Shoegazer Visits: The V&A Museum, Ldn. Pt 3.

Part 3 - Misc.

Here are the rest of my photos from the V&A Museum. I appologise in advance for the terrible quality of some of them, but I only had my little point-and-click camera with me and it's hard photographing through glass with it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

Pics are of: Indian wall panels. Japanese warrior dress. A Chinese wine pot. A Chinese wedding hat. Items in the V&A store. A Tudor box. An oversized metal key and lock. A mermaid ornament.

Shoegazer Visits: The V&A Museum, Ldn. Pt 2.

Part 2 - Fashion.

The fashion and costume department of the V&A wasn’t as vast as I’d remembered it... and, excuse me V&A, but where were Elton John’s glasses?! I’m an accessories kind of girl and they had stuck in my head since my last visit there years ago, but this time there didn’t seem to be any accessories except a few gloves and shoes. Pfft. Maybe I missed a section? Who knows. Anyway, what did I see that I liked? Well, the first section of the fashion zone that I came to was the Future Fashion display, where outfits by graduates from the Royal College of Art are on show. There were a lot of shoulders going on... and harsh structured lines. This outfit reminded me of Darf Vader’s mask (I’m not so hot on fashion talk... likening this to old Darf’s mask is the best I can do...)

This ensemble (below) by 2008 graduate Heikki Salonen (b.1979, Helsinki) caught my attention because it is based on The Cure’s Disintegration album cover and, well, I’m always going to be biased to anything Cure related. A small section of the cover image has been blown up and repeated. It is purposefully pixellated to reveal the digital process behind it, and the design has been printed onto silk crepe.

Another piece by Salonen that I quite liked was this sleeveless, jacket/dress with a pearl shirt underneath it which can be worn separately.

These ensembles (below) by Kate Eary put a playful twist on traditional men’s military wear with brass door locks echoing the ornamental fastenings (“frogging”) on ceremonial and military clothing.

Elsewhere, I liked this cascading dress, I didn’t catch who it was by:

This vintage YSL (I think?) embellished dress:

And this vented sports corset, I like the structure of it:

Next up: The rest of the museum!

Shoegazer Visits: The V&A Museum, Ldn. Pt 1.

Part One – Jewellery.

Last Friday I visited the V&A Museum and spent a couple of hours looking round at many of the various sections. My favourite section, the jewellery rooms, had a no photography policy which is a shame because there were so many beautiful pieces I’d love to have blogged about, but I took notes and have tried to search a few out online to share with you. First is the work of Norwegian jeweller Tone Videland. I absolutely fell in love with a chocker necklace of hers that was on display. This is the only picture of it I can find online, unfortunately the piece is spread out and not hanging as it would when worn so you can’t quite see how stunning it looked:

The piece involved layers and layers of black metal feathers with a few gold slithers providing a highlight and some delicate gunmetal chain seemingly holding the whole thing together.

Displayed alongside the necklace was this quote from Vigeland:

“The way I got the idea for the feather series came from pure luck. A friend from Bergen came to me with a set of black iron nails. I found that when I hammered them flat they had a lovely character – almost like black feathers.”

Next to catch my eye was the enormous collection of rings housed in the jewellery rooms. I think one of my favourites was a towering, crooked silver house ring by Michael Burton. Again, I’ve searched online for an image and this is the best I can find – a different house ring in bone, but you get an idea:

Elsewhere I was taken with the Art Nouveau-style jewellery on display by the likes of Rene Lalique (France 1860 – 1945) and Lucien Gaillard (France 1861 – 1933). A lot of this work features intricate metal work in the fluid, natural lines so associated with the Art Nouveau movement and finished with subtly colourful enamel. Here is an example of work by Lalique:

A rather beautiful collection of pocket watches also caught my eye and I particularly liked the unusual octagonal watches dating from 1620 – 1630. This is the best image I can find to illustrate what they were like, though this watch seems more oval:

If only the curators hadn’t been so vigilant! Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Next up will be a post about the rest of the museum and fashion.

Shoegazer Visits: Anthropologie, London

(photo: print&pattern)

I had been looking forward to the opening of Anthropologie’s first UK store (on Regents Street) for a while and was so excited to finally visit it last Friday. The shop is beautiful, absolutely stunning. The displays, the products, the presentation – everything is delicious! The shop even features a living wall up the staircase (watered by rain water collected on the roof apparently).

(photo: print&pattern)

My only gripe with the shop is that everything seems so ridiculously overpriced. True, most of the clothes are exquisite and deserve their price tag, but seriously – who in their right mind would pay almost £25 for a single tea towel?! Or £14 for a simple knitted bird with one eye missing? I wasn’t expecting the prices of their small items of homeware, decorations and gifts to be so steep and was left a little disappointed as I’d wanted to grab a few Christmas presents for people. Humph. Oh well, bring on the winter sale! Still, if money is no object for you and you love to surround yourself with gorgeous things, Anthropologie is a true gem on Regents Street!

(photos: print&pattern)

If money is an object – well, it’s definitely worth visiting for the displays alone. A giant whale, a grizzly bear, a fabric tree... cupboards full of lovely china and mugs, rusty old keys hanging from the walls, big jars full of jewellery for you to rummage through... you can’t see me, but I’m drooling like Homer Simpson over Duff beer.

My photos:

Pic 1: A giant whale hangs above the delicate china displays.
Pic 2: Attention to detail! The dripping wax and the product information on stained old paper held by forks...

Shoegazer finds: Joanna Cheung Illustrations

Today's find is the work of Joanna Cheung, an artist and illustrator from London. Visit her shop to purchase the images below, and check out her blog for more lovely images and if you really like what you see, why not become a fan on Facebook! Personally I love the almost sketchbook style of Joanna's work and like to see the detailed little birds nestled amongst clunky squares and beutifully coloured circles and flowers. I hope to soon be adding some of Joanna's work to my pile of prints waiting to be framed! Enjoy!

Halloween Week: It's just a jump to the left...

And so our Halloween week draws to a close... (I said that in my best Vincent Price voice). I did prepare a big post about halloween costumes but the internet ate it! How feindish!

I hope you all have wonderful Halloweens, whatever you're doing. It's not very big in the UK, but for my part I'll be going to see the Rocky Horror Show dressed as a female/rockabilly version of Meatloaf's character. Can't wait! I may post some images of my costume and make up next week :)

For now... let's do the mash! THE MONSTER MASH! Here are some strange creations from Lancy Perry of Crescent Hill Designs...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! x

Halloween Week: Vintage spooks

Here are some vintage Halloween greetings cards to continue this week's special spooky theme!

NYPL