Paper Jewels

Paper Jewels

Incredible paper art by an incredibly talented lady, Anna Gleeson. Anna is a Hong Kong based artist with strong ties to Japan. She works primarily with paper, and has presented this "look book" of oversized earrings which she showed at the Tokyo Art Book Fair. Love love love.

Could I get away with wearing these out? What if it rains?


E.

Setagaya Antique Market

Setagaya Antique Market

Let me share with you a nice little piece of information. Setagaya Antique Market (Boro-ichi) in Tokyo is probably the best antique market in the world. Yes, I know I haven't been to every antique market in the world, but I'm convinced this one reigns supreme anyway. Anything that can keep me outdoors in 7 degree winter for more than 4 hours has got to be good in some way.

I wasn't totally sure what to expect of this event as I've never been before, but it blew me away in a stupor of fabric, ceramic, wood and metal love. The sheer volume of stuff here is immense. Running over two days in December and located between Setagaya and Kamimachi stations in Setagaya-ku, the market is packed with street after street and block after block of vendors keen to flog their wares at impossibly decent prices. Bad timing for me, since I didn't have a spare ¥50,000 to blow on antique kimono, leather cutoffs and exotic plants...but hey, I picked up a few little treasures and documented the whole process!

First stop: Silk remnants. Naturally.

All the variations of "surprised face".

You want fabric? You better DIG FOR IT.

All the stalls were lit with these running lines of caged lightbulbs. The effect was quite lovely.

Ah, kimono. Why dost thou tempt me?

Leather paradise! And so goddamn cheap!

Lovely old books.

Cacti!

This was a slightly more unusual stall. But hey, if you don't want to pay full price...

And I love GI Jane up the back.

This photo only partially captures the scale of the market. Enorm!

My inner gardener went a bit silly over the plant stalls. Again, check out the pretty little lights.

Things that I probably wouldn't be able to keep alive if someone paid me.

You like moss, yeah?! Only ¥500! You haven't EXPERIENCED moss until you have this moss.

Even the guys from 7/11 brought out their own little stall, trying to bring some vendor allure to the infamous PIZA man. Come on guys, we all know it's pretty much the shittiest hangover food you can buy.

MOAR FABRIC.

Grab, ladies. Grab like you've never grabbed before.

This vat of tea leaves smelt so good I just wanted to dive into it like a chinchilla.

So after hoofing it back and forth between Kamimachi and Setagaya, occasionally dropping into Uniqlo in an attempt to thaw out my frozen toes, I can say I'm suitably pooped. I still love antiques though.

Next time, Stetagaya Market...I will come armed with buckets of cash and my grabbiest of grab hands.

Stay tuned too, I'll put a post up soon of the few little vintage / antique goodies I've added to my collection!

E.

Anntian

Anntian

Do you know Anntian? No? Yes? Maybe? They're yet another sparkling talent to come out of Berlin, where their label was founded in 2006. I've been keeping a close eye on Germany lately...it's a tingly little hotspot of innovative fashion design. I'm well overdue for a visit.

I adore their latest A/W 10/11 Collection, Walk the Light. The designers, Anne Hilkin and Christian Kurt, have given us this little insight:

"[It's] about walks that you have in the dark/night, it's about illuminated windows that give moments of insight while passing them, about a light cone of a pocket lamp, about beaming spotlights wandering around, detecting, blinding, searching, finding and losing again then focussed out of sight".

Personally I prefer a collection to be left a little more up to interpretation, but for Anntian the concept is clearly far more integral to entire design process. To be honest this is a breath of fresh air. There you go design students - you CAN turn your obscure concepts into perfectly viable product ideas!

Annitan were also inspired enough to hit us with three different photo shoots to present their collection. I love all of them, hence the plethora of images following (all from Anntian's website).

 

Aren't the scarves breathtaking? Up close and personal the detail of the digital print is even finer than it looks. If you're in Tokyo you can get a better look at these and the rest of the collection at Wut Berlin (yes I plug WB a lot, but it is one of my favourite boutiques).

Oh and their website is the bomb, is it not?

E.

Vintage Japanese Subway Posters

Vintage Japanese Subway Posters

Two things I love - vintage Japanese printed paraphernalia and funny shit - come together in the form of these delightful old "manner posters" from what would appear to be the golden era of train etiquette, the late 70's.

The three annoying train monsters: Leg-crossing monster, sleeping monster and newspaper-reading monster.

The seat monopoliser.

Don't forget your umbrella! From the original post on Pink Tentacle:

This poster of the high-class courtesan Agemaki (from the kabuki play "Sukeroku"), whose captivating beauty was said to make men forgetful, is meant to remind passengers to take their umbrellas when they leave the train. 

Don't forget your umbrella, again. Jesus might have to deal with it.

In the style of Toulouse-Lautrec, the title of this poster reads "coughing on the platform". Concon / Cancan / get it?

"I'll stand up!"

Naturally, this is my favourite. "Don't rush into the train". From the original post:

The text (かけこみ禁寺） is a play on the words かけこみ禁止 (kakekomi kinshi - "don't rush onto the train") and かけこみ寺 (Kakekomi-dera - Kakekomi temple), which has long been known as a sanctuary for married women fleeing their husbands.

Napoleon says, "got your train pass?"

When the bell chimes, it's too late. In other words, don't run for the train or it might turn into a pumpkin.

The priority seat. Brought to you by Marcel Marceau.

A mock Time Magazine cover depicting John Wayne putting out his ciggie with a water pistol. If John Wayne can do it, you probably can too.

See the original post over here.

E.