Sunday, November 27, 2011

How to Create a Lilly Design Pattern

 

Follow this simple technique to make your own Lilly Pulitzer-inspired design.
Tools and Materials
Inspiration photo
Vellum paper
Colored permanent markers
Watercolor paper
Graphite paper
Blunt pencil
Watercolor paints
Frame (optional)




Lilly Pulitzer Design Technique How-To
 1. Start with an inspiration photo to determine the shapes and color scheme. Your theme can center around botanicals, animals, landmarks, nautical motifs, even everyday items such as bicycles or maps!

2. Trace a shape in the inspiration photo (for example, a shell) by placing vellum paper over the original picture and outlining the shape with a permanent marker. Go over only the line details you'd like to include in your print design. Repeat for other shapes in the photo you'd like to include.

3. Transfer the design from the vellum paper to the watercolor paper. Layer the paper as follows, from bottom to top: watercolor paper, graphite paper, vellum paper with traced design. Run a blunt pencil tip over the traced design, applying moderate pressure, to transfer the design from the graphite paper to the watercolor paper.

4. Go over the transferred image outline on the watercolor paper with a colored permanent marker, and further define the design by adding whimsical details, such as swirls, bubbles, dots, etc.

5. Determine the color palette for the design and paint with watercolor in stages. Fill in key colors, then accent colors.

6. Frame the print when dry, if desired.


Resources:
All tools and materials available at art-supply and crafts stores.

Tutorial video from show included in link.....
 
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/how-to-create-a-lilly-design-pattern#ooid=E1bm9lMjrk4V2lTlYMp4FMF3GB5EBIaN

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A peek at Stella McCartney’s new denim line



 A peek at Stella McCartney’s new denim line (complete with Hawaiian prints!) straight from our December issue. Read the other hot fashion stories of the month, over on Slaves to Fashion. Photo: Frances Tulk-Hart



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

From About Last Weekend's Blog.......Tales of a Kiwi mum-of-four living in the bay area

Maori Boy Genius

Link to the movie trailer:  http://vimeo.com/27125884

He learned to memorise through the Maori tradition of singing and story telling and almost never takes notes. His first language is Maori and he learned English at four years. At 12 he began his first university degree, at 14 he googled "international politics'' and "education" and he came up with "Yale University." He applied to the Yale summer semester programme at age 15 and was accepted last year at the age of 16.


Who is this boy? His name is Ngaa Ruuira Pumanawawhiti and his journey to Yale is the subject of my sister Pietra's latest documentary, Maori Boy Genius.


Ngaa posses such evident spirituality and charisma that watching even footage of him is strangely moving. You find yourself close to tears. Among his people he is being hailed as a new leader for our confused and troubled age, a visionary who can directly tap into the wisdom of his ancestors.

Ngaa was born in the small coastal New Zealand town of Otaki. He has lived with his retired grandparents (his grandfather worked on the railways and his grandmother was a prison nurse) since the age of eight (customarily the eldest child in a family is given to their grandparents) while Ngaa's five siblings stayed with his parents.

Surrounded by his "iwi" (tribe) he has been educated in the Maori tradition where knowledge is passed down through story telling and songs. That means he seldom takes notes - he simply reads or listens and recites. Ngaa says: "We learnt songs, we learnt dances about everything like fishing. How can you go fishing if you don't know where the fish are? A song will tell us how to look for the fish and we would sing it as we went fishing."

He's also also a goofy, gangling 16 year-old Maori boy who loves to hang out with his mates; watching his best friend Riwai -  already a dad at 17 -  practise his old school popping-and-locking dance moves, eating meat pies in his friend Daniel's car and discussing girls.

"His interest is human rights,'' his mother Maakarita says: "He's been talking that way since he was 10.'' But his life is not buried in books or the internet: ``He's still a typical teenager, and he likes to be with his mates.''


Ngaa at Yale last summer

In April I saw Ngaa perform the Haka in the Te Hui Ahurei of Tuhoe, an annual festival. It had taken all night to draw the tattoos (ta Moko) on his and his group's faces and bodies. Ngaa has also smudged his face to try and reflect the environment and look like the bush as his ancestors had done. "He's different that one" said one of his elders.
   For the past two years Pietra has filmed him with his friends, travelling to Yale (for the summer semester programme) and back again to his family. "There is always the time during the filming process when you know your subjects are sick of you, sick of the camera and wished they'd never agreed to be filmed, exposed, prodded. Ngaa and his family never gave me that impression - they believed that me and my crew were part of Ngaa's kaupapa - or journey - and were committed to the film, because in the end, as he says, this educational/future leader journey is not for him, it is for his people, to bring them out of poverty."


"But please don't think this film is all worthiness" Pietra says: "there is a lot of laughter, especially hanging out with his mates, and a lot of tears when his 5th sibling is born with the whole family around and Ngaa is handed her to be named, and in his extraordinary relationship with his grandfather." 
At a time when a survey of teens just voted spray-tans and the iPhones as the top inventions of all time, Ngaa is passionately political. One look at his Facebook page tells how he champions the rights of the oppressed including his own people who were ousted from their lands, introduced to cigarettes and alcohol and banned from speaking their own language. Today a high percent of young Maori men drop out of High School and end up in prison. 

One of Ngaa's favourite quotes: "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Marching for Maori land rights
Ngaa: "We have come here to show you we will not bow down!"
 Ngaa's name is based on an old tribal (Tuhoe) saying: “He uira ki te rangi he tauira ki te whenua....Like lightning in the sky, here is an example on earth.”

But it is Ngaa's grandmother who gently notes: “He’s a Matakite, a Wiseman. But he's also a boy."

The television documentary version of Maori Boy Genius will be screened on Maori Television in New Zealand on Sat November 12 at 8.30pm and repeated Sunday November 27 at 6pm.

http://aboutlastweekend.blogspot.com/2011/11/maori-boy-genius.html


Interior Designer Lauren Liess - Pure Style Home

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Da cozinha para o guarda-roupa ~ From the kitchen to the wardrobe


A italiana Colomba Leddi usa frutas e verduras como inspiração para sua coleção do verão 2012

The Colomba Italian Ledda uses fruits and vegetables as inspiration for his collection of summer 2012
For Fernanda Massarotto, Milan October 21, 2011, 8H01
 
 
The Italian designer Colomba Ledda is above all an artist. His pieces are unique and unmistakable. Be on the streets of Milan, Tokyo, London or Los Angeles, it is impossible not to recognize a dress or a coat signed by her. His new collection spring-summer 2012, invests in natural fabrics such as linen, cotton, Japanese, Indian silk and batik. But his forte is the fun and unique digital prints. The inspiration this time are not ethnic or tropical countries, but the kitchen of a friend (so that the collection was named "La Cucina di Ada"). "The kitchen of Ada is a fountain of ideas, colors and joy: dishcloths striped or plaid, vegetables, colorful aprons. All these ingredients helped me compose the new collection. Not to mention, of course, recipes, aromatic and delicious, blending cultures and flavors, "says Ledda.




During the process of creation, Colomba sliced ​​onions, carrots, lemons, cauliflower and peppers. "I put on each ingredient dish cloths or linen and photographed everything," he says. The next step was to work the images digitally. "From the kitchen, I created an entire line to the wardrobe next summer!" Colomba liked the "joke" that have produced cushions and curtains for your home collection. The creations are for sale in his studio, opened in 1996 in Milan Some of the pieces are unique. Outside, the brand is present in the Egg and Few and Far, in London, Noodles, Los Angeles, and Takashimaya in Tokyo. In his spare time, Colomba teaches fashion design at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, and respond by the board of course fashion design school.



































 














http://modaspot.abril.com.br/tendencia/tendencia-cores-estampas/da-cozinha-para-o-guarda-roupa
Website:  http://www.colombaleddi.it/index2.html

Original article in Portuguese translated to English via Google translator by me.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Givenchy Resort 2012

Hawaii Issue: Givenchy Resort 2012

 

 

This collection is a wonderful example of how to execute modern florals in a beautiful way. Riccardo Tisci used classic flowers and colors in unique layouts and placements to create the sophisticated look. Of course, not every apparel company can afford to create such personalized engineered prints, but you can be creative and mimic the basic idea through an open-ground layout with a large repeat. 

 




 
*images via vogue.com, courtesy of Givenchy, “Palm Fingers” by Daniel Blume, “Bird of Paradise” by Jessica M. Cross








Digitally-altered floral prints inspired by Hawaiian surf culture dominated Riccardo Tisci's Resort 2012 outing for Givenchy. Vividly printed on pencil skirts, sheath dresses, blouses, and jackets, the mirror-image patterns provided an intriguing foil to Tisci's other theme — basketball dressing. Sweatshirts, knits skirts, and tiny cropped sweaters — some with sporty mesh inlays and asymetrical silhouettes —  added a casual feel, while bright orange handbags, athletic visors, coach-whistle necklaces and shoes with matchy-matchy prints tied everything together.












 

http://www.fashionologie.com/Givenchy-Resort-2012-17859287

Alena Akhmadullina Spring/Summer 2012

Josephine Kimberling: Book Review (& Press!): Mastering the Art of Fabri...






Josephine Kimberling: Book Review (& Press!): Mastering the Art of Fabri...: The highly anticipated book by fabric designer Laurie Wisbrun 'Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design' is Laurie's first book ...