Paris: How Have The Mighty Fallen!

Street scene: lady on right is only one smartly dressed

October 2011 found me in Paris for a few days; I tacked a visit to France onto my trip to see relatives and friends in the UK. I hadn't been to France for a few years and I wanted to buy some French books at reasonable prices - not the astronomical rates I'd have to pay in my home town.

Winter doesn't have to mean dull.

I also wanted to check out what women were wearing. After all, this is - supposedly - still the fashion capital of the world, the city that invented haute couture.

A nice pairing of color and texture

Boy, was I disappointed! Seems that the French have succumbed to the same laissez faire attitude to dressing, which has turned much of the developed world into streetscapes of sad-looking attire.

It makes me wonder what is going on in that other francophone capital of style: Montreal. For years, no matter how hard visiting anglos tried, the Montreal women always managed to look more chic, more stylish. (I'll have to plan a visit there to check things out.)

The red in the plaid and the red bag lift this look

There were one or two bright spots however and it was surprising where I found them. I had chosen to stay near the Gare du Nord station as that was my jumping off point from the Chunnel train and also the place to catch the train to CDG airport.


It is also a working class neighborhood, meaning that very little English was spoken - another plus, as I wanted the chance to speak French.

"Grand Magasin" - the only splash of color!

As my pictures show, style isn't necessarily about money, or where you live and work. It's a dedication you carry in your head and rests more on creativity than cash.

"Grand Magasin" - a sea of dull!

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

More Art! All Wearable! (Our second Wearable Art show)

We are currently gearing up for our second Wearable Art show of the holiday season.

The show is called "pieceWORK" and it's being held on November 25, at the Gladstone Hotel, in Toronto, between six and 10 p.m. at night.


As always, we're offering some unique and one-of-a-kind items for sale.



Our vests, in particular, which feature Maypole Weaving (TM)
are a great way to jazz up an everyday outfit for a night
on the town.  They are particularly good way transform
a business suit when you are going out straight from work,
and also offer a great option if you're traveling but don't
have a lot of room in your suitcase for party finery.

Another option we have is a tunic.  Again, these feature either Maypole Weaving or applique designs and are the perfect way to transform a sweater and jeans when you are going out.

Volunteer sporting a Glamor Wrap

We are also offering our Glamor Wraps (TM), in a range of colors.  Everyone who sees our wraps exclaims: "What a great idea!"  because they really do offer an elegant look - combining the drape of a shawl with the practicality of a jacket - when you have a dinner, theater or similar evening out  but don't want to take off the comfortable slacks and sweater you have on. (The photo shows one of the volunteers from our last Wearable Art show, sporting a Glamor Wrap in amethyst; boa is her own).


There are several vendors taking part in the show, which coincides with the Hard Twist/Obsession fiber art exhibit on for several weeks at the Gladstone Hotel. 

NB: The Opening Reception for the Hard Twist show is the same night as the pieceWORK show. Don't be put off by a crowd in the second floor lobby. The vendors are in rooms along the perimeter of the second floor.   Details about the location below.

Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. West
Toronto, ON
(one block east of Dufferin)

Deborah in Autumn Leaves

416/531-4635

Autumn Leaves tunic

If you need to contact me or Harobed Designs directly, links are available via our website as follows:
www.deborahcsawyer.com/dcs_006.htm
Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Craft Shows - Two weeks in a row!

Cooking - it happens to the best of us!

This holiday season, Harobed Designs is taking part in two one-day Craft Shows, which are both on Mondays!

Washable silk, styled from remnants

As both offer daytime as well as evening shopping, we hope to see a lot of people coming out to take a look at what's on offer.

Mama Bear & Papa Bear aprons

For these shows, I am offering a number of aprons and hostess pinnies.  Within the apron category, I'm offering several of what I call our "Team Family" aprons, which come in four sizes, Papa bear, Mama bear, and two sizes of Baby bear.  These aprons are a great way to let 'little helpers' feel included, and to instill some good work habits.

Within the hostess pinny category, I have several made of various wash and wear fabrics.  I even have washable silk.

This year, I'm also offering an environmentally-appropriate option,
in that I have made aprons using remnants from other sewing activities,
notably from the making of jackets.

Normally, these remnants would find their way to landfill at some point, although the fabric is perfectly good; it's just that they are not large enough to make garments with. The aprons have, therefore, been pieced together and are available in stylish black-and-white designs.  Check out the photos!

As for the shows themselves, here are the details.

Monday, November 14, 2011.
4 to 8 p.m.
Bialik PTA Boutique Night.

Location: Bialik Hebrew Day School.
2760 Bathurst St.
Toronto, ON
Bialik is on the Bathurst Street bus route, and there is parking available at the school as well as Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue at 470 Glencairn nearby.
On site phone: 416/721-1765

Detail, washable silk

Monday, November 21, 2011.
10 to 9 p.m..
Mistletoe Market 2011.

Location: Royal St. George's College.
120 Howland Ave.
Toronto, ON
Royal St. George's is in the Annex and is easily reached from the subway and various bus routes.
School office: 416/533-9481

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

Wearable Art Shows - 2011 events

Earlier in 2011, I posted a "teaser" on my blog (6/21/11: What's She Up To Now?) in which I showed examples of the appliques I had made and hinted how I'd be using them.

One of the photos I posted back then showed leaves; the first two photos in this current post show how I've used them.


Now that we are on the eve of the holiday arts and crafts fair season, I can take the wraps off my activities as my first Wearable Art Show is this Saturday, November 5.

As the photos show, I'll be offering a variety of tunics, wraps and hostess pinnies which fall within the category of wearable art. All are unqiue, one-of-a-kind pieces made by hand. Many are also environmentally-friendly, as they are made using remnants from my clothing manufacture and smaller pieces of fabric or trim that would otherwise have gone to waste.

I am also introducing a line of clothing items - also one-of-a-kind - made using woven fabric and notions. I refer to this as Maypole Weaving (TM) as it reminds me of the Maypole and the ribbon weaving which resulted, from the maypole dancing  we did at school when I was younger.


The November 5 show is at:

Burlington Art Centre
1333 Lakeshore Road
Burlington, ON L7S 1A9

(near Brock Street and Lakeshore Road)

Access from the QEW via North Shore Boulevard.

Phone: 905-632-7796

As this event is a fund-raiser for the BAC, there is a $5 admission fee.

I'll post an update about my next Wearable Art show later in November.

Live from London (well, almost...)

There is an interesting conundrum present in our modern world: although there is more being written about style and design than ever before - entire sections of the newspaper are devoted to style these days- a quick glance at what people are wearing suggests that individuals are paying less and less attention to style in their personal dress. 

I am used to seeing a rather despondent styles of dress in my home city, but wondered what I would find when I traveled overseas, as I did recently to the UK and Europe.  This blog post is about what I found in London.

When I was growing up in the UK, no respectable woman went out, not even to do her grocery shopping, without looking reasonably smart.  In those days, that meant a suit, hosiery, pumps, gloves, possibly a hat.  While we no longer expect people to get that dressed up every day of their lives, it's possible to dress casually and still look smart. 

Street scene:more mishmash dressing

Street scene:nondescript dress

Sadly, standards of dress  have gone down in London as much as they have in North America.  However, there are some bright spots as I found when strolling around the streets of central London.







I'm showing some of the examples I found.  Note that if you want to dress in black, it's okay to do that as long as you add some punch of color as a contrast.  Red is a great option, and I'm showing women who've done just that.  It probably didn't take them long to get dressed; looking "pulled together" rests more on thought than money.



Even if you are not keen on red, the classic pairing of beige or camel with black works just as well to provide some relief from the black plus some style, as I show in another photo I took.


And, while following the young lady in the purple dress into Selfridge's (photo below), I got a bonus when she met up with her friend. Stands to reason that one person with a sense of style would be friends with someone else who can pull together a great look!

Inside wearable art!

Regular followers of this blog know that I am now spending more time on what's known as wearable art... that's why I decided to post photos here of my entry into the Artful Bras Against Cancer fundraiser being held at the University at Buffalo.

My particular entry is entitled: BRAin a.k.a cereBRAl hemispheres.  Obviously, this is a play on words, as b-r-a shows up in both the word "brain" and in the phrase "cerebral hemispheres". Full details are available on my other blog via the following link.

http://deborahsawyerart.blogspot.com/2011/09/brain-aka-cerebral-hemisphere.html

As I explain there, I researched the look of the cerebral hemispheres in my anatomy and physiology texts, to best approximate the subtle differences in the look of the left brain and the right brain.  Obviously, in the bra, the right cup represents the right hemisphere and the left cup represents the left cerebral hemisphere.  Onto the straps above each cup, I sewed motifs to represent the function of each hemisphere.

For the right brain, are symbols representing art, music and the ability to recognize people.  For the left half of the brain, the symbols represent logic mathematics, language and spatial recognition abilities.

To learn more about the Artful Bra fundraiser and how to bid on a bra, use the link below. Photos of the 2011 entries will be posted shortly.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/org/artfulbra/

The bras can be viewed at the Center for the Arts, Amherst Campus, University at Buffalo, from September 26 through November 4. Hours are: Monday-Saturday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

UB's ultra-modern Center for the Arts

2011 entries on display

Portion of display, showing my entry

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer

From the streets of Manhattan...

I just recently returned from a three day weekend in Manhattan.  As most of you who have been there know, it's a very exciting city.  And there's so much to see and do.  The weekend I was there was also stinkingly hot, which meant everyone was struggling to stay cool.  While the very nature of New York City makes it hard to tell the tourists from the natives, I think I spotted a few Manhattanites, who were managing to stay cool while looking fashionable.

It was also refreshing to see color on people out about.  In the first photo, I snapped visitors to the High Line Park, a must-see if you're ever in town.  There are two women who are managing to look"pulled-together" here, in spite of the heat, the older lady on the immediate right and then the young lady in the green dress. 

As you'll see in the close-up, she had paired the green dress with gold sandals and a gold purse, and it worked wonderfully well, looked terrific and was perfectly low muss, low fuss for the heat.

I also snapped this young lady who was all in navy, a refreshing change from black.  She also was managing to look cool in spite of the high temperatures. 

Another option that several young women had chosen was to simply wear a long cool cotton dress with flat sandals and minimal accessories.  The length of the dress means there is no worry over whether the top goes with the skirt or slacks.  In the summer months, this is a good option and looks very stylish when done correctly. 

I also snapped these two young ladies - the angle of the sun and the direction I was walking sometimes meant I could only snap from the back - who were also managing to look sophisticated and cool.  One is wearing an apricot colored top, with black leggings and black sandals, paired with a black and gold purse, while the other is in an olive jumpsuit and matching sandals.  All in all, some stylish looks, that did not sink to the haphazard look so many people wear when they throw on any old item in an attempt to stay cool.

And, last but not least, there's always red white and blue, which always looks pulled together as you'll see in the final photo in this blog post.! 

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer