Links à la mode - 30 december 2010 -

I am featured on Links à la mode from Independent Fashion Bloggers for the first time and I am very excited about it!
Here the original post where you can find also all the other interesting links that are featured this week:

Inspiration Now

Edited by Ashe Mischief/Dramatis Personae
After being a Links a la Mode editor for years, it's really refreshing to come back and edit our end of 2010 edition! It felt so timely, too-- the end of a year. So many new, exciting things to look forward to. New ideas, people, inspiration. That's where this round-up came from: inspiration. It's my hope that these posts will inspire you, as they've inspired me-- as a reminder to step outside your boundaries to try something new. As a reminder to look at the world around you. To be bright and brilliant and love fashion & style. To treat yourself well, to love yourself, and feed your mind & body all you need to thrive-- and hopefully inspire and help you to be the person you want to be in 2011.
Hope you all have an amazing New Year!

Links á la Mode: December 30th

• Antares: Alfa Scorpii: Mori girls style is an amazing street style trend, the mixture of ethnic, folk, lolita-style and others.
• Awakened Aesthetic: Araks Yeramyan's lingerie is both ethical and effortless.
• Beyond Fabric: On Family History - Vintage Family Pics
• Big Girl. Small Budget. Tiny Town.: Using the 12 Days of Christmas as style inspiration. A 12-verse song translated into 12 winter looks
• Boheme Noir: 10 Ways to Wear Tartan & Plaid
• Circle City Style: High Fashion in the Style of Gemma Teller
• Dramatis Personae: If I were Another Girl... Inspired by Eastern European Boho Style
• Fasshonaburu: Why is that most "Flatter Your Shape" articles will feature petite and curvy, yet rarely both in one person?
• Fuyume: Is the rise of Asian models a fad?
• The House in the Clouds: Shine your light on me: A reminder to all women that we are more beautiful and interesting collectively.
• I'm the It Girl: Colour Trends S/S 2011: From Runway to H&M
• Independent Fashion Bloggers: Setting Blogging Resolutions for the New Year
• Liv Lux Magazine: How to Ease High Heel Foot Pain [Video]
• Lust, Love, Lose: Lust- Maggie Matich's Lavender Hair
• Just B Blog: B Festive: Hair Tinsel the perfect holiday hair accessory!
• Miss Vicki: Crossing the line between fetish and fashion
• Modly Chic: Typical New Year's Resolutions-- Blogified.
• MoMoMod: I'm bound to believe that Catherine's definitive, effortless, and lady like style is perfect in its own right.
• My Fashion Lust List: Fashion Related Health Problems
• The Coveted: Snow boots for urban sludge
• The Red Dot: Fashion Illustration therapy: review of three of the best fashion illustration blogs of the moment - Do they have influence on our style and looks?
• Watch This Place: In a world where 'shocking' is no longer shocking, I consider whether the 'rock-'n'-roll-bad-girl' has lost her edge.

SPONSOR:
Shopbop Blog: So Low, 291 Venice, Freecity, YFB, LAMB, Wilt, KAIN, MINKPINK, Ever, ADAM, Indah

The Beautiful people: Fashion illustration

After retail-therapy, fashion illustration-therapy. 


It's a while that I am thinking of showing the websites and the blogs that I like the most. 
Somehow, I feel like a blogroll is not enough: OK, I list all my favorite links, but I miss a lot the part in which I can explain WHY I like one certain website. I'm a review freak, if you want to put it like that. 


So the other day I thought about dividing my favorites of the moment in categories and I started to ask them for permission of using their pictures to show you their works, and voilà my first list is about my favorite three websites for fashion illustration (+ 1 extra).


I think that illustration and drawing in fashion not only are extremely beautiful, but they can even inspire my shopping like no other. I think it's because they suggest you a mood, a trend, colors and shapes more than an item itself. It's like a way of stimulating your creativity and fantasy, suggesting you the fashion of the moment in a more subtle way than magazines et similia. And plus, after a while you observe this kind of works, you feel surrounded by beauty and you can't stop it even in your real life. I think they're kind of a therapy.


One of my favorite above all is Garance Doré, but since I bet that everybody here already know her and since she also owns my favorite blog (above all) at the moment I am not going to talk about her too much here. Just check out her illustration and photography, c'est superbe.


So, after an hour of useless talking (as always, I would say) here is my list of three:

MAYA BEUS

http://mayabeus.blogspot.com/

I discovered her just two or three days ago, but her drawings hit me like a truck at 150 km/h on the highway would so I really felt the pushy need to write about her and show you how beautiful her work is.

I find her shaping of the feminine silhouette and face and her use of color the perfect synthesis between simplicity and detail. I could stare her drawings for hours, they embody my taste and my sense of beauty and color perfectly.

She's also very funny and nice to read too, I really suggest you all to check out her blog.

And, last but not least, she's a lovely person. I recently wrote a comment on her blog and she replied here with this:

"Your drawings are very lovely. Thank you for visiting and I hope you are gonna keep drawing as there is nothing sexier than an artist scientist! ;-)

Cu around Al!

M"

I mean... do you know anything that can boost your self-confidence more than a sentence like this? I don't. I told her, you're better than my red lipstick...

(Ah! I almost forgot, she's a member of Independent Fashion Bloggers too)

Some more drawings of Maya (I really had an hard time choosing just three of them):

IGOR + ANDRE'

http://igorandandre.blogspot.com/

This guy is amazing, he's so talented that he almost gives me pain. He has a wonderful use of colors but the thing I like the most is how he shapes the faces of women:

I think he has a very good rendering of depth, shadows and shape of the woman face, which I find very difficult when I draw. I always use his drawings as models to exercise ahaha!

I love the dreamy, delicate feeling of beauty his drawings give... That's what I meant when I wrote that a drawing can inspire you the whole meaning of fashion, after looking at some of his works I bought some that now I consider as staple pieces for me and I use every day. I don't know the mechanism through which this works, but I really guess it is just a "I see beauty I want more beauty" thing.

He also has an etsy shop where you can buy his prints:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DannyRoberts

I think I'll do that soon (I should stop looking at the blog of this guy or my wallet will start to scream for revenge)

PAPERFASHION

http://paperfashion.wordpress.com/

This is exactly how I would like to be able to draw. But believe, I am already grateful that someone that can draw something like this exists, because I can look at it and feel good.

I don't have much to say about the work of Kathryn Elyse, also because I think it's really better to let her drawings speak for me. Just that if a fashion magazine only illustrated like this would exist I would buy it every month. Multiple copies if necessary.

She also have an Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kathrynelyse (she made a calendar that is to die for)

So, do you like these artists, did you already know them?

And don't you feel too that by looking at them something inside you is melting and you just feel that you would stare at the landscape for hours and operate to bring even more beauty in your life?

Do they make the same effect as for me on shopping and on your style, even better than looking outfits and magazines pictures?

Oh, how many questions, sorry! I'm just curious, I like this topic eheh...

Now I go to pack (again... back to Belgium!). Have a nice day!

Al

EDIT: Oh my I almost forgot!!! 

On I LOVE ILLUSTRATION you will find articles on all the best fashion illustrators around the world. 

I discovered so many of them thank to this website that is very nice and always up-to-date.

I really suggest it to everyone, and especially if you like to draw you can find real treasures  for inspiration there.

(and this was the "little extra"! And I forgot it! My, my Al what a brain!!)

Aaaahh winter holidays...

I lay in bed, I sleep a bit, then I do totally useless things on my computer. Then I go take a cup of coffee and back to bed and look at Elle Italia lazily. Then I sleep a bit again and I just want to stay wrapped in my cover and ooooh it's soooo warm...

And then my mother will cook for me and I just have to eat, nothing else and...

Oh come on is it already 7 pm?? 

Give me the strength to get up from my bed, ged rid of this gym suit and this 30 kilos-of-wool scarf, have a shower and do my lipstick, please! 

We have to go drink wine tonight, I am in Italy and I'll have this opportunity again in months (oh yes, finally something that is not Belgian beer!) so GET UP!

But just 5 more minutes... and some more pages of Elle and... and... zzzzzzzzz

Merry Christmaaas!!!!

But mainly (Christmas is just one day in the end, and I'm sure you'll all spend it happily with your families and the people you love) I hope you'll have a great 2011.

I hope the new year will bring you joy, success in your job, love and tons of beauty all around you.

I especially wish the best to all the "old" friends who didn't abandon me despite the fact that I left Italy and I see them just three or four times a year, to all the new ones in Belgium and my lovely colleagues at work (I don't even mention my family and Tommy of course, words are not enough) and to all the relatives and friends that this year went through very bad and tough moments: it will be better, it will be great for you!

And very important, I want to thank all the people that are reading my blog, encouraging me with my return to drawing and interacting with me, even for the most useless and awkward posts. 

I opened it just one month ago and I already feel part of something that really makes me happy. I love you!!

Oh God, this is a flood of sticky sugar! Please excuse me, it's Christmas and we know that it makes everybody become a bit rhetorical and almost sickening sweet... I'll be back to normal when I'm back home in Belgium, I promise! 

Tons of love.

Al

Beautiful shops in Florence: Falsi Gioielli

The shop window from inside - The earrings I bought today - Their very nice business card

Today I went to Florence with my sister and I couldn't miss the opportunity to show you a shop that I love very much: Falsi Gioielli

"Falsi gioielli" means literally "fake jewels" but in my mind the two words have a somewhat ironic shade: the emphasis is on the word "falsi" (fake) because normally in Italian you would say "gioielli falsi". This gives a playful meaning to the sentence and it's like it says "yes, we're jewels, we're beautiful, but don't take us too seriously!". 

It reminds me childhood, when I was playing with plastic jewels and my grandmother shoes and hats and was feeling the most elegant woman in the world. 

This happy, joyful and not too serious feeling is what accompanies you from the first steps in the shop, when you enter this magic world of colors and shapes. 

A very beautiful wood and metal cake riser full of flower brooches - Ombretta and Mara at work - One of the old (and I bet precious) ceiling fans

When I was studying at University, Falsi Gioielli pieces were a must (is it my impression or the word "must" is a bit demodé? Ok, let's be retro today) among my girlfriends and me. I remember drooling in front of the shopping window, trying to copy their necklaces at home using my grandmother old buttons with catastrophic results (yes, shame on me, but I was poor!!! I know, I know... it's not an excuse...) and asking their bijoux as presents for every possible occasion.

I remember the envy of the others when one of us was proudly showing a new plexiglass earring or a colorful button-made necklace at a party and the joy when I could get my hands on a new bijoux coming from the talented hands of these bijoux artisans (now, do you believe me when I tell you I am an accessory freak??)

And I bought a necklace here two or three years ago I think, long brown and quite big (I'll show you for sure one day) that I wear almost every day. I think one day it will ask me to spare it from consumption and kill it fast and painless.

Their creations range from button necklaces and bracelets (my favorites) in every color possible and laser-cut plexiglas bijoux in almost every shade of the rainbow and every shape,  to pearl (also in a range of materials, dimensions and colors) necklaces and fabric flower brooches. But they have much more to offer and even just a look in the shop is a pleasure for the eyes.

And the prices are nice and for every budget (I would say from an average of 5-8 euros to 50 euros maximum. For 20 euros you can buy a very beautiful necklace or bracelet)

If you live in Florence and never been here (I doubt...) or if you're visiting the city and you're searching for a nice gift for a friend (or simply for yourself... eheh...) you should really visit one of their two shops.

This one in the picture is in Via de' Tavolini (a side street of via Calzaiuoli, the shopping street that leads to Piazza Signoria from the Dome) and it is, in my opinion the most beautiful.

If you're wandering in the area of the San Lorenzo market/central station Santa Maria Novella it can be convenient for you to visit their shop in Via  De' Ginori instead.

You can also find all of the useful informations, contacts and more pics on their website, falsigioielli.it

I really want to thank the wonderful Mara and Ombretta that kindly allowed me to take pictures in their realm (and gave me and my sister also a small gift *Al has heart-shaped eyes*), and the owners Sandro (that also chatted with me and the other girls a little bit) and Silvia (she wasn't there today, maybe she was in the other shop).

*please tell me I remembered the names correctly, I would die of shame otherwise... Remember, if I made a mistake is not because I don't love you!*

-I really hope that the owner of that fabric shop in the center that in a very rude way didn't allow me to take pictures will read this and eat his hands for regret (we say like that in Italian, do you have a similar saying in english?), tsk!-

Vintage... you don't need to shop for!

If there's one thing I love even more than shopping is cheap shopping for great pieces (and satisfaction). It happened to me but not so often that I could get some silk scarf for 5 euros or a great new real leather bag for 30 that I wore for ages.


And there's something that I love even more than cheap shopping and buying bargains: free vintage. 
Ok, Ok I know! Who wouldn't love it?? It's free stuff!
But I'm talking about the peculiar pleasure of opening your grandmother boxes and find little treasures, finding your mother's old student bag in a forgotten closet or rescuing a Prada bag or a Ferragamo scarf from the bottom of the cellar.


I also found some treasures in the past (for example an old black Prada bag of my grandmother that I love soooo much and I'll show you for sure later on) and today I found more, namely two pair of gloves, one silk little scarf and a leather bag (the one that my mother used carry her books to University).


Sorry for the pictures, it is dark and I could just use artificial lights but it is enough to have an idea!

Soft beige leather gloves (they make my hands look so thin and elegant!) and black-white-orangey brown silk scarf

Leather bag and wool/leather gloves

I love them!! Tomorrow I'll surely wear something (maybe I can make better pics...)

What do you think? Do you like them?

I think I'll surely search some more before I get back to Belgium, eheheh...

Al

A Merry Christmas?

Also this year, my flight was cancelled because of the snow-related problems in the European airports. It was cancelled because at Brussels International Airport they finished the anti-icing liquid… I would really like to have a look at the Airport’s director IQ, but since I guess it’s not possible, never mind.

I struggled one day to find an alternative and miraculously found one of the last tickets in the Paris-Florence night train.

Also this year, after more than one day of delay on my scheduled arrival time at home, 24 hours of train, change in four (very cold) stations in three different cities, 300 euros less in my bank account (and apparently no hope for a refund of my plane ticket) I’m finally home with my parents.

Also this year, I am enjoying the possibility of being with my family to the fullest, because at a certain point I really thought I couldn’t be able to make it.

I am happy, I am at home and I hope your starting your Christmas holidays as merrily as I am…

Al

In a normal Sunday of shopping...

I will never learn to save my money, really!!

Today I checked my bank account and I found some unexpected holiday money (or the "thirteen month", how they call it in Italy) from the University, but since I am in a transition period from my old contract with them and a new scholarship foundation I really didn't know if I had to expect this money (and how much).

And of course, what did I choose to do? Save them? Put them aside for a very reasonable and smart purchase? 

No, of course. I went out with the cold and the snow and the wind and the very busy Christmas-period streets to do.... shopping!!

Oh yeah, nothing can stop me when I want to spend money. I am terrible, I suck!

Anyway, I'm happy because I bought all useful stuff: a pair of Levi's jeans (from the Straight-Demi-Bold Curve series, they're just wonderful, the blue Jean with the capital J) that I really needed because the only good pair of skinny jeans that I own was almost tear apart (literally), a black wool jacket (come on, you always need a black wool jacket!) and a pair of super lovely booties from Zara (when I saw them I had heart-shaped eyes, but I'll tell you later why...) aaaaaand.....

... and of course I HAD TO spend money in something totally useless and frivolous. Otherwise I wouldn't be the Al that everybody know. Eheh, I am always so faithful to myself!

I bought a necklace in an amazing accessory shop of Gent, in which lately I've been buying all my bijoux.

It is called M.A.R.T.H.A. but I'm not going to describe it now because I think I'll write a post about it soon.

So there I found this very beautiful necklace (or at least for me it's beautiful! I am a fan of staple and original jewellery, but if you read the CoseAtre post you already knew eheh...).

It is made of horn and metal and it's really good to make a basic black shirt or dress less plain.

I think that also in summer with a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans it will be very nice.

Sorry for the very white skin, I am pale but it's also because I had to use the flash :P

The girl that sold me the necklace was the coolest of the cool. I loved her and I wanted to take a picture of her but the shop was very busy so I didn't want to disturb.

But when I went home I was still thinking of her incredible chic simplicity in her red tomboy hair, her light blue jumpsuit and her very nice necklace that I had to draw her. It's not even 0,001% cool as her, but anyway, just to have an idea...

A bit manga style, isn't it? I couldn't do better, sorry!

These are the Zara booties:

I'm veeeery happy about them. I was searching something comfortable, warm and able not to make me slip over the snow (remember my desperate question on how to be nice even in the Gent crappy weather?). I thought I would never found something with these three characteristics and ALSO not utterly ugly, but instead here they are, my beloved new boots!!

And they were just 80 (...) euros!! Happiness!!

Now I have to go, my boyfriend made pizza for me and we don't want to make him wait, do we??

I'll also have to start to think about my luggage for Italy, uff... (I hate to pack)

Have a nice evening!!

Al

The places I love... Tokyo

The second post about the places I love. 

After Paris, Tokyo!

Tokyo, August 2009

I love EVERYTHING about Tokyo and Japan, bust since I decided that my collages of the "places I love" series (can I call it like that?? Can I?? Please! It sounds so cool...) should contain just a few things, and mainly shallow or frivolous ones, here's my pick.

(I don't even mention Japanese art or literature: it would be impossible to choose just one image!)

From upper left, clockwise:

- Tokyo street-style n° 1 (from streetsofjapan.tumblr.com)

- Tokyo food - Tonkotsu ramen (this is the best I've ever tasted, it was a small and old place in Chiba)

- Mangas and animes (in the pic: Ai Yazawa's Paradise Kiss)

- Japanese actors Ueno Juri and Eita

- Tokyo street-style n°2 (from streetsofjapan.tumblr.com)

- In the center: Japanese fashion, Yohji Yamamoto

Everytime I use or look the pictures I took in Japan (end even when I see Japan pictures and posts in other blogs!) I feel so much nostalgy... I want to go back *sad Al*

Now I'm off to cook something, have a very nice week-end all of you and I'll be back soon! (with some new drawings I hope!)

Al

Marc Jacob's spring-summer 2011.. Another catwalk-inspired drawing

I hope one day I'll find a way to scan my drawings better than 
the crappy scanner at work/my (even crappier) camera!

When I saw the first pics of the spring 2011 Marc Jacobs campaign I was immediately attracted by the peachy colors.


I think it's because here is a hell of a weather (Snow. Storm. Again...) and this morning (a veeery grey morning) I was sitting at my desk at work with my hair in a complete mess (courtesy of Belgian wind) and with the mood under the soles of my shoes.


The photos from the campaign made shine a ray of sun inside of me (one ray, not more. It's still Belgian winter: it's hard to defeat) and gave me some warmth.


They remind me the sunset at the seaside with your girlfriends, when you're just back from the beach and start to prepare for the dinner and the night out

Photos from fashionologie.com, where you can also find the full article

Here on fashionologie.com you can find the report from the New York fashion week catwalk. 
I am totally in love with this collection, especially with the colors!


Al

The places I love... Paris

Yesterday I was randomly going through some of my pics, and suddenly I picked up some photos of my favorite cities.

There are some very shallow things that come to my mind immediately when I think about those places, not only the memories of the beauty, art and history of that city itself: I think about the flavour of the food for example. The style of the people in the streets. The iconic women that I love that come from that city or country. 

So I would like to show you all the photos that gave me this feelings and what they brought to my mind.

I will start with Paris.

From Montmartre, March 2008

From upper left, clockwise:

- Le Marais, place des Vosges (took May 2010)

- Ladurée macarons

- Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

- French girls I love: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Garance Doré

- In the center: Mademoiselle Coco Chanel

- The representation of Paris clubs, bars and showgirls by Toulouse-Lautrec 

And Air's music

I guess all of these are quite typical things to love of Paris (and France), but actually I have tons more (I just don't have enough space to put them all!)

And you? What do you love of Paris?

For the next city I still have to choose... Tokyo, Kyoto, Florence or London?

Al

The Good, the Beautiful and... the Bad

The Good

And with this I mean something that is not only nice but also useful and smart.

The Heel condoms are, in my opinion, a stroke of genius. 

They're not really my style, I usually wear more simple things and I almost never wear high heels but I think that for girls who love high heels and like to change shoe style often but don't have billions to spend these are a must have.

theheelcondoms.com

They cost from 20 to 30 dollars and you can buy them here.

And with this price don't tell me they're not the perfect Christmas gift for your fashion-addicted friends!

The Beautiful

When I saw this Nars limited edition I had a face like a kid in front of a toy megastore in the Christmas period.

It's actually no surprise: how couldn't a Japan-freak-beauty-addict-new-follower-of-the-red-lips-religion go crazy for something like this??

Basically, they are two lipsticks, highly pigmented, held in a "bentou box" (the japanese lunch boxes). 

I haven't tried them (if you look at the price you'll guess why...) so I don't know if they are that super quality they claim to be (and that Nars products usually are) but I find that the concept behind the design of these lipsticks is just great.

They found a way to melt together many aspects of the traditional Japanese aesthetic, which has always been one of the symbols of simple, perfect elegance.

First of all the colors. They are exactly the vivid shades that you can find on ancient Japanese fabrics and accessories. Moreover, the red is the same in which the Shinto temples are painted, the color of geisha's lips and the shade of the traditional wedding kimono.

Plus, they added a very typical element: the wooden black box which, as the name of the collection suggests, reminds the lunch "bentou" boxes that are essential for every Japanese.

In the end is what I think is the most ingenious detail of the ensemble: the brush, which reminds the traditional calligraphy tool, art in which Japanese are masters.

So what is more beautiful and chic than painting your lips like a geisha, taking the pure pigments from an elegant black bentou box by using a calligraphy-inspired tool as a brush?

For me, this is the best of the chic (and the luxe, given the price and the ultra-limited edition) that I saw this winter up until now.

The Bad

Because I can't always only speak about the things that I like, can I?

I will try to be brief. And clear. 

Then I'll go straight to the point.

The december issue of Paris Vogue is a total "what the f**k???" for me. Almost disgusting.

And it's not a problem of morals. I think I am the less moralistic person in the world (sometimes even too much) but here is really my sense of aesthetics that's being touched. And my taste. And common sense, if you really want to add it.

I had the first feeling of disturbance (is this word OK? No because I think you noticed that my english is not exactly spotless...) almost immediately, with the "cadeaux" reportage.

For pages and pages there are these eleven/twelve year old girls, heavy make-up on, dressed with haute couture clothes, shoes and jewels that play at the "sophisticated lady" game. That can sound original and slightly provocative. But no. There is no trace of amusement in their eyes, they don't look like they're playing, there's no fun, no beauty in these pictures. The shots are dark, the girls look like they've been forced to play this game. 

Shots like these in the hurricane-era of pedophilia? For a Christmas gift guide? I guess they wanted to be provocative. Well, they just managed to show bad taste. 

Second, there are these Tom Ford's photo shoots. 

I state a budget of around 25 euros maximum a month (except special occasions, like when I find japanese magazines somewhere) for fashion magazines and I usually choose the ones that looks better every month between UK Elle, Vogue USA, Elle USA, Paris Vogue, Nylon, Glamour UK, Vogue Italia (and I buy Elle Italia always, every month. I think it's the best Elle out there and not because it's my mother tongue). I bought this Paris Vogue MAINLY because Tom Ford's pictures were featured.

And... what a disappointment. 

Even in a provocative shoot, with a controversial message to read in between the lines, from Mr. Ford you would expect at least some elegance.

In these you see old people having sex. But really, sex. They're 70 year old. And they look bad. And it's not for the wrinkles.

I mean, you can do it, it can be even a good idea to start from. But I don't know why, his shoots look only ugly and nasty. No provocation. No message. Nothing.

Ah, and did I tell you about the shoot after the "geriatric porn"(smart two-word description courtesy of styleite.com)? It's a woman that just had plastic surgery, still with her bendages on and guess what?? Having sex (with a younger guy who looks a bit lobotomized). 

And apparently I am not the only one that is a bit perplexed about these shoots. Here they call  the geriatric porn "gratuitous" and here is a nice article about the plastic surgery one.

In the end, I still think that there's nothing less provocative than wanting to be provocative at all costs. 

And you? Did you read the issue and what do you think? I am really curious!

Al