Viva La Barcelona, Viva La COS

We are making our maiden voyage to Barcelona later today.

Apart from experiencing everything Gaudi and stuffing ourselves silly with tapas and cava, I am pretty excited about being in a city with a COS store.

I first wrote about my love for the store here. With a distinct scandinavian aesthetic, COS satiates my (occasional) desire for minimalism. Naturally their pieces are fantastic for work.

Here are a few items I have my eyes on:

Folded Sleeve Dress

Jacquard Blazer

Layered Mesh Dress

Side Drape Zip Dress

Draped Sleeveless  Dress

Contrast Lining Skirt

The stores themselves are kitted out in a similar vein:

Providing both visual and tactile treats, I am desperate for COS to make its way state-side. In the meantime, I am thankful our hotel is minutes away from the Barcelona outpost.

The Carsten Höller experience

Our third museum stop this past weekend the Carsten Höller exhibit at the New Museum, which was set up like a grown-up wonderland.

Via

The giant slide was the main draw - 102 feet long, it runs from the 4th floor to the 2nd. It was exhilarating and I screamed the entire 4 seconds it took to travel through it!

Then we picked up special "goggles" that turned our view completely upside down. Höller's exhibit is pretty sparse and nothing seemed that interesting inverted (life-sized mushrooms? seriously?) - until we got up to the Sky Room on the 7th floor. 

Any view of the city skyline makes my knees go weak and this was no exception. Through the goggles, I couldn't decide whether I was trippy or just plain vertiginous!

 

The panoramic view is probably the best thing about the museum - though I suggest waiting till the current exhibit wraps up before paying a visit. In the meantime, you could head to the nearest playground if you are keen on riding a slide. 

Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim

This weekend was filled with museum visits, commencing on Friday evening with a visit to the museum of the FIT for the Daphne Guinness showcase. This was a remarkable display of a small collection of her garments, so beautifully curated, I have no doubt it would have given Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty a run for its money. 

Then on Saturday arvo, we saw ourselves at the Guggenheim for a viewing of the Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition. A truly bizarre collection of artwork, I thought it was absolute rubbish at first. Walking down the spiraling walkway seeing the dangling objects at various angles though, some allure seemed to shine through. 

Cattelan seems to be the jack of all material (master of none?), working with taxidermy, plaster, print, wood... Whatever your views are on the artwork, I, for one, am in complete agreement with Vanessa - the vast Guggenheim space was most apt for this unusual display.  

The Guggenheim was also a fitting opportunity to bust out the DIY glitter boots from the day before:

Zara striped top, AG Stevie ankle jeans in Kelly Green,  Cartonier (Anthropologie) draped leather jacket

I am in love with how these boots turned out. It is a great pity that such shoes are highly inappropriate for my workplace.