Still at a loss for what to buy him? Perhaps this gift guide will spark some ideas. Click on the image to be whisked away to product and pricing information. Guides for Her, Baby and Home are forthcoming!

The items are (clockwise, from top left) Kehinde Wiley's latest book, Black Light, a Still Life NYC hat, William Ismael plates, WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie Kansai laptop case, Earnest Sewn x Victor Glemaud Collection sweaters, an Overachievers t-shirt, and a Canon g11.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of sitting down for a delightfully hearty Ethiopian lunch-- and a half-bottle of Diebolt-Vallois-- with Aquarian Thoughts designer, Nadirah Bostick. Designing since the tender age of 18, Nadirah, who is working on developing and marketing her line, currently lends her design and production chops to a few more established names in the game-- a strategy that will no doubt bolster her own grand entrée.

Nadirah's hand-crafted necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are influenced by organic forms and the healing properties of gems. Featured in this photo are her Royal Turquoise necklace and earrings. I'm head over heels for her work because it appeals to my penchant for the delicately dramatic. Stay tuned for more from this emerging designer who will soon add metal work to her repertoire. Shop here.

A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a "what is it?" until you make it relate to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are. Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with. It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.

Art Smith

You made certain to high tail it over to the Brooklyn Museum for the Yinka Shonibare show, which closed on on September 20th. But did you get a chance to ogle any of Art Smith's creations? The modernist jeweler (d. 1982) was active during the middle of the 20th century, when he worked exclusively-- and to great, largely undocumented acclaim-- out of a storied workshop and retail space on West 4th Street in New York's West Village. He worked with copper, silver, gold and semi-prcious stones and was heavily influenced by his jazz musician friends and acquaintances.

21 magnificent pieces, along with some of the Cooper Union trained artist's tools, photographs, sketches, and other archival material are on view at the Brooklyn Museum until March 14, 2010. If you won't be making a pilgrimage to NYC anytime soon, you can get your fix with a purchase of the exhibition catalog, From the Village to Vogue: Modernist Jewelry of ART SMITH.

Photos are from the Flickr stream of egotechnique.

My favorite looks from Duro Olowu's Spring 2010 presentation, which took place last week in London. Photos from Style.com.

Clicked into Habitually Chic today (as I do everyday and from whence these photos were culled) and caught wind that artist Glenn Ligon is featured in the latest J. Crew catalog, along with rising star Lucien Smith and five others. Find out what Glenn and company think about the interplay between art and fashion on J. Crew's Open Studio site.

I love these bracelets from Monique Péan, who in April became the first fine jeweler to win an Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award. The erstwhile investment banker launched her line in 2006 and has always been committed to sustainability. Péan founded a charity that provides scholarships to underprivileged students in Haiti, and donates a portion of her sales to Charity:Water, for whom she designed a collection inspired by H2O, using recycled gold.

A sexy little collaboration between photographer Piper Carter and artist Ogechi Chieke. Model is Cody Thronton. Complete credits can be found at Ogechi's space on Vimeo. Piper says this is one piece of a series that will be exhibited-- probably at her new gallery in Detroit.

1962, St. John's Episcopal High School in Robertsport, Liberia. Eat your heart out, Thom Browne.

A sneak peek of what one might see if one dragged oneself over to Tracy Reese's 1 pm unveiling of her Fall 2009 collection, which is said to have been inspired by post-impressionist portraiture-- Vuillard, Van Gogh, and Modigliani.

17 year-old angelface Shelby Coleman was discovered last year at a trunk show in her hometown of Chicago by Giambattista Valli, who promptly made arrangements for the "All-American beauty" to debut at his fall 2008 runway show as a worldwide exclusive. Ah, to be young, tall, thin, beautiful, and ethnically ambiguous black.

Despite its limited demographic, New York Magazine still manages to feature a bona fide cross section of New York denizens in its Look Book series. From the kooky, young Japanese textile designer whose Tokyo roots set him eons into the future at birth, to the nerdy tourist from Boston whose outfit was inspired by the "Denise Huxtable moment" she'd had that morning-- and her more glamorous though bespectacled partner-in-crime-- no one with memorable style is exempt. Bloody surprising-- and, I guess, relatively impressive-- for a swanky, blue blood rag.

At any rate, Nicola is as effortlessly chic here as ever.

"It’s not a surprise that the director of a prominent, important gallery is black or is young or is a woman,” said Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum, which has showed two of Ms. Vassell’s artists. “But when you run the three together, it sends a very important signal."

Deitch Projects director Nicola Vassell is the subject of an article in The Times, A Shaper of Talent for a Changing Art World. The piece is the fourth in the paper's "Breaking In," series, which explores the ups and downs of trying to begin a career in the arts. Previous subjects were a dancer, a musician, and a music promoter.

30 year-old Vassell (whose face you may recognize; she was an oft-booked model in a previous life) joined the Deitch empire as an intern three and a half years ago. She moved through the ranks, impressed owner Jeffrey Deitch with "an artistic vision that is embedded in her personality," and became a director in 2007. Needless to say, the landscape has shifted a bit since Vassell began her new post. The Kingston, Jamaica native credits having survived her country's recession with her unshakable poise and verve in today's dwindling market. "Even as a newbie," she says, "I knew the center couldn't hold."

Vassell represents Kehinde Wiley, who'll be designing a collection of clothing and accessories for Puma, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Wiley says of Vassell, "In the last few years, it’s like somebody who abides with you. She’s got a nose for really great art. She comes by the studio, and we talk, and I can paint. It’s a conversation that turns into an ability to communicate to the public what I’m trying to do."

The irony of my love for hats is that I have a head so large, it sometimes-- when my appetite is under control-- shares a circumference with my waist. This unfortunate fact has made me a huge fan of the cocktail hat-- that nice, dramatic finishing flourish for a knockout ensemble. That sartorial equivalent of a piece of terminal punctuation at the end of a well-crafted, multi-clausal sentence. That old-school, diminutive topper which requires very little cranial real estate and therefore fits heads of all sizes, including colossal.

These gorgeous, sculptural hats from Cha by Chandra are right on the money. They playfully hint at the designer's architectural training (acquired at Howard) and are vintage-inspired without being terribly familiar, modern without affectation.

I'm not as interested in pop artist Hulbert Waldroup's dealings with a now defunct, high-end escort agency-- or his subsequent jail time-- as I am in this necklace he made. I want one. Calling Barneys-- hop on this, please? Photograph taken a couple of summers ago by Altamira.

I'm rather late to the party, but this shall not deter me from singing the praises of artist/designer Alicia Piller, whose work is just bananas. Her paintings and drawings-- which bear titles like "Rebirth," "Apparition," and "Lasting Existence"-- are perfectly bizarre and alluring, but I'm particularly drawn to her wall hangings and jewelry, both of which are crafted of suede and beads and crystals and wood and love. Lots of love. Can you feel it? I can.




As if this wasn't enough, Piller, who is as stunning as her work, uses her singular vision to create hand painted apparel-- also bananas, also made with love. View it-- and loads more art and jewelry-- at designsbyaliciap.com.

Initially underwhelmed by Duro Olowu's SS09 show, I decided to take another, more compassionate gander. I remain nonplussed, but I did manage to find a look that I'm actually quite fond of. It's all about the jacket and the necklace, which is one of the designer's many subtle nods to Black Orpheus. Of course, I would hack off at least 12 inches from the bottom of the skirt. But I'm a bit of a sartorial tart. Luckily, my subconscious has a defense mechanism in place: the amount of clothing I wear and the degree to which I assert my seriousness tend to be inversely proportionate. Banish my ego? Never! She's so helpful.

EDIT: For reference, here are a few more looks from the show (from Style.com)-- what do you think? Is my distaste misinformed? I agree wholeheartedly with writer Sarah Mower's contention that Olowu plays to "a certain slice of the cultural intellegentsia." Take that as you will.