All I want for New Years is you

I think this Attila Design piece would be the dress I'd pick to wear for New Years, if only Tiina could ship it here from Finland by then. Gorgeous. I just love the distressed but pretty look of the tattered tulle, unevenly coloured silk, and strapless top, tied together with a simple web belt. And it would go absolutely perfect with my new mydearthing Way Shrug (below). Sigh.

Top 18 Finds of the Fall

In case you weren't convinced by the snow, cold weather, and holiday festivities already, today is the official start of Winter 09/10. Well, at least in the northern hemisphere. And so, with autumn now long gone, I bring to you the top 18ish finds/posts during the past season of my blog. Click, read, and stay warm.

1) Designer: Camilla Wellton

2) Fashion grad student: Wolfgang Jarnach

3) Label: Tara St. James’ Study NY

4) New collection: Liza Rietz F/W 09/10, Alexandra Groover S/S 10 and mydearthing Hindset Collection

5) Basic piece: mydearthing Fingerful Warmers

6) Future purchase: Patricia Ayres Artisanal coat

7) Custom made piece: Attila Design dress

8) Package in the mail: 4 pieces of ArtLab perfection

9) Want: ‘Carrot’ style pants

10) Musician: Kelli Scarr

11) Artwork: The Berlin Project

12) Website: Denim Therapy

13) Blog: The door in my wardrobe

14) Post: Interview with Susi Quillinan

15) Personal information: In case you want to know.

16) Future project: Making my own John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto, or Maison Martin Margiela piece.

17) Most worn pieces: ArtLab Space Odyssey dress, mydearthing Fingerful warmers, and this outfit.

18) Most beautiful coat ever: Any by Kristofer Kongshaug

Head corset

This evening was the first time we got out this winter on our cross-country skiis. It turned out to be colder than we thought it was, so we only did one lap of the park. I would've gone another lap if I had had this accessory though. I bookmarked Schipper/Arques a while ago since I loved the editorial and continuous/fluid look of the neck/face piece with the top or dress being photographed. Now that one of these pieces are available in The Shop, I just realized this piece is actually a corset (see below). Not really wearable aside from the runway (or ski track), but I absolutely love it.

In This Corner...Christmas Wish from Tara St. James

After a particularly overwhelming gift-giving Christmas, my family looked at the 3 garbage bags filled with wrapping and packaging and decided to go on a hiatus from giving gifts to one another. That was two years ago. Instead, we decided to spend time together making breakfast, volunteering at a soup kitchen and talking. Not great for all the stores trying to sell us stuff to give away, but great for our budgets and our sanity. I am in a constant struggle between wanting to sell goods to customers and trying to preach restraint. After all, my business depends on sales.

This year we set a minimal budget and are hand making gifts. I won't tell you what I'm making for my boyfriend because he might read this, but I will tell you it has made me rethink the whole idea of giving gifts. And believe me, I love giving gifts. But I don't think they need to be given out all at once in mass quantities. Next year I'm going to buy or make little gifts for people when I want to give them something, or when I think they need cheering up.

As for myself, I need a sweater stone. That's it. Some of my sweaters are in dire need of a little TLC. Besides that, I feel very fulfilled, and am looking forward to Christmas breakfast with my family, sans-presents.

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This Holiday Corner was brought to you by Tara St. James of Study NY. Tara also has a great gift idea if you still need to buy something for someone (or yourself): for the whole month of December, she's donating absolutely everything she makes from her Etsy shop to The Uniform Project. Amazing.

Don't forget to read my interview with Tara here.

Design_download

Well, today's find certainly helps keep my mind off of the depression caused by last night. Whilst perusing SHOWstudio.com, in particular their Fashion Revolution exhibition, I discovered the most spectacular section of their Participation exhibit called Design_download: "Design_download is an ongoing project that offers the chance to access downloadable paper patterns by leading fashion designers. The premise is a riposte to the elitist nature of high fashion, offering everyone the opportunity to own a ‘designer’ garment, and giving designers the chance, quite literally, to ‘dress the world’." In other words, you get to download a pattern for free to make your own John Galliano/Alexander McQueen/Yohji Yamamoto/Maison Martin Margiela/Junya Watanabe/Gareth Pugh/Antony Price piece. Seriously. If you/I had discovered this in time (and had created something lovely), we could've entered a competition to have our finished pieces displayed online and in the exhibition at Somerset House in London. Alas, the pieces have been submitted and chosen, and this Fashion Revolution ends tomorrow (edit: the exhibition has been extended until the 23rd). So you'll now have to create for the sheer joy of making and owning your own high end piece.

I'm not sure where to start first. I'm particularly ecstatic about the John Galliano pattern (top). Eons ago I saw this gorgeous forest green corset-type top on Etsy (above), and had contacted the seller to get one custom made for myself when I had enough money. However, we lost contact, it disappeared from my Etsy Favorites, and I couldn't seem to find that seller when I had enough dollars to put an order in. And now by bizarre coincidence, I've seen the original corset again, as it was that person's result of trying out this Galliano pattern (that 'person' being Lucy Copping from Wales)! And now I have the chance to make one for myself. Eek!

I'm also, as you know, recently obsessed with the designers featured in Skin+Bones. So I'd love to try out the Yohji Yamamoto pattern. When it was originally posted on SHOWstudio, apparently you were only given the pattern for the above intricate jacket, but you didn't know exactly what you were constructing until you actually constructed it. Fascinating! There are photos up now of finished jackets, and I love the look, so I must try the pattern out, even if it's not so mysterious anymore.

I'd also like to try the Maison Martin Margiela pattern, which is actually "an unfinished design true to their principles of deconstruction, prompting the maker to make crucial decisions about the finished nature of the garment." I love the photos of the finished dresses, so this could be great fun.

Perhaps I should've asked Santa for some fabric this Christmas!

(Photos via SHOWstudio.com)

As promised, Holiday Dress Up Time.

This, my dears, is a scheduled post. I'm away at a concert that could possibly ruin the rest of 2009 for me. But who knows, I could be surprised and have my once unshakeable faith in four particular musicians completely restored. Although, with the rest of 2009 being fairly blah for me, for lack of a better word, might as well end it in a similar fashion. Alas, while I am away (either crying or rejoicing), here is the result of my very hastily put together holiday-themed photo shoot. As these are outfits meant for parties held in warm houses, I don't have the usual layers, scarves, and shoes. I'd probably accessorize a couple of these slightly with my kjoo black choker or my Quillinan cuff and/or neckpiece.

It was not until the last photo that I realized my two-bit camera could capture the Christmasy feeling of my living room, so sorry for the rather sombre looking photos until that point. Also, my 2-week bout of sickness has meant that I may not be getting to wear any of these outfits pre-Christmas, but we shall see what I can manage for New Years.

First up: Those glorious harem-style Vivienne Westwood Anglomania pants that I got for an absolutely steal on eBay. Take note that I had to put one leg on the pole of the dress form, so it looks a tad funny. At first I thought that I would only wear tops over top of the pants, such as in the first photo on the left, with my Liza Rietz top (the silver/white flash in the middle is the dress form underneath - the silk is a bit sheer in front with a camera flash). However, when I changed the form into a white American Apparel tank top and tucked it in to show off the inner layer of the pants and the asymmetrical closure, I decided that I liked the look of that better. At least on the dress form.

From left to right: Liza Rietz Triangle Blouse; Bonzie Le Coquette Ruffle Scarf; Bonzie neck adornment; Bonzie wrap; Supayana drapey jersey cardigan (Surprised by the colour? Well, you can see a bit of the tag still attached - I just don't get around to wearing reds very often! It's a shame I gave away the dark purple version of this...)

Next up: My first high-waisted skirt, the lovely Steampunk High-Waisted skirt in black taffeta by PINaR ERIS. This piece has two sets of D-rings in the front and back, so it can be tacked up in a few different ways or left to be a floor length skirt. The first picture shows it from the side with front and back tacked all the way up, and the rest have the back partially down (can be let down longer).

From left to right: AA tank alone; Bonzie Le Coquette Ruffle Scarf; Bonzie wrap; Bonzie Velvet Ochre Bolero.

And lastly, the newest and brightest jewel in my closet, a custom creation from Attila Design. This was originally intended to be that fabulous convertible dress with tons of snaps. However, mid-way through the order, both Tiina and I decided to alter the order in the interest of Tiina's time and fingers, and my digital dollars. In the end, this is what Tiina sent me. I hadn't seen any pictures of the finished dress before it came. And when it did, opening up the package brought tears to my eyes. These pictures don't really capture the beauty of the fabric or this piece as a whole. And I could experiment for hours as to all the ways I could wear this with the straps, removable sleeves, and hook and d-rings at the side and bottom hem. It's perfection. (The first photo is with it worn long, the second is of the back.) I'd likely wear this totally by itself, but if I wore it cinched up short, I might also wear it with leggings or my black straight leg jeans.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Last night, thanks to a friend not being able to go, we got into a premiere of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for free. I've wanted to see this movie ever since I heard about it, based solely on the fact that it was the last movie Heath Ledger worked on. Also, it was directed and written by Terry Gilliam, so it was sure to at least be interesting and eye-catching. I was also quite curious to see just how Gilliam had re-worked the film, as I'd heard that four actors would now be playing the role that Heath Ledger was solely meant to play.

And I think he pulled it off quite well. Here, my previous musing about a costume dictating who the wearer was over a various number of performances regardless of its different wearers was quite elaborated. Because of the circumstances, Gilliam had to convince the audience (and the other characters in the film) that Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell were indeed the same person. And with a little bit of witty banter and imagination, this was accomplished by having each actor wear the same suit and have the same hairdo, as well as the same mannerisms (see below). I agree with Gilliam's initial choice, as I loved Heath the most in the role, but I do always enjoy seeing Johnny Depp in any film. All in all, it was a visually stunning work, which I will happily watch again. Oh, and Lily Cole's first leading role was also quite lovely.

(Photos via IMDb.com)

In This Corner...The Best Worst Christmas Sweater

I am attaching a picture of what is clearly the best worst Christmas sweater ever. In NYC there is a big trend of ‘worst holiday sweater’ parties. These sweaters are all too readily available and some of them are so hideous that I cannot make direct eye contact for fear of being sucked in. This 3-dimentional Rudolph sweatshirt on the other hand, has me entirely captivated. I mean, look at how much work went into this! Years later (unless, gulp, it is new), it is still standing up. I just love the idea of beheading the most famous of all reindeer and mounting him on a giant sweatshirt in the name of Holiday Cheer.

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Today's Holiday Corner was brought to you by the lovely Lauren Jones of mydearthing. You should visit her shop now, but don't expect to see any ugly sweaters for sale there, Christmas or otherwise. Oh, and you need to read (or re-read) my interview with Lauren here, because she's just that awesome.

And by the way, we need to come up with a vaccination for ugly Christmas sweater parties. The virus has reached all the way to Canada, and I'm afraid it has become the next pandemic.