BARBIE VS. LEGO

Barbie and Lego. I bet they are the two things one can easily associate his/her childhood with. It was almost a tradition for boys to get a box full of Lego while girls got their Barbie dolls dressed in whatever the theme was for Christmas presents. It would be interesting to combine these two because they are such great childhood/pop icons and yet haven't been seen at the same time.

DESIGNER TOYS

Designer toys is a term used to describe toys and other collectibles that are produced in limited editions and created by artists and design. They are a new platform for affordable Art & Design and have been embraced not only by geeks and kidults but also the mainstream.

Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines a kidult as: ‘an adult who like doing or buying thing that are intended for children. (Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991)
There is a very strong relationship between geeks, kidults and toys. The embrace of geekdom accelerated towards the end of the nineties with the digital revolution (The Electronic Beats, March 2008, p.48) and, about the same time, the first designer toys appeared. (Crawford, 2005, Introduction)

Collecting unrealistic figurines of their favourite super heroes and cartoon characters is one of the peculiarities of geeks. Jeremy from Jeremyville is an artist, toy designer, an animator and a self-proclaimed geek. This geek has collaborated with MTV, Coca Cola, Lego, Converse, Adidas, etc. Too good to be true for a geek? When I asked whether he saw himself as an outsider or an insider on an email interview on 04 May 2010 he answered:

I always have been the weird kid ever since I was a child, playing with Lego, model airplanes, spending hours commanding an army of toy soldiers in my bedroom with the curtains closed. Today I’m the result of that misspent childhood...I love weird people, freaks, outsiders, geeks, difference. I’m still a geek. I’ve just learnt to fake ‘normal. (Ville, 04 May 2010)


And if it was mainly graphic designers and illustrators who worked with this new form of art, fashion designers have recently shown their interests in them as well.


A Karl Lagerfeld toy


A set of Bearbrick by Tokidoki


A set of Bearbrick by Anna Sui

TETRIS

Tetris analógico // Analogical Tetris from Esferobite-DSK on Vimeo.

I was looking into game-reality relationship and found this video clip of Analog Tetris.

Click HERE to read more and see photos.

TRANSFORMERS VS. HUSSEIN CHALAYAN

Transformers were major when i was little and i used to play with them all the time. There was something very fascinating about the idea of changing shapes and creating something from nothing.

A Turkey-born, CSM graduate fashion designer Hussein Chalayan has taken this idea to the runway. For his S/S 07 collection, he presented clothes inspired from the past 111 years of fashion and chose to demonstrate this idea using robotic garments that moved around and shifted their form.

I think this is a really good example of 'geek meets fashion' because, even thought certain aspects of geek has been accepted into the mainstream, suck as thick framed glasses and rolled up trousers, Hussein's collection was something that took this idea further and used what geeks excel at in fashion to create his vision.

ADVENTURE ON THE RUNWAY

In this one specific episode of America's Next Top Model challenged the models to complete their catwalk on a runway with 2 swinging giant pendulums. This episode was harshly criticised for putting their TV rating before the contestants' safety, but I found it highly entertaining. and it reminded me of video games i used to play. 3 of the games that struck me were 'Excitebike', 'Frogger' and 'Antarctic Adventure' and i started thinking it'd be interesting to bring this arcade/adventure aspect into a catwalk.



Excitebike



Frogger



Antarctic Adventure


Does everyone see the similarity?

WORK IT

America's Next Top Model is a significant part of pop culture. I find this show interesting because of the models who compete in it. Not to disrespect their job, but most of them seem to know nothing about living an 'ordinary' life. Often they are very vulnerable to both physical and emotional challenges that a 'normal' person would either ignore or get over with with in a minute.
And when asked what the hard part of the job is a model says 'being a model is a lot harder than you think. like, you'll have to figure out which foot goes first, then you have to know when to stop to pose and count the seconds.' I am certain that there are some added aspects to the show to dramatise, well, the drama, but the truth is most of the models just don't seem to be living in the same world that i am in.

and as observed earlier, the geeks in The Big Bang Theory do not know much about the real world either. They live in their own world of comic books, sci-fi movies and computer games. I think it'd be interesting to look at how these 2 different worlds can co-exist.

THE BIG BANG THEORY

The Big Bang Theory is set in Pasadena, California. The show is about two Caltech prodigies in their 20s, one an experimental physicist, Leonard Hofstadter, and the other a theoretical physicist, Sheldon Cooper, who live across the hall from an attractive blonde waitress with show-biz aspirations, Penny,. Leonard and Sheldon's 'geekiness' and sheer intellect are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense. Two equally geeky friends of theirs, Howard and Rajesh, are also main characters.
On the 14th episode of the first season, Penny calls Leonard 'a pathetic geek' for being so close to toys and comic books. What Sheldon points out to Penny later in the show in defence of his best friend Leonard is very interesting.

"You hypocrite. Little Miss 'Grown-ups don't play with toys', if I went into that apartment right now, would I not find Beanie Babies? Are you not an accumulator of Care Bears and My Little Ponies? And who is that Japanese feline I see frolicking on your shorts? Hello, Hello Kitty!

This suggests that male and female may have different ways of embracing our childhood memories, but what they have in common is that they keep artefacts near them to keep the memories alive.

DIRTY BEARS

Another Childhood symbol Care Bears have made it to fashion too, but naughtier and sexier.


Click the image to see what the bears are into these days. (Leggings from Ground Zero)

HELLO KITTY

Hello Kitty is another good example of how adults are still emotionally attached to certain things they cherished as children.

""Hello Kitty stands for the innocence and sincerity of childhood and the simplicity of the world," says Helen McCarthy, an author and expert on Japanese animation and comics. "Women and girls all over the world are happy to buy in to the image of the trusting, loving childhood in a safe neighbourhood that Hello Kitty represents. They don't want to let go of that image, so as they grow up, they hang onto Hello Kitty out of nostalgic longing – as if by keeping a symbolic object, they can somehow keep hold of a fragment of their childhood self."

And so now, although originally conceived as a character that would appeal to pre-teen girls, Hello Kitty is no longer regarded as being for children only. Along with the likes of Coca-Cola and Nike, she has become a brand phenomenon.

Her wide, white, slightly questioning face first adorned a clear plastic coin purse, which retailed for 240 yen (£1.17). Now you can buy almost anything stamped with the Hello Kitty brand, including towels, pencils, clothing, stationery and mobile phone covers, selling in more than 60 countries. Hello Kitty's popularity with adults is reflected in the changing products available: you can buy Hello Kitty-branded laptops and adult-sized underwear – you can buy more merchandise and charge it to your Hello Kitty credit card, cannily supplied by the Bank of America; really dedicated fans can register for their own @hellokitty.com email address at the website, Sanriotown.com." (click HERE to read the full article by The Independent)

YES, Hello Kitty bank card. Pretty awesome.

HELLO GAGA

The uber famous pop icon Lady GaGa rocks a bizarre series of photos for cult brand Hello Kitty, designed to celebrate the famous white cat's 35th birthday.

All photos from The DailyMail