Braids and Bows

Represent : RIY_KA by Rebecca Johnson

2010-11-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

My dearest friend Rebecca Johnson is one of the most talented gals I know, she is a breath of fresh air as a person and as a designer. Rebecca graduated from the fashion school of Shenkar two years ago at the top of her class, moved to London , where she established her own label called "RIY-KA".
Rebecca is strongly influenced by different cultures; it comes through in the fabric and shape. The fabrics are a combination of recycled denim, leather, batik (which is an African fabric) and wood block printed kahdi fabric. Rebecca creates prints, embroidery and embellishment on some of the pieces, all made by hand. The shapes are mostly smart and geometric.
You can go to RYI-Ka's website to see the entire collection and inspirations. Here, I have to say that Rebecca named two of her pieces in the 2011 spring-summer collection after me, and I'm soooo flattered!!
Check out RIY-KA's really cool blog!

Nina Top 1

Nina Top 2
Tel Aviv Shorts 2

Istanbul Waist Coat

Tito Dress

BIH T

Mostar Dress

March Trousers

Hood Jacket

PSD T
Tel-Aviv Shorts 1

The Crystal Necklace

2010-10-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

After quite a long period we haven't updated our beloved Braids and Bows blog (busy, busy) we are back! and decided to open with a new crystal necklace DIY project!

So, this is how it's done:

1. These are the materials your'e gonna need: 1.5 meter of silk ribbon, plastic crystals and a pair of scissors.

2, 3, 4, 5 String the crystals on the ribbon.

6. Cut the ribbon in half

7, 8 Tie the part you just cut next to the last crystal.

9. Make a bow

10, 11 Do the same at the other side

12. We almost there...

13. Cut the edges of the ribbon.

Voila!

And this is how it looks on me!

Hope you loved it… promise to post again soon…

On tracks

2010-08-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

During my last visit to Israel Nina and I decided to go and check out the new "Old Station" complex that had just been opened in Jaffa. To anyone who doesn't know what it is, the area used to be a train station that was built in 1892 and ran from Jerusalem to Jaffa in only four hours, a land mark in those days. Since then, the train station was abandoned and was reopened a few months ago as a chic shopping and restaurants area, located in the beautifully restored old Templar building. I have to admit I was really impressed, aside from a slight sense of theme- park-ish atmosphere, I think it is a really cool shopping area with a good mix of shops, including one in which I found imported Orla Kiely clothes that I have never seen in Israel before
We took our lovely photographer Yana, and tried to restore a little bit of the old station atmosphere, without looking completely insane to the people doing their weekend shopping trip.

Tchelet
Skirt: D&G
Top: TwentyfourSeven
Shoes: Top Shop
Bag: Dizingof flee marke

Nina
Skirt: Top Shop
Top: Miss Selfridge
Shoes: Top Shop
Bag: Vintage
Ribbon: Hand Made

Givenchy Haute Couture Fall 2010

2010-07-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

Haute couture is an extinct skill, but when I saw Givenchy's exquisite haute couture 2010 Fall collection, it reminded me of how divine this school is.
Riccardo Tisci designed these 10 looks inspired by the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. In contrast to what may be expected from such a "muse", the inspiration wasn’t drawn from Kahlos colorful, chaotic drawings, but rather from her three great passions: religion, anatomy and sensuality, thus resulting in a very soft collection, in pale colors of white, pale pink, gray and dark brown. The collection was represented to a small audience, first on models and later on mannequins- like an art exhibition, in a French Hotel called d'Avreux.

I looked threw the web to find all the details shoots I could get, I found it in Shaded View on Fashion, Vouge.com and Now Fashion. If you want to see the entire collection, you can find it in Style.com and Fashion Gone Rogue.

I can't get enough of this, ain't that just so pretty…?

Full Moon

2010-07-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Sarah moon is one of my all time favorite photographers. Moon, who worked between 1960- 1966 has soft nostalgic esthetics that make her photos look almost like paintings. Sarah is well known for her bleary\smoky signature style that was developed naturally since the photographer is extremely near-sighted. "It was only when I started photography that I became aware of it," Moon told an interviewer. "People would say to me: 'But it's not sharp!', and I didn't understand because that was the way I saw things. I had never worn glasses in my life". Even after she was fitted for glasses, however, Moon continued to follow the stylistic path she began, producing moody, dream-like images that look like a beautiful hallucination. Although until this day she continues to influence many young photographers moon is still relatively known. Along her carrier she shot for most of the big brands and was the first women photographer to ever shoot the famous " Pirelli Calendar ". Aside from her still work moon also shot a short film called " Circus", which was based on the tale "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen.

A Little Shop at the Flowers Market

2010-07-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I've been to London , and I just have to tell you about this amazing small shop that my friend Becca introduced me to, called "Jessie and Buddug the shop". This store is located at Columbia Rd, and is open only on Sundays- at the flower market. At this precious shop you can find beautiful hand made jewelry, candles, diaries that are made from old books, and sewing kits made from felt. If you are in the area, you should definitely visit, and if not, you can visit the store blog or go to the web sites of the two creators of the store - Jessie and Buddug …

This is a present my friend Becca got me from the shop, that will definitely go with me forever…

Let Them Eat Cakes

2010-06-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

Tchelets dress: " Beacon's Closet", NY
Tchelets shoes: TopShop

Ninas dress: Jaffa flea market
Ninas shoes: Vintage

Thanks Yana Godin for the sweet photoshoots!

In a Parisian Hotel Room

2010-06-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago I was invited to the 10 years anniversary celebration of the Israeli designer "Yosef". Yosef is known for creating mostly sophisticated evening wear. The event included Champaign, chocolate and a fashion show…
Yosef presented three lines: the black line, made from a combination of different laces; the gold line, created from crispy gold fabrics and sequins, and my most favorite- the white line, which was made from sheer white fabrics- clean and yet sophisticated. After the show I got a catalog with beautiful photos of the collection and I want to share it with you.
The photos were taken by Dudi Hasson, whose work I absolutely admire. In these photos Dudi captured a few quiet and intimate moments of the model wearing fancy garments in a French luxurious hotel. Besides the photos of the model, there were beautiful Parisian inspiration photos that I am actually considering hanging at my apartment!
Well, see if you like it as much as I do?

It's Our Party!

2010-06-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

Our blog is already a year old, can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday we were day dreaming about all the fun projects we were going to do while sitting in a coffee shop in Nahalat Binyamin and now, one year and two continents later, here we are - celebrating a birthday.
And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with a party? Happy birthday Braids and Bows!!!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you- our readers-we love you!

Lesley Gore - Its my party by pondio_es

Nina:
Dress- TopShop
Shoes- Vintage

Tchelet:
Dress- H&M
Shoes- Achashmal 15

Music- "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore

Thanks Yana Godin for the photos, and for celebrating our birthday with us!
The cake photo from here, and the rest of the photos are from here...

MEN DIE AND THEY ARE NOT HAPPY

2010-06-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

Orit Ben-Shitrit is a wonderful New York-based Israeli artist who is now showing her newest installation at the Hunter Gallery in Time Square.
I first met Orit at a party in SoHo and about 10 minutes later she had already invited me to help with the customs of her latest creation that was being shot the very next day. So one day and one very sick custom designer later I found myself replacing the person in charge of the customs in Orit's "MEN DIE AND THEY ARE NOT HAPPY" video art, staring at a huge box of vintage lace and trying to create something that will emphasize the complex characters.The artist's creation has a very dark Caravaggioesk feel to it that I found very inspiring.Orit created a surreal world of lost people that speak their own unique language. She plays with different mediums (a mixture of theatre, cinema, dance and also inspirations from old master painting) leaving the spectator with a unique experience, many thoughts and unsolved questions. I hope that in the near future I will be able to show you more detailed customs shots but regardless recommend to anyone who's in the area to check it out because it is very powerful.

A Day At The Beach

2010-05-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Asaf Einy's photos, we headed to the beautiful beach of Jaffa . It was our first time at the beach this year, and it was a morning of fresh air and cool water.
We loved it…

The inspiration by Asaf Einy

Our shot on it

Thanks Yana Godin for the wonderful photos...

Nina
Jacket-H&M
Tunic-Primark
Leggings-?
Boots-Ash
Bag-H&M
Bracelet-H&M
Necklace-Made by Nina

Tchelet
Dress-Monsoon
Cape-Urban Outfitters
Shoes-Top Shop
Bag-Miss Selfridge
Bracelet-Top Shop
Necklaces-Efrat Kasuto and Avgad

Grace Kelly in London

2010-05-24T04:13:00.000-07:00

I came back from London just a few days ago, and I have so much that I want to share with you. The first is the "Grace Kelly: Style Icon" exhibition in the Victoria and Albert museum. This exhibition was my first destination in London, since I planned my visit there from the moment I heard about it, when I was still in Israel. Grace Kelly was a beautiful Oscar winning American actress that met the prince of Monaco when she was invited to a photo session at his palace; they fell in love, and one year later, they were married. That is a real modern fairytale that happened in 1956; the time was great, the clothes were greater, the girl was the greatest. So, I was very excited to see the garderoba of a real princess during different decades and styles. The exhibition is pure pleasure, displaying everyday clothes and evening gowns of well known designers these days like Christian Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, Balenciaga and YSL, as well as less known designers ( at least for me) such as: Madame Gres, Marc Bohan and James Galanos.

Here are some photos that I took at the exhibition (although it was forbidden), matched to photos of Grace wearing the outfits.

And more beautiful photos of the princess...

Cal La Land

2010-05-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

"Calla" is an Israeli imported clothes chain that is mainly known for its trendy garments and affordable prizes. So when the Calla PR people sent me their newest collection, which according to them was inspired by the Israeli artist, Meir Pichhadze, (who recently passed away) I couldn't help but think it was a little pretentious. The pictures proved me wrong. The photoshot managed to capture the childlike, naïve atmosphere that pichhadze, who used to paint the memories of his childhood in Georgia, portrayed so well. The collection is filled with great flowery summer dresses and the shoes, although I am sure has noting to do with Georgian style, are oh so pretty.
Pictures from the Calla catalog

The Meir Pichhadze inspiration painting

Nicola Malkin

2010-05-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

Once, my friend Dorit said that when you make an everyday piece oversized, it always makes an impression. Well, art pieces like the "Hanging Heart" or "Balloon Dog" by Jeff Koons prove exactly that.
Nicola Malkin is an artist that creates beautiful oversized jewelry by using traditional ceramic techniques.
Her works appeared in dozens of exhibitions as well as in magazines like Vogue, Another Magazine, Elle Decoration and many others.
When you see her works for the first time, it simply seems like a beautiful piece of jewelry, but after seeing them in the perspective of a whole room, you realize that the giant necklace is actually hanging from the ceiling.

You can also visit Nicola Malkin's blog, where you can see the process of creating the art pieces...

Collection from another life

2010-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

It just occur to me that although I sometimes write about my career as a fashion designer I never really showed you any of the things I design. I guess I am still not used to the fact that most of the people that read our blog don't know me or my business. It never seems to stop surprising me when people from all over the world take interest in what we do. I kind of imagine that only my friends and family will ever be interested in our constant chatter.
As everyone that reads our blog already knows, I recently moved to New York to do my second degree in fashion. Fashion has been my passion (sorry couldn't help it) ever sense I can remember myself, and the opportunity to learn in this fantastic city is really a dream come true. I promise that I'll stop being so lazy, just walking aimlessly in the streets staring at all the beautiful shops and girls (I swear half of the girls in Now York are models) and start taking some pictures of fashionable finds especially for you. In the mean time these are some photos from the last collection I designed before closing my studio in Israel, I hope you like it.

(Photographer Tami Notsani)

Fireflies

2010-04-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sufjan Stevens- Alanson, Crooked River by Braids and Bows
The Inspiration

Our fireflies

Nina:
Blouse- Zara
Skirt- Made by Nina

Tchelet:
Tank- Made by Tchelet
Skirt- NY

Music- Sufjan Stevens, Alanson Crooked River

Thanks Yana Godin for the beautiful photos...

Bows All Over...

2010-04-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

For quite some time now bows are seen on every piece of clothing you can imagine: dresses, shoes, skirts and so on… Does "Braids and Bows" have anything to do with it? Well, maybe… Here we wanted to share with you some runway bow pieces, and a few more affordable versions…

The Runway

Marc Jacobs, Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear

Marchesa, Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear

Luella, Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear

Peter Som, Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear

Alexis Mabille

This I can actually buy!

Top-Shop

Miss Selfridge

River-Island

You can buy this furry bow tank by Xenia at a home sale this Satudray,
56 Kishon st. Tel-Aviv, 10:00-19:00

Changes

2010-04-03T03:17:00.000-07:00

Our blog is undergoing a transformation. Tchelet is going to pursue a fashion career in the Big Apple, and we are becoming a transatlantic blog! We'll bring you all the best from the fashion world in NY, Tel-Aviv, and everywhere in between.

So, I guess this is what I am going to do this summer,

Photo by Asaf Einy

and this is what Tchelet is going to do this summer...

Pop magazine- Spring/Summer 2010

Driving Miss Dazzling

2010-03-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Though the idea of beautiful women selling cars is not one of our favorite concepts to say the least,but there is a naivety to the fifties' car-adds that we really like. Something in the combination of technicolors, fake smiles and vintage feel manges to project perfectly the idea of driving around in your Cadi and living the good life.
We gave it a shot…

Car- Chrysler, PT Cruiser

Tchelets first outfit: Blouse- Just in Case (Gertrude) Skirt- Vintage Petticoat- Made by Nina Shoes- Steve Madden Belt- Keren Wolf Watch- Vintage, Keren Wolf Gloves- Vintage, Dizingof vintage merket Bag- Vintage, Brooklyn	Ninas first outfit: Blouse- Miss Selfridge Shoes- Vintage
Tchelets second outfit: Dress- Vintage, Aderet Shoes- Vintage Watch- Vintage, Keren Wolf	Ninas second outfit: Blouse- Zara Skirt- Vintage Petticoat- Made by Nina Shoes- Vintage

Big thanks to Yana Godin for the wonderful photo shoots, and a great day in Nave Zedek.

Braids & Bows on Style Bubble

2010-03-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

Style babble is our all-time favorite blog, and the lovely Susie who writes it keeps us posted every day about all the things we really love. So you can imagine our surprise and excitement when we discovered this morning that she wrote about us.
Thanks Susie!

Scarf-Mania

2010-03-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

My two worlds, the blog and my work at TimeOut , were intertwined this week while preparing an article for Timeout on the new "up-cycling" trend, and the new collection of the fashion house, " Clements Ribeiro ". For anyone who doesn't read Hebrew and therefore can't read the article, "up-cycling" is a process that takes old garments, recycles and upgrades them into a new outfit, and therefore is both green and creative.
Designers at "Clements Ribeiro" did just that with their newest project "Scarf-Mania". There they took vintage scarfs that they found in their fashion house storage, and made an entire collection out of them. In the article I presented a DIY project showing how anyone can make their own version of Ribeiro's Scarf Mania. To show it off I couldn't think of anyone better than miss DIY herself, Nina. Once Nina was already on board I couldn't resist bringing Yana, our photographer along for the ride, and there you have it - the entire Braids and Bows team on a TimeOut adventure.
The spread in Time out

Ribeiro's Scarf Mania collection

These are the steps to create your own scarfs dress:

1. What you’ll need is: two silk scarves, a thread, a needle and chalk.

2. Fold 10 cm of the upper part of each scarf.

3. Measure 12-15 cm from the two ends of the folded part of the scarf, and mark it with chalk.

4. Invert the scarves, and stitch the two scarves at the marked places (now you have the opening for the head).

5. Leave enough space for hands, and stitch the two scarves lengthwise.

And now you have a dress!

Fashion is in the details

2010-03-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine, Dvir Ackerman, has such a great job! He is the photographer of Fashion TV, which means he goes to NY and London fashion week twice a year, sits on the first rows, enters to fashion shows backstage, and let's not forget the goodies bags he gets! Is there a place for me there maybe?
'Till then, Dvir gave me some of the photos he took at the latest NY fashion week to share with you...Did I mention the Jeremy Scott's bag I got as a present?! Thanks Dvir, please keep your job!!

Monique Lhuillier on and behind the stage

My beloved Marc Jacobs...

Jeremy Scott on and behind the stage

The amazing Carolina Herrera

If you were wondering what models are eating...

And Alexander McQueen's empty store...

Morning Light

2010-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
Sarojini Naidu

Ninas Dress- Zara
Tchelets Dress- TopShop
Shoes- Vintage
Magazine- Vogue, April 1960
Music- "All I Need", Air

Big thanks to Yana Godin for the beautiful photos at the morning sunlight...

The Animal Crinolines

2010-02-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

Walter Van Beirendonck's latest Winter 2010/2011 collection "Take a W-Ride" was mostly menswear. As expected from Walter, the collection was very colorful with strong graphics and humoristic… For me the best part of the fashion show was the end, when the models showed on stage with sculptured animal figure crinolines and over sized hats! The designers that created this genius crinolines were Elke Hoste and Lisandro Olmos. I was desperately looking for their other works on web, but almost found nothing, hope to hear about them more in the future…

Pants!

2010-02-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Ever since I saw the Stella McCartney show I became obsessed with the high-waist and pleated pants, so when my wonderful husband got me this vintage Yve Saint Lauren pants for my birthday last week ,as you can imagine, I was in heaven.
I jumped at the first opportunity to wear them which presented itself in the spring-summer Castro show (if you are interested to know what I thought of it you can check it out Time Out ). Since I didn't have a belt to wear them with, Nina was nice enough to create one for me. Together with Yana, who agreed to play with her flashes in order to capture me in the film noir-ish lighting that the look demanded, it was a real group effort.

Stella McCartney

my version

Pants: YSL vintage, from "Gallery Parisian".
Shirt: sack's
Shoes: - Nine West
Belt: hand made by Nina

The Chain Belt

2010-02-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

First of all, we wanted to thank Florrie from Intrinsically Florrie blog for nominating our blog for the Awesome Girl Award. Thanks Florrie!!!

This is a super simple and super cute DIY project that takes only about 15 minutes.
The belt is made of a chain, in the spirit of the 80', but of course, very relevant for today.

1. The materials you'll need are: a 1 meter chain, a few joining rings and a clasp.

2. Cut 31 cm of the chain

3. Measure 8 cm from the end of the bigger part.

4. Mark for yourself the 8 cm point from the end, and then 28 cm from that point, and add the joining rings at these points.

5,6. Connect the 31cm part to the rings.

7. Add the clasp with a joining ring to one of the ends.

Voila! The belt is ready!

Here, I'm wearing the belt with my H&M dress.

And what do think about my new TopShop cardigan? I fell in love with it!

Grotesque

2010-02-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I went to visit the "Haifa Museum of Art" to see a show called "The Grotesque". While watching the show, which was absolutely fascinating, I stumbled across the work of Erwin Olaf, a photographer and video artist living in Amsterdam. Although Olaf is mostly an artist, his apocalyptic prediction of how people will live and look in the future are ever so fashionable. In the show Olaf's presented his visions of how we will look in the future if our obsessions with youth, beauty and plastic surgery will continue to be such a central part of society. While visiting the artist's website I discovered more wonderful works that this time dealt with the alienation of the modern world. Olaf's retro aesthetics and forlorn atmosphere reminded me Edward Hopper's works that also managed to capture the beauty and loneliness of modern times.Please press on this link
To see Olaf's video art

Rock "At" Roll

2010-02-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

About a month ago Tamar Karavan called me and asked if I would like to be her assistant in a photo shoot for “At” magazine. Whoever is familiar with Tamar's work knows she is talented photographer and stylist, and who knows Tamar in person knows she is amazing and even addictive … well, of course I said yes!
The model is the actress Keren Mor, who is going Rock n Roll it these shots. Osnat the makeup artist and Yossi the hair stylist were also fabulous. Overall the photo-shoot was fun and inspiring!

Here is a photo of Tamar during the photo-shoot, photos of some clothes and accessories before dressed on the model, and the final editorial.

The editorial

I just love this video with Lou Doillon from the Venessa Bruno's show

2010-01-29T08:38:00.001-08:00

On ball gowns and balloons

2010-01-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

When we started our blog, we felt it was a good platform to discover all kinds of interesting and creative people from all around the world.
Yana Godin is one of those people. Yana is a full time director in a computer firm and a passionate photographer in her spear time. When Yana approached us and asked to collaborate and shoot for our blog we couldn't believe our good luck.
Anyone who has a blog probably knows how time consuming it is to try and get a good picture. Yana made it look easy and allowed Nina and I to take some of our first shots together. Aside from the embarrassment that includes parading around in a ball gown while holding thousands of balloons in a crowded public park, it was a real pleasure so thanks Yana!

Paper Dolls

2010-01-17T03:03:00.001-08:00

When I first saw these paper made wigs, it reminded me how much I loved to play with my paper dolls, dressing them in paper dresses…
These exquisite wigs are part of the “Paper cut project” created by Nikki Salk and Amy Flurry that is exhibited at Jeffrey New York and Atlanta.
Of course, a real paper doll needs variety of paper dresses.
One dress that I found in Flickr by Jolis Paons is all made of newspaper and the second is by the amazing designer Sandra Backlund.
And what about the shoes I say?
Well, here I had two options; the very sophisticated paper shoes by Mathieu Missiaen and Julien Morin, or the more classical version by Jennifer Collier.

"Paper cut project" wigs

Here is the virtual paper outfits I created!

Look no. 1

"Paper cut project" wig

Dress by Jolis Paons

Shoes by Jennifer Collier

Look no. 2

"Paper cut project" wig

Dress by Sandra Backlund

Shoes by Mathieu Missiaen and Julien Morin

Style Sample Magazine

2010-01-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Braids and Bows are featuring at the fifth issue of the Style Sample Magazine .
Each month the magazine chooses some of his favorite fashion blogs from
all over the world and let these bloggers write about their countries and inspirational places.We wrote about our beautiful and fashionable city of Tel-Aviv, and named all of our favorite places to shop and play.
You are very welcome to follow this link and read our article, and of course the other articles at the magazine. Thanks Style Sample!!!

Thanks to Yael for this photo!

White Collar Crimes

2010-01-06T02:06:00.000-08:00

Last time I was in London I discovered the most wonderful and quirky little shop called
" Franklin Alvarez " that specializes in vintage collars. The shop is run by the clothing designer, Bev Alvarez, and by the artist Jen Franklin, which together make or collect collars from flee markets around England. When I got home and checked out their web site I was amazed to find that they ran a blog devoted entirely to their collar obsession. The blog is dedicated to collars in all shapes and sizes, and present all sorts of other collar-related items and even prints of animals adorned with periodic collars. I have a little collection of vintage collars from all kind of different periods myself, so I am always happy to discover other people who share my passion.

Israeli designer, Aluma Klein , is a fellow collar lover that completes her women wear line with collars that she makes from hand sown vintage lace. Her collars were already worn by the likes of Madonna, Lady Gaga and many others.
The piece of resistance of my collection is a nineteen century collar that I found in an antique shop in Paris. Though it tears a little every time I touch it, every once in a while I am tempted to wear it under a dress or a blazer.

Franklin Alvarezs' collars and prints

Aluma Kleins' collars

My nineteen century collar

Fashion Bear

2010-01-02T02:48:00.000-08:00

I don’t know what about you, but I still can’t say I'm completely a grown up. Although I am 27 years old, sometimes I still sleep with my cozy teddy bear. Yeah, I know, most of the people my age probably won’t admit to it, but recently I have the feeling that I’m not the only one hugging a bear at night. I guess someone in the fashion world picked up on that, because more and more high fashion brands are making designed teddy bears, and I have a feeling that it doesn't all go to the kids.
As usual, the first to start the designed teddy bears trend was Karl Lagerfeld, who created a teddy bear looking just like him. Prada designed various key chain teddy bears that are sold at their online store, and Missoni are selling their teddy bears, made of their trade mark print, in Colette.

Karl Lagerfeld teddy bear

Prada teddy bears

Missoni teddy bears

I know you want some more of this sweetness, so here is an editorial from W magazine that is all about teddy bears, enjoy!

W Magazine "Into the Woods", Aug 2007

Embroidered myths

2009-12-29T00:37:00.000-08:00

I love it when artistes use crafts in their work, the confrontation they provoke between the traditional techniques and the modernity of their ideas.
Brie Ruais is an artiste who lives in New York and uses traditional crafts such as embroidery, bid work and knitting in her art. Brie draws her inspirations from her own personal biography as well as from urbane myths and legends.

The Lace Scarf

2009-12-22T10:09:00.001-08:00

The winter is here, and it’s time for some cozy and yet pretty DIY projects.
The inspiration for this particular project came from similar crafts that I saw in a few Japanese blogs, which I love so much. The idea of a shawl that can be worn as a scarf, adorned with lace, is so beautiful and so simple to execute, that I just had to do it!

These are the inspiration photos from Japanese blogs.

1. This is what you will need: an Indian shawl, lace (French, I bought mine on Rozengard st.), scissors, a thread in the same color as the scarf, and one in the color of the lace- this one I forgot to photograph …

2. Cut the ends of the shawl

3. Pin the lace on the duration of the shawl, I made it 1/3-2/3 and not straight in the middle.

4. Stitch the lace by hand or by sewing machine.

5. Now pin the lace on the two ends of the shawl (where I cut the fringe at step 2).

6. Stitch the lace to the shawl.

Voila!

And here are two ideas of how I'm going to wear this scarf.

Trench coat- TopShop
Jeans- Oasis
Shoes- Irregular Choice

Leather Jacket-Mango
Blouse- Miss Selfridge
Pants- Miss Selfridge
Shoes- TopShop

During the making of this scarf, photographing and writing, I was listening to the end of the decade sum- ups in music of the Kaze radio program on line. Here you can find the alternative decade sum-ups in Hip-Hop, Indie, Punk-Funk Disco-Punk and practically endles amounts of great music. Just press on “Play Now”- it’s pure pleasure…

How to do a Ban.do

2009-12-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

As you might have noticed by now reading our blog, Nina and I have a not-so-small obsession with hair-bands. Pretty much if it's shinny, pink or feathery, I want it worn on my head. Ban.do is my new favorite retailer for all of those things. The company makes breathtakingly beautiful hair bands, brooches and much more.
I love everything about these pictures from the color combinations to the model choice, absolute perfection.
Naturally, I would love to buy one of the company’s pieces but since I can’t really afford to spend 200 dollars on a hair band I decided to take the DIY way.
I used some lovely light blue feathers that I had laying around the house, and sewed them to a piece of felt. To give it that final touch I added a vintage brooch that was my latest flea market find and voila! It may not be exactly Ban.do but it is definitely not a ban don’t.

1. Cut up a template in the shape that you want the feathers to be in.
2. Attach it to the felt and cut it according to the shape.
3. Attach the feathers one by one and sew to the felt.
4. Attach the felt to a bow by sewing or gluing them together.
5. Sew or attach a brooch or a vintage baton to the base of the bow.

Treasure bags

2009-12-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

Each time I go thrifting, it feels like I am going on a quest to find a hidden treasure.
Unlike retail stores that have their pieces organized by color and size, vintage stores are one piece stores. Sometimes the treasure you are looking for is the first thing you lay your eyes on when you go into the store, and sometimes you will go through all the racks, and still won’t find it.
Vintage bags are one of my favorite vintage items to buy; take it as it is, without fittings or adjustments necessary. Through the years the collection gets bigger, while each bag carries its own unique story of where you found it and under what circumstances, and it's even more enjoyable if you happen to know the history of the piece you holding in your hand.

Here, Tchelet and I wanted to share with you our collection of vintage bags, and wish that we'll find more of these treasures in the future.

Tchelet's gobelin vintage bags

A bag that was bought at Geula st. vintage store(closed)

These two bags were bought at the Dizengoff vintage merket

Nina's vintage bags collection

A bag that was bought at the Jaffa flea merket

These two were bought at the best vintage store in St. Petersburg "Off Off Off"

Ventriloquist in a playground

2009-12-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

Hani Sagiv is a recently graduated Shenkar student who is already turning heads in the international arena. Lately Sagiv was selected to take part in an exhibition at the Vinogradov gallery in Berlin. During the gallery opening Hani will present her Shenkar graduation collection named "Ventriloquist in a playground". Her clothes will be modeled by seven actors which will perform a play wearing her outfits. I find her work beautiful and troubling at the same time, I especially like the collar necklace - I wouldn't mind having one of those in my jewelry box.

I ARTIST LONDON

2009-11-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

I Love, love, love “Do It Yourself” projects, even though I usually prefer to engage in some sort of a design or a fashion project.
I ARTIST LONDON created DIY kits of famous contemporary art works, based on their belief that art should be for everyone, and so in every kit you have all that is needed to create your own piece of art along with detailed instructions. These kits actually give you the opportunity to recreate famous works like “Love of God”- a dimond skull by Damien Hirst, as well as Banksy’s graffiti, Marc Quinn´s head sculpture made of blood, and works of Tracy Emin and Turner Prize.
I really want to put my hands on those Bansky graffiti stencils- well, next time I’m in London…

IHIRST Kit

The Original “Love of God”; a life size platinum skull covered by 8,601 real
diamonds.

IBANSKY Kit

How cool is IBANSKY Machine??

The Original Banksy’s graffiti on the streets of London.

Bows bows bows...

2009-11-24T06:37:00.001-08:00

Benoit Missolin has a beautiful collection of hats, caps and headbans, but what caught my eye were the bunny ears.

I was very much inspired by the idea of making only the contour of the shape, and decided to use the same idea with other forms. Tchelet was very excited about this, and had already a few ideas for her headbands.
I created the headbands from metal wire that was wraped with colorful shiny satin ribbons.
We are not exactly sure if we will have the courage to go out wearing them but it was a great way to play dress up!

The Hat Bow

The Bird Bow

The Thought Bow

The Heart Bow

Paula Sanz Caballero

2009-11-20T09:41:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I am very into embroidery lately.
That is why I wanted to share with you these images created by the Spanish artist Paula Sanz Caballero. Paula creates images of high society figures with various techniques that combine hand embroidery, quilting and layouts.
Looking at the details of her works can be extremely fascinating since each detail is made from different fabrics that are attaches by tiny stitches, forming altogether a simply beautiful picture…
Her works appeared in magazines like Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle.

French kisses

2009-11-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

So I just came back from the always fabulous Paris. This is my second time there this year and it never fails to amaze me just how much there is to see. As always I had to see what's going on in the Palais Royal, there I found that the vintage store, "Didier Ludot", has taken over the entire courtyard with a beautiful exhibition about "The little Blake dress". In this exhibition there was everything from original "Balenciaga" to Marc Jacobs, accompanied by some lovely quotes by the dresses' creators and of course matching accessories. As you can probably imagine I wouldn't have mind taking some of these wonderful creations home with me, but since it came down to a little Black dress or my future children's college education I had to leave them there with great sorrow. I usually try to stay away from the "Champs Elise", which despite the obvious charm is always very touristy, however, this time I had to check out the "Vogue covers" exhibition that featured the magazine's covers starting from the first one at the 19th century up until our days. I also found some lovely young labels that I plan to share with you in future posts, but in the mean time here are some fabulous window displays that have caught my eye:

One of the "Didier Ludot" show window at the Palais Royal

Window-display at Lanvin

Illustration of Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Alber Albaz in a kids clothing shop

The Vogue exhibition on the Champs Elise

Window-display at Chloe

After a few days in Paris we took a train down to Marseille. We stayed in a hotel at the very charming "Vieux Port" area, which is the most beautiful and luxuries part of the city. Though Marseille kind of have a bad rep as a dangerous and not very interesting place I found it to have a lot in common with Tel Aviv: good and bad parts mixed together but always with a young and interesting vibe to it. Also, of course I had to visit the local Fashion Museum which featured an exhibition of young designers from Marseille.

Marseille's Vieux Port

From the Marseille young Fashion exhibition

After Marseille we took a car and drove to the near by "Saint Cyr sur Mer" which is a little port town some 40 minutes drive from Marseille. Since we really came in the off-off season, the entire city had a melancholic but charming and almost movie like feel to it. We walked through the empty and beautifully designed restaurants and ended up in a lovely old hotel in the middle of town. Though it was obviously very outdated with its bright pink walls and artificial flowers, I found it to have a real nostalgic feel that matched my lace skirt perfectly. I took some pictures to show you.

Skirt: vintage
Shirts: Mango
Belt: Keren wolf
Shows: Repetto

Our last destination was "Cassis", a picturesque small fishermen's village with unbearable quantities of style and chic. Since I had a lot of time there to wander around by myself I wore my newly purchased pink silk blouse from Paris and took some pictures. Later that day I found a small forest that belonged to a privet villa near by. The sign on the gate said "no entry" but it was too beautiful to resist. It felt like being in the fairy tale of the "Secret garden", I think you can kind of see on my face that I was afraid of being caught.
Cassis

Blouse: Margit Brandt
Jeans: Mango
Boots: Zara

Coat: H&M
Shows: Repetto
Lipstick: Chanel

Cats Rule!

2009-10-30T15:43:00.001-07:00

O.k., you are about to see a lot of cat pictures, so be prepared, it’s gonna be fun…
As a huge cats fan, every cat picture catches my eye- especially if it’s on the pages of Vogue or in a fashion campaign…
Fashion world was very into cats this year, Lanvin used black cats as the perfect accessory in their 2009 Fall-Winter campaign, United Bamboo used cats as their models in theis catalog this season- absolutely brilliant, and the Russian Vogue's August issue featured cats that are modeling fine jewelry, and of course their own furs. These reminded me that cats were a big hit last year as well, as you can see in the French and Italian Vogue.
Besides, cats never go out of fashion…

Lanvin Fall-Winter 2009/10

United Bamboo

Russian Vogue, Aug 2009

French Vogue, Feb 2008

Italian Vogue, May 2008

Check out this blog that is all dedicated to cats and fashion: Cat Party

And maybe this is the place to remind my beloved cat Nickol, that was my cat for 13 years...

The bow belt

2009-10-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

First of all, we wanted to thank Florrie from Intrinsically Florrie for nominating our blog for Honest Scrap Award- Thanks Florrie!

A couple of weeks ago, the very talented Hilla Harel wrote about my designs on “Rating” magazine.

The belt and the necklace are made of hand embroidered leather; I am very into embroidery lately.

When I buy a new piece of clothing or an accessory- or as in this case, when I design it myself- I am very exited to try it on with different clothes I have, to create new looks with the new piece. Here are two looks with the belt; the first one is a day time “secretary look" and the second is more of an evening “going out look".

Blouse-Zara
Skirt- Second hand
Shoes- H&M
Necklace & belt- My design

Dress- Monsoon
Shoes- TopShop
Necklace- From Berlin
Belt- My design

I took the photos on the second floor of my sweet apartment…

Free association

2009-10-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

You will have to Excuse me for this short post, I am in Paris with no real internet connection. I promise to bring you lots of pretty Parisian pictures. In the mean time I am living you with this wonderful Alexander McQueen pictures which was inspired by some kind of mythological sea creature but for some reason really reminds me an art work by Klimt. While looking at the new collection I stumbled upon this fabulous dress from the previous resort collection. This lace is just amazing don’t you think?

On the left, Alexander McQueen spring 2010 ready to wear show, on the right an art work by Gustav Klimt.

Some pretty detail shots from the show

On the right a dress from Alexander McQueen's 2010 Resort collection, on the left a mask made by the Etsy seller Tom Banwell that in my opinion is just perfect with that dress.

Shoe it yourself

2009-10-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I found this online shoe designer game, and I have to say it is a great way to satisfy my shoes obsession, without buying more of them. This shoe designer game is part of an exhibition site titled "Shoes: The Agony and the Ecstasy" -there you can find information regarding the whereabouts of the exhibition these days, a shoe gallery and a shoe analysis.
Here are a few examples of shoes I had designed myself; a classic black bootie, a gray pip toe shoe with pink bows (I am so obvious…) and a brown studded platform. Is that a wish list? Definitely!
Here is the link- have fun!

So SoHo

2009-10-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

My husband was away for a meeting in New York and left me to play single mother for Nobi (our dog) for three whole weeks. That, and the combination of us celebrating our second wedding anniversary, made him go to the SoHo and really work hard to find me an appropriate "Sorry I left you to baby-sit the dog and happy anniversary"-present, which ended up being this wonderful Anna Sui dress. I absolutely adore Anna, she has the amazing ability to make incredibly intricate designs with so much color and texture, and still keeps it chic and non tacky.This dress, which is modeled by the very beautiful Viktoriya Sasonkina was part of Sui's 2009 winter collection that was inspired by the Belle Époque. This is my first real designer clothing, I am for financial and style reasons more of a "thrift store" kind of girl but have to admit there is some thing so wonderfully decedent and luxuries in having a piece that is so well made. So thank you Odedi for this wonderful dress and to Nina that helped to chose it with her iphone. I just love it!!

Dress: Anna Sui
Socks: H&M
Bag: hand made leather bag that Nina designed especially for my Birthday

Oh Italian Vogue...

2009-10-04T14:51:00.001-07:00

This beautiful editorial from June 2009 Italian Vogue, portrays just the combination I love- of the soft and beautiful with the rough and weird. I love the tension and the contrast it creates.

The beautiful clothes are by well-known designers like Chanel and Cavalli, but the acsessories are by less known, non conformist designers like Delfina Delettrez, Fleet Ilya, Marc Deloche and Julia Deville. These ones bring the neo into the romantic, so here is a spotlight on their work.

Delfina Delettrez

Marc Deloche

Fleet Ilya

Julia Deville

Thanks to the beautiful Yael Katzavoy for editing.

Open quote

2009-09-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

Did you know that count Dracula, the Marquis de Sade and Cinderella all lived in the same house? I didn't believe that either until I came across the fascinating classical book by Walter Benjamin called: "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". In the book Benjamin explains that since we live in such a media exposed environment we lose touch with the real origins of things and start to imitate imitations. One example that kind of blew my mind was that the "Disney" fairytale castle's shape is actually based on the house of the "Marquis de Sade" (who is, let's face it, not exactly Prince Charming). The animators at Disney didn't actually know whose castle they were imitating; they themselves were bombarded with so many images from books, television and commercials that for them the castle was just the way people saw mythical houses.
Benjamin calls this phenomenon "quoting" and separates it into different kinds of categories like "Pastiche" and "Simulacrum", which you can click to check on Wikipedia. There's a fine line between "quoting", "copying" and "creating you own version". Since I read Benjamin's book I have developed a little fetish of collecting "quotes" that stumble my way which you can see below. Once you start noticing them it's really amazing to find how common they are. For our part, Nina and I decided to create our own version of Tamara de Lempicka's paintings. Lempicka is my favorite cubist painter and one of the only women cubists in the movement. Tamara herself was quite fashionable and certainly deserves her own post but this will have to do for now.
"Gabrielle d'Estrées et une de ses soeurs" by an unknown artist and quotes by different artistes

La Mort de Marat Jacques - Louis David (on the right) and a quote by fashion photographer Eugenio Recuenco

Violin by Man Ray and a quote by Viktor & Rolf

Vermeer's Painting "Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window" and a quote by fashion photographer Eugenio Recuenco

Jon Galiano's Nefertiti for Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring 2004 and the source an old Egyptsian statue of Nefertiti

The Marquis de Sade's castle and the Disney version

Nina's version of Tamara De Lempicka's painting "Girl with a book"

Tchelet's version of Tamara de Lempicka, Portrait de La Duchesse de La Salle, 1925

The first Braids and Bows DIY project

2009-09-26T04:49:00.001-07:00

Ever since I can remember myself my mom was sewing, knitting or embroidering, so I could see how an idea forms into reality as a beautiful piece of clothing. Luckily I inherited my mother's passion and a few of her amazing skills, and I love designing and creating myself.
Usually I don’t have much time for big projects, so I love making simple fun things like this cute shopper bag.

1. This is what you will need: a simple cotton shopper bag that you can buy in places that sell non plastic bags- mine was bought in “Arta”, pearls, a stamp for walls or a stencil- I bought the bow shape, black textile color, thread and a needle.

2. Color the stamp and press against the fabric, there will probably be areas without color, so I just filled it with a small brush. You should follow the instructions written on the color bottle, for example, I ironed the area after it was dry.

3,4. Stitch the pearls to the bag

5. Stitch the pearls on the top of the handle.

Voila! Here is the bag!

Fashion games

2009-09-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's winter presentation time here in Israel and I seem to find myself running to three or more fashion shows a week. That would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that I am running out of new and interesting things to wear, kind of a job requirement for a fashion reporter. That's however when " Polyvore" comes in.
To anyone who isn't yet addicted, I highly recommend to plug your self into this wonderful world of fashion collages. Polyvore allows you to mix and match designer clothes and watch other people do it as well. I usually get inspired by the unique color combinations I see in the site that I later translate into my own wardrobe. Granted that I can't actually afford all the wonderful designer duds that I see in the collages but the general color skim is easy enough to imitate. After an hour on polyvore I seem to rediscover all kind of hidden gems in my closet that I didn't wear for years and that suddenly look relevant again. The pink and black collage is my own doing (Nobi is the name of my dog) the other one is made by some one called "uckynumber13"- I extremely recommend to look here up in the site since she does a wonderful work.

Dress- Dorit Sharon
Stockings- HM
Shoes- Nine West
Bag- Second hand Chanel

Skirt- American Vintage
Shirt- American Apparel
Shoes- Mango
Bag- Second hand Chanel

The Uniform Project

2009-09-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to wear the same dress every day for a whole year? Well, the Uniform Project proves you can, and even shows you how.
Sheena Matheiken started the project on May 2009 with 7 identical dresses- one for each day of the week- that she wears differently each time. Sheena layers the dress cleverly and adds vintage and handmade accessories, which were all donated for the project.
The Uniform Project is also a fundraiser for the Indian Akanksha Foundation whose goal is to bring education to the children living in the slums.
So, next time before complaining that I have nothing to wear (which happens almost every day) I'll try and see how I can wear one piece over and over again…

Threeasfour

2009-09-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I discover a new brand that just feels like it is going to be a permanent influence on me. I had that feeling the first time I saw Rodarte and Boudicca and now with my favorite and latest discovery "Threeasfour". Although they have already unleashed a new and fabulous winter collection my mind still seems to be drawn to their previous summer collection. There the clothes had a nautical feel with sea shells and mother of pearl mixed into the opulent flowing fabrics with their curving seams, draped layers and floating hems. Though I just discovered them, the brand has actually been around for a while and is the work of avant garde fashion label designers Gabi Asfour and Angela Donhauser.Rumor has it that the treo is going to collaborate with the artist Yoko Ono in a new jewlery line that will be revealed during the upcoming New York fashion week.

To wear or not to wear

2009-09-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

Like many others, one of the things I love to do the most when I am abroad is shopping- I guess everyone would unanimously agree with me. However, after the shopping comes the big question: should I wear it while I am still abroad, or should I keep it until returning back? the classic “To be or not to be” question. Well, I used to be a fan the second school- keeping the brand new clothes packed until landing back at home, but today I have to wear a piece of clothing as soon as I buy it! (I guess my abillity to restrain myself has deteriorated over the years).
So, here are some photos from Moscow. The skirt and the shoes were purchased in Moscow just a day before I took the pictures, and the tank top, the bag and the necklaces I brought with me from Israel.

Top-Top Shop

Skirt-H&M

Necklaces- My design & vintage watch necklace

Bag- Flea market

Shoes- River Island

Paris

2009-08-29T10:08:00.001-07:00

Paris is my idea of paradise. Millions of beautiful well dressed women, hundreds of boutiques that look like they were made especially for me, and of course macaroons at Laduree, which are by their selves worth the trip.
I lived in Paris for a few months after the army, so for me this vacation is more about visiting my favorite places, rather than seeing the more touristy sides of Paris.I photographed a few of my recommendations along with some really nice window displays.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I am a "Laudree" addict. Their patisserie, which was built sometime in the nineteenth century, specializes in anything colorful, sugary and sweet. Besides being one of the most beautiful and ancient patisseries around, Laduree is also one of the rare patisseries in Paris where you can actually seat and have a pastry along with your coffee.

Considering that I don’t live in a country known for its rainy climate, you wouldn’t think I’d have such an affinity for umbrellas. Yet, without me even realizing it, I seem to have built up quite a collection. That is why the "Madeleine Gely" shop is my ideal place to spend a magical hour or two.
The boutique, located on Boulevard St. Germain, was founded in 1834 and is the "it" place for umbrellas, parasols, and walking sticks. Needless to say, this is not your every day 'stick it in your bag umbrella' either. In the store there are umbrellas of every size, color, and rain-proof fabric you can think of.

Besides being one of my favorite places in Paris, Palais Royal is also home to the most prestigious and wonderful vintage stores in Paris: Didier Ludot and Gabrielle Geppert.
If you are already in the area, you just have to see the Medlen Vionet exposition in "Le Musée des Arts décoratifs " -it is the most inspiring show I have seen in years!

The flea market of Clignancourt is an absolute must see when you are in Paris. Whether you're looking for antique lace like I am, vintage clothing, or even fabulous furniture, Klinkort is the place for you. Don’t waste any of your time on the regular market at the beginning of the street, just pass through it until you start seeing the antique stores. Believe me; you will know you have found it when you will be surrounded by gorgeous nostalgic stuff.

Moscow

2009-08-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Big beautiful Moscow is packed with stores, just not the kind I like. You can easily find known designer labels or big commercial chain stores, however, small, intimate boutiques or a good vintage store are things I really had to look for.
But I'm not known for giving up easily…so here is some of Moscow's hidden fashion gems that you can't afford to miss…

Vintage-X is a small store packed with exciting items. Everywhere you look there is an old treasure hiding… In this store I mostly liked the jewelry and the unique accessories, such as 1950's veiled hats and 1960's umbrellas…

Winzavod is a must place for all of you that love contemporary art and want to see its Russian point of view. Winzavod is a complex of 7 buildings that host art galleries and design stores. On weekends and other occasions different events are taking place in the complex, like the vintage market I visited at.

Here is some of the Winzavod spaces I visited at…

Cara & Co
A concept store that is often compared to stores like Collette in Paris or Dover Street Market in London. In the store you can find niche labels like Akira Isogawa and Claire Tough, as well as accessories by Tzuri Gueta and even Barbies from the 50’-60’.

Photo exhibition by Irina Polin in the "Pobeda" Winzavod gallery

Olga Soldatova accessories boutique
In most of her designs Olga uses bead embroidery technique to create Russian- communist symbols on brooches, ties, bags, etc.
In her boutique Olga hosts other intriguing young Russian designers.

Well, that is just me on the Red Square…

Blouse- Miss Selfridge
Jeans- Abercrombie & Fitch
Necklace- Nina's design
Bag- H&M
Shoes- New Look
Sunglasses-Vintage

Big thanks to Yael Katzavoy for editing XXX

Paris-Moscow

2009-08-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

So as luck would have it we both had managed to escape the heat at the same time and go over seas to-Moscow and Paris.. Looks like Karl Lagerfeld had the same idea we had, since he called his Pre-Fall 2009 collection Paris-Moscow. Lagerfeld drew his inspiration from the Coco Chanel fascination with everything Russian, from her enormous babushkas collection, to the clothes and even the men (rumor has it that Coco had a secret love affair with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich). In his collection Karl combined elements from each individual culture, exactly what we are going to do with all our purchases.
More stories in the future posts…

Hail to the press

2009-08-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

This is a good week for Braids and Bows, our work got published at the same day!
Nina at "Leisha" magazine, and Tchelet in "Walla" fashion.
This is just a first glimpse at what we are doing, we promise to post about it soon…

Thanks to Sima Shoshan

Thanks to Yael Livne and Roni Knaani

Chambers of dreams

2009-08-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

Tom Chambers, dream like photographs are visual representation of the artists inner world and illusions. His works tend to step on a fine line between fantasy and horror, as they play on childhood and fairy tale images that in someway go terribly wrong.

Simply Scarlett

2009-08-05T15:25:00.001-07:00

The first time I saw the beautiful Scarlett Johansson was in the movie "Ghost World", back then she was this indie girl, that just immediately won me over. But Hollywood does what it does, and Scarlett adopted more of a glamorous quality and became a true Hollywood starlet. We could see it in films like "The Black Dahlia" and "The Other Boleyn Girl", as well as in the "Louis Vuitton" ad, and the most recent "Mango" ads.
Just the other day I was looking at the talented Rachel Antonoff 2009 Spring/Summer collection, and to my great surprise I noticed this pretty girl, in a sunny floral dress that looked so familiar…I have to say that I have been missing this Scarlett…

Here is some more of Scarlett…

These boots are made for walking

2009-07-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

Yael Sloma from "The street walker" was kind enough to include me in her lovely blog. This picture is a proof that looks can be deceiving - although I look quite calm, I am actually horribly late for a wedding and busy cursing myself for leaving the house with absolutely no make up. All that while trying to get to the dry cleaners before it closes. That was actually the second time Yael has taken my picture. Every time we meet she stares at me for the first couple of minutes thinking whether I am "picture worthy", I in return stare at her since she dresses just as beautifuly as the people she photographs on her blog. There seem to be a disagreement about my fabulous "Repetto" shoes, so for all those people – it's just shoes calm down!!!

Textile Shenkar 2009

2009-07-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Textile design is an inseparable part of fashion design. It gives it the tone, the mood and the structure. Textile is placed on the boundary between art and design since it begins from a plane canvas, continues with coloring, weaving, printing and knitting, that later on becomes a piece of clothing.
So I went to see the Shenkar 2009 textile graduates show.

Here are some of my favorite works:

Noy Haim

Noy’s work is made of partly unraveled polyester, printed by sublimination technique on itself or on other fabric .Noy used an ink gradient color-between blue and purple, and on some fabrics you can see an 18th century French print motif. The project is soft and floaty, but raw and chaotic in the same time.

Ido Shevet

The project calls “This is not a love song”.
In this project Shevet is building new structural forms by identified the single stitch/loop- the font, transforming the basic form of the unit, and building new fonts for knitting. Building patterns (sentences) of knitting courses and printing the patterns onto textiles.
Here you can see Ido's full portfolio.

Mika Bar

Bar has created a fabric that is built from endless prints that harden the fabric at specific areas, which makes the two dimensional structure into three dimensional structure.

Hagit Karkovsky

Hagit’s inspiration was of a surrealistic forest. The materials she used were wool, kashmir and reeds, all were knitted and weaved together into beautifully made pieces.

Noga Shahak
Shachak has collaborated with “Delta”-a lingerie company. She has created soft romantic pieces, which were beautifully photographed by Erez Tor-Hay.

Shenkar 2009 graduates show will continue till the 4 August 2009, and there are presented graduates works from all the design departments like fashion, jewelry and so on…highly recommended!!

Oopsy daisy

2009-07-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

One day we were driving through Ramat-Aviv Gimel, and suddenly saw an entrance to a secret garden. At first all we saw was a couple of yellow spots, but the minute we walked in, we discovered an open field of yellow daisies... Of course we ran straight towards our closets to pick out the sunniest, yellowest, prettiest dresses we could find, and also, of course, the obvious accessory, yellow balloons.

So there you have it, photos that just yell SUMMER!!

Photo from moonshineandpiffle.blogspot.com

Vogue 1938

Deutsch Vogue 2007

Vogue 1959

Photograph by Stephanie Williams

We just couldn't without him!

Piksi tale

2009-07-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw her, it was in “Hel-Looks” - it was love at first sight…Since that wasn’t enough to satisfy my addiction, I searched and found her on Flickr, and been peeping daily since then to see which new vintage dress she found.This gorgeous girl calls herself “Piksi”, and with this accurate and flawless style, you would expect her to be in the fashion industry - but no! In fact, she is on her way to becoming a veterinarian. I just hope that the dogs and cats will appreciate her fashion sense as much as I do!

Now you can see why...

My manic and I

2009-07-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

I just discovered the British singer Lara Marling. I love the tone of her voice, especially when it accompanies her fairytale videos. Her latest song "My manic and I"
is one of the prettiest videos I have seen lately…

Shenkar 2009

2009-07-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Lets face it, proper Israeli fashion shows are rare and far between, so of course we were very happy to go the “Shenkar” collage of design fashion show that exhibited the works of 43 graduates which will hopefully influence the future of Israeli fashion, and with a little luck even the world.

We snuck behind the scenes to see the designers’ clothes we loved from up close.

Blouse- From Tchelets latest collection
Skirt- TopShop dress worn as a skirt
Shoes- TopShop

Bag- Second hand Chanel

Dress- Religion
Shoes- Nine West

Bag- Vintage

The show opened with Ravit Berman’s collection

Hadas Katz

We just loved Olga Maron’s inspiration – the Russian folk story about snigurachka, a girl made of snow with a heart made of ice, as soon as she fell in love she simply melted and vanished.This cold and well mannered figure became a role model for many little girls in Russia. And so, from girls who had dreams about love, weddings and children, grew a nation filled with cold and serious career women.The collection expresses this struggle between the mind and the heart.

Olga and the models

Lachapelle holy land

2009-07-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

What does David LaChapelle, deodorant and “Beauty City” have in common? Absolutely nothing, but that didn’t stope the organizers of the event from making him come there. To be honest, the event was quite bizarre, and David looked as confused as I was. Hey, at least I got the chance to walk the red carpet in this cute dress from “Loundry” and catch a little stardust, or was it an eye shadow…?

Dress- Laundry by Shelly Segal
Shoes- Nine West

Bag- Vintage

David...

Dave LaChapelle started out as a photographer at “Interview” magazine, an opportunity offered to him by Andy Warhol, whose influence can be seen in LaChapelles works. Since then he has published four vivid books like “Hotel LaChapelle” and "Lachapelle Land", created music videos for many known artists and directed the very fashionable film “Rize”. His works are always bizarre, humoristic, very colorful, highly styled and, if you look close, you will probably see a celebrity glancing at you…

Dolly Parton by David LaChapelle

Kirsten Dunst by David LaChapelle

Devon Aoki by David LaChapelle

Braids and Bows

2009-06-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

We promise this blog won’t be all braids braids braids…… bows bows bows…….. or even braids shaped as bows…..But since it is the name of our blog, and two of our favorite things-we had to dedicate at least one post to this subject. As you can see, each of us translated it in to her own different style, as we hope to do in our future posts.

Our inspirations...

UK Vogue Feb, 2006

Class of 2006

Carmen Kass

Cedric Rivrain

2009-06-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I love the French illustrator Cedric Rivrain. He just had his first solo exhibition in Paris. He presented drawings made for magazines such as Numero, Tokion and A magazine. Rivrain has been around the fashion world since he was 18, and have a rare ability to make fabulous designer clothes like those of Luis Vuitton , John Galliano and Alexander Mcqueen look even more fabulous in the real life. You can decide for yourself.

Numéro, 2007

Alexander McQueen 2007

Numéro, 2007

Louis Vuitton 2007

Can I take it on the plane?

2009-06-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

These bags were created by Ted Noten, a Dutch artist that began his career as a conceptual jewelry designer. Noten had extended his work to different design projects and installations for private collectors, art institutes. In the years 2004-2007 he had created acrylic molds shaped as handbags and suitcases that contain jewelry, weapons and sometimes even (ex) living creatures! Noten is a controversial artist, in 2006 he published the “Manifesto of the New Jewellery” that aroused a big discussion, and once even the police removed and shredded one of his art pieces from the “Stedelijk Museum”, claiming it was an illegal weapon…

The Perfect Vacation

2009-06-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I see a picture that captures me, that makes me just want to crwal into it and be a part of the scene.
This is one of those pictures, it was taken from the summer catalog of Permanent Vacation , and who wouldn’t be happy to spend her summer in these clothes…