2009 October Archive - Style Bubble

2009-10-28

Flat Textures

>>Here's hoping you can make these out properly from my blurry pictures but at one of the Masterclasses here at the Arts of Fashion event in Philly, conducted by designer Aurore Thibout and Laurence Teillet (co-founded of Elemental, a vintage furniture store in London, I snapped these prints on tracing paper that were meant to be inspiration images for their students who are doing a screenprinting project.

It was Laurence who had produced them and now I semi/sort of/vaguely/ know how Inside Out, trompe l'oeil garment masters superimpose prints of garments onto clothes so precisely. There's something about the aesthetic of photocopied garments and seeing these entirely flat monochromatic images with the illusion of depth that make just these prototype tracing paper prints very impressive.

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Posted by susie on 09/10/28 | Permalink

Pay Half Trimmings

I do realise that the title of this post sounds like a subject line in a spam email but bear with me. Actually come to think of it, thanks for bearing with the irregular posting times (thanks to the GMT for closing the gap on the time difference…woohoo!) and the *hangs head in shame* dusty emptiness of the DIY category.

I realise 'lack of time' is a ropey excuse but I'm still hoping free time will come into my possession. That said, having spent four days observing fashion professionals who work for companies like Lanvin, Raf Simons, Hermes etc conducting Masterclasses at the Arts of Fashion event here in Philadelphia, I definitely come away with the conclusion that my own hands are limited in their ability because someone up there did not gift me with nifty and nimble fingers. It's not even really about fashion school training (which I also lack of course…) but these people, who in their working hours and hours outside that, are constantly generating ideas and experimenting in fabrications, shapes and techniques and happen to be naturally gifted with having fashion eureka moments pretty often. When they're working with the students who are taking their classes, I often hear sentences that start with "Maybe we could try this…?" and the results are more often than not, spot on. I'm most definitely happy to be the observer of this idea generation rather than the idea generator…

Take these black pumps from Payhalf. I went on a bit of a long winded excursion to buy them for the Arts of Fashion show tonight as they are being used to accessorize the Bag Pocket Masterclass conducted by Anthony Vaccarello and Arnaud Michaux. They just took one look at them and with the trimmings lying around on the table knew what to do with them…

On goes the black fringe running along both sides of the pumps…

…and a feather boa trim is cut up to stick onto the back of the shoes…

Left to my own devices and I might have gone about these two dead simple tricks in a really long and roundabout way… I'll stick to typing and making really good banana and walnut cake…

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Posted by susie on 09/10/28 | Permalink

2009-10-27

Summer Swagga

>> I seem to have fallen into a bit of a pattern of posting about "Things that sit well in the harsh reality of life…". Eight London is one example and so the new S/S 10 collection of Swagga and Soul is another one. The first time I wrote about them, I had M.I.A. punching around in my head, and I also said that they provided all the kind of leather basics that one would need with some extra pizazz on top; like the soft distressed quality of the leathers they use that pushes you into thinking that you NEED rather than WANT that leather jacket.

They haven't let go of the leather for S/S 10 and rightly so when it's as soft as Swagga and Soul get it. They have lightened things up with the pale pale pink and grey colours as well as making things looser in general. Nicole, the designer has kept elements like the fringing and some of the hardware but transferred to the sort of 'essentials' that she considers well…essential. I'm glad she's kept the loose-trews in her summer repertoire for me to potentially wear them like lux trackie bottoms. She's also redressed the leather shorts omission by putting some here. And, is that a length of skirt I spy that ISN'T skimming the bum? It's not quite floor length but I can already feel the lengths creeping down towards the knees/calves and I'm fully onboard for that…

Here's to a floor length leather skirt for next season?

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Posted by susie on 09/10/27 | Permalink

2009-10-26

Don’t Forget the Forget Me Not

>> Ack, double negative hell there but I meant it, when I say that if I ever did get a scarf by label Forget Me Not, I would have to have some kind of permanent post-it note attached to my sleeve, like a watch, to remind me NOT to forget it somewhere; on the bus, at a restaurant, in a park…err… at the meat counter in Morrison's. I'm fiddly with jewellery but even more so with scarves. It's just tough luck that I've recently developed a re-crush on scarves (re-crush meaning I crushed them a while back and now the scarf lovin' is back with a vengeance). I could be walking down a street and suddenly feel the urge to take off the scarf, flick it around a bit, wave it about and before I know it, I've left it somewhere and it's floated off into the bin.

Nevertheless, I'll get onto developing permanent post-it notes especially for these digital print scarves by Forget Me Not. Coco is a French, London-based illustrator whose work you might have seen in Vogue, Elle, Nylon and Muse…. where she combines hand-drawing and watercolours with digital techniques. Now she's put her work to scarf and that has worked out well as the large 120cm x 120cm silk canvas provides her with a space to explore her particular fields of interest… enchanting woodland creatures mixed with space and geometry.

They have an online shop but Forget Me Not has also recently done a collaboration with ASOS which I think is less of a diffusion line but more like an extension of her main scarf FMN collection…

I'll be wary though of flitting around in Morrison's with one lest they end up nestled in between the jars of different mustards (I have a fascination with condiments…)…

35 Comments »

Posted by susie on 09/10/26 | Permalink