Dressed to Rule

Tomorrow there is an open lecture at Stockholm University, which I can't attend, but maybe you can?
It's called "Dressed To Rule - Qing Imperial Portraits In The Context Of Chinese Painting Tradition " and is given by professor Uta Lauer.

This is how it's described; "This lecture will introduce a number of portraits of the Qing emperor Yongzheng (r.1723-35) and his son Qianlong (r.1736-95) painted by the Italian court artist Guiseppe Castiglione (1688-1766).

The Qing were not Han-Chinese but Manchu. Portraits of these emperors in various masquerades from Chinese scholar gentleman to Buddhist monk emphasized their claim to rule over China. These pictures will be discussed against the background of traditional Chinese ancestral portraits and conventions of figure painting.

15.00-16.30, Lecture Hall E 10 at Stockholm University
Free of Charge"

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but just maybe it'll make someones day!

This will not make your day

But the video to artist/designer (and so forth) M.I.A.'s Born Free is still worth seeing!

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

So amazing

Sometimes I wish I had the energy to write inspiring, witty and intelligent texts all the time (or maybe just more often than not). But. Sometimes I also think that maybe it's ok to just see something you really like and share it with others who might also like it, and let them make up their own opinion!
So, today I'll just share a classic from the great Elsa Schiaparelli, a real fashion icon, in collaboration with the always puzzling Salvador Dalí;

Sing me

If you're in New York, Paris or Brussels go watch an exhibition of Japanese artist Kimiko Yoshida!
For those of you who, like me, are not, you can watch her self portraits online.

Website Theatre

By chance I stumbled upon this this website: lindalarssen.com. It's one to get lost in! Sometimes Facebook is better than other times... And this is such a time!

Illustrate it

Fashion illustrator Stina Wirséns new exhibit opens in Gallery Demo in Stockholm today, she shows a collection of vintage garments along side the drawings that was inspired by them. All the while I think it's great that fashion is finally getting a new kind of exhibition space, I wonder when will the first online exhibition be for those who find themselves lacking time? Or, maybe it's one of those things you have to make time for...? In the mean time, or if you're not in Stockholm, you can always check out her art on her web page (or below)!

Pop shoes

Pop art most be the perfect art form to put on a commercial product. These converse shoes are brilliant in just their existence!

Visual pleasure

Sometimes just looking at things can be good enough, and I got reminded the other day that I still haven't seen designer Tom Ford's film A Single Man. Laziness, or afraid it's not going to be more than '60s pretty? Saw the old '60s classic Blow Up some days ago,and although I value it as a really good portrait of its time, David Hemmings and has nothing on Colin Firth!

Shop 'til you drop

In fact, at the rate we're consuming today, it's more shop until we all drop.
I already know this, and probably you do too, but sometimes a reminder is good, like watching The Story of Stuff on youtube (sorry, the links didn't cooperate today.)
But does that mean never get anything new? Fortunately no, because we can always buy vintage/second hand, clothes made by reused material or ecological fabrics!

Like this one (Sprudla by Kamilla, mainly reused fabrics);

Today I'm just gonna share a link, wish I could show you the picture, but then on the other hand his blog full of artworks is worth checking out!
So, go visit creative matador and have a nice weekend!

Au revoir tristesse

It's spring and despite my recent crappy mood, I have one thing that make me cheery again. Paris!
This summer I will spend ages at Colette, check out the YSL retrospective at Petit Palais, and maybe see another exhibition called "C'est la vie" because it's about death, and you have to appreciate the morbid humour, no?
But what else? I have a few months of waiting, and planning, to do, but any tips are welcome!

Academic fashion

Fashion can be pretentious in so many ways, so why not also academically? Sometimes taking yourself very seriously is a good thing! Just got the latest issue of collage magazine Lambda Nordica, theme: queer science of fashion. It has English and Swedish articles like "The vampire Dandy" and "The Vaseline Mafia". I do appreciate this!

Do it yourself

-The lazy way! Recently stumbled upon a site, Orkanlia, where you can order dresses, and decide what they'll look like! All the fun of picking fabrics and deciding on a model (you can try on different top and bottom parts for ever), without having to do any of the time-consuming dress-making! Now, if only I was a little richer....
Maybe an owl-dress? If nothing else, it's good for inspiration.

Not yet mine

But they will be!
How could anyone resist origami-strawberry earrings? I, myself, get tired just by thinking about folding. So lucky for me, someone else did it for me.
Wearable art at it's cutest!

Sur la plage

Is what the new exhibition by Bea Szenfeld opening today is called. You can see her haute papier collection, supposedly inspired by the Jules Vernes underwater-demons and other such myths about the sea, at Designgalleriet in Stockholm until April 30th. Since I have yet to see it I can't really tell you more than that, but if you have -tell me what you thought?

Mix it up

Today I literally stopped, as silly as it sounds, in my tracks when I saw G-STAR RAWs new campaign. The combination Liv Tyler- G-STAR-Anton Corbijn made me have to look twice.
Now, G-STAR has never, despite actual efforts, made me very excited about their products and although their campaigns are not bad they're also a bit bland. Corbijn, on the other hand, is one of my absolute favourite photographers whose photographs I never tire of looking at! Liv Tyler is cute, I guess, and Corbijn is known for photographing celebrities, especially in this black and white solemn style so that makes sense. But how did this collaboration come into being? Is G-STAR really credible as arty just because they're accustomed to using black and white in their campaigns and now do it with borrowed credibility?
Anyway, it's not bad, so enjoy!

Fairy tales

No-one can possibly have missed the Alice in Wonderland craziness, and it's adjoining hype all over the fashion industry. Everything from high fashion jewellery by Stella McCartney, in collaboration with Disney couture -who are lucky to have her, to Nicholas Kirkwoods Alice heels for Printemps.
There are rumours that Tim Burton's next project will be Sleeping Beauty, continuing his take on classics made famous by Disney.
But would this new movie also inspire fashion makers world wide? There's a strange and crazy allure to the Wonderland that fits Burton and fashion very well, but fairies and prince charmings? I would imagine since it's Burton that he would focus more on the evil fairy Maleficient. So, capes, dragons and dark make-up?All I can say is, one can only hope for a bit more of fashion escapism!

Tea-time

Norwegian designer Astrid Hanssens hand crafted silver and glass jewellery line is as irresistible as chocolate cupcakes are that time of the month. The thought of wearing something that's as perishable as a cake and as fragile (how fast would it not break if trying to do manual labour whilst wearing it?), is decadent in the best kind of way. The line that mainly consists of candy and fruit bracelets, necklaces and earrings also, for some reason, contains neon orange moose cuff links...
Is it meant to be a clever comment on the extremes of fashion, or just cute?
In any case after this Easter's candy binge I wish I had been able to indulge in this instead...

The brand name, Astrids Glass, tells me this is a glass-designer, but I have not been able to find out anything more about this, as I'm sure, lovely person. For now, all I can tell you is that these pieces are for sale in Tjallamalla, Stockholm.

Guerilla knitting

I thought this cosy type of street art had died down, but happily I noted yesterday that I was wrong when I found a new one!

Happy Easter!

Oh, and follow my blog with bloglovin why don't you?

Getting yourself out there

There are fantazy numbers of blogs out there so how do you get noticed?
This is a experiment post, but all and any tips are welcome!

Say it in pictures

Poplin turned out to be a store with just about everything, but in a good way. There's no down side to adding a (good) art break in your clothes browsing after all. Here's how the opening went down: