You make me happy when skies are grey

Electric blue! Glorious matte silk! Shirtdress with elastic waist! Perfect for: talking and drinking into the wee hours on a humid summer’s night, an afternoon at the county fair/weekend farmer’s market, cycling to work on a crisp morning with a cute blazer and white oxfords on a Dutch bicycle, an early evening stroll on a country dirt road with a tattered old hoodie, a summer month spent driving across Canada in an air conditioner-less 1983 Pontiac Acadian. Curious how a mere article of clothing can conjure up much pointed scenarios. (Despite having a habit of collecting pieces not for everyday life but for flights of fancy, I could definitely imagine wearing this Sunshine and Shadow dress every single day).

Girly pretty things

Impulse in Seattle carries such beautiful stuff -and has an amazing lineup of designers, well beyond the usual suspects- I’m keeping an eye out for the opening of their online shop.

A luxe crochet

(Photos courtesy Arielle de Pinto)

At last fall’s Puces Pop, aside from the fur hood that has been my saving grace this winter, there was a standout jewellry designer who had some immensely stunning necklaces that were made of hand-knitted fine chain. The designer, Arielle de Pinto, sent me a lookbook shortly afterwards, but pictures aren’t even close to doing her pieces justice. At the time, they were available at The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Luxe de Ville and through the designer herself. Her stuff was featured today on Refinery29’s women’s spotlight, and it looks like people are paying attention. Very unique, beautiful and substantial pieces that just have to be seen (and bought) to be believed. I certainly regret being broke the weekend of Puces.

Hallo München

(Photo from Styleclicker)

A relatively new addition to the burgeoning world street style blog circle, Styleclicker has consistently been delivering quality styles from Munich – case in point, exhibit a) a stylish individual exuding an ethereal aura of calm.

For the fetishist in us all

The new Virtual Shoe Museum invariably brings more opportunity for quality time-suckage. And Daphne Bikker’s shoes are really cool!

Semantics

(photo Derek Lam)

Derek Lam’s navy pencil button down dress is the stuff of saving pennies, scrimping, and eating canned beans and instant ramen for months (thanks Kara). I read this short interview with Lam in nymag and my head cocked a bit in bewilderment at the clickthrough link entitled: ‘Are Asian Designers a Trend?’ A fucking dumb question, but Lam diplomatically responded to it and some others with much aplomb. A reader’s comment on the interview was quite funny: “‘are asian designers a trend?’ That’s like saying white people are a staple. isn’t this nymag? You should be pretty on top of your semantics, seriously. ” I’m not sure what the question was trying to get at exactly, but if it was to perhaps address the fact that bigger opportunities for minorities are slowly opening up in the fashion industry and are thus gaining more exposure than ever before, it certainly could have been articulated better.

Alphabetical

I think the Russian alphabet is really cool looking, and also quite awesome when printed on garments such as this. I’ve also been quite taken with the Sinhala alphabet.

(Text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)  My friend once gave me a mug adorned with its letters (now chipped and well worn), and I’ve always wanted to do something with it in some way – it is just beautiful. (Pardon me if the text below says something inappropriate; I obviously cannot read Sinhala).

The curlicues remind me of fruits, bums, and people embracing. I was told that the letters took the form and curves of the leaves upon which the language was first written. Do you know of any other cute alphabets?

Bubblicious neckwarmer

Getting tired of the humdrum scarf? Check out these pretty cool contraptions from Etsy seller JackRabbit. They remind me of sea creatures.

The New Hooligans

(via The Guardian)

I just read a funny article by Simon Mills in The Guardian, examining and questioning how these much hyped designer-chain capsule collections have changed the face of shopping. Shoppers are likened to a pack of ravenous wolves hungry for designer pieces at bargain prices, and not only that, but are eager participants in a new brand of full contact sport.

I am a scavenger myself, albeit a lazy one who trolls eBay by night and hunts through dark and dank (but thankfully empty) vintage shops by day. I am absolutely adverse to any consumer-related activity that could cause bodily harm. I witnessed a ridiculous event at Magasin in Copenhagen who, in celebration of a big anniversary were rolling out a rack an hour of highly covetable items at bargain basement prices. I stuck around for the hand to strike the hour and what I saw was utter craziness that made me laugh and want to weep at the same time: Perfectly respectable, prim and proper mature women were mauling and out-fighting everyone including the scrappiest of teens. I stood back and watched the fuzzy blur of movement continue for what was actually a very brief few minutes. It made me a bit queasy.

What is most ridiculous though is that these clothes are likely to be discarded and forgotten within a season, and will perhaps end up clogging the racks at thrift stores – thereby limiting space for authentic thrift. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

A living doll

(Photo via TFS)

Salma Hayek at that Oscar nominations press conference thing a while back: Flawless and cute cute cute. Love the dress.