In 2017 one if the things I want to write more about in this blog is smart, practical use of textiles in the home as well as sustainable and interesting clothing and accessories. Though I may not look like it, I am actually really into style and clothing, however I am probably as far the opposite of a typical fashionista as you can imagine. I buy less than 10 (some years less than 5) pieces of clothing a year. I also live in a place where the climate dictates how to dress, not the current trends in fashion.
But there is a new trend for clothing emerging, a trend for sustainability and for consuming less clothes for more value. And I think it is reallyreally encouraging to see. The classics are coming back!
One of the reasons I don't buy a lot of clothes is that I simply hate the act of shopping. Running from store to store seems like a huge waste of time to me. Same thing goes for getting stuff for the home. Endless corridors of home decor are exhausting. So much stuff! And where does it all go when nobody buys it and they go out of style!
And you know what really weirds me out?
You know those stores that sell "new vintage" items? Stuff that has been made to look old? Those stores always baffle me. The world is full of awesome thrift stores with real old stuff that has real aging on them. And you do know, right, that an item that has survived its way all the way to a thrift store is likely to live a long while in your use too. Instead these old new things are poorly made, feeble in their fake attempt to look weathered.
Like many other people too I want home to be filled be with memories. And souvenirs! But souvenirs in shops that sell souvenirs are always so tacky! It also seems so shallow to buy a souvenir somewhere, and then putting it on a shelf somewhere where you forget about it in a short while.
I like to acquire materials abroad that I can make something of when I get back home. It gives me the opportunity to spend more time actually connecting with that souvenir, and then incorporating it as part of my home. Fabrics are great for that.
My favorite kind of fabric is the kind where you can see the texture of the fibre, and the weave, whether it is hand made or machine produced. And boy, did I find some really nice woven fabrics on sale in this 5-story-heaven on-earth-fabric store Kanariya in Sapporo last summer! They've been waiting on me for 6 months and this weekend it was finally time to put them to good use! (The floral indigo prints on the pic above were a gift from a new friend Kazuko i visited, but those have not found their place yet.. they will get an extra special use at some point because visiting her was one of the high lights of my trip and I still think of her often!)
Here's a little before and after look into some footstools that were in serious need of a makeover and are now the perfect example of souvenirs made into part of our daily life. ;)
Also my a piece of Peach-colored Suomu which I designed for the NOKIVALKEA collection made it into the covers!
Along with the Kanariya fabric I incorporated some old jeans and parts of and old bedspread that was torn in the middle (from napping too hard on it?! :)
In the end; souvenirs which were flat when transporting and useful after a little work on them ;) combined with bits and pieces of our life so far make these extra special.
