This image just about sums up my mood right now. I'm moving house on Saturday, and one of my housemates has had dreams about our new flat...bad dreams. Dreams which involve ghosts, and people hanging from the built-in wardrobes. This may sound ridiculous, but he is quite a spiritual guy and for some reason, when he has a 'feeling' he is usually right. Well...last night, one of my other housemates came home from work (he is a journalist), and said he had done a search in the newspaper and media engines about our new building. It turns out in the 70's a man was murdered in our building! I am somewhat shitting it now. I'm not overly superstitious, but I can be a bit of a paranoid freak when it comes to things of the paranormal.
The images are from a beautiful set from a user on Flickr. All of her images are beautiful, and I found them via the cute blog Soir de Fete.
It's been a while now since I've posted about art (or anything other than fashion to be honest) - this is criminal in my head. It's so easy to get whirled up in the world of fashion, and forget what else goes on around you. As a creative it is SO important to take a step back from fashion and look elsewhere for ideas and inspiration, but even if you're not looking directly, subconsciously you soak up ideas. Whether my lack of 'inspiration' posts is due to my moving house/job hunting/only-having-time-to-research-things-needed-to-aid-portfolio-development, I'm not quite sure but I'm getting back on it!
Whilst stealing a bit of time from work yesterday I came across the work of New York based artist Tara Donovan. Organic, animate, biological, biodegradable and original are all adjectives you could use to describe her contemporary, yet utterly unoffensive artwork.
The textures she creates are amazing, all out of recyclable objects (which seems very poignant with the credit crunch and recession looming over all of us). My favourite has to be the Styrofoam cups glued together forming a cloud on the ceiling of the gallery. This is something I'm tempted to try myself, but maybe on a smaller scale!
All images from Ace Gallery.
Some of you may remember the dress I made for the fashion156.com competition. Well I'd been wondering what to do with it for ages (as it's currently hanging in my wardrobe, looking rather redundant), and this weekend saw it get a whole new lease of life. Every now and then, when we stumble home from some dog-awful club, drunk as poor little skunks, my housemates and I like to play dress-up! The usual casualties follow, however sometimes we create a pure gem...this weekend saw the return of gingham - spiced up to the max - thanks to one of my more fabulous friends.
Dress Carl Starling, Leggings Peter Pilotto, Shoes Marni, Belt vintage Chanel, Feathered bra vintage, Fringed hat Peter Pilotto, Mesh gloves vintage.
It always baffles me - the extreme kindness and generosity which exists in the blogosphere. In a good way that is...I regularly read about how Susie Bubble has received a lovely surprise cage skirt in the post, or how Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style has found some new leggings laying on her doormat, but I've never found myself at the receiving end of such kindness. Until now that is. The lovely Aksiniya, of artaksiniya approached me a few weeks back about doing some drawings of my work. I am a massive fan of hers and have followed her blog for a while now, so I was thrilled about the opportunity of collaboration so I sent off some pictures of my graduate collection and this weekend I found the results in my inbox. I was speechless, as I'm sure you will be. Our styles really compliment each other, and without any direction from me, she has really captured the essence of the collection.
Please show your support by visiting her blog.
We all know that there are endless style blogs out there, many of which see the bloggers adding images of themselves in various outfits. I have stumbled across the ultimate version of this phenomenon...brace yourselves for lookbook.nu. You can upload images, hype other peoples images, comment, message, search and all the other usual things for a networking site. If you're a designer, fashion buyer, consumer or if you're even vaguely human you will love this site. The site is seriously creative, and most of the contributors seem to try to out-do each other with experimentation in their outfit posts - they are stunning, and could easily feature in any editorial.
I was bored at lunch today when I found this little gem, and soon started excitedly clicking through the images at random, but there was one guy who stood out to me. He is a 21 year old from Germany and goes by the name of Nouk B .
Look at those shorts! They are simply buttoned together, and draped on him. No stitches, pins or clips anywhere...now that is fashion!
I'd love to know if anyone has a profile on Lookbook.nu, I'm pondering the idea of joining!
Drapery to me is like chocolate is to most women. I adore it. It makes my palms sweaty and my mouth salivate - especially when it is as incredibly delicious as in the new Lanvin collection. Draping is the art of folding, pinning, cutting and creating amazing 'hanging' shapes on the mannequin and is used by many designers, yet often hard to get right. A couple of seasons ago I fell in love with their clean, simple silhouettes and shapes, but this season Alber Elbaz has wooed me with the folds, darts, drapes and zippery. This duchess satin creates beautifully organic shapes, which look oh-so-pleasing to the eye as they shimmer and flow round the body. It's been a while since I've had the time - or the inclination - to do any draping of my own...but once-upon-a-time that was my 'thing'! Seeing these wonderful detail shots makes me want to dig out my mannequin (which may now need replacing if anyone knows a good, yet cheapish source!?) before getting stuck in with those pins and enough fabric to make my mother jealous. I love finding designers that are new to me - nothing excites me more than discovering a designer whose work I find completely inspiring, innovative, daring and compelling. That is exactly how I feel about Maurizio Galante, whose skills range from architecture to fashion to homewares!
I first came across these images below of his A/W 08 couture show whilst browsing through the archives of Elle.com, and I was completely smitten by the layers and layers of pleated satin and organza. I have an infinite love of pleating and all kinds of surface detailing, which add such instant glamour and drama. He also offers such a service to willing customers - for the small price of a few thousand pounds (!!?!?!) if you send in an old denim garment, his team will apply your desired applique detailing (from sequins to organza) through couture sewing techniques. Visit his website for the images etc - they are not to my taste, but it's such a unique idea. Why can't McQueen, Galliano, Lacroix and co. provide such a service?
I have spent the past 3 weeks scouring the fashion week collections furiously, and the coat below outshines all of them. I am in awe. It is created from rectangles of silk and painstakingly hand-sewn together to create an organic form which moulds around the body, reminiscent of Miyake and his Japanese counterparts. If you like it, you can actually order a bespoke version in the colour and size you require through CoutureLab - if I had a spare £5,000 I'd have one hanging encased in glass standing proudly in hallway.
( Images from CoutureLab)
