the language of orange

"the secondary colors, orange, green and purple, are less popular for clothing than the primaries, especially in conservative periods. individually, and even more when combined, they suggest the unusual, the original, the peculiar: an orange-green-purple print fabric seems jazzier than the same design in red, yellow and blue. in america, orange is often used for safety garments because of it's high visibility (greater even than that of yellow). traffic policemen, bicyclists at night and hunters in the woods wear garments of a brilliant, near-phosphorescent orange. partly as a result, this color has come to suggest danger and a call for attention. The addition of pink or white to orange softens the message, though not completely. members of the hare krishna sect dancing and chanting on a city street in their light-orange robes are certainly demanding attention - and, if you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry, or are the parent of a susceptible teenager, can represent a real hazard. in ordinary life, to wear an orange dress or suit, or even one of bright peach, apricot, or salmon-pink, is to demand to be noticed. (in smaller helpings - a sash, or a scarf, for instance - these colors may seem merely lively.)"

-from the language of clothes by alison lurie [emphasis mine]

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an amazing book about the sociology and symbolism of fashion i found over the holidays in jacksonville, florida, at my favorite secondhand bookshop of all time, chamblin's bookmine. my copy is from 1981. lurie looks at most colors and patterns, too, amongst many other subjects related to clothing and it's meanings...it is a fascinating tome. i highly recommend it.

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and how true for me, especially...in so many ways, both conscious and subconscious. smaller helpings are nice, but all over is better. *wink*

(vintage) book peeks: golden hands bargello

for a long time i have been yearning to take books from my collection, and show you and share with you their interesting insides. not all of them are "fashion" related, but are inspiring all the same. i can't keep all this good stuff to myself! i want to share it! when i can find the time (i have so little of it these days, what gives? *sigh*) maybe i will share some peeks into my books with you. cool?

perhaps they will inspire you somehow, even if it's for something as simple as a clever color combination in the clothes you deign to wear or perhaps a personal touch you can maybe add to something you're making (clothes or otherwise)? or maybe they can just fun to look at!? i think so!

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most of the books in my library are craft, art, or fashion related. i am a book lover, a book addict. i especially love old books, and seek them out wherever i can: thrift stores, antique fairs, amazon, ebay, you name it. i love the old, sometimes forgotten tomes and styles of the past; old books are a lovely window into past styles, fads, and norms. so, so fascinating, no?

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here's a book i found at a thrift store this past week for one dollar: golden hands bargello.

looks like it's from the 70s. for those who don't know, bargello is a style of needlepoint embroidery, usually employing wool yarn, which is stitched to a canvas backing. you often see it adorning old pillows, ottomans, and the like, but it can and has been used to adorn clothing and accessories. decorator/ceramacist jonathan adler has famously used bargello on some of his pillow designs.

i love bargello for a bunch of reasons: it's graphic, it's textural, and there's a lot of potential for colorplay. i love bargello best when it's especially colorful...the more riotous the colors, the more i like it, as is my way! i have a small collection of bargello pillows, i would like to add to it over time, if time and money will allow!

anyway, here you go:

love this shot and all the pillows, immediately made me think of the interiors work of wary meyers (whom i LOVE):

love the bottom pattern here:

patchwork! yes!:

more patchwork, yes x2!:

this one is especially timely for me...i found a tiny little ottoman at a thrift this week that i want to restore/restyle/referb, and seeing this page (and the whole book, really!) totally makes me want to stitch up a little bargello topper for it!

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fun, eh?

reviewed by me, for you!: junk jewelry by jane eldershaw

it's been a while since i have done any book reviews! but a motherload of cool books as fallen into my lap (ouch!) lately, and i'm so enamored with these tomes, i feel like i have to show them off and share what i think is great about them. so be on the look out for some reviewed by me, for you! posts in the coming weeks, as i have time to make them. a peek at the books i am planning to give an overview on is here:

whee!

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several weeks back, i got my hands on a super cool little jewelry-making title entitled junk jewelry, by jane eldershaw. ms. eldershaw, a jewelry designer who has worked for australian vogue, the new york post, and new woman magazine.
junk jewelry, in the simplest terms, is about elevating everyday or ordinary objects to the level of art, fashioning artistic jewelry, and then daring to wear said jewelry in an inspiring way on one's own body. not everyone will take a shine to making or wearing junk or trash-to-treasure jewels...but this book celebrates and inspires those who do. it's a positively sound little jewelry making book that differs from the typical jewelry-making book in a number of areas...particularly in its overall philosophy, approach, and execution...as i'll detail some below.

from the outset of her book, jane aims to educate, not just inspire. it's not merely a book with projects and pandering explanations...it's jam-packed with tons of food-for-thought and information from the get-go that go beyond the basics...it's really a course on art, art-making, and style.

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junk jewelry is broken up into four parts. part one deals with the historic origins of junk jewelry, giving the reader and budding jewelry-maker/designer a little education on the trash-to-treasure movement, informing the reader on notable art trends that inspired and birthed a rage for junk/offbeat jewelry, particularly the dada and surrealist movements (many of the artists in said movements actually dabbled at jewelry design).
jane also highlights a litany of iconic fashion and accessory designers of past and present who used junk to great effect when creating their jewels, including elsa schiaparelli, karl lagerfeld, moschino, coco chanel, paul smith...and many more.

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part two is all about the conceptualizing process. jane shows the reader how to think like an artist, and illustrates a myriad of artistic techniques, all to get the reader/budding designer's mind spinning. some of jane's suggested artistic techniques that i really adore and find really inspiring include "elevating the mundane to art status by isolating it" and "for unity, group by color shape or texture".

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the third part of the book is the creating section...it's the part with all the projects. most of the projects jane has in the book are simple and spare in appearance, a tactic i think is really a great move, design-wise. showing off simple projects makes for easy completion, which is of course gratifying for beginners and appealing to minimalists, but i feel like keeping the projects and photography of said projects simple also looks visually clean, and gives those who desire the moremoremore a clear, inspirational jumping off-point for their own, more chaotic, or daring designs. said folks can look at a simple project or nicely shot photo and easily see where they'd care to add this or that, i.e., how they'd change the project to add their own idiosyncratic flair.
seen here is a peek at a few of the projects from the book that i particularly took a shine to:

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the last bit of the book focuses on the wearing of junk jewelry...it's a little primer on the art of wearing your quirky baubles (handmade by you, or otherwise) with panache and attitude. here, jane touches on sound accessory and clothing styling principles that range from donning your jewels with an eye and mind for "suitability", focusing on a "focal point", or dressing around a "theme" (and several more, natch). said suggestions are so strong, they move beyond the styling of junk jewelry...they find relevance and context in the styling of oneself in general.

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lastly..
i feel compelled to mention a nice bonus feature of junk jewelry that metaphorically speaks volumes about the book as a whole: from front to back/cover to cover, the book is peppered with great quotes, hand-selected by jane, that touch on art and art-making, as well as fashion, implying there is a strong thread between the two, a notion i wholeheartedly support and share. this implied relationship between art and fashion as seen in her book is, i'd guess, a reflection of what jane's ethos just might be...that making (junk) jewelry, and the results of said making, are not just fashion, they can also be art. in this book, she's not just showing you how to make jewelry or follow instructions on a project...she's giving you the tools to be artistic, *and* stylish, too. all in all, very, VERY cool.

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bravo, jane!
also, for more smart junk jewelry-related goodness, check out jane's blog...