The bow belt

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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!