Wednesday, July 13, 2016

House of Hurel: The Artisans Behind the Couture


Watch the artisans create beautiful hand embroidery at House of Hurel.


The runways have been filled with beautiful stitchery and beadwork for the last few seasons, and it is a trend after my own heart.  I love the magic and mastery of all that gorgeous, old-world embellishment, and I often wonder who makes the fabrics? These kinds of pieces seem less like clothing and more like tapestries or flowing sculpture.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Make Up Tutorials from History ... Yikes!

Forget lip plumpers in 1936, girls.  Instead, here are tips to disguise lips that are "a teenie weenie bit heavy."
(Sorry, Angelina Jolie!)

We all know that makeup trends come and go, and we often don't even realize we are playing along until we look back at pictures from a decade ago and wonder what in the hell we were doing with all that brown lip liner. (Or maybe that's just me...)

I found these great old beauty films, each offering the latest, most stylish makeup trends of their day.  Consider these your grandmother's beauty YouTubers:

Friday, July 8, 2016

A Beauty Bar Resetting the Bar on Beauty

#MyBeautyMySay

I remember marveling at my mother's complexion when I was growing up.  She was blessed with great skin genes that made her look kind of like she was carved out of marzipan, even as she got older.  I, on the other hand, have lots of freckles and moles that  my mother sweetly called "beauty marks." I remember a cute guy in college telling me that those moles were "a reverse constellation of stars" across my body ... which I've always cherished, but that's another story.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Souvenir Jacket -- Embroidery, War, Rebellion, History and Style in One Iconic Piece

Explore Sukajan street style & history in Harajuku, Tokyo

Spring and Fall/Winter 2016 offer a beautiful trend of rich embroidery embellishment.  Valentino, Schiaparelli and Gucci are just a few of the design houses that have included some form of gorgeous stitchery into both couture and resort lines.  Just look at the details on these pieces:

Valentino on the left.  Schiaparelli on the right.  Swooning all around.  

In an age of digital artifice and an increasingly homogenized landscape, clothes with this kind of old world craftsmanship feel special, unique and grounded.  They're linked to an artistic tradition that goes back as far as human beings have been around to put threads into needles.   

Embroidery was never just utility.  It was artistry. (And sometimes political activism.)