Dear Tappan Collective, I love your site which features affordable art by emerging artists. I was especially taken with the work of Matin Zad, a New York fashion photographer whose work is just captivating. He’s done some great collaborations with brands I love (Levi’s, etc). His original works are also lovely. Just quiet and simple and evocative. Basically what my dreams look like. The world he creates has an interesting duality to it. It’s a combination of beauty/elegance/glamour with awkward/uncomfortable/weird. The combination works, making it hard to look away from these images. You can see more of Matin’s work on…
New York
My Favorite Store in Brooklyn: Fresh Kills

Dear Brooklyn, I have often quipped that if I ever move back to New York I’d move to Brooklyn. Mostly because it seems a lot calmer and less yappy than Manhattan. And then I found out that my favorite store in the world is in Williamsburg, so now I pretty much have to move there. Fresh Kills has a lot of really beautiful regency and mid-century furniture. It’s kind of like a museum filled with rare, gorgeous pieces. Below are my ten favorite finds from Fresh Kills: Brass Fireplace Tools, $750 I don’t have a fireplace but I want these….
Whut Glamour: New Branding, New Business Cards

Dear Reader, As you may have noticed, I’ve done a little bit of restyling to Hommemaker.com. The changes include: ▲ Wider pictures (formerly 500 pixels wide, now 700 wide). ▲ Simpler, cleaner navigation featuring four main categories: Art, Decor, Life, Style. ▲ No ads. Although this is going to change. I’m working on incorporating ads for products and services I actually like and use. When they come back they’ll be hand-selected and more thoughtfully worked in to the site’s layout. All of these changes were made possible by my awesome web designer Forster Rudolph. The whole redesign is a sort of mini-rebranding for…
New York Pop-Up Fashion Installation by Boffo + Michael Bastian + Bittertang

Photographs by Evan Joseph Dear Boffo, I enjoyed stopping by your installation at the Superpier (15th at the Hudson River) while I was in New York. This was part of the Building Fashion series, a series of collaborations between architects and fashion designers. Each year, thousands of architects and designers compete for the chance to work with Boffo to create an innovative, groundbreaking space. For the fashion designer, it’s an opportunity to showcase their work in a space customized to the concept/aesthetic of their line. For the architect, it’s a chance to design an outlandish, exciting space. The first in…
Homme/Maker: Richard Haines

Photography by Jill Ulicney Dear Travel Diary, I came to New York with one goal in mind. To meet people I find inspiring. And I really lucked out. One of my favorite artists is an illustrator named Richard Haines and he agreed to meet with me. I discovered his work a few years ago in the New York Times style section. I quickly became obsessed with his fashion illustrations. The beauty of his work comes in its gesture, how a few simple lines create movement, weight. He’s collaborated with all the biggest names in fashion from Prada to J.Crew and…