Gala dinner by Michelin-starred chef at The PlazaThe Plaza will provide a gala dinner prepared by Italian chef Philippe Leveille, whose restaurant Miramonti L’altro in Italy received two Michelin stars for 13 years. French-born Leveille is known to add a French edge to his Italian dishes. Leveille will use luxury ingredients such as caviar, truffles and foie gras for the gala dinners on Nov. 26 and 28, accompanied by Albert Bichot wines. The first gala dinner will be held at 7 p.m. at the Maple

Belgian fashion designer Olivier Theyskens debuted in the high fashion world with a much-praised show for Rochas in 2003. Imbued with Parisian elegance, Theysken’s creations were regarded as a redefinition of haute couture, as he made it relevant to younger people. His fresh take on fashion continued when he moved to Nina Ricci in 2006 and to Theory in 2011 as creative director. His creations fascinated many young women who wanted to look chic and sleek while retaining a feminine and romantic am

“Trans-border Migrant Tool” by Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 helps Mexican immigrants to find the location of water using the GPS-installed mobile device when they cross the border through the harsh desert.Hundreds of Mexican immigrants die in their deadly crossing across the Mexican and the U.S. border every year. Non-governmental organizations estimate that more than 10,000 people have died so far before they make it to the border. Some of them die without water in the blazing desert that

To think of Bauhaus-style interior design, a modern apartment studio with sleek and monotone interior comes to mind. It’s one of the contributions of the legendary German design school in the field of design.For more than 30 years the German academic design institution operated in pursuit of shaping new design principles. Although the school closed 81 years ago, its influence on modern design has been significant. Now, the word Bauhaus signifies the cool, streamlined interior, furniture design o

The former Seoul Station building will turn into a big live theater where artists, dancers and musicians will present a variety of arts performances that pay tribute to the history of the place. Each room of the historic building will be dedicated to live performances and interactive exhibitions from Nov. 14 to 30 as part of the seasonal program of Culture Station Seoul 284, the current name of the space. Seoul Station was built by a Japanese architect in 1925 during the Japanese colonial period

Singer Lee Seung-chul was denied entry to Japan on Sunday in an apparent retaliation for a performance on the easternmost Korean islets of Dokdo in August. The singer performed on the islet on Aug. 14, a day before the 69th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Lee sang a song with a choir of young North Korean defectors.The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed regret over Lee’s entry refusal on Tuesday. “It’s regrettable for a Korean national to have been report

For Koreans, kimchi-making is the annual family or neighborhood ritual that prepares them to get through the long winter with nutritional kimchi. This year, this custom called “gimjang” will be celebrated in a big way in bustling spots across Seoul such as Gwanghwamun, Cheonggye Plaza and Seoul Plaza. The 2014 Seoul Kimchi Making and Sharing Festival will run from Friday to Sunday with a variety of events related to kimchi. The festival invites citizens and tourists to taste different kinds of k

Linda McCartney was the first woman photographer whose photos were featured in Rolling Stone magazine. She made a name for herself by taking pictures of famous rock stars in the 1960s and ’70s such as The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and The Beatles.She’s also well known as the first wife of Paul McCartney, a Beatle. Of her four children, Mary is a photographer, too, and Stella a fashion designer.Daelim Museum in Seoul is holding Linda McCartney’s first exhibition in Kor

Nearly a decade after Seoul City’s urban beautification campaign, design has become an essential part of urban planning in Korea. In Seoul, flashy new buildings continue to pop up, creating some noticeable spots in its repetitive sprawl of cookie-cutter structures. Some even resemble a tsunami (the new Seoul City Hall) or a spaceship (the Dongdaemun Design Plaza). Although not as noticeable as the new edifices, traffic signs, bus stops and advertisements are being given a designer touch. Rooftop

For the past decade, major urban projects in Seoul have centered on creating landmarks to achieve the ambition of making it the design capital of Asia. Old buildings and neighborhoods have been transformed into high-end locales designed by famous architects. While the Korean capital has gradually turned into an ultramodern city, the streets and alleys behind the landmarks have been left with indistinct buildings that still comprise much of the landscape.Recently, city planners and architects hav

Macau Food Festival at Conrad Seoul The buffet restaurant ZEST is presenting Macanese food from Nov. 7-16 with the Macau Government Tourist Office. The food promotion will offer Macanese dishes prepared by visiting chefs from Macau, who will also run egg-tart cooking classes on Nov. 10 and 15. The menu includes Portuguese suckling pig with orange, prawns with chili and Portuguese-style curry crab. Guests who upload photos of their food experience onto Instagram (instagram.com/conradseoul) will h

The vast 17-meter-high space dedicated to site-specific installations at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea looks like it’s been filled with water and floating boats with blinking lights. As the idea of filling the exhibition space with water is counterintuitive, the scene challenges our usual perceptions of space. Up close, what appears to be a night scene at a small port turns out to be carefully arranged installation pieces by Argentinean artist Leandro Erlich. The square museum

Using 3-D printing technology, Dutch design studio Minale-Maeda has designed a set of plastic connectors that make it possible to assemble your own wooden furniture. Without using any tools, the connectors can be used to join wooden legs and a wooden tabletop to make a functional table.  The design studio has gone a step further by disclosing the blueprint for the connector so that anyone can make one with a 3-D printer. A 3-D-printed connector for the wooden legs of a table by Minale-MaedaThe t