night rhythms

All Day Long

2010-04-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Love, love, love these images from Veronik Avery's upcoming book, Knitting 24/7. Even with the much-discussed "renaissance" of knitting, there still remains a dearth of patterns that are both interesting to knit and don't look like something my nana would wear. Veronik knows what's up.

Blue Bandit

2010-04-06T17:54:00.001-07:00

Some more spring knitting. Sometimes I think knitting is the only thing keeping me sane, though truthfully I'm probably heading toward a sad future in which I suffocate under an avalanche of knitted oddities and am not found until days later in an eternal tangle of yarn.

"I know I survived the hard times by being obsessed," says Sonja Ahlers, and I'm inclined to agree.

Um... yeah. Happy spring!

The yarn is a silk/merino blend from Painted Fleece, pattern is Springtime Bandit by Kate Gagnon Osborn.

2010-04-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Polaroid silk scarves from Phillipe Roucou and M. Cherie.

Knitomatic

2010-03-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, I've been dreaming of making a stop-motion film involving knitting. Alas, I've been beat to the punch! (Never mind the fact that I have zero film-making ability.)

This amazing commercial, from Natural Gas Belgium, takes the concept of warming up a house quite literally.

You can also watch how it was made:

Veyla

2010-03-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Little spring things.
Pattern by ysolda, knit in malabrigo sock yarn.

a song i like.

2009-12-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

From a band I like.

via 20jazzfunkgreats

2009-12-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon a box full of these great children's books at the library the other day. Cute, I thought. I looked closer. The box was marked free. Even cuter.

Now, I'll take pretty much anything that's free, but these books were an especially sweet surprise - scattered amongst the xenophobic and racist stories (of which there are aplenty, I assure you) are a plethora of great 1920s illustrations. A few favourites:

Lovely!

Cracks

2009-11-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

Jordan Scott

2009

"The film is set at an elite girls’ boarding school circa 1930s where the ‘in crowd’ is made up of the frightfully British diving team: Di, Lily, Poppy, Laurel, Rosie and Fuzzy.
It is a tale of sexual and sporting rivalry, bulling and manipulation predicated on the girls’ passion for their teacher, the glamorous Miss G (Eva Green), upon whom they lavish attention and who in turn teaches them more than just their lessons.
The superficially calm surface of the teenagers' daily life is interrupted by the arrival of a new pupil, the exotic and beautiful Fiamma, in whom Miss G takes an immediate interest.
The girls are fiercely jealous of Fiamma and, led by former favourite Di, exact a campaign of bullying against her. The girls’ anger and the repressive wall of tension that builds over the school year erupts during a high spirited midnight party, with shocking consequences."

If nothing else, this film promises to be bona fide eye candy.

Images from here.

The Spirit of the Beehive

2009-11-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

Victor Erice
1973

2009-10-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

Beautiful crocheted pieces from Arielle de Pinto's 2010 collection. So simple an idea yet so brilliant.

2009-10-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

I scanned a few looks from one my most treasured pattern booklets. Vintage knitting patterns are notoriously difficult to execute, but gee golly, the results are incredible.

Sometimes I imagine how lovely it would be if we still lived in a world where dapper dress and perfectly-rouged lips were a requirement. Such poise, such elegance, such grace...

Then I think how much effort it would take to get ready just to schlep over to 7-Eleven and talk to that weird checkout boy Dmitri and, well, it doesn't seem quite worth it.

2009-10-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Wonderful interior shots from Dos Family House Visits. Brb, moving to Sweden.

2009-10-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

2009-10-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

What is it with the colour purple? I think 90% of the things I've knitted in the past year have been some shade of violet, lavender, aubergine, heliotrope, amaranthine... god, the synonyms for purple are fucking fantastic (thanks, thesaurus.com!).

Uh... just ignore the crotch shot, I implore you.

Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig

2009-10-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Loving the colourful opulence in these shots from Oliver Peoples' 2010 campaign. Has Shirley Manson aged at all in the last 10 years?

2009-09-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

lou doillon for vanessa bruno automne/hiver 2009-2010
directed by stéphanie di giusto

2008-10-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

moving away from her costume-like mod wear, rebecca turbow's fall 2008 collection is refreshingly monochromatic.

except for those people down there, we might be the only living creatures in the whole world

2008-10-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

[picnic at hanging rock captures from film_stills; song by ex reverie]

“it’s always the badly dressed people who are the most interesting.”

2008-09-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

ever-so-intrigued by the lives of others, i felt a voyeuristic thrill upon seeing blackbook's feature on style stars in their natural habitats. a few highlights:

SARAH SOPHIE FLICKER, trapeze artist, filmmaker, founding member of the Citizens Band, photographed in her Canal Street office, New York City.

Deep within Sarah Sophie Flicker’s palatial apartment in downtown Manhattan, amidst the hoards of rare showgirl costumes and shimmering accessories, hangs a trapeze. Its owner, a trapeze artist and founder of New York’s burlesque troupe the Citizens Band (supermodel Karen Elson is a member; actress Zooey Deschanel has performed with them), often dons a sequined cat mask that sits cocked atop her head—it’s one of her many extravagant headpieces. “I have this really amazing showgirl costume with a matching star headband,“ she says. “I found it on eBay when I was pregnant, like, outrageously gigantic. And it just happened to come in the mail right when my daughter was born. So I connect the two. It’s stupid, but I do.” Overrun with vintage pieces—chorus girl bloomers from the 1920s and suffragette costumes—the storage space that houses Flicker’s theatrical wardrobe reflects her fertile imagination. “I’ve always had a really rich fantasy life,” she says, “and I only like wearing things that make me feel like I’m in another time, from another place—the star of my own fairy tale. I’ll wake up and think, I want to be a farm girl from the 1930s.”

LOU DOILLON, model, actor, designer, musician, photographed at her apartment in Paris, France.

Lou Doillon’s corporeal list of role models includes empowered icons like Queen Elizabeth I, Dorothy Parker and Mary Queen of Scots. (“Mary had a crimson petticoat made for her execution, so that it would match her blood,” she says. “I live for those kind of anecdotes.”) The 26-year-old daughter of Jane Birkin and French film director Jacques Doillon, who became famous at the age of 15 for her piercings, dreadlocks and petulance, has recently retired from the spotlight to indulge her creativity. “I have a strict policy in my home—no television and no press. I’d rather stay isolated and dream away the next collection.” Having recently wrapped Lettres Intimes, her one-woman theatrical show throughout France and readying herself to start filming a movie in September, the former face of Givenchy and Miu Miu has also begun designing her own clothes, the Lee Cooper by Lou Doillon collection. Inspired by tomboys, train tracks and Jeanne Moreau in Jules et Jim, her pieces range from cheeky high-waisted shorts to long T-shirts fitted with thumbholes. “I never wanted to create clothes just for skinny girls with no boobs,” she says of the line, adding, “I always have a hard time keeping a style once it’s become ‘trendy.’ I feel like all the personality slips away when everyone is doing it. But that’s because I’m egotistical and I always like to be somewhat off.”

RITA ACKERMANN, artist, photographed at her studio in Chinatown, New York City.

“I’m an exquisite walking corpse drawing,” says Rita Ackermann. The Hungarian-born, New York-based artist, who was featured at this year’s Whitney Biennal, has created buzz for her idiosyncratic renderings of pubescent girls, her audacious ensembles and, of course, the red ballpoint pen she’s applied to runway models’ faces (“I’m still surprised that I don’t see more people wearing ballpoint pen makeup,” she shrugs). Known for her singular, rococo brand of style, she says, “There are no clothes that I consider outrageous. My favorite page in tabloids is ‘When Bad Clothes Happen to Good People.’ I have a funny bikini that I wear all summer with popsicles on it saying ‘Lick Me.’ Is that outrageous?” Her most prized possession is a custom-made, pink couture suit she bought for $30. The two-piece costume once belonged, appropriately, to Ilona Staller (stage name Cicciolina), a Hungarian porn star turned democratic politician who was once married to artist Jeff Koons. Ackermann says, “She had put it up for auction to bail out her pop singer girlfriend from jail.”

playboy france march 2008 : lou doillon by takis bibelas

2008-03-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

2008-02-27T00:51:00.000-08:00

lou doillon looking fly on the cover of french playboy:

2008-02-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

i used to live next to the cutest, most incredibly well-stocked bookstore, bryan prince. i stumbled upon quite a few gems there, one of my favourites being sonja ahlers' hand drawn novel fatal distraction. her work is charming, odd, witty, melancholy, plus a billion other adjectives that don't really do it any justice.

i was lucky enough to stumble across sonja's work again, this time on etsy. her handmade fierce bunnies are seriously coveted!

in the post

2008-02-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

necklace by stephanie simek. made of sterling silver and human hair - creepy & wonderful.

2008-01-30T10:39:00.001-08:00

dear new girl or whatever your name is:

contemporary artists reinterpret schoolyard scribblings.