[Archive] John Lewis Summer 2014 Edition

Brilliant geometrics - imagine geometrics made out of basketry weaving....

 pink and gold wth this fish like scales repeat

love the skirt and trousers with the florals drawn like on white fabric.

Vibrant colours and beautiful florals.

John Lewis (2014) Edition. Summer 2014. 

Great gowns and stories

Presenting the Princess of the Far Reach:

 

 Her inherit ears attuned to the sound of nature and life, of growth, 

the Snow and Apple.

Her soul entwined with that of a flock of cranes.

Whose fate rests in no man's hand.

And of the Knightess of the Southern High Peaks of Hereat

her hair coiled around her tiara is her strengh's source, 

can bend metal with her very fingers

 and leap over canyons spear in hand and

in her muddy boots and delicately ruffled dress. 

Thanks to the wonderful people of Vera Wang and Nina Ricci - 

your advertisements never fail to inspire a magical story behind the scenes.

Labels of a decorative sensibility

The original tags for the jeans that are now, sadly deceased (a moment of silence), 

but preserved in photos in this old blog post here. 

Love the simple graphic stripes with these 

wonderful decorative floral like shapes.

Spring Coming Soon

Spring is coming, it's on the horizon.

The green shoots.

Marie Claire (2011), January 2011, pp unknown

Golden Lamé, Solar Punk and Sub Genres

The beautiful gown worn by Alicia Keys in the advert campaign for Givenchy's perfume Dahlia Divin is described as being a Golden lamé gown, lamé being a term for clothing or material in which golden or silver threads run to give it the sheen and colour and reflective ability that it has.

From the advertisement of Givenchy's  Dahlia Divin perfume,
scanned from June 2014 issue of Stylist magazine.

I love the details on this gown, they make me think of elaborate steam punk imagery that uses nuts and bolts and other metal fastenings, steam powered contraptions, strange welded together bits of metal and so on. But then they also have a more of a solar punk feel. Solar punk is a recent genre that I've been thinking about and looking into, it is quite futuristic and often involves the use of solar energies as a power source, I imagine it would also involve the use of any green renewable energy sources, sun or star burst motif imagery, (thank you Disney's Tangled).
These coils and things that look like bolts and screw heads look amazing. It is mostly bead work or large bead/gem work as you can see from the borrowed imagery:

Reference:
Stylist magazine (2014) Givenchy's  Dahlia Divin perfume [Advertisement] June 2014.

Plants and Petals, Bloom Journal, Issue 21

Bloom Journal is a beautiful journal that is, like many journals, expensive - so I scanned in pages from issue 21 last year and finally have come around to posting them. A small preview of Bloom journal, issue 21.

A lot of rich photographs of flowers and brilliant shots of fashion, including a clever fusion of African and Japanese textiles, ideas around fabrics and patterns - something that particularly interests me.

More images from previous Bloom issues can be found here: http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/
Additionally it turns out that Trend publication also have a website called Trend Tablet (http://www.trendtablet.com/), where they post often about things that influence trends/direct trends themselves, with interesting visuals and a nice clean site.

References:
Trend Union. (2013) Bloom journal/magazine (photographs and text), no.21 2013. Various photos and texts, pp. 23,53,67 and 145.

K & M Associates. (2014) Trend Magazines, Bloom Magazine (online). Available at: http://s291360959.initial-website.co.uk/trend-magazines-catalogues/bloom-magazine/. (Accessed: 3rd June 2014).

Trend Union. (2014) About (online). Available at: http://www.edelkoort.com/trend_publication/ (Accessed: 3rd June 2014).

White wool and golden thread

Scarf made of white wool knit and golden glitter thread.

The patterns on it consist of wavy lines and almost like drawings.
The overall effect is lace like,
taking inspiration from the revival of lace and netting on clothing.

The popularity of wool throughout the autumn and winter has been really important in getting me to see this material in a contemporary light. Mixing coloured wools with glittering threads and beautifully designed knits has been a key textile popular trend.  

My first white woollen scarf in years.
A birthday present that is still in pretty good nick.

Found Blog: Pattern Observer [ Michelle Fifis ]

Short review of:
Pattern Observer by Michelle Fifis.

[ http://patternobserver.com/ ]
Nope, this is not in any way related to The Guardian's Sunday sister paper The Observer.

This site is clean and friendly and I can guarantee the posts are consistently interesting, even the post on children clothing trends perked my interest.
Also an interesting point mentioned throughout the blog and particularly in Fifi's choice of post of the year, that specialising in a certain area of textile design/pattern design can be a good thing.

Michelle Fifis's favourite post of the year 2012:'My favorite post of the year is "Filling The Void in Today's Textile Design Marketplace" because it is a message that I have been thinking about for years, but never put into words. This message has become my "raison d'être" and fuels the posts that I write and the courses that I craft. I have a true passion for helping fellow designers and I love seeing their dreams come true.'

Top favourite posts of the year:
[Check out the amazing fishes/whales/water swimming creatures found on cushions and beautiful quilts][][][][

[An engaging interview with a designer][][][[]

[Looks at found patterns - things inspired by the mundane as well as florals etc][][[[][]

[Flowers and florals][][][[[

][Petals and the delicate]]]]][[

Review:

The photos used are nice and sharp, they don't have those irritating weird tints some of my photos have and they often show interesting camera angles as well as clean but interestingly texture/patterned backgrounds to the subjects, like the wooden table on these.

Through its awesomeness (-_- I know it's not a word) and knock on the head of a nail brilliance I have realised something, photographs taken of golden things, white things, slight shimmering things and yellow things are very hard to pull off in a way that makes them look good on photo. But here, they have won again, together the worker bloggers have managed to get these photos where they look slightly blurry and shadow tacked and make them look interesting - is it just me? Because you know a lot of 'creative types' are always going oh that is so interesting, or that line is beautiful etc.

As a group they keep eyes open for posts or topics posted that are linked to other posts. The team researches what they post. Textilers like Noa Weil Raviv, whose stitching and washes of colourful paint become relevant to what my work is becoming interested in.
 
Its briliant to have an insight into the pattern and textile world of design - especially when its through a blog that sustains a commentary on other makers, designers and textilers alike.

Vintage Clip-Ons (Accessories)

Vintage earrings and clip ons found at the Vintage fair in Newcastle:

A very delayed post but it is here.
Back at the vintage Fair in May I noticed how commonplace vintage clip ons were, clearly a type of thing that was popular at this time as in shops now there tends to just be earrings or studs that fit an ear piercing.

I know incredibly little about vintage wares, but these really interested me:

Above a great selection of all kinds of clip ons, most of which seemed shape derrived from this flower like shape with between 5-8 points, some in shapes of hexagons, heptagons and octagons - creating beautiful shiny bloomage.
A few close ups of my favourites:.

This pair form a star like shape, tapered of with points creating the octagon shape. The choice of blues is particularly interesting, one being pale and the other light - maybe they were meant to appear to be stars?

The brooch is particularly interesting with its glaze over the center that creates a boiled sweet like appearance and that beautiful border.

Below the slightly off white lines remind me of icing and the shapes themselves seem to imitate netting or lace of some kind. These would be my favourite simply with this reference to fabric.  

The abundance in usage of beads in the photos is pretty sweet, it has been rare for me to see such beautiful arrays of earrings with such a high standard of design and look using beads to construct and define.

Bus Stops and Fashion

Who would have thought it?
They go together so well -
or at least the bus stops I've seen have managed to
co exist with their adverts nicely. 
These are ones in Town near the city library:

H&M know how to make pattern and print look amazing.

Enough said.

Detailed paisley, a very chintzy styled pattern -
and when I say chintzy I mean in terms of pattern
and not in colour -
as here the colours are almost acidic,
very warm and bright.

Next top by H&M has this beautiful embellished around neckline,
studded with fake glass gems.

The head wrap or sash or scarf (multipurpose - who knew?)
also shares the paisley motifs scattered across it.
Using pinks as well.
I got far too distracted by these bus stops. 

Fabric Selection

A few photos I found weeks ago that I never posted but really should have. 
Below is a border design like piece on
a dress styled kameez (tunic top), which is a detail I love.
The whole suit puts purple alongside orange,
and then the touches of brown on the embellished
areas help when it comes to looking for matching jewelry and shoes. 

Just brilliant, two colours rarely worn in my opinion that are brought together.
The trim uses pink, white and brown shiny rayon like threads,
looking into damask like designs that
surround the flower shapes.
Lotus like blooms horizontally lined up.
The light plays with the shiny thread;
creating areas of shade, of light and dark.

The embellishments to the above neck area of a top are quite interesting, using thick black thread to create this beautiful leaf motif
and these splodge like flowers drops,
alongside swirls with sequins dotted around the shapes.
Leaves venation in gold thread – lush!

Lots of blue, lines and plastic

With pinks and silvers thrown in for extra points. 

 

The bead work on this kurta is coming off now but it still looks impressive. 

The interesting grid like structure above alongside wavy sequined lines 

shows great choice in colour. and shape.

 

The inside of the neckline shows an
interesting structure of thin plastic thread that is transparent and still visible. 

The slit eye like shape, clearly a shape referenced 

in Asia's own art and cultural heritage, 

an example would be the book cover of
The triumph of modernism: India's artists and the avant-garde, 1922-1947 by Partha Mitter,
which shows a painting that uses the idea of elongated eyes.