| Pins (brooches...) and Needles | | Posted Thursday, February 02, 2006 2:16:23 PM by Kate Grant | Since many of us don't wear suits or coats on a daily basis, there aren't many opportunities for us to ware a brooch, or even a nice pin. I associate them with heavy fabrics like wool and tweed, and that's probably what made fashion designers bring them back to the catwalks, brooches and tweeds alike. 
Last year's brooches bloom made us ran back to our mothers and grandmother, raid their jewelery boxes, and air all the antiques (okay, brooches from the 1950's or 1960's are not necessarily antiques, but still look the part).
That's what is so great about the world of fashion, every few years, things do come back. That does not mean all of you hoarding ladies just got permission to keep anything and everything from now on!
Classic items (that don't catch a lot of space) like those brooches from your granny, are okay, and will never go out of fashion, but everything else must go, especially because when they do come back, they are a bit different, and you do want a nice new thing, don't you?
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| | | Costume jewelry offers mix-and-match fun | | Posted Sunday, October 01, 2006 6:59:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | A few weeks ago, I inherited a 10-pound bag of costume jewelry. At first, I didn't know what to make of it. I peeked inside to find a huge, tangled mess of mismatched pieces. Once I took a closer look, I realized it was a treasure trove of opportunity. With my first scoop I lifted out a handful of shiny, sparkling goodies: several decades' worth of rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches. I cleared off my work table, whipped out my needle-nose pliers and went to work on major jewelry reconstruction. I turned old pins into mod-looking necklaces, small pendants into earrings, boring necklaces into charm bracelets and so on. The best part? I didn't need to buy a lot of supplies, just a bag of assorted jump rings to connect the pieces.... | |
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| | | Flaunt that condom! | | Posted Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:01:20 AM by Blog57 Team | | Condoms are very much in style as a fashion accessory at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, showing up on strait-laced men, shy teenagers and African grandmothers. "There's a great need to de-stigmatize condoms around the world, especially in Africa," Executive Director of The Condom Project, Franck DeRose said. The project aims to get people comfortable about condoms, especially those living in countries where the little piece of latex is considered taboo. To do that, the project has a program that gets people making their own condom art pin. It all starts with a craft table, packaged condoms, scraps of coloured paper, candy and other double-sided tape. Toronto resident Maria Parish, 58, was making hers with a blue condom and blue and yellow paper.... | |
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| | | Making condoms stylish for everyone | | Posted Friday, August 25, 2006 5:00:28 AM by Blog57 Team | | TORONTO (Reuters) - Condoms are very much in style as a fashion accessory at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, showing up on strait-laced men, shy teenagers and African grandmothers. "There's a great need to de-stigmatize condoms around the world, especially in Africa," said Franck DeRose, executive director of The Condom Project, which aims to get people comfortable about condoms, especially those living in countries where the little piece of latex is considered taboo. To do that, the project has a program that gets people making their own condom art pin. It all starts with a craft table, packaged condoms, scraps of colored paper, candy and other double-sided tape. .... | |
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| | | The Tiffany's story dazzles London | | Posted Monday, August 21, 2006 7:04:44 PM by Blog57 Team | | The impetus for "Bejewelled by Tiffany: 1837-1987," a show encompassing 150 years of Tiffany creativity that opened at Somerset House recently, began four years ago in New York. It took root when Fernanda Kellogg, president of the Tiffany & Co. Foundation, sat next to Lord Rothschild of England at a board meeting of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts."He said the history of Tiffany's was so unknown in the United Kingdom, he thought it would be fascinating to do something on it," Kellogg said.Lord Rothschild, the former chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Britain and now honorary president of the Gilbert Collection Trust at Somerset House, shared his idea with Timothy Stevens, the director of the Gilbert Collection.Stevens suggested an outsider to organize the show: Clare Phillips, a curator who specializes in jewelry at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has one of the world's largest jewelry collections."The Gilbert Collection had to assemble the team for the Tiffany show, and Clare had a fresh viewpoint," Kellogg said.... | |
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| | | Daddy’s girl | | Posted Wednesday, August 09, 2006 1:44:31 PM by Blog57 Team | | Its not every day a person gets an entire jewellery collection named after them, but actress-in-training Natasha Shamila Capol is a lucky girl! Of course, it helps if the designer is your dad, writes KEE HUA CHEE. Natasha Shamila Capol, 20, is barely 5ft 3in (about 1.6m) but the aspiring actress has a presence beyond her height. She looks almost elfin in a black tank top and snazzy ciggie pants, but apparently the girl is an expert in kungfu. Natasha reminds me of Princess Leia of Star Wars, though physically she is more Natalie Portman. A Penang state fencer, she speaks English, Bahasa Malaysia, German, Swiss-German, French and Spanish fluently and Tamil badly. .... | |
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| | | Angels to pin down funding | | Posted Saturday, August 05, 2006 2:58:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | Local wire designers and artists are giving their time to create five unique sculptures to raise funds for the SA Red Cross Air Mercy Service. The service had initially asked wire art company Streetwires to create 50 000 angel brooches as part of a fundraising drive. However, some of the designers decided to create special works as well, and these go on auction this weekend. The pieces, created in collaboration with wire artists, include a full-sized angel decorated with beads, a pregnant angel and a beaded wire helicopter. Farhaad Haffejee of the Air Mercy Service was overjoyed at the artists' enthusiasm. .... | |
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| | | New shop filled with hand-crafted delights | | Posted Monday, July 24, 2006 1:08:11 PM by Blog57 Team | | THE ITEM: At front left, panties by The Candi Factory; at front right, graphic print totes by JEB, and makeup pouch by Naynu; on miniature judy, brooches by Kulay. THE COST: Panties, $24; totes, $60; pouch, $22; brooches, $32 to $39. WHERE TO BUY: Nathalie-Roze & Co., 1015 Queen St. E. For more details, see http://www.nathalie-roze.com. The Constant Shopper has a new favourite store and it's called Nathalie-Roze & Co. The place is a fashion fairyland, where limited-edition goods are handmade by crafty girls (and a few guys), the aesthetic is quirky-sweet with a vintage twist and almost all the price tags are in the double digits. Yep, almost everything is less than $100, with quite a few funky finds for less than $20. "Being the most frugal woman in town, I haven't taken a lot of expensive stuff," says Nathalie-Roze Fischer, the only fashion fairy in town who could cast a shopping spell as fabulous as this.... | |
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| | | Best Find: Kennett Square Jewelers | | Posted Saturday, July 08, 2006 5:09:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | What it is: A 17-year-old business in the heart of Kennett Square that should be renamed Jewelers and More. The inventory includes contemporary pieces - summer's here with pearls, shells and sea-colored gemstones - and a range of vintage wearables. What we like:Owner Linda Thies has long specialized in vintage (art deco is big here) and estate jewelry, but that now includes numerous "circa" items, from 1920s chandelier earrings, beaded bags, old gold lockets and fancy felt hats, to Victorian cameos, charm bracelets and military pins. Thies, who arranges her inventory of contemporary jewelry in color combinations such as corals and blues, even has a vintage "crazy men's case," as she calls it. It includes those military pins but also antique money clips, cuff links and pocket watches.... | |
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