What We Wear in Madrid

Last month we were in Madrid for architecture week, a wonderful series of exhibits and conventions celebrating the city’s architecture and looking towards the future of architecture. Of course we took advantage of our visit to explore this beautiful city!

Architecture

Madrid has a beautiful range and mix of traditional European and contemporary, Hi-tec architecture. One of the most intriguing events of architecture week were tours exploring the city’s most prominent buildings, and seeing the progression of the city’s architecture throughout its history.

Madrid airport: inspiring first steps in Spain.

Gran Via

The city’s most hustling and bustling main street is filled with all the must have shops (Zara, H&M, Pull & Bear, etc) as well as some of the city’s most beautiful traditional architecture.

The detailing on the buildings is so beautiful that we couldn’t stop taking pictures!

Calle Mayor and city center

Reality vs. illusion.

Plaza del Sol.

Caixa Forum

Caixa Forum is a museum and cultural center located on Madrid’s beautiful Paseo del Prado boulevard and one of the city’s most interesting contemporary buildings.

The beautiful geometric structure was built by architects Herzog & de Meuron. It was built on the foundation of an old abandoned electrical station and the architects incorporated the steel aesthetic into the interior design as well.

We loved the Caixa Forum’s museum store and spent hours going through the architecture and fashion books.

Next to the Caxia Forum is a building covered with a vertical garden: a green wall designed by botanist Patrick Blanc.

To us this really signifies the future of architecture and landscape design, especially as urbanization develops and cities get more and more overpopulated.

Reina Sofia Museum

This museum underwent modern renovation and expansion by architect Jean Nouvel and now has a beautiful rooftop overlooking the city, as well as a wonderful courtyard and sculpture garden.

Besides its design, it was definitely our favorite museum in the city. It houses important pieces by Spanish artists such as Picasso, Dali, and Miro, as well as modern art and photography exhibits.

Hide and seek among the Richard Serra.

The Royal Palace

Beside the beautiful architecture of the palace and its lavish interiors, we loved the royal gardens.

El Retiro

A beautiful park which sits on the Paseo del Prado, it is a wonderful place to relax, have a picnic, or go for a nice stroll.

A pleasant surprise: a modern art exhibit at the park’s gallery.

Salamanca

El Retiro park leads up to Salamanca neighborhood, one of Madrid’s most expensive areas.

If luxury shopping is what you’re after, this is the place to go. From local labels to international designers, the boutiques in this area are beautiful.

Cool display at Camper.

Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada.

Salamanca garden.

Chueca

This is a central neighborhood which has become well known for being a gay friendly neighborhood. This area has some of the coolest restaurants, bars, cafes, and boutiques, as well as very cool street style.

Markets

As in every traditional European city, some of our favorite attractions are the markets. Madrid has an abundance of them, some offering food and drink and some clothes, home goods, etc.

Mercado San Miguel

This hip market and architectural gem has a delicious assortment of food and drink and seems to be the place to be at all times of the day and night.

El Rastro

This giant market spreads along several streets and reminds us a bit of London’s Camden Market. Here you can find everything from authentic high quality leather goods to graphic T Shirts, to 3 euro shoes (!!!). We clearly had to be dragged away.

This market only opens on Sundays and showing up early is a must, to avoid the huge crowds.

Nightlife

Spaniards sure know how to party! They spend morning to night in bars, restaurants, cafes, drinking all day long! Don’t miss out on the city’s fabulous nightlife.

One particular must visit are the flamenco shows. We of course had to go for the best and visited Corral de la Moreria, a gorgeous traditional venue which also serves dinner and drinks and features the most prominent dancers in the country.

The smartest thing to do when traveling is to check for any special events or attractions that take place during the visit. We were lucky enough to attend a special Hermes exhibit featuring the fashion house’s luxurious leather goods.

The only downside is the insatiable craving we now have for the Birkins and the Kellys!

What to wear

This time of the year the city is getting colder and starting to get more rain. The most wise thing to do is wear layers that you can peel off and pile back on towards the evening and night.

Looking for more amazing places to visit in Spain? Check out our post on Barcelona and Montserrat. Follow us as we report from more awesome destinations around the world!

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Wishing you all a wonderful week!

xx

V & R

Maria Kong: Open Source – A Fete of Light, Sound, and Visuals

We often post about visual arts: our favorite artists and movements, street art, etc, and thought it’s about time that we write about performance arts. We had the great privilege of attending Open Source, a performance by dance company Maria Kong which can be summed up in one word: WOW!

The performance explores the deepest desires, hidden thoughts and forbidden longings of a bride on her wedding night, in a single moment of reflection before she gives herself entirely to her man and commits to marriage.

True to life and love, Open Source depicts the heroine’s most passionate, animalistic, primal desires and her inner conflicts whether she should succumb to them or keep them locked up inside of her.

This sexy performance has all kinds of fun surprises: two women fighting over a man, girl on girl action, guy on guy action, and of course the good old man and woman love and sex and magic.

Pulling the strings of the heroine’s fantasies is a character we like to call “the architect”, a sort of puppeteer pulling her farther and farther down the rabbit hole. The architect oversees the whole development of events, giving life and taking away characters’ hearts. This brings up intriguing questions of life and love.

The casting for the show was perfection: Brazilian bombshell Luciane Castro Fontanella was perfect for the role of the blushing bride’s sexy alter ego. She gave such an amazing performance that it was literally hard to take our eyes off of her.

French dancer Caroline Boussard was perfect for the role of the bride: fragile, delicate and romantic.
Brazilian dancer Anderson Andre Braz as the groom: strong and sexy.
Israeli dancer Artour Astman as another puppet in this game of desires.
and Israeli dancer Ori Ben-Shabat as the skeleton-glove-wearing powerful and creepy “architect”.

We don’t want to give away the ending but let’s just say it was perfect and human at the same time. It was a very strong statement on why us humans would give up the exciting whirlwind of debauchery and primal desire for a crazy little thing called love.

Modern dance performances are often criticized for being so open-ended, some might even say vague. While they are considered a form of abstract art, they aim to tell a story and at times it seems they are so abstract that the story gets lost in translation.

This was definitely not the case in Open Source. With the help of dramatic lighting and genius sound effects (at times drums beats likening the sound of the characters’ heartbeat and at times romantic Spanish guitar) by Rodgers and Hammerstein and squarepusher, the performance was right on point. It was exciting, emotional and moving.

The performance took place at Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dellal center for performing arts in Neve Tzedek neighborhood, a beauty in its own right.
This place is very dear to us as it was the location of one of our first photoshoots for the blog!

Rony wore a patterned vintage button down shirt, patterned skort, purple asymmetrical clutch, wood and gold necklace by Noritamy, and stone adorned peep toe heels from Prague.

We highly recommend going to see the show, this is something you don’t want to miss!
Tickets and more information about the show here.
More about Maria Kong here.

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xoxo
V & R

Tel Aviv Street Art Exhibit

If you’re a follower of our blog you may have noticed that we love street art. We find it very inspirational and meaningful, at times more than art displayed in museums.

Mural by Dana Decktor.

From an urban perspective, street art is a way in which people can contribute to a cityscape and can express themselves anonymously (or not) for all of the world to see.

While sometimes graffiti can be perceived as sort of scribbles that do nothing but mar public space, it can have really beautiful graphic qualities: from typography to color and composition, street art is at times the freest form of art and expression out there.

Nitzan Mintz mural – a study in Hebrew typography.

Signer Afk mural.

For all these reasons, we were thrilled to find out about The Seventh Floor, a street art exhibit held at Tel Aviv’s central bus station, where about a thousand square meters of walls are now covered with art by local artists and artists from abroad.

Some of the art is colorful, some is aggressive and in-your-face and some has a very clear agenda.

Artist Natalie Mandel used the loose cables coming out of the walls along with old phone chargers to create a sort of vine spanning the ceiling, creating a juxtaposition between something from nature and an industrial polluted bus station.

An addition to this piece were huge grasshoppers built out of old scraps of metal.

“If only we can find the language of peace we could live together and forever as one” by Murielle Cohen.

We loved the graphic qualities of this piece, made out of yarn, by artist Maya Gelfman.

“Batman can’t save you.” Quite moving work by Zak Shiff.

Beautiful Japanese culture-inspired art by Melbourne graffiti artist Haha.

Stunning murals incorporating pasted newspaper and paint by illustrator Marian Boo.

An impressive abstract mural by illustrator and animator Dioz.

A piece by interactive artist Debi Oulu encouraging passersby to “do art”.

Murals by Utro and Ross Plazma.

Cute creatures creeping on the telephone by Adi Sened.

Trapped in the wall. Work by Holy Era.

Amazing color combination and Greek-mythology graphics by &BE&.

A piece by illustrator Zivink.

Very threatening mural by Shell Uno.

Pieces by Ori Gami and Alice Mizrachi.

Urban decay by German graffiti artist Markus.

One of our favorites by Lavi>Safam Boards.

The fact that this exhibit was held at the central bus station is meaningful in itself. Regretfully, this is an under-maintained, run down, awful building. The presence of the art almost makes up for the lack of design in the place, because at least the old and decrepit walls are being used for a good cause. The notion that public buildings that thousands of people pass through in a given day could be used as “rental space” for free art is a very exciting one!

What’s amazing though, is how people take this kind of art for granted and don’t even give it a second glance. We noticed that many people walked by completely oblivious, and only started to notice the writing on the walls (pun very much intended) when they saw us taking pictures.

Rony wore a Made by Lilamist graphic crop top with a vintage pleated midi skirt, peep toe heels, leather clutch, wood printed sunglasses and layered gold pendant necklaces.

Follow us as we report from more events surrounding Holon Fashion Week!

More photography of Tel Aviv street art here.
More photography of Barcelona street art here.
More photography of London street art here.

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xoxo
V & R

City of knights

Hey there!

Travel is one of our all time favorite activities; to us it is life’s most amazing luxury! We love traveling abroad but we also love leaving the city every once in a while in search of our country’s hidden gems and most beautiful locations.

This time we travelled two hours north of Tel Aviv to the city of Acre, or Akko as it is called in Hebrew.

Acre is one of the most ancient port cities in the world and according to historians was founded during the ancient bronze era; during biblical times. Acre was an important city due to its strategic location. It was conquered by different empires and rules by many different leaders. The location also attracted many sailors, poets, artists, warriors and visitors, who often visited as a rest stop along their route to other parts of the world.

Our first stop in the old city was the knight halls, which is still undergoing restoration. Although the site isn’t fully refurbished, it still has quite dramatic effects. While walking the halls we could just feel the history of the place and envision in our minds the story of the knights preparing their next fight.

In the early 1900’s these halls were used as jail cells where prisoners of the British Mandate on Israel were held.

The second stop was the Turkish bazaar. We quickly discovered that this site is a tourist trap, as everything is pretty overpriced, unlike the authentic bazaars we have visited. The highlight of the bazaar was a really nice gelato shop with homemade ice cream!

The city has beautiful galleries and exhibits. One of our favorites was an exhibit featuring historical pieces, some dating back all the way to the early 20th century! As architects we were especially intrigued by the furniture exhibits, featuring amazing Turkish wooden furniture. We were in absolute lust!

The old city’s port is a beautiful spot for a romantic stroll. We of course did some shopping in the old city’s market, where one could find fresh fish and  Baklava (a dessert considered a delicacy in the Arab world), home goods, jewelry, and our favorite: lots of shoes!

On this summertime excursion Vera wore an oversized tunic, denim mini skirt, golden sandals, a hat and lots of sunscreen!

We would love to hear about some of your favorite travels, share them on our facebook page or twitter! Follow us on instagram for more travel and leisure and of course lots of fashion!

xoxo

V & R

Ecosystems of South America

Rony recently returned from an amazing trip to South America. Here she shares some of her travel diaries from three main destinations – Ecuador, Galapagos and Peru.

Ecuador Highlands

Ecuador is home to the Andes mountain range, which includes some of the tallest active volcanoes in the world.

Quilotoa Volcano lake

Cotopaxi Volcano

Ecuador interiors

What to wear
Horseback riding gear while riding horses through the mountains: traditional poncho and chaps.

Amazon rainforest

Comprising more than half of the world’s remaining rainforest, the Amazon rainforest is home to an incredible variety of animals, trees and plants that seemingly only exist in fairy tales.

Canoe ride through the Napo river into the heart of the rainforest

Lodge in the heart of the jungle

What to wear

Wear your jungle pants and lots of insect repellent to keep from getting bitten by the hundreds of species of insects!

Canopy walk above the forest

Quito

Being a city girl at heart, Rony was of course drawn to Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and its rich culture, history and architecture.

Galapagos

Made famous by Charles Darwin’s studies and consequent theory of evolution, this archipelago is well known for its diversity of endemic species and how well preserved the wildlife is.

Landing on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

The most famous of Galapagos’ creatures, the giant tortoise

What to wear

Always have your wetsuit at the ready in order to explore the incredible wildlife under the sea, such as dolphins, penguins and the world’s biggest sea tortoises who just swim by you as if you were another fish!

Swimming with the penguins sea tortoises and sea lions

Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru

The sacred valley of the Incas in Peru spans from mountaintops to beautiful valleys in rural Peru and includes some of the most important sites in the history of the ancient Inca Empire.

Enjoying the view at Ollantaytambo

The Incan archeological sites are absolutely awe-inspiring in their locations and in how architecturally advanced the Incans were in such ancient times.

Machu Picchu – a UNESCO World Heritage Site

What to wear

Explore the valley and the mountains in your most comfortable clothes and get ready to do some serious hiking! Don’t forget to bring your sunglasses and apply lots of sunscreen, at +3000 km altitude radiation can get pretty intense!

Cusco

To young Israelis travelling in South America, Cusco is Peru’s Tel Aviv. The city is rich with history, culture, explorers from around the world and a vivacious scene.

At times the city seems very modern, but it’s never a surprise to run into a llama walking down the street.

From a fashion and textile design standpoint, it was intriguing to see the indigenous women’s traditional clothing and how they hand dye and weave their clothes using different natural materials.

We highly recommend visiting, and very much look forward to exploring the rest of South America’s countries in the future!

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xx
V&R

Yohji Yamamoto Exhibit

What We Wear visited the Yohji Yamamoto exhibit and came out feeling inspired!
The exhibit featured pieces designed by Yamamoto over the past two decades and included a variety of garments, from coats to dresses to pieces designed for his Adidas collection, to menswear.

We were absolutely in awe of each and every piece and the thought and craftsmanship that went into creating Yamamoto’s masterpieces.

The exhibit was held at Holon Design Museum, quite the masterpiece in its own right. The museum was designed by Israeli architect and designer Ron Arad and was the perfect backdrop for Yamamoto’s creations.

Rony’s day at the museum outfit: romper with cutouts, slipper flats, and leather satchel.

A beautiful Ron Arad exhibit we visited.

Coming up next: collaboration with our favorite young and hip designer, the perfect office outfit, travel, fashion, street style and much more fabulousness! Follow us for more!

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xx
V&R

What We Wear in London

Last week I went on a weeklong excursion to London to explore the rainy city post-Olympics, as well as  do some shopping as London is home to some of my (and Vera’s) favorite shopping destinations! Here are some of my favorite attractions in the city, best places to shop and of course, what I wore!

Favorite shopping areas:

Soho – Soho, particularly around Carnaby Street, has some amazing stores which I loved not only for the merchandise but also for how it is displayed and how the stores are designed.

Benefit’s store, designed like a sweets diner, is too sweet to skip out on!

Some other favorites were Dahlia, which had a gorgeous mix of girly with London punk, Fornarina, whose store had an amazing liquid staircase, and Lazy Oaf, which displayed sunglasses on skull lamps.

Notting Hill – This neighborhood has shopping destinations which offer very unique pieces. From the famous Portobello Road market on Sundays to vintage shops that sell amazing treasures, this is a great destination for one of a kind items.

Primark – Vera and my guilty pleasure, this store sells the trendiest clothes, shoes, bags and accessories for ridiculous prices. The biggest one in town is located on Oxford Street; our advice is to get there as the store opens, it gets really busy and crowded very early and the lines to the fitting rooms get impossibly long. As you can see, my friends and I went a little crazy!

Camden – This northern London neighborhood is home to a multitude of markets, thrift and vintage stores that offer trendy and unique items for very good prices. Camden is known for its goth population and punky bars, so here you’re sure to encounter crazy platforms and spikes on everything.

Art for the Soul:
The amazing thing about London is its museums are free, except for some temporary exhibits, so it’s absolutely a must to visit and see what’s on.

I love visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum every time I’m in town, it has extensive art collections and impressive architecture.

Now on display is a very cool Ball gowns exhibit showing gowns from the 19th century throughout the ages, and contemporary gowns by some amazing and influential designers.

Another very cool exhibit currently on display at the V&A: innovations in furniture. My favorite piece was a chair made by fashion designer Issey Miyake from leftover fabric rolls from his garment designs.

Exhibition Road, on which the V&A Museum is located, is now hosting an outdoor sculpture exhibition featuring works by acclaimed British sculptor Tony Cragg. It was very interesting to see how the crowds interacted with the artwork.

The Tate Modern always showcases amazing pieces by the most influential contemporary artists; Now on display is a special exhibit by British artist Damien Hirst. Some of my favorites at the museum were a sculpture by Marisa Merz which, although it was constructed out of aluminum plates, is somehow so organic and “alive” and reminded me of floating sea creatures.

Other works that I particularly liked were pieces that incorporated video art and installation to create unique thought-provoking effects.

The British Museum is a must-visit even just for its architecture. The museum’s inner court roof was designed by Foster and Partners in 2000 and is absolutely awe-inspiring not just in itself but in the dialogue it creates between old and new architecture and in the beautiful natural lighting that is created in the space.

Favorite unexpected event
Notting Hill Carnival took place on the weekend of August 25th; the event was like one huge street party that included dancing, music, African drums and a very festive parade. The beer was cheap and the atmosphere was jolly!

What I Wore
“Chic Tourist” outfit – For travelling to any urban destination around the world, my motto is to keep it comfortable but never neglect the chic! I wore stretch skinny jeans, a light loose blouse and a jacket in case it got chilly. I wore moccasins which are very comfortable to walk in all day, but are also chic and classy. I kept it interesting by accessorizing with a pearl bib necklace and pink lipstick.

Day to Evening outfit – When exploring around a big city all day you must be prepared for anything. The best idea is to wear an outfit you can transform from day casual to a more evening look. I wore a high waisted black skirt with a loose green blouse, opaque tights, and moccasins. I made the outfit cool for day or night by wearing a print scarf and a rope and gold necklace.

For drinks on a chilly evening I added a fur vest.

Rainy Day outfit – Even in August London is very rainy and at times chilly; the best idea is to wear layers you can take off when going indoors or on the underground, and put back on when strolling outside. I wore a loose long sleeved T-shirt with a print skirt, tights and leather booties. I piled on the layers with my fur vest and warm jacket.

Vera’s favorite London outfit- Vera worked her layered look in layered tops, striped knit cardigan, miniskirt worn with tights, leather booties, scarf, and layered necklaces.

Don’t forget to take your camera and an umbrella!

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xx
Vera and Rony, What We Wear

Tapas and Layering

Hello fashion world!

Tel Aviv is well known not just for its history, beaches, and sights, but also for its amazing nightlife – it truly is the city that never sleeps! From its restaurants, bars and pubs to its dance bars and clubs, the “scene” in the city is a beautiful one. Here are some ideas for what to wear when going out in Tel Aviv, especially on a date with a hot local!

This photoshoot was taken at the old railway station of Tel Aviv which was restored two years ago and is now a lively center of shopping, bars and restaurants.

For our dinner date to celebrate our successful blog partnership we chose Vicki Cristina, a beautiful tapas bar and restaurant (named after the movie) which was built around an enormous and beautiful ancient tree. We ordered some tuna tartar with guacamole and a cold seafood salad and of course, mojitos!

We chose outfits that complimented the spirit of the location – romantic and soft; we turned to layering in case it got chilly on this summer evening, and chose breathable fabrics and flowy cuts.

While you want to dress to impress on a date, it is also very important to feel comfortable and confident.

Rony wore a puffy crème and black chiffon blouse with black bows, which she wore on top of a gray ruffled cotton dress. Yes, it’s absolutely possible to turn your favorite dress into a skirt by wearing a blouse on top, and adds extra volume to the dress.
She completed the look with super amazing studded black moccasins, a denim grayish clutch with wooden handles and a black glasses necklace which give the outfit another twist!

 

I wore an envelope cotton navy skirt that I sewed by myself with a vintage sheer pleated top and a gray suit vest. I completed the look with red hot patent flats and a massive gold chain that made the outfit more surprising and interesting.

The layered look fits everyone and is very flattering in that it allows you to conceal parts you’re insecure about and show off parts of your body you are proud of! You can play around with your outfit by layering different pieces and achieve very interesting results!

 

Have a wonderful night out!
Cheers!
V & R, What We Wear

Photos taken at Tel Aviv’s old railway station, “Hatahana”.

Light and Video Installation by Ron Arad – 720 Degrees

720 degrees is a stunning installation which we visited at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum and just had to share with our readers. The installation was created by Ron Arad, a highly esteemed London-based Israeli architect and designer who has designed wonderful creations such as the “Well Tempered Chair” and the Holon Design Museum in Israel.

720 is an installation made of 5,600 silicon cords which are suspended eight meters in the air from a steel construction to form a sort of 360 degree screen. The silicon cords serve as a canvas upon which video art by video artists from around the world is projected. Some of the artists featured include Mat Collishaw, Ori Gersht, Christian Marclay, and David Shrigley.

The audience gets to enjoy the video art from different angles, from inside and around the 360 degree screen and through the silicon curtain. The result is absolutely awe-inspiring; each angle gives a bit of a different take on the video art and when standing close to the cords it seems like they transport little beams of light.

The installation is on display through September 5th and is highly recommended!

More information on the exhibit and tickets at http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/page_2949.aspx?c0=16276&bsp=12729
More on the intriguing designer and architect Ron Arad http://www.ronarad.co.uk/

Follow us for more exhibits, art, gallerys, and of course lots of fabulous fashion!

xoxo

V&R