Like Barbie's

Love these miniatures rings of actual buildings rendered in 18-karat gold and platinum - by Dream House Jewelery!

Sheerly

Crazy about sheer right now, especially when layered. I want to make a sheer hoodie or vest, and another flouncy puff skirt to add to my collection (skirts are the easiest thing to make for me).

I Heart Harputs Own

I am SO obsessed with the idea of versatile garments. Each of these garments can be draped, twisted, tucked and buttoned in multiple ways. Brilliant. Visit Harputs Own's website to drool & shop.

Majorly

The brief for my first major project is to adapt an active sport... .
..and throw in an embellished cultural piece. I'm working with a lovely piece of antique purple silk from Afghanistan with embroidery and mirrors.
Any ideas/places to look for inspiration? I'm debating between American football and sky diving.

Show Me Your Wardrobe

New blog to devote all my (limited) free time to! Show Me Your Wardrobe has been featured recently in Elle, Vogue, Grazia and Glamour so it's definitely got street cred.

Zara Martin, TV presenter

I Believe In Unicorns

I managed to squeeze in some fun this weekend, window-shopping with two lovely blog friends from Capture The Castle and Brigadeiro! :) 

Mrs Conde Nast

Cartier is holding an exhibition in New York to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. Click here for a slideshow of bold, extravagant jewels. My favorite is this purse designed for Mrs. Conde Nast.

Lizzie Thomas

Lizzie Thomas is a newly graduated paper artist who studied at Brighton University and Central Saint Martins. Her work is an interesting mix of 3D paper craft, woodwork and book-binding that references fairytales and forklore. They remind me of children's pop-up books! Check out her website and her visual research blog.

An Interview With Judy Kou, Owner of Sunday Brunch Dress Shop

My two favorite things to do are shopping (of course!) and catching up with friends over brunch. So imagine my delight when I discovered the Sunday Brunch Dress Shop, which preaches the virtues of "taking time to slow down and dress up"!

Each season, Judy Kou, the owner of this New York-based personalized service, hand-picks dresses for her clients from a range of hard-to-find local and international designers, like
Lorick and Quail. She also curates a virtual gallery for established and emerging artists, such as illustrator Adrienne Vita and graphic designer Iris Schwarz, to complement the dresses.

Judy was kind enough to answer a few questions about her online boutique - read on!


How did you get started in the fashion industry?
Like many adventures, mine was not a direct one. I moved to New Y
ork for graduate school on a fairly typical path to medical school. Long story short a little birdie told me that a career in medicine was not going to cut it for me. Momentary paralysis on the brink of a life altering decision later and it dawned on me that the only other thing I've been interested in aside from holding a scalpel is fashion, specifically my love of dresses. So that's when I took the leap. I left the world of Science and I've been happily living in a world of pretty dresses since.
Who are your favorite designers?
This is always a hard question for me because I might identify with one designer for a particular season, but find that the next season is less to my taste. So with that in mind, I can probably say that I consistently drool over Blumarine. But I don't think I will ever wear one of their creations in my lifetime. My absolute favorite designers are Heidi Merrick and Lorick, and I feel so lucky to be able to carry their dresses in my shop and help spread the love. Their designs really speak to me as a woman who feels like I never grew up, like I'm playing dress up in my mom's pretty clothes.


What are your day-to-day responsibilities as the owner of Sunday Brunch?
I am glued to the computer chair. I begin the day with a giant cup (pitcher?) of coffee (lots of cream, no sugar, thanks) and answer emails that came in over night. One would be surprised by the amount of online shopping women do in the wee hours of the morn. These emails range from sizing questions to whether the shade of red on the dress would match one's haircolor. I love answering these emails. The rest of the day is spent reading my favorite blogs, discovering new blogs, discovering new talent, managing the website, following up on orders, bills, packaging orders to be sent out, communicating with designers or showrooms...before I know it the day is gone. Days when new goodies arrive are completely dedicated to photographing each style and posting them into the shop with their descriptions. Meetings here and there and of course my boss (my English bulldog, Munch) demands attention every 20 minutes so keeping him happy is a huge part of my daily responsibility. You think I'm joking.
Do you have any criteria when selecting the dresses that end up in the shop?
I buy for the shop very much how I would shop for my own closet. It's not a bad way to go. Other important considerations are: 1) Can this dress be worn years from now despite the fickle trends of fashion? 2) Can this dress be worn from morning 'til night, brunch to cocktails? 3) Can I afford this dress and still pay for rent and groceries? Maybe just rent then?
Who are your clientele? How do you help them find the perfect dress?
I started the shop online first and not as a brick and mortar location to have the freedom of the miraculous World Wide Web. The Internet is an amazing source of information, and of course shopping. I have met so many people from all over the world, all so different. My client is anyone who finds the shop and likes what they see. Every woman is looking for the same thing in a dress: a dress that is going to make her feel good. So that can be recommendations on color, size, style and cut, fit, etc based on her body shape, measurements, personality, and occassion for the dress.


What are your plans for the future?
Sunday Brunch started as a pie in the sky dream and from there morphed from one jumbled idea to another until the opening day. I have learned one very important fact: plans change! I always have new ideas forming in my mind for the next step...wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! But my goal is really to learn as much as I can and really listen to what people want and need and take it one day at a time.
Finally, if you could only have one dress in your closet, what would it be?
Ouch. Tough question. It would be green. It would be long. It would probably look just like the green gown Kiera Knightly wore in Atonement. I have reoccurring dreams about that dress. If I'm only allowed one dress, can I have a lot of hats to wear with my dress?
Thank you Judy! Make sure you check out her website for oodles of pretty frocks.

Photo credits: http://www.sundaybrunchdress.com

Brush With Fame

I love this resin and marble paintbrush vase by Harry Allen, available at Areaware. Perfect for your inner artist!

I Heart Jordan Askill

I love reading about our alumni who have struck it big. One of these hot shots is Jordan Askill, who graduated six or seven years ago with a truckload of awards, worked for Ksubi (then called Tsubi) and moved to Paris to design for Dior Homme. He's back on home soil now and has launched a jewellery and sculpture collection which is ah-maz-ing. Like so:
The crazy impressive thing, which I only heard about recently, is that in his final year at our school he suffered a stroke. He literally collapsed in the design studio and later attributed it to stress, a poor diet and lack of exercise. This both gave me a whole new level of respect for his success and scared the hell out of me - is that what I have to look forward to for the next couple of years?!

Photo credits:
http://www.askillprojects.com/jordanaskill.html

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week: Part 2


More from RAFW! Yesterday was extra fun because I managed to go backstage and watch the models go through hair & makeup!


Lisa Ho
Fashion Week wouldn't be complete without a Lisa Ho collection. She used some really pretty animal and paisley prints, and there was a selection of beautifully draped dresses in tangerine, teal and green. There was rapturous applause when she came out for her bow!

The other show I went to was the Fashion Design Studio, The Sydney Institute joint collection by the four best students who graduated from my school last year. I would love for this to be me one day!

Soeli Pedrozo
First up was Soeli Pedrozo. She stuck to a neutral palette of black, white and gray and experimented with precise folds, tucks and pleats. I got to see some of these garments hanging on the rack before the show and they were even more spectacular up close!

Rachel Sherwood
Rachel Sherwood put on a great show with a bikie vibe. There were geometric panels on all her jackets and dresses, and some exciting pops of neon pink and yellow.

Seema Pun
Seema Pun drew on her Thai heritage with origami detailing and gold headpieces. There was also some crazy styling with giant tennis-ball sized rings and necklaces!

Christian Lines
The last designer was Christian Lines, who put out a street-savvy collection. Not really my style but the futuristic prints and edgy cuts were interesting!

I didn't stick around for the other shows - I heard that the collections by Romance Was Born, Juli Grbac and Sass & Bide were really well-received but I had to go home and work on an assignment (a 10-piece denim collection). Be sure to check out my friend's coverage of Day 3 and Day 4 - she captured some really cool "model off-duty" shots!

Today I'm going to the Fashion Palette conference. Should be fun!