The V&A Has A Bedding Section

'At the End of the Day’, hanging, Natasha Kerr, 2007

On Monday CocoThom were on location in London. We decided to hit the V&A Museum. We went thinking that the Grace Kelly exhibition was on, but it wasn't, it starts on the 17th of April to 26 September 2010. So we'll be making another stop for that, but in the mean time, we thought to check out what "fashiony" thing the V&A had on. Emily then suggested that we should go to the QUILT exhibition. Much to my surprise she was serious. You can find out information about dates and prices as they do vary at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/textiles/quilts-1700-2010/.

So this is what I thought about the exhibition. I found it really humorous, nothing to do with the quilts, just me being there, because it is all about QUILTS. I would never have went of my accord. It was a good experience, even though I was acting like a kid at some points. Like dissing some of the work that I didn't like, mainly saying "I don't like the thing in the middle", which funny enough, would be the main focal point, but I was just being truthful, also I wasn't just saying all these things to myself, I was saying them to Emily. However getting past all of that, it was good. Intense, intricate and skillful are only a few words that can describe the workmanship that went into making these quilts. I was more impressed with the older quilts, the earliest being from the 1700's, which amazes me alone, to be beautiful and intact. Some of the modern one's didn't interest me at all, as I thought they were trying to be art pieces first, rather than a quilt, which then in itself is a work of art.

There was a number of ways in which the quilts were displayed. Some as wall hangings, some on beds, some with audio, one even had a video accompanying it, which was amusing to me. This particular quilt was made by the hands of prisoners, from blah blah blah prison (don't need to go into details). It was a well constructed, highly detailed quilt. You would really need to know your stuff, to be doing the type of stitches that were seen on this quilt. I don't know why the audio was there, it really freaked me out, I was slightly confused, to why someone was talking about nothing, because they weren't talking quilts anyway. I felt it wasn't needed, I also felt that the person on the audio, was having a private conversation and I shouldn't be listening.

Something happened that was quite funny. There was this random painting on the wall, amongst the hanging quilts. When we ere walking round, Emily started looking at the painting, I came up right behind her and said "NO DON'T LOOK AT THAT, YOU DIDN'T PAY TO SEE THAT". We both chuckled as we walked.




Set of Chintz bed hangings (detail), 1730-50


I do recommend it to all quilt lovers and to people who have an appreciation for delicate, intricate, crazy needle-work skills I wished I had. Even though I was skeptical about this exhibition at first, because I thought it was going to be boring, I did make my own fun, but I did secretly enjoy it, for all the wrong reasons.


Coco

Karl 'n Paris

Back to Paris. One absolutely freezing day, we were doing some touristy stuff, but at the same time trying not to look touristy. Later in the afternoon, we were on a mission to find Colette. We were not that successful, we even resulted to using our infamous tour guide. FOUND COLETTE... Across the road from Colette, staring quite intently in the general direction of the boutique, all of us think why is there such a hustle and bustle outside the shop? So we cross the road, get close to the door, I'm standing at the back of my friends. I see some of them get pushed back.. Paparazzi everywhere, screaming Paris, Paris.. I was like why are they shouting where we're at. But I was mistaken it was only Paris Hilton. Yeah so we were trying to walk in the door and she was walking out. Really manic.





The more important part to this post is, when we got back from Premier Vision. We got back to our hotel. I needed to go to the Chanel store, I was on the hunt for some particular Chanel items. So my friends came along with me to the main Chanel store at 31 Rue Cambon, as I wasn't able to get what I was looking for in any of the other stores. When we were finished we went outside, as you do, when you want to leave some place, mind you I would never want to leave 31 Rue Cambon. I will be living above there soon. So we cross the road, as I wanted to have a good look at the fashion house. It was so pretty. We all stood there in a line next to one another. We were all looking in different directions around the place. We stood near this really manky Hummer H2, we were like I bet you the person who owns this jeep is in the Chanel store. I clocked a glass door, one of which wasn't for the store. I then just heard a door buzzer, I focus in on the door, which started to open. Out came KARL LAGERFELD, with some other people. He was walking towards the manky Hummer. He started to get into the manky Hummer, aaahhhh the manky Hummer was his. But lets forget about the Hummer. We were standing about 2 metres from him. He is one of my favourite designers and an idol of mine. Totally mesmerized, we were scared to say or do anything, even though we do regret this, but it was enough to see him. We were in shock for quite some time. When his car started to pull away, we got all giggly and I was like not in front of the shop, over there, over there, away from the shop windows and out of sight of any Chanel employees. We did not want to be dissed for what we did next, like a bunch of fan girls, standing in this perfect formation, we screamed, jumped and done a lot of OMG-ing, like the social networking whores that we are, we got out our phones and let friends, family and the Internet know what had just happened. It was much like a scene out of Gossip Girl, without any bitching, sleeping with friends and carrying a sewing machine around the streets, Miss Jenny Humphrey (Little J).



Coco

Paris Trip: Textiles & Celebrties

On a recent university trip to Paris, I learned the true meaning of what it is to be COLD. Living in Scotland, I’m no stranger to icy winds and cold feet, but Paris defeated me. Several times we thought about jumping off the Eiffel tower cause ‘heaven would be warmer’. We all arrived back in one piece however.

The main reason for the trip was of course fashion. We went to two textile trade fairs, Premier Vision and Texworld. We bumped in to two celebrities, one more infinitely exciting than the other. Which is a good way to describe the trade fairs too.

Texworld (let’s call it the Paris Hilton of trade fairs) was…fine. I love fabric, and when I started studying fashion I became a bit of a fabric snob, messing about with silk satin and linen and openly laughing at synthetics.. But. Texworld. If I’d been going as a buyer of fabric, or with some sort of souring mission, I think I would have enjoyed it. Most of us spent a large portion of time in the rest area, where there was large bean bag chairs.

There was some beautiful fabric though, and I think it’s a shame that some of it will probably never made it to fabric shops, giving the little people a chance to buy it. Minimum orders were sometimes not pretty.

Premier Vision (Let’s call it the Karl Lagerfeld of trade fairs) was really great. It’s HUGE, and I’m pretty sure if you can’t find it at premier Vision, it just doesn’t exist. I noticed that at the Indigo section the UK seemed to really dominate the printed textile market, with more companies from the UK than any other. A couple of university’s were showing there too, and I thought it was a real shame that The Scottish School of textiles wasn’t represented in anyway.

The indigo Section also had a amazing vintage section, where designers could buy vintage pieces as inspiration. So much of the vintage on show was devastatingly incredible, and if I had had a few hundred euro to spare, I would have loved to have bought something. Prices were very high, but so was the quality- these people are expert source-ers- so it was understandable.

I’m leaving it up to Athif to give you the low down on our celebrity sightings, and tourist times.

We got our picture taken by the organisers of Le Cuir Paris (the fur and leather section of premier vision)
From Left to right:






Frannie, Leanne, Me and Sam








Emily X

Parisian Chic- Bonjour de nouveau!

Currently the UK high street are selling a lot of 'parisian' style, but hasn't it all been done before? I know, I know, so has everything else, but It seems that this trend re surfaces overly often. Striped t-shirts, eiffel tour prints, red white and blue...don't get me wrong, I think it's a style that can look great, but it so easily decends into cliché that make me cringe. Miss Selfridge in particular made me wince when coming across their 'parisian' section in their glasgow store with their take on this particular trend, (miss Selfridge t-shirt featured right, £20) but new look takes a close second.

Topshop have a few wrong looking paris chic items on offer, including this "spotty paris vest" at £20 and "bonjour body" at £18.

But amist the tat are some real gems, so if you're looking for a bit of 80's inspired paris apparel, you may be in luck this season.

Emily

COS It Could Be Coming

Rumor has it that a certain sister brand of our (well my) High Street favorite H & M, is joining the cold, grey streets of Glasgow. COS (Collection of Style).
There is not much that needs to be said about this brand. It can be on mute and still speaks volumes.

COS has a great understanding of attention to detail, with their strong, subtle and minimalist approach to design. It is consistently evident in both there men’s and womenswear collections which contend with ready-to-wear but have more of an affordable price tag.

COS incorporates fashion essentials, reinvented classics, clean-cut tailoring and simplistic colour palette, which adds to their highly sophisticated, yet quirky and fresh look. You can see this in past and present collections.
COS products are designed by Rebekka Bay (women's) and Michael Kristensen (men's). I find it inspiring what these designers do, in that difficult "mid-market" place on the high street. They do not compromising on design or fabric, but they manage to make their designs affordable.

In their flagship store on Regents Street in London, new items appear in-store almost everyday. Customers will always find something new to wear, so there is a lesser chance of bumping into someone with the same outfit on. Let’s hope that Glasgow has the same system of “new items in almost everyday”. That is an excuse to be in the City Centre on a daily basis.
I am pretty certain, that a store will be opening up. Stay posted and I’ll keep you updated.

Images from a/w 09 lookbook

http://www.cosstores.com/

Coco

Photo Taking and its hazards

When settling down to take photos for my etsy shop today, cameron my nephew thought he'd help. Here he is holding the hands of Felicity, my mannequin. He was quite disturbed that she doesn't have a head.

When i turned the camera on him, he hid behind her in a sudden attack of camera shys! Bless.

The dress itself should be on etsy soon. It's part of the clothing I got from the Fran & Anna estate, and there is actually two matching ones! Stay tuned.

Emily

It's all about the Cardigan

I've been searching on and off for the perfect vintage 50's beaded cardigan for five years.

I had certain criteria in mind when seeking it out. It can't be yellow, cream, white or black. Has to be 100% natural fibers. Must button down the front, no hooks and eyes. Not too many sequins, if any. Had to be in reasonable, wearable condition (not too many moth holes!) and if possible, had to be under £60. And of course, it had to fit me.

I didn't think it was going to be a hard search. But I was wrong.

There was a few nearlys along the way. A beautiful pringle cardigan i was outbid on on ebay, an amazing cardigan in a London vintage shop that was over a £100.

And then there was all the cardigans that weren't

my size. Too big, too small.

But today, my search finally ended. Behold the chosen sweater:

It's nearly perfect. I think I'll always been on the look out for the absolute perfect cardigan (the ones with heavily beaded vines and grapes are among my favourite) but this one comes pretty damn close. It's cashmere too, which is a bonus. Included in the listing was the original advert for the cardigan, which is fantastic:

The original price was $39.95, I purchased mine for $60. I think thats pretty good going!

If your looking for your own perfect 50's beaded cardigan, there are plenty on etsy:

RageoftheAge, $62

gimmeNICOLE, $81

greygardensvintage, $65

weareshy, $40

Maybe they'll fit in to your criteria of the perfect 50's cardigan!

Emily