Saturday 11 August 2012

Sequinned Chunky Heels

I found these one day when looking through the sale section of T.K.Max at the Metro Center in Gateshead (UK). I was fascinated by how sequins have seemingly for me, moved form coloured to transparent, upon which behind is a print of some kind. Just imagine the possibilities of this - perhaps even tinted sequins on top of a colour or black and white print. Any way I'll be digging out some interesting sequins and beads to post up when I have a chance.
See through sequins are incredibly popular for girl and women's wear at the moment, 
both on clothes and shoes - especially t-shirts and flat ballerina style shoes.
But these caught me as something much more different,
the shoes are in fact heeled and are slipper like when putting them on.
Oh and they come in a freakishly small foot size XD - considering the size of them.
Of course sequins themselves, not just particular colours or shades of them
have always been fairly popular and on trend, and not just on foot-ware. 

The Greeks are known to have used their own coinage as sequins,
drilling holes into them and threading them onto their shoes.
Info from here
[http://damojackson.hubpages.com/hub/Sequin-Shoes]
Of course sequins now in the present are made of plastic,
are disposable, and come in hundreds of different colours and shapes,
not just the original circle shiny thing.
These brass circular button like things on running on the sides are quite an interesting detail.
I'm thinking these shoes may be puma made but unsure as these weren't tagged very well. 
But the fine small flowers on repeat were quite dinky, 
reminding me of the ballerina shoes that Primark and other shops have had in for the past year or so.
with the interesting flower motifs.
The most well known pair of sequinned shoes are the many pairs worn in
The Wizard of Oz (1939, MGM Studios) by the actress Judy Garland
who played Dorothy. These shoes have a small heel to them and
were decorated additionally with butterfly bows encrusted
with either tiny jewels or cheap glass beads of sorts.
The slippers themselves were designed by Gilbert Adrian,
at that time he was a known costume designer for MGM studios.
Info from here.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_slippers]


Thursday 2 August 2012

Found Wrapping Bears and Cute Papers

Ok so this sort of stuff is twee. I know.
But look at how the repeats at the papers edges create
brilliant vertical lines of colour that seem to waver.
I had a fiddle on Gimp with the colour as my camera
struggles with whites and greys on images such as this,
where the background is white and uploaded it here
The repetition effect is the most appealing this to this wrapping paper,
personally I love repetition, its a building block to pattern, kind of part of its DNA.
I really need to do my research as I don't know who produced or created this wrapping paper.