It’s worth clicking the link to see the book designs alone.) Enjoy.

very much like how this photograph blurs lines between...

sflovestory — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:32:00 -0800

very much like how this photograph blurs lines between photography and painting. I don’t believe you can look at this and not imagine the work after gravity kicks in. It’s almost an installation really.

—

play-dumbdead:

watercube:

7knotwind:

the stunning work of www.shinichimaruyama.com
via: www.graphic-exchange.com

We Like Poems Here

sflovestory — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:08:00 -0800

We Like Poems Here:

y dear friend, Sivan Butler-Rotholz, is the poetry editor of As It Ought To Be. Her selections are always poignant examples of excellent progressive, contemporary poetry happening in the United States.* She has a mean and beautiful eye.

Her note on this Saturday’s poet:

Part contemplation, part meditation, part manifesto, today’s poem considers the world of the word, the sentence, and the book. Here we have a body constructed upon the bone structure of Language poetry, shrouded in prose form and driven by syntax, sharing its spine like a Siamese twin with the idea of the book. Dense with ideas and littered with intimacy, eroticism, and nature in all her reproductive glory, journey through the mind of the poet with today’s exploration of “The book.”

The blog itself is a testament to the inter-linking of art and politics and run by some of the finest minds in both spheres of thought. Go look.

*Full disclosure: this writer has been published by AIOTB.

The NYT on rock photographer Mick Rock

sflovestory — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:49:00 -0800

The NYT on rock photographer Mick Rock :

“Back then, to pick up the hottest women you had to wear makeup.”

hat’s more interesting than the artist is the slideshow. I miss that stark freshness of rock photography. Fantastic work.

Coming up in arts this week: Dieter Rams & Bladerunner

sflovestory — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:05:00 -0800

THURSDAY

e are very excited to be attending SFMoma’s director’s cut screening of Bladerunner (which, I will admit, I’ve never seen before). Come on! I wasn’t even a year old when it came out!. I do know it is an Important and Influential Film, and will probably come off as more prescient than it did even thirty years ago.

It’s part of an exhibition of Dieter Rams design legacy. You should also check out the main exhibition of Rams’ work in the museum. I want every last gadget. Even the beard trimmers.

INFO:

Introduced by Stella Lochman, education and public programs assistant, SFMOMA

Phyllis Wattis Theater
7:00 p.m.

Ridley Scott, 1982, 117 min., 35 mm

A landmark of the science fiction and the neo-noir genres, Blade Runner is also awash with design objects by Rams. Lochman points out the objects used to create the film’s futuristic background. Set in a dystopic Los Angeles, Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford as a retired cop fighting human-like androids. Lauded for its design and effects, Blade Runner was nominated for Academy Awards in set design and art direction.

Part of Inspired by Dieter Rams.

$5 general; free for SFMOMA members or with museum admission (requires a free ticket, which can be picked up in the Haas Atrium).

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/1980#ixzz1gXWIlpvG
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

hese ads are bullshit. . Fashion shouldn’t ever be linked...

sflovestory — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:17:00 -0800

hese ads are bullshit.

Fashion shouldn’t ever be linked to death. Let’s start with that. I’ve been a “hanger” and when I look back on those photos, I start to see myself as everyone else saw me at the time: sickly-looking.

::thanks to Brittney for sharing

Oh hello again.

sflovestory — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:11:00 -0800

t’s been a long but fruitful hiatus, and your girl is back.

PHOTO: CHRISTINA MCNEILL

What to expect from The Holden Archive in the coming months:

Art reviews - There is so much happening in the San Francisco gallery scene that I’d love to share with you.
Less labels, more fashion - If you’re like me, you’ve grown up a bit and have truly gotten over label whoredom. If not, I highly recommend you read Dana Thomas’ Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (Penguin, New York: 2007). One of my fashion heroes, Catie of Cuffington.com, gave this to me and it is enlightening to say the least.
More of what I do in art - It’s a tough road to hoe, but I am a working artist, and I’d love to share the process (and maybe even finished products) with you.

I’d also like to do some more interviews, Q&As, and connect with YOU, dear readers. Even though this is a Tumblr-powered site, The Holden Archive is anything but a one-way street. So, if you’d like, please “Ask me anything” and start a discussion.

For those of you who like more fashion-centric sites, I recommend:

Cuffington

FashionForWriters

and

TheSFStyle

And finally, for those of you left interested in my general life-craziness (love, engagements, marriage: all from a City Girl’s perspective, you can go see my other blog, SFLoveStory (there’s cool pictures there too that have nothing to do with anything in the lovely Tumblr way)…yeah, it’s a big messy diary.

xx,

Holden

About The Holden Archive

sflovestory — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:07:00 -0800

bout The Holden Archive!

Hello! It’s been a long but fruitful hiatus, and your girl is back. Like so many blogs, there has been a contextual shift from mostly fashion to all arts. It’s too difficult to write about one and not reference the others. I’m a working artist, my fiancé is a working artist, life is filled with art and I can’t keep it all to myself. While I live in San Francisco and we have a focus on Bay Area artists, inspiration and recognition comes from all over the world.

My little mission is to expose the corners of the art world with which I fall madly in love.

This is a place where we talk about art. Thanks for visiting.

This is me, emerging from the dark, dark abyss of writers’ block.

Photo: Christina McNeill

Here’s a little more about me (and I’m changing it from the third to first person, you’re welcome):

BIOGRAPHY

My professional career in the arts began in writing and painting, but I don’t subscribe to any single media. Current projects include rock’n’roll photography, writing and photography for Urban Air Market, a book-length poem manuscript entitled Catamaran, a collection manuscript, a visual study of nostalgia and public transportation.

Past work includes movie stills for Rob Nilsson’s feature film The Steppes, music video cinematography, multimedia painting collaboration with artist Jason Grohman, graphic design for political and literary magazines, electronic projection installation, the co-edited (with Aaron Selverston) bookscape Leviathan, fashion productions and creative direction. Holden was recently the AD for a short fashion film for the San Francisco Bay Area Fashion Network.

I’m interested in: sexual discovery in girlhood, bees, mental illness, pornography, sea-faring vessels, rock’n’roll, urbanity and surrealism.

I was born in Chicago and currently live in San Francisco with my fiancé, musician Ryan Joseph of I Am Animal, Prima (our chihuahua-mutt), and two goldfish, Bianca Jagger and Meepers.

PRESS/PUBS

Photographer&Model | Podcast Episode 61 Photog/Editor Holden Pumphrey

As It Ought To Be | One Good Thing About You Is You’re Always Looking For Light Refraction

Broke-Ass Stuart’s Goddamn Website | Broke-Ass of the Week - Holden

The Sanfranista | Brushing up on Latin with Missing Piece

Muni Diaries | Photographer Kristen Holden: Love Stories on Muni

As It Ought To Be | Who Says

San Jose Mercury News | Budding poet finding her muse

ArtBusiness.com | Mode: Meme

UCSC.edu | Recognition

What Happens

sflovestory — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:48:23 -0700

Sorry it’s been so long, darlings. I’ve been in love.

In Memorium

sflovestory — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:57:05 -0800