Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Just a quickie visual treat for you today: fabulous, fashion-y album art from the 70s.

I’m not a fan of either of these 2 ladies, musically, but damn that is some cool album art!

Yesterday I spent entirely too much time at a new thrift store in Waterbury, CT, the Red, White and Blue Thrift Store, where I found these lovelies.  Allegedly the proceeds benefit Vietnam Veterans, although no specific organization is named in their signage.

It is HUGE, the size of a supermarket, and omg the shoes! and the bags! were probably the best part.  Also the housewares and bric-a-brac.  They seem to do quite a good job of reselling only newish clothes, which is fine for people who shop thrift out of necessity, but disappointing for vintage fans.  But they do have a decent selection of jewelry.  The furniture section was also pretty disappointing. 

There were several cashiers at the front, a handful of employees returning merchandise on the floor, and a gentleman sweeping the floors.  It was very well organized, clean, and well stocked.

Prices are comparable to Goodwill, i.e. more expensive than Salvation Army, and definitely correlated to good vintage and high end brands.  Clothes are organized by type of garment, and then color.  There are daily sales on certain color tags, like Goodwill.

However, it is CASH ONLY.

Open 9-6 daily except Sunday (I think).  In the Colonial Plaza, Thomaston Avenue, Waterbury.  Red, White and Blue is located in the old Railroad Salvage Store, next to Compare grocery store.

Check out these fashion and textiles exhibits on the West Coast!

At the DeYoung Museum of Fine Arts

To Dye For

July 31, 2010 – January 9, 2011

Textiles and apparel featuring all types of resist-dyeing methods, from ancient to modern.

 

 

At the Museum of Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising

The Art of Television and Costume Design

July 27, 2010 – September 4, 2010

Emmy-award winning costumes and a Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland special exhibit.

Also check out The Annette Green Perfume Museum on the 2nd Floor

 

Via CANBlog

 

Also be sure to check out my other list of fashion exhibits in the US and Europe this summer, here! 

Have you visited any of these exhibits? Tell us what you thought and send in your photos!  Leave a comment below, or email me, Allie {at} AnalogueChic {dot} com.

 

A counter-example, if that wasn’t clear. Image via Art in Liverpool. Sorry.

Lots of interesting links in fashion news this week:

The Wall Street Journal tells us about a new cable channel with a Home Shopping Network premise, but featuring handmade housewares and indie designers, and informs us that there is a huge market out there waiting to be tapped.

At the same time, consumers are increasingly hungry for independent designs. In part, brand fatigue is to blame. Big fashion labels sell the same products the world over, diminishing their logos’ cachet. Their designers work on collections a year or more in advance of the clothes’ appearance in stores and rarely—if ever—meet the people who eventually buy them. Moreover, many consumers lost faith in luxury brands after watching prices soar during the boom, then plummet during the crash in the fall of 2008. The slashed sales prices raised questions about the true value of branded goods.

[...]  Now, even the huge brands are striving to establish authenticity—sometimes trying a bit too hard. British authorities recently banned Louis Vuitton ads that showed an artisan laboring on a bag, saying the ads suggested, falsely, that its bags are handmade.

The article gives a shoutout to CT’s own Trish Ginter, co-founder of the indie designer showcase Smashing Darling, and designer at Frock in Chester.

The Business of Fashion had more to add on Louis Vuitton:

A month earlier, Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH [Louis Vuitton's parent company], told investors at the luxury group’s annual shareholders meeting in Paris of his plan to take a 49 percent stake in Edun, the sustainable clothing label founded by Bono and Ali Hewson. “LVMH shares the vision and ethical values of Edun, a pioneer in ethical apparel, and its founders,” he said later. “LVMH is committed to advancing both the social and environmental aspects of sustainable development, which plays an intrinsic role in the development of our brands.”

The BoF article also discussed the struggle to balance good design, profitability, and sustainability:

Stella McCartney became known as a chic designer label that’s convincingly green, not as a green designer label that is convincingly chic. Speaking to The Business of Fashion, McCartney was clear about her priorities: “Obviously, I don’t use any animals which has a huge impact on the planet. But my first job is to make desirable, luxurious, beautiful clothing for women to want to buy. Then I ask myself: can I do this in a more environmental way without sacrificing design? If I can, then there is no reason not to. I think that women buy my product because they like how it looks, feels, fits and being sustainable is an added extra bonus.”

This emphasis on desirability and design may come as no surprise from a graduate of London fashion college Central St. Martins. But interestingly Ali Hewson, who founded Edun primarily as a means to do good, sees it no differently. She told BoF: “In the fashion business desirability is sustainability! This point has taught us over the years that we must produce quality clothes. Fit must be right, design details correct.”

Julie Gilhart, influential fashion director at Barneys New York, and an early proponent of sustainable fashion, sums it up bluntly: “Consumers respond to good design. Design and desirability must come first.” When deciding whether to spend on fashion, the consumer looks, above all, for good design. Ecological or ethical considerations are still very much secondary.

You can see Julie Gilhart riff on design and sustainability in this video.

You can also read my thoughts on these subjects in two previous posts, here and here.

I’m lately obsessed with the concept of multi-function, convertible clothing.  I think it’s a trend that will be a major boon to sustainability, allowing people to pare down the number of pieces in their wardrobe, while still being versatile enough to suit a number of different social and professional situations.

Check out this very thorough article about Chinese brand JNBY, which just opened a boutique in NYC.

Some may have a hard time ferreting out the standout pieces in what at first glance is a dim sum of shapeless, and soulless, gray, black, taupe and navy body casings suspended from fixtures that look like outsize swing sets. But on closer inspection, the loose-fitting clothes, in sizes 1 to 5 (3 is a medium), are audacious indeed, shifting shape, mood and proportion like an army of soft-skinned Transformers. Their mutability suggests a no-commitment approach to dressing that has parallels in contemporary home design; the clothes are the fashion equivalent of a cleverly constructed sectional that can be pushed, piled, tugged or folded into myriad shapes and configurations.

Image via StyleSpy

Today is Etsy’s 5th birthday!  That’s a long time in internet years….  I’m having a surprise sale to celebrate!

Most items are $5 off, even clearance.
All vintage blouses are just $5!
For one day only.

Happy Birthday, Etsy!

Click on the Shop link above, or the Etsy button on the left to get to my shop.

Image via Gingerbread Jewelry.

New listing under Fashion Exhibits to See This Summer:

And while fashion exhibitions can be challenging to the imagination—how often have you been to a museum where it seems like they’ve just hung a bunch of dresses on mannequins?—this show comes alive with the help of legendary fashion photographs taken by the likes of Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon.

Woah.

Quote and images via Racked.

{Woah, 3 posts this week!  Can you tell I’m on sabbatical from wage-slavery? }

A couple of great  links from my new blog-discovery, ethniciti by interior designer Bill Sands. Both these references are helping to fuel my longstanding intrigue-bordering-obsession with Mali.

Malian fiber arts at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco

Aboubakar Fofana, Malian-French fabric artist (sorry, his site is currently French only)

If you’re traveling this summer, check out one of these fashion-related exhibits in the US and Europe.  If you know of any others, drop me a line, and I’ll add them here.  [Updated 6/6; 6/17; 7/12]

NYC

Metropolitan Museum, Costume Institute

May 5, 2010–August 15, 2010

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

[...] the first Costume Institute exhibition drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. It explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation. "Gibson Girls," "Bohemians," and "Screen Sirens," among others, helped lay the foundation for today’s American woman.

Metropolitan Museum, Howard Gilman Gallery

June 8, 2010 – October 17, 2010

Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950–1980

Born in West Virginia in 1910, Levinstein moved to New York in 1946 and spent the next thirty-five years obsessively photographing strangers on the streets of his adopted home. Early in his career, Levinstein was quoted in Photography Annual 1955: "In my photographs I want to look at life—at the commonplace things as if I just turned a corner and ran into them for the first time." With daring and dedication to his subject, Levinstein captured the denizens of New York City at extremely close range. He used his superb sense of composition to frame the faces, flesh, poses, and movements of his fellow city dwellers in their myriad guises: sunbathers, young couples, children, businessmen, beggars, prostitutes, proselytizers, society ladies, and characters of all stripes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo (c) Rinze van Brug; via LinhardtDesign.com/blog

Meet Summer Rayne Oakes [...] fashion model, eco activist, environmental scholar, host of Discovery Network’s Planet Green, and author of Style, Naturally. Oakes will speak about her passionate support for sustainable development, sustainable design, and environmental activism. Following the talk, her book will be available for purchase and signing. In addition, Lisa Linhardt will be on hand to host a trunk show of her latest eco-friendly jewelry, as well as the jewelry and home décor designs of a.d. schwarz. Both designers are in the forefront of the sustainable design movement.

via AldrichArt.org; links added.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519

www.aldrichart.org

Sunday, May 2
3 to 5 pm

member · FREE
non-member · $10.00
cornell alumni · $5.00

From the people who brought us One Laptop per Child, we now have a solution to the demoralizing experience that is underwear shopping. (Demoralizing for me anyway, because all I want are cotton bikini briefs that cover my entire rear, with no lace/cutouts/bling, etc, and the only kind I can afford is totally made in sweatshops. I am penitent.)

Pact sustainable undies for ladies and gents – sustainable materials, sustainable construction, and donations to effective organizations.

This link will also be available in the Eco Shopping Links tab.