R.I.P. Tobias Wong

I am in shock and feeling awful because I just heard the super, super-sad news that the brilliant designer Tobias Wong passed away this past weekend at the tender age of 35. I met Tobi about five years ago after stalking him because I fell in love with his extraordinary, subversive and original design work and became obsessed with meeting the person who created it. He was amazing when I finally met him and was so enthusiastic about collaborating in projects I was doing. We became friends but REALLY bonded when I wrote about the coke spoons that he created in solid gold cast from vintage '70s MacDonalds coffee stirrers and was forced to cease and desist by the Macdonalds corp. Tobias loved a cease and desist. And I bet in his career he received many of them. He appropriated classic Aalto vases and cast them in concrete, selling them as doorstops. He used a jigsaw to turn one of Karim Rashid's books into a gun. He covered fine Tiffany pearls with black gooey rubber and sold them in Tiffany boxes. And so much more. I loved this guy and can't believe he won't be around anymore to turn things on their ears. 

I just read about his most recent idea the other day... making manila envelope "iPad cases.
(You can read about it here) .

I send all my love and thoughts and prayers to Tobi's family, friends and especially Tim D, his boyfriend whoM he never went anywhere without.