cross-stitching isn't just for nans...

Severija Incirauskaite, a lithuanian textile artist/designer uses a clever technique of mixing two very contrasting materials: metal and thread. the marriage of these two materials actually fit together perfectly in a very feminine and delicate way. once again, i'm captivated by intricate details in her pattern work.

“Way of roses is an expression about successful life. However I read it literally, eliminating figurative positive meaning from this phrase. Embroidered cars rather tell us about dangers facing on the road which are reminded to us by silent flower wreaths often standing by the roadside. The problem is still very hot – tv and newspapers are full of „war on the road“ topics everyday. Furthermore this work is a textile version of peculiar „tuning“ as functional design. That is the way I understand means by which a woman can decorate her car. It differs from widespread, commonly projecting an aggressive image autotuning of men.”

-Severija Incirauskaite

enchanted world I

there's something so captivating and enchanting about selfridges windows. after having worked with the visual merchandising team last christmas, i came to appreciate even more the work and effort that goes into these 27 windows on oxford street.

went to check out the current selfridges windows today. i would've loved to be part of their latest windows, which celebrate the opening of selfridges' shoe gallery- the world's biggest shoe department with over 4000 shoes from 150 brands!





other selfridges windows I find really inspiring:



what i truly admire about the visual display team is their incredible attention to detail. the windows team is split into 3, so each person has about 6 or 7 windows to do- which is still an incredible amount. selfridges windows have kept their reputation as not only a platform for retail and luring people into the store, but as an attraction itself. it's not just about the shopping- it's the whole selfridges experience of an enchanted world.

paper

I'm a big fan of intricate details, textures and anything touchy-feely. I love the kind of sensation of touching an intriguing piece of material. But for some reason the most simplest and basic material, one we come across everyday in our lives, I've yet to be fascinated about: paper.

Yet paper could well be one of the most versatile and available materials that allows designers to express their creativity. There are endless ways of manipulating paper to create new interesting surfaces.. folds, ruffles, paper-mâché, crumpling, cutting.

A danish fashion designer Violise Lunn creates one of a kind pieces made purely out of paper. These delicate pieces are very interesting in texture and form and shows the endless possibilities of exploring paper as a medium.



Another artist I really admire is Zoe Bradley. Her signature pieces includes gigantic flower sculptures from paper.



she also creates very sculptural dresses and fashion accessories:


Paper can be such a useful tool in a design process for exploring and prototyping, but mainly what stops me from using it is the environment. Recycled paper never feels the same as new paper.. but perhaps this means looking at paper that comes from another context- magazines, old books, flyers. And perhaps the way of bringing a new physicality to the old context would lead to new things.

dreams

We spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping. In a lifetime, an average person spends more than six years dreaming.. I've always been someone who has very vivid dreams almost every night. Sometimes they tie in very much with reality.. about something that's already happened or will be happening, and sometimes they are completely strange and surreal.

Until today, no one knows why people dream and how it actually works. But some scientists believe dreaming is a way the body stores away memories for future use. A study at Harvard medical school was made, which was carried out on a group of amnesiacs and a group of volunteers. Throughout the study, the two groups were given computer games to play with. The results showed that the amnesiacs dreamt of Tetris, even when they don't actually remember playing it. The next day, they were asked to play Tetris again. They couldn't recall ever playing this game and unlike the other control group, their skills did not improve. Dr Robert Stickgold, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, who conducted the research, said he believed that the brain used dreams as a way of filing away memories from the previous day.



When dreams seemed weird, it could be because the brain was trying to cross-reference new against old memories. Joe Griffin, author of "Dreaming Reality" says "dreams are nature's way of dissolving any emotional arousal left in our brains before we go to sleep... The reasons dreams are so hard to explain is that the dream switches off the arousal, so that the emotion it is based on becomes tucked away at the back of your mind.. That's why you can't work it out in the morning - the whole purpose of the dream is to make you forget that emotion."

Joe also adds: "The original concern that caused a dream might not be immediately obvious because it will have been translated using appropriate metaphors drawn from our own memories. This is why, even if you sense a dream is about a particular person, they won't appear like they do in real life. They will be metaphorically translated into someone or even something else, or a distorted version of themselves. Michael Schumacher, for instance, might appear as a grand prix car."

a love affair with shoes

stilettos, wedges, platforms, kitten heels. what is this whole shoe obsession phenomenon with women?


As like all little girls, shoe-obsession started pretty much at the moment I learnt how to crawl. I was trying on my mum's ferragamo's and gucci's and longed for the day I could have my very own pair of high heels. My love for shoes however died down as training for Ballet meant I was wearing ballet shoes all the time anyway.... until a trip to Florence one summer and I walked into Salvatore Ferragamo's shoe museum.

Rows and rows of shoes inside glass boxes... I walked through the rooms in awe, taking in their intricate details, the stories of the women who once wore them.. wondering what I've been missing out on my whole life! Ferragamo designed shoes for numerous female celebrities including Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. He understood how a woman's feet "revealed so much about her past and her personality that he was then able to create her a shoe that was both beautiful and comfortable, close to perfection"*


The shoes he created for Marilyn "intensified her innate sensuality with pointed toes and heels 11cm high, made to the same design for more than 10 years, and which were essential to her seductive sway as she walked."*


While doing research on what shoes meant to women, I stumbled upon an interesting article. The author, a shoe-a-holic herself, stated that “Cinderella’s stepsisters were not desperate for Prince Charming, they were desperate for her glass slipper”. I found this quite amusing.. and an interesting way of depicting women's love affair with shoes.

Actually, one thing that makes me feel like some kind of freak is that I love the smell of fresh new shoes.. whether they are trainers, boots, 5-inch heels. I love the feeling of removing the lid of the box and unwrapping the shoes from the crisp white paper.. there's something about that moment in the shop that you know-even when you're having an absolutely shit day.. you see those shoes lying in the box within the wrapping and suddenly you know everything is better already. But don't get me wrong... I'm not some kind of materialistic fashion victim. In fact, the longer I own a pair of shoes, the more in love I tend to be with them.

Carrie Bradshaw once said on Sex & The City "The fact is, sometimes it's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun."
The thing is, shoes are much more than just shoes in a woman's life. They are our best friends who are there with us to take on all types of adventures life has in store for us, walk us through our day to day journeys and they are the ones who carry us home at the end of all of it.

*quoted from "Salvatore Ferragmo: A love affair with shoes" 2004

Chanel Spring 2010 Couture

is love...!

The Sugar Plump Fairy

My submission for the Society & Cultures essay. We were asked to pick an object or a prop from a film of our choice and write an alternate narrative for it. Since I had no idea what to choose, I decided to go for what I knew best.. ballet and shoes. So eventually I chose Billy Elliot's ballet shoes and so my Sugar Plump Fairy was born.



Click to watch:
The Sugar Plump Fairy
A stop motion animation by Rosann Ling