Premiere Vision Autumn/Winter 2016 print trend predictions ok

Normally I get to go to Premiere Vision as part of my job to do trend research and see the textile studios' new collections. I absolutely love it- it's great for networking with other designer/fashion professionals and it really helps me get my head around the trends of the coming seasons. Unfortunately this year I moved to work in menswear and this meant I could not go to PV as my current company sends only shape designers not graphic designers.To say I was gutted about this is an understatement as Premiere Vision is, in a professional capacity, the highlight of my year.
In January, at the last PV event I attended, I was given a press pass after someone read my previous blog post reviewing the Premiere Vision print trends. This allowed me to take photos at the event and do a more thorough review(if you didn't see it originally you check it out here. After this Premiere Vision post, regrettably my blogging went downhill, became less frequent and I think you could definitely tell that I was becoming both frustrated and disenchanted with putting so much effort into writing a blog and creating moodboards that very few people saw. I very nearly quit blogging altogether. Then I reminded myself that I love writing. I love researching beautiful printed textiles. I love hearing peoples' trend predictions, learning the reasoning behind them and seeing them come to fruition. Above all else I love making fashion relevant to those who aren't interested in it and view it as unnecessary. That's it for the colour trends of Spring/Summer 2016. As you can see above there's quite a huge range on next season's colour palette- black, white and neutrals are still present and popular but bright colours are back(finally!!!) Hopefully I will have another trend post done by the end of the week,although my laptop seems to be fighting against me at the moment.

One of my favourite parts of the Premiere Vision events is attending the WGSN trend seminars. Although I do have a WGSN account and can view their trend predictions online, hearing the trend forecasters present and explain the background and inspiration for each new trend is incomparable to reading a brief trend outline on the internet.

So, despite not having been to the most recent Premiere Vision event, I have been able to look at the trend predictions for Autumn/Winter 2016 on the WGSN website and have decided to create some trend prediction boards anyway.

I have changed some of the trend names and have left out an 'old masters florals' trend as it isn't one I am in support of, but the majority of the trend names are exactly the same.

BLACK CATS EVERYWHERE

My youngest sister gave me a set of Polkka Jam pastel cat prints for my birthday (she has a history of giving me cat-tings) that I now put up in the kitchen. I've always liked Polkka Jam's prints and I had always thought of putting something on that wall so these came in handy.


The theme of the prints also serves as a nod to our other kitchen, the one in the farm house, with the rugs and wood stove and so on.

And to the cats of course. But that does not even need to be mentioned.

TIDIED UP AT LAST (PLUS THAT HIDEOUS MONKEY I ONCE GOT)

Our flat in the city has looked like a dump for the past year. It's been messed up by unpacked gig-bags of mine, filled with my paperwork and crumbled over with Dag's toys. As we've mainly been concentrating on fixing up and renovating the farm house, and all free time is spent there,  our apartment has been rather sad and forgotten.

But now I  finally got around cleaning it up -to the extent my sister doubtfully asked Eddi why was it so neat there, what's going on? when she came over- and it feels great. I haven't gotten everything I want organised yet, but I'm getting there. And as my nausea from the lost pregnancy is now over I apparently got an energy boos; I even washed all walls and every door in the house. And we might even get around finishing Dag's room now that I'm on fire!


I got some new plants and moved around the placements of the old ones. I always thought that plants are a great, quick and affordable way to freshen up and make a mini-renewal of the interior.

The Helsinki poster we have framed on the wall is one of my favourites by one of my favourites, Erik Bruun.

 If you know your Helsinki you'll love the simplicity of how landmarks and parts of town are portrayed.

Here's my anti-Bojesen monkey btw (and this is a total btw-mention).
It's horrible and not really supposed to be there, but I once hanged it ironically and then it has stayed. You know,  the classic wood design monkey-toy-thing by Bojesen that costs a lot and has no actual function, that people have on, or hanging from shelves (preferably a string one like this). Well, my sister and I have a thing of sending sad stories or links and such to one another. Sometimes it leads to things, like when I once saw a super sad listing for an old teddybear no one wanted and she ended up buying because she just had to. Another time a friend of mine linked me a weird ebay listing for a "hideous monkey" on my wall joking it was Plytis' evil cousin. My sister then sneakily got me the hideous monkey for my birthday the same year. Yes I did scream out in horror a little when I opened the package, before laughing like crazy.


Hideous, ain't it? I have no idea why it looks like this or why anyone would make it so, and sell it, but well, I know why someone bought it.

I can't leave you with the image of the scary monkey so here is a cuter picture of Dag, happily unaware of said monkey, playing in his play kitchen.

WHO IS THE FAIREST OF THE LARKS? / THE BEDROOM WALLPAPER

Whenever I post something from our bedroom in the city flat I get the question where our wallpaper is from. So lets give it a post of it's own then shall we.

The wallpaper is called "Ken Kiuruista Kaunein",  translating "who is the fairest of the larks?"

It was designed by Finnish ceramic artist and designer Birger Kaipiainen (1915-1988) in the 1950's.

I had seen bits of it before, online and the test sheets they have of it, and always wondered what the hell was going on there; if you look at just a detail of it it's kind of weird and the birds sort of ugly. Well, yeah. But once I saw a picture of the wallpaper on a wall I was totally smitten by it. It builds up a beautiful pattern.

Well of course, this is really the way it is with all wallpapers, you have to see them at large to really get an idea. Some patterns that look great when seen as a detail in a catalogue may be a disappointment on the wall; personally I don't like it with decorative patterns that although they are made to appear asymmetrical turn "stripy" when put together, for example.

Ken Kiuruista Kaunein comes in four color variations. It was made for and is still made by PR-tapetit / Tapettitehdas and you can get it from Tapettitalo, where is where we have bought all our wallpapers from. (I'm also assuming that you by now figured out tapetti is Finnish for wallpaper.)

 

More known than the beautiful larks is the wallpaper "Kiurujen Yö" (The Night of the Larks), which is said to be the most famous wallpaper in Finland. It is, obviously, also by Birger Kaipiainen and comes in many colors; the picture above shows two. (Image from Kotivinkki magazine.)

(And btw by now you probably also notice you can fit whole sentences into just two words in Finnish. Or, in fact, one. End of mini-langauge lessons.)

Another little btw, there's an exhibition of Birger Kaipiainen's ceramics at Emma, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, which is just around the corner from us.

JANUARY AND ONWARDS

So, it's a new year (again! aready!) and I have a new calendar hanging on my wall.

I'm always quite eager to choose a nice one -and I often get a nice one as a gift for Christmas, so did I this year - but then at then end of the year I notice it is still hanging on October or November...

My calendar for this year is the Come to Finland-calendar, which consists of vintage travel posters for Finland, re-made into a calendar. And you know I love old travel posters. I have the book from the same series with gathered postcards and posters (which I wrote about here).

Some of the posters for this year. Nice! Although the actual calendar part is of course not as nice as the one in the Fintage calendar (which I made. Heh.)

PS. here's a little alrighty-right then fact for you: 2013 is the first year since 1987 to have four different numbers in it. Alrighty right then!

RETRO LEMONADE CARDS

Erik Bruun is one of my favorite graphic designers, as you may know. He did the Jaffa ads from the early sixties that I have at home for example. This Christmas Jaffa has a campaign with images inspired by Bruun's design. Me likes!

 

These cards were made by graphic design students who won a competition to attend a master class with Bruun. You can send these as electronic postcards here. 

(Here's a cute ad with dancing bottles and the old master himself. You know, in case you were in the mood for some happy dancing bottles or so.)

MORE CAPES FOR THE PEOPLE!

Beret & cape by Fiona Timantti.
Photo by Saara Salmi.

SMALL AND BIG EMBROIDERIES

When Dag got his name he was wearing the same frock Eddi and his family has received theirs in. The tradition is also to embroider the name of the new family member into the frock. A very nice tradition yes, although the embroidery part has given me a wrinkle or two between he eyes. Not my favorite thing to do, as I hate to have to be so precise.  Which is something that works fine for me when drawing on the computer, but less fine with anything by hand. Although, I did do some nice butterflies in different coloured yarn with pearl applications on some of my dresses and pockets back in the days when I was 17 and an art school hippie girl. But that was then and back then was a long time ago.

Quite suitably, I received a present - an embroidery inspiration book by Karin, crafting glady extraodinaire. I remember visiting her blog earlier and being impressed by her cute and pretty embroderies applied to all sorts of things. "Små och Stora Broderier" is her second book, and as the name says, it consists of ideas and how-to's for both small and bigger embroideries.

This was sent as a personal gift to me but I was later contacted by her publisher with a copy and asked to review it.

 (Bonus baby feet)

 The book features decorating traditionals items like cushions as well as more modern and funny items too.

 If you do not want to draw the patterns yourself everything featured in the book is available for copying.

And also explanation to how the stitching is done. (See, this is what I need! I only ever knew how to make those loop-stitches. And had sort of forgotten about them too. Not that this will help me get those name letters any more precise or neat, but at least now I have more ways to try out now:).

I mainly thought the book would be enjoyable from an aesthetic point of view for me with nice pictures and so (which it is and it has, with a clean and pretty layout) but it actually made me want to try and do some embroidery too...that also is one of the ideas of the book; to serve as ideas and inspiration both for those who have never touched a needle and a thread, and those who already know their way around decorating items with those, but mostly to awake the lust to start doing something with your hands.

So, to share the joy I have another copy to give away for one of you!

I will ship the book anywhere to whoever wins, but note that the book is in Swedish, being of most use for Scandinavians. However, the pictures and instructional drawings also take you quite a long way even if you would not understand the text.

To enter, it's the usual : leave me a comment on this post. (You don't have to be a follower of this blog, but then again, isn't it a little, well, embarrassing just wandering around the internet participating in giveaways?) I will draw the winner randomly so please leave me only one comment. Really, one. It will screw things up otherwise. And, make sure you are reachable to me trough that comment, as in trough a blog or (working!) link, contactable profile and so on, or leave me your email. 

If you share this you can get another entry by commenting again and leaving me the link to your post.

You can enter until next Tuesday; September 18! I will draw the winner shortly thereafter.

A PERFECT BLUE / DO YOU DESIGN?

I was sent this dress, in a soft fabric and perfect blue colour,  from one of my affiliates, Shabby Apple.
Apart form shirtwaist dresses, wrap around dresses are also pretty handy when your body is going trough changes, one direction or the other - this one is not an adjustable wrap dress, but anything with just a few buttons can be easily adjusted if needed -in this case I actually made the highest button the lowest one as it sat strangely right in the middle of my bust. I got a lot more room by chancing it and it still did not affect the hemline.- hopefully I one day soonish get to move all three inwards to make it tighter, heh.

Anyway, the dress is from a so called Emerging Designers collection, which means it was designed by an independent designer for Shabby Apple on a win-win basis - Emerging Designers is a program created to help start-up fashion designers manufacture and feature their clothing. The designer submits the designs and manufactures the items (with the possibility of being mentored in the process of productions) while Shabby Apple takes care of the rest; logistics, taxes, marketin campaings, customer service and so on. The designer receives 40% of the sales revenue from their collection.  


The program is open for designers world wide, but please note that it means you can't just have a bunch or nice drawings for pretty dresses, but have to be serious about it and prepared to actually produce (as in fund) the clothing yourself. So nothing for me...yet at least - I do like the idea :) If it sounds like something for you can read more and apply for the program via the Shabby Apple site or by clicking the banner below (also in my sidebar):

But back to me and my dress -  did I mention it has pockets? And you know what I think about dresses and skirts with pockets don't you? WIN.


If interested, the dress is the Carousel dress, runs a bit big but rather small around the shoulders, although it stretches a bit. The scarf is by Boo Boo Kitty, bag from Tunisia and the sandals are old.

Ta-ta!

OOH LALA AND OTHER KITCHEN PRINTS

We do not call this a fashion blogf or nothing: today I am going to write a little about kitchen towels! Haute!

No but really. I like it with prints in the kitchen that still are not right there in your face you know. While I out in the countryside go for more classic checks stripes and flowers I keep on buying graphic prints for the apartment kitchen.
Mostly in the form of towels.

My newest one has mustaches, goes ooh la-la! and is all frenchy (although actually Norwegian). By Darling Clementine, that also has lots of other print products. You can find similar styles by Finnish design duo PolkaJam (lots of black cats in their kitchen-themed prints! Site in Finnish but you don't really need to get what it says, right?).

One favorite is... oh, wait, cat in the way.

...my Kippis-print by Marimekko. Marimekko needs no further introduction (shouldn't at least) but "Kippis" means "Cheers".
Lesson #1 in Finnish accomplished!

I also have a vintage kitchen towel my friend Aiju gave me once with a cocktail print. Or alcohol print actually. Every kitchen needs a little alcohol, you know - an opened red wine bottle hanging around int he corner, vintage martini ad calendar, alcohol towel. Or then not. But this one is funny.


If you're all disappointed now that you didn't get a big enough dose of fashiuun you came to the wrong blog I can remind you of my Vivien of Holloway discount code VOH_FreelanceF4b that is running until the end of the month; 10% off normally priced products. You can use the code only once.

Then there's also my -10% code for Shabby Apple; freelancer10off, which is valid until January 16. However, they do have a site wide discount code now that is as high as 20% off basically everything so maybe better to go for that one! The code is NEWYEAR.

Fashionblog over and out.

ON AVANT GARDE

I should probably start a new label here called "the internet" or something (or wait, let's make it Teh) - I can get stuck on a certain page I bump in to or am told about and then I sit there for hours or follow link after link for the rest of the night.. Tonight, instead of wrapping gifts and making Christmas sweets I've been watching videos over at THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES.

When I was in design school we had the rather diffuse but also interesting courses of the philosophy of art and on the sociology of art; i.e what defines and artist, what puts a certain piece of art into a certain genre, what is considered avant garde, and so on? THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES idea is maybe something in that direction, showcasing creative individuals view on avant garde or what perhaps could be considered that. This trough very different short movies about creative personalities, such as authors, fashion designers, musicians, artists and more. Some less, some more know to the public, like the Cobrasnake here above. Interesting; so my gift wrapping will have to wait a little while still!
I you are interested in the articles/videos and persons featured, find them at www.theavantgardediaries.com.

A GIFT

I have the silly little habit of always asking "oooh did you bring me presents?" if the husband has been elsewhere for a day or two. Today as Eddi got home after a work trip I was so concentrated on the take away sushi I he had picked up for me (really that is what kept me not dying from boredom and sickness here today, the thought that I would actually get some suuuushi..) that I totally forgot to give the present thing a go.

And this time he really had a present !


A book with Eric Bruun's designs!

(Yes, those are my sick little sock covered feet)


Eric Bruun is one of the more famous Finnish graphic artists and my favorite one. He was active since the late forties until the nineties and int's interesting to follow one artist's works trough that time span.