stunningly sculptural knitwear by sandra backlund of sweden. her wearable work is on the level of art, craftily created with two sticks.
big thanks to susie bubble for the heads up on sandra's work.
yes, it's been a long while! i know...
and it may still be a while before i can devote the time (and mindspace) to the typical lengthy lists of deep questions/long, insightful (heh!) observations i usually pose along with the links in question in my (not so) random links posts.
why? because my newly born babe needs me! :) and, honestly, it's only been about two weeks out from her birth, and i am still recovering. it took me days and days to put this together (it used to take just a few hours, max)! oy, how times have changed.
anyway, i thought i'd share some notable stuff i've come across in past weeks, albeit in what i feel is a very truncated fashion (for the time being). those pesky links are piling up!!
-uk-based fabulous mag asks: so which woman has the perfect body? seems women favor a skinnier figure, whist men favor more curves. is there such a thing as an "ideal figure"? what's YOUR idea of the "perfect figure"?
-according to WWD (who FINALLY have a nice selection of free content available online, yay!), (fashion/lifestyle) magazine circulation is down, down, down. magazines may not want to face it, but...is it possible that the increasingly fast and easy digital access to visual/design/fashion content is honestly doing print mags who specialize in similar fare in? whatever the reason, it's clear their bottom lines are suffering...
-SF indie fashion suggests 10 cheap, simple ways to up the eco-fashion ante...
-remember tavi of style rookie? i mentioned her here a while back. the NY times' T magazine recently published a round-up of adolescent style bloggers you might want to take note of...
-according to counterfeit chic, the UK's house of lords has issued a "speeding ticket" to fast fashion:
"in its report on 'waste reduction,' the rapid production of cheap clothes involves the use of low quality materials in garments of high complexity, which makes it difficult to capture any value from the material at the end of the garments' lives. mr alan wheeler, National liaison manager at the textile recycling association, commented that "fast fashion" items were "harder to re-use" and that there was "not much thought about how recyclable an item is at the end of its useful life.'"
more on the same from the independent...
and of course, the quick and dirty:
-jamie is my friend and former neighbor from my bushwick, brooklyn loft-living days. he's the man behind the known universe. he and his (new) wife, deborah, recently acquired a mannequin that looks suspiciously (and apparently, intentionally) like model kate moss. they are having fun dressing faux kate in deborah's outfits. answering the pleas of some of his friends, jamie's started a fluffy little blog called kate moss mannequin modeling deb's outfits daily, that documents these dress-up sessions, replete with descriptions and stories about the featured threads. jamie and deborah, you guys are, uh...silly. but...it's awesome. i'd love to see where this ends up going, if anywhere! ha.
ETA: keep updating, you guys!
-i like the catorialist better than that snooty sartorialist. *grin* (via buzzfeed)
-who knew? apparently wallace and gromit are the latest style icons...they're featured in an ad campaign for harvey nicols (an upscale department store chain in the UK). i'm tickled, for one... (via the daily mail)
-this discussion, where do you buy bras? in the ravelry group the bust line (where it's all about fitting and flattering the bustline you have) is FAB-U-LOUS. good go-to suggestions for gals of small and large sizes alike.
-on the subject of knitwear, the telegraph just offered up a PDF of 5 free, updated, chic vintage knitting patterns taken from lise-lotte lystrup's new book, vintage knitwear for modern knitters. i'm particularly in love with the fine gauge zig-zag scarf pattern! but the sweater patterns on offer in said PDF are pretty darn sweet too.
-how to bleach your jeans, a tutorial by that's just my vibe. awesome. what would be even more awesome, imo? wearing your awesome bleached jeans with one of the aforementioned vintage sweaters, knit by you...
-meta knitting ala slip slip knit: knit a scarf made from i-cord. (via craft:)
-that ever-so smart and savvy nubby twiglet shows us how closet organization is done...go girl!
-following a link from a post on buzzfeed (one of my fave RSS feeds, it never fails to amuse/inform me!), i recently learned about the fashion blog of a 12-year old girl named tavi: style rookie. her site follows the familiar format of many a fashion blog: it's filled with the requisite daily outfit photos, plus photographic documentation of her style experiments and (thrift and retail) finds, and snippets of this or that from the culture at large that amuses or inspires her. said blog and it's author could be considered precocious by some, sure...but she seems like a fairly well-versed, articulate young lady with sophisticated tastes, despite her allegedly tender age.
and of course, after perusing her journal, i got to thinking...
is there such a thing as being too young or too old to be interested in style, or too young or old to bother with style? should young (or old) people focus on other things? should aged folks leave matters style to the younger folks? or is style ageless? is one's young adulthood (say, their 20s, or 30s) culturally the only time upon which caring deeply about fashion and style is acceptable? or is that not true at all?
in reference to tavi and her blog: when is it appropriate for a girl or young woman (or boy/young man) to wrest herself from the whims of her/his parents or guardians to express their own sense of style?
see also: minor alterations, a recent feature from the telegraph that focuses upon how a select selection of designers dress their progeny.
-check out this article from the new york times called everyone's narcissistic, it seems.
narcissism: it's the word du jour!
and a very misunderstood/misused word, too.
and hey, the aforementioned article is timely and related!
to what, you say?
why, the discussion i started from the other week about whether photographing yourself/your style = narcissism?
heh. hee. :)
-what do you think about ink?
some are of the opinion that tattoos are a regrettable trend that will fade and are a blight on otherwise beautiful skin, some feel they are a taboo that goes against the will of god, while many, MANY others find them exquisitely beautiful. (via the telegraph, and the new york times) how many? well, according to the telegraph article, 1 in 2 americans (and 1 in 5 brits) has a tat.
any way you spin it (as i see it), tattoos are a form of self-expression, a signifier of something that is of importance (or at least aesthetically pleasing) to a individual, culture, or subculture. for starters, at least...
but i ask you:
are tattoos a trend that are on their way "out"? or is the art making inroads, just now seeing greater acceptance? conversely, does their acceptance have a long way to go?
are persons who have tattoos to be taken less seriously than those who do not have them? do tattoos say anything about class or class structure? i.e., are those that have them of a lower class, or perceived to be of a lower class by society at large?
from a style/styling oneself sort of perspective: if you have tattoos, do you consider them when getting dressed? are they a part of your style, or separate from it in some manner (i.e. you don't think about them in relation to your wardrobe/what you wear)?
as far as the quick and dirty this week, why don't YOU comment with cool crafty/fashion related things that YOU have spotted around the internet(s) this week?
ready, steady...GO!