The Floto Warner Pendant Light: Eco Bling

With designers piling on gold chains all over runways this year, the new gold jewelry chandelier by Floto+Warner seems right on trend. Made entirely of second-hand necklaces found at thrift shops, Goodwill, and Ebay, the chandelier is a glam nod to eco-chic. I love that it is regal and ornate, but in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way.

[Also, just a quick note off-topic, my dear readers -- For fun, I recently installed a live feed reader and added a site meter to my blog. Much to my surprise, people are reading my blog!! Ok, I knew people were reading it, but I didn' realize that there were SO many people visiting. Now, I want to know: who are all you lovely people stopping by but being shy?? I would love to hear from more of you! I'm asking, not because I need my ego stroked, but because it helps me to know your thoughts and ideas, to get feedback, to know what I'm doing right, so I can keep doing it! So, if you find yourself coming back here from time-to-time, or all the time, please drop me a note, say hello, tell me about yourself, and tell me what you think! Thank you so much for your support, friends!]

Have a Nostalgic Weekend...

I was recently looking through old photos of myself from my childhood [ahem, the late 70's...] and suddenly felt so nostalgic for this era. I love the way film, TV, and photography from the 70's have a dreamy, misty aura about them. Don't you wish you could walk around in soft-focus sometimes?

[These photos are not from the 70's, by the way. They just have a wonderful 70's vibe!]

Images originally uploaded to Foto Decadent.

Vintage Textiles

Vintage Textiles is an amazing online store that sells upscale and designer clothing from the Victorian period through the 40's and 50's. It is all in immaculate condition [prices range from around $500 - $12,000 USD], and the details are stunning. I am just in awe of the embroidery, the velvet, the lace...I particularly like the selection from the 20's and 30's, because the clothes still seem so wearable and modern. If I were a rich girl...

Links à la Mode: IFB Weekly Roundup

It's my first week to be featured on Links à la Mode, and I feel lucky to be in such great company!! Browse and enjoy at your own leisure...

39thandbroadway.com - The nitty, gritty, down and dirty, details of working in the fashion industry that nobody prepares you for!
A Few Goody GumDrops - A Few Goody Gumdrops is giving away two to-die-for Katherine Kwei ever so chic handbags!Enter to Win!
Being High Maintenance, not Bitchy - Look divine this season, whatever your budget, in hot holiday jewellery
Capitola Girl Jewelry Blog - Which came first…the button or the button-hole?
Clutch 22 - Clutch 22 cut up a dress to create DIY Studded Oxfords
Couture Allure Vintage Fashion - How to party like it’s 1959! Vintage looks for a 50th birthday gala.
Daisy Fairbanks Vintage - Bringing out your inner Betty Draper, channeling the glamour of the early 60s with Mad Men fashion.
Debutante Clothing - Vintage Fashion History - What’s Wrong with Bows and Zippers?
dramatis personae - An interview with Xenia of Lime Crime Makeup (and Doe Deere Blogazine) about her new make-up line.
fashion in my eyes - Word on the street with Sasha Pivovarova
Fashion Pulse Daily - Fashion Pulse finds ways to get all gussied up for holiday parties via Target for under !
Fasshonaburu Fashion - Gift Guide for shopping for the label-obsessed, Gossip Girl watching teen during these economic hard times.
Flights of Fab Fashion Fancy - Flights of Fab Fashion Fancy is loving these effortless-looking, chic looks! Yay for black! It always works!
If Wishes Were Clothes Horses… - My exclusive interview with eccentric stylist, editor, notorious club personality and club night host JACK MITCHELL. He doesn’t mince his words, check it out…
In Life and In Fashion - Handbag Heaven or Hell? A perfectly organized handbag!
Independent Fashion Bloggers - How To Write The Perfect Holiday Gift Guide
Mademoiselle Robot - My crush on Claire Fisher from Six Feet Under.
MY Fashion Frenzy - My FIRST ‘Black Friday’ experience. “The phrase “crazy holiday shoppers” is an understatement!”
Nothing Elegant - Artist Gustave Klimt and his lifelong partner Emile Floge were influential fashion reformers, and their work is still inspiring designers today.
Or False Glitter - Advertising perfume: the mystery behind a physical representation of smell
Pencil - sd looks at how some bloggers use what they already have to create a completely unique and one-of-a-kind look.
Petite Bourgeoisie - John Caplan - The Man Behind Ford Models
respectfully yours - stylish gentleman: daniel craig as james bond.
Shopping and Info - Shopping and Info has the info on what Demi Lovato wore at the Twilight Premiere.
Smart Geezer - Girls! 10 Tips For Men’s Clothes Shopping!
Style Discovery - Who’s liking to my blog? Style Discovery’s 3rd bloggin tip post.
Style Symmetry - Stop by and Celebrate our One Year Blogaversary!
Stylish Thought - The Good Side of Sequins
Technology Starlet - The Technology Starlet chicBuds Holiday Gift Giveaway
The Bare Skinny - Fashion on the Go…Fabulous Iphone Apps.
THE COVETED - Lucky 13 Vintage Holiday Dresses
The Style PA - Going gaga for Lady Gaga. How one women is changing my mind about eighties fashion…
we wear things - We Wear Things goes Masked Avengers!

Holiday Gift Guide: Books for the Aesthete and the Decadent

I would be as pleased as punch to have any of these stunning books on my coffee table. Gorgeously bound and illustrated books are perfect gifts for the design junkie, fashion fanatic, and art enthusiast on your shopping list.

Sometimes, the concept itself is just as beautiful as the final product. 100 Years of Fashion Illustration.

This colorful textile book would add some serious pop to a bookshelf or table. Indian Textiles.

A little kitsch and a lot of fun. Japanese Beauties [Icon series].

For a hardcore fashion historian. Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century, 2 vols.



A great gift for a vintage vixen or a professional window shopper. Shop America: Midcentury Storefront Design.



Perfect for someone with a flair for the dramatic or a love of theater. The Complete Costume History.

Lempicka was the essence of Art Deco fabulous. Lempicka.

Contemporary portrait painting, with a gorgeous cover. Painting People: Figure Painting Today.

Fashion from the Swingin' 60's -- complete eye candy! 60's Fashion: Vintage Fashion and Beauty Ads.

Great for an antique collector, a renovator, or a lover of turn-of-the-century design. Decorative Art 1900-1910.

THE WINNER IS...

Congratulations to Milla from The Girl Who Married a Bear -- she is the winner of my gift giveaway!!

[image originally uploaded by Frida Borjeson on flickr]

Hel Looks, Looking Good

Another inspiring ensemble from Hel Looks to share -- those lovely Helsinki girls just seem to be able to perfectly pull off a feminine/gothy/cowgirl/new wave look that makes me weak in the knees. It doesn't seem like it should work, but it does!

Don't Forget about the Giveaway Contest!!

Just a reminder my dears -- If you have not yet entered my giveaway contest, check out the post from November 26th in order to enter. It is easy, just comment on that post (leave your e-mail address unless it is posted on your blog, so I can contact you if you win!). If you mention the giveaway on your own blog, let me know by commenting on that same post again -- you will then have double the chances of winning!! But you've got to hurry, tomorrow is the deadline!! Good luck...

Pixie Market Perfection

Pixie Market is killing me with awesomeness right now. Santa, baby?

Chapeau Claudette Emi hat $52
Kalda Feather collar $173

Ka Pow Wow Red ruffle neck scarf $118
Yipp-ee Lace zip ankle boot $135
Maud Solo Patent flat $182
Phamous Sequin Cardi $141
Mogil Black knee boots $305

Klimt and Fashion

If you are like me, you are probably familiar with at least some of Gustave Klimt’s gorgeous, garish paintings of women from the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. But it was not until recently that I discovered that he and his lifelong friend Emilie Floge were involved in fashion design and fashion reform movements. Interestingly, his paintings seem to pay close attention to not only the shape of women's bodies, but also the sensual shape and pattern of the dresses worn by the sitters.

Portrait of Emilie Floge by Klimt (1902 - Vienna State Museum)

Klimt's companion Emilie Floge was a celebrated Viennese fashion designer, and Klimt also designed at least several dresses.

Portrait of Emilie Floge.

Their creations were loose-fitting dresses called “reformkleid” which freed women—and men like Klimt, who wore them—from the constricting clothes of the day.

Gustave Klimt and Floge in reform [reformkleid] dresses (1905).

Emilie Floge.

From the book "Klimt and Fashion." Emilie Floge in a dress inspired by Japanese stencils and Byzantine mosaics.

Two autochrome photos from 1910 of Floge in her own designs.

Two dresses (modeled by Floge) from her 1907 catalog.

Emilie Floge, 1905.

Klimt’s portrait sitter’s often wore reformkleid for their portraits, and to great effect: “He wanted to characterise her through her dress, with the fabric and cut emphasizing the personality of the person whose portrait he was painting” (Volker 49).

Portrait of Adele by Klimt (1912).

To do this he asked the sitters during his gold period to dress in flowing reformkleid that alludes to neoclassicism. The sitters during the Asian-inspired period wore slim fitting dresses with hooped skirts that are meant to look like trousers, in shades of white and pastels that Klimt always favored.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)

These pale colors were not always in vogue at the time (44). But Klimt’s savvy fashion sense works to bring out the sitter amidst a background of almost dizzying array of colors. [Klimt and Fashion].

"Judith" by Gustave Klimt.

"Medicine" by Gustave Klimt.

Some recent fashion photography inspired by Gustave Klimt's work:

Black Book Galleries

[Update]: I just had to add more... The very amazing Gerry from Not from Paris reminded me of the Dior HC collection from Spring 08 (where everyone was invoking Klimt), and she pointed out the connection between the Dior designs and Floge's dresses. Here are a few samples:


Check out the Paris Fashion week photos for more!