Don’t mess with a man who has cyclonic suction on his side. James Dyson‘s global empire of highly engineered, sleekly designed sucking and blowing devices is taking on its chief competitor for the U.S. marketplace–in court. Dyson Inc. claims that Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Bissell Homecare Inc. has been falsely advertising its range of (less expensive) upright vacuums as containing technology that “captures over 99.9 percent” of allergens. Dyson has long boasted that its machines are singular in their “constant powerful suction, high dust removal, the ability to capture allergens, expel cleaner air, do not have dusty bags to empty and are certified asthma & allergy friendly by the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America.” The company has gone so far as to trademark the phrase “asthma & allergy friendly.”

Dyson commissioned independent lab testing of the rival vacs and surveyed watery-eyed, sniffling consumers, while Bissell tried to clear the air by affixing stickers to its machines in an attempt to clarify that the ragweed and pollen trapping was actually done by filters, not the machines themselves. Dyson didn’t blink (or sneeze, for that matter) and is pressing its case in U.S. district court in Illinois. Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan cleared the way for the case to proceed in a summary judgment issued Friday. Will Dyson’s lawyers blow away the defense team? Will Bissell choke on its promises of wallet-friendly vacuums that improve respiratory health? Will the arguments of both sides suck? Stay tuned, floorcare fans.

Road trip season is upon us, and we suspect there’s some kind of law against taking a Citibike across state lines. Craving superbly designed four-wheeled rides, we sent writer Marc Kristal out to Rockingham Speedway to take the latest from Lexus for a spin.

The 2014 Lexus IS 250 F-Sport. (Courtesy Lexus)

While “Waku-Doki” may sound like a production number that got cut from The Lion King, it is, in fact, a Japanese term that describes the excitement of an adrenalin rush—or, as the Toyota waku-doki website puts it, “the feeling you get when your heart pounds with anticipation.” And if “waku-doki” and “Toyota” seem incompatible, the soon-to-be-in-a-showroom-near-you 2014 Lexus IS may cause you to bid sayonara to your uncharitable assumptions. Partly this derives from chief engineer Junichi Furuyama’s fine-tuning of the IS’s “fun to drive” quotient, defined by Lexus national product marketing manager Owen Peacock as a car that “immediately and precisely responds to the driver.” But it’s also a function of aesthetics. According to Bill Camp, the company’s dealer education administrator, the previous incarnations of Toyota’s luxury brand were (music to our ears) “too beige”: even if a Lexus zoomed up behind you doing 100 MPH, you wouldn’t get out of the way. With the 2014 IS, and the F-Sport version in particular, Lexus has produced a model in which style and performance are cohesive—a design that is beige no more.

It’s also, at just under $36,000 for the IS 250 (and closer to $50,000 for the more powerful, fully bell-and-whistled 350 models), surprisingly well-priced for a high-performance luxury car. As such, the IS fills an open niche in the Lexus line, targeted toward 45-year-old men and women—“active singles and couples,” says Peacock—entering this particular zone of the luxury market, whether stepping up in class, downscaling from automotive McMansions, or making a lateral move from something comparably priced but less exciting.
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Humberto and Fernando Campana (Photo: Fernando Laszlo)

“I think our work is always based on materials,” said Humberto Campana, glancing around the first U.S. solo gallery show for him and his brother, Fernando. “And we’re more and more interested in natural materials.” And so the new works on view through July 3 at Friedman Benda in New York swap plush and plastic for cowhide, fish scales, and gemstones, upping the luxe quotient while maintaining the brothers’ signature straight-outta-Sao-Paulo brand of whimsy. While putting the finishing touches on the show last week, they made time to plop down on their leather Alligator Couch–a handcrafted update to the 2005 plush version–to share some stories behind the new pieces, their working process, and how they might spend their summer vacation.

What was the starting point for this show?
Humberto Campana: This [points to "Racket Chair (Circles)," pictured at right] was the seed for the exhibition. This chair was born from a mistake. We didn’t want to do weaving…it was projected to be made with leather cushions. But that didn’t work out and it stayed for two years in our studio, unfinished. And then one day we asked a guy to weave it. I think these look like tennis racquets [laughs].

Fernando Campana: Here we are showing many different concepts. The thing with this exhibition is that one piece generated another one.

You’ve covered the walls of the gallery in coconut fiber. Did you expect it to have such a dramatic effect?
FC: It’s to bring some part of Brazil–the nature of the place–and also to combine with the pieces that we put in this exhibition.

HC: Also, it was a way to to come back to our roots, with using simple materials to construct the look of luxury. And the idea that this is luxury today. We wanted to make those statements–or pose those questions.

How did you decide to use amethysts?
HC: It’s the best! My father was an agronomic engineer. He used to work on farms in Brazil and in some areas you can find crystals. And whenever he would find a crystal he would bring it back home to our house. And I would always hold up the crystals to the sun to see the details. It kind of gives…a shamanic quality.
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An installation view of “Campana Brothers: Concepts,” on view through July 3 at Friedman Benda.

New York’s Friedman Benda has been temporarily transformed from a white cube into a moody, tobacco-hued chamber–a backdrop that evokes art deco treasures rather than the gallery’s typical twenty-first century prototypes. Visitors are greeted by a brass buffet comprised of square panels filled with vortices of bent metal, like the sprightly cousin of a Paul Evans console. But take a closer look: the walls aren’t paneled in silk or leather but nubby coconut fiber, and that buffet’s checkerboard of metallic explosions calls to mind a certain Alessi fruit bowl. This is the latest work of the Campana Brothers, who, after three decades of working together, could coast for three more on their greatest hits and Brazilian charm. Instead, they’ve challenged themselves with a selection of exotic new materials–including constellations of Sao Paulo-sourced amethysts and the skin of an ancient fish unique to South American waters–and craft techniques.

“It’s important for us to keep the traditions that are disappearing but at the same time give them more modernity,” said Humberto Campana (the older of the two by eight years) last week, as he and Fernando led a group of journalists through the Friedman Benda exhibition, the brothers’ first solo gallery show in the United States. He sidled up to their new “Racket” collection (pictured), which includes a chair with a hand-stitched motif made from leftover Thonet chair backings. “The guy we work with who weaves with straw, it was a matter of helping him understand what we’re doing–this idea of weaving with leftovers. It’s to reinvent the traditions that may otherwise die.” Added Fernando, “And instead of making traditional weaving with straw, we decided to make it with nylon string.”
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“When I started with Halston, it was go-go-go fantastic. He loved my pieces, and they loved his clothes. It was great when he used my big belts in his fashion shows. I worked my ass off with him. He was working day or night, coke or no coke. We were going to Studio 54, but he was impeccable in everything. Halston gave me the discipline. He also gave me advice: when I started doing jewels that I thought were great but too expensive, he said, ‘Make small, medium, and large.’ It may sound simple, but it was very useful, and I have never forgotten it.”

–Designer Elsa Peretti, in the spring 2013 issue of TIME Style & Design

Waste less, want more? That’s the thinking behind Wasteless, a sustainability-minded competition that challenged students at Parsons The New School for Design to transform Poltrona Frau‘s leather leftovers–freshly harvested from the floor of its factory in Tolentino, Italy–into luxe accessories and objects. Designer and Parsons faculty member Andrea Ruggiero led a group of 15 Parsons product design students in the seven-week project, and earlier this month they presented their projects to a panel of judges that included Massimo Vignelli, Metropolis editorial director Paul Makovsky, and Federico Materazzi of Poltrona Frau.

Jenny Hsu emerged on top with “Piqnique” (at left), a woven case for meals on the go that doubles as a leather placemat. Rounding out the top three were Yuna Kim‘s “Miovino” leather wine glass tags and the “Tuft” candle holders (at right) designed by Benjamin Billick. The three winning designers will head to Italy this summer to visit the Poltrona Frau factory and work with the company’s master craftsmen to fabricate prototypes. Check out all 15 of the student designs at Poltrona Frau’s Soho showroom, where they’re on view through Tuesday.

Fab made a splash in Milan with more than cushy Warhol Brillo boxes. The online retailer invited designers from around the world to pitch new products for the chance to have them produced and sold on Fab. More than 150 creative types from 30 countries turned out, and now it’s onto New York. In addition to showcasing its new private label alongside collaborations with the likes of the Albers Foundation and Blu Dot at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which opens to the trade tomorrow, Fab is hosting another “Disrupting Design” competition.

The fearless leader of the judging panel will be Fab co-founder and chief design officer Bradford Shellhammer. “At Fab, we are constantly reinventing ourselves and rethinking what Fab can be,” he says. “By directly engaging with designers to find the best new work out there, we’re hoping to help even more of our members find things they love.” Today’s ever-changing offering ranges from a Louis Ghost Chair signed by Philippe Starck and vintage Kodak Brownies to a subscription to BirdWatching magazine and a pepperoni pizza t-shirt. Shellhammer paused in his booth preparations (find Fab at #1220 at ICFF) to answer our questions.

How did the Disrupting Design competition go in Milan last month?
We were overwhelmed by the response in Milan, which is why we’ve decided to do it again in New York during ICFF. We had so many great entries from all over the world when we did the call out in Milan. Initially we were planning on selecting three winning designs, but we couldn’t narrow it down so we ended up shortlisting twelve designs which we are working to put into production and sell on Fab–the revenue of which we of course share with the winning designers.

What advice would you give to those interested in presenting their designs to the Fab jury on Tuesday at ICFF?
Take a look at our site and keep the Fab viewpoint in mind when presenting. The winning designs from Milan all embody the Fab ethos–they tell great stories, utilize interesting materials, or have a sense of whimsy. We are looking for designs that will be appreciated by our global community of more than 12 million design lovers.

What are some qualities of a successful product on Fab?
Great products tell a story, elicit emotions, or solve problems. It’s that simple. It needs to check at least one of those boxes (hopefully all three). They can be in any category and at any price, as long as there’e something compelling.

What is a product that you’ve sold on Fab that has surprised you, in terms of expected versus actual interest from customers?
Yves Behar‘s medicine accessories for Sabi I thought may be targeted for a customer older than ours, but we sell a lot of them!
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Toymaker Brinca Dada is best known for its stunning modernist dollhouses and “BiModal” building blocks–curvy, asymmetric wooden shapes that we’ve previously suggested deploying in games of Masochist Jenga. Now the promoters of beautiful fun are in the critical final days of a fundraising campaign for a line of thoughtfully designed wooden toys that teach kids simple principles of science. Meet the Stunt Brothers, adorable daredevils that perform classic stunts (human cannonball, anyone?) and tool around in retro vehicles. Help them get out of prototype purgatory and into production by backing the project on Kickstarter. Register your pledge of $1 or more by Friday to help Brinca Dada meet its fundraising goal.

Got an in-the-works project to tell us about? Write today: unbeige [at] mediabistro.com

At left, the booth of Jousse Entreprise at the inaugural Collective Design Fair, which runs through today at Pier 57 in New York. (Photos: UnBeige)

NYCxDESIGN is upon us, and among our favorite happenings so far is Collective, a new design fair that has brought 22 galleries from around the world to New York’s Pier 57. Spearheading the impressive initiative is Steven Learner, working with a supportive bunch of designers, curators, collectors, and dealers (hence “Collective”). “As an architect and collector, I have visited the greatest design fairs in the world and realized that it was essential to create an event of this caliber in New York,” says Learner, whose architecture and interior design firm managed to make the gritty, 70,000-square-foot hangar feel breezy and inviting. Here are a dozen of our favorite works from the fair.

J. Lohmann Gallery brought a stunning assortment of new works from five European artists. Here, a ceramic and PVC “Tied Up” piece by Steen Ipsen.

The gorilla in the room, shown by Southern Guild of South Africa, is Bronze Age’s “Welcome to My World” (2012), a bronze and timber primate that stands nearly seven feet tall. “Shadow of Time,” a 1989 floor clock by Ron Arad, is at the booth of Stockholm-based Modernity gallery.

Win the rat race with Atelier Ted Noten‘s lucite tote, at Ornamentum.
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“The Riedel stemless wine goblet is foul to look at and fouler to drink wine from. Calling it a ‘goblet’ is an insult to me as a good Catholic altar-boy who is used to gleaming silver grails at Mass. If you are so antsy about wine glasses having stems, you should get some old ones without stems–especially those with a square crystal base. The idea that you should worry endlessly about glasses of red wine being knocked over is typically one of those irritating middle-class anxieties best consigned to oblivion. If a glass of red wine is knocked over, then it’s knocked over. We will just have to clean it up. Blotches on tablecloths and carpets are the marks of stylish nonchalance and confidence.”

-Sir David Tang, responding to a reader question concerning Riedel wine tumblers, in his most recent “Agony Uncle” column for the Financial Times