Mar 16, 2011
I’m looking for a new home when thousands of people lost theirs. I didn’t want to post anything Japan-related lately, but the mentioning of it in the previous post made me once again run to the telly hoping the CNN will finally bring some good news. It will, it surely will, just hang on there, Japan.
À St. Médard
Welcome to an image-heavy post – a documentation of last Sunday visit to À St. Médard. If you are not familiar with this project, check their website www.a-st-medard.com, or come and check out the space next weekend, which will happily coincide with a stocksale of Kris Van Assche and Raf Simons past seasons’ collections – all at very attractive prices. I must stress that the event is by invitation only (and to get yours you must mail a request to thefabricsales@gmail.com), but it is well worth the trouble. Plus you can enjoy the tastiest Japanese brunch ever! All on Rue Haute 298C-300, here in BXL.
Mar 11, 2011
similarities
I better post them on here before the pictures of ceilings turn into a series of absurd snapshots of yet more absurd light installations. One from Cantine, one from Reservoir Shop.
Tu Fawning
On Wednesday night we went to see Tu Fawning play their epic tunes at Maison Des Musiques. At times explosive, at times contained, I really appreciate what they do and how they evolve. There aren’t many snapshots of the quartet, but that has been the major change since the last time I saw them back in 2008, if I remember correctly. I loved them quiet and intimate, and this week’s concert did feel way more extrovert than the first Tu Fawning experience. Well, the expectations are high for the 31 Knots gig in April. They are back!
Carven at Hunting and Collecting
Here’s one of those events you just can’t miss, given a chance to meet the designer who in the past couple of years turned the destiny of this forgotten French label around, and to dance the night away, be you the eager beaver or the Aspen Tiger. Nevermind the inside joke.
Mar 4, 2011
lost and found
In London, yet less than a week ago I found a heart at the bottom of my tea cup. Yes, I found it back! What was it doing so faraway, hiding for so many years in a cup of raspberry flavoured tea anyways? So I took a picture and claimed my heart back right in time to give it out to a very special someone.
And with this picture, say goodbye to the blurry shots courtesy of Panasonic DMC-FX7 (i.e. the soap dish)! The new era of Sony Nex-3 has begun, and nevermind the fact that I can’t take pictures – this camera can. I’ve been practice-shooting kitties at home this morning – won’t be sharing those pics though, in fear of turning this blog into Cat The Cute of sorts… but the camera is doing miracles with whatever you point it to (hm, gotta try my face)…
Tomorrow I’m in Paris – the sunny Paris! And I’m going to act like a bad tourist before heading down to the RA showroom. I’m dying to see it, document it, photograph it, and after long yet lovely conversations with everyone who takes part spend a night putting it into the most abstruse of terms.
And with this picture, say goodbye to the blurry shots courtesy of Panasonic DMC-FX7 (i.e. the soap dish)! The new era of Sony Nex-3 has begun, and nevermind the fact that I can’t take pictures – this camera can. I’ve been practice-shooting kitties at home this morning – won’t be sharing those pics though, in fear of turning this blog into Cat The Cute of sorts… but the camera is doing miracles with whatever you point it to (hm, gotta try my face)…
Tomorrow I’m in Paris – the sunny Paris! And I’m going to act like a bad tourist before heading down to the RA showroom. I’m dying to see it, document it, photograph it, and after long yet lovely conversations with everyone who takes part spend a night putting it into the most abstruse of terms.
Feb 28, 2011
desmet
Got these from A Merry Mishap - simply gorgeous! I'll do a slightly altered 'copy/paste' of these interiors to my own home when I finally move.
Feb 27, 2011
Text.
Pages of it have been spewed out on the floor, motionless, random, pointless, absurd. But in all is such a hidden dynamica on a steady path of convergence to one probable outcome, untimed and presumed. Yet it does take shape, the longer you stare at it, and I feel like I’ve been staring for years, reading the random spill of letters, life’s notes written for me in evil tongues, running a spectrum of emotions from bafflement to boredom, at times sparse and drenched in reverb of the immediate past, at times exhilarating…
My comfort shell – totally insular and socially autistic, the past months did not seem to fit for the role of a writer or a blogger. So throw in some meditation (i.e. trip to London), meetings, decisions and inspiration and you get a pot of magic brew, brimful – good enough to cast love spells….or produce even more text – raw unedited text, the stream of consciousness text, the kind of text I love.
Text…
…riddled with symbolism and hidden meanings. Letters aligned to the page, poised so casually on top of each line that it’s almost sexual. But behind the reading and the research... behind the text is one thought, that I’m killing time ‘til five o’clock.
My comfort shell – totally insular and socially autistic, the past months did not seem to fit for the role of a writer or a blogger. So throw in some meditation (i.e. trip to London), meetings, decisions and inspiration and you get a pot of magic brew, brimful – good enough to cast love spells….or produce even more text – raw unedited text, the stream of consciousness text, the kind of text I love.
Text…
…riddled with symbolism and hidden meanings. Letters aligned to the page, poised so casually on top of each line that it’s almost sexual. But behind the reading and the research... behind the text is one thought, that I’m killing time ‘til five o’clock.
Feb 16, 2011
Breaching of blogger’s social etiquette
NOTE: this post contains fowl language….because I just followed the link to Elle Belgium’s blog and it almost made me throw up my dinner onto the laptop keyboard. Hunting and Collecting is badly misspelled on their own competition page – poorly written awkward text that doesn't even worth reading! Not being able to take it any longer I scrolled down to find a suggested link to the Topshop launch at RA13 – all finely illustrated with an image of Rodarte shoes. What the fuck are the bloggers at Elle Belgium thinking while polluting the digital air with such bull? Or the audience has got to be completely blind, deaf and dumb to appreciate this… Read Dazed Digital and learn how it’s done, Elle team!
escapism
Only one and a half day left and I’ll be in London! And if two weeks ago I was absolutely sure which clothes I’m taking with me, now I’m desperately trying to put some outfits together, doing my best to restrict myself to maximum three pairs of shoes. Shouldn’t be such a big deal, but I love all my shoes and I want to take them with me. Besides the shoes are the clothes which I always pack way too many, wanting to have choice when I get dressed, and then ending up wearing the newest things I bought already on my trip. It’s just so predictable.
I’m planning to check out a couple of showrooms, jot down some interesting names to follow and join my fellow countrymen of RA13 to some shows. I have absolutely no need for running around trying to get the most out of this Fashion Week. On the contrary, I’m much more eager to go to the fleamarket, music shop, and eat loads of sushi, since it happens to be the cheapest dinner alternative in London. I’ll drop by Janette’s and Machine A for some boutique inspiration and find a concert to go to – the usual city-trip stuff.
It’s a shame I’ll miss the Topshop launch at Hunting and Collecting, but I’ll probably do my bit of Topshop as well, since it’s still the cheapest shopping spot. I already have a list of pieces to fit, it includes all things burgundy, loads of accessories and print. It may just be the influence from the yoga classes I just started taking, but I want to have my feet well on the ground – looking for good flat shoes, as you might have supposed. My best choice is slippers because I can’t see anymore brogues or loafers, and I’m surely not wearing ballerinas or sneakers or plimsolls – eew! So those Topshop black suede slippers…hm…will do some fitting.
via style.com
I’m planning to check out a couple of showrooms, jot down some interesting names to follow and join my fellow countrymen of RA13 to some shows. I have absolutely no need for running around trying to get the most out of this Fashion Week. On the contrary, I’m much more eager to go to the fleamarket, music shop, and eat loads of sushi, since it happens to be the cheapest dinner alternative in London. I’ll drop by Janette’s and Machine A for some boutique inspiration and find a concert to go to – the usual city-trip stuff.
It’s a shame I’ll miss the Topshop launch at Hunting and Collecting, but I’ll probably do my bit of Topshop as well, since it’s still the cheapest shopping spot. I already have a list of pieces to fit, it includes all things burgundy, loads of accessories and print. It may just be the influence from the yoga classes I just started taking, but I want to have my feet well on the ground – looking for good flat shoes, as you might have supposed. My best choice is slippers because I can’t see anymore brogues or loafers, and I’m surely not wearing ballerinas or sneakers or plimsolls – eew! So those Topshop black suede slippers…hm…will do some fitting.
via style.com
Feb 13, 2011
fun for the butterflies
Whether the coming spring has the most peculiar of effects on my wardrobe, or am I finally getting over those unpleasant childhood memories, I do not know. But many things gradually change as I grow older. I used to hate print – any print, of any shape and colour, on any fabric, garment or object. Then in the beginning of my old blog .origami mon ami I bought a stripy t-shirt – yes, that’s classified as print in my world. I hated it, it looked like a cheap rock’n’roll cliché, but with all I did for my loved one back then…I learned to live with it and more stripes followed. Then the prints got a bit more complicated – I got hooked up on intarsia knit, graphic Nordic prints. Enter the checker prints, especially those of flannel shirts. Soon followed the tie-dye, dip-dye and paint splatter effects. Last summer I became a slave to photographic prints, especially those of trees, owls and horses…soon the animal prints appeared, in small details, but the tiger, snake and leopard are a happy family of scarves, shoes, tights and belts. Very recently you’ve witnessed yet another print invasion – polka-dots – the print I used to hate for many years with all the passion given, but it works, it lives happily in my wardrobe alongside with stripes, tie-dye, checks, animal, Aztec and photographic prints.
Harmony and cacophony all at once!
My latest venture into the print world has a VERY special background, because the new print is the flower print!
Why am I making such big deal about flower print? Well, let’s consider this: as a child growing up in the remains of the Soviet Union, on the edge of the village, adjacent to a big factory town. You live a stone-through away from a river and a forest, your granny has a garden with vegetables and fruit trees and she dresses you in flannel dresses with flower print, and makes you wear cotton shawls with flower printed border, tied up under your chin babooshka-style. Then in your house the lino floor covering has flower print, so do the carpets, curtains, tablecloths. The flower-printed sofa has a cover with flower print on it, the upholstery of the armchairs has got flower-print too…and so does every chair in the dining room, where the wallpaper has a different flower-print to the one of the living room…the guest room, the bedroom…and they all have different curtains and furniture, as previously mentioned, with flower-print. The cups, plates, saucers, tea-pots – all with flower-print, taking in account that each single plate has a different print. The cutlery has flowers engraved. The big grandfather clock has flowers carved into the wood. The bed-sheets have flower-print, different to the flower-print of the pillow-cases, bed spread, and the white tulle pillow-covers with woven flowers on them. In the kitchen the table is covered with rubberized cloth, it has a psychedelic 60’s flower print, so do the orange and yellow saucepans. There’s even a tiny pot near the sink to keep your toothbrushes in – it’s blue with pink flower-print, and the towels have big woven flowers – each member of the family gets a different one, with different flowers. And in every room there are lovely paintings that my great-grandfather painted, they are mostly landscapes with flower fields or still-lifes with bouquets of flowers, because his favourite subject was wild flowers. And when not at home, I used to play in a shed that my grandmother also wallpapered with flower-print, I used to make dresses for my dolls from the scraps of flower-printed fabric that my grandmother bought to make dresses for herself – she always wore exactly the same shift-dress, but she had it made in all different fabrics with flower-print, cotton for summer and wool for winter, and her favourite fabric was the light-blue one with tiny white flower-print. And may be it’s just worth to mention, that my home-town of Ivanovo is a well known industrial town which is specialised on production of flower-printed cotton…it’s like the Liberty print really, but more Russian-style. That was the key product of the city made in massive amounts, which means most of the Ivanovo citizens worked in the textile industry, very much like my mom, grandmother and my godmother. My grandfather was a technician at the factory which made flower-printed cotton…well, he didn’t design a thing, but he looked after the flower-printing machines. Um, a question: if you were to consider this, imagine you or me or anyone else in the same situation… Would you ever want to see the freakin’ FLOWER-PRINT again??!!
They say time heals all wounds, but not without help, I add. Thanks Hunting and Collecting! Thanks Emma Cook! I think my flower-print trauma is finally resolved and I’m running silly and happy with those gorgeous flower-printed trousers on.
So much fun for the butterflies too.
tank top Acne
cardigan Opening Cermony via RA13
trousers Emma Cook via Hunting and Collecting
nailpolish Essie and Barry M
Harmony and cacophony all at once!
My latest venture into the print world has a VERY special background, because the new print is the flower print!
Why am I making such big deal about flower print? Well, let’s consider this: as a child growing up in the remains of the Soviet Union, on the edge of the village, adjacent to a big factory town. You live a stone-through away from a river and a forest, your granny has a garden with vegetables and fruit trees and she dresses you in flannel dresses with flower print, and makes you wear cotton shawls with flower printed border, tied up under your chin babooshka-style. Then in your house the lino floor covering has flower print, so do the carpets, curtains, tablecloths. The flower-printed sofa has a cover with flower print on it, the upholstery of the armchairs has got flower-print too…and so does every chair in the dining room, where the wallpaper has a different flower-print to the one of the living room…the guest room, the bedroom…and they all have different curtains and furniture, as previously mentioned, with flower-print. The cups, plates, saucers, tea-pots – all with flower-print, taking in account that each single plate has a different print. The cutlery has flowers engraved. The big grandfather clock has flowers carved into the wood. The bed-sheets have flower-print, different to the flower-print of the pillow-cases, bed spread, and the white tulle pillow-covers with woven flowers on them. In the kitchen the table is covered with rubberized cloth, it has a psychedelic 60’s flower print, so do the orange and yellow saucepans. There’s even a tiny pot near the sink to keep your toothbrushes in – it’s blue with pink flower-print, and the towels have big woven flowers – each member of the family gets a different one, with different flowers. And in every room there are lovely paintings that my great-grandfather painted, they are mostly landscapes with flower fields or still-lifes with bouquets of flowers, because his favourite subject was wild flowers. And when not at home, I used to play in a shed that my grandmother also wallpapered with flower-print, I used to make dresses for my dolls from the scraps of flower-printed fabric that my grandmother bought to make dresses for herself – she always wore exactly the same shift-dress, but she had it made in all different fabrics with flower-print, cotton for summer and wool for winter, and her favourite fabric was the light-blue one with tiny white flower-print. And may be it’s just worth to mention, that my home-town of Ivanovo is a well known industrial town which is specialised on production of flower-printed cotton…it’s like the Liberty print really, but more Russian-style. That was the key product of the city made in massive amounts, which means most of the Ivanovo citizens worked in the textile industry, very much like my mom, grandmother and my godmother. My grandfather was a technician at the factory which made flower-printed cotton…well, he didn’t design a thing, but he looked after the flower-printing machines. Um, a question: if you were to consider this, imagine you or me or anyone else in the same situation… Would you ever want to see the freakin’ FLOWER-PRINT again??!!
They say time heals all wounds, but not without help, I add. Thanks Hunting and Collecting! Thanks Emma Cook! I think my flower-print trauma is finally resolved and I’m running silly and happy with those gorgeous flower-printed trousers on.
So much fun for the butterflies too.
tank top Acnecardigan Opening Cermony via RA13
trousers Emma Cook via Hunting and Collecting
nailpolish Essie and Barry M
Feb 10, 2011
side-notes
If I feel like socializing without moving a muscle, I leave a couple of comments on facebook, blogs and Tumblr. If I feel like going shopping, I do it remotely, from the comfort of my home. Sometimes it feels like we’d function perfectly well even if reduced to a brain and two fingers(that’s for the laptop’s touchpad and left-click button…)…one for Apple users, they’ve got the left-click on their touchpad, right?
ASOS – I do love thee for the infinite supply of cheapies, perfect designer rip-offs and good honest service with the occasional free international delivery. Ann-Sofie Back may have assumed the spikes to be placed around the neck and be at least ten times longer, but ASOS keeps it simple, by selling me this spike-through-finger ring at 8£. Well done!
Made up my mind about the colour of the Rodarte for OC sunglasses, and indeed it is mauve. Hurry up Mr. Postman!
ASOS – I do love thee for the infinite supply of cheapies, perfect designer rip-offs and good honest service with the occasional free international delivery. Ann-Sofie Back may have assumed the spikes to be placed around the neck and be at least ten times longer, but ASOS keeps it simple, by selling me this spike-through-finger ring at 8£. Well done!
Time to go rummage through piles of fabrics, draw some patterns and get cutting and sewing.
Feb 9, 2011
Rodarte for Opening Ceremony
I can cry and laugh all together! What else is one to do when the most amazing collaboration in retail history so far drops in stores. I need to find the way to make an official statement somehow about my endless affection for Opening Ceremony – it is truly my most fetish brand. But when they do this (scroll down!), I only want to cry: “Why??!!”
Why torture one poor little girl who lives in a far-faraway Belgium by such unfair display of beautiful things she cannot afford?
I’ve been really modest, assessing every piece whether I really want and need it, and this is the list of things I most certainly need:
Why torture one poor little girl who lives in a far-faraway Belgium by such unfair display of beautiful things she cannot afford?
I’ve been really modest, assessing every piece whether I really want and need it, and this is the list of things I most certainly need:
The grand total hits just under 4000 bucks. I swear to buy a lottery ticket tomorrow, because the good old plan of marrying an oil mogul hasn’t been in much evolvement at the moment. Finding some scraps of upholstery fabric and putting them to good use is yet another solution, I could make a skirt or a coat…ideas ideas!
One thing I cannot make is the sunglasses. I want the fabric-covered ones and will probably place an order tonight, when I decide on the colour. It’s true that the blue on white is the logical choice for my Snow White complexion, but the mauve on beige is the most complimentary to the summer tan. Difficult choice.
One thing I cannot make is the sunglasses. I want the fabric-covered ones and will probably place an order tonight, when I decide on the colour. It’s true that the blue on white is the logical choice for my Snow White complexion, but the mauve on beige is the most complimentary to the summer tan. Difficult choice.
Feb 2, 2011
her name was Jade
From today on, green is officially a part of my haircolour. I finally gathered all my courage to get a small part bleached and dip-dyed in emerald green – the result is may be not as bright as I initially wanted, but keeping in mind that to get a true flash of colour one needs to bleach the hair out to white, I ran a risk of a ‘chemical haircut’ – I’m happy with the way it worked out. Now the deal is to let my hair grow out a bit, cut a fringe and dip-dye the both sides of the bob – that’s some homework for summer.
I did the bleaching and dyeing job myself using products from a professional hairdresser’s supplies shop, but surprisingly while studying various colouring techniques on YouTube yesterday, I came across the endless list of references to dip-dyeing with Kool Aid and simple food colorants. Kool Aid is apparently an American soluble drink that is oversaturated in food colorants so that simply dipping you hair for 5 minutes in a hot water solution gives you a colour that will last several weeks. It gives me creeps! Our modern world makes us ingest all kinds of crap which is the next best thing for hair colouring! Where are we heading to?
Now with my hair glowing green, I need some proper gear. All things from Proenza Schouler or Meadham Kirchhoff will do. All I need now is to marry an oil mogul, and problem is solved.
blouse COS
lip-colour MAC in Lasting Lust
I did the bleaching and dyeing job myself using products from a professional hairdresser’s supplies shop, but surprisingly while studying various colouring techniques on YouTube yesterday, I came across the endless list of references to dip-dyeing with Kool Aid and simple food colorants. Kool Aid is apparently an American soluble drink that is oversaturated in food colorants so that simply dipping you hair for 5 minutes in a hot water solution gives you a colour that will last several weeks. It gives me creeps! Our modern world makes us ingest all kinds of crap which is the next best thing for hair colouring! Where are we heading to?
Now with my hair glowing green, I need some proper gear. All things from Proenza Schouler or Meadham Kirchhoff will do. All I need now is to marry an oil mogul, and problem is solved.
blouse COS
lip-colour MAC in Lasting Lust
Jan 31, 2011
Somehow I’m back in the blogging mood, showing off my latest purchases, rambling on about yet another identity crisis and the meaning of the cute.
I really wonder if anyone else may feel the same – the yearning for another life, a wish to swap this one for something else, something different? I’m in my seasonal mood for change, so please excuse my bluntness when I say that I feel like I should find a new job, a boyfriend, move to another city, learn a 5th language, grow my hair very long (ok, that’s an old one) and colour it green. I’d like to change pretty much most of my wardrobe too, and look like a girl. I’d like to be open to appreciate other music styles, and not remain forever stuck in the doom and the gloom of hardcore punk – I tried it before, but found very few pop bands that stuck by, because I lost my interest in those going mainstream. It’s really time for another trip to the Rough Trade record shop in East London, I need it like air to breathe.
Lately I find that blogging contributes very well to our economy, since all of the online exhibitionism is closely related to the amounts of money we’re spending. So many fashion bloggers write about their recent purchases with great enthusiasm…and I follow! Living up to no purchase = no blog post formula. Alright, you might have guessed where I’m getting to.
The shopping ban did not last very long. I actually felt rather depraved without being able to buy the things that I wanted, not needed. I felt ugly. So as a result a dress, a pair of trousers, a necklace, a skirt, a pair of shoes and a shirt are queuing up to have their picture taken and a blog post dedicated to how wonderful they all are. But for now I’ll show you the result of today’s trip to Ikea – new crazy coloured bed sheets and a pair of vases that were a total bargain! Really, when my favourite PS range vases are being sold at 5€ for the big one and 2€ for the little one, I couldn’t resist but to pull them lonely souls off the rack and take them home. And to finish on a fashion note, that blue tote is from COS, gorgeous but very practical too – my new companion for daily run-abouts.
I really wonder if anyone else may feel the same – the yearning for another life, a wish to swap this one for something else, something different? I’m in my seasonal mood for change, so please excuse my bluntness when I say that I feel like I should find a new job, a boyfriend, move to another city, learn a 5th language, grow my hair very long (ok, that’s an old one) and colour it green. I’d like to change pretty much most of my wardrobe too, and look like a girl. I’d like to be open to appreciate other music styles, and not remain forever stuck in the doom and the gloom of hardcore punk – I tried it before, but found very few pop bands that stuck by, because I lost my interest in those going mainstream. It’s really time for another trip to the Rough Trade record shop in East London, I need it like air to breathe.
Lately I find that blogging contributes very well to our economy, since all of the online exhibitionism is closely related to the amounts of money we’re spending. So many fashion bloggers write about their recent purchases with great enthusiasm…and I follow! Living up to no purchase = no blog post formula. Alright, you might have guessed where I’m getting to.
The shopping ban did not last very long. I actually felt rather depraved without being able to buy the things that I wanted, not needed. I felt ugly. So as a result a dress, a pair of trousers, a necklace, a skirt, a pair of shoes and a shirt are queuing up to have their picture taken and a blog post dedicated to how wonderful they all are. But for now I’ll show you the result of today’s trip to Ikea – new crazy coloured bed sheets and a pair of vases that were a total bargain! Really, when my favourite PS range vases are being sold at 5€ for the big one and 2€ for the little one, I couldn’t resist but to pull them lonely souls off the rack and take them home. And to finish on a fashion note, that blue tote is from COS, gorgeous but very practical too – my new companion for daily run-abouts.
Jan 21, 2011
DeLuXe
The air is sinister. Even if I like when it moves in Brussels. There are still a lot of things left to comprehend after yesterday’s visit to De Lu Xe opening night.
If you’re not too familiar with what goes on in the BXL, you may make no connection between the former Moustache Collectif activities (previously showing at Norden and Congress Station) and those of De Lu Xe, but I assure you – it’s one and the same group/collective. Moustache got renamed (cod knows why!) and opened a new pop up store in the rue des Melezes. The store will remain open for three weeks, and I’m most likely to go down there once again, just to take some decent pictures and to see the items they are selling in a good close-up and without the DJ throwing any Otto Von Schirach or S4lem in.
I don’t mean to be mean, but I haven’t experienced any coherence in the whole of the presentation, since it brought together too many different people, too many different styles and forms of expression. But once again, I’ll make time for the second assessment, in the meanwhile feel free to figure it out yourself.
May scroll help us all.
If you’re not too familiar with what goes on in the BXL, you may make no connection between the former Moustache Collectif activities (previously showing at Norden and Congress Station) and those of De Lu Xe, but I assure you – it’s one and the same group/collective. Moustache got renamed (cod knows why!) and opened a new pop up store in the rue des Melezes. The store will remain open for three weeks, and I’m most likely to go down there once again, just to take some decent pictures and to see the items they are selling in a good close-up and without the DJ throwing any Otto Von Schirach or S4lem in.
I don’t mean to be mean, but I haven’t experienced any coherence in the whole of the presentation, since it brought together too many different people, too many different styles and forms of expression. But once again, I’ll make time for the second assessment, in the meanwhile feel free to figure it out yourself.
May scroll help us all.
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