Category: women
Holy holes x
This post makes me think of gentle waves lapping on sandy shore complete with bucket, spade and cricket bat. It’s old fashioned, timeless and harks back to simpler times in an eat it now sort of way.
Celia Pym is a knitting/embroidery artist and much of her work centres around visible mending – taking something worn, discarded and unloved…
..and adding a new, contrasting layer to marry the piece together.
The finished work takes on a whole new personality – the ghost of the past with the mend of the future. The work is seamless but showy, in the best unshouty kind of way.
It makes me think I would love to do something like this to a much loved cashmere cardigan that’s seen better days. 
Or mend the knees in my jeans like this. Maybe it’s the integrity of the craft that’s so appealing? But I looked up on You Tube to see how to do it..
(All pics Celia Pym)
Even watching this was meditative.
Now where’s my darning mushroom?
Laters, Kate x
Alice Cicolini x
Alice Cicolini’s jewellery fluidly mixes a rich tapestry of eastern traditions with cool modern sensibilities.
It’s a keen eye, passion and superbly talented craftsmen that bring her jewellery together.
Together with a total love of colour.
Each piece proudly nods to its heritage roots whilst still being totally unique.
Not an easy gulf to cross.
(All pictures Alice Cicolini)
But Cicolini’s work is a third retro 80s, a third Indian, a third British…and totally fabulous.
Laters, Kate x
Best of the Baftas..
Top prize: Emily Blunt in McQueen. Does everything a great dress should – of particular note are those clever shoulders and beautiful embroidery – not too much, but just enough.
Close second: Hannah Bagshaw with husband, also in McQueen…could there be a theme?
Taylor Hill scores points for vintage Hollywood glamour.
Daisy Ridley: A winner for not taking it too seriously.
Isabelle Huppert in Chloe: Those sleeves and sheer elegance.
Penelope Cruz: For shaking it up.
(All pictures Pinterest)
Anya Taylor Joy in Gucci: Because it shouldn’t work, but it does.
Roll on the Oscars hey. And the odd dead swan.
Laters, Kate x
Magic Carpet x
If there’s a theme over the last few post it’s re-invention. And the carpet industry is ripe for it: 400,000 tonnes of unwanted carpet is buried in UK landfill every year.
Isabel Webb has decided thats where the rubys in the dust lie – she’s taking both domestic and industrial carpet waste and giving it her own unique twist through dying, tufting, embroidery and shearing to reveal new patterns and textures and expose the potential within.
(All pictures Isabel Webb)
Isabel only graduated in 2016 so this is the embryo of a work in progress. But we like it. And we need more.
Laters, Kate x
Design Classic x
Camilla Lundsten is a former designer for Ikea who then published a highly successful series of childrens books’ based around a little red elephant called Littlephant.
Demands from friends and family persuaded her to launch of her own homeware/toybrand…and the making of this drool house and future design classic.
Her philosophy presses many happy polka dot buttons: ‘To simplify everyday life with long-lasting objects that are practical and as eco-friendly as possible’.
Combine that with the alchemy of faultless design, iconic textiles, hours of play, rampant imagination and the urge to make more yourself just to add to the ongoing joy…and it’s product made in heaven.
(All pics from Littlephant.com)
Bella doesn’t get a look in. I want.
Laters, Kate x
Vika Gazinskaya x
It started with this dress spotted in Pintrest. So simple yet beautifully crafted – the flow on the placket, the upright collar, the slouch on the shoulder, the choice of colours, the block of colours..the clever, subtle curve on the blocks..
And so the journey starts discovering a new label and what other delights to feast on.
That blue at the bottom..
You’re either a volume person, or you’re not. I love it. I love the sense of intrigue that’s added when a person steps inside. Vita Gazinskaya has it down to a tee.
Not that volume is the only choice.
It’s clever cutting and ingenuity.
A simple palette with bold designs. Mi piace.
Laters, Kate x
Rachel Comey. Homie.
Rachel Comey stirs the spirit, lifts the soul and happily shakes it.
Take her Ready to Wear 2017 collection which she staged, in celebration of 15 years in the business, on the streets of NY in reference to her very first catwalk show.
How apt: The source of inspiration part of the realism.
With garments in different shapes and sizes reflecting reality.
Modelled by real people of all genders, age, figure type yet still sewn together with a signature style.
It’s a gauntlet.
Laters, Kate x
Haunted x
Hunter, an authentic British heritage brand beloved of the posh, festival goers and anyone inbetween: It’s the mainstream label with proper appeal and sits on it’s tartan wingback armchair like a curled, sleeping cat.
There’s much to love: simplicity, versatility, a sense of tradition mixed with a slick, modern attitude.
And yet I have a gripe (I suspect it’s to do with old age)
Take a product like a mac or a wellington boot (both things Hunters do particularly well). Part of their appeal is their adaptability and flexibility…so why do their products have to be divided ‘mens’ ‘womens’ ‘girls’ and ‘boys’? Why this continual need to introduce psychological barriers to choice?
I’m starting to think that the division of the sexes is a background noise that all too often we just accept and that it’s insidious reach starts when are children and impressionable: Boys uniform, girls uniform, pretty school shoes for the girls, practical ones for the boys, netball for the girls, rugby for the boys. And I can see the result of this in all the adults associated with school: The parents that are class reps for the school?…all women. The contact emails for playdates?..are for all the women – even if they work full time as well. If a child was sick..the school would phone the mother regardless of whether she was the main breadwinner or not. Pick up and drop off? This is more mixed..but it’s certainly not equal.
If we want true liberty of thought and equal treatment of the sexes then little things like unnecessary labels really do need to matter. And Fashion (with a capital ‘f’) is in the perfect place to take the first steps forward.
Laters, Kate x
So Wright..
The news around the world isn’t great at the moment. Condensed down, the underlying message I’m hearing is that big things don’t work (Didn’t we learn anything from the Romans?). And yet the drive to continually make everything bigger and supposedly better runs deep, because if you don’t…you’re a failure; The economy has to grow, companies have to grow..countries, even religions all want to expand till they become these slow moving bloated beasts that eat up everything in their way, with no joined up thinking except feeding this thirst for size and dominance. It’s a big day for Greece today. I don’t know what the right answer is..I’m not sure there is one, except maybe they should never have joined the EU in the first place. But it seems to me that things are becoming more and more about power plays than people.
Thank God for the whimsy of fashion….and the joy that is Linda V. Wright, former model and fashion editor, born in Texas but oh-so far removed from a rodeo riding stetson toting stereotype.
Now living in Paris and running her own shop, Crimson Cashmere,
She’s a lesson in graceful, chic yet expressive dressing.
Like the world’s best perfumes, she’s layered in classics all with subtle, different flavours.
(All pics from pinterest)
You want to sit down with her at a striped bistro table in a busy Parisian street and ask, is this really all possible? Can life really be this easy? This sassy?
Laters, Kate x
A Girl Called Jack x
Jack Monroe is my latest hero. I discovered her whilst painting the hall..the joy of decorating is having an ipad close to hand listening to iplayer doing it’s thing. Radio 4 made a drama from her life, basing it around her love of cooking and her relationship with her Grandmother: Two things that float my boat – it inspired me to seek out her cook book.
Jack started by writing, in her own time, a local political commentary blog. Then she had to give up her career when she became a single mum and her wage couldn’t extend to childcare. The only solution was benefits and a mere £10 a week for food for the two of them. Her blog ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’ was a consequence of that constraint, written to share the recipes she magically managed to produce…which then turned into her own cookbook.
Being a single parent meant lack of time as well as a lack of resources translates into recipes that are both speedy and simple. There’s no frills or extravagant ingredients, instead she’s re-connected the umbilical cord highlighting that fantastic, nutritious food doesn’t need an overflowing handmade Devol larder and a certificate in corden bleu cookery.
(The vegetarian meals are awesome)
Jack believes that in order to tackle food poverty and a culture of convenience/microwave meals with dubious ingredients then cooking at home needs to be present on a less glossy, less sexy, less intimidating and more accessible way, which then has the rollover benefit of both spending less and reducing waste. Win win.
She makes you think about how you cook, why you cook..and how careless we are. The bottom line is we all need to care more.
I love her and I love her book.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 