Video: "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John

One of the most innovative pop songs we've heard in a while. The whistling is just so hauntingly catchy. Romantic and strange just the way we like 'em.

Wee Will Doodle at Embassy

We were at Embassy this past October 17th to see Wee Will Doodle set the mood for the designer toy-themed party inside the club. Hopefully, this won't be the last time that people dance and have drinks next to toys.

Kawaii Fashion by Comme des Garcons

Inspiring us this week is innovative Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons. These photos are from the fashion brand's latest runway show in Paris. Comme des Garcons shows are a bit different from other fashion brands that tend to simply give previews of the clothes that they will sell in the future. This brand literally is more interested in giving a fashion show; one that is based on experimental concepts and technique. Marc Jacobs definitely pays attention. He admittedly borrows many of Kawakubo's ideas for his own collections for both his signature brand and for Louie Vuitton. The idea behind these new clothes is authentic randomness the way a child's imagination runs free. That's why the look is very kawaii and artistically cartoony.

New Novelty Products Preview

Here are three super cute novelty products that we have coming up. The first is a set of translucent star cell phone charms that has color which blends with the background. The second is a set of computer cleansing animals featuring monitor cleaner bodies and keyboard brushing heads (it actually sounds a bit creepy if we put it that way haha). The third is a new design lineup of our popular glow-in-the-dark wrist support jelly animals.

Expect all these to be in stores in time for the holidays.

Fresh + Wee Will Doodle

Inspiring us this week are two Manila representatives.

Fresh is an independent designer toy store in Manila that is teaming up with our second inspiration, a public arts collective known as Wee Will Doodle. Wee Will Doodle's mission is to apparently fill all forms of blank spaces (from walls to white t-shirts) with their signature spontaneous pop art. On October 17, Fresh will be launching a line of toys popular in designer circles known as Dunnys, which are alien-rabbit shaped white vinyl molds that you can draw on. Obviously, Wee Will Doodle is going crazy over these toys and intends to bring the blanks to life in Embassy no less (first time we've seen a toy being released in a club).

By the way, we've begun talking with Wee Will Doodle for a little toy tie-up ourselves.

Paint-a-Lot Project

Last week, It's Cool was a proud participant of Paint-a-Lot, a small project organized by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines to promote art, culture and original work in the country. The very intriguing collaborative public arts group known as Wee Will Doodle was given full creative authority to do what they will on the entrance of IPO's Makati office building. Feel free to pass by anytime to see what they did (some preview pictures posted for you here). It's a simple but exciting gesture by IPO to openly show to the public the leadership role that they intend to play in the continuing development of freestyle innovation.

Danish School, Orestad

And speaking of education...

Checkout Orestad high school in Denmark. We recently just talked about our love for the creative-driven city of Copenhagen and this clearly is an example of where that creative drive is coming from. Man, does it look like fun to learn in this place! If only all cities had the power to build schools like this.

Shining the Light with Pathways

We've constantly stated that we're a strong supporter of education here at It's Cool, particularly for higher education (i.e. college level). We believe that closing the higher education gap between rich and poor will go a long way in solving the gap between rich and poor itself. Higher education is also a significant driver of creativity, culture, art and smart world-changing behavior (four things that we obviously want more of). It's no surprise then that we've been working quite closely with Pathways to help gifted but underprivileged kids get a better chance of having a great college education.

Throughout the year, we've been using our gift bags as awareness advertising so that our cool customers can find out more about this wonderful organization and learn what they can do to contribute. It makes us incredibly happy to receive inquiries like this:

Ei! I'm quite interested with teaching kids during the weekend. Do you need to be an education graduate?

To answer, passion and the gameness to do good is more than enough.

Keep the inquiries coming or contact Pathways directly at:

Tel: +63(2) 426-6001 loc. 4044 to 4049
Alingal Hall
Ateneo De Manila University
Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Metro Manila 0917
Philippines

We were also a partner of Pathways in their "Shining the Light" event last April which brought together representatives from different schools all over the country for a conference on how to raise Philippine education to the next level.

Shining the Light ended with a walk for education (dubbed "educaTHON") that also saw generous celebrities participate to raise further awareness for the country's growing need for better education (figures show that an alarming 80% of the population are not even able to finish high school). The celebs included Karylle, Dingdong Dantes, TJ Manotoc, Philippine Allstars, and Starstruck survivors Vivo Ouano, Johan Santos and Jeric Rizalado.