We had a visit today from Jason Grant, Style Director of Real Living Magazine. He has just launched his own website and blog, check it out.
THE VIVID HIGHLIGHTS WERE...
Sunday was the last day of the Vivid Sydney Festival. I went down to Macquarie Street on Saturday night, along with many tourists and Australians to view the historic sandstone buildings in Sydney's CBD. They are incredible architectural constructions by day, but by night lit up with imagery reflecting Australia's colourful past and present, their structures became even more symbolic and impressive. The highlights for me (no pun intended) were St Marys Cathedral and the Conservatorium of Music. Above are some of the images I took.
NEW LOOK VOGUE LIVING AUSTRALIA
The magazine features a new masthead, type design and content including a new 40+ page travel section and features on entertaining. There are also photos from our Sydney Moderne launch in the social pages!
A huge congratulations to David Clark and his team for a fantastic redesign of Vogue Living July/August 2010. We love the fresh art direction and inspirational editorial and look forward to seeing the next issue!
PERTH TESSUTI MODERNE LAUNCH
Anne Stevenson from Mokum and Renata Zangrando from Tessuti Village Agency
Anne Stevenson presenting the Moderne collection at Tessuti Village Agency in Perth
Our Moderne collection was launched in Perth at Tessuti Village Agency’s showroom in Chelsea Village. Anne Stevenson from Mokum presented to over 60 designers who visited the showroom to be introduced to the collection.
Renata Zangrando of Tessuti was thrilled with the response and pleased to see so many of her clients visiting the showroom to see the new products.
PAUL POIRET
Paul Poiret
Perfume De Rosine Advertising
De Rosine perfume bottle
Mokum's De RosineFrench fashion designer Paul Poiret established his own fashion house in 1903. He was famous for his controversial and flamboyant clothes. He designed creative window displays and threw legendary parties to draw attention to his work, his instinct for marketing and branding was unmatched by any previous designer. In 1909, he was so famous that H.H. Asquith invited him to show his designs at 10 Downing Street. The cheapest garment at the exhibition was 30 guineas, double the annual salary of a scullery maid.
Poiret drew his inspiration mostly from other countries such as Egypt, Morocco and other parts of Africa to name a few. When it came to his famous parties he made all his guests dress in costume to represent these countries, if they did not dress up they were turned away. He even had a leopard amongst his lavish displays.
Poiret's house expanded to encompass furniture, decor, and fragrances in addition to clothing. In 1911 he established the company Parfums De Rosine, named after his eldest daughter. Poiret's name was never linked to the company, but it was effectively the first fragrance launched by a designer.
During World War 1, Poiret left his fashion house to serve the military. When Poiret returned in 1919 the house was near bankruptcy. New designers like Chanel were producing simple, sleek clothes that relied on excellent workmanship. In comparison Poiret's elaborate designs seemed dowdy and poorly manufactured. Although his designs were breathtaking, his constructions were not.
Poiret was suddenly out of fashion, in debt, and lacking support from his business partners, having spent all his money on lavish parties, and in 1929 he was left with no other choice except to close the house of Poiret. After the house had closed its leftover clothes were sold by the kilogram as rags. When Poiret died in 1944, his genius had been forgotten.
De Rosine pays homage to Paul Poiret and the extraordinary life he once lived.
STUDENT PRESENTATION
Last week a group of architectural students visited our studio. Bethany took them through her design process. For architectural students it was interesting to see the concept behind a textile design. It is important for them to understand fabric application in their career path, and although they may not specify fabrics in their end job, if they gain a knowledge of fabric application it will give them an edge on their peers when applying for jobs in the industry.
WHAT ARE WARP & WEFT?
Terms like warp & weft are used on a regular basis when talking about woven textiles. We would like to explain these terms more in detail to clarify what they mean and how to use them properly.
Woven textiles in general are created on a loom through interlacing / interweaving yarns or fibers, which run at a 90 degree angle to each other.
The warp or warp yarns are the yarns that run longitudinal in the fabric, or one can also say down the roll of fabric.
The weft or weft yarns are the yarns, which run widthways in a fabric or horizonally on a roll of fabric.
Once fabric has been cut from the roll, it can be quite hard to tell which yarns are the warp and which are the weft yarns.
One way of telling which is which is that warp yarns are quite often finer / thinner than the weft yarns.
Below image shows a close-up of Rivoli colour Prussian Blue.
The dark blue yarns are the warp and the gold coloured yarns are the weft.
VIVID SYDNEY
Vivid Sydney, a festival of light, music and ideas, starts this Thursday 27th May.
Best known for the amazing light show 'Lighting the Sails' at the Sydney Opera House, Vivid is a fantastic creative event for Sydneysiders and visitors alike. There is everything from creative focus groups, live performances, fire shows, food stalls and markets.
The event runs until Monday 21st June, and with such variety the Mokum studio will be penciling a couple of events into our diaries so we don't miss out. If you are in Sydney you may like to do the same.
2010 TRENDS
Clockwise from top: Textile View issue 88 p:161, Polka Dots styled by Kai Z Feng in 'Lula' Spring 2010, Dorit on her way to Proposte, Mokum's Bruges Lace -052 Frost, Textile View issue 88 p:123 - Blue Forecast , Mokum's Brocatelle and Etoille - 231 Chartruese.At Mokum we strive to offer the latest in design so it’s imperative that we are regularly exposed to international trends. Visiting Proposte is a great opportunity for us to research global trends and connect with the very best European mills. However the way in which trends influence our brand is quite different to other faster paced industries like fashion, where trends can change dramatically from season to season. We need to ensure the trend is not only appropriate for our customers homes but also has longevity. It isn’t every day we replace our curtains or recover a sofa so we want to get it right. We do make certain we still deliver the wow factor, particularly in fabrics suitable for cushions, which allow us to easily update the home. Of course for us as designers the statement items are often the most fun and challenging to work on. The exhibitors at Proposte are the crème de la crème so it isn’t surprising a number of trends were evident across their individual ranges. Here is a couple that we noted:
Colour Trends:
- Yellow green, like our designs ‘Etoile’ and 'Brocatelle' - Chartreuse or the beautiful multi purpose wool ‘Sateen’ – Mimosa.
- Dark Blue. We have seen indigo, ink blues and grey blues appearing in fashion for some time now so this was one we expected. It is a nice change from black!
- Grey based neutrals were shown across the fair, which isn’t particularly new for Australia and NZ – as this trend has been present for some time but I guess for European countries this was a change from more yellow based neutrals. I love the look of grey and dark blue together and judging by fashion I believe it’s a colour partnership we will see more and more in interiors. A good example of this colour combination is ‘Chatelet’ - Prussian Blue paired with ‘Coupole’ - Pewter or Quartz from Mokum’s latest collection Moderne.
- Metallic’s. Again metallic’s are not a new concept however we saw a textile woven from a true gold yarn which was something I certainly had never seen before. It was gorgeous and had real weight to it but I can’t see it being used in many domestic homes, that is unless you live in a palace!
- Digital Prints. The effects that can be created by digital prints now are extraordinary; we saw fabric printed to look identical to kilims. When laid on the floor you would swear you were walking on the real thing.
- Checks, Stripes and Polka Dots were everywhere! Mostly very traditional but some mills had applied the idea quite differently in big chunky chenille and lurex yarns.
- French Knots is an embroidery technique, and we saw entire designs done in multi coloured French knots.
- Soft Linens. There were so many beautiful soft linens both for drapery and upholstery exhibited at Proposte. Many had airo finishes which give the fabric a relaxed ‘used’ look. Walking through the streets of Como I noticed this trend was also mimicked in men’s suits and jackets. Italian men dress really well!
- Crochet and Lace. Last but not least we saw a number of stunning lace and crocheted draperies at Proposte, and lace was also translated into prints for upholsteries. Although call me bias, but I still believe one of the nicest lace constructions around is Mokum’s Bruges Lace.
PICTURE PERFECT
Top to bottom: Istanbul Turkey, stained glass windows in the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, hand painted detail at Topkapi Palace.
Lake Como, Italy
On Friday I am going to be sharing the trends we saw at Proposte (some new and expected, some not), but for now I would like to show you a few of the things which made me stop and take a picture whilst we were away. Dorit will tell you there was more than one or two of these moments. When she asked me to look after the photography I don’t think she realised quite how snappy happy I can be! Here are a couple of my favourites.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
