JOLIBE: New Designer Crush

I came across Jolibe whilst watching an episode of Stylista and you could say it was love at first sight (and I don't even believe in love at first sight).

JOLIBE designer Joel Diaz is Dominican Republic born where he spent most of his adolescent years in art school. At 14 however, he began learning dressmaking techniques from his mother. This is obviously when he discovered his love for fashion as he then went on to study fashion design at the Altos de Chavon School of Design in the DR. After receiving a scholarship to study at Parsons School of Design he moved to New York. He then pursued a career in fashion, and worked with several designers before landing at Helmut Lang and you can see the strong Lang influence in his work. In 2007 he opened JOLIBE with his partner, Christina LaPens, a photographer and art director. The Fall 2007 Collection marked the debut of JOLIBE during Paris Fashion week and has since been shown in New York.

Jolibe is everything I could ever ask for in a designer - strong structured looks that can take you from day to night, gorgeous shades of fabric that will never go out of style and although the overall silhouettes are quit classic, he adds little quirky details that make the outfit stand out and really do make you feel like you've spent your money on something you will love every time you wear it. Also its hard to find new designers that have a strong sense of their own style and a vision of what they want their collections to look like for the next couple of years but I think Jolibe has delivered from the very start.

AW07

SS08

AW08

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Mutate Britain

After my rather unsuccessful sale rummage at Start Boutique in Old Street today (ok I found an amazing Stella McCartney coat but even with the 40% discount it was still 900 smackers and waaay out of my budget) and I headed to Cordy House to check out the "Mutate Britain" exhibit which I've been meaning to see for about a month now. I wasn't disappointed, actually it might be the best exhibition that I've ever seen in London. I don't mean to sound cliche but it was so different and unexpected. I only had my shitty-good-for-nothing digital camera with me, so excuse the poor quality photos.

When you first walk in, you enter a dimly lit graffitied room full of alien robot like sculptures made out of car/bike spare parts and anything that on its own would usually be described as "junk". It also smelt a bit like horse stables. And had a weird stray dog walking around.

This then leads you to the second less dingy room full of smaller sculptures, some graffiti art and a weird but awesome plane propeller (or at lest thats what I think it was).

You then move onto the second floor where theres some dope art and more of the same etc etc.


This is also where you find my favourite piece - a skull portrait made out of coloured badges.


And then you get you the best bit - the "interactive room" on the third floor. You're greeted with what first looks like a neon sign but is actually some creepy dolls tangled in fairylights.


And then out of the darkness you see a giant head. It changes faces at a blink of an eye and there were some sort of controls in front of it, so I'm guessing you can play around with the facial features also. Loved the virtual graffiti wall as well, a little boy was hogging it so didn't get to try it out but looks like you can have hours of fun with it.


The pole dancing robots and DJ were the best. I want one in my house.


This floor also had a little cafe if you were feeling peckish and a shop with a dark and dingy "maze" which I didn't dare go into by myself.


And this thing. I think the idea was to climb into it as there was a supervisor type person standing next to it (prob to help you in the likely chance of you getting stuck).

Anyways go check it out, its FREE and open 12-10pm on Sat & 12-7pm on Sun. So no excuses, you can pop in after doing your Chrimbo shopping. Exhibition finishes on Sun 21st Dec.

www.mutatebritain.com

Like it or not...

...these three madames WILL be your fashion/music crushes of 2009!

LADY GAGA:



LA ROUX:



JANELLE MONAE:

I heart Bruno

Forget "what if God was one of us?" - its all about "what if Jesus was a male model?"

HAWTSTUFF

The Return of the Legends (and Moi)

I feel terrible about neglecting* my blog (and it's readers) for almost 2 months but there have been a lot of things that needed to be sorted out but I am back! I'm more excited about the return of two of my fav ladies in showbiz though - Grace Jones & Cyndi Lauper. Both are looking super hot for their age (Grace is 60 and Cyndi is 55) and I'm glad to see they haven't lost their quirky sense of style (their songs are still pretty banging too).

GRACE:






Dream outfit I'd like to see Grace in: one of these from new designer Andrea Cammarosano. Grace likes her outfits to be structured and eye-catching so this should be right up her street. She's also a fan of black so would be nice to see some splashes of colour on her.




CYNDI:

Dream outfit I'd like to see Cyndi in: this dress from Basso & Brooke's Spring 06 collection. Cyndi is the complete opposite of Grace - a huge fan of colour. Also this dress has the fun elements of her past 80's outfits, so I can really see her bringing this dress to life.

*I haven't been totally neglecting le blog - I've added more links on the right hand side and all the posts are now conveniently labeled. Also I will be going to PARIS for a day trip as a Birthday treat on 16th so any recommendations would be mucho appreciated as the last time I went with my mother. When I was 12. She made me stay in the Louvre for over 3 hours. I hated it.