Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Peacock's Feathers


“All that glisters [glitter] is not gold,” said William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice.

“Things are seldom what they seem,

Skim milk masquerades as cream;

High lows pass as patent leathers;

Jackdaws strut in peacock’s feathers.”

(Gilbert and Sullivan, H.M.S. Pinafore)

Friday, September 18, 2015

Literature Meets Fashion


Mesh Chhibber and his artist friend Sofie C. Guerrero completed ‘a novel idea’ by launching out the Peau de Chagrin, a beautiful accessory that could be passed down through the generations. Their first collection, available on Peaudechagrin.com and consists of a single item: a vegetable-tanned leather bag made by a Swiss artisan. Each of the 100 bags comes with a copy of HonorĂ© de Balzac’s La Peau de Chagrin from special edition Chhibber and Guerrero published themselves. Well, here you have a 19th-century Faustian tale about consuming and desiring that spoke to the designers and merged in successful novel idea where literature meets fashion.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

A Woman's Handbag


The handbag is a rare delight, it's like Aladdin's cave,
All sorts of things are hidden there, that females like to save,
It's black and big and heavy, with a nice long shoulder strap,
Its weighted down with odds and sods and other stuff like that.

But the lady finds just what she wants deep down amongst her treasure,
Of keys and pins and leg hair wax and a metric rule for measure,
The remnants of forgotten ills with aspirins held so dear,
Birth control and other pills with labels quite unclear.

Calorie counters, cotton buds, old lottery tickets too,
Handkerchiefs and white tissues for visiting the loo,
A book of stamps, a tube of glue, letters from I don't know who,
Horoscopes with personal star, petrol vouchers for the car.

Perfume loaded by the box, knitting needles, pairs of socks,
Bank statements and counterfoils, sachet samples, body oils,
Cassette tapes and eye mascara, postcards from old Connemara
Itineraries for keep-fit classes, lipstick and a pair of glasses,

Emery boards, a pot of Vic, silver tweezers, half a brick,
Screwdriver, spanners, ball of wool, ancient notebook partly full,
Bristle brush for long tresses, photographs and addresses,
Polo mints and a mobile phone just in case they stray from home.

Cheque book stubs, leather gloves, insect spray for the shrubs,
Driving licence, bingo card, cuttings from the paper,
Favourite verse, loaded purse and a windscreen scraper,
Credit cards, safety razor, golden buttons off a blazer.


But best of all it is a friend, that's with them every day,
Slung upon the shoulder in a casual way,
And don't forget it is a club - not of the member kind,
But the bag itself when wielded right could change a mugger's mind.

 (Bridgid Patrick)                  

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Facts About Handbags


Did you know that the average woman owns approximately six handbags? The average women’s handbag weights about 5.2 pounds. (What is in there??) The average student carries a book bag weighting 25% of their body weight. The recommended weight by physicians is no more than 15%. Based on a 2007 survey, men are actually more likely to choose a handbag based on its brand than women are. 22% of women said, if they could only splurge on one designed item, it would be a handbag. Only 9% said they would choose shoes.

Handbags are a girls (second) best friend! Men often wonder why we as women cannot go anywhere without our 3 - pound best friend by our side, but as soon as they need a tissue or a dab of hand lotion they are not shy to turn to your new addition to the handbag family.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Top 10 Books on Art and Fashion, and More

Artists have always been inspired to paint, draw, and sculpt beautiful women in the clothes they wore. Many times, fashion designers got inspired by artists' work or artistic movements and incorporated their ideas or their artwork into their designs. Any book on art impact on fashion and fashion on art would be considered as helpful reading for students in Fashion studies:

A. "Addressing the Century: 100 Years of Art and Fashion" by Peter Wollen
"Andy Warhol Fashion" by Simon Doonon
"Art and Fashion: The Impact of Art on Fashion and Fashion on Art" by Alice Mackrell
"Art DECO Fashion" by Susanne Lussier
"Art to Wear" by Julie Schafter Date

C. "Costume in Art" (Fine Art Series) by National Gallery of London
"Couture Culture: Study of Modern Art and Fashion" by Nancy J. Troy
"Crosscurrents: Art, Fashion, Design" by Tony Lewenhampt

D. "Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture" by Susan Fillen-Yeh
"Designing Women: Cinema, Art DECO, and Female Form" by Lucy Fischer

F. "Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England" by Aileen Ribeiro
"Fashion and Surrealism" by Francous Baudot
"Fashion and Surrealism" by Richard Martin
"Fashion in Art: The Second Empire and Impressionism" by Marie Simon

K. "Klimt and Fashion" by Cristina Brandstatter

P. "Picturing French Style: Three Hundred Years of Art and Fashion" by Jill Berk Jimenez

R. "Rapture: Art's Seduction by Fashion" by Chris Townsend

Q. "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd" by Janet Arnold

S. "Shoes, Shoes, Shoes" by Andy Warhol

W. "Wild: Fashion Untamed" (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series) by Andrew Bolton


Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Lulu Guinness


Lulu Guinness, Order of the British Empire, has captivated fashion aficionados worldwide with her witty handbags and accessories. Inspired by retro glamour and modern chic, she now is excited to bring her new LULU by LULU GUINNESS collection. I am a very lucky owner of her white and black key-to-my-heart satchel! Chic meets practicality  in the witty handbag with the glamour of retro call from the ‘70s.

Lucinda "Lulu" Jane Guinness, is a British accessories fashion designer. She is the daughter of Sir Miles Rivett-Carnac, 9th Baronet descended from a colonial administrator. In 1986, she married the Honorable Valentine Guinness, a younger son of the 3rd Baron Moyne. She has two daughters, Tara and Madeleine. The couple divorced in 2013.

 Her retro, modern chic accessories with out-of-the-box designs are things to die for! Celebrities like Madonna, Helena Bonham Carter, Rachel Weisz, Florence Welch, Dita Von Teese and the Duchess of York are often seen carrying her handbags and clutches.

 With her greatest inspiration being Elsa Schiaparelli, a famous French couturier back in the 1930s, solely known for her creativity and sense of imagination that made her couture so distinguished and sought after. Lulu follows Schiaparelli’s footsteps when it comes to designing her handbags and clutches with ‘do everything differently’ being her motivation. Lulu’s career started off with a boom when she established her own company in 1989 and soon her unique and unusual designs were so praised that she instantly became a fashion icon. Lulu Bag was her first signature briefcase design and it was only a matter of time before her accessories were showcased seasonally at the London Design Show and The Coterie, New York.

 In 2005, Lulu published a pop-up book titled “Put on Your Pearls, Girls!” with pictures of her handbags featured along with her all-time favorite Diana Vreeland style-fashion aphorisms. It is also interesting to note that Lulu’s bags are collectibles and some of them are permanent fixtures in museums like Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Sotheby’s, London and New York. The self-taught designer, Lulu Guinness has received many accolades such as the Order of British Empire (OBE) that she received from Queen Elizabeth for her outstanding services to the fashion industry on the Queen’s Birthday in 2006. She also received the Independent Handbag Designer Awards for ‘Lifetime Achievement in Handbag Design.’

 Today, Lulu still lives by the motto of her hero, the Surrealist artisan and fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, 'Dare to Be Different' and the women who wear Lulu Guinness do just that.

For the Office Go-Getter



  • Why not the LULU by Lulu Guinness? Sophisticated black and white satchel inspired by retro glamour and modern chic that brings her new LULU to the consumer. Lulu Guinness, Order of the British Empire, has captivated fashion aficionados worldwide with her witty handbags and accessories. The heart of the business woman is locked up by multiplies locks with a chained key on display, at least from 8 to 5 of office hours.