Category Archives: Fashion

Beaded Necklaces…

04 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by in Crafts, Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Writing

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© Joan Currie - Murano necklace

These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.     George Elliot

I have a penchant for necklaces fashioned from handmade Venetian Murano beads. The multi-strand emerald and maroon necklace above was made with disc-shaped aventurine beads embedded with speckles of gold.

The more whimsical and delicate necklace below, given to me by my mother, was designed using several cylindrical black Wedding cake beads enhanced with glass overlays of pink roses, gold swirls, and blue dots.

Necklace with Black Wedding Cake Beads

Wool Toques…

24 Sunday Oct 2010

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© Joan Currie

Toque or tuque def: a woman’s small hat without a brim made in any of various soft-fitting shapes.

I watched Love Story again last night after many years.  I was still enchanted by the scene in which Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal frolick in the snow in Harvard Yard –  making angels, slipping and falling, and kissing (she even licked the snow off his check).  I developed a penchant for wool toques after that movie – forever associating them with the beautiful, but tragic, Jennifer Cavalleri character. Shortly thereafter, I learned how to knit and crochet the hats using rich variegated yarns in blue, purple, and red.

The French mohair toques are my favorite and I have collected several over the years from my trips to Vancouver. They are so beautifully crafted that I consider them wearable art.

Model – Lauren DiMarco

October…

15 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in Fashion, Photography, Reflections

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© Vanessa

October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.
Nova Bair

I realized today that we are quickly nearing the end of the year and my 2010 list of resolutions is only partially completed. At first I filled with remorse that I did not have the discipline and drive to finish all my action items in a timely fashion. But as I began to reflect on all the wonderful things that I have accomplished this year, I felt much better. Surely I can attend to one more project in the remaining ten weeks before year-end!

On edge…

04 Monday Oct 2010

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© Michael Chichi

Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art.

Paul Valery

I like the aesthetic of asymmetrical hemlines in motion. Initial hand sketches such as the ones below, executed at Parsons School of Design, are the first steps toward the creation of a designer’s fashion line.

© Lauren DiMarco – Artist

© Lauren DiMarco – Artist

Model: Lauren DiMarco

Birthday Cakes…

01 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in Fashion, Food, Photography, Reflections, Writing

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© Kristin Gerbert - http://www.kg.photography.com

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be…
Robert Browning

I love transforming a simple cake into something spectacular, worthy of a birthday. My favorite cake was one I created for my daughter’s third birthday. It was a white four-layer cake, frosted with a buttercream basketweave design, and dotted with pink sweetheart rosebuds. Candied flowers and swirling candles were the final touches. She was utterly delighted, and it remains the gold standard by which she has judged all her birthday cakes since.

You could let a birthday pass like any other day, and not bother with a cake; you could perhaps buy a cake; or, to really make an occasion of it, you could create a cake that is extraordinary, a work of art – embellished with all that represents the life of the recipient, whether it would be a loved one, or even yourself! After all, a birthday is only once a year, and despite protestations to the contrary, most people would love a cake that was created especially for them. Who knows what may befall us, and how many birthday cakes we have left to enjoy. Why not honor every year with a glorious cake?

Millinery Haunting…

29 Wednesday Sep 2010

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© Joan Currie

Passing, glimpsing, everything seems accidentally but miraculously sprinkled with beauty, as if the tide of trade…had this night cast up nothing but treasure.
Virginia Woolf

As I peered in the windows of a millinery shop last night, Virginia Woolf’s voyeuristic essay, Street Haunting: A London Adventure came to mind. My imagination conjured up fantasies about who might buy these hats and to what occasions they would be worn. The mannequins appeared eerily lifelike.

Photos – Joan Currie

Barbie BMW…

28 Tuesday Sep 2010

Posted by in Design, Fashion, Photography

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© Patrick Rafanan

One of my heroes is Barbie. She may not do anything,
but she always looks great doing it.
Paris Hilton

Strolling along Mission Street at 21st in San Francisco I spotted a custom Barbie BMW 745 LI. Only Barbie would insist on a diamanté BMW logo!

Model – Lauren DiMarco

Sunday Morning: Half Moon Bay…

27 Monday Sep 2010

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© Antonio Genovia

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day…
Oscar Hammerstein II

Half Moon Bay beckoned me this morning. I walked along the shore at high tide and dodged the waves that claimed nearly half the beach.

© Joan Currie

© Joan Currie

Models – Lauren DiMarco and Oleg Galagan

Sense of Smell…

25 Saturday Sep 2010

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© Eleven Orchids Photography

The sense of smell can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind.

I visited my maternal grandfather only a couple of times, but during each stay he smoked White Owl cigars. Since his passing over thirty years ago, every time I smell a cigar I am instantly transported back to those few, special moments I had alone with him. The most memorable one was when he taught me how to draw a five-pointed star. I traced his pencil lines following his simple directions: across town, downtown, uptown, downtown, and back home again.

Autumn…

23 Thursday Sep 2010

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© Joan Currie

When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
James Whitcomb Riley

Autumn arrived last night as I took an evening stroll under the light of the full harvest moon. The moon was extraordinarily bright and I was sure to make a wish as the autumnal equinox will not coincide with a harvest moon again until 2029 in the northern hemisphere.