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Antique grotto
We went with a friend to the most amazing place this week to look for victorian fittings for a house he is doing up, and woah Nelly did we ever find them! Sydney Heritage Supplies is on 432B West Botany St, Rockdale and is full to the brim of antique doors, windows, floors, lights, tiles, statues, fountains and more. My photos really don’t give a sense of just how big this place was and how many old, beautiful (and crazy expensive) things they had. Piles and piles of art deco leadlit windows just hanging around, waiting for someone to fall in love. Searching through the tiles alone took over an hour and our friend ended up staying there for the whole day -easy to do!
Posted by bri on Wednesday April 8, 2009
Day of the Dead
A good friend of mine (and our first ever Secret Squirrel model) Jess is off travelling overseas on what is sounding like a most excellent adventure. Here is a gorgeous postcard she sent to me from Mexico, it’s an excellent addition to an ever growing collection of skeletons we have at home.
Posted by bri on
flowers
There is nothing in the world like fresh flowers, non? We dragged ourselves out of bed at dawn the other day on an adventure to the flower markets to buy beautiful blooms for a friend’s wedding. Here is some of what we saw and bought- beauuuutifuuuul..
Posted by bri on
Bergdorf goodness
One of the best writers in Sydney also happens to be my beautiful sister. Cath was in New York late last year and has written a blog entry for us about some the gems she found in the windows of department store Bergdorf Goodman.
A FINE ROMANCE Window shopping in New York City
Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue sure can put on a good show. I was in New York over the Christmas break and strode out in below-zero temperatures to window shop along this iconic street – just one of thousands of tourists cloaked in hat, gloves and a warm, puffy jacket.
This was my second evening on Fifth, the first passed in a blur of fairy lights (wrapped around the black skeletons of the trees growing from the sidewalk; twinkling silver and violet on the Christmas Tree at the Rockefeller Centre, flashing in snowflake patterns on the side of Saks, gift-wrapping the Cartier building in a giant phosphorescent red bow) and white steam from the street stalls hawking overcooked chicken kebabs and candied almonds.
This night, I’m on a mission: to stare, wide-eyed, into the windows of Bergdorf Goodman. One of New York’s most famous high-end department stores, Bergdorf Goodman is a first-stop for those in need of the latest designer wear. But it’s the outside windows I’ve come to see. Window dressing in New York is a competitive sport, especially over the Christmas period. Window displays with ‘wow’ not only lure new customers, they boost sales and communicate the brand values of the store. And the really great ones reflect the glamour and creativity of New York itself.
Bergdorf Goodman’s windows are the most staggeringly beautiful I’ve ever seen. Linda Fargo, senior vice president of Fashion Office & Store Presentation, and her team have created windows so steeped in fantasy, so rich in detail, they’ve become streetside art.
The windows are split into “stories”. In the windows that wrap around the ground floor of Bergdorf’s mens’ store, life-sized white bears duke it out in red boxing gloves. Erect mannequins sporting masculine layers of wool, tweed and denim are finished with ram’s heads (or no heads at all). A white wolf – immaculately turned out in dinner jacket, cashmere scarf and squeaky leather gloves – lauds over a arctic pool table draped in frozen icicles.
On the other side of Fifth, the womens’ store is split into three distinct areas. Along 57th the colour palette is a dramatic red, black and white, with an elaborate Fornasetti-style backdrop of a cobblestoned town square, complete with surrealist town criers and telephone exchange.
On 58th, the mood shifts to the romance of a far-gone era, with elegant mannequins posing in sequins and cinched waists, their long, satin-gloved arms holding jewelled purses, ivory chess pieces and a harpsichord.
But it’s the windows that sweep along Fifth that really impress. Fargo and her team spent two years planning, preparing and scouring online auction sites to bring their theme – “The Seasons” – to life.
There’s Winter, a graceful artist at her easel wearing sequined pedal pushers and a billowing pussy-bow blouse. Spring, a snow white fantasy of birds and feathers, and Autumn, a beauty queen perched upon the crescent of the moon. White colours almost every detail, including the clothes, characters and precious gems filling every centimetre.
Fargo, who has overseen Bergdorf’s windows for more than a decade, calls her work “phantasmagorical destinations” that reflect the personality and ego of the store. She believes store windows start a romance between potential buyers and the product within. And I prove her right.
A few days later I return to the store a third time, take the escalator to the fifth floor and snap up a Marc by Marc Jacobs’ Silk Daydream Top. Its pretty camouflage print and shocking pink trim are sweet reminders of the time I fell I love with shopping all over again.
- Catherine McCormack
Posted by bri on Thursday April 2, 2009
Astronomy Class
Ha ha, what an awesome video! Astronomy Class are some friends of ours and they are super; really worth checking out if you like hip hop and feel like a bit of a boogie.
Posted by bri on Wednesday April 1, 2009
Winter launch party
Our shopping night / winter launch party at Pigeon Ground went off with a bang with loads of people turning up to share the love and a glass of Kid You Not wine. Alcohol and shopping- our favourite combination. Thanks to everyone who came down, here is our window display (tucked into bed after everyone had gone home) and a few happy customers on the night.
Posted by bri on Thursday March 19, 2009
The Selby
The Selby is a photo blog with a twist. Started in mid 2008 by photographer Todd Selby, this site delves into the homes and offices of musicians, artists, writers, designers and all round creative types providing an insight into the person and their personal space. Like the sartorialist for the home, the selby hones in on the interesting details and curious clutter that make up a person’s space. Each entry is headed by a water colour drawing of the chosen identity and is interspersed with quotes and personal insights throughout. One of our favourites was Elisa Nalin, pictured below, who’s home in Paris looks like a beautiful, multi-coloured explosion.
Recently Todd Selby has been in Australia probing the homes of some of our own interesting creative and fashion identities, the results of which are being displayed in an exhibition, entitled ‘Home Alone’ at the Monster Children Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Home Alone is part of a double feature at the gallery with an exhibition by notorious party photographer Mark ‘the Cobrasnake’ Hunter entitled Predator serving up some memorable party moments. This exhibition will run from the 7th-21st March 2009 so I suggest you get a wriggle on and catch it while you can.
Check them out at:
www.theselby.com
www.monsterchildren.com
Posted by michelle on Saturday March 14, 2009
hot!
I love Vanity Fair magazine, it is so great for gorgeous pictures and is always an interesting read that can be savoured over a few weeks.
This image is from their web exclusive “Vanity Fair Spotlights: women”, a selection of 19 portraits of famous ladies taken over the last decade for the magazine. Some I don’t love, but this one of Selma Blair I definitely do, it’s awesome.
see the other portraits here: Vanity Fair spotlights:women
Posted by bri on
my new favourite blog
‘All Things Good’ is an awesome blog written by Soisang Pine, a publishing designer from Sydney, currently residing in London. I love the aesthetic of this blog and check it obsessively to see what Soi’s posted next. And what she posts is anything and everything gorgeous- from fashion, art, make-up and design to holiday snaps, cool greeting cards, hot New York chocolatiers and even the odd talking cat.
Here is a pic from the blog of Soi looking cool (and cold) outside a favourite London cafe.
Check it out- but be warned, it’s highly addictive All Things Good
Posted by bri on
