Inspiration Machine 1

Clockwise from left:Miss Lulu & The Teaspoon Shortage, anneso_cachemireetsoie, ElisabethD, Fjola Dogg

1. If you could decide the uniform of the planet, what would it consist of? What would the the color palette be?

2. Dress as the spirit of your favorite food.

3. Name each of your toes.

4. Pick a day of the week. Dub it your day. Make sure to celebrate it throughout.

5. Eat everything with chopsticks.

6. Keep a journal of all the animals you encounter.

7. Drink a glass of water the same way you would an expensive glass of wine.

8. If you could make a totem pole, what animals would you stack?

9. When you are in a particularly great mood, mail a postcard to yourself about why.

10. Carry sparklers in your purse for fun emergencies.

My Bug About Bags.

"Designer Handbags" by allaboutreplica

As well as being shoe crazy, I am rather bag crazy, though in a different way. I love many, many shoes, but I love very few bags. I am a bag snob, a bag elitest, a bag snubber.

My main bug with bags is that there are far too few that accomplish being both functional AND stylish. I do not understand why this combination is so tricky to perform - maybe I have a different set of standards than those of the rest of the world. But it seems to me that any sane-minded person would desire an ultra-compartmental, ultra-pocketed bag that is also stylish enough that it doesn't look like I am dragging around a glorified pocket protector. Is this so wrong?

Far too often I eye a gloriously constructed bag from across a store, only to be sorely disappointed when I pull back the zipper, clasp, or other closure device. Whether it is big and chunky, small and dainty, or mid-sized and manageable, exteriors aside, designer bags are often just a sack, and that bothers me deeply.


"Louis Vuitton Voyager Handbag, Prague" by julie3jax

My bag must be so much more than a sack. It is my life containment unit, the vessel for which I choose to carry all the accruments i deem necessary in my daily life. That means books, wallet, technology and a variety of tiny implements. When you toss all of those into a simple sack, do you know what you have?

A nightmare, that is what you have.

Similarly, every time I find a bag that can actually add a little order to my life, it tends to be hideous. On several occasions I have found myself contemplating the purchase of a piss poor looking bag, simply because those are the ones that tend to be organizational miracles. They also look like the equivalent of wearing a non-ironic fanny pack. And it is not a question of lack of talent - because there is a rising market of bags coming out that ARE incredibly compartmental - they are just not being marketed to me. I was recently admiring the computer bag my CD picked up. It was super - it had pen and pencil holders, and was riddled with compartments and sections galore. It was also pvc - a charcoal black, bulky man-bag, and a very nice one at that. It's great for guys, but there's no way I would be caught carry one.


"jimmy-choo-face-bag" by Kevin the Collie

Designers of the world, hear me. I believe we can DO THIS. We have the technology. We have the wallets. The modern woman of today is carrying hella' more than a compact and handkerchief. We are professionals, students, mothers. We have a MOUNTAIN of stuff to carry around, and we have no time to waste rifling in our purses looking for lost lip gloss.

We love your bags. Love them so much we will go as far as to LEASE them, like they were Buicks. But you have to do something for us in return - make bags that fit our needs. Next time you make one of those giant sack-purses that are all the rage, try chucking a divider or two in that thing, maybe even more than a single zippered pocket. Why must my cell phone, keys and Altoids all vie for that coveted pocket? Is there a moratorium on zippers??

I dream of a day, not too far in the future, when I can have a bag as beautiful on the inside, as it is on the outside. Like Oprah Winfrey, except with a convenient shoulder strap.

Just My Type - Font Programs in 2008.

"Attack of the Type" by Grandchildren

I recall my first Typography class in design school. Me and my classmates anticipated it with the same excitement as one would a root canal. The professor who taught it was obsessed with letter forms to a degree I had never seen before, and have rarely seen since. We would wince as we handed our assignments in, shrinking under his scrutinizing gaze as he spoke to us in the foreign language of type: serif or sans, orphans and widows, leading and kerning, ems and ens.

Nowadays I am rather obsessed with type, and am usually the one screaming about leading and kerning. Aw, how things change.

Typography has had its ups and downs through the years. Since Gutenberg blew up its spot in 1440, it's been a long, weird journey for letter forms. With the rise of the computer and the resulting obsoleteness of letterpress printing, there was great concern that the art of typography would be lost in the digital age. However, that has not been the case.

In fact, it's becoming a very good time to be a font. As this New York Times article points out, there are more ways to make fonts than there have ever been before, in ways more accessible to the public at large. In the past, typography was considered a strange, incredibly specialized field; typographers viewed with the same curious interest and mystery as some rare, red-tailed lemur. However, with the new profundity of programs available on the market, more and more professionals and hobbyists are picking up this enchanting art form. There are even interactive social networks that are being built around font creation and sharing.

The current selection of fonts out there today is utterly enormous and wonderful. MyFonts.com publishes a wonderful newsletter dedicated to the faces behind the fonts, and there are numerous online font sites that host stunning libraries of free, downloadable fonts.

Read the full New York Times article here. What are your favorite font destinations?

Claimed! Miss Sixty Adrian Boots

I love buying things out of season. Nothing makes me happier for the upcoming weather than picking up something warm in the cold months and cold in the warm ones. Well ok, there is one other thing that is as wonderful: the fact that the particular item is usually over 50% off its original price!

So, you can only imagine my sheer, unadulterated joy when I picked up these babies at a sample sale a few weeks ago:



I have long been in need of a pair of big, black boots. These Miss Sixty Adrian boots are simply amazing, and everything I was coveting. The leather is the softest stuff I have ever encountered, and they are super tall and super comfy. My wallet would have been hurting something awful picking them up at their retail price, but I managed to snatch these up for a song.



My particular favorite part about these boots is the detailing around the ankle. I love the straps, buckles, but especially the charm that hangs from one of the shoes. It is such a cute and sweet little detail, and even makes a chiming click when I walk about. I actually have become rather inspired with the idea charms on boots: perhaps I will decorate the entire pair with little gold and silver charms along the straps. You will then hear me coming from a mile away.



I can barely wait until the weather cools down so I can start stomping around in these beauts. I am a summer child, but there's nothing like a good pair of boots to help heal that hurt round end of the season.

Get Some Girl Talk

Photo by Christos

Girl Talk is the stage name of Pittsburgh DJ Greg Gillis. Girl Talk is also some of the funnest, fly-est dance music mash-up stuff out right now, in my humble opinion. Squeezing rap, alternative, seventies rock and everything in between into the songs he mixes, Girl Talk fuses subcultural music together like a sculptor spins clay. The result is music that is both sentimentally identifiable and new to the ear, audially beautiful and mentally intriguing. Music that brings mixing to a whole new level: Mix 2.0. It's also amusing as hell to hear some of the stuff he puts together.

I think in a way, Girl Talk's music sums up our generation. With the availability of style, culture and genre blown open by the interactive environment, barriers have broken down between subcultures in a way that has never been experienced before. Parents and children can enjoy the same music, there's less need or reason to identify with a specific culture for acceptance - whether hip-hop, alt-rock, reggaeton or klesmer - if it's cool, it's cool. 'nuff said.

Girl Talk's new album, "Feed The Animals," is out now - and the best part is that YOU can pick the price.


"Feed the Animals" by Girl Talk

Download it here. And don't forget to drop a few bucks in the hat, kiddos. Support the music you love.

Flikr Fan: anneso_cachemireet soie

Anne-Solange, is a french writer and journalist. Since discovering her on wardrobe_remix, I have been completely smitten with her photostream. Not only is her sense of style completely wonderful, but her photographs are excellently shot.

Solange's style is a mix of elegant and playful, full of lovely muted hues and delightful details. Just looking at her photos makes me long to visit to France, where I have come to believe that sunlight is lemon-colored, and everyone dresses amazing all the time.












See her entire photostream here.

Once Upon A Time...

Collection of Fairy tale inspired fashion sets by Jillian

Fairy tales are the myths of our society, stories that have become as integral to our culture as our history and morals. The first stories we learn as children are often our culture's fairy tales, often the same stories that our parents heard when they were young.

I've always been fascinated with fairy tales; how they came to be and how they have evolved through time. The characters themselves as archetypes: are you a vulnerable Riding Hood, or a curious Aurora? An overworked Cinderella, or a hunted Snow White? A boyish Peter Pan, or a devilish Captain Hook?

You get the idea.

Here are some links on fairy tales that are particularly intriguing...

"The Fairy Tale Life" by Jillian: A great article about fashion and fairy tales.

"The Science of Fairy Tales" by Chris Gorski: An amusing article on the real-life science behind our oldest tales.

"Folklore, Myth and Legend": A wonderful resource of folk and fairy tale archives available online.

"HiveSlides: Fairy Tale Fashion": A collection of styles that are fairytale-inspired.

Mag-Tear 1

Are you a mag-tearer? Do you dismantle your magazines to pull out your favorite images? Or does the idea of marring that Vogue bring you to tears?

I am a little of both - in the past, I have torn my mags asunder (a huge binder in my office filled to the brim is the result of these massacres), but lately I just can't bring myself to do it - the bibliophile in me simply shudders at the prospect.

Fortunately, the powers of the internet once again save the day! No longer must I damage my fav mags to snatch up those images I adore. There are now entire communities dedicated to this endeavor! It's like I've died and gone to mag-tear heaven!

Here are some of the recent favs I've come across...


Kate Moss For Vogue Paris
This Kate Moss cover is seventies-errific!


Sasha Pivovarova in Vogue Russia August 2007
Ph: Migeul Riveriego
A new application of makeup: the human palette.


Catherine McNeil, "Cowboy Cat" Ph: Greg kadel
Numero #90 February 2008
Smolderin looks, slim lines, long dresses and legwarmers: It's like Sophia Loren meets Flashdance.


Olga Sherer in Numero 93
I love how hair becomes an environment in this set. Simply stunning.


Han Hye-Jin, & Eugenia M, “Ethereal Romance” Ph: Will Davidson, Vogue China March 2008
An utterly inspiring color palette, landscape, and costume.

Do you mag-tear or mag-save? If you know any good mag-tear sites, holla!

I dare you not to eat it...

Sweetest Lemon Raspberry Kiss Shea Butter Whipped Cream by Satin Petal Soap

When I was a kid, my mom used to threaten to feed me soap when I said bad words (and as my little brother will attest, she was perfectly serious about holding up her part of the bargain). Of course, had I seen the soaps offered by Satin Petal Soap, I would have been perfectly happy to eat soap to her heart's content!


Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Goat Milk Soap Bon Bon by Satin Petal Soap

Satin Petal Soap offers a delicious array of mouthwatering handmade shea butter soaps, vegetable glycerine soaps, herbal bath salts, shea butter body lotions, shea butter whipped body cream, bath accessories, 100% essential oil aromatherapy soy candles, and so more. With scents named "Chocolate Dipped Strawberry," "Black Cherry Vanilla Cream,"and "Plump Blueberry Lemon Verbena," I think it would take a great deal of physical effort not to sink my teeth into her beautiful aromatic concoctions. It certainly doesn't help that pictures are simply swoon-inspiring.


Sumptuous Orange Vanilla Moisturizing Whipped Soap by Satin Petal Soap


Pink Grapefruit Explosion Soap Bon Bon by Satin Petal Soap


Orange Espresso Latte Whipped Fresh Ground Espresso and Shea Butter Sugar Scrub by Satin Petal Soap

I want to fill my bathroom with all of these lovely soaps, and turn the entire place into a giant sweet-shop. If you need me, I'll be in my pudding bath...

Sum Sum Summer Jams: Muxtape Mix

Search the hymns
Originally uploaded by hello sunrise

One of my fondest memories growing up was receiving mix tapes. First, they were silly mixes from the boys in grade school, that me and my girlfriends would giggle over listening to on our crummy stereos. The tapes were the first real attempt at flirting I ever encountered, and would contain songs interspersed with goofy banter from the group of boys that put them together. Later in high school, mix tapes became much more serious affairs; careful compilations intensely labored over and scrutinized by their creators, and equally scrutinized by their recipients. Due to the difficulty of creation and replication, a mix tape was the most sincere gift of friendship/love you could receive from another person. Whether pouring through lyrics to decode hidden messages, or just rocking out to a fantastic ska comp, a mix tape said unequivocally: you matter.

Sadly, with the dawn of the recordable CD and later, the downloadable song, mix tapes have become virtually nonexistent. However, I was delighted to discover there is a site trying to rekindle the mixtape in the new age: Muxtape.com.



Muxtape allows users to upload and share mixtapes on the web. It's functionality is remarkably simple, and it's look is beautifully minimal and superbly designed. And while it's not nearly of the same caliber as receiving an actual cassette, it's the closest the internet has ever come to it (and let's be honest: if you did receive a mix tape today, would you even have a cassette player to play it?)

I've put together a little mix together for you, dear reader. I hope you like it as much as I like you ;)

Court Life vs. Club Land

Lauren of "Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide" has written a fantastic comparison between 18th century aristocratic culture and the club scene in the 1980's. As an avid fan of both periods, I feel she did a wonderful job assessing the principal overlaps between the two cultures: extreme vanity, excessive spending, and utter abandonment into fantastic hedonism, among others.

Read the whole article here. And then admit to yourself that you'd like to don pink lipstick, a pompadour and rock like a noble until the sun comes up.

Predictions

Victorian Fairy Portrait
Originally uploaded by ex.libris

Over the past week, I find myself continually returning to read this collection of "Predictions of the year 2000" from the Ladies Home Journal of 1900. These predictions, written in that turn-of-the-century style that I could just eat up with a spoon, are as insightful as they are entertaining to read 100 years after they were written. Some are quite remarkably on the money, such as:

Prediction #7: There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic.

Prediction #18: Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago.

Prediction #25: Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days.

While others show as just how much farther we have to go...

Prediction #13: Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large.

Prediction #17: A university education will be free to every man and woman...Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses...In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.

Read the whole set of predictions here

Channeling: "Darjeeling Limited"

I am an enormous fan of Wes Anderson. There is so much aesthetic care put into his movies, and his characters are unhindered by the petty problems in life, on great journeys of the self.

"Darjeeling Limited" is a story of three brothers who haven't spoken in a year, who meet in India to rediscover themselves. Along the way they encounter poisonous snakes, lost trains, sweet lemons, deadly tigers, fickle matriarchs, beautiful stewardesses, a funeral, and several fist fights - just to name a few. The movie teaches us that enlightenment is often thrust upon us when we least want it, in ways we least expect. It is a beautiful, funny, colorful movie: both aesthetically as well as emotionally.













The style of Darjeeling Limited is a gorgeous mix of color and form: almost a western formality meets Asian embellishment. Below are a few ideas on how you can integrate a hint of Darjeeling into your everyday style:



Idea 1: "The Prim & Proper Traveler"
Wes Anderson uses lovely blocks of color in his movies, and objects meticulously well crafted. Deck yourself out in clean, beautiful, monochromatic pieces, and don't be afraid of mixing lots of color.


Idea 2: "The Seasoned Tourist"
Take a sleek outfit, and pile on the fun, exotic elements. Simple main pieces can handle a lot of patterned accessories, so long as the tones are generally in the same family. The more different the patterns are from one another, the better.


Idea 3: "Meet My Guru"
Bold graphic elements carefully matched can create an effect that is both captivating and engaging. It's tricky not making this look too chaotic, so balance out bold pieces against each other to level the playing field. Then sit back, sip your tea, and tell all about that year you spent in an ashram in Badrinath.

Ann Carrington: Turning the Everyday into the Extraordinary

A spare button, a coconut husk, an old shoe. Everyday detritus, that moves around us like an invisible ocean: the neglected remainders of our lives.

Along comes Ann Carrington, an English sculptor with a sublime gift for discovering the potential among these common objects. Collecting them in massive amounts, she repurposes them into crowns, horses, crocodiles. And along the way, infuses the world with a bit of magic.

"Crown Jewels" Pearl buttons on canvas

"Wildebeest" Bone handled knives

"English Rose" Safety pins, needles, on canvas

"Raj Rug" Shoe uppers on Canvas

"Stubbs 2" Cigarettes on wood, framed in oak

See the rest of her collection here.

There Be Hair, Both Here and There, In the Shape of...A Bear?

Let me tell you a little bit about Nagi Noda. Nagi is a Japanese designer, and dominating nominee for "Person I Would Most Care to be When I Grow Up." An art director who became known for her cutting-edge work in print design, Noda was soon drafted by the big boys, specifically, Nike and the famed Laforet. More recently, Noda has moved into video, where she has proceeded to sweep awards with her music videos and commercials.

Nagi Noda's work is simply stunning: based deeply in surrealism, she makes whimsical works that are as beautiful as they are mind-bending; whether it's costume bags or poodle aerobics or carnivorous flower bunnies. She is also so prolific with these new ideas it is liable to make ones head spin. I could fill this blog for a month with her awesome projects and achievements. But I'm here to talk about my favorite project of hers, HAIR, and the wondrous things Nagi Noda has done with it...




These hair styles are so amazing. I long for a world where we all sculpt our hair into the animal we feel most inclined to that day. Feeling freaky? French braid a ferret. A bit bland? Bouffant a toucan. Full of pity? Plait a kitty.




















See the rest of the ferocious styles here.