5 Design Things to do This Week

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West Coast designers converge in Los Angeles, men’s fashion enters the spotlight, see Metropolis in its original uncut glory, and go fly a well-designed kite! All this and more, this week in design events, courtesy of DnA.

Designs from Ladies and Gentlemen Studio and many others will display Poketo West Coast Design Showcase.
Designs from Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and many others will be on display at Poketo West Coast Design Showcase. (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

1. West Coast Design Showcase at Poketo

The West Coast has always drawn innovators and iconoclasts. Curated by JOIN, this West Coast Design Showcase brings together a supergroup of designers from Portland and Seattle to Southern California. Designers Eric Trine, Faris, Fruitsuper, Iacoli & McAllister, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Matthew Philip Williams, Melanie Abrantes, and Pigeon Toe will showcase a selection of new work. Browse, buy, enjoy light bites, drinks, and meet the designers.

When: Thursday, April 7, 6 pm – 9 pm
Where: Poketo, 820 E. 3rd Street, LA, 90013
Tickets: Free to the public, more information here

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1960’s Concrete Modernism of Boston City Hall (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

2. Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, Book Signing and Discussion

Some may consider the style more brutal than beautiful, but the concrete movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s was conceived with the progressive-minded intentions of the most influential architects of the time. With hundreds of images, essays by architectural historians and interviews with a number of the architects themselves, HEROIC surveys the intentions and aspirations of this period and considers anew its legacies – both troubled and inspired. Join HEROIC authors Chris Grimley and Michael Kubo, plus board member Michael Sweeney, editor of the LA Forum Newsletter Brutalism Los Angeles for a discussion and book signing.

When: Friday, April 8, 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Where: Hennessey + Ingalls, 300 S. Santa Fe Ave. Suite M, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free with RSVPmore information here

Runway stories, the new super-models
Runway stories, the new super-models (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

3. Covering Fashion: The Changing Runway Story

Is America’s next top model… a man? Quite possibly. Presented in conjunction with LACMA’s “Reigning Men” show (which opens this Sunday, April 10), join fashion journalists Tim Blanks, editor-at-large of The Business of Fashion, and Booth Moore, fashion journalist and former fashion critic of the Los Angeles Times for a discussion on fashion journalism and the history and culture of runway shows, with Sharon S. Takeda, LACMA’s senior curator and department head of costume and textiles. Read more about the Reigning Men show here.

When: Friday, April 8, 7:30 pm
Where: LACMA, Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles 90036
Tickets: Free

4. THE SILENT TREATMENT: The Complete Metropolis at Cinefamily

Decidedly not the tomorrowland of Disney Imagineers, Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1927) crafted an expressionist future launched from the underlying zeitgeist that propelled Germany toward fascism in the 1930s. Shortly after the premiere in Berlin, a drastically abridged version was presented for the American release and over the years, much of the original 14 reels of this epic tomb had been lost. Miraculously, in 2008, curator Paula Felix-Didier and archivist Fernando Pena found a 16mm safety reduction negative of the uncut Metropolis at the Museo del Cin in Buenos Aires and now, after a multinational restoration effort, the film is ready to be seen again in its entirety, just as Lang intended. See the classic film with 25 minutes of lost footage and the complete original Gottfried Huppertz score.

When: Saturday, April 9, 1 pm
Where: Cinefamily, 611 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, 90036
Tickets: $12, Free for members. Buy tickets here. More information here.

Watercolor ‘Colorful Kites Puncturing the Flat Blue of the Sky’, by Shiho Nakaza, Santa Monica, CA
Watercolor ‘Colorful Kites Puncturing the Flat Blue of the Sky’, by Shiho Nakaza, Santa Monica, CA (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

5. 5th Annual Otis Kite Festival

Question: What’s a design point of view on kite flying? Answer: A gallery of flying sculptures and colors in the sky. Come out for the 5th Annual Otis Kite Festival and learn about kite making and color theory. Everyone will receive a free kit to design and fly. Plus, kite-makers from around the country will showcase their creations.

When: Saturday, April 9, 11 am – 4 pm
Where: Just north of the Santa Monica Pier
Tickets: Free. Beach parking $12