I’m an alien - please take me back to my spaceship. That’s truly what it says on the shirt. We thought it was pretty funny, amongst all the searching for the ‘perfect t-shirt’ something that made us smile.
This was immensely popular with all of you a while back, but it was pretty much a men’s cut T-Shirt, now whilst that might be fine for one half of mankind, it’s not as nice for the other half. So here it is, redone on a women’s T, shorter, slimmer fit and simply a wee bit smaller and sexier…
Oh, the basics still apply: it was designed by Michael Eibes and is limited to 100 pieces each and it is nice thick quality cotton with a super thick print. But you know all that already, don’t you!
Color: Black, White
Price: $40 / 30€

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, fashion, Marie’s closet, Soupe du Jour, T-Shirt, Tragically Hip

No, your eyes aren’t tricking you. A black iPhone? In black? But why is it called ccPhone?
Well, let us make room on our humble stage for masterminds Philip Wood (creative director extraordinaire at Citizen:Citizen) and Tobi Wong (designer and curator extraordinaire) who have had the most coveted phone changed into a jet black device that gives you a sense of awe that is hard to describe in pictures. Turn on this sexy thing and it is sure to return the favor, because changing the color isn’t all they did to it. It comes loaded with a curated series of information, artwork for the screen, video, a selection of music and possibly most intriguing of all: Citizen:Citizen’s personal address book in v-cards, which will be updated twice a year. Unfortunately it is limited to a series of 50 pieces, available for pre-order only with a scheduled shipping date of November 15th.
Now for all of you out there who don’t live stateside an important piece of information: this is a standard 8gig iPhone that is from the US. Now here you need to go to AT&T and get your contract, yet we have been told that you can buy the phone and then modify it to work anywhere. This practice is obviously nothing we’d recommend, though we do have a couple of friends who couldn’t wait for the unprotected version to be released in France later in November and by then it should all be pie anyways…
Price: $2000 / 1500€

Technorati Tags: accessories, Apple, Charles & Marie, design, iphone, mobile phone, Soupe du Jour, telephone, Tragically Hip

This is one of our most popular little gadgets and it’s now available in Emergency Orange and Fire Engine Red. We still have it in Snow White as well, in case you were worried… But for those of you who don’t know what we are talking about, here’s a quick intro:
A small little clip – made out of metal, with a matte acrylic holding device, that attaches to the edge of your table and extends out by about half an inch. At the end is a small little round opening, that allows you to easily pull a cable through it. When you don’t need the cable – i.e. take you laptop with you, or your iPod, or anything that has a plug on a cable (the options are countless) - the plug gets ’stuck’ in the opening, which prevents it from falling down. Which means, when you return, you don’t have to get down on your knees and try to fiddle the plug behind your table, it falling down a million times and you getting aggravated…
Smart eh? Yeah we thought so too! It comes in two sizes, small is for thinner tables up to 1″ (2,5 cm) in thickness and large is for a table up to 1.75″ (4,5 cm) in thickness.
So get ready to organize that cable chaos on your desk…
Colors:
Emergency Orange, Fire Engine Red, Snow White
Price: $10 / 8€

Technorati Tags: accessories, Apple, Charles & Marie, ipod, laptop, Modern Living, Soupe du Jour

Sketchbooks are a dime a dozen, no matter what they look like. Granted, the way it’s bound might change or the paper stock used, but in general they are all the same. They are either in landscape orientation or in portrait, leaving the user to choose between the two, As if you know what’s going to hit you. The same goes for scrap books by the way – you simply always have to choose between portrait or landscape…
Today’s Soupe is a one of a kind sketchbook. Well, it’s actually one of 500 that are being made by hand in the Netherlands. This is a first in book making and it is definitely the absolutely coolest thing we have seen in a very long time!
This book changes format!
Not by turning it to the side silly! Portrait/Landscape is a sketchbook with a difference, a sketchbook for those who want the best of both worlds: to draw portraits and landscapes in one book! No more choosing, the budding artist can have it all.
Each of the 210 pages is cut to a different size, starting with the standing portrait format 7.25 x 5.25″ (18,4 x 13,3 cm), which gradually mutates to the lying landscape format 5.25 x 7.25″ (13,3 x 18,4 cm).
The sketchbook was hand bound in the Netherlands in a signed and limited edition of 500 and each sketchbook is individually packaged in a very pretty box. Now if you ask us, the 500 pieces won’t even make it to Christmas, so if you want to get your hands on what must be a definite collectors item whether you are into books or not, act fast…
Price: $80 / 55€

Technorati Tags: accessories, books, Charles & Marie, Soupe du Jour, stationary, Tragically Hip

Ok, so we weren’t telling you the entire story about our new favorite watch yesterday. We actually have two new favorite watches!
The second is today’s model and it is quite elegant in appearance and quite the opposite to yesterday’s beef cake version. Today is all about elegance and understatement – think of it this way: Yesterday we had ‘John Wayne’ and today we bring you ‘David Niven’ – and he is quite the charmer with the ladies, but that’s a different story. Today’s watch comes in an elegant brushed case made out of stainless steel, so it’s no wimp either. There are three different choices of leather bands: Brown (the watch has green LED’s) Black (with red LED’s) and white leather (also with red LED’s). The face is mineral glass making it very sturdy and scratch resistant. And it is black, providing as much contrast as possible and making it a very legible watch, especially at night. The standard functions all apply (date, time, etc) and it is water resistant up to 5 ATM’s, which is fine as you wouldn’t want this watch on your arm when you are diving for sunken treasures anyway…
Do we have anything else to say? No, simply beautiful, go get it!
Price: $155 / 110€

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, Soupe du Jour, Tragically Hip, watch

Yeah, well, at some point everybody does it somehow. Your favorite thing, watch, girl, bff, car, toy, friend, whatever it is, will have to make room for something new and gets ditched. In our case it was quite simple: we have a new favorite watch and it rocks. It’s bold and makes a statement and doesn’t hide behind an elegant body. It’s got a serious six pack and flaunts it and boy does it look delectable.
It has all the features you remember from your first Timex: alarm, date, seconds, splits, the whole nine yards and it comes in Silver or in Gold – and you know which one we are going for, don’t you? To finish it all off it has a metal bracelet that adapts to any size arm you might have. So, looking to add a little more oomph to your arm? This will definitely do the trick!
Oh and ladies, this does make a great gift…
Color: Gold, Silver
Price: $180 / 130€

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, Soupe du Jour, Tragically Hip, watch

The Cosmopolitan Edition is the smaller sibling to the Luxe Edition. Not quite as over the top and full blown glamourous but equally surprising and definitely just as satisfying, just a bit smaller in scale.
Similar to the Luxe Holiday Calendar the Cosmopolitan Edition is also a nod to traditional holiday calendars—the ones that countdown to Christmas by unearthing a piece of chocolate behind a new door each day.
But instead of opening a cardboard door, you’ll be opening your front door and receiving a large gift box, containing 24 wonderful and unusual products. In the grand tradition of Charles and Marie, these gifts are a selection of unisex and “unisize” luxury goods from established and up-and-coming designers from all over the world. Many of the items will not be available with any other offer or via any other retailer.
Though similar in nature, it is is quite different from Soupe Du Jour’s usual format, which, like the name suggests, serves up a different designer ware every day. The products in the Christmas calendar will not be available in the ‘normal’ Soupe Du Jour offering and are limited to this special pre-order package only.
Price: $600 / 500€

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, design, gifting, Holiday calendar, Soupe du Jour

Our annual highlight - the Holiday Calendar - is a nod to traditional holiday calendars—the ones that countdown to Christmas by unearthing a piece of chocolate behind a new door each day.
But instead of opening a cardboard door, you’ll be opening your front door and receiving a very very large gift box, containing 24 stellar products, curated especially for Charles and Marie by euro design duo Alissia Melka-Teichroew and Jan Habraken.
Alissia is probably best know for her wonderful Acrylic Jewelry and for her InsideOut Bar-ware Collection and Jan for the highly acclaimed Open Air Cutlery and the design for a new dutch flag. Both have been educated at the influential Academy of Art in Eindhoven and their european background resulted in a selection of highly coveted products, some of which are extremely limited in number, with a distinct european flavor. Tasty!
Though similar in nature, it is is quite different from Soupe Du Jour’s usual format, which, like the name suggests, serves up a different designer ware every day. The products in the Christmas calendar will not be available in the ‘normal’ Soupe Du Jour offering and are limited to this special pre-order package only.
A couple of things have been changed from last year: On December 1 you will receive one shipment with all the goodies. This way we eliminate the need for you to be there every day or a gift potentially getting delayed - or even worse - getting lost in the shipping process. You can then decide whether you want to unwrap them all or restrain yourself and open them one after the other… Secondly, we have introduced two Editions. The one here is the Luxe version, but based on your feedback we also have a Cosmopolitan Edition, which is a little less over the top but equally satisfying. This version can be found by clicking here.
Both versions will be available for pre-order for the next 24 days. After that, rien ne vas plus… So use the time wisely, because in a month’s time you’ll be eating Turkey and shortly after that, the countdown begins.
Price: $1800 / 1350€

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, design, gifting, Holiday calendar, Soupe du Jour

Don’t get us wrong, we are quite discerning when it comes to wallets and our CDG wallet was our all time favorite, but it has to take a break now, because we just got our hands on Paris House’s all time favorite. In case you aren’t familiar with Paris House, it has nothing to do with the hotel girl, but is another fantastic example of the high quality of design that keeps popping onto our radar from down under. Paris House designs some of the greatest wallets we have seen in a very long time, equally creative as our friends over at Accessories De Bonne Compagnie in France but very different in style they are as beautiful as they are unusual and captivating.
In any case, excuse our ramblings, the Three Fold Wallet is 110 x 105 mm (4.25 x 4″), it has five individual card slots, it unfolds into three, it has an ingenious folding note compartment on one fold and a small zip up change compartment as well. So what more might you need on the functional level? But the true beauty lies not only within the formal set up if you want to call it that, but what it says on them. On them? Yes, on them. Every model is hot foil stamped with a pretty darn clever quote or saying and in this particular case the gold foil lettering reads: Art will save the world right after rock-n-roll. Thoughtful spread across the wallet as you can see from the pictures. And on the inside: People believe in medicine but they don’t believe in art without questioning either.
So if you were wondering why Paris rocks? You now know… Oh, one more thing – it comes in different colors, but black is the way to go with this one – trust us.
Color: Black
Price: $140 / 100€

Technorati Tags: accessories, Charles & Marie, leather goods, Soupe du Jour, Tragically Hip, wallet

So let’s talk placemats here for a sec. No, not what you might expect, no pretty fabric, gorgeous textures, quirky motifs. Plastic. Again, not what you expect or remember from when you were small, no fluo colors, or flying elephants. So, what are we actually talking about?
Very smart placemats from Judith Höfel – you might remember her from last weeks Magic Symbol Soupe – they are a graphic representation of what it looks like when a place setting (plate, knife, fork, spoon and glass) is lit from the side and casts a shadow. So, what you see is only the shadow! Yeah, pretty cool, we think so too. And what really brings this to live is the fact that they are not opaque, but somewhat translucent, allowing the table below to shine through.
We dig it, it’s a smart every day use placemat that really stands out and comes in a set of four – who likes eating alone?
Price: $85 / 62€

Technorati Tags: accessories, Charles & Marie, contraptions, decoration, Epicurean delight, Modern Living, Soupe du Jour