spanish and sisters, and accesories

Spanish and sisters is a brand I found recently through a bag I saw and instantly fell in love. The designers are two sisters who started at the Portobello market and are now shelling accesories, belts and bags throughout Spain and Britain.

 

style for a princess

Some days ago I found out about a brand that is supposed to be among Kate Middleton’s favorites (yes I read all the gossip), even though it is on the cheap side (for her at least).  The brand is british, it first started in 1971 and it prides itself to equally combine quality, design and value. 

restored uniqueness

Restored is an unique concept; shop and studio in one.

It is run by two very creative ladies, Petra and Marijke, while every item in their shop is hand-made by young designers or produced in limited editions. A large part of the collection is made from recycled materials, hence the name Restored.

smiling at the mxyplyzyk store

For those who are wondering the store is pronounced mix-ee-pliz-ik.  The name is inspired by an early superman character. It is an actual shop in New York’s Greenwitch village as well as an online shop that you can find here. It first opened in 1992 and is gathering interesting items from all around the world, from furniture and lighting to homeware and gifts.  

MIO beautiful-affordable-sustainable

MIO is a brand of sustainable products founded in 2001 by the Salm brothers, Isaac (the numbers guy) and Jaime (the design guy). They created MIO, with the dedication to educate consumers through the design of sustainable products that are both beautiful and affordable. Today, MIO is still committed to their founding principle, which was the creation of what the Salm brothers call Green Desire. Green Desire aims at consumers to actually crave products that are sustainable and responsible. 

Dinosaur does it all

Dinosaur Designs is an Australian company with handmade design items from homeware to jewellery. The company was founded in 1986 by three young designers who were experimenting with clear polyester resin, the characteristic material of the brand till now. Soon they went on experimenting with a seemingly endless range of colors, forms and patterns, virtually reinventing the medium as their interests evolved.

Dorothy Perkins dresses and more

My newest find is yet again so chic and with prices so low that I already shopped online (4 dresses for less than 100 pounds). Dorothy Perkins is one of the biggest fashion retailers in the UK, with nearly 600 stores and over 50 international outlets. It has existed for almost 100 years as it began life as Ladies Hosiery and Underwear Limited in 1909.

IKEA sites to DIY

The spring brings me into DIY(do it yourself) mood and I am looking forward to visiting the all time favorite IKEA store that provides the perfect, economical, first materials for some great original results. 

So I searched the web and came up with a list of sites that provide very useful ideas to personalize the IKEA products.

livethemma : a new site written in swedish which is quite a turn off, but still has such great consepts that makes it worth to at least look at the pics.

theikeablog: a blog to share your Ikea experience, including hacks, reviews, discontinued products you will miss and so on.

ikeahackers: a site to help you hack, personalise, repurpose IKEA products into the very thing each person wants.

ikeafans: a community of IKEA fans giving out information about the stores and company and all kind of information you might need but also post some useful ways to personalize the IKEA products.

 Hope you found something useful.

 

art print for japan

There has been a lot of initiative from the artistic world for projects that aim to gather money to help Japan. Looking at everything all these days I found out about the artist Susan Schwake who donated this print called “birds in the bush” at the Working Proof that you can check out its work here.

botanical crush

I don’t usually post clothes of super famous designers, with super expensive prices but I have a huge crash on this trench coat from the botanical collection made by Stella McCartney.

I w-a-n-t  it! (moaning in a child’s voice), but at $2,045 the dream stays a dream.

vintage loving

I have a crazy love for all things vintage, from fashion to furniture. I am always looking for sites where I can find vintage fashion or vintage decoration, even to just look at it.

I wanted to share a site of a shop, with an interesting stock of vintage furniture, art and accessories. Bloomberry has a wide variety of vintage mid-century objects in their 1000m2 showroom, which is located at Diemen, near Amsterdam, but ships worldwide. 

cb2 for shopping home online

CB2 is a modern destination from Crate and Barrel that first opened in Chicago in the year 2000. I recently discovered their online shop and went through their many, affordable, modern options to decorate and furnish an apartment. These are some interior photos set up exclusively with CB2 products.

clay, wood and cotton and more...

Clay, wood and cotton is an online shop that wants to make and gather all the best of the handmade designed, home objects.  Kristen and Kristy, the owners, united in their love for handmade things and now sell them through their shop here but also created a real life shop in Beacon, Kristy's hometown.

steven alan and style away

Steven Alan, has been a leader in the fashion industry on many different levels. He started out as a retailer with a store in downtown Manhattan. With time he decided to create his own men’s line.  He got to be known for designing a man’s classic shirt, but with a twist. He went on elaborating on his unique, special sense of style and has now expanded to womenswear, shoes and accessories. His spring collection is out and here are some of my favorites.

french bull bowls and more

French bull is a homeware company that was created on 2002 by the Parson’s School of Design graduate, Jackie Shapiro. She had a different, young approach to melamine, marking its return but with a pop twist. The line begun with kitchen products but has gone into the needs of all the rooms of a modern home. Here are some pictures from their site and you can look around yourselves here.

humanoid fashion: like a human

HUMAN-OID, is a Dutch global brand founded by Sandra Harmsen and Hans Boelens nearly 30 years ago, while the current designer in chief is Cecile Bleijenberg who joined the HUMANOID family in 1998. HUMANOID’s strength is that it is a brand that wants you to dress in style while feeling comfortable. It proposes looking good while having fun and feeling free. Here are some of the outfits I like. They are now having a 50% off sale at their webstore, and a superstock sale at their stores. You can shop online or just look around here. 

spring is here

The h&m home spring collection is out and this is a preview. It looks all cute and cozy and you can chose between colorful and flowery or edgy and urban.

Add some spice to life with Rice

Rice is a Danish based homeware and accessories company that was founded in 1998. They are known for their colourful melamine, handmade baskets and storage and our hand glazed Italian tableware. They describe their sping summer 2011 collection as a mix of rainbows, floral peace signs, love birds and a lot of kissing.

all styled up by acne

With the NY Mercedes Benz fashion week over, I wanted to present a very creative and unique brand that is said to be among the most promising ones. Here you can enjoy the Spring Summer 2011 Full Fashion Show. Following are my choices from the items now on sale, which you can find here. 

from australia with love

Kelly Collis, creator of the Ada and Darcy interior-loving blog (you can find it here), started her own online shop named Ada and Darcy. In the few weeks of its existence the shop shows great promise, presenting beautiful textiles, gorgeous prints and romantic pastel colours.