2021 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Matthew Hilton’s Balzac chair. Designed by Hilton in 1991 for SCP’s very first upholstery design, the Balzac has become a touchstone of contemporary furniture design. Beginning with a rough sketch made by Hilton, this chair was meant to invoke, as Hilton puts it: “...a contemporary, leather, comfortable club armchair ... [and] curvy, amoeba-like, anthropomorphic shapes and natural forms - not really a fashionable thing to be doing at the time.”

It is every artist’s prerogative to court a certain kind of discomfort. A perpetual state of unease that engenders momentum and forestalls inertia. Coming less from external production demands and more from the instinct to learn and grow, this inclination towards the unknown is essential to the exploratory nature of making things.

In both her design and fine art practices, Bari Ziperstein is constantly breaking the rules of contemporary ceramic art. Like compositions that seem to have rained down from another planet, Ziperstein’s works are always pushing the boundaries of process of construction. The LA-based ceramicist, now part of the Future Perfect Family has appeared in The Future Perfect’s MESS and The Chair shows as well as a current exhibition of new works by the artist at the company’s San Francisco gallery.

To know Dan Rubinstein is to love Dan Rubinstein. One of New York’s key proselytizers of design and architecture, both local and global, Rubinstein is the consummate polymath, building a career that merges the roles of editor, writer, curator and consultant. Rubinstein has worked with some of the worlds foremost brands; created “This Is Not a House,” a much loved Rizzoli title; and worked as a curator conceptualizing such projects as “The Home Front: American Design Now” at the Museum of Arts and Design. Right now, Dan works with Departures Magazine as its resident design expert, where he’s tasked with creating the lauded bi-annual Departures Home + Design issues. Dan: let’s go shopping.

It’s rather an understatement to say that stylish California transplant Natalie Bloomindale is adept at multitasking. In addition to running boutique public relations firm Nash and Lee PR Shop, which collaborates with some of the biggest names in fashion and media, the Texan native has struck out with a new online retail venture SIL (stuff i love). As the title would suggest, Bloomingdale took the chance to create a highly personal selection that reflected her taste and glamorous Angeleno life. As such, Bloomingdale has collaborated with cult lesser-known brands including Cassandra Collections, Tish Cox and the vestigial Belgian shoe maker helmed by Hayden Lasher. One of SIL’s more intriguing partnerships is a capsule collection with the Beverly Hills Hotels, a longtime haunt of Bloomingdale. In that spirit, we slunk into a booth at the famous Polo Lounge to talk fashion, Hollywood and of course, Bloomingdale’s TFP favorites.

It takes just a passing glance through his Instagram to realize that Alex P White is unquestionably a triple threat: a man of style, substance and immense cultivation. The designer, who launched his own studio in 2017 after working with revered companies such as Kelly Behun Studio, balances vivacious residential projects and limited edition furniture projects, keeping this intriguing by weaving in varied pop culture references from Issey Miyake to Siouxsie and the Banshees. Any Alex P White project is guaranteed to have that certain frisson; imbued with erudite clues that extend down the annals of aesthetic culture. With his finely honed visual sense of space and dynamic, idiosyncratic nature, we’ve always thought of Alex as our ideal candidate for Shopping With…

For their new world headquarters, located adjacent to the city’s booming High Line, Pace gallery clearly didn’t seek to make just another gallery. Rather they’ve opened a game changer, a 100-million behemoth which has its official unveiling last week.

Step through the doors of 251 Mulberry Street in Manhattan’s Nolita and you’ve entered the magnificent olfactory world of David Moltz and Kavi Ahuja, the husband and wife duo behind virtuoso fragrance brand D.S. & DURGA.

Given its wealth of magnificent buildings - from the soaring Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall to the highly idiosyncratic modernist homes by the likes of Neutra and Schindler - it makes perfect sense that Los Angeles would host the nation’s largest film festival dedicated to the topics of design and architecture.