Wearable Art Blog

ShopCurious

Susan Muncey is the founder and creative force behind ShopCurious, an online boutique offering an eclectic collection of vintage fashion, jewelry and other unusual items, many of them handmade. Susan contacted me and I thought why not do a feature story on this kindred spirit's endeavor, since I'd already shown some ShopCurious items on the Wearable Art Blog.

My interview with Susan includes some of her favorite pieces from ShopCurious, as well as a few of my own. If you're "curious," click on the links to get background information on the selected items.

What inspired you to create ShopCurious?

ShopCurious combines many of the creative things I love doing: researching, writing, trend-spotting, finding unique accessories, vintage clothing and unusual things for the home.

I've always been on the lookout for major trend shifts and spotted a renewed interest in curiosity cabinets and collecting, alongside a move away from branded goods towards more quirky and original pieces.

 
One-off turban from a series of original handcrafted turbans, created especially for Shop Curious. Made from pieces of exotic vintage fabric, embellished with corsages, beads, and brooches from Susan's own collection.

 

How did you get to where you are today?

From 1997, I owned and curated a cult London concept store called Fashion Gallery. In 2003, I closed the boutique to focus on trend forecasting work, which culminated in my book, Trends Beyond Life: In Search of Immortality, which was published in 2006. Even though I purchased the ShopCurious.com domain name in 2005, I didn’t get around to setting up the website until May 2008.

 

 

Sandra Bamminger: Dogtooth check and green tribal print handmade hair band with bead detail. 
 

You say ShopCurious is the online equivalent of slow food.

Yes, ShopCurious is very much about hand crafted/recycled/naturally beautiful things. Many of the items we sell are one-off pieces, or very limited edition runs of a unique design. We value the artistic and the artisan over the brand name and the label.

 
This red leather and lamb’s wool bag is from the Samurai “Bushido” collection of handmade bags by Vivien Hew. The knitted fabric design is based on traditional Japanese motifs, scripts and armor patterning. The bands were woven on a traditional inkle hand loom.

 

How do you decide what items to feature on the site?

I’m a very curious person and I love to be constantly learning about new things. The site is aimed at the Curious Cognoscenti – people who are also interested in discovering new things and learning about the unique design or provenance of items. For example, we place objects in context according to their history and geography and describe their attributes and modern day use (a device that has latterly been gaining popularity).  

The site also reflects my own sense of style and humor – forming, as it does, a sort of personal diary of some of the things I have done and items I have found on my travels. I would also like to add that there are no big budgets involved – so the site has something of a fashionable, homespun imperfection about it.

What are some of your hot sellers right now in fashion or jewlry?

Pieces from our wide selection of arty, vintage silk scarves. Here's one from Zandra Rhodes, an original 1970s hand finished silk scarf with painted lady and trademark squiggle/chevron printed on it.

 

Annie Sherburnes’s mosaic necklaces, brooches and bags are also popular. Below is Sherburne's Nefertiti necklace made from a bronze colored metal cast of Nefertiti embellished with multi-colored found vintage jewels.

 
 

Our quirky one-off vintage brooches sell very well too, like this rare Royal Navy Pin in mother of pearl with gold and blue anchor and silver rim.

 
 
Other popular items include arty, hand painted earrings and bangles by the Maggio sisters, who created the hand pained Dangly Zebra Earrings (below).

 

 

What are your favorite items?

I’m saving up for a piece of jewelry by the talented designer Ornella Iannuzzi (who has been featured on the Wearable Art Blog). This incredibly arty coral ring (below) is made with a fresh water pearl set in vermeil gold.

 
 
What kind of trends are you observing in fashion and jewelry?

Trends tend to be linked to the season, as well as to the zeitgeist of the moment. I prefer to think of the items we stock as timeless works of art, which are loosely linked to ‘themes’ rather than trends. For instance, we’ve commissioned the Maggio sisters to interpret themes such as PopArt, tribal style, animals, Italian gardens and Art Nouveau on their beautifully hand painted pieces of jewelry. For Autumn/Winter, one of the most significant new trends will be musically inspired accessories.

What’s coming up on ShopCurious?

Curious? Are you?

Well, we'll just have to check ShopCurious to find out what's coming up. Thanks Susan for doing this interview. Keep up the great work unearthing unique creations for us to enjoy. You can see more at ShopCurious.

 

 

Fabric-Free Fashion

If I Iived in San Diego, I'd be heading over to the Fabric-Free Fashion Show at the Visions Art Museum. Running through July 24th, the show features the work of 22 designers who made their fashions out of anything other than fabric.

Before you check out the captions beneath each of these images (courtesy of dk3 studios LLC), try to guess what the pieces are made of -- I bet you'll be surprised!

 

This lovely dress (above), based on the themes of paper, plastic and plants, is made by Anne Edwards dba, Anne Richardson Collection. It's made of eco packing paper, food containers, and leaves and stems all made out of plastic. There's also some scrap silk and tulle as the base.

Anne, who told me about this show, said, " I like to capture and translate something odd and make it really fun." I think she succeeded -- the textures and colors really work well together.

   
 
Dress made out of shoestring black licorice by Eduardo Torres

Did you guess that the dress above was made out of licorice?!?!?!

The guest curator for the show is Susan Lazear, Professor of Fashion at San Diego's Mesa College and founder of Cochemille Design Studio. Lazear's idea behind the show was to get designers to move out of the familiar: "Designers are using things we look at every day but don't see as fashion." 

 
 
 Bottle Cap Dress by Shaun Muscolo

Using non-traditional materials in fashion is hot right now, given the emphasis many designers place on working with sustainable materials or methods. Fabric-free takes the concept of sustainable fashion even one step further by re-purposing objects like bottle caps (above) or plastic forks (below).

 
 
Plastic Fork Dress by Osbaldo Ahumada

Regardless of the materials, these pieces are very fashionable and provocative and fun. Don't miss the Fabric-Free Fashion Show!

 

Gilded Lace Jewelry by Monika Knutsson

 
 
Can you guess what the pretty earring and cuff here are made of? Try lace that's been dipped in sterling silver!

Monika Knutsson, inspired by lace that was used in clothing during the first half of the 20th century, recently contacted me about her work. She gathers lace from flea markets in Paris, Berlin and New York and turns it into lovely jewelry. The lace, which is often handmade, can come from petticoats, corset covers, or even the bottoms of 'bloomers'. 

  

One of the best parts of Knutsson's work is that each item is sold with a piece of the original lace and has a story to go with it. The gold necklace (above) is made from French Puy-en-Velay bobbin lace, used in the 1920s for lingerie and table linens. It's dipped in 24k gold.

 

The sterling silver dipped pendant ribbon necklace (above) is made from Parisian eyelet insertion lace that was used in the 1920s for corset covers and petticoats.

All the jewelry is made by hand in New York City. Each limited edition piece is named after an actress from the 1920s, like Clara Bow or Tallulah Bankhead, or women with old-fashioned names like Nanette or Edna or Annabelle. 

 
This neck piece is made from French Valenciennes insertion lace that was used in the 1910s as a decorative trim for corset tops. The blue ribbon is a gorgeous contrast to the 24K gold- dipped lace.

Best of all is the way that Monika talks about her feelings about the work: “I want to add value to old, forgotten lace that once was made by very skilled women. It is a way to honor the craftsmanship of the lace makers and to create modern and beautiful pieces that will last for a long time.”

This wonderful tribute also reflects the essence of what the Wearable Art Blog is all about - honoring fine handmade craft. You can see more of this fascinating work at Gilded Lace.

 

Mobius Wearable Art Runway Show

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2011 Wearable Art Runway Show at Mobius in Boston. Jane Wang, one of the artists from Mobius and a co-curator of the show, told me that this year's show was inspired by seeing how Rising Design, a group of young designers, was able to put on a beautiful and well-organized runway show at Mobius in September 2010 during Boston Fashion Week.
 
Cambridge violist Rachel Jayson created the "Dress of Sheet Music" (above) by hand-sewing more than 150 pages of sheet music together. She actually burned individual sections of paper to add color, variation, and texture to the dress! (photo by David Gordon)

One of the most exciting outfits of the evening was "Inflatable Metamorphosis" (below) by Charlie Roberts of Brooklyn, NY. Surrounded by an ethereal dress and dreamy music, the woman enveloped in the dress seemed otherworldly as she swayed slowly back and forth for more than 10 minutes at the opening of the show.

  
Inflatable Dress (front and back view; photos by David Gordon)

Suddenly, the music stopped, the dress came down, and the model stepped out of her inflatable cocoon. The performance ended before I was ready!

 

My favorite aspect of the show was the humor that infused many of the designs, like the spools of thread outfit (below) and the couple wearing pom poms from head to toe (below that).

  
 
Outfit with spools of thread by L. Mylott Manning (photo by David Gordon)

 

    
The couple are Robyn Giragosian and Caleb Cole in their "Pom Prom" outfits. Photo from Enamour.

  Raphaela Riepl's Tentacles Flying Teeth; Model: Kira Lorenza Althaler as William Haugh

There also was some fun wearable technology in the show, like the piece above. As co-curator Jane Wang said, "To see so many diverse pieces in the show, in a sense, opened my mind to thinking, what IS Wearable Art?"

Mobius is located in Boston's artsy and gentrifying South End neighborhood, which is home to many diverse communities where wealthy and low income people live side-by-side. One of the nice things about this show was that the audience and the artists reflected the diversity of the neighborhood, adding to the overall experience.

If you visit Boston, you must stop by Mobius.

 

 

 

Cities on a Ring by Alina Jessipovich

Originally from Estonia, Alina Jessipovich now lives and works in London. During her last year at the London College of Fashion, she decided to combine her fascination with big cites and her love of collecting small objects to create 'original' rings that merged both.

These funky 'city rings' are handmade using found objects, which are then coated in layers of silver and gold and embellished with semi-precious stones. When you look closely at the rings, you can see symbols of each of the cities. They're not meant to be skylines but more representations of icons related to each city.

 
 
City Ring - Rome

In the first ring, above, you can see some of the walls of the Colosseum in Rome. In the Paris ring, below, you can see the Eiffel Tower and a goblet of wine. 
 
City Ring - Paris

Alina describes collecting this way: "Walking through city streets, I constantly scan pavements with my eyes, looking for new 'material.' I often get funny looks or an accidental kick on the back when stopping to pick up objects in a crowded place." Who knew that bending down could be dangerous?

 

 

 
City Ring - Shanghai

Alina's greater goal is to recycle 'rejected' small objects - 'rubbish' to some - into 'treasure' for adults. It reminds me of a line from an old Paul Simon song: "one man's ceiling is another man's floor...."

 
Alina with her found objects 

I really like the the philosophy behind these works. Plus, they're compelling mini sculptures, almost forcing you to keep looking at them until you find something recognizable.

You can see at Lisovsky Jewelry or Shop Curious.