Big news! The Red Dot is moving!

Dear readers,

This little space was becoming to tiny for The Red Dot and I moved my blog to my own, new domain.

From now on I'll be here:

www.the-reddot.com

It will take some days to fix everything but It'll be OK soon! I hope you'll continue to follow me and my drawings and all my bla bla bla there!! :-)

Big kisses!!

Al

On the bus...

All of you know how the majority of the posts of The Sartorialist are titled: "On the street"

Well, I could make an antology of posts "On the bus". Or even better "from the bus window", meaning windows of every mean of transport.

Really, not that is the most interesting thing of the world for you to read, but I think I spend half of my life looking outside the window of the bus, train, car, plane and to the unknown people that travel with me.

That is because I travel a lot alone. 

When I was a kid we did a lot of holidays with the caravan, we traveled almost all Europe like that and my sister was too little to keep me company (and even if she was old enough we're like cat and dog, so better that we don't interact too much, especially in close little spaces ahah) and I already had that big fixation with music: trips of hours and hours, just looking outside the window and listening to music.

That's how I still remember many of the landscapes and details I saw, even if I was very little, it's the best way for me to print something in my mind forever.

Then when I was going to University I had to do four hours of trip every day from and to my town, and I kept  doing it really a lot.

Now it's also like that, from the bus ride to work to my trips to Italy to meet my family, to my holidays.

I look, I observe, I imagine and I listen to music.

I could write a book on the things I see, you could tell a whole story just about those two minutes in which your bus is waiting at the red traffic light: so many things happen outside, so many expressions you can read on the face of the people sitting in front of you.

The girl of this drawing was sitting in front of me on the tram the other day. 

She had a bit messy hair, washed out red lipstick and her eyeliner was starting to fade. It looked like she ran to catch the tram after a long day of work. And she was extremely beautiful. She was looking outside too, she seemed to think about something deeply, thing that actually permitted me to take hundreds of mental snap shots of her without her noticing (no, I'm not a stalker).

But believe me, she was much more beautiful and intense than how I managed to draw her, I still remember her.

This other girl instead was on the bus this evening. She wasn't beautiful, but I liked how she was dressed. She looked impatient, and determined and strong, that's why I draw her with strong strokes, in a fast way. It seemed like she was looking forward for a date, I really liked how she jumped off the bus.

It's nice to wonder what the people around you are doing or are about to do... 

It's strange because your world revolves around yourself, and when you stop and actually start to think that all the people around you have a life too, that comes from a moment before the one in which you're seeing them and continues also after that, and you start to imagine how these lives can be, you feel your head spinning and it's like you lose your center. 

It's like when you look at the night sky in summer, full of stars, and you really feel like you're a dot and it's too much so you have to think to something else...

OK, enough with this pseudo-philosophic crap, it's Friday night for God's sake (and my boyfriend went out but I stayed home to draw, it's quite peaceful in here eh eh eh...)

And OMG, I was about to forget an important, FUNDAMENTAL thing:

THE NEW ALBUM OF THE RADIOHEAD IS OUT!!!

If you just could imagine how much I like the Radiohead, then MAYBE you would be able to guess how happy I am.

I am listening to it now and I am almost crying for the joy (really... no it's not because I am a bit drunk, what are you saying?? It's really because I love them and I've been waiting for this moment for ages!) 

Oooohhh Thom Yorke thank you, you made my next 6 months of bus rides completely a different story!

You can buy their new album, The King of Limbs, here (mp3 version for 7 euros) and I leave you with their new video:

The music is too beautiful, the video too good, Thom Yorke is too cool... should I continue until tomorrow morning?


Look at it!


Good night!


Al

Surface to Air

I remember a day, when I was in the second year of University.

It was 8 am of a wonderful July Sunday morning, I was driving back from a party held in a country house on the hills around Florence and I was listening to Chemical Brothers. 

They just released their new album, "Push the Button", and I loved it.

I had my car window open, it was hot but still a little bit chilly because it was still early in the morning. 

The sun was shining very hard on the short, burned grass (if you ever been to Italy in summer you should know that light can be pretty overwhelming).

I was driving to work, at that time in the week-ends I was responsible for the House-museum of Giotto (a great painter of the XIII-XIV century). 

It was this house in the countryside, 5 minutes drive from my town, I just basically had to open everything and wait for visitors and tourists (not many, actually). 

I usually brought my books there to study, or alternatively I also had the company of two very sweet kid girls of the neighborhood: they were making me feel less scared of being alone in that old house and I, in return, was used to draw for them or help them with the home works.

That morning I was quite tired, I partied all night and also drank a bit (a bit...), the book of Biochemistry was waiting for me at the Giotto house because I had that terrible exam in 3 days but I had a nice feeling (incredible how many energies you have when you're 20... Sigh...)

The air was too sweet, perfumed and warm not to feel happy that morning. 

"Surface to Air", my favorite song from that Chemical Brothers album, was playing on my car CD player, I put my hand out of the car window and started to design the hills with my hand, following the curves of the air against my skin, through the speed.

Today, when I listen to this song, I still think of that day. 

It has become the symbol of youth and summer, and freedom in my memory.

But! 

Saccharine memories aside, "Surface to Air" is also the name of a Paris-based creative cooperative (they are the agency for brands like Uniqlo, they have an art studio that works for many great designers and so on...) and prêt à porter brand that I really like. This is their website, have a look!

I really like their woman SS 2011 collection, it really has that light, simple feeling that that Sunday morning reminds me:

A collection of dresses from Surface to air website

Aaaaahhh the shoes... They are sublime! You can find them on Surface to air website
or on Net-à-porter (a small selection)

My favorite sweater from the collection and the perfect black trousers, on Surface to air website

So, do you like this collection? I really do, I really smell spring and warm air when I see their clothes.

I will go now, you be good girls, listen to "Surface to Air" song and dream of summer together with me.

Goodnight!

Al

Stripes and colors

From upper left, clockwise:

iPad case - Marc by Marc Jacobs on Net-à-Porter

Striped top - Malene Birger on Net-à-Porter

Yellow skirt - See by Chloè on the Outnet

Bracelets - Asos

Blush crème in Temptation Fuchsia and Passion Red - Yves Saint Laurent

Bag - Prada

Shoes - Prada

Eyeshadows: MAC in "Chrome Yellow" and "Sushi Flower"

Apparently when my working days become a depressing hell, colors appear on my blog. I mean, more colors than  usual.

So next time you see a colorful post, start to worry for me ahah.

I think nobody is interested in what's happening to my project at work in the last months, but if you are in a mood to have a very good laugh and also have an idea of what's happening to me - Lady Gaga song aside- have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0 it is so funny that is has gone viral! And it's my life ahah (well, there's nothing to laugh about it, actually...)

Speaking of more interesting stuff, I really love how they played with colors and stripes this year, especially Marc by Marc Jacobs, Prada and Sonya Rykiel:

Marc by Marc Jacobs SS 2011 - Images from Style.com

Prada SS 2011 - Images from Style.com

Sonia Rykiel SS 2011 - Images from Style.com

Aaaahhh they make me feel the sun and the smell of summer! And I really need it now...


And they also have a very '80 feeling I think... Like this song, that I love! (I really like the video, too)

Now I am going in the shower to cry my scientific misery under liters of hot water and lavender soap...

No but wait! These colors really made me feel better... Ok then but I really gotta have a shower anyway so I'm off! Goodnight! Kisses! Love you! ahah!

(see?? I do really feel better!)

Al

The Beautiful people pt. II: the Personal Style blog and the Photography blog

The Personal Style blog:

My take on Zarna... I'm not convinced, but I hope she likes it!

Zarna and her blog, Zarna's Runway, are many things for me. I'll try to tell them without being cheesy but I think it'll be difficult.

First of all Zarna's blog is the only outfit-only blog that is able to inspire me and leave me enthusiastic after each post. Don't misunderstand me, there are also other outfit blogs that I like, but Zarna's really has something special.

The impression that you have when you look at her photos is that she is a real artist of the clothing: her mixes of cheap bargains and expensive items, her amazing sense and use of colors, her ability to use garments and accessories from the Indian tradition in a very glamorous way are all elements that make her stand out from the crowd.

"Jane Aldridge? Who's she??"

Van Gogh would be proud of her...

Zarna is also the kind of beauty that I'd like to be. She's thin, but curvy and her muscles are tonic and healthy. She sports a lot and I bet she eats in a good way (look at her wonderful skin and her hair... You don't have skin and hair like that if you starve).

One of these days I'll paste her photo on the wall on my desk "Be like this in 3 months". Oh Yeah. (mission impossible)

How to rock an old Indian skirt for an elegant dinner... Are you starting to understand what I mean when I tell you she's the queen of color-styling for me??

And, last but not least, Zarna is the first person (my aunt or my best friends aside ahah) that showed me an interest in what I was sharing on my blog. 

She  commented on my video about Japan and it was the first time I thought "Oh wow, so somebody actually reads what I write apart from me checking what I wrote after posting!!".

That is how I discovered her blog.

She's a very nice person, she is totally not full of herself and you can really see that she's doing what she's doing on her blog because she has fun, she likes to play with her clothes and with colors and you can feel this joy when you read her posts.

I am really happy I met her in the blogosphere and I really hope you'll pay her a visit too, your eyes deserve it! :-p

"Bye! And come visit my blog!"

The Photography Blog:

When I stumbled upon her blog, my thoughts that Garance Doré had the most pleasant street-style photography blog were swept away in a second.

Well, to be precise the blog of The Photodiarist (she has two: The Photodiarist is the B&W version and The Photodiarist in Color is the color version) is not ONLY street-style, I would call it more street-LIFE.

She makes such pictures that you feel you are there, living the moment. 

And her subjects are not only well-dressed girls but also a funny man on a street, a piano player in Central Park, a drop of water standing on a  tree branch.

And, mainly, her blog IS New York.

I was following it from several weeks, every day more and more amazed by her photography, since one day she published this picture:

and I felt the need to comment it IMMEDIATELY and tell her how much I liked it. 

The burned out light, the perfect representation of the icy weather and that pink hat just in the middle. Perfection.

She saw the comment and she, very nicely, came to my blog, she told me she liked it a lot and when I read that comment I started to jump all around my place, shouting "She said she likes it!!". 

Tommy thought I hit my head somewhere and then asked me, a bit irritated "But sorry, WHO told you she likes WHAT?"

So I took his hand, brought him at my computer and showed him some of her pictures "SHE said she likes my blog and my drawings!!!". 

He looked at the photos, and he immediately understood why I was so happy.

Now, thanks to her last posts, I also discovered that she is an incredible fashion photographer. 

Her boyfriend got her a ticket for the Luca Luca show at New York fashion week as a Valentine present (this girl is freaking lucky, we should ask her where she found her boyfriend, maybe it is a good place to find guys like that ahaha).

Actually I think that these pictures are the ones where her talent shows the most.

Look at them and then tell me: aren't they some of the best runway pictures you've ever seen?

Check the full A/W 2011-12 Luca Luca runway report here, here and here!

It's really a pity that she could go only to this show, I would love to see the WHOLE New York fashion week report by her... Sigh...

Anyway, it took me two hours to write this post and I really gotta go, I have a styling mission today: one of my male friends asked me to help him shopping for new clothes. I accepted "only if you allow me to go buy new colors to draw at the Schleiper shop and a blush at MAC" ahahah.

It will be fun I think!

I really hope that Zarna and The Photodiarist (I still don't know your name!! What's your name? ahah) and also all of you will like this post, I really love to talk about talented girls like these (there will be more in the future, some of my new illustrator friends should be prepared... ;-) )

Have a very nice week-end, a big kiss!!


Al