Tag Archives: Inspiration

Crocheted granny squares

29/07/2011 7:40 am \ 32 Comments \

I know there is a phrase to describe occurrences like this but I can’t think what it is…
This morning I dug out this crochet scarf and put it on, thinking again how much I like it and its beautifully swampy, underwater-y, murky combinations of colours! but especially it got me thinking about crochet granny squares.  This scarf is simply a sewn-together row of large-scale mohair crochet granny squares, and I was thinking idly about how much I would like to make a scarf or something out of the original type of crochet granny squares; those ones that were all kinds of colourful but always black-edged.
So I took the above photo this morning  (I’ve still been taking photos occasionally but not always putting them here), and afterwards, Cassie and I were going along to meet with my mother in the Jo Sharp knit shop, which is a tiny little shop but like a wonderful Aladdin’s Cave stuffed full of divinely colourful balls of woolly goodness…  Of course you guessed it, we walked in and what should I see but straight away!, and that is this rather funky little skirt below, made entirely out of exactly the crochet granny squares I had been daydreaming about.  Bizarre coincidence; magical thinking? that I should select this vaguely granny-squarish scarf and be thinking about granny squares, and then immediately find this rather cool new-age take on granny-scarf couture??  (cue Twilight Zone music)
(image of the Hexagon skirt below from Jo Sharp)

Don’t you just love it?  Old fashioned, unusual, quaint, reminiscent of those awful old op shop blankets like you always saw flung over Rosanne’s couch on the 80’s sitcom?  Goodness, that thing was so daggy as to eventually become quite cool, yes?  No?  Am I on my own on this one?  Well, I guess to my 80’s-addled consciousness the ol’ granny square blanket did assume an aura of grungy chicness anyway….!

(source)

So Mum and Cassie did a bit of enabling, and I did not walk out of the knit shop empty handed…   I just bought a few colours to get going along with some blacks for the edging, but I can always go back for more if I need to…  I’m still undecided as to whether to just go for a scarf as per my original thoughts, or to go for the full-on skirt… what do you think?

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303 with modifications, green cotton velveteen, details here
Scarf; crocheted by me, details here
Tights; my own design, denim print jersey, details and a tutorial on drafting your own tights here
Top and cardi; Metalicus
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Post-trek summary

01/05/2011 2:53 pm \ 23 Comments \

Phew, we’re back!  We had a great week walking ‘n camping the Cape to Cape and thoroughly enjoyed our first four days trekking through my very favourite sort of unspoilt coastal scenery, enjoying deliciously cool and fine weather, but our last two days brought high winds, heavy rain and even a short burst of hail!  Yes, hail…  Walking along the beach, hail bouncing off your head… not exactly the ideal outdoorsy, communing-with-nature peace and tranquility happening there!  But we were so grateful that we got the nasty weather on our last two days, and not on our first two days… which might just have made us want to give up!  but we stuck it out and were pretty darn proud of ourselves to make into Dunsborough six days and 134.5km after we started.
And the enjoyment you get afterwards from that hot shower and soft warm comfy bed … indescribable.  Going without modern day life’s luxuries is a sure fire guaranteed way to give one a renewed appreciation of these things.  Water on tap? fluffy dry real towels and not those pathetic thin camping versions of towels… whatttup?  Pure bliss!

My cargo pants?  held up very well and were comfy and hardy.  But the cargo pockets… I found the reality of having bulky things like cameras bashing against your legs while hiking is kinda extremely annoying, yeah, so those oh-so-sturdy side pockets ended up holding nothing more substantial than a few muesli bars and my sunnies, hehe.

About the royal wedding!!  Did everyone else enjoy it as much as I did?  I loved her dress.  I thought it very Princess Grace, and just perfectly elegant and demure.  The whole ceremony itself was sheer enjoyment to me, from beginning to end, and I will admit to the odd tear in the old eye, must be my English heritage stirring up long-forgotten patriotism still residing way down deep in my breast…  (sigh)
But back to serious sartorial matters, that bridesmaid’s dress?!  LOVED it.  I’m just hoping a pattern company sets to and makes a paper pattern version asap, wasn’t it just divine…?  I can’t decide if my favourite view was the front, with that elegantly draped neckline and pretty little cap sleeves, or the rear view with that long line of fabric covered buttons providing a lovely focal point of interest.  Often the rear view of a gown is neglected, and it is important, especially for wedding garments, to remember that the rear view of the gown should be interesting because it is the one everyone is looking at for most of the ceremony.
It’s funny, the girls in our family were like, ohhhh, that bridesmaid’s dress, sheer perfection, no?; whereas all the males were like, woah check out the bridesmaid, she’s hot!!  
Laugh!

(royal wedding pictures from somewhere on the internet, picked from thousands…)

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Customised nails

10/04/2011 9:14 am \ 9 Comments \

What to do, what to do…
I saw this extremely yummy shade of nail varnish in the latest Vogue magazine and felt it was just the thing!  Really wanted to have it…  Tres beautiful, no?

But the blurb described it as a seasonal limited edition Chanel shade (Nouvelle Vague) that has quickly sold out.  Not going to let a little thing like that stop me from wearing this delectable shade on my toes, now.  For a start, the name “Chanel” on the bottle is already going to mean a ridiculous price tag.  Sorry, but I don’t pay more than a few dollars for a bottle of nail varnish… and what’s more it’s so super easy to mix and match your own cheap and colourful nail varnishes to get the colour you want.  It is!  Have you ever tried it?
Sometimes (occasionally) I buy a colour simply because I know it will be a goodie for mixing with others to get new colours.  Such as white.  Not always, I often then get side-tracked and lazy and just wear even the more unusual colours straight as they come out of the bottle, prompting questions such as “why the turquoise nails??” and having to come up with an explanation that doesn’t involve a fancy-dress party…  Fortunately I think Perth is becoming more switched on to exciting new nail colours such as the ones I like.  Whatever, I really wanted this particular shade of heavenly muted duck egg blue for this week… 
So I got a little bit of light blue (Artmatic Lit’l Boy Blue, I’ve had this particular one for about fifteen years) and mixed in just one drop of light yellow (BYS Bright Light, a newie) and got the perfect shade.

This is so easy!  The only thing to look out for when mixing your own is that it dries pretty quick, so use it as soon as it is mixed.  
Voila.  The perfect duck-egg blue, and even better, I didn’t have to pay $50 odd for the designer label…

I have a friend who has a firm saying, “there’s only one thing worse than chipped nail polish on your toes, and that’s no nail polish on your toes” and I couldn’t agree more…

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Some thoughts on trends and inspiration

24/03/2011 6:18 am \ 11 Comments \

Me-Made March, Day 24
This is another day where I’m just wearing something only just recently photographed last month… and feeling a little uninspired about taking another photo.  But here it is.

Details:
Dress; Burdastyle magazine 05-2010-114, printed cotton brought home from Japan, see my review (and a better picture) here
Shorts (underneath, not seen); Burdastyle magazine 10-2010-111A, same printed cotton, seen here, with a review of this pattern

Lauriana commented yesterday about the seasonal influences and differences in the fashion scene between Australia and Europe, well I thought I would address that since it’s one that provides food for discussion amongst those of us interested in fashion here too.  We follow the fashions in Europe here to a degree, more so than we follow US fashions.  That is to say, when distressed khaki was big news in Europe, a few of our local designers here followed suit.  European fashion turns to tailored minimalism, and boutiques here get back to simple neutral-toned classics too…  European designers such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Chanel have set up shop here, whereas we have no American designer boutiques here that I can think of (I could be wrong there…)  
But because of the enormous difference in climate, and I’m not just talking about the roundabout seasons but the fact that our summers are so very hot compared to Europe and our winters are much milder with no snow, the fashion here does march to the beat of its own drum and Australians do have their own “looks” that are distinctly ours and mark out our niche in the fashion world.  The surfie look, for example, is HUGE here amongst young people and I’ve never seen this look in any other country we’ve visited.   And yes, I’m including the US, who have their own, more polished, surfer look.  Aussie surfers wouldn’t touch Hawaiian print, for example except in an ironic way, like say if it was a bit ripped or graffiti’d over somehow to deconstruct it and grunge it up.
My colourblock top from yesterday I made partly because those scraps were sitting next to each other in my fabric cupboard, and I grew to like the look of those colours next to each other.  Then I pulled them out and wondered what I could do with them, and came up with that Tshirt, based on my previous long corduroy Tshirt that itself was copied from this look at right from Marni Spring/Summer 2007 (that year I made myself a whole outfit that looked pretty much identical to this one, loved it to death! but I don’t have it any more).  So in a roundabout way, my look from yesterday has sprung from a European fashion from 2007, and the colourblocking was thanks to having to use up scraps of different coloured fabric!  Yes, I was also quite happy to see that Bally dress in my latest Vogue magazine as being a look “current” in Europe, but that similarity was serendipitous and not planned by me.  Whether or not we are going to see any colourblocking happening here in the local fashion scene over the winter season and into spring and next summer, as influenced by those European trends, remains to be seen.  I might end up being the only colourblocked Aussie around, all alone and locally unfashionable!
(photo at right from Marni Autumn/Winter 2007, found here)

Where do you find inspiration for your “look”?

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Sunday…

20/03/2011 6:38 am \ 14 Comments \

… and a walk in the park avec husband and doggie.
It’s funny; I made this blouse following one of those wardrobe advice articles in a fashion magazine, that every woman should have a crisp white blouse in their collection.  So I made one.  This one.  And even though I’m a self-confessed white-top-addict I hardly ever wear it…

Details:
Top; Burda 8497 with foldback sleeve cuffs added, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Vogue 7303, printed cotton
Hat; Country Road
Sunnies; RayBan
Thongs; Mountain Design
Nail varnish; Bright Light, BYS

Out of interest I googled the Collette Dinnigan current collection last night, yes, it was Collette Dinnigan showing at the fashion parade and lunch I referred to last Friday.  And was amazed to discover that there were perfectly lovely garments very well suited to the age of the assembled crowd, as well as in a financial position to even consider Collette Dinnigan…
This is a sample of some of the actual garments we were shown…

kinda… skimpy?  and below are just some of the slightly more sophisticated of the current collection we did not see.  Similar style, I agree but just that little bit longer and that little bit more covered up and a bit more of a grown-up air about them; looks that would have been far more likely to have ladies at the luncheon stampeding over to the boutique, credit cards at the ready…  except for me, naturally, who would have stampeded instead right over to the fabric store, or even the op shop looking for old wedding gowns to chop up.

Actually, I’m still a bit tempted to visit the op shop, hehe.
(inspiration photos from Collette Dinnigan Spring/Summer 2011 found here)

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Keepin’ cool

03/03/2011 6:22 am \ 10 Comments \

I’m sorry I’m not very exciting today… just keeping cool.  I flopped slid gracefully into the pool as soon as I got home from walkies.  And this is the second day in a row Sienna has wanted to be in the photo with me.  Often she is there, somewhere, not necessarily in the frame but popping about in the background sniffing at trees and doing her own thing.  Lately she just wants to sit down where I am, so it must be hot for her too…

Details:
Dress; Simplicity 3745, modified to be more streamlined, white swiss dotted voile and lace
Scarf; a strip of turquoise silk chiffon, with a rolled hem edge
Thongs; Mountain Designs
Nail Varnish; Fool’s Paradise, BYS

Now the above picture isn’t at all exciting, but lets move on and have a look at some really interesting fashion-y stuff…  I watched our recorded Oscars last night, and I agreed with Beth that while a lot of the gowns were sadly unexciting this year, Cate Blanchett had the standout most beautiful gown of the evening.  Givenchy Haute Couture; a little part of me kinda hopes she will one day select something Australian for one of these events, but truthfully if I was in her position I’d be going Parisian too, probs. Whatever, Cate Blanchett never disappoints on the red carpet, and this was no exception.  The details of this gown!  I adored the little touch of gold at the shoulders and going down the back, setting off the soft feminine lilac to perfection, and I wished the camera was able to zoom in and show us exactly what those little bobbly things were going down the front of the bodice.  Whatever they were, they added just the right amount of decoration and interest.  I also loved that boxy square line of the sleeves and bodice; unusual and therefore a touch above, beautifully proportioned and realised.  Really, there was nothing not to love about that gown…  and the colours were perfect for her complexion.  She looked magnificent, as she always does.

As well, Helen Mirren look superb, a serial Best Dressed lady in my book.  With Vivienne Westwood she could hardly go wrong, no?  VW is usually so out there and her designs incredibly intricate and architectural; often gravity defying in their artistry, one of the reasons I find her so inspiring.  But for this occasion she toned down her usual flamboyance and produced a restrained and superbly structured gown, the soft sheen as well as the drab grey/pewter-y colour of that fabric showing off so well the elegant folding and draping that that designer is so admired for.

And I also loved the Dolce and Gabbana gown worn by Scarlet Johanssen.  Of course she is a natural beauty who would look good in anything, but even so her choice of gown this time was particularly stunning.  Form-fitting lace in that deliciously sophisticated berry colour, backless, and a divinely shaped skirt with a train?  Just too beautiful…

(I would credit these photos if I could remember which particular site I found them on.  There are many many many copies out there in the internet…)

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Tokyo; for lovers of footwear

10/02/2011 11:55 am \ 16 Comments \

The shoes to be found in Tokyo deserve a post all of their very own… if, like me, you just adore shoes you might want to skip this post as it all could be too much excitement…
The shoes, like the rest of the fashion in Tokyo, range from tasteful and quiet and just like the shoes we get here, so not really worth getting excessively excited about, I saw ugg boots everywhere, for heaven’s sake!… all the way through to very extreme.  Since I grew up influenced by the tail end of the punk era blending into the beginnings of the new romantic fashion era, (anyone remember Adam and the Ants…? confession: I was a big fan, yeah)  so I have a soft spot for funky shoes with chains, buckles and a bit of weird and scary toughness in their appearance… but these fabulous examples are something else, no?
Enjoy…

Yeti boots…
OK, those were just a small sample of the fun shoes that caused our jaws to drop and compelled us to reach for our cameras…
Now for the shoes my family actually bought whilst in Tokyo;
Tim’s
Cassie’s
and Craig treated himself to two pairs…
Tres gorgeous and quietly cool, yeah?  I like how each of the shoes has a considerate zip either at the back or the side, so the shoes can be slipped on and zipped closed without having to untie those artistically arranged shoe-laces…  so thoughtful!
Just to summarise my thoughts on fashion in Tokyo…
so yeah, I was fascinated by the extremes of Japanese fashion we saw in Tokyo even though I’m sure I could not get away with it here in my everyday life.  Probably very few Aussies actually could…  The closest a western country can boast of the same type of fashion diversity was the UK; the advent of the mini and later during the 70’s, when London mods and punks challenged a somnolent and boring fashion landscape… sartorially things have sobered down considerably since those times, yes?
I appreciate that not everyone is going to love the complex aesthetics of this sort of anything-goes fashion.  Some of what I consider to be the most visually exciting stuff can send conservative folks into a frenzy of condemnation but truly, those of us really interested in clothing can but admire the Japanese aesthetic and hope that designers here will occasionally depart from the tasteful boredom currently dominating the commercial clothing market.  And to take away just a little inspiration from this sort of lighthearted fashion; which does not take itself seriously and could never ever be described as ho hum.  
And hope the youth of Japan continue to go on being fantastic!
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Street fashion in Tokyo

08/02/2011 5:15 am \ 13 Comments \

Finally, I have sorted through mine and Lisa’s photos to bring some of the best of the amazing street fashion we saw in Tokyo… thank you Lisa for letting me show some of your shots here!  Tim and Lisa got some of the best ones as they were much braver than I about approaching strangers and asking to take their photos.  I got the impression though that many of these gorgeously attired people were kinda chuffed to be approached, after all I guess why go to this sort of sartorial effort if you are not trying to impress people enough for them to wish to preserve an image for posterity?
Enjoy!
All the way from beautifully traditional…  

to the Lolita look…

to tutus and fur…
to the too-cool-for-school young things who hang out in Harajuku; their style distinctly Japanese but otherwise defying description
to pick up the other touches of red in her outfit, this young lady is wearing red contact lenses…
So now I feel like my own clothes are insanely boring… if, like me you find Japanese street fashion to be a fascinating and inspiring example of extreme artistic creativity, then you would love dropTokyo and TokyoFashion … 
(Excepting the second and third pictures which were taken by me, other pictures taken by Tim and Lisa, thank you so much for letting me use them here!)
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