Superstore

My beautiful friend David, and his two business partners Asta and Yam, run a very funky vintage clothing store in Berlin Mitte called SUPERSTORE. He has some real treasures (like Jean Muir - WOW) and there's a focus on 1980s glamour and a wild and wonderful colour wheel. The store has to be seen also for its unique décor! Enter through the café and make your way downstairs...

Almstadtstrasse 43 (corner Schendelgasse), Berlin Mitte
Open Monday - Saturday 12-8pm

For more pics check out this link in Deutsch: http://www.iheartberlin.de/2009/07/29/super-vintage-super-store/

The White Market

Yesterday my talented friend Daniela Dietel and I did The White Market here in Berlin Prenzlauerberg, at the Kulturbrauerei. It was a hot summer day, beautiful, but thankfully we had our stand in the shade of a tent - phew! We are both new to market selling and it was a good first experience.

One of my cute fairtrade organic cotton tees with hand-knitted pocket went to a lovely French girl visiting from Paris - a fellow garçon manqué who obviously got them! I was thrilled to have one go to a good home. They will over the next days be available to buy on my Etsy shop.

Daniela makes the most gorgeous original jewellery as you can see from the pics - works of art with humour and wild creativity. On October 2nd 2009 Daniela will open her own little shop at Isoldestrasse 1, 12159 Berlin Friedenau - very exciting and will be well worth a visit!

Tamar Mogendorff

Today I met Tamar Mogendorff, Israeli artist and maker of beautiful stuffed animal creations and more. She is visiting Berlin and is a good friend of one of my dearest friends Edwina White, whom I had the pleasure of having here back in June. They both live in New York, and are wonder women in their own rights. So I will next see those lovely ladies in New York - a good excuse!

Japanese tattoos

While I was waiting for my tattoo yesterday I read a beautiful thing... In ancient Japan, believed to have originated in the Kansai region, lovers would exchange beauty spot tattoos called irebokuro or "love dots". These exchanged tattoos are also known as kisho bori.

a new tattoo

Yesterday I got a new tattoo, from Maxime Büchi, editor of the wonderful Swiss Sang Bleu magazine. He's in Berlin for the month working at the gorgeous tattoo parlour BLUT & EISEN, and this seemed too good an opportunity to miss, seeing as I'd been planning to meet him in Lausanne one day when I visit my best friend there.

This one adds to the small collection I have growing of drawings by heroes of mine... such as Paul Klee, Le Corbusier, and my dear friend Takk in Japan. The new one is a drawing by Jean Cocteau with a tiny personal addition... I've always loved Cocteau's line drawings!

Maurizio Anzeri

Continuing the hair theme indirectly, I adore the work of Italian born, London based artist Maurizio Anzeri. His series "Family Day" is what caught my eye immediately, because it combines my two passions of textiles/embroidery and photography in the most elegant, inspired way! He embroiders tightly stretched geometric colour wheels and spirograph forms over the faces of people in old found photographs, creating wonderful, sometimes surreal, sometimes sinister masks for these faces to hide behind.

He has collaborated with fashion designer Alexander McQueen and also uses hair to create clothing forms that wow in their scale and craftsmanship.
His work simply makes me want to get to my own work! Always a good thing.

Nagi Noda Hair Hats

I love checking in with my friend Marco. Yesterday, through him, I discovered the work of two people who inspire me and the common thread is hair...

These wild and wonderful "Hair Hats" in the form of animals are made by Japanese video/tv commercial director and fashion designer Nagi Noda. I have to say I love the Poodle and the Afghan dogs best amongst her crazy menagerie. The obviously exquisitely crafted hats/wigs make me laugh in the way that we need - for pure fun and joy!