BlackBook Magazine

Ever felt like beating your ottoman to a bloody pulp? Us neither. But a crazy European by the name of Marijn Van Der Poll has, and so he created Droog's Do Hit Chair. The IKEA-monikered steel cube comes shipped to your house with a sledgehammer and it's available from Unica Home for $6,718.

Check out MoCo Loco for a few nice galleries covering Mila Design Week. My particular favorites are the iPhone phonograph at left, plus the wavy furniture from Sculpt. Many more images over at Designboom.

A taste of good taste from our panel of stylish high-profiles. Here, a few of their favorite things.

Click here for full gallery!

“My favorite design is a cement parking lot curb. I used to steal them and bring them home. I enjoyed dancing on them. A good tap shoe can make a great noise on this kind of curb. When I got married last year, I made sure that the preacher was standing on one. Sometimes, when I’m alone, I stare at my curb collection. It is arguably the best curb collection in America. I’m not sure who first designed a parking lot curb, but I heard rumors his name was Ricardo.” —Harmony Korine, director

Last week, Lexus and Fairmont flew me to San Francisco to check in and check out their new Lexus Hybrid Living Suite. A handful of 'green' journalists were invited. So, the question remains, what in the hell was I doing there?

Full disclosure. I don’t have my license, I don’t recycle, and I’ve smoked more cigarettes than my lungs care to remember. Also, I’m scared of vegetarians, vegans, Bob Dole, people interested in the environment, people who use the word “green,” Leonardo DiCaprio, Vanity Fair’s “Green Issue,” farmers markets, and fresh produce in general. These are just a few of my shortcomings, which is why it struck me as odd when I was asked to explore the new eco-friendly Lexus Hybrid Living Suite on the 10th floor of San Francisco’s legendary Fairmont hotel.

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was staying at the palatial inn, as were her Secret Service henchmen and killer canines, who frightened me for altogether different reasons. The President of El Salvador had just checked in, and was met with protesters brandishing placards of Spanish rhetoric and political venom. Had they heard about my refusal to compost?

In Paris, the answer to every civic problem might actually be: more fashion! Indeed, anchoring the Docks de Paris project revival of a downtrodden Left Bank industrial site along the quai D’Austerlitz, La Cite de la Mode et du Design is set to be the capital’s fourth museum dedicated to matters sartorial. As the name indicates, this one will also address a broader spectrum of design, and up the fab factor by incorporating designer boutiques and a chic rooftop restaurant from the people behind Georges, the Pompidou’s futuristic eatery in the sky.

Never before has a perfume bottle been conceived by an architect, let alone legendary draftsman Jean Nouvel. As such, the design for L’Homme Yves Saint Laurent is, well, unique. It’s also a towering presence, explicitly phallic. Says Nouvel of his design, “The bottle symbolizes a fully assumed virility, while the fine glass creates a contrast implying a kind of fragility and softness.” Indeed. The new bottle isn’t available until May, but we’re guessing it’ll give heretofore king of corporeal design Jean Paul Gaultier a run for his “Le Male.” Find out more about the new design here.

PROJECT: STRAITS ATLANTA

Director/Producer: Chef and owner Chris Yeo (a hairstylist-turned-restaurant-mogul who now owns three Straits locations in California) and Grammy-winning rapper, actor, and philanthropist Chris “Ludacris” Bridges.

Team: The Johnson Studio, the architect and design firm behind Kevin Rathbun Steakhouse in Atlanta and Fearing’s in Dallas (Esquire’s reigning “Restaurant of the Year”).