Dare to Design

Isn't this lovely? I adore fashion illustrations, modern & vintage which reminds me that Shabby Apple's dare to design competition 2011 is open for another week. You don't even have to sew the darn thing. Really. Maybe I should give it a go.

Check here for the details. Listen, someone has to win. Why not you? Pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested. Here are some free online drawing & painting tools that might be helpful.

(illustration by genius René Gruau for Dior via automatism)

To Do List

Faking it. Still a valuable skill for the modern girl.

Laughing, laughing. The guy next to me in the coffee shop is shrinking the other way. Read this short (very short) story in list form by Jennifer Egan on The Guardian's website. I didn't get to the other stories because now I'm making up captions for comics. The kind of stuff that will ensure gainful re-employment. (Maybe? Someday?)

Will be back tomorrow. Cheers.

(illustration via Comically Vintage - which is hilarious. I spend far too much time there.)

Merry Christmas

Have a happy holiday. Wish I looked as calm & collected as this Viennese lady by Mela Koehler (Austrian, 1885–1960). She was part of the Wiener Werkstätte artists’ collective founded in Vienna at the turn of the century. This card was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalogue this year (it's on sale now). If you are or will be in NYC before 17 January, you can stop in to the Neue Galerie & see an exhibit of postcards from the collective. The online site is very pretty (as is the gorgeous catalogue). Cheers!

Drawing Fashion

Early evening/overnight diversion. (Also I'm getting weird email.) A new exhibit at London's Design Museum on fashion illustration. Good slideshow on BBC. (Moving this to Thursday. Raining & running behind here.)

From the Design Museum website:

"Drawing Fashion celebrates a unique collection of some of the most remarkable fashion illustrations from the twentieth and twenty first centuries. These original works define the fine art of illustrating fashion, from the collections of Chanel, Dior, Comme des Garçons and Poiret as well as Viktor & Rolf, Lacroix and McQueen. This exhibition showcases fashion illustrators at their creative heights: Lepape at the beginning of the century, Gruau in the 40's and 50's, Antonio throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, to current artists Mats Gustafson, Aurore de la Morinerie and François Berthoud. Film-clips, news reels, music and photography will sit alongside the original illustrations to reflect not only the spirit and the style of the decades but also the wider social and cultural changes of the century.

It will be the first time this collection, which was put together over 30 years by Joelle Chariau of Galerie Bartsch & Chariau, has been displayed." (image by François Berthoud via artnet(dot)com)

Summer Afternoon, Summer Afternoon

"In 1897, Henry James leased Lamb House, a villa in Sussex. He bought it a few years later and lived there until his death in 1916. One of his frequent visitors was his close friend the novelist Edith Wharton. In A Backward Glance(1934), Edith Wharton wrote about a day trip with Henry James to Bodiam Castle, near Lamb House: "Tranquil white clouds hung above it in a windless sky, and the silence and solitude were complete as we sat looking across at the crumbling towers, and at their reflection in a moat starred with water-lilies, and danced over by great blue dragonflies. For a long time no one spoke; then James turned to me and said solemnly: 'Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.'"' The Writer's Almanac, June 24, 2010

The 100+ (F) heat & sudden downpours (& power outages) continue, but the weather is to take a turn towards the fair & unusually clear the next few days here in DC (& beaches). So it may well be that the inn where I'm headed, ruled over by a benevolent Englishwoman, will indeed be rather England-in-the best-of-weather. And I didn't even have to buy a plane ticket.

This is an excuse to post a Walter Crane illustration - I use many on Julie's blog. It's titled Spring, but I think it's summery. Since when do marguerites bloom in the spring in England (or here)? Poor confused man. [second illustration is via here & is not Crane but it suits my whim.]

Lunatic on Bulbs

Well, that's what she said. (Emily Dickinson). I'm preoccupied with gardens, the lack of one, & so on lately/always. Tiger lilies mean something to me (& to Miss D), these illustrations were in a folder, & I finally read this NYTimes article Emily Dickinson's Garden at the New York Botanical Gardens. It's on through 12 June. G'night.

[botanical image via Ray Allen's wildflowergardening.wordpress.com; second image Flora's Feast, a Masque of Flowers by British illustrator Walter Crane; third, guess who?]

Week's End - Floralia/Country Girl

Mother of flowers, Flora, present be, / We raise the chant midst jocund games to thee. / Begun in April, unto May deferred, / For both are thine, the jocund song is heard/Upon the confines of both months we stand/Embellished with the bounties of thy hand.--Ovid (sexy devil)

Update: I'm editing the mess that was this post. Enjoy the images. (Saturday, 3 July 2010)

Week's End - Happy Hallowe'en!

Boo! Please visit GG's blog. There are all sorts of free sources & links to holiday craft sites. Have a fun weekend! xo

[Ava Gardner & feline friend via myvintagevogue; glow-y mask via LIFE archives, no photographer credit available; Victorian postcard via a great free clipart source, Vintage Holiday Crafts, here.]

Curious(er)

Yikes. It's an Alice Day/Night.

[illustration by Arthur Rackham via Liam's Pictures from Old Books]

Tennis, anyone?

I love it. I grew up with it. I collected Bjorn Borg covers & clippings. Went to every exhibition match possible; it must have been amusing to adults. My mother was a brilliant amateur player. Very upset & downhearted that I missed Federer's magnificent win. Watched the Guardian online tweet-updates, for hours, sitting at my desk--that's how much I love it & RF (no disrespect to Andy).

Also, reading about the Woman Who Cracked My Tooth. I'd love to say good riddance but I fear that she's merely regrouping. (I certainly hope nothing is wrong with anyone's health, etc. Just to be clear. I'm not a mean person. Just stay in Alaska & drive them nuts, will ya?) Hazel at The Clever Pup has a funny Whazzup Sarah! post & many people were commenting on it today, here.

[ LIFE archives/Wimbledon file/lady in pink is by Albert Lynch in 1893/second is at Wimbledon itself/not attributed]