Cabinet of Flushing Meadows

Rene Lacoste, 1928

Thank god the Olympic Games are over. Now we can focus on the real sport event of the season, the US Open. As usual, the best way to start the day is to look at the uniforms and the fashion, with the help of New York Magazine, and men.style . In an article (sub)titled "How tennis influences fashion, and vice versa", the writer traces back the history of tennis apparel, and the great moments in recent history where scores weren't the only game in town... Take Big Bill Tilden for example... I want his sweater. Now.
...and if you are into Nadal, he is a sex symbol now (or let's just say he no longer wears his capri pants, god forbid) , shirtless in New York Magazine:

Karl Cabinet

OMG! Karl Lagerfeld stuffed animal coming soon to Naiman Marcus near you! for $1,500 you can be the proud owner of this ridiculous doll by Steiff, the famous German maker of stuffed animals. Furries around the world hold their breath and can't sleep at night, waiting for their next big thrill. We love you, Karl. More about the Karl stuffed animal? Read here.

Cabinet of Curious Collections

I love collectors and weird collections. Take, for example, Dr. Lattimer's inheritance: for seven decades he collected more than 3,000 objects that ranged in age from a few years to tens of millions of years. “He was like a classic Renaissance collector,” said Tony Perrottet, a writer specializing in historical mysteries who spent time with Dr. Lattimer before his death. “ The new York Times has an interesting article about him, with great photos of some of his strangest and unique objects. “It’s often said that the collecting passion is an unwillingness to let go of the past. For him, I think it was an attempt to hold onto his past. He had a long, rich past, and he wasn't immune to the solitariness of human existence.”
I would love to have that box, the one that holds Napoleon's penis. I swear, just for the box.
...and speaking of, I'm reading this amazing book, "To Have and to hold" about the history of collecting. Taking as its inspiration Walter Benjamin's dictum that a collector's passion borders on "the chaos of memory," this curiously moving history argues that collecting is driven by the desire to control that chaos. Does collecting is an attempt to freeze the world in its tracks and hold it still? I'm not sure. The answer is in the box.

Masked Cabinet

Speaking of the Olympics, the new hot trend is the masked look, as reported in Gawker. The mask can be added to the gas mask offered by Louis Vuitton earlier this year, so soon we can have a very stylish third world war! hooray. The devil may wear Prada, but warriors wear Vuitton, so be careful.

Olympic Caninet

Watching the fascistic spectacle from Beijing, I was longing for something more human, something from a shoe point of view, or rather something more quiet. Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad , is a reminiscent of the way in which the world looked at itself that way. Maybe for the last time. In 1964, the Olympics were held in Tokyo, and Ichikawa was commissioned to make a documentary of the sporting events. He ignored the contestants as much as possible, treating them as ordinary human beings, and created a poetic film that celebrated humans before they became monsters of drugs and post-human perfection.
But if not for that optimistic world, it's for the perfect outfits and style that world had. From the countries uniform (Americans in cowboy hats, Russians waving red ribbons at the cheering crowd) to the minimalist logo.For a style report on the Olympic team uniforms, read here.
And speaking of, guest bloggers this week in the New York Times The Moment, are Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, the co-founders of the downtown boutique Opening Ceremony. Leon and Lim, the owners of Opening Ceremony - one of the coolest and more creative shops in the world (both in New York and Los Angeles). They started as a retail take on the Olympics, pairing U.S. designers with 15 international offerings for a competition of sales.

And another update! Apparently there's a controversy over the uniform Ralph Lauren designed for the U.S. team to wear at the opening Olympic ceremonies: Ralph Lauren Polo logos almost bigger than the Olympic rings logo. Also, it looks cheap, and... they are elitist. Project Rungay: wrote that "These outfits presented the United States athletes as rich snobs, frankly. They made the team look like a 1948 yacht club".
I think they should have made it even more of a Rugby style. Ivy league style is always more welcome!