Happy Christmas

Red Cap Cards

Just before I begin to stuff my face with turkey, thanking God for Super cool Baby Jesus, eating as much chocolate cake as I possibly can and probably growing sausage fingers like Shrek due to over eating, I'd like to wish you all a fantastic and Happy Christmas, I hope you all get whatever you wish for.

Here are a few of my favourite things to feed your eyes.

Nicoletta Ceccoli

Free Encouragement Project

Jan Von Holleben

Ed Bing Lee

Handmade Fonts

Vespa Scooter

Necklush

Tights - Free People, Love Colour Tights, Sox Populi

Camera's - Nikon D60 , "Jack” Limited Edition Holga Camera

Learn to knit

I've had it, all the gorgeous knitted pieces I've come across this year has made me think about how much I need to learn to knit properly, not my frankly pretty crap knitted purse which I can not even fit a penny into with it falling off nor the shapeless over coloured scarfs I have knitted in the past, I mean proper knitting.

While on the train yesterday, I became even more determined as a saw a lady knitting what looks like a purple scarf with so much clever details, which sort of reminded me of pieces from one of my favourite labels, Everlasting Sprouts.

Twin is a label I became quite interested in when I came across this stunning dresses from their previous collection titled Twin Fairies, the label often make use of knits.

The label's designers Noriko Seki and Keiichi Muramatsu have also created some colourful knitted pieces for their SS09 collection, you can view the rest of the collection here.

I intend of following some YouTube tutorial very strictly, I feel this might be a new years resolution, one I intend on keeping.

MikioSakabe takes on the future

When I looked through MikioSakabe's recent collection, I was delighted which was why I checked pretty much everyday to see whether the lookbook was available on his site, as I often prefer the collection pictures from the lookbook more than the catwalk pictures.

Mikio Sakabe graduated from the Fashion Department of Hogeschool Antwerpen in 2006 and later started his women’s collection in 2007 along side his partner Shueh Jen-Fang, they both met at La Cambre art school in Brussels.

The great thing about this collection is the way they've managed to combine a feminine silhouettes with a sort of Sci-fi element together. The colours are very subtle, however the details are very creative with the stripped silver leggings, the stunning sequins/beads on the skirts and shirt collar which emphasises the Sci-fi theme running through this collection.

Géraldine combines pictures with Illustrations

While clearing up my pictures folder, I came across a number of images I have been meaning to share however I had completely forgotten about them until now, some of them include the work of artist Géraldine Georges .


The Belgian Illustrator has a very unique technique of combining her illustrations with pictures, some of Géraldine's designs are available to buy at Click for Art. Her work has been featured in the likes of Numero magazine, NY Times and many others. The way she presents are designs are so creative and unusual, she's certainly one of my favourite artists.

Why so bright

Of recent, there seems to be a few similar questions arising about my choice of bright coloured clothing and pieces that I often wear, questions like "you like a lot of bright colours, don't you" and "why do you like so many bright colours."

The answer is I really don't know why I'm often attracted to things with bright colours and prints, I guess it is just a subconscious thing. I often wear bright colours probably because I adore vibrant things, I also wear darker coloured things but often combine them with another item that is possibly brighter so I guess it's not always all bright.

Some bright pieces I have been meaning to share for a little while now are these knotted headscarves from Danielle Scutt's SS09 collection which happens to be one of my favourite SS09 season collection, I was first drawn to these mainly because of the colours and the prints which is probably not too much of a surprise now.

Min-ji Cho uses Rubber Cloves

It never ceases to amaze me the sort of unusual things a number designers get inspiration from and make use of to create some wonderful designs. For example Rubber Cloves, to many of us rubber cloves are just, well, rubber cloves, isn't it...

It is probably the least material I'd expect a designer can make use of, well not in Min-Ji Cho's case.

Min-Ji Cho who graduated from the Royal College of Art London, creates his jewellery designs by making use of rubber gloves, Min-Ji Cho's designs are available in a variety of colours . Min-Ji explores the combination of precious and not so precious materials hence the use of both pearls and rubber cloves in these pieces.

Tata Christine loves to knit

Another knitting rave is Tata Chrisine, a Berlin and Paris based label whose pieces are aimed at anyone or gender (anything goes) who likes to wear unique clothes.

The knitwear from their 2008 Unique pieces collection are my favourite.

Tata Christine couture recycles old, vintage and secondhand clothes to create their pieces. According to Tata Christine, their pieces plays with the borders of elegance and bad taste to create their pieces, in my view, if this is bad taste then I like bad taste, the play with so called bad taste has certainly created some wonderful pieces filled with some ruffles and great colour combinations.

UPDATE: Apparently, these pieces are crocheted, I often get a little confused about the differences with knitting but there you go.

Annelie Carlström for Fashion Tale Mag

Fashion Tale magazine is a Swedish picture based magazine I recently came across, the Winter or December 08 issue features only fashion illustrations by a number of different illustrators, all with very different styles and techniques.

However a couple that really stood out for me were by Annelie Carlström, Annelie is an illustrator who graduated from Beckmans School of design in Stockholm. Annelie has done a number of illustrations for the likes of H&M divided, Minimarket, Bon Magazine and many others, therefore you might be aware of some of her previous work, if not have a look here.

One thing that I found to be really puzzling about this particular illustrations was the model, I couldn't help but feel that I have seen that face before, after some hours of pondering and trying to remember, I finally came to the conclusion that it is probably the stunning Lara Stone.

You can have a look at the list of the other contributing illustrators on the magazines blog here and view the illustrations.

Joan Knits Jewelry

The Knitting or Crocheting theme continues, but this time around its Knitted Jewelry which I find quite fascinating.

These recent finds are by Central Saint Martins graduate Joanne Haywood, Joanne is a jewelry designer who also happens to be an Art and Design lecturer, her jewelry designs are a combination of crocheted / knitted cotton with wire compositions. I particularly like the unusual combination of materials in Joan's work as well as her chosen colour pallet, she often designs pieces with opposing ideas, for example the colourless materials mixed with colourful ones, voluminous materials with scanty ones, these theme is very evident in her work as seen below.

Michaela Buerger coloured knitwear

Knitwear is literally everywhere and I guess we just cant seem to get enough of it. Knitwear is obviously not just for the cold weather as a number of Spring/ Summer '09 collections have been showing some gorgeous Knit pieces and one of my favourite is by Michaela Buerger.

Michaela Buerger often designs subtle, artful and elegant knitwear as seen in her Autumn/ Winter '08 collection, she decided studied Fashion Design at the University of Fine Arts Vienna and having assisted the likes of Véronique Leroy , Micahela has also worked on a number of theatre projects.

For her Spring/Summer '09 collection, Michaela has designed what looks like a very laid back but skillfull and crafty collection, her choice of colour for these knitwear pieces are beautiful, it certainly contributes to striking see through lace patterns of the loosely knitted or Crochet pieces.