“Myrtle and Lace is the creation of New Zealand born designer Regina Stroombergen [a lovely little lady I attended design school with]. Formed in 2008 the brand started off by making one of a kind wallets out of vintage fabrics and has moved into limited edition pieces using both vintage and new materials including silks and cottons from around the world. Many of Myrtle and Lace’s designs take influence from the past and give this feel off throughout its themes, promotional materials and fabric choices.”
Semi permanent was on in Auckland over the weekend. I was unable to go but i hear there were some wonderful presentations. Alexiz Sinclair was a favourite and from these pieces you can see why I’m a fan. My obsession has been captured in these pieces; clouds, feathers, fashion. And all done in such a girly glamorous almost surreal style. Apparently she spoke on her difficulty finding her place between photography and fine arts. Check out the rest of her portfolio and blog
The trailer for the fantastic book The lovely bones is released. When I first saw it I was a little disappointed but after seeing it again I believe New Zealand film director Peter Jackson has done a fantastic job. To be released in December.
Exciting! A still from the making of the book Where the wild things are. Gosh that book use to scare me when I was a kid. But i still loved to read it, I guess i've always been a sucker for punishment.
My cousin is starting out her new label Charcole here in NZ. There are some pics from her first collection; very stree, almost punk yet versatile and can easily be dressed up or down. Kepp an eye on this young lady here as she has got a lot to come!.
A few Saturday’s ago I attended New Zealand’s first Social Innovation Camp. A lot of these happen around the world but wellington was the first to hold New Zealand’s. There is a post on idealog that talks about how it was run and what came out of it.
In whole a whole I was super excited about this meet; getting together with other members of the public who were interested in making a difference socially. The topic was based around “how to innovate our way out of the recession” and while the ideas that came out were strong I have to say I was a little disappointed. Everything was so focussed around business issues (understandable due to the topic) but I was hoping there would be some solutions that were more focussed specific groups of society and making a difference with in them. I felt that the topic of financial crisis over road what we (will I) was trying to achieve.
There is one in Auckland coming up in the start of July so if you are up that way and interested make sure you check it out here.
I recently ran into this wonderful blog downunder talent, written by Julia; Interior designer and finder of cool and creative stuff in Australia and New Zealand. Recent posts include:
It is known that there is a bit of tension between Auckland and wellington. However recently i have been spending a bit of time up that way and started to warm to the place. This is a lovely video of the city.
I haven’t seen much of Dibbles work since high school, except for his memorial work in London’s Hyde Park (despite the overall dislike for the work I actually really liked it). He was my artist model for my seventh form Sculpture panels. He is a local artist in my home town of Palmerston North and I went out to visit him at his studio and see how he worked. It was so interesting and super inspiring, so you can understand how stoked I am to see the he will be exhibiting in the art gallery just down the road from work. I’m loving the look of his work. These birds are ever so sweet while still having a very emotive look and feel to them. I will defiantly be popping in.
One of the girls I went to design school with (Lauren Marriott) has been just done some modelling for the Michael Pattison winter 09 collection. I love the mixture between the carnival and upmarket style and she hold the clothes so well!
“Consistent with Pattison's passion for quality fabrics; signature textiles include an exclusive vintage silk crepe print and gorgeous engineered merino stripe combined with velvet, tartan, denim and wool jacquard to indulge the eclectic sultry world of Carnivà le.”
I love these boots, hot! And look at those calves!
You may have seen the fatsoTV adds that are on at the moment. I am rather stoked to hear about this service as one of my New Year’s resolutions was to watch films. So far it hasn’t been working out too well as once I have got home from work , had dinner and a shower I sit down to realise that nothing on the 365+ channels interests me. I can’t be bothered to walk down the road to the DVD store and then decide what I want to watch so this option is perfect!
Fatso allows you to “Create a list of DVDs you want to watch” and they will send them to you free. “Once you watch a movie send it back in one of the Freepost return envelopes to receive the next available DVD from your list.” You can choose all different types of plans allowing you to keep up to 6+ DVD’s at once. “How many you watch depends on how quickly you view and return your DVDs! There are no due dates or late fees.”
It’s sounds like the perfect service for the rainy months ahead as well! At the moment fatso are doing a free 2 week trial. I’m defiantly going to give it a go starting with a few documentaries I missed at last year’s film festival!
Have you seen House of Aroha? The site has been made from the heart of a little Napier based store; Aroha Lamour. It features New Zealand fashion designers, musicians and artisits. It also has an online store featuring pieces from Karen Walker, Zambesi and Worshop, just to mention a few. Currently they have up to 50% off, so defiantly worth checking out! For the designers out there they also give away free fonts that they have worked on like Tairawhiti Arts website and fonts for the Fat Freddy’s drop posters.
Spacething is a D.I.Y social space in the sweetheart of Newtown, Wellington. It is run by a collective of spacecadets and functions as a gallery, shop, zine and comix library, performance space and doing stuff hangout.
For all you creative’s out there it’s a great way to get amongst like-minded people. I’m defiantly going to check it out as I totally want to get into scrapbooking/zining!
While flicking through my scrapes from the year I came across this article in some trashy woman’s magazine and found it rather interesting. I ripped it out and stuck it into my scrap book so I’m sorry I can’t make any acknowledgements because I don’t write it down, naughty. But I do know it was written in reference to the book Oh Baby... Birth, babies & Motherhood Uncensored by Kathy Fray- a kiwi author. Kathy says the old terms for feminism are out of date. We’re on to the fourth incarnation of the women’s movements and we need new ways to describe it.
1. Suffrage Sisters: The first wave of feminism was led by the 19th and 20th century suffragettes fighting to give women the right to vote. [New Zealand was the first country in the world allowing woman to vote.]
2. Bra Burners- The second wave was during the 60s and 70s with ‘women’s libbers’ and the sexual revolution. These revolutionaries used techniques of political solidarity to demand economic and reproductive rights for women.
3. Power Players- The third wave of feminism was far more clandestine, says Kathy. “Most women weren’t even concisely aware of it, as they weren’t marching parliament carrying playing cards.” She says Girl Power, epitomised by pop icons the Spice Girls started to emerge in the early 90s with the likes of Sigourney Weaver in Alien, Oprah and Roseanne Barr. Pop-culture girl power moments include a heavily pregnant Demi Moore nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, Edina and Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous, Sex And the City, and Eve Ensler’s provocative stage show. The Vagina Monologues.
4. Uterosexuals- Kathy says the world is now “aglow” with female leadership, such as our own Helen Clarke, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chile’s first female president Michelle Bachelet, Liberia’s Ellen Johson-Sirleaf (the first female president on the African content) and China’s Vice Premier Wu Yi.
“To describe this level of success as Girl Power is insulting” says Kathy. “Many of us are what the academics are defining as the ‘fourth wave’ of feminists, nicknamed ‘uterosexual’- strong women who are emancipated, educated, ambitious, feminine, intuitive, articulate and immensely proud of their almighty womanliness.” She says that utrosexuals are “feminine feminists” and believes they aren’t women trying to succeed in a man’s world- they’re woman who are succeeding in a unisex world. They don’t dislike metrosexual, heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual men; in fact they enjoy their company. Kathy has her own rallying cry for women. “The fourth wave of feminism has arrived. Welcome to the next generation.
I have thoughts on this but need to ponder and dabble with my thoughts...
What are your thoughts? Where are we to now? How will it all play out?
I’m back from holiday, and while back in the office pretty stoked to be back in this ghost town of a city.
I promise, (more to myself than anyone else) to update sweetpea with my ever so sweet adventures but first I had to jot down my favourite post of the day.
I came across the work of Lindsay Pemberton, thanks to a post by Kate Elliot. Some pictures of her Tea Bangle Set are below. I just love tea cups, like really love them, my dream is to one day open a beautiful tea house filled with beautiful tea cups. So I think this idea is ever so sweet. I’m head over heels in love.
Also you will notice that Lindsay is features on the website clever bastards. I also am very supportive of this site as it is supporting the fantastic, local talent of Aotearoa. I especially love the write ups on the Clever Bastards themselves, such interesting people, and it’s so nice to see them photographed in their own environments. If you know someone who should be featured on this site or rather fancy your own cleverness make sure you check it out to get some well deserved recognition.
