Irwin Weiner ASID - The following video caught my eye today, and I had to share it with you. A versatile wardrobe or multi-tasking bedroom armoire sporting a Charlie Chaplin sliding panel door opens and closes, revealing hidden storage secrets. I was fascinated by the design, entranced by the designer's interest in iconic entertainment figures. While this piece looks like it might be better suited for the decor in an Eastern bloc hotel room versus a bedroom in your home, I really liked the "foreignness" of the design, the retro-contemporary feel, and the utility of the piece. 
And much to my surprise, it turns out that the designer, Vladimir Arsentyev, earlier designed the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games emblem (see top). We're cut off in the West from many Russian and former Soviet bloc design; this video made me more sensitive to the fact that we're really in need of digging deeper into other cultures, designers, and aesthetics.
The rest of the world doesn't decorate from Crate & Barrel ... well, maybe from IKEA. But I'm all for having our homes becoming melting pots for other design sensibilities. I bet I could even make Vladimir's pieces look smashing in the right setting, and tricked out just so!
Note: In all my digging on Vladimir Arsentyev, I couldn't come up with a website for him. If you have better luck, please leave a comment and share Vladimir's URL with us. (All I could find was his email address: v.arsentyev@gmail.com). Thank you.
