Secret Squirrel Clothing

It’s beginning to feel a lot like..

autumn! My favourite time of year. Actually it’s not really feeling autumny yet- the days are still a little hot to be getting excited about cooler weather, but there’s definitely a hint of it in the air.

this is what autumn feels like..

Posted by bri on Thursday April 29, 2010

girlcrush! did we mention that already?

All of us girls at Secret Squirrel have been known to get a little squeely over Alexa Chung, she has such great style and lovely dip-dyed hair. Her bestie Tennessee Thomas is cool looking too and rounds them out as quite a snazzy pair.

Posted by bri on Sunday April 25, 2010

Cat Cafe’s

J a p a n e s e C a t C a f e ‘ s !
We came across this article, and loved it! How hilarious and cute is this???

TOKYO — I followed the instructions of the watchful cashier and took off my shoes, sanitized my hands, placed my bag in a locker and dangled an ID card (“customer #18″) from a lanyard around my neck. The cashier then gave me a once over and a shallow bow, and I padded quietly into the sitting room of the cafe.
“She’s the prettiest girl we have at our cafe. Everybody wants to touch her, but we ask that customers only do so if she doesn’t resist you,” a waitress told me.
She didn’t resist. And since I was paying for the privilege, I leaned in and stroked her cheek. She was as lovely as the waitress had promised: a big-eyed, silky soft, compliant 2-year-old Russian Blue cat.
I was at Calico, one of Tokyo’s increasingly popular cat cafes, where customers seeking human and feline companionship pay to sip tea and stroke one of the 20-odd resident cats, representing 17 different breeds.
In an increasingly childless and aging nation, cat cafes fill a void. The more fortunate Japanese are the middle-aged couples who cradle Dachshunds like grandchildren at car dealerships and the young women who hand feed their Maltese puppies on park benches. For those who live with long work hours, no-pet apartments and work-related travel, there are cat cafes.
I first heard of Calico cat cafe when it opened in March 2007, but then it was an oddity and the preserve of lonely women and cat fanciers. It is now staggeringly popular. This March it opened a second branch in the high-rent Shinjuku business and shopping district. Last October it published a glossy coffee table book featuring its “feline staff.” The original branch is so packed that reservations are recommended on weekends.
Browsing in a bookstore, I found 39 establishments listed in the “cat cafe yellow page” section of a magazine. Calico advertises itself as a great “date spot,” a place to make “friends” — both cats and humans — and a “fun place” to swing by after work.
Tokyo wasn’t always like this. When I grew up here in the 1980s, people had both children and pets. But in the past decade, the Japanese have chosen to have fewer children, while they keep more pets. The fertility rate, or average number of children born to a woman, was 3.65 in 1950, but had dropped to 2.13 by 1970. By the time I was born in 1980, it was 1.75. The rate now hovers at a little above one child per woman. The estimate for 2009 is that an average woman will bear 1.21 children.
When I visited Calico cat cafe on a Saturday afternoon, it was packed almost to capacity with young couples on dates, older married couples making an afternoon of it and young women in ones and twos. One shy man struggled to draw attention from the cats, the people and even the staff.

By Mimi Hanaoka – Special to GlobalPost!

Posted by loren on

Greedy Hen have a website!

Finally somewhere we can always go in cyberspace to check out the latest offerings of this talented pair. They’re amazing ladies who do lots of yummy things for bands and musicians and other lucky folk.
We commissioned their clever brains for some artwork to adorn some of our Skies Overhead range and the results were delightful.

I would screen-grab and post every image from their website if I didn’t think that would be a little over-excessive, so here are a few of my all time favourites.






Check out their site here for more.

Posted by bri on Sunday February 21, 2010

Vamoose

while I’m posting pretty pictures from other people’s sites, here are some from a blog I like called ‘The Vamoose’. Written by fashion graduate and jewellery designer Kathryn Blackmore, she posts her inspirations as beautiful photos comparing fashion and nature. The latest are all grainy black and white cloudscapes and under water scenes, against bleached out fashion shots that are all chiffon and dramatic movement. It’s a gorgeous way of thinking about clothing and fashion.

My favourites though are a series of gemstone specimens set against cosmic fashion images and lots of sequins!







For more Vamoose, click here

Posted by bri on

Charlie Harper

I recently purchased this fantastic book, documenting the illustrated life of American artist Charlie Harper. It’s amazing how modern his drawings look, when you consider some of them were done 50 years ago.
This book is a feast for the eyes, and so nostalgic- flicking through the pages make you feel like a child again.

A few of my favourite illustrations from the book:

Posted by bri on Saturday January 30, 2010