Good Monday.
Yesterday I went to London to the Midcentury Modern, were Fanja, Sally and Liz
were exhibited and sold their lovely creations.It was quite interesting to see the crafters and the traders together; I must say that the crafts exhibited there were perfect with the sleek and simple shapes of modernist furniture.
were exhibited and sold their lovely creations.It was quite interesting to see the crafters and the traders together; I must say that the crafts exhibited there were perfect with the sleek and simple shapes of modernist furniture.
This is the last trend isn't it? Although for many of us it has been a way of life well before the glossy magazines were dictating the fashion...I mean buying vintage furniture,which is eco friendlier, cheaper and more unique than high street stuff and making our own things or buying hand made pieces.
I'm not even going to start about the aversion I'm developing to catalogues that sell ready made lifestyle (sadly fishing around in crafters blogs!)...but that is another story I will -eventually- talk about it in the future.
Right, digressions and polemics aside...
Browsing around I also found Carole Daprey book Mobilier design pour enfant which is a must have if you love vintage furniture for kids, in fact it is now in my Christmas wish list (aside with a Lewis).
At the show I feasted my eyes with lots of vintage pieces but I found that the prices were staggering!
(sorry no photos as the place was cramped and very difficult to take decent shots).
The show is hosted each year in Dulwich College. A very expensive hence quiet and clean area in south London, with little boutiques, tea rooms, beautiful houses and people that seem to come out from Ralph Lauren adverts...a bit intimidating and funny at the same time as they all look tall, blonde (fake or not) and oh so posh... OK, is Monday and I am being polemic today!
It rained all the time but it was nice to go and meet Fanja again.
Collectables: Les éditions piqpoq
Unhappy Hipsters (via Séverine )
Don't forget to play the cloud give away: up until Wednesday 17 November, the winner will be announced Thursday, 18 November.
(photo below Waterloo bridge London)
29 comments:
How wonderful! I wish I could have been there but so happy to see this little peek :) We furnished our first home from the second hand furniture stores and then as we got older our furniture became fashionable! So funny. We loved it then and we love it now... and it all looks as good as it did when we bought it (wow) nearly 20 years ago! Oh my... now I feel old ;) Great post Alessandra - thank you! Kx
Thank you for these photos and the report Alessandra, Fanja's corner is beautiful, lucky you to have been there !
oh lucky you !!
I agree !!! creativita e riciclaggio al potere !
I love crafts markets and from now until christmas it's the high season ! let's
that cute house white and blue is the model that was exported with success to America : houses on my neighbourhood are like that ...
that white and blue house is so dreamy. i hope to move to the country one day and have a home like that.
and thanks for sharing pictures of Le Train's table. it's so pretty.
Ralph Lauren adverts, hé hé.. going to South London is like travelling to another country.
Really nice to see you yesterday, thank you for your lovely polemic report Alessandra xx
Mo', to be honest, apart from Fanja you didn't miss much!
... love your little polemic story ... big smile ... one day I come over and like to meat the lovely white/blue house ... my dream
oh such a lovely house... I like the blue wisteria windows. bye
merci de partager, j'adore tout,ces maisons, et vraiment le livre de Carole est très très bien.
So intresting what you are telling here!And i love those dolls there in bed.
Hello, I have followed you for a long time, but not commented before, but thought I would today as I agree with all you have said above! We made our way there yesterday, and I have to say that the whole thing was a big disappointment. I loved Fanja's stall, and my daughter bought some lovely cards, but it was soooo unbearably crowded (why did we take the pushchair)?! And, extremely overpriced! I love 'mid-century' style furnishings, but I like a story behind them, and going there yesterday felt a bit like some sort of mid-century Argos trip! I really wished we hadn't gone. I very much enjoy reading your blog by the way...even if my first comment sounds moany!
Your post made me smile imagining what you must have been surrounded by .... lucky for Fanja's beautiful stall hey!!!
I want to spend time in this beautiful blue home !
Those houses might be from my dream of last night where a small snake bit me (only gently) as I was trying to save a small dark kitten. Or the kittens where three together, very dreamy all of them and the snake wasn´t that evil at all. When I woke up, I thought if it was good at all to wake up as maybe I should have gone to the hospital in the dream and check that the two other kittens were alright too (:
Silly me.
Thank you for playing my small winter game dear Alessandra!
Kerry, thank you : )
I'm glad I'm not the only moaner here!
But you are perfectly right it was quite disappointing.
Argos of vintage... you pictured it perfectly!
: D
Although I didn't go (of course), I can kind of imagine what it was like. Also, I agree with everything you said; love when you're polemic.
When I left my parents to make it on my own, I had absolutely nothing, and had to go through stuff at the rubbish dump to survive. With time, I discovered that I prefered the quirky and the old; I would never buy a new piece of furniture.
:)))
Ah to trip around London visiting the different neighborhoods and culture... miss London, miss travel. Enjoy the sights for me? xo
Wish I could have been there as well.
First, I could repeat what Janis says here above, and second, I enjoyed reading your post and I would not mind another what you call polemic post of yours, because there is something about presenting the lifestyle that is annoying to me. When you talk about catalogues that sell ready made life style did you mean Toas by the way? I think Toast is strange, however, I dont miss any and eagerly look through it. It catches on some beauty that will no longer exist as a beauty because it has been found, detected, revealed. Everyone starts to share it and we, who, proudly I say, are in advance, haha, we will have to turn to something else. I do not know, it just occurs to me that way. maybe I could give it a proper thought.
Bohemian girl,
Toast is a strange phenomenon indeed.
My humble suggestion is that you think about it a bit more and study their marketing and who they target.
Said so, I find it weird when bloggers advertise corporates, unless they do it because they are paid to do so, as some of them do.
Who want to understand, will understand (as we say in Italy) the others...well, I guess they just will keep buying ready made lifestyles in catalogues and "handmade" stuff made in the third world, oh yes but from ethical communities, of course. That is how we help them, underpaying them anyway and making sure that we keep them in poverty, otherwise there would be no cheap labour to sustain our lifestyle.
Also, we crafter, make a splendid unpaid job for them too!
If you see that catalogue in a different light you would see how ugly it is.
All these questions are so interesting Alessandra, I understand your concerns,allow me to leave here my humble opinion :
International trade is the only issue that puts me on the right side of the political spectrum. I suspect that several decades from now, we will see greater equalization of wealth between the first and third world. While I am sure that there will remain exceptions to this, I have little doubt that a number of countries that are presently considered members of the third world will eventually enjoy a level of wealth much closer to our own. Furthermore, I suspect that trade will be the vehicle for this shift.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that corporate objectives are altruistic at any point in the process; they remain self-interested agents in the big game. But not buying handmade products from real ethical communities of guys in Africa or South America is unlikely to make their world any better.
Of course we need to struggle to ensure that narrow corporate interests are not permitted to trump the democratic interests of any group. Moreover, the environmental implications of globalization matter more than any arguments about wealth.
Then, of course, one's choices make the BIG difference : I prefer to buy directly from someone I know (even for vegetables) than to go to Zellers ... (big store)and I hate buying by catalogue ;-)
Please check this site, I love their work and I know them directly : www.globalmamas.com
Corporate can be beautiful too ...
sorry : www.globalmamas.org
VEra, thanks I know global mamas.
My mother in law works as a volunteer in Bottega eco solidale, I know about how equal trade work, but I also know that only few are doing what their aim is. here theres a great deal of information about how often the workers don't get much paid. also my cousin is a volunteer in Africa in the sahari communities and he tells about the struggle to get money and primary goods in those areas.
My humble opinion : ) and I don't mean to be harsh, is that in the future we will be all equally poor, apart from the fat cats of course who are getting richer and richer. Judging by how things are going politically, socially and economically almost everywhere in the world.
But I like your positive attitude.
ciao
alessandra
O.K. now, when I am reading my kind of scattered comment again I understand the misunderstanding that I may have caused and thus encouraged this following discussion that has been more interesting than my attempts to conceive the stupid catalogue TOast more from philosophical and aesthetic point of view. Still, I like their catalogue and I dislike it at the same time, as the visual site of it that they know how to make so attractive I find hypocritical (just look at the way they put their models aside the local people for contrast, is not that offensive for the locals? etc) and of course, it is business after all, the preferences are clear, so it is probably not worth of discussion. I just struggle with myself what is it that that attractiveness works on me although I do not appreciate it.
ok even if only a few are doing what their aim is ... i can assure you that there is some good work done : I lived in burkina faso for 4 years and over there I could see so many positive changes ! of course nothing comparable with our consumistic occidental world ... but the question is : don't you think we have too much ? why can't we try to live with less learning from them ? why ours must be the model of society? why do we have to throw our trash down there (literally)in order to buy new and more ?
why don't we buy their products ? because our products are bigger, full of hormones and artificial good smelling parfums ? ;-) it's a non-ending process if we go on like that, wanting more and more, bigger and bigger ... I'm positive because i believe many people want this - a revolution of mentalities :-)
ps : i believe that wealth doesn´t mean richer life conditions but better life conditions
sorry for taking so many space in these space of yours ... ciao cara, I love your blog and your style :-)
Bohemian girl: I understood what you wanted to say, you are right, we are all attracted by beautiful things, that's normal. Nothing would be wrong if people were more honest.
Vera, please don't get me wrong, I'm 100 percent with what you say and I believe that we can make a difference. That's why here in this household many things are done to be coherent with this revolution as you call it. We teach our daughter the anti consumerism, to respect the world we live, the animals and the others. But often is a struggle, a battle against the grain, sometimes I've been judge for not giving plastic toys to my daughter, for eating organic, cooking from scratch and so on...do I care? no, but I have to explain to my daughter why we are different every time!
Unfortunately, better life conditions in this society is strictly bounded to wealth, ask any homeless out there.
But I do understand your views and I appreciate that you are using "my space" for this discussion.
ciao e grazie, spero di non sembrare troppo dura.
Thank you very much Alessandra. Very happy to read you :-)
Una casa come questa con le finestre blu è la casa dei miei sogni... da sempre.
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