Glassons - The biggest fashion fairground

Hmmmm slightly irritating that my website name is being used in a marketing campaign for fast moving fashion store Glassons. If you haven't heard Glassons aka the House of G has opened a flagship store in Newmarket with the tagline - 'The biggest fashion fairground'.  It looks like they are attempting  a copy cat of Oxford St, London's Top Shop.  In any case this promo I'm sure will help send traffic to my site! Haha.

Semi Permanent Design Conference 2010

Lucky enough to get a VIP pass to New Zealand's largest design conference on Friday, I was able to hear from some very inspiring and fascinating young designers.  One of interest was Jessica Hische a young 20-something girl with an amazing talent for illustration and typography.

Another highlight of the day was listening to Karen Walker and her partner Mikhail Gherman and what was even more interesting was to find the creative inspiration for the Karen Walker brand comes not from Karen but from Mikhail.  I got the impression she was more focused on the 'business' side of things. Slightly disappointed they didn't get into the nitty gritty of how the brand evolved from the very beginning though.

A great line up of speakers from Dick & Otis Frizzel, Storm Thorgenson, Pixar and Frost Design to  name a few.

Images: www.semipermanent.co.nz

First attempt

I wanted to show you one of my sewing attempts - which is trying to make a loose fitted, scooped neck, v-back, sleeveless top.  Now the trouble I had initially was finding the perfect pattern, I mean most of them still look like they're designed for the 70s and uninspiring at that.  I've tried to do some re-designing of the pattern to cut it into the shape I'm after.  This is the result and most of it's still to be finished off.

Oh and these are my new G-stars - as posted back in April

This is the pattern I was talking about (pic on left) - as you can see, not the look I'm trying to go for but the basic template is there :)

Why not Waihi

A recent weekend away to Waihi in the Coromandel was just what we needed.  The weather was  beautiful and the town nice and peaceful.  The best part about getting out of the city is being able to visit the antique and second hand stores in the small towns on the way.  I found these gold pieces at Arkwrights in Paeroa.  The matching set are clip-on earrings and I'm thinking of taking the backs off and turning them into rings.  I'm slowly building up my gold jewellery collection as I have a significant amount of silver which doesn't always work depending on the outfit.

You might spot the feather ring in this dish.. it's a crazy little ring I got a few months back covered in baby feathers which sits on my little finger.  I've only worn it a couple of times as I have to be very cautious wearing it as the feathers are so fine and I have been known to get my hands wet while wearing it, ha.  Not a good look to have dead-like bird on your finger!

Kate Sylvester for summer

Doosh - it rhymes with whoosh

I headed down to the Viaduct on Thursday night with my friend Jo for the launch of the SS 2010 collection of edgy Kiwi street-wear label Doosh.  To read more about this event read my story 'Get your toosh into Doosh, here at Thread.

My friend Jo and I enjoying the pre-show drinkies. 

(Image from Alex Tee at thepeople.co.nz)

A change is always good

Nails Inc London is my new favourite nail polish brand right now.  Tired of my eight or so different shades of red on the shelf (no not in the fridge!) I was keen to get amongst the new colours that have been popular over summer in the UK - let's see if this product hits NZ soon.  

These polishes came as a set of four, my favourites being 'Jermyn Street' which is a combination of soft grey and muted beige (far left);  the slate grey polish (second left) is titled 'Southbank' and goes with almost anything.   As for the pale pink 'Warwick Avenue' and 'Taxi Black' I'm sure I will manage to make use of these at some point!