Just A Hint

What's this?  A bowtie?  A hand-made, hand-tied, vintage silk bowtie to be exact.  Can't you picture a bowtie on every dapper man you know?  This is just a little teaser; the big launch is yet to come, but stay tuned for more bowtie excitement!

Isabeli Fontana by Peter Lindbergh

It's a rare day that I see a wedding dress editorial in a fashion magazine that isn't boring and cliched.  These images from Vogue Paris are so pretty.  I love the dress in the lower picture - someone ask me to make that one, OK?  If I had the time, I'd make one as a sample, but I'm so busy right now...

Say No To Flatforms

I'm usually a mindless sucker for every new trend that comes along, so I gave this one a chance before speaking out against it.  I though that maybe, somehow, the flatform would grow on me, and that with time it would start looking less hideous, and then one day I'd wake up one day craving them.  Now, I'm not promising that this won't still happen, but it has been at least a year, and I'm still pretty opposed.

I just don't see the appeal.  Clunky, dumpy, and totally unflattering; if they really are flat, they are just plain ugly.  The ones with a little bit of a rise in the heel are OK, but then they aren't really FLATforms, are they.  Can't we all just admit that it's one more silly novelty that designers came up with to sell something new and that we should just ignore the whole trend for once?

who am I to blow against the wind?

Looks like a little bit of that sunshine I was asking for!  Just a boring outfit, but proof that I still exist.  I'm working so much on this new project, which will be ready for it's close-up next week, that I'm just a little frazzled, but in a good way.

Black and White (and pretty all over)

Spring starts sometime this evening, and it sure doesn't feel like it.  It's been cold and rainy and snowy hear for the last few days (well, months of course), and I wish we could have a little bit of sun and warmth, just so my brave daffodils keep their spirits up.  I was going to hunt around for some really fresh, springy photographs, but then I decided to post the last three black and white shots in my picture folder, just to get it out of my system while it's still technically winter.  Tomorrow is a new day and a new season!

Young Cher - Fashion hottie

It's a little bit unfortunate that Cher of the present day has become a little bit of a parody of herself.  She's the butt of jokes now, which makes it hard to remember how amazing she used to be.  In the Sonny and Cher days she had that awesome sexy hippie doe-eyed thing down pat!  And that hair is to die for.  My co-worker said that when she was a teenager in Saigon in the 1970's all the girls wanted to look like Cher and grew their hair long and parted it in the middle and rode around on their motorbikes with their hair flying!

I even love her Bob-Mackie-at-the-Oscars phase, with the excessive glam and ensembles that left nothing to the imagination.  It wasn't until after the movie Mermaids that things started to get a little weird.  Maybe it was just one facelift to far and one farewell too many, but let's just focus on the good old days.  Keep these pictures in mind next time some lame comedian does a Cher bit!

blush hush

Spring must be on it's way - sunshine this afternoon, and that extra hour of daylight after dinner had me feeling optimistic despite the wretched weather forecast.  On Sunday afternoon I went for a long walk in the sun and actually felt some warmth.  Bring it on, and bring on the pastels and flowers.

Hint hint: working on kind of a cool project at the moment, but I can't spill the beans until things are a little further along.  The good news is that it's got me spending extra hours at the sewing machine...

Daga Ziober in Harper's Bazaar Russia

 

This editorial was one of the first in a while to get me excited about clothes.  I love all of the unexpected combinations and the kooky prints.  I'm always on the lookout for a good print, which is funny because a few years ago I remember thinking that I wasn't really a print person.  I never liked any florals, any polka dots, just wasn't into prints, but now I can't get enough.  Another thing that I love about this shoot is that so many of the pieces look like if I just keep my eyes open, I'll surely find something similar in a thrift store.

Pattern Blindness

Yeah, I know this is kind of a funny combination - funny little abstract floral with snake skin.  But the colours work so well together I couldn't resist.  

I'm pretty petrified of snakes, actually, but I've been trying to work on my tolerance.  It's really not the big crazy exotic snakes that I find the worst, it's the little garter snakes and water snakes that horrify my the most.  I recently made a dress that incorporated real snake skins, and I got over my initial disgust of them, so I'm certainly not going to let a little squeamishness get in the way of enjoying some yellow snake print pants!

November Rain

It was just another thrilling Saturday night this weekend, flipping through the channels, when I came across something on Much Music - I think it was the Top 100 videos of the 1990's.  I was about to change the channel when I noticed that Guns 'n' Roses November Rain was starting and I realized that I probably haven't watched the entire video since a junior high dance.  It's pretty awesome, of course, and when it came to the wedding scene I was struck by the thought "I can't believe I haven't had a customer ask me for this dress!"  I've done similar dresses, but nothing literally based on this picture, and it seems pretty chic and current in a way.

Today I had a consultation with a girl I've made three dresses for in the last year.  She's getting married this summer and she bought her dress in LA (Elie Saab), and we are making dresses for her sister and bridesmaids, and she wanted to talk about a dress for her engagement photo shoot.  And what does she pull out of her folder?  THIS DRESS!  This actual screen cap.  I just started laughing.  It was so perfect.  OK, she wants it in red, and with no sleeves (good call).  But how's that for timing?  I told her my story and she thought it was great, so we are both pretty excited about the dress!

Islands - A Sleep And A Forgetting

Island are playing next week in Vancouver and I'm so excited!  I've been listening to the new album, A Sleep And A Forgetting, all night, and it's amazing.  My favorite so far!  I remember when Nick was just the little kid brother that most of my friends thought was a dork.  I knew he'd prove them wrong!

You can listen to the whole album here.  I'm going to buy the CD and the record at the concert, as it seems that there really are no record stores any more.  I'd have to drive all the way across town, and with the price of gas, I think I'll wait a couple of days until the show.

Oh, the more I listen to this song, below, the closer it comes to making my cry!

Roaring Twenties

From The Artist to Boardwalk Empire to the next season of Downton Abbey and the new Baz Luhrmann version of The Great Gatsby later this year, it feels like this 1920's moment isn't going away for a while.  I've been seeing so many editorials with a twenties theme, I thought I'd go back to the source for some inspiration.  And while the sparkly beaded evening numbers steal the show, there's something about the graphic daywear like the example below right that I wish would show up in the H&M knockoffs - if not real vintage at the thrift store.  Wouldn't that be a dream come true?

Which reminds me, I think the Museum of Vancouver has an exhibit on Art Deco design opening this month.  I might even be able to get Karl to come with me to that.