Cocoa Michelle's, located at 190 Main Street, is graciously hosting a Holiday Pop-Up Shop featuring all the fun things I've been posting about these past months... A perfect place to find that jaw-dropping gift sure to dazzle your friends and loved ones, or to pick something up just in time for a holiday party (don't forget New Year's...). Tomorrow night and next Thursday, 5:30-8:30. Stop by, bring your friends, and see, discover, explore.
How beautiful is this jewelry?
Though available information is limited, from what I have uncovered Heaven Tanudiredja is a frequent collaborator with Dries Van Noten and creates these meticulous pieces using an incredible breadth of source materials demonstrating a care for design and attention to detail (one report mentions teams in charge of sourcing throughout the world including Russia and Indonesia).
His work has only recently become available within the United States, the only store mentioned being Henri Bendel's. Time for a field trip...
Bitching & Junkfood, a shop and blog, recently launched a jewelry/accessories line featuring among other things fantastic headbands made of feathers that drape across the forehead a la fringe. I find them hauntingly beautiful and have been fantasizing of the oily black one, in particular, as its shape and color generally mimics my own hair (well, my hair isn't an oily black, but... you know what I mean).
Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style modeling hers:
As I superfan of all things headdress related, I present three more lines I love:
1. Which Goose makes whimsical fairy crowns using twigs, silk flowers, feather butterflies, ribbons and tulles, They are charming and adorable. I love that they manage to be super feminine and evoke these fantasies of fairytales without coming off as overly cutesie.
2. Jennifer Behr's pieces are more evocative of a retro glamour, think Golden Age of Cinema, rhinestones, vintage costume jewelry, silk, velvet, and sparkle. While all of it is lovely, her more avant garde pieces are by far my favorite, for instance, a punk reworking of the turban, a pearl-studded veil.
3. Ban.Do has created somewhat of a headdress empire at this point, offering designs at a number of price points and recently adding collections of other accessories such as corsages and collars. I like that their point of view and attention to detail is apparent at all levels from their Heart by Ban.Do collection (no piece is more than $50) to their couture designs.
Just in time for holiday, Nancy Caten's latest line, Bis, uses silver-treated industrial metals to create delicate yet weighty chain necklaces that are easily layered together yet substantial enough to be worn on their own. I love the play on hard and soft, the different combination of links and the use of this very interesting chain that has rhinestones, adding a subtle sparkle. They are, in my opinion, the perfect level of feminine and at the most amazing prices.
Rhinestone necklace with mixed chain fringe, $236
Six Mixed Strand Necklace, $214
Double Strand Necklace with Black Onyx Cross Drop, $102
Rhinestones with Draped Chain Necklace, $108
Long Necklace with Heavy Center Links, $76
Multi Chain Assymetric Necklace, $86
Three Rhinestone Tassel Necklace, $64
Three Rhinestone Tassel Necklace detail, $64
Multi Chain Assymetic Bracelet, $76
All pieces available for purchase.
Contact to schedule viewing or delivery:
CardinalAtelier@gmail.com
(203) 856-7463
An odd theme of this blog is my rediscovery of places I thought had disappeared. My newest discovery is that Environment337 is still alive and well and kicking in Brooklyn. Environment337 is a store I happened upon last Christmas season. During my hiatus from the city this summer the store on University Place closed. I learned that this was to allow their expansion in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, where the original Environment337 is.
Only a month old, Retrospect is the newest project, a beautifully curated store. The store is dark, sexy, and the theme eccentric and Victorian (imagine lots of florals, strange preserved animals). The store features a wide range of religious iconography such as crosses, alters, and rosaries, and antique signs, trinkets, and images. What makes it even better is how well-priced everything is. Most jewelry is under $200, the rosaries a personal favorite and all marked at less than $50. It's a quirky store and the perfect place to go when looking for a gift that is unlike anything else.
Located at 333 Smith Street, just a block off the F train, visiting the store is highly recommended.
While in the neighborhood I quite accidentally happened upon Bird. A dangerous discovery, to say the least. I did my best to restrain myself but when the rack of Isabel Marant was uncovered it was hard to resist. Everything I imagined, the store is even more fantastic in person than it is online. This is mostly due to the fact that so much of what they carry is stuff that deserves to be handled, interacted with. Lines such as Tsumori Chisato or Rachel Comey, though intriguing in photograph, are stunning in person, far more luxe and special. In fact, those two lines in particular are lines that I had always questioned their high price point. That was, until I was able to see them today. Though still expensive at least now the value is understood.
Favorites of the day included these two items from Tsumori Chisato, the top I bought for my sister for her birthday:
Cotton and cashmere, so cozy and absolutely adorable (notice the astronaut embroidered at the upper neckline, so beyond cute).
I also loved a line called "Bruce". They are actually responsible for a number of fashion-related projects including an amazing jewelry line that features vintage beads and beads made of molten rock, which I did not photograph and cannot seem to find them online. The clothing is just as fascinatingly subtle yet bold (if that's even possible, or makes any sense):
I love the tassels and embroidery, the play on texture that is subtle and still fashion-forward. Both made of silk it was hard to resist buying both.
The greatest part of the trip was how nice and helpful everyone I encountered was, perhaps a Brooklyn thing or perhaps just testament to these stores and their fantastic customer service. Engaging, helpful, generous: all things you want from a shopping experience. It's nice to see that customer service is not dead (it just moved to the Cobble Hill area?)
I had to leave Brooklyn after finding Bird, it was too tempting to stay and shop. I do, however, plan on returning soon, especially now that I can stop creating the dreaded fantasy that Brooklyn is this impossible-to-reach other Universe that you cannot escape. Today I learned that it's simply not true and that I can't wait to go back.
It seems a week cannot go by where I don't spend serious time here discussing fetishist fashion. I feel this odd urgency to justify, analyze or explain this: is it me? Am I fascinated by this odd place in counter-culture as it merges with avant-garde fashion design practices that brings me back to the subject again and again? Or is the trend just that pervasive, that popular that there it is all there is worth paying attention to at the fringe? I suppose part of it is also our current point in fashion that finds leather, studding, tears and rips and other more aggressive previously-punk-associated detailing co-opted by the mainstream. Five years ago the only place to get skinny jeans was at fetish shops or punk stores in lower Manhattan; now, it's all you can see everywhere from legit punks to preppy mommies walking their strollers on the Upper East Side.
I found some time ago a company, Atsuko Kudo, a self-described Couture Latex and Rubber Fetish clothing company and winner of the European Fetish Award for Best Fetish Design 2008/09. Ranging from more overtly fetish things like pasties and corseting to things "easily" integrated into the everyday like latex leggings, skirts, stockings and bras the work is quite stunning (I say "easily" recognizing how much of a statement it is but also completely obsessed with the idea of it). It is all offered in a wide range of colors and textures and prints and rather well-priced all things considered.
The last image is what appears to be a rubber blouse, j'adore. The only reason I have not commited is that I am unsure what exactly it takes to commit to wearing latex or rubber. For instance, the website sells polish and silicone spray: is that to help get it on? make it so it will come off? do you have to constantly be polishing the fingerprints off of you? what about dust? or the fact that I live with cats? will I just be a lint magnet like the rubber protector on my blackberry?
Perhaps that is why it exists in the fantasy world of fetish... Just the same, I dream of the day I can wear a pair of latex pants with a nice cashmere sweater and patent leather flats and have dreamt of that day for the past 5 years or so when my interest in latex was first sparked.
In a similar theme, Colette recently started selling a designer, Betony Vernon, Virginia Commonwealth alum and creator of what is described as fetish fine jewelry. Her work is inspired by the urge for sexual openness and exploration and she is as much a designer as an educator (she has published books on sexuality). Her jewelry is designed to bridge the gap between quotidien wear and more private usage. Rings, for instance, appear innocent enough, and, yet, are designed to enhance sexual interaction.
I applaud her frankness, her openness. I find it refreshingly sexy, too. The designs are bold, strong, but their true intent elusive enough that it isn't so obvious. And I suppose that is the theme that unites these two different though related designers. While, yes, there are pieces that are far more obvious (catsuits, whips, corsets), they still manage to successfully approach fetish without becoming kitsch, a true challenge and skill.
Last week I received by post my newest Bliss Lau piece, a stunning mixture of chain and curious rectangular metal links that drapes across and down the shoulders, part armor part Greek myth. It has been quite a challenge finding ways to testify to its stunning existence as its delicacy mixed with my terrible photo skills makes it quite elusive (part of its charm in person). I appreciate her newest collection for its etherealness. While her past collections have featured larger rope chains, the new Deco collection is far more subtle, more overtly feminine. I will continue to attempt to document it, but for now, here are my best efforts:
Find your own here: Bliss Lau
Today I discovered Shadowplay, a jewelry company working with crocheted yarn and crystals creating net-like necklaces that drape across and down you, an intriguing hybrid of scarf and necklace. There is a beautiful fantasy-like quality to them; I can't help but envision mermaids or fairies, or birds nests, like these objects have been collected and carefully knit together. Romantic, really. And still avant-garde and edgy, despite their softness, a by-product of the quirky amalgamation of soft and hard, mauve and acid green. Images courtesy the Shadowplay website.
Citrine necklace, $790.00
Gray pearl, smoky quartz, citrine drop earring, $350.00
White topaz and black onyx necklace, $1,300.00
Lemon quartz cuff, $1,050
Cameo and smoky quartz necklace, $890.00
All pieces available for purchase.
Please contact for delivery: cardinalatelier@gmail.com or (203) 856-7463
