Oh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away
“Gimme Shelter” sing the Rolling Stones and that is what the folks at Japan Fair were all about. Japan Fair was a fundraiser for ShelterBox. It closed last night, but here’s hoping it was a very successful event.
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Every once in a while you see a designer release a collection that brings them to a new level of excellence and creativity. Shinichi Mathy of Shiki has released just such a breakthrough collection this spring. With textures he developed from the banal elements and detritus of urban life, he has performed an alchemical transformation in to creative gold. For example, the fabric in this dress is inspired by a container filled with empty soda cans, cans seen from the top and the sides as they lay in a pile waiting to be picked up for recycling.
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It’s Only Fashion will be four years old tomorrow. It all began with this post with me wearing a dress I had worn for Gidge’s New Year’s Eve Party. I didn’t know what I was doing and had no idea how to get someone to actually read my blog. I posted a few times. They were perfectly lovely posts that nobody every read or saw because I had no idea how people got other people to look at their blogs. That is one of the reasons Gidge and I did the Marketing tutorials for Bloggers. There was the World of SL feed but new people were not being added, so I floundered. Then, in April, I heard about IHeartSL – the new feed that welcomed newcomers and inexperienced bloggers with open arms, giving them access and exposure. There are many other feeds and they each have their own particular personality, but IHeartSL will always be the one that opened the door for me. I am sure I am not the only blogger whose entree to the blogging world was facilitated by IHeartSL. And of course, Gogo has been free with lots of good advice and help over the years as well. Her generous help to new bloggers has made the community much larger and more open. Continue reading
I was so intrigued by the notecard announcing the newest skin release from Baiastice. A mature skin? I had hopes that, coming from Baiastice, it would be an elegant and fashionable mature skin, unlike the majority of aged skins that are mere caricatures. They have their place and have been inspiration for some brilliant parodies, but a healthy attitude toward aging should have room for the elegance of aging well as well as the comedic parodies of aging. Happily, the skin did not disappoint. It was, for me, significant in being named Sophie, so very close to my mother’s name. People often remarked on her elegance and she was elegant, despite being a pocket-sized 5’1″ who was dwarfed by my 6’2″ father. She had beautiful, thick auburn hair that silvered to a shining silver as she aged. She usually made her own clothing, though I loved shopping for outfits for her. She carried swatches of fabric in her purse that represented her palette, so when shopping for fabric, she could see how the new fabric worked with her palette. This dress reminds me of a vintage Oscar de la Renta I got for her with a beautiful peach floral print. It was not strapless, though! She wore it with a crocheted dark coral short jacket that was so lush – not exactly like this fur collar embellishment, but close enough i was immediately reminded of it.
Shinichi Mathy, of Shiki, released a sweetly feminine collection at Modavia Fashion Week. Using a gentle palette of blues and greens with dainty and delicate prints, there are threads from his native Japan woven into this collection. From the straight lines of his gowns to the delicate textures and fine fabrics, you can see him paying homage to his culture in this collection in ways as subtle and delicate as the clothing itself. This one is called Japonesque.
The fabric in the Kyoto dress show a much more direct inspiration. I love the soft, organic colors and the subtlety of this print.
The Motomachi Girl dress is beautiful gown that hugs the figure. I love the sheer batiste bodice and collar and the soft, natural green.
And then there is the Ginza Party Girl dress, an explosion of blue fireworks and femininity that like much of this collection draws your eyes to the neck and shoulders.
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Now I’m walking on sunshine, oh oh!
I’m walking on sunshine, oh oh!
I’m walking on sunshine, oh oh!
And don’t it feel good!
Perhaps walking in sunshine is a more apt description for toddling about in this sunshine dress from Shiki Designs, nonetheless you can’t help but feel as happy as can be in this dress as bright as a smile.
Shiryu of Shiki Designs has released a new collection featuring bold tropical colors and prints. This collection takes on the idea that island fashion limited to bikinis, board shorts and baggy prints shirts. These are chic designs that incorporate the insouciant spirit of the Hawaiian print shirt, but with a sexy, chic aesthetic. So, it’s totally perfect that this piece from the collection is called Honolulu Chic.
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High-waisted pants, sleeveless print tops, narrow belts – all are iconic fashions of the 1960s. Shinichi Mathy of Shiki Designs, though, gives them contemporary punch with his bright, saturated colors and shine in the Esme pants outfit. The pink in those pants is pure 2011.
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Shinichi Mathy of Shiki Designs always makes interesting clothes with a singular element that takes them in an unpredictable direction. For example, the addition of fur at the shoulders adds quirky interest to this lovely alencon lace dress. Shinichi is just one of the many Japanese designers who have generously participated in the Fashion For Life show.
I find myself often thinking about those Second Life friends and acquaintances in Japan and wondering how they are doing. Shinichi’s associate reports that he is fine, which is great news. So far, everyone seems to be doing okay. I find myself thinking about “Everything In Its Path” a book about the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek flood. The author explains with great compassion about the ways natural disaster traumatizes in ways that are not first seen – and most especially through loss of community. The evacuation, the loss of neighbors, habits, of the everyday. It is an incredible book and you can even read the author’s findings in a document downloadable from FEMA. While the ongoing crisis captures our attention now, especially since the damage keeps escalating with nuclear plants and more aftershocks, we should all know that it will take a long, long time to recover a sense of normality again.
I took the photos at the Fashion For Life event. I cannot encourage you enough to go and see these builds. They are just so amazing. I love seeing how the builders translate the different photographers’ aesthetics to architecture and landscaping. It really is a tour de force and you should not deprive yourself of the experience.
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Shiki Designs released ten fun summer dresses. Gidge and I showed you two in the post highlighting our new shoes from A-Bomb. Here are six more, showing all the lovely floral prints and three of the five colors of the lace dresses – all but gren and blue. With them I wore the lovely new Victorian Ankle Boots from Juicy in appropriately juicy fruit colors.