http://www.boyundschwester.blogspot.com/ 2010-03-30 daily 0.7 boy und schwester: November 2009

Sunday 29 November 2009

First ever stock update




Welcome to our first ever stock update...

This awesome shirt has just been listed on Etsy.  I love it, so I'm not quite sure why I'm selling it.  Especially as I've finally found something with to go with the taupe skirt in the pictures.



And this dress - so pretty!  I think it would work really well with thick tights, clompy boots and a bit of leather.  Kind of screwed up 80s, I'm wearing my mum's shirt-waister attitude.


Here it is looking a bit hot secretary.

More coming soon, check out the website for more photos!

WTF?

Lost the power of speech over this.

As I type...

everything is going live...

The first clothes are going to be listed on Etsy today and the website is going to be lauched!

I can't believe we've actually got here!

Thursday 26 November 2009

Launch date is actually close by!

So, after a very, very long time - three months in fact - things are nearly ready to launch.

1.  We have clothes to sell;

2.  we have a website;

3.  we have a business account and credit card (I am still getting it out of my purse and starring at it in wonder, I am so excited the bank let me have one!  And it's got boy & schwester on it!!!);

4.  we have an Etsy account; and

5.  we have a dress maker's dummy to photograph the clothes on.

All we need know is the photos!  That's Sunday's project so look out for listed items from Sunday afternoon!

We're SERIOUSLY excited about it.  Or at least I am.  Boy's disappeared off the radar.

Saturday 21 November 2009

New party trick

So I mentioned previously that I have been making more jewelry recently.  One of things I have been doing involves pearls (photos to follow, I promise) and for this I had to learn how to knot them.  It's one of those things that's simultaneously harder and easier than you imagine.

Knotting a piece of string with a pearl on = not hard.

Knotting a piece of string right next to the pearl so the pearl barely moves at all = much harder than you think.

Solution = this awesome video on YouTube teaching you how to do it + patience.

Thank you to the lovely Jewelry Supply people for putting up such a great video class.  Now I have a new party trick.  Still working on doing it with my tongue, a la the cherry stalk.

Thursday 19 November 2009

Tom Binns and jewelry nostalga

Tom Binns has been much lauded already but I am going to add my meagre fanfare to the praise anyway.  I love his work, I came across it just before Michelle Obama wore it and made his name more widely known.  Don't look at his website unless you want to start planning how to arrange more credit limit/re-mortgage/earn considerably more in a recession.  In particular, I'm loving the Faux Real collection.  It's all unbalanced sweet shop colours and classic on acid.  Heaven.  It reminds me of those rings you used to be able to buy at toy shops on the counter that came in the most incredible colour.  My favourite one was this massive 'emerald' one.  Those were the days.


In terms of my next project, I saw these Tom Binns necklaces ages ago and have been meaning to try my hand at one for forever.




Again, I'm loving the old fashioned quality they have, as if a very rich old lady has piled on every single one of the (real, obviously) necklaces she owns for dinner.

I want to buy some similar necklaces (fake, obviously) and try to make my own.  I love the coloured one but I think it would be harder to get a good effect on.  Cheap diamante necklaces seem like they would work better in my head.

I've been doing more jewelry recently, piling on the pearls and velvet ribbons.  Look out for them for sale when we actually launch.

Photo from this blog.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Beautiful badges and brooches!

Project inspiration alert!

I was reading Tavi's blog this morning and came across this Galliano SS10 jacket, which is officially GORGEOUS.   Loving the Miss Haversham, successful vintage fair rumaging feel that it's got about it.



The only question now is whether to do a jumper with shoulders like this, a jacket with lapels like this, a hat like this (ooh, like that idea...)  Watch this space!

Photo from Tavi's post, here's the whole show on Vogue, which is brilliant.

Me want-y!



Aren't these the coolest converse ever?  Well, perhaps with the exception of these studded converse.  I love them so much!  They're sort of Morticia Adams-esque - I want to wear them with long chiffon skirts and lots of black lace.

Here's the blog I found them on.

Monday 16 November 2009

Rant 1: unpicked pleats

Ok, so this is childish and irrational but one thing that is guaranteed to make me curl up inside with frustration and anger is when people don't unpick the tacking stitch out of their pleat.

Do you know what I mean?  That large cross shaped stitch that holds a pleat together on a coat/jacket/skirt?  It's loose, doesn't match the colour of the garment and is meant to be temporary to protect it while in the shop.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!  It's meant to be taken out!  I have a desire to go round with a small pair of scissors and snip them off in the street.  I might get arrested though.  Generally they're not in a good place to be discovered waving a pair of random scissors at a stranger.

No photo, as I couldn't find one online and have yet to actually master the subtle art of stalking one out with my camera.

Thursday 5 November 2009

The Oubliette


London is probably the key inspiration for boy & schwëster and a project like The Oubliette Arthouse is a prime example of why living here is so inspiring.


The Oubliette Arthouse project is an 'alternative arts organisation' which locates empty buildings, squats in them (can squats be used as a verb like that?) in order to provide artists with a space for their work until they are evicted.  I first came across them a few days before their Waterloo residency came to an end and this was the first time I've been able to get to one of their events.


I saw a play called 'The Wisdom of the Den'by David Christopher that was performed by a group from Dyssing Monadys [sic], which is an art group that supports work by dyslexics.  Being dyslexic myself I was already excited about the project.  It's all too easy to go and see bad fringe theatre in London but this show, in the centre of theatre land, was great.  There were a few cringe-worthy lines in the mix and sometimes the time jumps weren't always very clear but as a whole it was enticing and interesting.  The play wasn't exactly pro-women but neither did it cast men as the blameless.


I can't wait to see where The Oubliette ends up next.  Today's the day they get evicted from their Leicester Square abode.  Hopefully they find somewhere soon.  Now I'm trying to think up a project that has a quick turn around time to suggest for the next venue...