Category: Art
For Kirsty With Love x
Because caring is sharing: This is the stunning work of New Zealand artist, illustrator and overall creative, Kirsty Warman who I’ve been a fan of since I first saw and followed her Blog. I’ve been dying to do a Blog post on her..but I didn’t think it would take this direction…
Just recently, Kirsty was approached by VIDA, the Google venture backed ecommerce platform that brings together designers and makers from around the world to create original and inspiring fashion in a socially conscious way. They wanted Kirsty to collaborate with them to turn her Art into clothes – and it’s happening..right now!
Over the next week, if her designs hit the 3+ orders each, VIDA will produce her unique designs..how cools is that?
Furthermore, for every VIDA product produced, the company pledges to help the makers in Karachi, Pakistan with literacy programmes. It’s a win, win..
At around $40 USD this is too good to miss..and add VIDA VOICES at the checkout and you even get a 20% discount..
Click here to sale effortlessly through to her shop..you know you want too!
I’ll see you there..
Laters, Kate x
Towel art….
Given the German invasion of Greece we are now going to extreme lengths to reserve our sun loungers, hashtag British resistance!
Laters, Kate x
Tickled Pink x
Rebecca Wilson is a young sculptor domiciled in Scotland with a cheeky sense of humour.
With her jewellery range she’s become the burlesque dancer of adornment.
Not that jewellery is the only thing she does..take this light, titled ‘Many hands make light work’
Beautifully cast in glow loving porcelain.
Or this one…inspired by jammy dodgers..
And temptingly called ‘Light snack’
Rebecca takes pleasure in looking at the humble objects of life – like these matches – and wants to see our reaction when she alters them either by material, situation or size..she wants to understand, why does our reaction then change?
It’s honesty and frivolity glued together with the luxury of porcelain and talent.
Just delicious.
Laters, Kate x
True Love x
It’s the season of the couture shows when material transforms into an artist’s palette and cost becomes no object to imagination.
Valentino showcased their collection last night at the sort of event us mere mortals can only drool at – it started with a magical treasure hunt tour of the places in Rome where Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli found inspiration, from the Bibblioteca Casanatense, a public library lined with books with it’s deep aroma of learning to a marble bath from 1840 sited in a private palazzo, ending with a majestic open air catwalk show at dusk.
Their muse was Rome, a monster of an idea, held together across time by the golden thread of fairytale…
Because Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli have that singular ability to take the concept of inspiration and find the person deep inside.
Their designs represent the model of languid self-possession.
(All pics from Style.com)
Always with that romantic touch of magic, intriguingly bathed in clouds.
I covet.
Laters, Kate x
Wool and the Gang x
Wool and the Gang was born to find the best way to produce fashion..namely by hand…your hands..(or if you’re really nervous..someone else’s)
It’s a quirky, sustainable reaction to the fast fashions of our generation that says stop, think..and make something special that lasts whilst reducing stress and improving dexterity.
You can either purchase complete kits to make yourself..or a separate price is given for a ready made item where you can support fellow ‘Gangsta’s’ by buying their handmade pieces.
There’s different levels for various abilities..and options for men, children and the home too…even crochet.
Wool is a favourite yarn, but they also work with fashion factories to repurpose their fashion waste into new yarns to reduce landfill.
Clever eh?
It was founded by three women: Designers Aurelie Popper and Jade Harwood met while studying textile design at Central Saint Martins in London, after which they went onto work at Alexander McQueen and Balmain. Third member is Elisabeith Sabrier, former model, world traveller and yarn lover.
It’s the kind of stuff you you really want to make.
And now there’s no excuse..
Laters, Kate x
Klemens Torggler
This is a post courtesy of the lovely Lia in Brussels who first introduced me, via a comment on this Blog, to the incredible work of Austrian wizard, Klemens Torggler.
There are a rarified group of objects like the London Underground map that have totally fulfilled their design potential – to meddle any further would be to over-engineer or muddy. And so it could be thought with the humble door – opening or sliding are the only two options.
That is until now. Torggler’s design, based on rotating squares, makes it possible to move an object sideways without the use of tracks. Even if the object weighs 200 kg.
There’s also the Evolution door,a door based on triangles that moves at the touch of a finger tip like a piece of living origami.
What I would give for my own flock of steel birds – The perfect marriage of function and Art.
Laters, Kate x
Up-cycle Inspiration..
A bit of weekend inspiration for anyone with time and the need for lights on their hands…
(All pictures Pinterest)
Laters, Kate x
The Essex Taj Mahal x
Grayson Perry
When was the last time you were touched by someone so brilliant they made your head start sub-dividing?
Stand back and welcome previous Turner Prize winner and national gem, Grayson Perry and his new project, a House for Essex: a collaboration with Charles Holland and the architecture studio FAT. Built in Wrabness this huge marmite piece of art is a monumental shrine to a completely fictional character, a lady called Julie May Cope and is dedicated to the ‘Single mums of Dagenham, hairdressers in Colchester and the landscape and history of Essex’. The house holds testament to Perry’s visions of Julie’s life, through her birth in Canvey Island in 1953 to her two marriages, her children, her work all the way to her sudden death at the hands of a pizza delivery moped on Colchester High Street at the premature age of 61.
On the outside there’s a shining copper roof and 1924 glazed terracotta sigils of St jules.
Inside, the main room is in the style of a chapel to pay homage to the life of an ordinary woman.
There are biographical tapestries and pictures over the ceilings with snap shots of her history.
In pride of place and hanging as a chandelier is the very moped that killed her.
Upstairs, the two bedrooms are dedicated to her two marriages..the second of which was a story of true, tender love which permeates through the whole building and draws it together.
Kitsch, ebullient and eccentric it may be, but the joy of Perry is that in his work, as in his life, he describes the truth as he sees it. Underneath the undeniable humour, there’s a deeper, thicker message running through. This is a celebration of a modesty of aspiration and acquisitions that uses high art to pay homage to the notion of hard work and normality. It’s one mans couture shrine to the silver linings and special moments that bless every single life, no matter how hard or down trodden. Which ties up nicely with why it was commissioned in the first place: It’s part of philosopher and critic Alain de bottom’s (great name hashtag-childish-sense-of-humour) Living Architecture programme to allow members of the public – that’s you and me – to stay in buildings by world class contemporary designers. Click here for more details for your own personal taste of Julie’s life.
Imagine…a weekend away…here??
Laters, Kate x
Vita Kin x
I’m a sucker for a boho dress with a folksy feel..the bigger the sleeves, the more intricate the embroidery, the greater my little heart beats.
And Vita Kin with her vyshyvanka dresses hits all the spots.
She’s become an fashion sensation purely through her instagram account, marrying the craft crush of her native Ukraine with artisanal cool and easy, wearable bohemian chic.
It’s a bit like wearing your great-grandmother’s favourite linen (particularly if she was Ukranian) down the street. But the pin tucks are edible, the lengths are to die for with en pointe colours and glorious needlework…and the pockets are perfectly placed.
When asked if she wanted to build a fashion empire Vita Kin is reputed to have replied ‘Of course, not. What I want to do is to lie on the beach on a sunny warm day and sell my creations through Instagram. My terms are 100% payment pre order, a 21-day wait for production, paid shipment, and 2 sizes to choose from. I don’t really care about anything else, I really don’t… I can’t even imagine having a factory or anything like that … I’d rather spend my time thinking of new designs...’ How refreshing.
It’s a high risk way of telling a story – there are many opportunists out there more than ready to jump on the band wagon and copy her designs. But no-one can deny it’s her works that fly out of show rooms and have long waiting lists..it’s rumoured that Matches will have some in in August – but chances are they’re sold already. Sometimes less is more and quality can stand for itself. And why does everything have to result in world domination? Sometimes the greatest power to dazzle is with what is simply there, beautifully done.
I don’t just likey. For me it’s the fire pit of timeless love. Forever…
Laters, Kate x
Kai x
I have a thing about faces and love portraits: That moment captured in time..the emotion caught forever. This artist – Kai Samuels-Davis seems to have an absolute instinct for committing to canvas impossibly transient sentiment and creating paintings that both emerge and disappear.
He lives with his wife in the small and beautiful coastal town of Jenner, just 70 miles north of San Francisco – and the peace and calm of his surroundings seeps into his work. They’re grounded and real.
In the dream house that lives in my head, I have several on the walls…there’s also a studio where I can pretend to be him..
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 