Because Paul Harnden Shoemakers

One of my favourite destinations in Soho is IF, which sells European and Asian designs.  I'd always gravitated toward Ivan Grundahl's clothes, but today someone else stole my stylist's/stylish heart.

The English company Paul Harnden Shoemakers makes shoes, obviously (or not necessarily, really), but it also makes beautiful scarves and coats.*  The scarves I saw at IF both incorporated vintage illustrations.  Above is my photo of an oblong scarf, and you can see the same print on a man's shirt, below:

Harnden also showed a bone-colored scarf with navy illustrations of individuals from a children's book, with each page number intact. And he makes a scarf which reminds me of my R. L. Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (which I still have) and its beautifully faded illustrations, with colors like someone hand-tinted a photograph.

This coat, which research shows me is available in LA at Decades, reminds of me a Vivienne Westwood. 

But better because discovered.  (Read this article from The Atlantic on the "new" use of "because"):

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/english-has-a-new-preposition-because-internet/281601/

Because The Atlantic.

Not into this new use of "because"? Ahh, well.  No Harn-den.

*Actually it would be quite brilliant for Paul Harnden Shoemakers not to make shoes, though the gentleman does make some beautifully shabby ones, perfect for dancing across rooftops or to wear while sweeping the hearth.

Somewhere in Soho

Somewhere in Soho I was cold.  That's why my hair, which is a good foot longer than what you see here, is wrapped around my neck and tucked in my jacket as a makeshift scarf.

I was also feeling something cold-y or even phlu-y* taking me in its grip.  And that's why I don't remember the name of this pop-up shop or even the street it's on.  (It's perpendicular to Broome, parallel to Greene, closer to Houston; that much I do know).

But my foggy mindedness is trumped by that of the manager/owner who was happy to tell me the provenance of the ridiculously delightful feathered shrug stage right (or is it left? Delirious.).

This riot of orange feathers and fabric, he said, is a one-off made by a Project Runway contestant from Season 11.    As I just had an article printed in which I interviewed a PR designer from this season (will blog about that later), and as I have a faculty rock band perf to get ready for this spring, I thought that the shrug might be a serendipitous find.

But as it was rather snug, I passed. When I got home, I tried to find out more about the garment.  The manager had shown me a runway photo with "Merlin" printed beside the image, so I searched for Merlin, Season 11, Project Runway.  What I found was that Merlin was a contestant on Season 1 of The Fashion Show, hosted by Issac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland, and aired on Bravo.  And it was not renewed after Season 2. 

I remembered how the manager told me not to listen to any of the guys working in the shop because they didn't know anything about fashion. Ummm . . .

So I immediately felt better about passing on the shrug, though I can't shrug off the miserable cold-y/phlu-y feelings just yet.


*I know it may be just a wee bit phantastic, but I do like to substitute a "ph" for an "f" wherever possible.  Maybe it's that Diana Vreeland documentary rubbing off on me, like her phormidable rouge.

The Eye Travels with Betty and Karlie

Tonight I watched the documentary The Eye has to Travel, which is about Diana Vreeland's career. 

In it, we were shown photographs of a young Betty Bacall, newly discovered by Vreeland.  I thought how much Betty resembled a model of the moment--Karlie Kloss.

A quick internet search showed me that Dior did as well, back in 2010 when Karlie became Betty for a series of ads.  The eye travels, indeed.