From left, Emeco’s famous Navy Chair and a Restoration Hardware “Naval Chair” ripoff.

Restoration Hardware has raised the white–make that Silver Sage!–flag in the dispute concerning its “Naval Chair,” a shameless rip-off of Emeco’s Navy Chair, the aluminum classic designed by the Hanover, Pennsylvania-based company in 1944 for the U.S. Navy and in production ever since. In October 2012, Emeco announced that it was suing Restoration Hardware and its former CEO, Gary Friedman, for infringement of Emeco’s trade dress and trademark rights for its Navy Chair. Now comes word that the Naval/Navy battle has been settled for an undisclosed sum. “As part of that settlement, Restoration Hardware has agreed to permanently cease selling the chairs that Emeco accused of infringement, and its existing inventory of such chairs will be recycled,” noted Emeco in a statement issued yesterday. And if it’s the recycled Real Thing you’re after, look no further than Emeco’s 111 Navy Chair, made with 111 up-cycled Coca-Cola PET bottles.

Previously on UnBeige:
• Emeco Sues Restoration Hardware for Copying Its Navy Chair

The crafty types at Etsy are taking their love for collage to the digital realm by scooping up photo collage app Mixel and its team of mobile-savvy stars for an undisclosed sum. Created by designer Khoi Vinh and developer Scott Ostler, Mixel allows users to make, share, and remix collages with results that been described as both “gorgeous” and “highly addictive.” Vinh and his team sensed that they hit on their hands soon after launch. “We see a lot of activity at night, and a lot of activity on Saturday, too,” he said of early usage patterns. “So it’s very different from the Web, which many people will surf during work.”

Etsy is tasking team Team Mixel, which also includes Akiva Leffert and Roy Stanfield, with taking the online marketplace’s mobile platform to the next level. “Mobile visits on Etsy grew 244% in the past year, and right now they represent a steady 25% of visits year round,” noted Etsy creative director Randy Hunt in a blog post announcing the acquisition. “That’s not too shabby, but something quite astounding happened this past holiday season: almost one in three visits came from shoppers on their mobile devices. We expect that trend to accelerate, so doing more with mobile is one of our top priorities in 2013.”

The fashion world was rather slow to board the digital bandwagon, but we’ve come a long way from conversations about fashion and technology that began and ended with Hussein Chalayan‘s famous table skirt. Now anyone can purchase (and sometimes rent!) last season’s Naeem Khan at a hefty Gilt discount and pre-order next season’s Eddie Borgo baubles (from Moda Operandi), while emerging designers are flourishing everywhere from Etsy and ModCloth to Fab and AHAlife. With New York Fashion Week approaching, Hearst is seizing the app-frenzied moment for a Fashion Hackathon.

Beginning on the morning of Saturday, February 9, participating developers and designers (register here) will get to spend 24 hours coding away in the company’s breathtaking Norman Foster-designed midtown HQ to create “innovative fashion-focused apps and programs on API platforms from sponsors,” which include Hearst brands (your ELLE, your Harper’s Bazaar…), Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The grand prize winner, as determined by a judging panel of Hearst execs, tech industry gurus, and VCs will receive $10,000 and an internship opportunity. Surprise guest appearances–fingers crossed for that table skirt or better yet, a fresh-from-the-shows Glenda Bailey brandishing a tablet–are promised.

Among Zhukova’s picks are Sebastian Wrong’s “Logger Head” table light and a miniature “Therapeutic Toy” elephant by Renate Müller.

“Design really thrives when it pushes boundaries,” says Dasha Zhukova, founder of the Moscow-based Garage Center for Contemporary Culture. And while she adores edgy furniture, such as Jonathan Muecke‘s primordial carbon fiber and epoxy chair, as a self-described couch potato, she’s also a sucker for a comfortable sofa. Clever and cozy coexist in the 20 unique and limited edition design objects Zhukova has selected for Artsy, the online art hub that recently underwent a hasty rebranding after its Art.sy URL encountered snafus related to tensions in Syria (the country hosts the .sy domain).

“This collection comprises pieces by cutting-edge designers who are experimenting with new materials and manufacturing processes,” says Zhukova, who is an investor in Artsy. “I chose objects that are accessible and functional on one hand, yet conceptually challenging on the other.” All of the works, drawn from leading galleries such as Victor Hunt and R 20th Century, are available for purchase directly from the site. Prices top out at $10,000–a sum that will get you Front Design’s mesmerizing “Surface Tension Lamp” (below), which generates its own ever-changing bulb made of a soap bubble.

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Harry Winston says “I do” to Swatch? It may sound like the ultimate high-low, late-night-monologue-fodder matchup, but only until you realize that the watchmaker’s eponymous plastic timepieces–credited with saving a Swiss watch industry decimated by the “Quartz crisis” of the 1970s and early 1980s–represent just one in a stable of brands that includes Breguet, Omega, and Rado as well as a movements and components business that makes customers of its main competitors. On Monday the Swatch Group announced that it had acquired the Harry Winston brand and its jewelry and watches business for $750 million.

In addition to up to $250 million in assumed debt, the deal gives Swatch 525 new employees, Harry Winston’s Geneva-based production company, and a brand burnished by red-carpet cameos and Fabien Baron‘s stunning ad campaigns lensed by Patrick Demarchelier. “We are proud and happy to welcome Harry Winston to the Swatch Group family,” said chairwoman Nayla Hayek in a statement issued yesterday. “Diamonds are still a girl’s best friend.” True as that may be, the brand’s former owners are hanging on to the sparkly stone supply. The mining activities of Harry Winston will now operate as Toronto-based Dominion Diamond Corporation and continue supplying polished diamonds to Swatch.

This just in: Print parent F+W Media is shuttering the magazine’s New York City office and laying off the New York-based team: executive editor Mason Currey, editor-in-chief Michael Silverberg, and art director Ben King. Current plans call for F+W to continue publishing Print out of the company’s corporate headquarters in Blue Ash, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. “We’re finishing up the April issue,” Silverberg told us today. “That will take us through early February, and then Print is moving to Cincinnati.”

According to a spokesperson for F+W Media, the Print editorial operation will be merged with that of HOW magazine. “Integrating our Design Community into a single dedicated team is designed to create more synergy between our brands and stronger collaboration between the e-media, e-commerce, events, magazines, and books teams that work on its many and varied products,” said Gary Lynch, group publisher. Former Print editor-in-chief Emily Gordon offered a more succinct assessment of the situation. “It’s the end of an era,” she told us.

Still muddling through bankruptcy, Kodak announced late last month that it had inked a deal to sell its digital imaging patents for $525 million. Now comes word that the beleaguered company, which hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 focused on its commercial imaging business, is pulling a Polaroid and licensing the Kodak brand name to Los Angeles-based JK Imaging for consumer products such as digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and portable projectors. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “With more than a century of imaging firsts, there is great significance and value in the Kodak name,” said JK Imaging CEO Joe Atick in a statement issued earlier this week. The first licensed products will debut in the second quarter of this year.

A rendering of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel.

Louvre-ing right along! Following last month’s opening of the SANAA-designed Musée du Louvre-Lens near the French city of Lille comes word that construction will begin immediately on the museum’s Middle East outpost: the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Designed by Jean Nouvel, the museum will consist of a complex of pavilions, plazas, alleyways, and canals that will span 689,000 square feet (approximately 100,000 square feet of that will be exhibition space) of Saadiyat Island and evoke a city floating on the sea.

Dubai-based Arabtec announced today that it has landed the main construction contract for Louvre Abu Dhabi, a deal worth $653 million. According to the megafirm, which has joined forces with Constructora San Jose and Oger Abu Dhabi for the project, the concrete frame should be completed by the first quarter of 2014 and work on the vast perforated dome, inspired by traditional Arab architecture, will be wrapped up by the end of next year. The final stage of the construction–think marine works and the removal of temporary land platforms–is set to be completed in 2015.

Tired of ugly lightbulbs and unsightly lightswitches? Dream of dimming lamps with the swipe of your iPhone? Check out RoboSmart, a new wireless LED lighting system that that can be controlled with a smartphone, tablet, or computer over Bluetooth Smart wireless. With an eye to simplifying the typical wireless lighting setup, Ian Crayford and his team at “Automation for the Masses” startup Smart Home Labs have developed an energy-efficient, Bluetooth-enabled LED lightbulb–designed to be a direct replacement for a standard 120V screw-in bulb–and apps (iOS and Android) for controlling it.

“We didn’t just want to take an existing LED lighting design and simply bolt on a circuit board with wireless,” says Clayton. “Our hardware team set out to develop a design that would be easy to put together and cost-effective, to make this technology accessible to the masses.” In addition to on/off and dimmer switch functions, the “Smart Lights” apps allow users to put lights on timers, keep track of power usage, and set proximity lighting, which can turn on and off one or more RoboSmart bulb as the user moves within range. Want to give it go? Silicon Valley-based Smart Home Labs is launching the product with a campaign on crowdfunding site IndieGoGo: the bulbs, priced at $49 each, will ship in February.

‘Tis the season for pop-up emporiums and “best of” lists. Wired combines the two with a concept store stocked with the magazine’s picks for the most innovative products and technologies of the year. To get its annual NYC retail showcase to look as good as the covetable merchandise–think GPS Navigation Shoes, a stool made of recycled bicycle inner tubes, and a Makerbot desktop 3D printer–Wired tapped Mother New York to mastermind the shopping experience. The creative agency delivered a sleek space filled with custom furniture and fixtures as well as wall-sized interactive elements. The store design is unified by graphics inspired by the magazine’s “What’s Inside” features and the work of product-dissecting photographer Todd McClellan, Mother creative director Piers North tells us. Pay a virtual visit to the store, which is open Tuesday through Sunday ’til December 24, by scrolling through the below photos. This being a Wired production, the stuff–who doesn’t need a pair of caped Superman socks?–is also available to purchase online.

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