eyesing

beautiful clip by irena daveka for breakbot using 2000 watercolour images

I got tagged

by Disneyrollergirl

Five Random/Quirky things about me:

1. I'm kind of ambidextrous. With my left hand I write, eat with a spoon, sew with a needle and thread. With my right hand I throw, play the guitar and knit.

2. I stalk French Bulldogs. This is the inevitable behaviour of someone who really needs a puppy but can't have one cos her apartment is too small and she isn't home enough. So this is a shout out to Lucie who used to live across the road from me, and Pierre the puppy I saw three times (three!) in 45 minutes on Chapel St in Melbourne this weekend.

3. My great grandmother's sister Rose was married to the famous Australian artist, Norman Lindsay. She was apparently a very gusty, saucy lady who did nude modelling for a few other artists before falling in love with Norman. She was also a driving force behind his artistic and financial success.

4. I regularly get upstaged by my vintage suit-wearing boyfriend. I have discovered the best way to steal his thunder is by wearing my 80s "big" red spectacles.

5. I've developed an interest in animal husbandry-related descriptions of cows/dogs/alpacas/cats etc. Ever read the classifieds in Dog Fancy magazine? All about semen courier services for approved bitches. And what about cattle judging at the Royal Easter Show? Where else does someone point out the beast with the most superior mammary capacity ?

Will have to tag other bloggers, like really soon.

Back in the day

I suspect Kimberley Brooks is around my age because I get transported to my childhood by her oil paintings.

The Second Polaroid Ever Taken

Carole and Suzie Emerge From The Ladies Room

Canon Drive

Yosemite Walk I

Yosemite Walk II

Leaf littering with Fiona Hall

I'm a little bit in love with Fiona Hall's beuatiful 2002 Leaf Litter exhibition, and I'm fabulously excited b ecause there's an exhibition of her work on now at the MCA.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees–or does it? Plants have played a crucial role in the history of colonisation and the development of world economies. Many species have been responsible for the rapid growth of European power and wealth over the past five hundred years. Plants, and along with them people, have been shifted across oceans, battles have been waged over them, forests razed. But everything comes at a price, and now we are paying heavily for over-taxing the environment and for cultivating an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations. Many of the once most plant resource-rich countries are now amongst the poorest on earth. Leaf Litter aligns the distribution of plant species with the distribution of monetary wealth.”

Slave to the Embroidery Hoop

The clever lady behind these magnificent mergers of yee olde worlde embroidery and tragic celebritydom has many strings to her bow other than needlecraft.

raquel welch (different raquel to the 1,000,000 BC/exercise video lady) she's one half of the talented duo behind duke magazine (new issue due out in july i think), and she and her partner in publishing, emily have put together the most amazing tchotchke collection i ever did see. puts my depression-era-hording grandmother to shame: souvenir dolls, squeaky toys in the shape of food, framed pictures of Jordan, china figurines in assorted shapes plus a fine [insert appropriate collective noun] of embroidery hoops.

these beauties are works from an exhibition at chalkhorse gallery from a few months ago. i missed it so i was mighty pleased to get a gander here.

Like these? You might also like Orly Cogan's work.

Stay tuned for the latest addition to the ebays gems category. 

Daphne Shopaholic Guinness

When I made my recent Chanel-in-a-charity-shop discovery, I did devote a decent amount of brain power to the question, "what kind of crazy shoves a whole load of Chanel into a garbage bag and drops the booty off at their local Vinnies?" Surely you would sell them on ebay or put them a designer consignment store...

Or keep the whole darn lot.

Now there's an idea.

Anyway, Daphne Guinness...

of the Irish for-good-health-drink-three-square-meals-of-beer-a-day Guinness family had a wardrobe clear out recently, and fortunately she's not cuckoo enough to dump her rejects in a clothing bin. Instead she's being sensible and she's selling a load of designer bargains through the Kerry Taylor auction house.

A review of the 267 lots does lead me to ask some other questions. Firstly, how much freaking clothing does she have if she's dumping 96 pairs of sunglasses and 393 pairs of shoes?

Seriously.

!!!!

The mind boggles, doesn't it?

Anyway...

Why on earth would you get rid of these fabulous red suede Alaia boots?

A pair of Azzedine Alaïa red suede knee-high boots, with slim wedge heel, black lace-up front and side zip, size 36, (2)
Price guide: £80-£120

Who buys Balenciaga and then doesn't wear it?? 

A group of Balenciaga jackets and separates, including: an unworn cream linen cropped jacket with shaped waistline; two miniskirts, one black lycra with layers of pleats and broderie anglaise; black leather shirt and others, sizes 36 and 38

Price guide: £100-150

Who doesn't treat any garment designed for Albert Elbaz for Lanvin like it's the crown jewels, much less sell it?

A Lanvin brown silk shredded ribbon dress, Autumn 2004, the ribbons caught at waist and hem of skirt, with low V neck and back, size 36
Price guide: £300-£500

Who wouldn't buy this ensemble, prance about it in looking fabulous and then continue to have the option of prancing about looking amazing in this ensemble if you so chose?

An Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche leopard-print ensemble, comprising: slim-fitting silk pencil skirt; patchwork chiffon blouse, the seams crudely overstitched native-style, front-lacing; and zip-fronted silk and tulle safari-style waistcoat, average bust 32in 81cm, waist 26in 66cm, (3)
Price guide: £100-£150

Why don't I have size 37 feet? And why haven't I reached a place in my life where it is conceiveably practical to own a pair of ridiculous red suede platforms such as these ie why don't i have a band of sherpas on hand to carry me about the place whenever I decide I'm going to wear these shoes.

A fabulous pair of Christian Dior red suede platform wedges, with multiple straps, patent black ankle strap, covered in pointed metal studs, size approx 37, (2)
Price guide: £100-£150

What's Daphne going to wear to her next "Dress as your favourite Inca punk llama and roast guinea pigs over a campfire" fancy dress event?

A Christian Dior woollen hat, Autumn-Winter 2002, in browns, cream and grey, with mohawk fringing
Price guide: £40-£60

How can I make this Junya Watanabe trenchcoat mine? And does it bother anyone else that someone-or-other-at-Kerry-Taylor-Auctions forgot to do that button up (second on the left)?

A group of Junya Watanabe jackets and separates, mainly black and white, including: black and white woven cotton double-breasted trench coat with metal buttons; knitted grey jumper with bondage straps; oversized white multi-layered cotton jacket, all size S.

Is it really stupid to buy one of these big lots, which I can't see properly at all, and pray that I'll be able to sell anything that sucks/doesn't fit on ebay for a tidy profit?

A group of Ann Demeulemeester jackets and separates, including: grey cracked leather double-breasted trenchcoat; four short black jackets; unworn cream satin dress with open back, original price £430, and others, sizes 34 to 38, (14)
Price guide: £250-£400

More about Daphne Guinness here, here, here and here.

The Visual Pleasures of Sin City

One of the main reaons I watch films is for the visual onslaught. Shitty plot and bad acting (Stars Wars Episode I for example), no problem for me if it looks good.

Not that I'm saying that Sin City had a bad plot, it was quite great, but the beauty of the art direction is what made the film for me.

Here's a cover of Frank Miller's Sin City comic, upon which the film noir look of the movie was based.

 

And now for some magnificent, dark, foreboding film stills

Fingers crossed those nasty rumours that Sin City 2 won't happen aren't true.

Threeasfour Fun

The Threeasfour designers, Gabriel Asfour, Adi Gil and Angela Donhauser, are quite loveably fabulous and haughty... and fond of capes seemingly...

Bless.

threeasfour.com
Read more about these special little people here and here
See their fabulous frocks here
See more overposed pictures here

Bemusing Landscape Tradition - Natasha Kissell

So I'm kinda in love with Natasha Kissell's landscapes. Not only are they beautifully executed oil paintings but they come with a nice side serving of weird, due to the odd combinations of location, modernist archictecture and random additions like elephants trudging through snow or birds perched atop speakers. I'm not the only one who has noticed her talent, Charles Saatchi reportely bought her entire graduate show in 2003.

Elephant Escaping

 

Buidling Castles in the Snow

The Green Hour

Everglade

The Magic Hour

The Small Hour

More information
natashakissell.com
Big ups to Eleven Fine Art, London for actually including comprehensive and comprehensible information about their artists on their website.
The Chambers Gallery
Guardian Arts feature

Pecha Kucha

So last night I did a talk thingie at the Sydney Pecha Kucha, which is an event where "creative people talk about creative things. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each." Almost all of the other speakers were architects so my presentation about fashion blogs stuck out like a sore thumb/was a nice change, depending on your interest level.

I decided to do it because I haven't done that much public speaking and I thought it would be a good challenge. I was kinda nervous but a glass of $5 sav blanc quelled the butterflies. I was somewhat bemused because people were laughing during my speech, which isn't such an undesirable response, but I hadn't intended it to be funny. My support crew told me afterwards people were laughing at the pictures, which kind of surprised me because I think they're really beautiful and I'm inspired by what these blogs people create. I guess I'm used to all the exuberant styling. All in all it was a fun experience, I got some nice feedback from a few of the attendees and I'm really glad I did it.

Aaaanyhoodle, there are potentially people reading this who want links to the blogs I talked about, so here goes...

Wardrobe Remix

The Snail and the Cyclops

Hermsprong, Softspoken, coquelicot-sleep

Coco73, becktress, cmt2779

lorimarsha, kasmeneo, bettyjack

Trish Royal who started Wardrobe Remix has her own blog, bitsandbobbins.com

Style Bytes

Kingdom of Style

Stylebubble

And here are some other fashion blogs I heart muchly

Le Blog de Betty
Fashion Toast
Fashionista
Emma's Closet
Fashion Fillers
Only Shallow
Flying Saucer
Liberty London Girl
Fashion is Spinach
Disney Rollergirl

This is hardly the Oscars but I do want to say thank you to the lovely Liz and Kevin for helping me with the jpgs and my sweetheart, Chris for his presentation tips. Sonya x