Big opening for a bland offering.

Last Thursday here in Amsterdam, they opened a brand new H&M flagship store. In the spirit of Thanksgiving/Black Friday/curiousity, I got up at 5 am to check this out. Namely because they advertised free gift cards for the first 100 people in line with a surprise amount between 5 euros and 500 euros. I thought I'd go at least for the spectacle. Plus, you never know. I had a good feeling that maybe I'd be that lucky 500 euro cardholder if I did in fact make it within the 100 person limit. Matthias was also intrigued by this early stand up and decided to join me once he saw it was for real and discovered both of his classes were cancelled. His bike had a flat tire, so we had to buddy ride mine and it was freezing cold. I wore my raccoon fur jacket (vintage from mom) and we both had yellow hats in different shapes made from the same sweater. We also had a large army bag because Matthias was to pick up some equipment from school, so we looked like street folk out to collect. It was dark out and very few Dutch people were stirring. We arrived promptly at quarter after 7 (grand opening scheduled for 10) and saw quite a few people standing about. "Do you have cards?" asked a girl as we walked confusedly up to the red carpet being laid for customer entry. She showed us a lanyard with a grey card in plastic around her neck. "No, what for?" I asked, but Matthias had already sprung into action. He was on the red carpet and walking toward him was a well dressed woman holding two such lanyards on either side of her head. "Who are the last two?" She was asking in Dutch, looking at Matthias. "US!" He says, and that was that. Quarter after 7 and we were 99 and 100 in line. Hahahahha. "For this, I love how organized Dutch people are. Now we don't have to stand around wondering!" Matthias exclaimed. We had great hopes that one of our gift cards was the 500 euro winner. After 2.75 hours in the freezing cold drinking free coffee, gawking at tourists gawk at the line, and a loud musical buildup to a confetti burst, we discovered our grand total was 10 euros between us. The selection of accessories and small items turned out to be rather paltry and the clothing selection somewhat boring in my opinion. We couldn't decide if we should each buy socks or the whole amount should go toward a tie for Matthias' new job, so we buddy rode home and took a nap on the couch.

Someday...

I will also be organized and cohesive enough to make me one of them brochures! Anyway, I posted a while ago about Strawberry Earth Wonderland here in Amsterdam and would like to introduce to you a lovely London designer I discovered there! Her label is Lu Flux, she also uses quite a large quantity of second hand, vintage and salvaged materials in her collections, and she happened to be rather delightful as well. She was really friendly and enthusiastic about what she does (which is dope. Both the things she makes and being stoked about it). It was inspiring for me to see what something similar to my aspirations looks like on a larger scale, in Europe...and in reality!

These are scans of her Spring/Summer 2011 Collection: Over the Hills & Far Away

Check out her older stuff here.

P.S. I have a sneaking suspicion that this collection would be a big hit in Portland, especially for dudes. Although, the dudes who would covet it are likely unemployed or "in a band"...

Who's a birthday bunny!

Do we even know when her birthday is? Do we even know how old she is? Clyde came to us as a sort of rescue bunny from one of Josh's friends. I'm sure someone could track down this information if they REALLY wanted to. Anyway, Ali and Josh both sent me this amazing photo of my most beloved four legged friend. Whatup Clyde Drexler!

More fun, colorful things.

Check out Annie Larson, knitting radical sweater creations one by one in Minnesota. It's kind of like Gap or Hannah Anderson, but funny. Fresh.

photos from New Land of Milk and Honey

Photographed by Sam Hoolihan and Ross Yates
Modeled by Ann Marie Freeman, Tim Hudson, Paul Puleo, Maddy Nye,
Fletcher Barnhill, Lindsay Noble, Ann Marie Schwankl, and Aby Wolf

Exhibited at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, MN

Africa part II: The practical things

...and speaking of the practical things. Most awesome textile prints ever? Now women can just dress themselves according to activity and it's like a uniform! In order of profession: Housewife, Trophy Wife, Plumber, EMT. Right? Hahahaha I WANT THEM ALL! Really. I do.

photos via ExtremeCraft's flikr page

P.S. You should check out the Extreme Craft blog. Dude perspective on craft! What? It's true. And it's pretty good.

Wax on, wax off.

Ever since my former roommate Katie brought home a little stack of textiles from Cameroon, I've been curious about African wax prints. Turns out, they are traditionally printed right here in the rainy little Netherlands. Mmm Hmm. Apparently old-school Holland collected African soldiers to fight their colonial wars in Java and they came home wearing some Javanese wax-resist textiles. The way I understand it, these caught on and the Dutch saw a business opportunity. The company Vlisco has apparently been working on technology since 1846 and is reputable among well-to-do West African women who have a discerning eye for textiles. These fabrics are of high quality. Not only do I love these prints for some reason, I find it terribly amusing that a country full of northerly blonde whiteys who wear nothing other than tan knee-high boots and navy blue coats somehow got it together to print crazy, colorful and intricate wax-resist textiles inspired by Indonesia which they sell to an apparently loyal market in West Africa and have for over a hundred years. Not only this, but the fabrics are seen as definitively African. And I love them.

photos: Time, unknown, NRC Next, Vlisco

Old man in da house

Matthias turns 25. So Konrad and Max came from Germany, we drank prosecco, Dutch people stayed up past their bedtimes to sing happy birthday at midnight, we sat around a campfire, we got out the tablecloth, a cake was made, and we put balloons on the wall. Because balloons on the wall signify "special day" instead of "regular day." Prost to the quarter century.

Maniacs a'Many

Often I am too caught up in my own brain full of ragged doll dresses to really care too much beyond a fleeting curiosity about all the other kinds of fashion action going on. Sure, I browse images in the net, check out what's up, take the pulse of the world. But it's not frequent that something from fashion week really strikes me as noteworthy. This, however, stopped me in my tracks. I caught wind of it through a blog I follow; the Neverending Story. First I was disgusted/fascinated/couldn't look away. Then I fell in love. Which was a good sign (falling in love and then becoming disgusted is the wrong way around). It's Meadham Kirchoff's Spring Summer collection 2011 and it's glorious. Kudos, gentlemen.

P.S. to M.K.: Did you also go to junior high in Oregon during the 90's, instilling a subconscious filled with sharpie adorned converse, old man sweaters and kool-aid hair? Did English/French people do this too? Just wondering.

photos via Elle.com and Dazed Digital