The Mechanical Horse brooch is back at the Larkin & Catcher store (having galloped in here from another dimension...).
This Steampunk style brooch is a pretty surreal piece of jewellery and it is definitely not for everyone but when you love it you love it and those who love it can carry it off.
I've just been checking out Anthropologieand I like what I see. Not all of it is for me but there's more than enough there to love and to make me want to go back.
Way Up High Sweater£105.46. This sweater has a slightly gothic/Steampunk feel, I think. It's from LiaMolly, who sell mostly to individual stores -- a lot of their knitwear is in the died-and-gone-to-Heaven league, as far as I'm concerned.
Silk Bouquet Headband£29.93 Anthropologie have some nice, slightly quirky accessories and I think this silk headband would work well at a wedding or if you just want to dress-up a little.
The above image is on the front of one of the cards we've got in the store. It's one of my favourite cards but I just like the card section in general and it is an area we plan to develop over the coming year. There's not a lot of profit in cards, to be honest, but I like the idea of accessible artwork and I think of cards mostly as an inexpensive medium for distributing artwork. I also like the idea of someone taking the time to hand write a card and post it out -- I don't like 'virtual' messages much. Way too impersonal. And a card like that one is only £2.00 so it is not as if its going to kill anyone.
We also plan to bring in some artwork to sell in the store but that's also something I'll have get back to you on later this year. I know you can hardly bear the wait but try to be a brave little soldier.
One of the reasons I like the Gloria Swanson card is that I loved the film Sunset Boulevard and she was one the main stars in it (together with William Holden).
If you don't know about the film -- I guess it could be classified as being of the film noir genre and it's very atmospheric. Swanson is about 25 years older than she was in the card image (the film was made in 1950) and she plays a washed-up and psychotic film actress, who was once a famous silent movie queen. I don't know that much about Swanson but I get the impression that some parts of the movie were true to the actress's own life.
No, I'm not referring to anyone I know (although I could be...) but to one of the new air fresheners we've now got for sale in the Gift section of the store. Ignore the ciggy -- its got a Fresh Daisy scent.
Emily at Inside a BlackApplenot only runs a phenomenally successful Etsy Shop, where she sells her artwork and handcrafted goods but she also finds time to make scrumptious--looking edible gifts like these:
See how she took the time to colour these, to cut them into appealing shapes and to line the box with some polka-dot material.
Here's an image of the last edible gift I bought for someone:
In my defense I have to tell you that those were all the garage had left (if a person did not want to go down the windscreen chamois route) and that they were, you might notice, a larger-sized box. So, no scrimping there. But this has got me thinking that I'd like to step up my domestic skills or -- to be more honest -- to develop some; to make things I can astonish and delight my friends with and to show you on this blog. Blogs like Emily's (craft-type blogs) are full of wonderfully colourful pictures of their beautiful creations. I have considered the possibility that these people could just be particularly good photographers (even their teacups look like works of art) and that it could be that their products do in fact look like crap in real life. But I've had to dismiss that idea, due to the fact that vast numbers of returning customers are practically scratching each others eyes out just to have the privilege of owning one of Emily's dolls or a piece of her original artwork. So, I'll be Making Things in the coming months and I might even show some of my best efforts here. The phrase 'mounting excitement' was never more meaningful...
The Guardian is not my favourite newspaper (by about a mile) but I usually find the odd little snippet in it which is of some interest. Like their link toPeople Who Deserve It -- a site which lists things people do that make other people want to sock them in the kisser.
The one in the picture is the Slow Walker Sidewalk Blocker and if that doesn't annoy you then what about the Public Cold Sore Picker or (my own pet hate) the Personal Bubble Invader (close talker).
People Who Deserve It does have an American bias but I'm sure we basically all hate the same kind of behaviour the world over -- a sort of built-in, universal revulsion reaction, especially when it comes to anything related to bodily functions.
Admittedly, there's bound to be someplace where pickers (nose, scabs, etc) are objects of admiration and it may be that some cultures would consider Elevator Farting a sign of respect and good breeding, but surely there's nowhere on this planet where close talking is considered anything less than offensive (I once knew a woman who got so close -- even in casual conversation -- that our eyelashes touched. I wasn't nice, even in a Girls who Love Girls kind of way).
Jess Cartner-Morley in the Guardian, writing about 'kidult' fashion and the creepiness of adult women dressing like little girls (knee highs, Mary Janes, etc). But mostly she's on about duffle coats and how their lack of femininity prevents them being dodgy in the babydoll kind of way.
The one pictured here doesn't look that bad but I'd have to be stark naked in a Siberian winter before I'd consider donning anything vaguely duffle-related. When I was a little kid I was made to wear a grey, itchy, heavyweight, adult-sized, gents duffle coat, which had an unfeasibly tall pointed hood. It would have been a tad too bulky for the average rugby prop and I probably weighed around four stones at the time. I ran out of breath just trying to walk around in it but my mother insisted that it would keep me warm and that she didn't want it to 'go to waste' (someone had given it to her). People did stare at the coat in the street and I did not imagine that. I stuck it out for half a winter before deliberately losing it by hanging it on a branch of a tree and running away as fast as my spindly little legs would carry me. Parents have a lot to answer for.
So no duffles for me but if you can live with the Paddington comments then I don't see why anyone else shouldn't go for one.
Stuck in a queue at my local Sainsbury, I ended up picking up a copy of Intelligent Life Magazine.
.
I'd no intention of buying it, of course (especially with that image of Paris-Bloody-Hilton on the front) but Simon Roberts photographs in The big chill -- a 'photo essay' on the Russian winter -- got me hooked. I've got a bit of an interest in survival in extreme temperatures -- I no idea why, apart from the fact that I live in Scotland and the weather is miserable a lot of the time, though not in any extreme sense.
The magazine has a fairly hefty price tag -- £4.95 -- but it only comes out four times a year and anyway, its worth it. I like it a lot -- it is the kind of magazine that makes me think the world's not spiraling down towards some sort of crisis point and that we are too intelligent to allow things to fall apart (recent overdosing on the situation regarding the current economic situation has left me kind of edgy, though not in a waiting-for-the-Apocalypse kind of way).
Anyway, they've also got a website you might like to check out.
Not surprisingly, some of the best pieces at the Big Cartel store Backseat Vintagehave sold out but there are still many interesting items up for sale:
1960's schoolboy cardigan. Reduced price now $14.99
I've been a fan of the Petite Anglaise blogsince way back when she started out. Then she got outed for 'blogging on duty' (working on her blog during working hours) and also making some mention of her employers. She got sacked, the papers heard about it and she gained some notoriety. Numbers of visitors to her blog soared and a book deal followed. Petite has always had a loyal (and very protective) following and they seem to have stuck by her throughout all her tribulations. I still check out Petites blog -- just to see what's happening in her life and to find out if there's any new developments.
But she doesn't post much any more and I've got the feeling that she's had enough of it. A lot of it now seems to focus on promoting her books. Here's an excerpt for her last post -- which was basically an apology for her recent lack of posting (though she insisted that her post was not an apology):
I will be back in early 2009, not least to remind you of the impending arrival of petite in paperback as of February 5th (see sidebar right), and of the publication of my first novel, Rendez-vous, hot on petite’s heels in August 2009…
To me, that just looks like an ad for her books and it seems that her blog is now just a vehicle for promoting the books. I'm not criticising her for that -- this blog is unashamedly used to promote my store and I think she'd be crazy not to use every means she has to sell more of her books.
But I don't believe she's got much more to say on her blog just now and it's my guess that she's had enough of it. Unlike this blog, Petite's is based on personal revelations and I think she just does not have the time or the inclination to give a blow-by-blow account of her daily life. There must come a time when you want to keep things private and when you don't feel there is any need to open your life up to strangers and I think Petite has reached that stage. I wonder just how many bloggers -- previously caught up in the blogging phenomenon of the past few years -- have came to a point when they feel they have said enough about their lives.
I've often wondered about the implications of 'expose' type blogging and the effects it can have on the blogger and their family. Fine, perhaps until it 'goes global' -- and you know that strangers now have privy to what goes on behind your doors.
Scary stuff and an area that I'd stay clear away from -- people either become bored by it or -- even worse -- become obsessed by it and want to know too much; by involving readers in the intimate details of one's life, a sense of ownership can be created. It is also not beyond the bounds of possibility that the need to feed the blog can shape 'real life' behaviours. It would be too easy to reach the stage where incidents or events becomes potential blog fodder and where decisions are -- perhaps unconsciously -- influenced by the current blog 'story' or the potential to hold the interest of blog visitors.
We're not following the High Street and jumping on the MASSIVE SALES!!! bandwagon but there's a Boxing Day discount on bags and jewellery on just now over at the Larkin & Catcher store.
Thanks to Glendy over at Style AmorI've now found out that there's an Alice in Wonderland film in the offing. The bad news is that it won't make its appearance until 2010 but the good -- if somewhat predictable -- news is that it will be directed by Tim Burton and the cast will include Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
That trio are just perfect for Wonderland -- though I have to say I couldn't stand Depp in Willie Wonker and the Chocolate Factory. Something about his teeth put me off... But I also thought that he was hamming it up a little too much and trying too hard to come across as a weird character. Gene Wilder's version of the character, on the other hand, seemed more genuinely sinister. Anyway, it's a waste to try and make Depp look unattractive -- as some of us are just naturally gorgeous...
I've never played croquet and don't think I'll never be overcome with the urge to do so -- but that doesn't stop me loving this Croquet Bunnies bag that has just arrived in the store. Croquet Bunnies shoulder bag
So what do you get a goth for Christmas? The answer probably depends on the goth in question, because those of the 'gothic persuasion' range along a spectrum -- from hard-died(!) old school goths who embrace the whole subculture, to those who just play about with it because they like gothic type fashion (which can be pretty flattering and is -- once again -- so big this year).
Or you could head over to the Larkin & Catcher amazing and strangely wonderful boutique and grab one of the last of these rather fetching Gothic Mourning Chokers
Another random post -- but I suddenly started to wonder how Christmas was celebrated in other countries. I've no idea why Norway is first on my little list, other than it being the first country to come into my head (that is a bit weird because I don't think I've ever given that country one single conscious thought). The 'mashed rutabaga' from their Christmas dinner menu sounded a lot more interesting before I found out it is turnip. So -- Christmas in Norwayfrom Stavanger-web.
More retro inspired Hell's Belles bags back in at the Larkin & Catcher store, including the beautiful Elixir handbag and the much sought-after House Call 'doctor' style bag.
One of the first things I do in the morning is switch on the news to find out if the world's still turning. The first bit of news that hit me today was that the legendary pin-up model Bettie Page died today at the age of 85. I didn't know that much about Bettie, other than her association with burlesque and the fact that she seems to have been an originator of a much-copied look which is particularly popular in the rockabilly scene and among pin-up models.
It was strange checking out her old dance routines on YouTube and difficult to think of her being anything other than full of life. Her performances are tame by today's standards but you can see why she became an iconic symbol and why her poses are so often replicated by retro models. She seemed to have such a sweet innocence about her, a cheeky knowing playfulness that is unashamedly cheesy but surely a lot more appealing that a bare-it-all approach to 'exotic dance'.
I do know that Bettie was also associated with some pretty unsavoury business and I'm not that sure of the truth of that matter -- but the image of the forever youthful Bettie in the YouTube Dancing Fool video just makes me smile. I love her facial expressions, her seeming joyfulness, the fact that she's not that skinny -- the reminder that burlesque lingerie is immensely flattering.
The stuck-in-time quality of Page is, in part, brought about by the fact that she didn't allow photographs of her older self to be taken -- she wanted to preserve the image of the Bettie Page that had been and to uphold the mystique. One image that she did allow, however, taken when she was eighty years old, shows that she was still beautiful -- and proves the point that preserving some body fat is rather a good idea for the older woman: Bettie Page at eighty years old.
Bettie 'disappeared' from the public eye many years ago but she has always had a cult following: now her death will bring her briefly into the public eye once again and I think she's bound to have an appreciative audience.
Day In The Life Of A 1950's Small Town -- a really great little film about a day in the 'life' of the small town of Millwood in 1952. As pointed out by some of the You Tube commentators -- wouldn't it have been great if we could have taken away all the bad things about 1950's life (the various forms of discrimination, etc) but left in all the good stuff.
...our lovely (if ever-so-slightly strange) independent store-- where you'll find unusual gifts, cute little bits and pieces and unique finds from indie designers.
Mannequin in Red (1960-something). Weird Swedish film, set in a fashion house.
Our Blushing Brides (1930). Three poor shopgirls share a crampted apartment, while they try to find love and make it in this big bad world. Starring the almighty Joan Crawford.
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