New Year, New Dresses

Oh hay! Whatup everybody. Welcome to 2011. This year there are bold prints, minimalistic shapes and some fantastically faded party dresses coming from idea to reality. Riot Siren is sticking with retro silhouettes + futuristic details and as always, keeping it handmade. As much as possible, fabric and notions are vintage, second hand, or salvaged.

Thank you again to all my wonderful friends and family who have supported my dirty doll dress endeavor in 2010 (and before) by sewing into the wee hours, organizing sales, baking cupcakes, posing like maniacs for photos, treating me to dinners I would never be able to afford and rocking your custom-made dresses with pride. I am so excited to go full steam ahead in 2011!

Oregon coast: Pastel perfect.

Family beach trip 2010. I saw a whale, played the most dismal Yahtzee round of my life and survived high tide.

Xmas 2010

A Hannah and Alex Xmas III

Every year, married maniacs Hannah and Alex put together a Christmas film of sorts for our enjoyment...and theirs. They show it at the Living Room theaters on the big screen. It's fo' real. This one was an especially great little noir murder mystery romance featuring husband, wife, friends...and a musical number! I have no idea how they plan to top it next year, it just keeps getting more legit. And to top it off, Hannah doled out some scarf samples from her Ola Collection (more on that soon...) Thanks for a fantastic evening, friends!!!

It's where young people go to retire...

...and it's where I grew up. AHAHAHAHA! I can't wait to watch this.

Hot toddies and eyebrow grills.

The right way to reenter Portland.

Welcome back to 'Merica.

So, long story short, things in the old world didn't go according to hoped. Which puts me here. Where you have freedom. Although, in order to restrict freedom to sue, I guess we have to make signs like this to make sure people don't stand backwards and topple over on flat moving bands. 'MERICA!

Maybe it's the holidays and winter feeling but...

I'm totally into this new-ish textile series from...Ikea.

Endlich mal was neues...

New pattern. New dresses. Coming soon.

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.