Patterns and Textiles

When someone says something like 'houndstooth' do you know what they are talking about? Well here are some patterns and textile names with pictures.

Houndstooth (also known as houndstooth check)

- seen in fashion

Tweed

-seen in fashion and home decor

Herringbone

-seen in fashion and home decor

-also a type of brickwork pattern

Gingham

- seen in fashion and some home decor

Damask

-seen in home decor (painted on walls, on wallpaper or in actual items like pillows)

Tartan (also known as plaid)

-seen in fashion

Toile (pronounced twall)

-used with home decor

Paisley

-used in fashion (men's ties included)

Toilet Paper Dresses for a Cause

You probably have seen Cashmere's commercial on their toilet paper dress.

There have also been many magazine advertisements showing dresses constructed out of Cashmere's toilet paper.

More recently, eight leading Canadian designers designed their very own toilet paper dresses to raise breast cancer awareness.

Designed by Joeffer Caoc

Designed by Lucian Matis

Designed by Thien Le

Designed by Ula Zukowska

Designed by Arthur Mendonça

The one-of-a-kind show is entirely crafted from 100 per cent soft and luxurious sheets of bathroom tissue. This year’s collection also includes new, limited-edition Pink Cashmere, Canada’s first coloured bathroom tissue in a decade. Twenty-five cents from the sale of every package will go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Designed by Evan Biddell

Designed by David Dixon

Designed by Comrags

Stella McCartney

The fashion designer, Stella Nina McCartney, was born in 1971 and is the daughter of Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and his first wife Linda McCartney. Stella studied fashion design at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in the early 1990s and graduated in 1995.
At the age of 25, in 1997, her first big break was succeeding Karl Lagerfeld at the French fashion house Chloe. McCartney left Chloe in 2001 to set up her own label in partnership with the Gucci Group. Stella was praised for capturing the imagination of ladies like herself with the sexy girliness of her designs. However, she was also criticized for collections that were uneven and creating a few pieces that had rather racy phrases on them; “Keep You Bananas Off My Melons” was printed on a tee for example.
No matter the controversy for some pieces, this designer is a favourite for many.

“When I was younger, I used to think that, if I left school and got a job, I would have everything figured out. Then, I left school and realized I was still trying to figure things out. Now, of course, I understand I’ll never figure it all out.”
“I’m so sick of this ‘my parents’ thing. It’s not my fault. It’s been that way my whole life. When I would make a good drawing in primary school, it was because my dad was famous. Or if I got a part in a school play, it was because Dad was a Beatle. What do I do? Do I become a smack-head and live off my parents’ fortune or do I have my own life?”

Credit goes to Wikipedia and Flare magazine September 2008 issue.

Pictures are of Stella’s Fall 2008 collection.

Fall/Winter 2008 Fashions

Fall is now officially upon us, so here are the trends for this fall and winter:

Plaids are still in but you can branch out to more bold plaid prints. The choice is yours with how bold you want your plaids.

It may be the fall but florals are still in, but mostly as small prints.


Animal prints have become bolder with bright colours, although you can still stick with the natural animal print looks.

Girly, cutesy prints are still in (hello kitty, bunnies and such) so don’t throw away those pieces from your wardrobe.

Cable knits will keep us warm; one sweater from Alloy gives this classic a new vibe by having the sleeve ¾ long. Don’t be afraid of ¾ sleeves, you can choose to wear long sleeve shirts underneath.

You don’t always have to go dark in the fall/winter; bright blues and other bright colours can be found all year round.

Prepster looks are huge thanks to the Gossip Girl characters. You don’t have to go all out prep school chick, just a preppy sweater with virtually any top underneath and a pair of jeans can look good.

With the weather getting colder in the Northern hemisphere, hats and scarves become major staples in outfits. We also begin to wear tights more and more. This year opaque tights can be found in tons of bright colours. There are also tights that have patterns.

Those are the basics!

Designer Bike

I recently came across these two items on a great site; http://www.purseblog.com/.

Chanel

This Limited Edition Chanel Bike is the ultimate in two-wheeled novelty. Includes quilted leather handles, seat, pant guard, even the bike pump is covered in Chanel’s signature quilted leather. The bike also features two quilted flap bags and a jewelry roll behind the seat, all of which are detachable and can be used as individual shoulder bags.

With only 50 made and less than 20 available in the US, this creation retailed for $17,000, with reseller markups hitting $28,000 already.

Hermes also has a bike too. You can see it and read the article by clicking on the link below.
http://www.purseblog.com/hermes/the-hermes-bicycle.html

Original Chanel bike article is here:
http://www.purseblog.com/chanel-bags/the-17000-chanel-bicycle.html

DKNY Fall 2008 Ready-to-Wear

Here are my favourites from the Fall 2008 RTW line from DKNY.

Gucci Fall 2008 Ready-to-Wear

Here are my favourites of the Fall 2008 line from Gucci.