Ribbons, ruffles, lace, feather, appliques, studs, decorative closings, jewellery parts, beads, pearls ... One of my first such "missions" was to the textile district of Paris, Sentier:
No doubt about which capital this was purchased in.
The tiny metal tassels are among my all time favourites.
Later on, Montmartre followed, with the mentioned brocade, dark blue silk, exclusive lace for my first runway collection, and not least: Here I found many of the fringes that also decorate "Dark Dawn":
Photo: Phelan Marc
In late 2006, I went to the textile district at Manhattan for the first time. Like in most Norwegian guides describing areas and not concrete tourist attractions, the directions were inaccurate, so I bumped into something that seemed like a main street there (yes, like 6th Avenue ...). Asian dresses and the most campy rhinestone jewellery you can imagine. And there were tons of it. A set of necklace and earrings was bought for about $150.00. The style was a mix of Vienna´s opera ball and the TV-series Dynasty, but the exclusivity was only theoretical: The necklace broke at the first use ... Some of the remains were placed at a redesign bag, later displayed in the same city:
This is the earring side of the midnight blue silk bag
(I never liked the earrings anyway: Too much, also for me).
Moments later, I stumbled upon M&J Trimmings, got curious and went inside. It was a feast: Ostrich feathers (yes, the ones used on the runway in the French embassy in Washington DC ten days ago), greek key ribbon, fleur de lis studs, Ralph Lauren-style appliques ... Some of them occured in "Imperivm":
Photo by Dmitry K. Valgberg/BERGSTAR
The feast repeated itself in an even bigger scale two years later. Further exploration of the area felt uneccesary at that moment, after dissapointing trips to more scattered or elusive textile districts. In the meanwhile I had discovered both antique medals´ shops in Palais Royal (Paris) as well as the enormous assortment at Ebay. And I ended up with a personal stock like this:
Fringes from Montmartre and Oslo used in "Making History" and "Vanity Fair"
Appliques for the Wolffman part of "Imperivm"
Ribbons from M&J and antique war medals´ shops in Paris.
Ebay fun: Ones choices reflect ones values.
But there was no system in the indulgence, and I ended up with piles of beautiful things that did not necessarily match any current collection or each other.
This last time I made a plan. With the Nolcha Fashion Lounge participation, I got a general idea of what would work at a later stage. An M&J trip in order to luxify the collection was scheduled. Finally, other and endless amounts of sewing treasure chests were discovered in the neighbourhood, but both time and budgets were restricted. With me followed a team from Runway Passport, that also worked with a mini documentary about me. Eagerly I pointed out earlier M&J bargains, but got more and more restless. - I think I have never restrained myself from filling the shopping basket for that long before.
While being interviewed my eyes picked out several highlights and the brain was focused on only one thing: Not filling the basket by any means, but "Will this fit the DC show?". And the dicipline had positive results: Feathers, glittering fur trim, black prism trims, bead tassels matching the blue sequin bodices, more tassels, and more tassels were systematically acquired. All in black and blue.
And despite the typical for me generous amount, all materials were used in the collection too (except for another Greek key trim I still cannot figure out what to use with).
DC runway photo by Phelan Marc
So greed can be a joy, but well-directed greed is optimal. The results can be viewed here.
