It's Fabric I'm in Love

From the V&A

A while back I was fortunate to catch the V&A's Golden Age of Couture exhibit and spent longer than most staring into a glass case of fabric swatches saying over and over in my head, "If only I could lay my hands on those....". Back in the 1940's Zika Ascher founded a London fabric company that really changed the face of textiles as we know them today, Ascher fabrics. They were the first to work with fine artists of the time like Picasso, Henry Moore, and Cecil Beaton to create stunning fabrics and scarves. Their fabrics were used by couture houses such as Dior, Schiaparelli, Givenchy, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent, and Mary Quant. The cherry on the top is that not only were these fabrics designed by the best and used by the best, they were even worn by some of the most exciting clients as well. Such as the then, Princess Elizabeth.

In short as an English girl with a fine arts degree, a clothing company and a passion for vintage fashion and art, it was love at first sight.

Mid Century Mode Collection

Back in October of last year, part serendipity, part research lead to my standing in a fantastically vintage archive room, sighing over thousands of fabric designs from the 40's up, and coming away with a stock room full of bolts of Ascher cottons, all sporting vibrant mid-century designs, just waiting for Spring. Although a late debut, the dresses from this vintage dream are finally rolling out in Vivcore's Mid Century Mode collection. It's been a real pleasure working with fabrics of such a perfect pedigree, and a thrill to be able to add an extra dimension of authenticity to our vintage inspired designs, by using fabrics designed by the best in the decades we all love the best!

Although the first dress from this line came out a while ago, this week is a the big launch of the Mid Century Mode Collection with 4 bold new dresses added to the store. It's all about authentic vintage flavor, and a real pleasure to add this extra slice of elegance from the motherland.

The collection, like a flower, is just showing it's first pretty buds and sure to grow. Keep watching to see how it matures! Supplies of each fabric are limited, so each design will only be available as you see it today for as long as the fabric is available. Check out the dresses here!

Hagleslag

Another discovery from our stop in the Hague was a silghtly perplexing but utterly thrilling breakfast tradition, Hagleslag!

What it basically is, is chocolate sprinkles you eat with bread and butter. The little boxes above the bread board at the hotel was the first thing I went for, and as odd as it seemed to my outsider eyes, it really is a wonderful snack/breakfast treat!

The Sprinkles (or curls if you feel fancy) are much different the the waxy ones we see here in the States on top of ice cream. They are extra chocolaty and genuinely tasty!

It is fairly easy to pick up some of the hagelslag here in the States from either World Market or Amazon. Once you have them all you need a a nice slice of good bread (preferably brown) a bit of butter spread across it to hold the sprinkles in place, then pour on as many as you fancy and enjoy!

We got a nice selection from a grocery store by the hotel you wouldn't believe the selection available over there! I hope you'll give it a shot as well, you'll feel terribly continental and like a happy kid all at the same time!

Dresses and Dolls Oh My!

OK I'm back in the county, my body has adjusted back to the right time zone, so it's time to start blogging!

Whilst over in the UK for the past month (ish) we flew over for a few days in the Netherlands staying in the Hague. By pure luck one of the museums out there had 2 amazing temporary exhibitions running at that time with my name written all over them! A huge collection of dolls, miniatures and doll houses from the 17th century up, and a collection of fashion from the early 1900's to today, and their inspirations in fine art. Three things I love most in the world all together in one place!

The doll exhibition was the first bit we hit up. It really is amazing the details that used to go into these things. One of the first  things I noticed was a great Dior bar suit Barbie in all her 50's glamor. I love the suit in full scale, and it was captivating again in miniature!

A simmering fondness of Queen Anne dolls was heated up a little too. They had some wonderful 18th century examples all with their brocade dresses and fluffy wigs! One day I'd love to make one, but that's another project for another day.

The fashion exhibition was a real winner too. I loved seeing Schiaparelli's dresses and accessories in person again, and a little tableau of Vivienne Westwood gowns with an 18th century flare gave a bit of a taste of the recent Versailles fashion exhibit I messed. I never get tired of seeing beautiful silks in opulent settings!

Sure we had to walk over 2 miles each way in gale force winds and pouring rain, but I can safely say it was well worth it!

You can see more from the exhibition over on the Gemeentemuseum's website. XXSmall and Fashion ♥ Art. For now here are a few of the photos I managed to get whilst we wandered round...

(I promise a break from dolls next post and some more food inspiration instead!)

Weekend in LA

People might have figured from my style posts, that I don't own a lot of clothes that I didn't make/design, but every once in a while I do like to do a spot of shopping when I go out of town. Last weekend we flew out to LA to hang out with some friends and I was able to go crazy on a rare shopping spree! (and eat my body weight in tacos)

This trip close to my favorite retro candy and soda shop Rocket Fizz I found my new favorite vintage everything shop, Playclothes. The unit is huge (heheh) a cavernous gilded space crammed with vintage clothes from just about all eras, helpfully grouped by type and decade.

Kid in a candy store! (even before we got to the candy store) Although I fell in to the usual vintage shopping trouble of right clothes wrong sizes, I did get unusually lucky on others!

I was on a mission to find a nice 60's floral sweater to match some of my dresses and found a lovely Darlene sweater in the right size and right color, and perfect print! (Score!) Another dash of serendipity was when I found that an unrelated skirt I picked up (dead stock and perfect size) was a Darlene Colormate made to match their sweaters, and in a color that matched said sweater. happy days! The only trouble I have is that the tiny buttons wont stay closed in the 50 year old buttons holes, but hey finding an ensemble like that is too good to grumble about a few springy pearly buttons so I wont. ( Felt even better when I found the same sweater only in pink in another shop for $130 more than I spent on mine) Aside from that amazing luck I picked up a floral hat and an 2 piece 60's sheath dress and coat combo from there too!

The other thing on the top of my must see shop list was the Vivienne Westwood boutique that opened earlier this year. Much bigger and brighter that the ones I've lived close to in the UK, the staff were really friendly I snagged a red mock croc Chancery heart bag to match my legions of red shoes, (because nice girls wear red shoes)

The rest of the time I spent hanging out with some great friends which are worth more than even sweater set luck, and playing on a bouncy castle with lots of grown ups and my best 3 year old pal Max! I wish all our friends were closer, this country is too damn big. (also, want Santa to bring me a bouncy castle for my house and a yard big enough to keep it in, those things are fun!!!)

 

(The song I had in my head the whole trip) 

Also our 250 followers giveaway is still open till Oct 20th, for anyone interested in winning a box of retro goodies!

J'adore Montreal

Hi again everyone! Back from Montreal and back to blogging! The trip was a bit of a lucky one all in all, my husband had a work trip out there and it was the perfect opportunity for me to tag along and see a city I've always wanted to visit.

The area is such great blend of North America and Europe, it felt a lot like being back on my old continent.

We got to check out some great vintage shops filled with some wonderful clothes from the 20's through the 60's, and also neat nicknacks. One great little pocket was on Saint Laurent  street far off the metro that had Kitsch n Swell (40's-50's house stuffs and clothes) Rokokonut (60's-70's kitsch and clothes) and Fripperie (20's-80's clothing and accessories) all next to each other kind of like a vintage super shop!

Kitsch n Swell and Rokokonut are both run by a super vintage loving couple and were such fun shops I wish I lived close enough to visit every week! My haul from there was 2 pairs of 50's/60's cat eye glasses frames. My eyes are starting to be a little less sharp these days and after finding such cuties at such a good price I figured I'd pick em up ready for when I need to call upon them for ultra swanky visual correction!

Another great place we found was Retro-Ville, literally floor to ceiling fantastic finds! The lady that runs the place was so friendly We spent ages in there going through the shop and looking at her personal collections of fantastic vintage buttons and purses, extra bonus points for Treasure, the friendly fluffy in store cat too! Couldn't take the shop cat home but check out the neat cat cookie jar we found there! Now the new home to out everyday tea stash (no more standing on tip toes to pull down tea bags from my on the hour decaf brews)


More than just great old stuff was some great new stuff, my figure I owe in large part to a love of interesting food! We managed to get some reservations ahead of time for some of the cities best restaurants and got to enjoy all kinds of things I've never tried before (sweetcorn sundae for eg). The markets were also stellar. Got some nifty local ground cherries I'd never seen before and tea! the place was a surprisingly wonderful tea destination! Kusmi tea is probably one of my new favorite tea companies I found on the trip, it's every where and they have some really interesting blends once enjoyed by the Czars of Russia.

All in all we ate, walked alot, saw a ton of cool things and met a lot of cool people. I already have a list of things I want to do on our next trip out here, I just can't wait to go back!

( for now though, I have a head full on inspiration and a cat head full of tea, so I'm going to ride this wave and turn this great trip into a Montreal worthy collection of designs for the Fall/winter season ;p)

I got a few posts to write up so we should be back to regular blogging once again!

Mother Land!

I love getting back over to England, for the next couple of weeks I'm back in old Bighty to see my family, and catch up on some of the little things I always miss since leaving to live in America.

So far we spent an afternoon out in Stratford-Upon-Avon just walking around. I love looking at all the Tudor buildings (including Shakespeare's birthplace) and the Swans along the river. There is a little pastry shop which has the best tea and lunch foods, plus its right next to my favorite sweet shop! I stoked up on my favorite English candies you just cant get in the states floral gums and rose/violet creams. With all the frilly shops and history everywhere it's a great quaintrelle destination! 

The other day was especially lucky! I've been wanting a vintage (faux)fur coat in a blond mink color all winter. Yesterday we found a great 1950's faux fur coat, just my size and a perfect match for my hair in a local antique shop! (They say to buy a fur close to your hair color to get the most complimentary fur shade). With the weather here being rather chilly I was pretty thrilled to not only end the search, but to find it in time for all our big trips around the country next week!

Now for another cup of tea... (Twinings have a couple of great limited edition flavors here right now!)