New drawing: J crew lace dress

The styling with the pulled back hair and big earrings reminds me very much of comrags's Fall 2015 Collection which was inspired by Tina Modotti.

#illustration #fashion #current #style #illustrator

New work: Jenna Lyons

I would call her style  'elegant librarian' with an androgynous eccentric edge.

I love how her outfits fuse colours, textures, patterns + materials in a quirky mix.

#fashion #illustration #style #icon

String Theory

Last Thursday I met Meghan Price one of the designers behind String Theory.
I discovered this company this past November at The One of a Kind show where they stood out like a breath of fresh - modern looking - air! I really love their scarves and shawls - so graphic, fresh, and smart looking. Inspirational.

 Big mess scarf

Off grid shawl

Albers scarf named for Josef + Anni Albers

A Month of Great Design in Toronto

The last 30 days has been absolutely chalk full of great design adventures in Toronto including:

 1. A super inspirational talk by Jonathan Adler at the DX

(Took 6 pages of notes!)

 2. A visit to Kevin Austin's stunning new shop Vintage Fine Objects in Corktown

(Could buy everything in the shop!)

 The Opening of Revealing The Early Renaissance at The AGO (curated by my friend Sasha Suda) (So proud of her!)

A fashion show of Comrags' Fall Winter 2013 Collection at Andrew Richard Designs. 

(Loved the clothes + check out this new swanky event space!)

All were very juicy experiences and deserving of their own post -- which will come next week when I'm caught up on my illustration work! Stay tuned.
Toronto - you are a great design city and sometimes terribly distracting. :-)

Comrags

I went to a Spring preview at comrags last night and as always it was inspirational.

 I splurged and bought this Isabella dress. 

Love the frill on top -and plan on wearing it - as all my comrags dress - for all 4 seasons!

Might just have to get this one too....

I love dresses with POCKETS. (Handy for the iphone!)

A visit to comrags

Spring = A visit to comrags for a new spring frock.
**News: Did you know...comrags is moving to Dundas West?!
The design of this shop on Queen was described as "Country farmhouse meets urban industrial". Can't wait to see what they'll do in terms of interior design in the new space.
Stay tuned.

I settled on the Lucy dress in dijon.
Isn't it great?
Loved the pockets - big enough to collect eggs :-)


Happiness is a comrags package in one's bicycle basket!

Sketch

Working on some illustrations with real fabric.
This is fabric from the j. crew retro dot bathing suit!

Must Order

J Crew's Retro Dot Underwire Tank
Swimming Pool Here I Come.

NYC Day 6

A bit more NYC clothes shopping...

Found this top at Brooklyn Industries.
Nice unique details and thought the fabric looked like an abacus. :-)


At Uniqlo I found this dress in their J+ section: a new clothing line designed by Jil Sander. Lots of beautiful minimalist stuff.
The german woman shopping beside me said "It looks very dutch" and I said "In that case I'll take it! " (in black)

Later on met up with lovely Artscape neighbour Jen Tindall + friends at the New York Public library.

We went to the Celebrating 100 Years Exhibit which contained 250 interesting items from the NYPL’s huge collection including: the first Gutenberg Bible, a note from Groucho Marx to Harold Ross, and the set model to the original stage version of Sunday in the Park with George. See above. (My all time fave musical)

Quick trip to Bryant Park.
Free lending library in park = Civilization at it's finest. :-)


Perfect ending to day: a trip to the historic Algonquin Hotel at 59 West 44th Street for a cocktail.

Jen and Rick at the Algoniquin with their 19.oo martinis!

Great style from last night

Sophie B at Toronto Fashion week

Saw this gal Sophie B at the Comrags show last night and had to take a shot of her. Thought she had such a great pulled together style - loved the flowery blouse + peg leg pants and grrr.. how'd she get her hair to go like that? :-) She very much reminded me of a young Fran Liebowitz.

ps. Extra excited as I've just gotten a nice illustration assignment on the topic of androgyny. Sophie will serve as inspiration for it. Can't wait to show you sketches after the piece is published!

Inspiration: J. Crew ads + Real People!

This is Bridgette with great style.

From the latest brilliant email campaign from J. Crew.
In this one the company asked 9 J. Crew employees to show how they'd wear their capris. Each woman imbued them with her own unique style.

J. Crew really knows how to sell stuff.

Also - is very significant to note that the rise of design blogs like the Sartorialist has led to companies using real people in their ad campaigns. These women are much more inspirational than skinny 15 year olds. yay. Christine Lemieux of Dwell Studio recently made a similar point that the best interior design these days is coming from real people.

Inspiration: Whitney Pozgay + WHIT

Kate Spade's niece Whitney Pozgay (what kind of fantastic name is that?) has just launched her own clothing line called WHIT and it is full of crisp, smart, Polka dotty goodness! Witney's clothes are inspirational to me but even more so is her whimsical styling (including models with wineglasses and eggs on their heads) as well as her quirky website. The clean white background of the site combined with photos of carefully curated items reminds me a lot of the 'behind the curtain' section of the kate spade website. (One of my top 5 places to go for inspiration!)
Clearly Whitney was influenced by her fabulous Aunt Katie.

Inspiration: Dunderdon

My friend Lyndsay introduced me to a great clothing line today: Dunderdon from Gothenburg Sweden.
Style = "Scandinavian Sombre chic": kinda lumberjack meets librarian.
Love the Bergmanesque models with black tights and flat shoes. Also happy to discover they have a store in Soho. (Am off to NYC for quick trip on Thursday).

Inspiration: Kate Spade's Clothing

Kate Spade debuted her clothing collection yesterday.
Her style has long been a source of inspiration.
The photos for this collection are the epitome of librarian chic and include lots of elements that I often feature in my work including: polka dots, knocky knees, bird cages, 1940's cloches, and plucky heroines!

Berlin: Some young Designers

Berlin Fashion week headquarters at Bebelplatz on the historic Unter den Linden

Poster for Arkonamarkt Fleamarket

Berlin Beauties

Fashion designer Lisbet Carnegie Krebs of espendru at her booth wearing one of her fabulous frocks (with pockets ofcourse!)

Anja Werner's Lovely embroidered birds

Loved the contrasting pink zipper on this sweater. Fun.

Lovely Thea Altman of Hut up
(A Berlin beauty who could be Miranda July's doppelganger!)

Look at this stunning dress from Hut Up design - made of felt.I want one.

Thea sewing a stuffed felt animal for the shop.

Finally a chance to post a few more highlights from Berlin.
In collaboration with Berlin Fashion Week dozens of young designers set up booths at the Arkonamarkt Fleamarket on the last day of my visit.
A big highlight for me were the dresses and skirts of Lisbet Carnegie Krebs.
When I asked her to describe her designs she said they are 1/4 coquette, mixed with 3/4 working girl - and emphasized that all her pieces must have pockets - because busy working girls need pockets!
That's my kind of woman.

The quirky felt dresses spotted in Hut up, a beautiful shop located in Mitte at Oranienburger Str. 32 were also very sigh worthy.