Copycatting Sequins and Frills

Although I do a lot most of my clothes shopping online, I still would like to support local designers.   And I do, as much as possible.   And I, like anyone, love the convenience of visiting a local boutique and picking up a lovely knitted top or some such.   (My husband jokes that I have enough 'little knitted tops' to stock a whole store and that lots of $79 tops do add up to quite a sum over the years) 

I popped into Witchery yesterday to be confronted by a sea of biscuit, buff, beige, dark caramel, mushroom, sand, taupe, umber, ochre and khaki.    It was really quite frightening.   

In fact I think what has happened is that Witchery and Country Road have hired a colour consultant from the Australian Defence Force, who has bulk dipped all the new seasons range of clothes into big vats of their uniform dyes.   Who wants to get around looking like an army off cast?   Or as if you have stepped off the set of a Bruce Willis action thriller set in Iraq?  I don't.   

The only people who can wear these kinds of clothes are lithe olive skinned Eve Mendes types.  Not me.

But the fact that Witchery looks like an army disposals store wasn't the most alarming thing about my visit. The most alarming thing was this:

(Witchery new season) 

(J Crew last season and also still available in slightly new design new season)

(J Crew Last season - Witchery also have something like this but I have no image for it) 

Then I went into the new Kids section and found these:

(Witchery new season girls tulle skirt)

(J Crew girls tulle skirt)

 (Witchery girls zip through top)

(J Crew girls wave cardigan)

Let me be clear: I know that there are very few new ideas in fashion. I am sure it is a hard slog churning out a range four or five times a year, and these hard working designers need to source their inspiration in lots of different places.  And that may include a High Street retailer from the US.  I also know very well there is no copyright in an idea, and ideas are everywhere, just waiting to be adapted and changed.   And people ripping off J Crew is not a new controversy - see here for example.

And of course no doubt the original idea for a sequiny T shirt came not from J Crew but from the Lanvin catwalk or some such. I guess I just feel oh so slightly affronted. I want to support these Australian businesses.   But when there is no longer any style differentiation between these brands and the cheaper (often better made) US ones then the decision kind of makes itself doesn't it? 

It may just be me. I could blame the chemo for making my brain really annoyed by obvious creativity bypasses.  Or do you agree? 

Weird Chemo Side Effect no 2: my hair has started growing back!! Only half way through chemo too.  It may yet fall out again, but it is kind of exciting. 

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Winter Series - Cashmere and Orchid Oil

I have been so caught up with other things that I have neglected to finish off my Winter Series.

In this one, clothes and smooth skin.

When I was packing for our recent winter holiday, I noticed something slightly embarrassing very striking about my clothes.

They are almost all grey.   5 years ago they would have all been black.  Now grey dominates.   How many grey cardigans and scarves can one person reasonably have?

In my case quite a few.  Here is just a small cross section of what I have been wearing during this cold and exceptionally rainy winter:

So, along with my Year of No Rubbish Purchases comes a supplementary resolution - no more grey clothes. 

In case you still want some grey in your life, these are the places in Melbourne for grey cashmere and merino wool knitted things:

8 Inkerman (cashmere and cashmere on sale now)
Sambag (ballet shoes, bags and knits)
Skin and Threads (fantastic basics in plain colours, great quality)
Pink Zebra (US brands like Joie and J Brand and lots of cashmere)

If you are like me, you have skin which, alien like, peels off in sheets the minute the cold weather starts.  I have tried various lip balms over the last 20 years, and I can honestly say that this is the very very best.  

My other great discovery this winter is this facial oil.  My mother gave it to me for my birthday in March.  It sure beats the pink vinyl handbags she otherwise tends to give me.   (Sorry mum).  This stuff is amazing.  I don't know what blue orchids are, but they have stopped my alien skin peel in its tracks.  

I am now addicted to all things oily.  Any other face oil suggestions?  Let me have them. 

This is my last Winter Series post because the daffodils are out, and spring is in the air.  In spite of the drizzly endless rain.

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Megan Park cushions are now just a short walk away.....

I love making my own cushions.  I truly do.   

But to be homest, what I like even more is ogling and then buying other beautiful cushions.  And the very best are coming to my local shopping strip, thanks to Megan Park, Melbourne based textile and fashion designer, whose work takes inspiration from embroidery in Delhi, antique markets in France and the London design scene. 

Her new shop in High Street, Armadale, designed by Suzie Stanford, another excellent and talented Melbourne person about whom I wrote here, opens this week.

There will be cushions galore, delicately embroidered, one of a kind, little stuffed pieces of beauty. 

These cushions are just the thing for this kind of interior:

And I expect that there will also be beautiful clothes for me to gaze upon longingly:

This dress seems to me to be directly descended from this Turkish crewelwork wrap Megan created in 2003:

This is from Vogue Australian January 2010: 

And here is a glimpse of her Melbourne home as featured in Home Beautiful last year:

Target this is most definitely not.  But these are pieces to save up for, treasure and love.  I have many times made the mistake of buying cheap cushions. I know people say that is okay because then you can change the look of a room but I don't agree.  

Whilst I have nothing against a perfect tea towel cushion,  I think cushions shouldn't be throwaway and poor quality.    They age and date badly, go lumpy in no time and look like rubbish within 6 months.  Now, I am coming around to the thought that they should last and last and be treated like an investment.    What do you think?  I know this is hardly world hunger on the importance scale, but it is very interesting how people choose to spend their hard earned money. 

So now I get to the important part. 


My plan for the next year is to only spend money on things which are high quality and reasonably timeless and which I will use or return to again and again.  No Ikea.   No Target.  No Sportsgirl.  No nylon-y underwear.  No cheap knitted tops from Witchery.  No Howard's Storage World.  No cheap chardonnay.   No OK or Hello or Grazia.   No braindead chick flicks.   No cheap plastic play cars for the children.  No Party Animals (if you don't know what these are consider yourself blessed).   (Actually I may make an exception for storage because I keep needing so much of it).    This will be my year of no rubbish purchases.    Depending on how my discipline holds up it will stretch out for a lifetime, or compress into 6 months.    Only time will tell. 




(Images (1) to (4) from Megan Park (5) Not sure sorry (6) EmbroiderersGuild (7) Vogue Australia (8) Home Beautiful)

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The Light is in the Eye of the Beholder

My son has had a rash of nightmares, about bad robots, bad ladies, bad mens, bad octopi, bad Supermen, bad dinosaurs and other bad things, which mostly live in the dark shadows of his room. 

He asked for a night light.  And I thought: well I will try anything and my daughter got one at 3 so why not. 

I loathe going from shop to shop looking for things.  My daughter has the Ikea flower night light and it is still going strong but I loathe Ikea on a Saturday and I remembered seeing one in a shop around the corner.   So, quick as a flash, as I am wont to do, I went right out and bought one. 

The light I bought was Italian, from Market Import, one of my favouritest shops in all of Melbourne which sells colourful linens and tin and porcelain from Mexico.  I also came home with some goat's milk soap and two little pear plates.   Arrgghh. 

The supposed five minute assembly of modular bits of white bendy plastic of course became 1/2 an hour but I was most impressed with the result.  Isn't it cute?

Then my husband arrived home, saw it and said it looked like the devil.   Something to do with the horns.  And I must say when it is all lit up it does give me a start, glowing in a slightly menacing way in the corner of the room.   Especially if you walk past the bedroom and quickly glance in.  

Of course it doesn't matter what we think.  Little P loves it and it lights up the room like a beacon (so now he thinks it's morning when it's actually 3 am).   Which then led to a whole series of conversations along the lines of 'Okay, it's only morning when mummy says it is morning. Until I say 'it's morning now!' you have to stay in bed sleeping peacefully'. 

Maybe I should have been less hasty and gone with an egg light, like this:

What do you think?  Devil or Cow?

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What's in the Bag?

I paid a visit to the Essential Ingredient today, to pick up some chestnuts (pre-cooked vacuum packed).  More on that below.

I usually avoid this place like the plague, not because there is anything wrong with it, rather its array of condiments, spices, plates, cooking implements, cookbooks and other provisions is so mind blowing I always end up leaving with something lovely but pointless like a mini-grater or tiny porcelain tart cases.

But I had to go, because I don't know anywhere else in Melbourne that sells these chestnuts. 

You know those magazine fluff pieces where someone like Miranda Kerr is asked to disclose the contents of their handbag?  The contents are always semi fake aren't they?  No used tissues, bits of rubbish, phone chargers, Cabcharge vouchers, Medicare rebate forms or elastic bands.  No, it's things like pristine Chanel lipstick,  a full tub of Eve Lom eye cream and an unscratched Hermes wallet.

So in that same fluff piece spirit, here is my bounty from Essential Ingredient.  

Sushi rice and nori seaweed, as I thought it might be fun to make sushi with the children although as I write this I realise I don't have one of those little wooden rolling mats. 

Walnut oil for a batch of Nick Nairn salad dressing.  Can you believe how expensive this stuff is?   I find it hard to bring myself to buy it, hence the small tin. 

(Sigh) a measuring cup, very hard to find and the very best style in my opinion, as it measures down to 25 ml, in plastic, to replace this: 

which my husband describes as a heirloom, he has had it for 20 years.   Never mind that the markings have rubbed off so you have to feel the levels with your fingers as if it were braille.  

Some small baking trays, for the children's dinner.   No not for them to eat, but to cook their little sausages etc in.   I am not sure what Non Attacca !!!! means, but I think it is something good like non - stick.  These are to replace this embarrassment: 

Some little French tartlet things, to fill with egg and mayonnaise for my egg eating child, and maybe avocado for the almost vegan one. 

And finally, the chestnuts.   To cook with apples, cider, cream and pheasant breasts, one of my favourite, 

winter, only cook once a year dishes.   

Happy cooking to you all this weekend.. 

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Local Antique Dreaming

Every now and then when doing a little on line window shopping I have a peep at this antique store, Miguel Meirelles.   I love everything about this shop: its facade, the fact that most of the stock is still in France, and the little bereted man taking photos who is occassionally reflected in the mirrors.  

But most of all I love the fact that this shop is not in the US, or Wiltshire, or the 6th Quartier, rather it is about 5 km up the road from me.   So it is not fantasy.  It is real. If I chose to I could get in my car, drive there, and buy these French banquettes and be back home in 15 minutes.  

These banquettes are something I have been looking at recently.  In a completely hypothetical way.  I have  nowhere to put them of course.  And really,  whilst they are suitable for 18th century perching near a fire, how often do we perch politely these days?  

 Really they should be in this home:

(Pio Ricci 'The Love Letter' 1875)

And they would work well in this kind of space - a pinky salon style living room.

Or maybe in a hallway, for resting between household chores.

Whatever their use, I think I love them because they perhaps are so useless. Delicate, and green, and a bit pointless. 

This weekend, some quince cooking, and some vegetable planting.   And lots and lots of sleep, if the Gods are on my side.  

(Images: (1) Meirelles (2) ThursdaysAntiques (4) Ludwig Design) 

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Epicerie Tote Bag by Maron Bouillie

I have been told by my children that my green credentials are inadequate.  The most significant of my failings is that I do not have a reusable shopping bag and instead allow the shops and supermarkets to ply me with plastic bags.   Are plastic bags the number 1 crime against humanity?   My daughter thinks so.  

A French 'artiste plasticienne', Maron Bouillie, makes bags imprinted with photos of wonderful French things. Like this bag, which I hope to use in place of the evil plastic.   Her (slowly loading) website is here. 

I found this in yet another website free shop, Ex Libris, located in Armadale. A glittering jewellbox of a store, it sells an ecletic mix of all things French, including Gien porcelain, and design books, and door knobs, an little crystal alarm clocks, and Tolix chairs, and so on. 

This is the reverse side of the bag.   I love the details - spice jars (!), lemonade bottles, little wooden drawers and so on. 

Maron Bouillie also makes little printed purses:

And this, my favourite, an Onion Bag:

As I was in the shop, buying something, I thought I may as well buy a couple of other things (oh fatal flaw in my personality). So I bought two other Maron Bouillie creations, firstly a little car bag for my son to store his super precious, dating from the 1960s, Thunderbirds 2 and 4, which I dearly hope will extend their lives.   

And for me, a little bag to store spare embroidery cotton.  

Is it just me, or am I seeing photos printed on absolutely everything at the moment?

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Re Spiced.

We all have those lists in the back of our minds, little things we think 'I must pick that up if I come across it'. 

I have had spice jars on that list for many years.  Literally years.   Small jars may seem like a simple enough thing to find.  But they had to be glass.  And the opening had to be wide enough to fit a tablespoon measure.   And they had to have nice plain lids.  

On the weekend I found my Holy Grail.

These jars, from Scullerymade ($19 for 10). If you live in Melbourne I urge you to visit this amazing copper pot, silicon mould and all things kitchen filled shop.  You will not leave empty handed.

I needed these jars because until yesterday, my spice drawer looked like this:

And now, it looks like this:

I like them so much in their pristine glassy state that I don't even want to label them.  But as a courtesy to the other members of the house it is probably the right thing to do.  And I do find cumin and coriander look quite alike. 

Now my spice drawer resembles a colourful science laboratory filled with mineral sands

I am well aware that the pleasure this clean out gave me is beyond reason and out of all proportion.  I can't explain it.  It just is.    

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A trip to Fitzroy for some silk

Melbourne's a small town, right?  Well, for a town of 3.5 million people.

I live in the inner suburbs and across the river is Fitzroy, only a twenty minute drive. And yet I never seem to be able to find the time to do it.

Like the north shore and the southern side of the harbour in Sydney, sometimes we in the east have a little psychological barrier about crossing the river.

You see,  in Gertrude Street Fitzroy, there is a magical shop called Vixen, where you can buy these lampshades.  Well not literally these, as these are the ones hanging in my hallway, but something just like it or maybe even better.

Yes I know, I know (impatient tone) you can make your own lampshades, but these are custom made, covered in Georgia Chapman's beautiful silk hand prints and lined with a contrasting print.   And for many months now I have been dreaming of having a shade like this, in blue tones for my bedside table.  
The lampshades are actually a late addition.  VIxen now does various home wares including wonderful rugs.

But originally, Vixen became famous for its silk clothes and in particular, its sarongs.  Vixen's philosophy is not to slavishly follow trends, but to create designs which are classic and long lasting.  All their sarongs are made of sections of different silks, like an off beat patchwork, but they don't look crafty or homemade.   They look glamourous and sparkling.   I can think of many ladies from the 1920s who would have been right at home in a Vixen sarong, probably the best example is the naughty Lady Idina Sackville (known as the Bolter when she came to life in a number of Nancy Mitford novels) who scandalised England and Kenya with her multi marriages and flexible sensuous approach to life:

Here she is on the cover of Tatler in 1923, newly engaged to Josslyn Hay. 

(The Bolter, by her great grandaughter Frances Osbourne is a book which must be read).

Over many painstaking years I have collected Vixen sarongs.  When I first started buying these Vixen was located in the city, in a turn of the century Art Nouveau office building with a hand cranked lift running down the centre of the stairwell. 

The fabrics were screen printed in a huge warehouse room which probably originally housed printing presses. 

And very occasionally in Melbourne we have the weather for sarongs.   But just owning them, even if I don't wear them much, improves my life.


(Image 3 Designer Rugs Image 4 from Vixen)

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