I was looking through W magazine today—blame Scarlett and Natalie—and was struck by the new Guess by Marciano spring campaign. How did they get Sophia Loren circa 1955 into those tiny, tiny new gingham shorts? Well, it ain't Photoshop—it's actually Swedish model Line Gost, styled by Ms. Loren's own hair guy, Peter Savic, and shot by Bryan Adams. All this takes me back to two pivotal moments in my life: the first time I saw Sophia on screen (hey, even Cary Grant reportedly proposed to her on the set of The Pride and the Passion, despite their respective marriages), and the first time I saw a black-and-white Guess advertisement, starring a young Claudia Schiffer. Both are happy thoughts on a snowy winter day.

Because not everything is wireless—at least not yet—your desktop is probably a bit too cluttered. A quick solution: BlueLounge's new SpaceStation, a USB hub that also works as an organizer. It sits on six pegs, leaving just five millimeters of space for cords to slip in and out. It will also boost your laptop to a more ergonomic angle and even has a business card holder—hey, every little bit helps. Available now for 80 bucks.

[BlueLounge via Engadget]

The blokes at Top Gear just posted a smart breakdown of Jim Dowle's new unnamed sports car concept. So who's Jim Dowle? One of the design minds behind the McLaren F1, a British-made Le Mans winner that was both the fastest street-legal car in the world and pretty good-looking to boot. (It was only produced from 1992 to 1998.) Their verdict on his new project: Probably not gonna make it to production, but—as the lads point out—people said that about the F1, too.

Picture a modernist architectural masterpiece like Richard Neutra's famed Kaufmann House, and the image appearing in your mind's eye was undoubtedly taken by Julius Shulman. The visionary photographer changed the face of his field and influenced countless fashion designers, including Tom Ford, who notes that our whole conception of the Californian modernist movement was "filtered by Shulman's sharp eye." (His photos have also been re-created for several ad campaigns, most recently that of 7 For All Mankind.) His portraits of Palm Springs residences built for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Bob Hope—among his most alluring and enduring—are collected in a new book, Julius Shulman: Palm Springs. Be prepared for enlightenment—not to mention acute real estate envy. Shulman's photographs are also on exhibit through May 4 at the Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs, CA, (760) 322-4800, psmuseum.org

For your afternoon enjoyment: Kung Fu Fuck You, an amusing bit of bird-flipping from BoingBoing and The Ministry of Unknown Science. (And despite the title, it's SFW.)

As you might expect, Jack Spade just put out a crisp new weekend bag in time for spring. As you might not expect, it also helps benefit a good cause without sacrificing style, thanks to a pleasing blue-and-orange exterior with the words "listen closely" written up the sides. Portions of all proceeds benefit StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization that archives Americans' oral histories. Spade even keeps you from looking like a poseur by including a sampler CD.
Jack Spade/StoryCorps bag, $195, jackspade.com

"Yeah, they were a bit skeptical at first," Nathaniel Welch says of the men of West Coast Choppers, whose photographs he took for the new book Jesse James and His Beautiful Machines. His black-and-white portraits, taken against a white backdrop Irving Penn-style, weren't exactly how James' rough-and-tumble crew imagined themselves. But the pictures' intensity, and Welch's ability to capture the beauty of the welding shop, won them over. While the photographer himself doesn't ride—"I used to have a few bikes, but that's really for younger guys"—he says that his Orlando upbringing gave him a love for customizing culture. Next up? A book about monster trucks.
Works from Jesse James and His Beautiful Machines will be on display at The PowerHouse Arena, today through March 3, 37 Main St., Brooklyn, (866) 99-ARENA, powerhousebooks.com

The woman you see above is blowing into a high-design bowl, which will help her diagnose her health thanks to the bees inside, who (apparently) have a highly developed sense of smell and can be used to catch disease. (Also: a cool-looking bowl.) Designed by Susana Soares, it's one of more than 200 pieces in the museum's Design and the Elastic Mind, a must-see exhibit of how science has influenced design (and vice versa) over the past seven years. That nexus is illustrated through such high-concept pieces as Front Design's Sketch Furniture line—actual tables and chairs 3-D-printed from motion-captured free-form drawings. As with many of the wares on display, it's easier seen than believed—which is why you should check out the video here before the show bows on Sunday.
Design and the Elastic Mind, Feb. 24-May 12, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53 St., NYC, (212) 708-9400, moma.org

Sure, customizing your computer's keyboard probably isn't very high on your cubicle-design wish list, but Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus might just change your mind. Each key is embedded with a tiny OLED display that can be manipulated to show new fonts, colors, or even little photos. It's pricy—about 460 bucks—but at least the long-in-development keyboard finally has a shipping date: today.

[Gizmodo]

In 1962, dashing Chicago-born photographer Victor Skrebneski met a woman named Estée Lauder who wanted to start advertising her little line of face creams and such. That was the start of a 25-year gig as the cosmetic juggernaut's exclusive lensman. From 1962 to 1987, Skrebneski cast and photographed the first five "faces" of Estée Lauder, starting with Phyllis Connor and ending with the winsome Willow Bay. The classic, alluring images were then compiled into a book aptly titled Five Beautiful Women. Out of print for two decades and long sought after by collectors—originals go for hundreds of dollars—it's just been issued in a dazzling new edition by Rizzoli. As for Skrebneski, he later discovered Cindy Crawford while she was a chem major at Northwestern—if not for him, she might've been hidden under a lab coat all these years.

Click here for a slideshow from Five Beautiful Women >

Tonight is the opening of Julian Schnabel's cool (if inscrutably titled) Christ's Last Day, a show of large-scale paintings that reproduce early-20th-century x-rays, right down to the original scratches and ink stains. "Julian found a cache of x-rays in an old French house related to [Diving Bell author] Jean-Do Bauby," says Gagosian director Deborah McLeod. "The images you see under the credits in the movie are [taken] from the same source material." Printed on 6-by-8- and 9-by-14-foot polyester canvases, the giant bones—from an ethereal femur to a cryptic cervical spine—should provide some extra gold for the recent Oscar nominee, even if things don't work out on Sunday.
Julian Schnabel at Gagosian Gallery, tonight through March 22, Gagosian Beverly Hills, 456 N. Camden Dr., (310) 271-9400, gagosian.com

With one crucial caveat: Not all women seem to have one. (Gentlemen, you have your excuse.) Researchers at Italy's University of L'Aquila—nice work if you can get it—made the discovery, which was first reported in New Scientist magazine. The next step for ladies: getting tested to find out whether they have the pleasure center. If you have to ask...

[Guardian via GQ UK]

NDrive has just put out the first GPS navigator with a built-in Breathalyzer. No doubt a good idea—and it seems to hold its own with the actual map functionality—but we would recommend thinking twice before giving it to granddad as a gift.

[Gizmodo]

Radar says what we're all thinking, and ranks prime-time starlets by "Lolita Points."

How else to explain why Simon Mills just devoted 400 words in The Guardian to whether BBC economics editor Evan Davis is rockin' a mohawk, and if so, what it means for men over 40.

Those are the focal points of the triptychs (and accompanying essays) in The Triangulation of Happiness, a new exhibition from photographer James Gooding. Inspired by a 2007 New Yorker story on the relationship between commuting and happiness—hint: more of the former usually leads to less of the latter—the lensman spent four months shooting the daily routines of eight people, including a Reno croupier (pictured) who occasionally stopped off at a brothel on his way to Costco. Up next: the inevitable sequel, which Gooding will begin shooting in April. "I really wanted to photograph some loggers in Montana and West Virginia miners last time," he says. "But it was snowing too hard."
The Triangulation of Happiness, tonight through April, Diesel Denim Gallery, 68 Greene St., New York, (212) 966-5593, jamesgooding.com

Because nothing classes up a good sex joke like an oil painting, there's Sex to Sexty, out this month from Taschen. The book collects the nearly 200 covers—painted in oil by artist Pierre Davis—of the title magazine, which specialized in dirty humor and cartoons and was published from 1965 to 1983. Consider this the unrated version: The foldout jacket doubles as a poster of covers the rag's publisher considered "too tasteless" to publish.

At least that seems to be the message behind their latest move: asking users of car forum Club4AG to help them design their long-in-development sports coupe. (Very zeitgeist-y.) The company got in touch with the site's founder, Moto Miwa, who polled his readers on what they would like to see. Their requests: a lightweight rear-wheel-drive coupe with a responsive (if not powerful) engine that's also (yep) affordable. Way to dream, guys.

[Winding Road via Autoblog]

The pranksters at Human Giant—a.k.a., the only reason we still watch MTV—are promoting their second season (March 11, btw) with a viral video about the spread of viral videos. Is it just us, or does the unfunny comic "Dale Grant" look a bit like Dane Cook?

Sony just announced the tiny new NW-A829 media player—seriously, it's less than half an inch thick and weighs only two ounces. It looks like a worthy rival to Apple's junior iPod, with a Nano-besting battery life (36 hours of music on a single charge), Bluetooth capability, and 16 gigs of storage. (An 8 GB version is also available.) Sony has even ditched the proprietary ATRAC digital for standard MP3s, WMAs, and AACs. The only remaining issue: The price, which (like the availability date) is still TBD.

The whole Wii fitness phenomenon has been going on since the console came out almost a year and a half ago, and now Nintendo is set to monetize it stateside with Wii Fit, a long-delayed exercise game hitting U.S. shelves May 19. (It came out in Japan last year.) Players perform various types of exercise like jumping and climbing—basically the stuff you once let Mario do for you—while standing on the new Wii Balance Board, which connects wirelessly with your Wii. Price TBD.

[Reuters]

Ardbeg's Airigh Nam Beist, pictured, was just named 2007's best new whisky by readers at The Scotch Blog. The pick is part of the site's second annual Drammies, the week's other highly anticipated award ceremony. Check out the rest of the winners (including their pick for most underrated whisky) here. (And by the way, it's "Arry Nam Baysht.")

(PLUS: Weigh in on other prize-worthy drinks in our scotch Hotlist.)

In case Roberto Cavalli's restaurants, cafés, and, of course, fashion line wasn't enough, soon you'll be able to visit Cavalli Clubs, a chain of nightspots designed by the fashion impresario. The first is set to open this October in Dubai—finally, the place gets a dose of understatement—inside a Cavalli-designed 80-story skyscraper scheduled to be completed in 2010.

[WWD]

"I was drawn to the style and the uniforms," photographer Brian Finke says of his latest subject, flight attendants. "There's this old stereotype of the job being sexy and glamorous, which doesn't exist in domestic airlines today." Over a two-year period, the New York-based lensman scoured the globe for that charm, and he's happy to report it's still alive and well—it's just relocated to Asia. (He particularly likes Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. Who doesn't?) Tomorrow, you can see the evidence at Chelsea gallery ClampArt's exhibit Flight Attendants, or pick up Finke's book of the same name. Guaranteed to cost less than a round-trip to Hong Kong.
Flight Attendants by Brian Finke, tomorrow through March 29, ClampArt, 521-531 W. 25 St., New York, (646) 230-0020, clampart.com

Since the twenties, Allen-Edmonds has made understated, sometimes elegant shoes that have a decidedly American practicality. This has made the brand a dark-horse alternative for lace-up dress shoes, all the more affordable for being produced in Wisconsin. Now it's launching a new, handcrafted line of seven shoes called, appropriately, Seven. The entire range is made from calfskin, with hides individually chosen for each shoe before they're hand-shaped, stitched, and burnished. In a departure for the brand, the shoes (including the Frontino, pictured) are made entirely in Italy and therefore have a Continental feel to them. Better yet, these imports sell for domestic prices.
Allen-Edmonds Seven, $495-$575, available at select Allen-Edmonds stores now and allenedmonds.com in March

Here's a sneak peak at the Gansevoort South, courtesy of our friends at Hotel Chatter. The NYC hotel's long-delayed Miami outpost—a 22,000-square-foot space, complete with a shark tank in the lobby—is scheduled to open in early March. Now that we've seen photos, we almost believe it.

After a decade or two of misfires—sliding color stripes or tongues that flip, anyone?—K-Swiss is finally on the rebound. Its spring '08 offering is a welcome return to understated style, and the comeback continues apace with the fall clothes, which I recently saw at the Magic trade show in Vegas. Among the highlights: tennis-court-worthy merino knits, jackets, and tees dominated by smart, subtle details like ribbed waists on the polos, leather trim and piping on the hoodies, and a Prince of Wales check with purple highlights on a windbreaker. My favorite, though, is this perforated nylon bomber.
K-Swiss, $40 to $210, available at Barneys Co-Op NYC, Barneys.com

The Geneva Auto Show is still a couple of weeks away, but highlights are already starting to leak online. (Crazy, right?) The latest: the first-ever production version of Alfa Romeo's long-awaited 8C Spider, a so-called sister car to the 8C Competizione. (The concept premiered three years ago.) Aside from the obvious reasons (pictured), the open-top car is covetable for its powerful, 450-hp eight-cylinder engine. Oh, and they're only making 500, so this is probably as close as you're gonna get.

[Autoblog]

Currently delighting British tailoring fetishists: Savile Row, a three-part BBC documentary that goes behind-the-curtains with London's finest tailors, from Richard Anderson to the blokes from Henry Poole. Among the highlights: watching Row vets look on in horror as Abercrombie & Fitch opens its English flagship down the street, only to come around (kind of) after A&F owner Mike Jeffries stops by Norton & Sons for a suit—wearing flip-flops, of course. Unfortunately there's no word yet on when (or if) BBC America plans to air it, but bootleg videos are floating around online. Or so we're told.

This week's DVD releases include a couple of last year's most stylish films: American Gangster and Michael Clayton, but there's also one you might have missed: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, starring the always underrated Tony Leung (pictured). As a philandering spy chief in forties Shanghai, he is an image of power and control, from his meticulously slicked-back hair to his perfectly tailored suits. (Except, of course, during the uninhibited sex scenes that earned the movie its NC-17 rating).

That's how Stefano Gabbana describes his label's revised retail concept, which will debut with this May with an L.A. flagship.  The store is part of a worldwide repositioning of the brand, which will now aim to be "a higher-end, fully fledged ready-to-wear line," Gabbana tells WWD. All of this leads up to next year, when D&G will launch its biggest-ever boutique in (where else?) Moscow.

Also, the label has upped its relationship with Silvio Berlusconi's AC Milan football club, reports DNR. D&G already outfits the players off the pitch, but as premier sponsor, its logos will be featured prominently during and after the games. The brand will also indoctrinate a new generation of players: Those fashion-crazy kids at AC Milan Junior Camp will now be outfitted in uniforms from D&G Juniors.

Chuck Berry didn't just help invent rock 'n' roll, he defined its look with his crisp suits and skinny ties (not to mention his enormous pompadour). Today's a good day to revisit both the sound and the style, as he has a new box set, Johnny B. Goode, out that for the first time collects everything he recorded for Chess in the fifties. Among the classics: "Maybellene," which you can see him play live (while looking sharp) in this 1965 clip.

Other goodies from oldies out today: Ray Davies' second solo record, Working Man's Café, and Nick Lowe's 30th anniversary reissue of Jesus of Cool.