Dress Style

resist the urge to cringe as in the absence of my camera, i give you really blurry iphone photos. now, i would like to introduce you to some of my most valuable possessions.
here is my first single thread sewing machine in Sweden. Husqvarna Practica. found on Swedens equivelent of craigslist from a couple living not too far from my neighborhood. all metal, from the late 1960's. kindly carried all the way from seller to buyer by my very loving boyfriend. this machine does me wonders. i bought it a few weeks after i moved to stockholm, to keep me from going crazy in a new city with no friends, no job and nothing to do really.

this lovely piece of machine is a much newer Husqvarna 4-thread serger which i am absolutely in love with. it's my first personal serger and I can't really live without one anymore. this was bought from a crazy hippie lady who lived outside Stockholm in a house in the middle of nowhere where they apparently make their own liquor, live in really wooden houses filled with dust and eclectic objects and long cat hair.

here is my newly installed inspiration/magnet board. now filled with illustrations from my latest fashion illustration course (a repeat of a course i've already taken many years ago, but this time in Swedish!)

and my sketch book. with a rather detailed illustrated construction plan on my next project (ruffle waist jacket). soon I will have another addition to my studio equipment! photos coming when it (rather, she) arrives.

the great minds at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and The Medical Research Council have paired 5 Nobel Prize winning scientists with 5 designers in a project called Nobel Textiles.

brill. i only wish i had the chance to go and see it in person.

he is one inspiring boy.

photo from jak & jill

today during my lunch break, while i was thrift shopping, i realized i have a very distinct way of shopping. rarely do i work through the racks, one item after another. i let my gaze fall on one section of a store and become almost overwhelmed because what i'm most attracted to is bold colors, patterns and textures. so i want the clothes to do the work and jump out at me from under racks and racks of washed out, over sized, over-worn garb. I do the same at regular shops but it's much harder since the goddesses of merchandising have worked their magic before hand.

today i did some shopping during my lunch break. i found some really awesome fabric plus a great tartan jacket and an awesome black 80's dress that will soon be my dream dress.
i also stepped into monki and grabbed this faux fur collar. love it!

since my old camera is in a bowling alley somewhere in vasastan, and my new one is on it's long journey (pit stop, parents house in Redding, Ca.)...all I have to show are these images of my shopping spree finds. payday doesn't last for long in this household. the boy spent 5 times as much as i did today: the fabric shop + monki + weekday + the punkt shop (studs and spikes!) + dinsko! this skirt is amazing, even if I don't think so in a month or so, and speaking of which, I bought some REALLY amazing fabric very similar to this skirts. It's going to become a jacket that will keep me warm this winter.

beer+bowling=loosing my shitty camera= this beauty is in the mail!

is it me or could these two garments belong together? i love the genius of the Talking Heads film 'stop making sense'--probably one of my favorite music films of all time. here is a section of an interview explaining the origins of the so called big suit:


Byrne told the German that on the next Talking Heads tour, Byrne should have a costume. "The German made a pronouncement," Byrne recalls, then starts speaking in a guttural voice, "'Well David, in the theater everything is bigger than real life.' I think that was all he said. He didn't say, 'You should have a big suit.' When I had time I would go to a Kabuki theater performance or a noh theater performance or sumo wrestling, just to see all the Japanese stuff. I drew this thing that looked like a Kabuki costume, which is also very rectangular. And the person's head looks like a very small ball. But I thought, What if you take that kind of silhouette, but put it in a Western business suit? I became fascinated with the idea of taking things that look very everyday or commonplace and stretching that in some way, rather than making something totally fantastic and imaginary. I like to restrict myself, OK? It has to look like a suit, even if it's pink fur. It makes reference to the businessman. It has some kind of psychological meaning besides being a costume. He is lost in his suit. Or his suit is swallowing him. It implies all these other things that a wild fantasy costume wouldn't say."


the rest of the interview can be read here!

i take these with me EVERYWHERE. i get a lot of ideas in the morning, when i'm going from one place to another on the subway. there is something about watching people hurrying about frantically, transitioning from being surrounded by home to being surrounded by outside that makes my brain go insane with thoughts of roped jersey necklaces, extra long skewed t-shirts, lop sided skirts and quilted jackets that i soon hope to create on my apartment floor.

I wanted to post an entry for all my SF/California friends alerting them that the de Young Museum in San Francisco will be having a Yves Saint Laurent exhibition from November 1- April 2009. I won't make the opening (Melissa, YOU should go if you get tickets!) but will definitely plan a trip home before April. Anyway, it reminded me of my very special night at the de Young. My friend and I went to the reception party for the new Vivienne Westwood exhibition they had and I met the queen herself.... I loved the makeshift shawl she had on and if only I had taken a photo of the tallest heels I
ve seen a woman of her age wear. (or any age for that matter).

I made this skirt out of really a great tartan fabric I bought years ago. I love all the plum and navy shades in it, really makes me feel like fall is here! (or rather winter here in Stockholm). The whole outfit made me feel a little bit like I belonged in a private school.

boys navy blazer- Thrift Town (SF)
black pleat front top- thrifted
curved hem skirt- selfmade
boots- Wedins (Stockholm)
silver chains- thrifted over the years

what I have been listening to past few days (back to the good basics)
1. brian eno + aphex twin
2.Brian Eno + David Byrne...quite possibly my favorite musical combination of all time.
3. philip glass
4.Brian Eno- This (sorry no link, you'll have to hunt this one down on your own, its well worth the search)

i had a DIY weekend. It was rainy, dark and wonderful. I made this one out of a large vintage dress. nothing special, but I do like the fit of it.

last weekend I installed a garment rack in my bedroom, to allow for more closet space (best decision ever) so i decided to go through all my clothes and finally get rid of a few I've neglected to wear in the past few months. i came across my favorite (and first) pair of CHEAP MONDAYS. best fitting jeans i've bought to date, didn't even have to shorten them! i stopped wearing them a while ago because they developed a rather large and noticeable hole right on my left buttcheek. i decided to cut them up, Margiela style and here is the result. i even managed to wear them to work by office appropriating them (my idea of that being sheer black tights under these...)

i love them.

so i never watched my so-called life when it aired in 1994. recently, i've started watching it and i am obsessed...the intro (music and scenes) are almost my favorite part of the show. i've always admired Claire Danes as an actress because she always had that emotional voice, the kind that could sound like she was about to cry at any moment.
I was interested to learn that when fans heard about possible cancellations of the show, they went to great lengths to save it, even taking out ads in Vanity Fair and other magazines. i'm only now feeling there pain...having seen 12 of 19 episodes, i am trying to savor each one. i'm also pretty inspired by doc martins maryjanes, doc martins, and floral dresses. and all i can say is i've never drooled over red hair before.

Dior

Threeasfour

Marni

Max Azria

Lanvin

Lanvin

Limi Yamamoto

Limi Yamamoto

Phillip Lim

Phillip Lim

Phillip Lim
Christian Siriano

PPQ

(images from Style.com)



Buns (those made of hair and NOT the kind that have their own day in Sweden) were a huge trend on the runways for S/S 2009. I'm not one to follow runway trends, especially when it comes to hair and makeup. Main reasons, I don't look anything like any model on the runway, the make up and hair trends tend to translate poorly onto my complexion and hair, besides I keep cutting my hair shorter and shorter but as anyone can see from my photos, I've been wearing a bun for quite a while now, probably since last fall. So all the buns on the runways made me smile a bit, as if many designers were nodding their head to a pretty well recognized and old Swedish hairstyle. (I've seen girls rock buns in Stockholm since the day I moved here)
What got me thinking about buns, besides my personal obsession with them, was a girl on the subway yesterday morning who had attempted the Chrisitan Siriano version, which in my opinion is not only the most aesthetically appealing but daring and might I say difficult. I salute her for her attempt, and apart from the messy back portion of her hair, the front was not too far off from the real thing. I don't think I could have pulled it off as well as she has, so cheers!

my second point, and a much more personal and exciting one has a lot to do with my culture and origins. Being born in Punjab, India, I rarely see my culture on the runway. Yes, occasionally I see sari inspired silhouettes or embroidery resembling very traditional Indian handwork but it rarely goes past that. Needless to say, I was jumping for joy to see the fresh face of Lakshmi Menon on some of the biggest catwalks of the season. She's gorgeous beyond belief and she's older then the usual (same age as my sister)

The biggest Indian influence I saw on the catwalk happens to hit closer to home, a Punjabi tradition atop models heads at PPQ.
They were seen wearing buns tied at the top of their heads, covered in little square pieces of fabric which were held down with rubber bands. This is a form of a turban known as a 'Patka'. Patkas are worn by Sikh boys before they reach an older age and begin wearing Turbans. I can see why a British designer might be influenced by these seeing as how London has the largest Indian population outside of India, but it still was a bit strange to me, credit for trying something different but I'm not sure I liked how it looked....

i made this necklace last night. it's made of an old belt i never wore, not even once. the rest is rope i bought at a craft store and some nonwoven interfacing (a sheet of black that came in a computer package to protect the screen)
i think it might be my favorite necklace so far. I have enough of the belt and remaining materials left over to make a few more for my etsy shop (which will relaunch in a few weeks, i hope)

with every passing day, my shoe obsession grows, IT is the only thing i'm able to keep alive in my apartment (there goes another dying plant & yes, i've managed to kill a cactus). its so lethal at this point, that I've spent all weekend renovating the apartment to add more space to accommodate the symptoms of having such a disease, coupled with the (not so rare) shopping infection. luckily, there exists no vaccine, no cure, so I (rather johan, our aparment and my paycheck) shall suffer the consequences. we have to remain strong... by buying this beautiful pair of ankle boots the second i possibly can!

all week, I will be sharing my favorite shoe related things. I start with a shoe designer named Daphne Bikker who I stumbled upon a few months ago. She went to school in the Netherlands and had an internship at VICTOR&ROLF. i absolutely LOVE these shoes and if i could manage to get my hands on a pair i would buy them for johan. my favorite part about these 'collar bottine' shoes are the cuffs. drool.

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i know, i know. every blogger on the face of the planet wrote about the Sonia Rykel Spring 2009 show. but I just have to mention these two dresses. the first one, designed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is just great and something I would wear, and actually brought about some jewelry ideas into my head (i'm sure there will be photos later) the second one, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier is GENIUS. I can't describe how much I love this dress. it also makes me think of some jewelry design... hmmm.

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, usually I get in a good one or two during the day. it was a very special day yesterday marked by a very good meal (dessert was the best part, of course) at one of my favorite restaurants in Stockholm, Bistro Sud.

I will try to fit in a post during lunch today as well as in the evening.

tee dress- Monki
black jeans: H&M altered
wedge boots: Wedins
fringe necklace: self made
belt (is a necklace): self made
hat: h&m
stud cuff: don't remember
I took the shoes out for their first wearing, and I have to say: comfortable and warm. I am pretty sure the temperature dropped down to about 30F outside today and after work I decided to take a walk downtown instead of hopping on the tunnelbana. I ended up taking a 30 minute walk and my feet didn't feel a thing. the dress was amazing too, considering it cost less then 10USD. I think I need to fix it though, the padded shoulders (which I drool over) made it stick up a bit, so it sorta looked like I was shrugging the whole time, like eh? and who can beat my necklace worn as a belt.

p.s. that's my living room table, where i put my camera when I take my photos. it deserves blog exposure (johan would do anything to protect it)