Waning days of summer

Well, this is it kids, the last week of my stay in England. I am totally bummed out. I have been pounding the pavement for the last week and a half in search of a job that might pay me in cash (since I don't have a work visa), but alas, these are hard to come by in the days of recession and EU expansion, and I came up empty handed, so the logical thing to do is pack it all up again and head home. I wish I had the money to continue my education, and stay on here a bit longer, but unless I wanted to do something drastic (i.e. fake marriage, or fake national insurance number, even riskier), there is not much more I can do. I guess I am just a little scared about having to face real life again, find a job in a new career in such a hostile economic climate, and get back in the rat-race New York City frame of mind. Last week I sent a text message to my friend saying we should move to LA, half kidding, but actually half serious. Like I had said in the beginning of the summer, NYC to me is a real love/hate relationship, and next week will be my 10 year anniversary of moving to the city in the first place. Maybe it is time to move on.

Before I pack up everything here in London I did an obligatory weekend in Stockholm, where I got to visit my lovely Swedish friends and bask in the glory of the Swedish summer sun. It being late August there was not the near 24 hour light that there is around June, but it was still a beautiful time of year to visit. I came in on Thursday afternoon and met Sara, suitcase in hand, to hike down to the waterfront and take a swim. It was freezing. I went in for about 30 seconds and hopped out, while Sara was more brave and went in for several dips. Phil showed up and we drank Pimm's and lemonade (Phil's duty free gift from me) and some fruit.

Friday afternoon I met up with Emil for some brunch and then a walk up to Observatory park near Odenplan. We had not seen each other since San Francisco so it was nice to see each other on the other side of the world in a completely different context. We brainstormed Iphone applications and get-rich-quick schemes. Needless to say, we did not come up with any in the 2 hour period.



Later that evening I met up with Phil to attend the Grolsch block party, which is basically a few different businesses in the "Sofo" (south of Folkunsgatan) area of Stockholm which were giving away a few free beers. Free beer or booze of any kind is a very rare occurance in Sweden, and by law you have to be on the list because it is listed as a private event. As a result, any free beer that appears usually disappears immediately. Fortunately Phil was able to get me into the Beyond Retro party where I did a little drunk shopping (no purchasing) and attempted to watch the burlesque show but everyone in Sweden is too tall so I could not see anything.

Later that evening I went to go meet up with Sara for her boyfriend Igor's birthday party, which was at a restaurant called Allmanna Galleriet 925. It was a really cool place, hidden within an office building next to a porn shop (Sara had to come get me from the subway since I would never have found it on my own). We played Swedish round-table ping pong (weird tradition where you get three or more people playing ping pong and run around the table, hard to explain) and had a few more beers.

Saturday Phil and I had some Thai food and then went into town to go shopping. I was very good and only bought a couple of 150- K tops at the new Weekday shop. On the way home, we walked along the water at Hornstull and accidentally came upon a giant Swedish food festival called Smaklust. Every area of Sweden was represented and there were hundreds of vendors with their local specialities for sampling. I had just eaten the leftovers from my Thai lunch so was not hungry but got some ice cream and sampled about a dozen cheeses and different kinds of sausage. Phil had a Gotland lamb burger. We knew we would have to come back the next day with a proper appetite and bring friends.

We went to a Stockholm institution Saturday night, Debaser, one of the first places I'd ever been in Stockholm. In the summer they have a huge beer garden that stays open until around 3am, without any fear of being shut down for noise complaints because they are basically on a little island not near any businesses. There were rumors that Debaser was going to shut because the city was re-constructing the Slussen area but it seems red tape has stalled that process and Debaser continues to thrive. I made Sara and Phil balance drinks on their heads in tribute to my well-known party trick. They need some practice.

Sunday it was back to Smaklust where Phil, Emil, Sara and I came hungry and left satisfied. Emil and I sampled what was one of the more bizarre things I have ever eaten, it was a moose burger with lingonberry dressing, but this was not just your ordinary moose burger, it was in the shape of a moose with a moose shaped matching bun. The vendor apparently had a patent on this design and was very proud of his invention. He was also wearing a hat made out of Swedish flatbread.

Verdict: Moose are delicious. Phil had a reindeer wrap, and Sara had a Swedish traditional dish that translates to a "bodycake," which is basically a mashed potato ball stuffed with meat (pork in this case), boiled and then eaten with cream and lingonberry jam. Not especially healthy, but really, really tasty. I had all kinds of random animals today, I will not go into more detail so as not to offend my vegetarian friends.

And that was that... said goodbye to my Swedish friends and hoped to see them soon as I headed off back to London, carrying sausage, goats cheese, and carrot chutney with me (carrot chutney seized by airport security a few hours later sadly). The older we get, the less and less we see each other, it is a bit sad.

Sara said that to go to graduate school in Sweden is free and they admit foreign students. Maybe I will apply for next year.

House of Holland Tights

My week has had a lot of ups and downs (I'm done with school, and the reality of life is setting in again, more on that another time) so there's nothing like a little retail therapy. I went all the way over to Selfridges today to pick up a pair of the limited-edition Henry Holland tights by Pretty Polly. Since these tights were made in England I was a bit afraid they were gonna be a fortune (Chanel tights, anyone?) so told myself that if they were anywhere over 30 quid I was going to have to walk away.

But imagine my delight when I found them, they were only £10! Not only that, but they came in the most amazing packaging, full size coffee cups with lids that said "caution, hot tights." Many of them were also hand signed by Henry.

I'm starting to get what my marketing tutor was saying about good packaging giving products "added value."

All told, since said tights were a third of what I was expecting, I let myself have a pair in pink, purple and black. It really is a neat technique, they used different deniers of the same color of fabric to create what looks like different shades.

These are very limited edition and I believe you can only get them in Selfridges, so hop to it!

Ruffle my feathers

There was this girl with a feathered collar on Face Hunter last winter that everyone was obsessed with, including me... where could we get such a thing?

There was one on Pixie Market that was really expensive and a few, not quite as cool ones on Etsy. I never bought one and pretty much forgot about it, until I was at Spitalfields yesterday and came across Lulu O'Neil's booth, a 50-year old charming Scottish lady who makes burlesque-inspired accessories, where I found a version of said feather collar for a reasonable 25 squids.

Yes, that's me in no make-up.

Sadly all she has is a Myspace page (Myspace? Hello, so 2006...) but I'm sure she would do a custom order.

In other news, I have exactly one week left of school! Terrifying. Where did the summer go? Its job hunting time again, sigh.

Design class final project

I am winding down my time at school and have just turned in my final project for Design process class. The idea of this class was to teach you the process through which designers come up with a collection. Obviously, this is different for anyone, but there are certain pathways through which one comes up with a design concept that has a cohesive theme, tone, color palette, and consumer. Of course I decided to do lingerie and my collection is very "me." I thought maybe I should try to do something to challenge myself a little more but you go with what you like, right? I named my fictional brand "Chelsea Violet." The first thing to think about is your consumer. My consumer was a ladylike, sensual woman who is confident and comfortable in her own skin. She is happy. She enjoys the finer things like perfumes, afternoon tea and fresh flowers. Basically a modern, very English woman who purchases lingerie for herself and not for a man (though if I man gets to see them, its a bonus!). I got my inspiration through visiting the antiques flea markets around London and Paris, fashion editorials by Gemma Booth, and look books by Chantal Thomass who I have mentioned a lot on this blog.

The name Chelsea Violet refers to a few things. Chelsea is just a name that I like and that I found to be quintessentially English. Violet has to do with the color palette, which is based around the violet color (basically various shades of purple, lilac, etc.), and of course flowers which are very much an inspiration for the silhouette and fabrics. Also, violet is somewhere in between pink, which is the color of very sweet, innocent lingerie, and black, which is supposed to be the naughty kind. This collection falls somewhere in between.

I'd never done much drawing before this class so doing the technical drawings was definitely a learning experience. Lingerie is probably a little easier than drawing complex garments like a suit or something but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out in the end. I did the technical drawings by hand and then scanned them into Illustrator where I colored them.

And finally, the fashion illustration... this was a hard part for me and I owe my friend Margarita for helping me figure out how to translate a flat design (one of the more complicated ones at that) onto a body. I wish I had had something better than markers to color it in but that's all I brought. Would have looked a lot nicer with water colors.

That's it!

One more week of class and then I'm done... and will have to figure out what the hell I am doing next. Not even sure if I'm ready to move back to America yet, but may have to. Not sure what the future will bring.

Patterned tights round-up

Hello! Its been a while. Things are crazy busy with school and all my projects are due this week and next. My design project is almost done, I can't wait to put it up here.

I was gonna write more about France... but am gonna skip it. What I will mention is that I got some amazing new Chantal Thomass tights while I was there (had nearly bought some at Century 21 in New York a few months ago and decided not to as I was having a particularly broke day, then once I figured out how hard they are to find outside of France was kicking myself). But at last, I found a couple pairs in the sale at Galleries Lafayette:

Anyone who reads this blog knows I am a total legwear maniac and am always on the lookout for new, creative brands. I wanted to run down some recent finds as well as some brands I'm coveting. A while ago I wrote about Hansel from Basel. I recently got a pair of stockings from acclaimed Scottish brand Bebaroque on sale at Asos:

These are pretty much the hottest stockings ever and a car with a couple of girls pulled up next to me and asked where I got them as I was swishing down the street. Bebaroque make tons of cool tights as well, such as the following:

Next up on my list is a brand I found from France called Les Queues Des Sardinnes. As of now they don't have anyone that stocks them outside of France but I have a feeling that will change. A lot of their designs border on the creepy side but I think that adds to their appeal! You can order them internationally through SuicidalShop:

Another foreign, hard to find brand out of Finland is Zukale & Huoviala. They make great printed tights with simple line illustrations. Hard to find as well but you can order them on the Finnish Design shop website.

Finally, to round off this round-up, I'm loving these peacock-printed tights from Look from London... a generally cheesy label (and not actually from London which adds to the cheese factor) but am liking these ones that they have on offer at Mod Cloth:

Hope that was some good legwear inspiration. My advice is to always buy an extra pair with these brands, if you can afford it... legwear is fleeting and when your pair ladders you never know if you'll be able to get another!