New York-based designer Gary Graham’s ready-to-wear line for Spring 2010 is accessible, modern, and flexible, and built for a similar lifestyle. The collection of knit tank dresses, leather skirts and leggings, and draped dresses are mostly simple and chic; they’re embellished basics in muted colors that encourage a mix-and-match mentality. Designing for over ten years, Graham is not terribly daring, but accomplishes the rare task of remaining relevant. Graham’s high hemlines are youthful rather than risky; the relaxed fits and possibilities for layering help the pieces maintain a cool modesty and trend-defying longevity. An undertone of minimal deconstructionism and a simplified utilitarian vibe are reminiscent of Alexander Wang’s favorite silhouettes (soft draping and textures, menswear elements in oversize pieces made of shirting, form-fitting leather, flowy silks). But among all the army green and tomboyish nuances, Graham also makes sure the collection is a little soft: the stars for Spring 2010 include feminine chiffon slip dresses and luminous silk vests. Graham’s petticoat-like dresses round out the spring wardrobe and beg to be accessorized with skinny belts and ankle boots. A good look at Graham’s textural details hint at his traditional training in textiles: varying waistlines and ruffles seem subtly Victorian-inspired. Other airy details give a vintage feel that should improve with wear.

Here to fill a heretofore unnoticed gap in the New York dining scene is Tartinery, a modern twist on the classic Parisian bistro. Unlike your typically upscale French restaurant, as its main fare this casual spot in Nolita offers up various versions of the tartine — a delicious, delicate open-faced sandwich made of thinly sliced bread topped with various gourmet spreads and garnishes. Founded by three French friends who sorely missed their tartines, Tartinery has partnered with the well-known French bakery Poilâne in order to serve their patrons only the most authentic of these Parisian snacks. Visitors can dine on salads, soups, freshly-squeezed juices, and, of course, a selection of exquisite French wine to round out the meal. Complete with a living tree, oversized fireplace and quirkily numbered tabletops, Tartinery successfully combines the casual-yet-gourmet feeling of your typical bistro in Paris with the tweaks and adornments that make dining in New York City a unique culinary experience.

Most of the works at the 2010 Whitney Biennial, on view now through May 30, are mixed-media pieces that have strong ties to performance art, combining elements of installation, dance, music, theater, and video. One featured artist whose work falls far from these categories is photographer James Casebere. Amid the visual and literal noise of the exhibit, his two giant digital chromogenic prints, each about six feet by eight feet, possess a classical stillness and quiet subversiveness.
     For more than thirty years Casebere has constructed scaled paper models of existing buildings and photographed them from naturalistic points of view, in the same way that an architectural model-maker would. While an architect constructs models to anticipate what a structure will be, Casebere commemorates what a structure has been. In the structures he chooses to commemorate, and in the tone of the commemoration, his work offers pungent political references. He has based works on contemporary American prisons, European mosques, Caribbean plantations, and the Reichstag. The models in many of his recent photographs depict darkly-lit basement spaces flooded with water, images with nightmarish, apocalyptic overtones.
     At first glance the two photos on display at the Biennial, Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County NY) #1″ and “#2,” seem cheerfully apolitical.

Written and recorded in the far-flung locales of Brooklyn, Sydney, and a botanical garden in the Bay of Naples, this four-piece ensemble offers up its first set of actual songs, following four records of largely instrumental work. Calling to mind fellow practitioners in chamber-pop, like Rachel’s, Joanna Newsom, and Sufjan Stevens, this song-cycle composed by leader Padma Newsome, alongside Bryce Dessner (who also plays in the National), brings together an assortment of guests, such as Stevens, Matt Berninger (also of the National), and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), whose angelic soprano anchors “On the Edge” and “Cocodrillo”, which begins the album with a hypnotic round of monastic chants and peculiar voicings. “We Were Here” matches tranquil guitar and banjo plucks with glockenspiels befitting a soothing lullaby, while Stevens and Worden’s harmonies suggest something more sinister underneath, as they sing, “You are there, and then you’re not”. Such precarious pairing appears throughout these ten tracks and is accentuated in the album’s very title, which wavers between a children’s fable and medieval monster tale for a hauntingly romantic effect.

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Céline Clanet was born in 1977 in the French Alps, leaving only at 18 to study photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie in Paris. She has since produced series upon series of evocative images documenting her obsessive explorations of place, identity, death, and memory. Currently, Clanet has a stunning show on display until April 4 at the Pohjoinen Valokuvakeskus/Northern Photographic Center in Oulu, Finland. Clanet was gracious enough to respond to a few questions via email about the current show, her fascination with Lapland, and the village Máze in particular, as well as her deep connection to the place and its people.

Can you give us some background on yourself?

I am French, and was born and raised in the Alps. When I was 18 I moved to London, and then Arles (southern France), where I studied photography for some years. I now live and work in Paris, with my man and son. I started photography when I was a teenager. I started playing with chemicals, films, and papers, and I soon realized the fantastic tool it was for saving memories and sharing thoughts.

Tom Scott wants you to have a casual and comfortable spring. His ready-to-wear collection is full of cottons and drapery that probably just look better as they get worn in. The Ralph Lauren alum has been making strides ever since winning an Ecco Domani award in 2007. While lately he’s catapulting his brand into the future (in September the first Tom Scott store opened in the Lower East Side, and he’s launching a collection of archived designs this year), Scott looked to the past to inspire his Spring 2010 collection. Influenced by “some of the old-fashioned things you can find in your grandmother’s house”, the knitwear designer translated curtains, bed linens, even hair nets, into clothing. The details of striped bedsheets and ruffled textiles appear in sweatshirts; the visage of sheer drapes emerges in delicate tops and holey sweaters. The pieces even bear names like “Twisted Curtain Top” and “Valance Sleeve Cardigan”. In this collection Scott refreshes old-fashioned elements without leaning on a retro sensibility. He relies on the accessibility of comfort; the touchable fabrics in muted colors and slouchy-not-sloppy designs help establish a mood and lifestyle for the brand without departing from reality. Even the presentation for the collection was inviting. At the Chelsea Hotel Scott orchestrated a tableau of models playing house and lounging in a living dollhouse. Scott has declined to follow trends and has just given us clothes to truly live in.

After releasing a slew of one-off tracks (including the amazing “New Flowers” and “Bejan”) and remixes for the likes of Au Revoir Simone and Telepathe in the past year, Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm have finally put out their first EP. Standouts such as “Real Life” and “Policy Of Trust” bring more than just a nominal nod to Depeche Mode, as the Brooklyn duo pairs simple electro hooks with the jubilant global appropriations heard in the recent work of Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, and Yeasayer. But that’s not to say Tanlines is riding piggyback on the latest trends of indie rock. Throughout Settings, tropical rhythms and synths swell with layers of finger snaps, airy vocals, and intricate guitar riffs reminiscent of Emm’s stint in Don Caballero to build a wall of sound that is wholly at home yet entirely unique to the realms of pop, dance, and world music.

Tanlines will be playing at Le Poisson Rouge with Micachu and the Shapes on March 30.

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Many Americans are well familiar with Kiki Smith, who came up on the latter end of feminism’s second wave as a member of the activist art collaborative Colab. She achieved prominence a decade later with her major New York exhibition in 1988. Now, at 56, she seems to be at the height of her career.
     For her most recent site-specific installation at the Brooklyn Museum, Smith takes as her inspiration a remarkable 18th-century needlework from the Federal period by a woman named Prudence Punderson, entitled The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality. Read from right to left, the parlor room scene depicts three stages of a woman’s life: birth (symbolized by a cradle), adulthood, and death (a coffin). What is rare for a work of that period is that female adulthood is symbolized not by a domestic act, but a creative one — the central figure appears to be drawing. Also unusual is the prominent inclusion of the nursemaid, an enslaved woman of African descent, which raises issues of historical oppression that fall not just along gendered, but also racial lines, and the pressing need for individual as well as creative freedom.

Sometimes we forget the meaning of the most common words. For example, ask yourself, “What is design?” The answer may not be as easy as you think. And maybe there is no single answer, but here is one: design is a carefully thought out process of manifesting ideas into physical form. Designers who do this are worthy of the name. Luca Laurini, the creator behind Label Under Construction (LUC), a niche clothing brand, is certainly one of them. Every garment designed by Laurini and manufactured by this obscure Italian brand is so carefully thought out that sometimes the level of detail borders on the obsessive. Despite being sold in exclusive boutiques around the world, Laurini is equally committed to keeping a low profile and avoiding the fashion media brouhaha. This is the first ever interview he has granted. (Don’t bother googling, there is no website.)
    I caught up with Laurini in LUC’s carefully hidden showroom in Le Marais. Dressed in his own clothes, Laurini was milling around the big white space where his clothes hung by their metal tags from one continuous spool of wire screwed into the wall along the room’s perimeter. He was helping buyers with their orders, patiently answering their questions. Laurini has a slim build and his bearded face is warm and inviting. He looks every bit the artisan that he is.
    The essence of Label Under Construction is its intricate knitwear.