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Here’s a bit of Japanese bag candy for your Wednesday morning. Unfortunately the photos aren’t beautifully styled, though they’re true to life in terms of display and merchandising from my last trip to Tokyo in December.

The colors are bright, the patterns often dotted, starred or striped and the detailing over or undersized in effect. Have a look, as Porter‘s branched out in a few fun directions- from charmed to neon trimmed. A few other brands that caught my eye were Mobus, Seil Marschall, Supe, Beruf, Lowe Alpine, Admiral, Outdoor Products and Mei.

Who’s not a fan of patterned tights?

In a similar obsession with Instagram, today’s feature merges both loves. Whenever I happen upon a new city, beyond the regular snapshots, business card pileup and note taking, I always try to buy a pair of tights.

A few favorites are from London (Bebaroque and Patternity), though this leopard argyle number from Beams in Tokyo is a fresh spin on what I’m used to seeing. The legs on the left belong to Kate Williams. She’s sporting Hansel from Basel- a spunky LA business that’s always got an interesting texture for sale.

Send me your patterned legs- we’ll start a pinboard together!

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Here’s the next batch of photos from my Asia trip- a few favorites from Shanghai! After leaving my brother-in-law in Hong Kong, my husband and I met up with our friends Mari and Naveen, who were also traveling from New York.

As you’ll see, there was a stark range from high to low throughout the city, but overall Shanghai was expansive (think Chicago, Boston and New York in one) and overwhelming to traverse. The people were friendly, the news highly censored, clothing was hanging from every window and the LED screens were super-sized. Here’s a mix of food, fashion, art and random observations along the way.

Imagery by Myself & Mari

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Continuing on the Hong Kong kick that is today, here are a few favorites. From kid patches and accessory details to street food, graffiti and a bit of personal silliness. Enjoy!

Back in business after a nice sabbatical away from my laptop. For the past two weeks I’ve been in Asia- Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, traveling with friends and family at various points along the way. After taking what feels like 500 photos, I’ve started combing through with an editor’s eye. I figured I’d kick off the new year with some shots from Hong Kong.

The juxtaposition between new and old is incredible. There’ll be a woman deboning a fish in a dilapidated doorway beside an investment banker in a mirrored sky scraper. The scaffolding is made of bamboo throughout the city and the branded exteriors are  statements of growth and prosperity. The last building is a condo on Hollywood Road and I was obsessed with it. If Pattern Pulp ever gets a storefront, it might just take a page out of this playbook…

The last time I was in London I spent more time walking above ground, as the weather was bright and my meetings were well spaced. Enroute from Selfridges to Lambs Conduit Street, I took many twists and turns, passing high street shops and indie store fronts. I passed an abandoned tattoo parlor with piles of tracing paper in the window. It felt rather raw. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it was weird to see all the papers strewn about, knowing the designs were living on bodies around town. Almost made a larva to butterfly analogy in my head.

As promised, here’s the latest and greatest on the progress from the west village mural. I was running to the train yesterday and passed the artist at work, Jay Shells, and he was kind enough to share his info. Great projects in his portfolio, check em out.

Out with the old, in with the new. The old lukoil station’s been under construction for a few weeks. Padding the construction with a little art, this mural recently appeared. Assuming it’s about to get a lot more colorful. Will keep you posted!

While exploring the flea markets on my last trip to Paris, I crossed paths with color pigments of nearly every variety. As you can imagine, it was pretty cool to see a tactile old world approach to mixing color, particuarly coming from an industry where RGB & CMYK affect daily decision making. It’s also interesting to see which pigments are the most popular.

Much like mixing hues at the paint and hardware store, or even mixing hair dye to get the perfect highlight, these Dungay viles are a reminder of a manmade craft long forgotten by younger generations of graphic designers. I was at a friend’s dinner party last night where there were viles of bitters, this collection reminds me of mixology culture, wouldn’t you say?

Makes you wonder what a package redesign for some of our favorite art supplies would look like.

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How fun are these artistic renditions of Conan O’Brien? I was uptown for a meeting with the lovely Miya and Elisabeth of You Plus Me Design last week and passed this public exhibition at Columbus Circle. The patterned frenzy above is entitled Conan in Lines by Bridget Haley.

The collection of portraits are mainly gifts created by fans. This mime rendition is entitled Coco Coceau by Kristen Leigh.

Appealing to the nerd in me, I was really drawn to the simplicity of this pixelated piece. Unfortunately I missed the artist title.

Stealing the show, this oversized pencil sculpture was remarkable and appropriately entitled Conan Pencilism and by Federico Uribe.

Here are a few designs I recently shot. Halloween-appropriate with sharp contrasts, this wheat paste owl’s a cosmic jumble of texture and currently resides in the Marais. This typographic monster’s all over the Paris subway system, aiming to bring awareness to child violence.

Merging feathers with deathly themes, this skull is lyrically romantic. It’s a t-shirt that’s currently being sold in a shop at the intersection of Boulevard Beaumarchais and Rue Charlot.

Interestingly, I’ve also been seeing a lot of two-faced layouts. On the left is one of many paintings from the Sunday flea market and on the right is the most recent Batman promo poster. Applying 3D fleshless themes for an all-over look, Heidi Klum’s infamous 2011 halloween costume is most memorable though.

As promised, here are a few shots from this past weekend in Paris. In my last minute scrambling to find a hotel, I managed to plant myself smack dab in the middle of the Marais on gallery row. A surprise and a treat, as it was FIAC and the art was flowing.

Here are a few shots I took from the street. I wish I could share references, though I wasn’t able to get names, so if anyone would like to be credited, please get in touch.

These two exhibits blew me away- the gravity defying balancing act of the diver is intense, crisp and slick in a Gattaca kind of way, just as this gallery display is a refreshing spin on arrangement and clustering.