A beautiful gift ...

A while ago I won a giveaway by Sarah, the talented jeweller behind Zann Blogg. I was so delighted when I received this lovely package today ...

revealing this ....

a beautiful pendant of woven silver wire with pearl beads on a choker! The pendant clips on, so you can change the chain or choker.

Thank you, sweet Sarah. I will so enjoy wearing this beauty!

Wearable Art

Last week I posted about my new wearable art T-shirt (by artist Ian Hunter). What I didn't mention was that Ian's T-shirts are all limited editions, signed and numbered on the inside.

I've now changed it into a skirt! Basically by cutting off the sleeves at a kind of angle, cutting it straight at the neckline and sewing on a length of fabric at the top to tie it with (at the back). I am no seamstress so stuff like zips and button holes are not in my repertoire. Anyway, I never wear tops tucked in, always hanging over, so that is okay. A multitude of sins can be hidden that way...

I love the way it came out - the bottom of the T-shirt (with the black strip) is perfect for translation to skirt, don't you think?

The Story of a Dress

A few weeks ago I visited a vintage shop in Simon's Town. Akimbo is a vintage lover's dream - great pieces, carefully selected (and sometimes adapted cleverly) by the owner. My eye immediately fell on this dress - 50's I thought, fitted perfectly, and although I very seldom wear green, I loved the green and grey gingham print...



Well, I suppose any fool can see it is a school uniform - but I didn't! Until someone said: "Gee, Anairam, that looks rather like a school uniform, doesn't it?"

So I guess I'd better not wear it with my black pinstripe blazer and mary-janes.

Do you think it will be more acceptable with my knitted wool coat and boots?

... or maybe when it is colder, like this? (That is a beret, by the way, and not supposed to be a depiction of my face.)

Hmmmm, rather a difficult one, this. But if I decide to keep it and not ditch it, I am definitely going to wear it with my Prefect (I mean Perfect) badge - by clever designer Tarien Malherbe (picked up at Design Indaba).

(Any SA readers who recognise the school dress, please let me know which school and where it is situated!)

T-A-D #19 The Scrappy Necklace

Time is quite limited - the third proofs arrived yesterday (two-and-a-half months late) and the entire ball-game has changed. Let's just say that my handy handbag %^&$ dispenser is empty. So for TAD I quickly made this necklace by tying together all the leftover scraps from one of my other fabric projects ...

Shall I actually wear it? Hmmmm, maybe not - it needs some refining, I think. I do not want to look as though I've dunked my head into the rubbish bin and not realized that the contents are still hanging around my neck, do I?

Paper Doll Fashion!

I had such fun yesterday - I worked on the second-last of my paper projects - a paper doll! I also designed some clothes for her.
First the drawing in pencil. Okay, she is a bit out of proportion and her feet are weird - but, hey, that's life in Paper Doll World.

Then I went over her with a permanent marker and erased all those pencil lines. I gave her some red lipstick and red toenails (which you can't see in the picture).

Ready to be a designer! Only now I realised that I needed a template to make her clothes - so I traced her and made a dummy - headless - as I guess all dummies are ...

I haven't yet cut her out - I must first paste her on something a little more hardy, but here are her clothes so far ...

3/4 pants and a swish little shirt ...

The 3/4 pants with a long top to match.

The swish little top with 70's inspired bell-bottom pants ...

Oh dear, her evening dress looks a little funny. I was inspired by Julianne Moore's dress as seen on stylish Karina's el beso blog, and it actually started off looking quite elegant, but then I thought that it needed a bit more festiveness to it, so I added colour (pink) and glitz (silver glitter). Julianne would not approve ... Also, I cut the arms too wide, so her boob was exposed, and I couldn't have that, could I? So I had to stick on bits at the sides which now look rather odd. I wonder whether Lacroix ever does that?

I am already busy designing a tango outfit for her. But she needs a name first - something French - what do you think?

Flower Couture

The latest VISI magazine has these stunning images of dresses, created with flowers and other natural elements, by Franz Grabe, a South African florist. I really think that he is a floral artist rather than a florist.



(Couture by Franz Grabe Flower Couture, styling by Annemarie Meintjies & Klara van Wyngaarden, photography by Merwelene van der Merwe).
For more images of Grabe's flower couture go to his website (and click on Flower Couture, then on Mannequins).

Kimono Dream

I've always wanted to have a kimono. Actually, my dream is to make my own. (Let's forget for the moment that my experience of sewing is limited to sewing paper bunting.) Don't you just love these vintage postcards? (all from paper-pal's flickr stream)

Lacroix 2008

Having dug out my Lacroix - Diary of a Collection a while ago, I wondered what he was up to these days. Here are some of his 2008 Fall and Spring Collection designs.

via Fashion Insider





via Amazing Filtered Things

via xinhuanet

via Palo Alto Daily News



via sfilate

via hipgirlie.com
and his lovely designs for Evian!

from littleoslo
Wonderfully theatrical as always!

Inspiration

I have many, many books on art and design, but only one on fashion. It is a lovely book to turn to for inspiration, as it is more about the process than the end product. Christian Lacroix - The Diary of A Collection contains many of the designer's scrapbook pages, illustrating the process he followed when designing this particular collection.

Phillip Lim ...

This is so my style. Now I must just learn how to look like that ...

(Phillip Lim's 2008 Fall Collection as shown on style.com, photos by Marcio Madeira)