Style Bubble

Dolly Cape

As work is winding down and my time is freeing up, rather than concentrating on the recipe to the perfect roast potato (no point really as Style Salvage Steve has the formula DOWN to perfection), I'm instead going to be playing catch up with posts that have been hanging around my desktop for FAR too long.  To take them beyond 2009 would frankly be a travesty to the very nature of blogging.

So Anna Heylen. Dolls. Antwerp.  Right, Antwerp... wasn't it yoooooooooonks ago that you went there, Susie?  You would be right and every other blogger who took part on the Antwerp Shopping Trail has covered this already but I a) wanted to salute the dolls that hang on the walls of Antwerp-based designer Anna Heylen's store (and maison) and b) give praise to this ickle cape that I like to swing about like an amateur matador.

It was interesting to learn that long before Barbie got involved in Roksanda Ilincic-clad limited editons or Lanvin had ceramic dolls made up as gifts, Heylen created a set of dolls in 1993 that started off an obsession where the designer can mess about with miniature versions of her clothes.  They've also evolved from faceless, hessian-dressed identikit dolls to mutilated ones covered in red latex and now the ones that sit proudly on the feature wall at her store are swathed in luxurious fabrics.  There's plenty of great prose that explains her dolls on her website but basically to sum up what her current incarnation of fashion dolls do... "Drowned in their vanity, they examine themselves in the reflection of the mirrors and pearls."

 

 

Unrelated to the dolls, Heylen has a small range entitled "Fur Recuperation", that uses salvaged vintage fur to reform them into different pieces  The little strip of re-used fur on this blue pleated cape, which I bought, is just enough of the soft stuff for me though the jacket with this wood-like patternation was also fairly tempting.

It's not a rigid cape as such but the pleats in it keeps it in place so it doesn't floop about too much...

 

(Worn with New Look body, which is still in my possession for now, Swagga and Soul leather trousers, Acne shoes)

SHOW me the Shot

I feel really reallly geeky and not at all 'cool' in what I'm about to post.  The reigning attitude that people are supposedly 'meant' to uphold in the fashion industry is to be blase, nonchalant and completely unaffected by well, everything.  So, probably, for the majority of people who took part in the Nick Knight 100 Portraits i-D shoot, it was nothing whatsoever.  Perhaps it was a slot in their schedule, a favour they were doing for someone or not that big a deal at all especially if they're already on first name basis with Mr Knight or have indeed already been shot by him many times over (La Moss...).  Some of you may have caught my ten-fifteen minutes with him on SHOWstudio's stream and even through the stream, some of you on Twitter perceived how nice he was.  Yes, the man is gentle as anybody you'll ever meet and despite HOW many people he has been shooting continuously over December, not once did he lose patience, sigh or huff/puff despite the fact I am a novice.  Yet at the same time, he did push and direct to get to the err...more 'delicate' and 'graceful' side of me.  Doh!  Two words that I knew were never going to be in my DNA ever since my ballet teacher told me that I was not a natural when I was seven.  So my arms were contorted, fingers were outstretched and with the help of a little wooden chair, my legs were also carefully positioned.  Sylvie Guillem I am not alas...

However, having seen the contact sheets (can't post here obviously as the issue of i-D doesn't come out until February), I'm shamelessly chuffed... not at my own limb bending skills, but at the beautiful lighting, Nick Knight's direction and a spirit in the images I don't think I've conveyed before on camera.  Needless to say I'll be egg-cited when the issue is out... even if I'll probably end up as a thumbnail on a page (they have actually shot over 100 peeps now... they're supremely shoot happy over at Somerset House...).

Post-shoot, I had a walk around the SHOWstudio Fashion Revolution exhibition which I didn't get to have a GOOOOOD look at the first time I went when it was exceedingly crowded.  It's actually A LOT better when it is less populated but it is alas, coming to an end this weekend so I'm betting it'll be crowded again.  It goes without saying that with the sheer amount of projects that SHOWstudio has undertaken over the past decade, that no matter how much descriptive prose you dedicate to the fashion in motion material you see, that it just doesn't quite do the exhibition justice.  I filmed little bits of it just to give a taster but the good thing with the entire exhibition is that everything is still archived online on SHOWstudio and can be experienced in their original habitat all day, any day...

So we have here a mix of a film/installation investigating the sound of clothes (specifically THAT beautiful Balenciaga S/S 06 collection with all that Edwardian-esque lace...), stylist Jane How's sweet wrapper ensembles portrayed in 3D, Julie Verhoeven's naughty toile de jouey print, Gareth Pugh's fash off performances and Comme des Garcons' A/W 05-4 dress process documentation... backed by the soundtrack in my head that I had when I was wafting about the exhibition... Sergei Prokofiev's storming Cindrella finale score...

Nifty Stockings

>> I'm a crazed woman on a mission to do ALL of my Christmas shopping all in one drop this weekend so I'll be flitting in and out of the blog and the mind will be rampant on wrapping, carding and err ribboning.  With gifting tidbits in mind, I give you Natalie Marie Willis' new range of hand-printed tights that are odes to the ladies of East London and their style...  so it's anchors, hearts, guns, roses and birds creeping up the back of calves (more pics on her blog)

At £12 a pop, it's not breaking the bank and seeing as I'm feeling especially flush today as I just got paid, I'd like to gift two readers a pair if you can drop me an email to twinkle260@hotmail.com with your name, address and the style of tights you want and.... here comes the fun part...

...an encouraging banner message inspired by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's Learning to Love you More project. It's assignment no. 63 but all you peeps who are after the tights have to do is send me the text of the encouraging banner (I'm not actually asking you to MAKE the banner!).  My favourite two messages will bagsy the tights... and I'll carry your encouraging message with me into 2010 because there's got to be hope before this decade implodes on itself.  

N.B. Yes Natalie's tights are also available at the Swanfield pop-up store in Kingly Court and will also be on Etsy too...

As Seen On Stream

>> So today, if I'm somewhat absent from the blog it's because a) I'm prepping a heffer of a Christmas feast for friends which requires my full attention and from a more relevant fashion point of view, b) I'm taking part in Nick Knight's 100 Portraits for the March issue of i-D, mirroring the one he did for i-D's 5th Birthday in 1985.  Yup, today, alongside Hussein Chalayan, Lara Stone and Simon Foxton (oh dear, just nearly peed myself thinking how embarrasingly wrong this could go...), I will have my portrait taken by Nick Knight and it will be *gulp* streamed live on SHOWstudio (I'm scheduled for 3pm but it might be later than that...). 

Now I haven't quite done the maths and I guess 100 people is a lot in terms of numbers and thankfully there are a lot of familiar faces in the selection but I still can't quite figure out why on earth I somehow made it to the list... and given that I got a week's notice on this, I'm think it's a case of someone dropping out and me being the filler (that isn't self deprecation by the way, it's just common sense).  Still, being 'filler material' for a Nick Knight shoot is no skin off my back and the shoot could perhaps do with some very awkward posing on my part (Bishi is on at the moment and her Union Jack dress is blowing up a storm...).

SHOWstudio's Twitter has been detailing proceedings with plenty of updates and Twitpics.... and the list thus far is both terrifying, awe-inspiring and a little random as well...

Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Nicola Formichetti, Vivienne Westwood, Riccardo Tisci, Caryn Franklin, Sølve Sundsbø, Stephen Jones, Christopher Kane, Karla Otto, Phoebe Philo, Charlie Porter, Boy George, La Roux and err….Jedward (???)

Tune in then if you're at all bothered and can in fact stream vids at work... at around 3ish to see me looking incredibly worried...

Heal Suits

I'm glad that the Dressed up for Summer videos gave some of you some much-needed fashion chuckle time but despite all of the little spoofs and skits that Mademoiselle Agnès gets up to, at the core of it, serious points about fashion are being raised and in that particular series, she does try to question and answer in some part "Where are the next generation of French designers?".  My favourite parts of those videos were probably the bits where she takes up this quest, going round all the showrooms, tradeshows etc and investigating the new generation (BIG UP Anthony Vaccarello who was also featured, albeit his jacket and swimsuits were given more credit than his 'discourse').  Like I said, it's all very deja-vu-ey for me as I too went traipsing around the Marais hunting out all the showrooms but one I did miss was Heal.  

I wrote about Heal last season when they made a very sculptural start that involved a certain lobster dress that made a most striking talking point.  From Mademoiselle Agnès's show, I learnt that Heal apparently had lost sponsorship for S/S 10 which may go some way to explaining why for S/S 10 they have considerably toned down the amount of handiwork that makes dresses cost around the £1500 mark.  Or perhaps they are consciously going for a more commercial collection that will help them with the buyers and you can't get much more commercial-friendly than stripes.  Yarsh.  New French label.  Does stripes.  It's a win-win situation!  

Without meaning to diminish Heal's stripes though, they haven't just ploughed through a French cliche and bunged some Breton stripe on some tees.  They are a gradiated watercolour stripe and they are just one element of an entire collection which altogether makes me think Heal are trying to put some technicolour into early 20th century swimwear and bathing suits.  

 

The illustrations that Alice, one half of Heal is reponsible for, still features heavily on the pieces, as well as their investigation into attractive exo-skeletons.  However, the shapes that Heal have created for S/S 10 combined with the warped op-art stripes makes me think of a revved up version of the bathing suits of yesteryear.  There's also an element that reminds m of Louise Goldin's juicy S/S 08 collection except with less emphasis on knitwear and more on sculpted shapes as well as tropical motifs that be seen in the piped shells and banana leaf applique.  All in all, Heal may be down on moolah for the season but they've made a go of contributing to a) the new wave of French designers and b) the activewear reinvention and reinterpretation that S/S 10 is full of.

 

 

 

Hide Your Face, Show Your Feet

>> There are few shoe designers that I post about where I'm using lookbook images.  Most of the time, it's flat pack shots that leave the imagination of onlookers to do the work and envision the rest of the ensemble to go with the shoes.  Kron by Kron Kron however do like to take it a step further with their candy pick n' mix shoes that have had me in a flurry ever since I saw them on sweet Saga's inspiring blog.  Now that I have a pair in my possession, I'm even more intrigued by what Kron by Kron Kron will do next given that my feet and my spirits stand to benefit from their shoe visions.  Saga has once again brought KronKron shoes to life with this extensive shoot of their new collection that was done in Iceland a while back.  Whilst my own imagination is perfectly capable of coming up with an outfit that befits KronKron's shoes, these images do provide stunning image fodder for the brain.  Everything from the setting, the attitude conveyed by the models and especially the styling does much to define what Kron by KronKron shoes are all about and gives me a lot of insight into how the shoe designers Hugrún Árnadóttir and Magni Þorsteinsson see their own shoes.  What with the shoes being quite often conceived as 'sweet' or 'cute', Saga and the designers' direction with these images pushes the shoes into a different context. 

On a more practical note, their e-store has been rejigged and I think is much-improved, allowing you to carefully make your Kron by KronKron selection.  Bewarned, their other wares of Tsumori Chisato, Peter Jensen, Marjan Pejoski, Tata Naka and Yazbukey etc etc may distract you, but let's be honest, it's CLEARLY all about the KronKron feet...  

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Contributed

I seem determined this week to litter the blog with a ton of animated GIFS, so much so that your eyes will start getting that tired double lidded thing , similar to when acidic pixels were all over MySpace back in the day (can't quite believe I'm already using 'back in the day' with MySpace...).  Still, this is the way that Contributor Magazine have chosen to present their bitesized posts on their haute-blog/e-zine and in their case of frequently uploaded and strangely compelling imagery, it works a treat.

Contributor is contributed to by mainly Swedish contributors (count that word up there...) and it was launched at the last Paris Fashion Week and has been ploughing away with mini-shoots, arresting mono-image posts, and contributors' outfit posts that are not of the conventional WAYWT format.  For instance 'Through the looking glass' focuses on Contributor's designer and his understated deets. 'What we're wearing tomorrow' results in haphazard GIFS...

The Beauty shots in particular are quite spectacular... which is abnormal for me to say seeing as me and beauty aren't the best of chums...

I'm also rather taken with key contributor Sara Litzen's visual style insights because a) she seems to have the most immaculately applied red lipstick I've ever come across and b) she has also seemingly bought all of my mother's early 90s reject clothes, the ones which I said no to a few years back and make them look spectacular... velvet padded headbands, oversized coats, many silk blouses etc...

 

 

Actually their infatuation with the 90s and mum's old things extends to this GIF here which declares 'You can never have to many old lady accessories"...

... and also an editorial dedicated to the fashion legacy left by Ab-Fab...

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Slave to the Heavy Machine

The term 'Running in Heels', be it a reference to the cringingly bad reality TV show or just as a phrase by itself never fails to conjure up images of women going into poodle-mode and 'running' (if you can call it that...) in tip toes.  It's an activity fraught with danger especially if you're 'running' on uneven pavement that London is full of, and it's just something that technically heels aren't made to serve, as a function.  I don't do it, unless there are two/three buses coming at the same time and KNOW deep in my heart, that there won't be one for ages.  Even then, I only attempt it in my safest and studiest heels of choice.  So, when I read Heavy Machine's blurb where their brand statement declared...

"We felt that we needed shoes that represent our point of view, and that are also easy to run away with, on any occasion," eyebrows were raised.

Of course, they could just mean that their shoes are so desirable that women would err...want to do a runner with them, which looking at the images, yes, I suppose one could well do.  But back to the running thing, looking at the type of heel constructions of Heavy Machine's shoes, it does look like some technical consideration has been given as to how the weight of the foot is distributed.  So perhaps, their statement does hold true.  But like I said, with my innate laziness, running is probably still the least likely thing I'd do in heels, unless there was that aforementioned bus situation going on.

Heavy Machine was founded by Yoyo Pan and Michelle Wu who met as fashion students and are based in Taipei, Taiwan (woot woot for my first talk-up of a Taiwan-based brand!). They're trying to fill a gap with their particular kind of shoe aesthetic that is in my mind, a quirkier version of United Nude, with a real sense of fun and taking the whole running thing aside, Heavy Machine's footwear serve as structurally interesting shoes.

I do promise though if a pair ever came into my possession, hilarious YouTube vid of me doing my best attempt at 'running' would promptly ensue...

Dressed Up for Sitting Down

>> Post-birthday haze, I can't muster much except for videos that facilitate even more lazy behaviour.  So supposedly I was featured on the TV show 'La Mode La Mode La Mode', which is from what I can gather a tongue-in-cheek programme about fashion shown on French TV channel Paris Premiere that still manages to be somewhat serious in portraying fashion.  Supposedly I was in a portion of the show called 'Une Fille, Un Style'.  I only know this of course because a while back I let a journalist loose in my flat whilst I talked through my wardrobe and also took her for a bit of vintage shopping around Brick Lane all for the purpose of erm...riveting TV.  I'm told it has already aired on Paris Premiere, but I'm not entirely sure it has...  my English voice is also dubbed with a French one so this video needs to be found just purely for LOL factor.  

I'm randomly talking about La Mode La Mode La Mode because its producer/creator Mademoiselle Agnès, a TV journalist that is a permanent fixture at all the fashion shows and manages to inject humour into her presenting style whilst never being TOO cheeky about fashion, has gotten a big Sundance Full Frontal Channel boost with her show, "Dressed Up for Summer 2010" directed by Loïc Prigent airing online now... 

It's all a bit déjà vu-ey for me as it only seems like yesterday that it was fashion week but it is pretty engrossing nonetheless watching the show speed through shows in bite-size chunks, revealing many home truths about the industry as well as stringing along an ongoing search for Paris' new generation of young designers. There are interviews, bloggers (well singular actually, ickle clue, begins with a T) and a few clebby bits along the way but mainly, it's Agnès herself that's the star attraction..

Enjoy the mulching time...

A Message for the Season

>> Cooperative Designs sent me a most poignant and wise Christmas greeting this morning... and I'm taking these words seriously.  If last year's snow capades in London are anything to go by, these hand warmers by Cooperative Designs definitely are going to extend beyond the 25th December and given my love of inappropriate glove wearing in the summer, they're likely to go on and on and on until the summer too.  And if and when I get my dream clothing storage system going, these gloves will be lovingly nestled in between layers of scented tissue paper and stored in an old library index card drawer where all gloves will go in the individual drawers.  If that's not tender loving care for knitwear, I don't know what is...

 

Dick Van Dyke Day Dress

I have already noted this on Twitter but yes, today is Dick Van Dyke day, the day where we celebrate the birth of the man responsible for the genius moves to 'Step in Time' from Mary Poppins.  Oh, and yes, lesser beings such as myself, who has yet to discover a sense of rhythm, was also born on this day.  But, we're not calling it a *shhh* 'birthday'.  If I'm still being ID'ed in Tesco's when buying a bottle of cheap Cava, turning another year older is NOT happening... this is all according to my brain of course.

So yes, Happy Dick Van Dyke day and whilst I may not have spiffy straw boater hats or stripy jackets or the most showbiz of grins to bring to the table, I do have this Clare Tough dress.  Now let's talk about the Clare Tough sale... did ya go?  Was it as good for you as it was for me?  Held on one solitary day at Tough's studio, it epitomised what a good London sample sale should be.  Lots of rails, plenty of stock going back through quite a few seasons, lots of banter between shoppers (in my case, I think I was encouraging everyone to buy whatever they had in their hands because I was in such a giddy mood...), actual samples that are one-offs and best of all, ridiculously low prices.  £900 knitwear reduced to £70?  Clare Tough present to talk you through how things should be worn?  Bargain bins to rifle through?  Yes please...

The only wee problem was knowing when to stop as there were so many pieces I could have scooped up in one big heap and declare to Tough at the till manically "I'm taking it all!".  No, restraint was required and in addition to this dress, only two more pieces were bought.  I say 'only two more' like 3+ pieces is in no way extravagant but believe me, if you were at the sale, I'm pretty sure everyone was wondering why they didn't exit the sale with at least ten things all bagged up.

This S/S 08 dress was the first thing I picked up just because I couldn't quite get over how amazing this is as a piece of textiles work... you have a marbled knitted dress as a foundation, speckled with red, blue and bits of blue like a piece of marbled paper.  Then sitting on top of that is this black and white lattice work that is a mad network of scribbling.  This is then all bound together with a velvet piping running up the zipper and some black ribbed edging.  EJ of Style Salvage quite rightly said "Jackson Pollock in a dress" except the 'scribble' work looks a lot more meticulous.  Woe upon the person (or perhaps it was Tough herself) who had to sew this lattice structure all together.  Selfishly (and because it's Dick Van Dyke day), yay for me who gets to run hands over it and wear it out and about, trying very much to step in time.

Packing it all on the Back

>> It's rather unfortunately that I ignorantly poo poo-ed Tumblr image blogs a few posts ago and what ensues here is another image-heavy, word-lite post.  But, but, in my defense, I do think that all credit needs to go to the wonderful illustrator Kate Wilson of Little Doodles (still enough time to get some Crimbo cards from her on Etsy) and with this one illustration here, that requires an ounce of reading...

...rightly reminded me to talk up my two backpack purchases and feel proud of them as Kate quite eloquently puts it, they are "wonderful receptacle(s) for all of my bird related accoutrements."  These are two backpacks that do indeed hold flasks, packets of bird seeds and possibly a perch too if I do a bit of creative shoving-in, but of course they are fit for holding other things too and most importantly distribute weight equally on the shoulders (that's my mother talking!).   This vintage tan leather one was bought a while ago on Brick Lane after my illegal flea market sale.  It kind of defeated my whole "Let's clear out the wardrobe!" strategy when immediately within five minutes of end-of-sale, I had already bought another new item...

...but, it's a co-share item with Steve so I really bought it for the good of both of us *ahem*...

The one I've got strapped to my heavy coated back here was always meant to happen.  Ever since I saw the Swash print rucksacks at their studio, I knew it would be mine...eventually.  When I was doing the Regent Studios sample sale rounds (which I believe is still on next Thurs?), it was time for the rucksack to be mine.  In my head, I tried to palm off the purchase as a possible co-share item for Steve to use occasionally.  Unlike the tanned leather number above though, this is a resolutely girly sort of backpack that also happens to be heart-shaped depending on what it's filled with.  Feeble feeble attempt to justify a purchase...doh!

Lunar and Far Out

I'm not normally into fashion round-ups, summaries and re-caps that fashion media relies on so much to disseminate information out there in easy-to-digest bitesize chunks, because I never seem to have the foresight to 'summarise' in my head.  I'm a simple child I am... give me obvious pointers and FINALLY, I'll maybe put two and two together and form a coherent strand in my head. 

In this case, I've put one and one and one together to make a 'round-up' of jewellery collections that have all been flying to the moon, travelling through back to art deco/nouveau times and then landing back down on Earth in a heap of dusty, dry arid-heated craters.  It makes a whole lot of sense to simple me when it's some space odyssey/desert adventure.  The interesting (as well as comforting) thing is that despite all three designers taking their jewllery on far-flung journeys with slightly similar inspiration points, the actual execution of their collections have all taken very different turns...

Carianne Moore - Have written about milliner, accessories AND jewellery designer pushing it forward with her headgear but her latest collection I feel has pushed her jewellery MOORE and I'm thinking it's the 'lunar' influence that has done the trick.

Title: "Lunar Nights" S/S 10

The Blurb: "Miss Moore introduces her ‘Lunar Nights’ S/S10 collection of futuristic Jewellery, Handbags and Hats inspired by her love for 1920’s Science Fiction. Influenced by fictional stories of life beyond the stars and the 1920’s organic design movement inspired by nature, ‘Lunar Nights’ collection is a science fiction story"

Materials: Dragonscale, painted stingray, Swarovski crystals, wood panels, straw, antique brass, pearl

Colours: Malachite green, spinel blue, citrine yellow.(I just had to put these in because it really makes me think about the way I need to define colours... )

Estelle Deve - This is French-born, Australia-based Estelle's second collection but looking back on her first collection you wouldn't think it was the same designer's work because Lunar Mare is such an escalated progression from the first, by ramping up the level of strong simplicity in the pieces.  Deve's e-shop is also up and running to buy the S/S 10 collection if you fancy these tubular beauties.

Title: Lunar Mare S/S 10

The Blurb: "Lunar Mare is a ceremony of cinematic space odysseys (depicted in movies such as Dune and Stargate), aesthetics of centuries old African tribes and Grecian myths. The end result is surprisingly submerged in decorative elements of the Art Deco movement. Each unique concoction is named after a location of the moon, the closest celestial body that stands between our Earth and infinity."

Materials: Leather, clear resin, precious gold-plated pewter.

 

 

MANIAMANIA - I've never seen the inspirator film of this collection 'The Holy Mountain' but after flipping through their stunning lookbook, I'll definitely go and seek it out.  Designed by stylist Tamila Purvis and Melanie Kamsler, this is Australian label ManiaMania's first collection.  These are definitely pieces that require severe piling on with minimal clothing foundations (maybe not AS minimal as the lookbook suggeest...) but I love that how the images are sort of making me actually run into the desert completely starkers but fully adorned.

Title: Real Life Awaits Us S/S 10

The Blurb: "The range is integrally inspired by director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, a 1973 surrealist film collaboration with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the symbolic story of a spiritual quest for cosmic enlightenment."

Materials: Molten metal, calcite crystal, metal beads, silver and soft leather.

Burning Up!

Following on from what I was saying about unavoidable traps and therapy groups, I feel as though a short and sharp conversation needs to be had about Sandra Backlund again.  I posted her collection in situ in her showroom but of course on a live, human being and photographed by Peter Gehrke, it's a completely different kettle of fish we're dealing with (as well as two extra new pieces!).  Her work was flooring us long before Tweeters were even in existence, hence why routinely every six months a set of images will always surface on this blog (and on Diane's too... just call us hardcore fangirls) but now that handy 140-character messages are available, I think tweets tagged with #backlund and linked to tinyurls, could go something like this and we could all have a jolly Twitter time weighing in on Backlund's work...

"New collection S/S 10 images devastatingly good..."

"Yay for poseur swimwear that absolutely cannot get wet!"

"Yay to anybody bolshy enough to get away with knittwear swimsuit and nothing else..."

"We've all had enough of merely Backlund ogling... where does one buy this stuff"

"News on the grapevine is that Browns Focus is going to be stocking her!"

"Eggcited about Browns stocking Backlund but pennies are not quite stacking high enough..."

"Need to invent a sub genre of knitwear purely for Backlund...knittech?"

"Twisty Fabric Lego?"

"Protective Yarning?"

"These white armour pieces are surely the key to successfully avoiding getting bullied by gangs of 12 yr olds"

"How did #backlund make upward square pleats work?"

"Hang on there... pretty sure these weren't in the showroom..."

"What IS this corset and sole arm cuff made of? Wood? Plastic?"

"Is it photoshopped on?!?!"

"Nope, it's from Backlund's 60s hallway wallpaper collaged into the corset and arm warmer!"

"I don't BELIEEEEEEEEEEEVE it...Victor Meldrew style..."

"If I attempted to do the same thing, I'm thinking Neil Buchanan would hunt me down and say 'Bad Art Attack!'

"Whereas Backlund would get featured on the show... not that she even knows what the heck Art Attack is."

"This is not an Art Attack.  These are just stupendous..."

 

Filed Away

>> King George III was definitely not mad.  He whispered sweet nothings to his plants and chatted up a few trees but those were living things and nurturing growth through whatever means Farmer George deemed necessary doesn't seem that insane to me (plus there was that whole porphyria thing). 

Kicking a chest of drawers, an inanimate object however and trying to wrench it apart and then breaking down in tears, sobbing to it and softly pleading 'Please...just...open...up!'... This is the looney bin calling.  This is behaviour that is ready made for the straight jacket.  This was me with my drawers from Ikea every morning for the past six months. 

Once the base of one drawer fell through from the sheer weight of my clothes, the other quickly followed and it then became a Crystal Maze challenge to try and fish out a required top.  To avoid this descending further into a situation whereby I'd end up praying to a piece of MDF, I promptly marched into the second hand office supply store on the high street and got myself these...

...I'd like to see my collection of leggings break these bad boys...

...on a brighter note, I greeted a fleet of tops I hadn't seen in a long time with sweet sweet affection "Helloooooo much-loved tops of the bottom drawer!  Let's get to know each other again shall we?"

...on a madder note, that was me talking to more inanimate objects...

Sheer Sickness

My fashion predictability have me in their clutches and I'm desperately falling into a spiraling trap of clothes with holey bits, sheer mesh and straps that have no purpose other than to be strappy.  I'm pretty sure that with the legions of bloggers blogging in waves that go up and down in peaks and troughs, there will be online therapy groups forming that are titled with things like "Breaking Out of Cages" or "Getting Over Studs".  We would gather up on Twitter and send around messages like "God, I really LOVED that studded top....*cry*".

My preoccupation with all things sheer has been further galvanised by Mexican label TEAMO's (no proper website anymore for some reason?) new S/S 10 collection which is sheer...added with a heavy dose of black.  Hurrah!  Well, not so much  that it's black but I guess it goes without saying that it's the easiest type of sheer to wear (the "Does it come in black?" question that buyers lurve to ask comes to mind...).  Anyhow, you can choose to conceal/reveal different parts depending on what bit of TEAMO S/S 10 black sheer you go for.  Dress, top, big shoulder, no shoulder, straps, no straps... those itty bitty hints of choice that make me feel like I'm not completely trapped by my own dullard style monotony.  TEAMO has also been picked up by new UK e-shop The Moon & Mars so perhaps they'll be the ones to indulge in my illness. 

Or you could say "To hell with the sheer"... I'm going for the cage, which taps into another one of my stroke of fashion predictability.  I can feel myself going down the rabbit hole already...    

**EDIT** TEAMO DOES have a website... WE LOVE TEAMO

Reading the Radar

>> I'm not a huge fan of Tumblr style/image-based blogging.  It's like the mental stream of consciousness without words and more often than not I'm presented with beautiful images but wondering why the person who posted it thought the image worthy of a spot on their Tumblr/blog or what not.  That said, I do recognise when said blogging method is effective.  I've spent a morning combing through Reed and Rader's portfolio.  Dripbook users will ve very familiar with this photographic duo and their animated GIFs have also been cropping up on Refinery 29, Fashin Fags and Dirty Flaws are a fan too.  They've been on my agenda for work purposes as well and I've been meaning to talk them up somehow on the blog.  I did think there should have been a more meaninful and purposeful way of doing it other than "Here are Reed and Rader's amazing pieces of work...enjoy". 

But actually, there kind of is no way of doing it... "robots, computer games and the internet" informs their aesthetic but from their wide ranging portfolio, you get more references than you bargain for, which are sort of impossible to articulate.

So... I guess there's nothing for it but erm... here are images by Reed and Radar...err... ENJOY!

 

 

 

Smarter with Somarta

>> Japanese label Somarta may be layered up, comprising of fabric experimentation at the fruition point of their fashion shows but peel them all back and at the core of it is a seamless lace bodysuit that designer Tamae Hirokawa, who set up Somarta in 2006, always bases her collections around.  Like I said before, delving and researching Japanese designers is always a bit of a clickety click mystery but from Somarta's website, I can definitely discern that her bodysuits have spawned a range of 'Second Skin' garments comprising of different lace separates; leggings, scoop neck tops, vests and opera gloves. They also come in two different lace patterns; 'Robin' and 'Guardian'... check the comic book references there!

I haven't quite figured out the part of actually ordering any of these things but when I do finally build up a complete set of Somarta Second Skin pieces, I will have accomplished my mission to look like a Kylie Minogue interpretive backing dancer... oh yes, oh yes! 

Losing the Plotz

I seem to not be able to accept the fact that my holiday in Hong Kong has ended and like some crazy woman, I'm STILL reading reviews of restaurants, seeking out shops openings and happily reveling in all of it, despite the fact that it's been more than a fortnight since I got back.  The only thing post-Hong Kong related that isn't entirely deranged is looking into the designers I discovered.  Technically, Plotz was on my hit list before the trip but of course seeing the clothes in their natural habitat is bound to prompt extra Googling/emailing.  I bugged designer Sing Chin Lo for Plotz's S/S 10 lookbook as I was intrigued by the fact she showed the collection at the Who's Next tradeshow in Paris.  The bugging may have been the deranged post-holiday-blues syndrome striking again.  I'm hoping Christmas will knock the blues out silly with its impending merriment, roast potatoes, turkey, cake atc etc...

Plotz's S/S 10 collection centres around Narcissus.  Haughty airs and graces and preening in the mirror are not necessary though as it's the geometric construction, with incoporated folds and straps that Lo is focusing on as part of her search for "unspoken beauty".... so cue...a LOT of folds, straps and sharp lines...

A triangular sleeve like this needs to be investigated more... if only for the sole reason that I can say "Do you like my triangular sleeves...?  They're ISOSCELES!".

I think I may have done something like this with masking tape in D.T. class one time... except I was fidgeting out of boredome and defacing a school desk and this is a wearable top...

The criss-cross legging has popped up again but I like the fact that Plotz's version is a little looser and prevents oh so unsightly err... bulging chubby thigh problem..

...speaking of bulging thighs... this is a case where billowing around the thigh seems to weirdly work...

The messy thread bag that Plotz has been doing for a few seasons pops up again in a black/white combo...

The Kiss of Frilliness

>> Steve has an ongoing joke that I have a love of indulging in chats about "periods, stickers and boys..." in that exact order.  No, it's not of course some misogynistic attack and actually, he'd be right to a teensy weensy certain extent, in that I have on occasion indulged in chats about periods, stickers AND boys... and when you throw in my shameless love for images like these, I can't really blame him for believing in my utter girly girl ness and my sticker-loving tendencies.

Rita Saardi's new collection "Waiting to Be Kissed" is perhaps for the unabashed lovers of frou frou, flowers and yes, maybe a few puffy stickers and boys too (though of course, it goes without saying, you may be waiting to be kissed by girls...).  In this set of polaroid images from the collection, I think the core essence of the collection is most deftly expressed... the diaphanous quality of the pieces, the array of sheer fabrics, , the emphasis on lingerie that is dying to be exposed, the exaggeraged floral adornments, the fem-fem colours and above all, the utter and unapologetic romanticism that Saardi herself isn't afraid on overdosing in (see her blog that covers lomo images of Montmartre, Orphelia, cotton candy, Feist and other frilly, frothy things...).