…the best. And included sleep-ins, long-lazy breakfasts, sunshine, music, and a mojito.

A few months ago House of Orange asked if I would help out with one of their ideas for the Tribute to Orange Babies fashion event which was held last Sunday. The concept involved a ‘reverse goodie bag’ of sorts – so instead of people coming to the fashion show and leaving with a goodie bag, they would donate a piece of clothing which would go into ‘goodie bags’ that would be sent to the children in Africa. How cool is that?

So, the idea was to make some photographs displaying the kids clothes that were to be donated. The photographer Hans, fashion stylist Sabine, and I sat down to brainstorm some ideas about what we could make. We came up with an idea of creating a mini set with children giving away their clothes in bundles, like little gifts. We decided to use African fabric as a backdrop, and to make some fun creatures and objects out of the clothes. Then we thought it might be nice to have the kids draw something for the African children, and we would somehow incorporate the drawing into their photo and make little postcard-like images. Hans later added a polaroid look to the images…

Off to work I went, trying to think up how I could make creatures out of clothes without damaging the clothes at all. Tricky huh! I decided to start with some simple ball shapes – I made piles of clothes and then began to wrap them up tightly into balls with thick, colorful cotton thread. I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped until I was happy with the shape and size of each ball.

Then I got a bit more creative. I made a big bunny of sorts by stuffing left over wadding I had in my cupboard into little pants to make floppy ears. Then I made a head by putting the wadding into a stripey t-shirt and wrapping the thick thread around the base and top. I attached the floppy ear shapes to the head by binding the ends tightly together. I added a little white fabric flower to the head to make it ‘pretty’. I made the rest of the body the same way and soon, I had a funny looking bunny creature that I was rather fond of…

…it turned out to be a rather windy day when we were on set (which was the ijburg beach), but lots of fun. Hans and Sabine had rounded up friends with kids so we had lots who were willing to get in front of the camera and strut their stuff! I love working with kids – they are so natural and perfect in every way – no matter what they do, where they look or how they sit, they’re always gorgeous.

In the end I made all sorts of things like balls, flags, bunnies and I even grabbed a windsurf board from the local surf school and wrapped the clothes and thread around it! The boys loved that one.

After the kids had their photo taken we gave them a piece of paper and coloured markers and they sat down and made a drawing. Here is a little poster of all the images together…

I really like the images as little promo cards. I hope they come in handy for Orange Babies, and I hope the children in Africa get all those fab clothes soon. I even saw some tiny white KLM slippers that were donated! So sweet. And tiny flip flops too. Oh, playing with all those baby clothes did make me a wee bit clucky, but what’s new. 🙂

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all photographs by hans van brakel for orange babies.

photographs copyright Peter Stigter

Do you remember a little while ago I mentioned I was working on something fun for an upcoming event and I needed lots of kids clothes? Here is the post for a quick recap if you need it.

The event was the last catwalk show of the Amsterdam Fashion Week. It was a special show called “A Tribute To Orange Babies” created by the incredibly talented team of agents, photographers, stylists, make-up artists and models at the styling agency I am represented by – House of Orange – in celebration of its charity department called Orange Babies which has been successfully raising funds and awareness for children in Africa for the past 10 years. The show was held last Sunday at 9pm.

And boy, was it a hit!

The tent was packed. It appeared everyone who was ‘anyone’ of the Amsterdam fashion scene was there. I even had someone remark to me that this was the place to be right now. Wow!

So what was a non-fashiony gal like me to wear to such an event? It was the first time I had even been to a fashion show. I wore my skinny black organic cotton jeans, tall(ish)black heels, a simple shoe-string strapped white singlet tucked in. And. Well, that’s it! I decided to go without accessories – that was to be my fashion statement for the night. While some of you may shriek that I went accessory-less, I promise you I did do my hair, and I wore makeup – two extraordinarily special things for me to do for any event.

The night was a great success and I walked out inspired ever more by what one can do with recycled things. You all know how passionate I am about this topic.

Anyway, each styling team for each runway creation was stunning. Some of my faves were:

The deconstruction of tailoring, by Nick Foss and Rene Vandebeld: of which 10 or so rather dazzling specimens of the opposite sex walked out in gorgeous reconstructed/deconstructed men’s suits. Beautiful.

Silhouettes, construction bound and found by Caroline Fuchs, Maarten Spruyt, and Kevin Power: 8 human-like creatures dressed in recycled baskets as hats and shoes, old lamp shades as skirts, macrame plant hangers as headpieces, recycled plastic bodices, pampas grass, old pillows… an amazing collection of recycled wares made into art fashion. It was dreamy.

photographs copyright Peter Stigter

Little Time, Little Money: a non-stop runway of models in perfectly styled second hand clothes. Totally inspiring.

Yvette and I rather loved that front number – aren’t the colours beautiful together? also the hair. and makeup – it was all gorgeous. Photograph Peter Stigter

At the end of the show there were credits on the screen, and I was chuffed to see my name up there in lights! So what did I do exactly? Well, it has nothing to do with the catwalk, but everything to do with making something fun for Orange Babies. I’ll show you in the next post…

It’s dark out there. And stormy.
I’ve turned off my music, and I’ve switched off the phone.

I’m listening to – and breathing in – the rain.

Please press the play button below to sit with me on my boat, and listen…

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Let your mind and heart wander. This gentle storm will take us far away and bring us back to the present, in the kindest of ways.

Enjoy the rest of your day my dear readers. And if night has fallen in your corner of the world, I hope you will have the sweetest dreams tonight.

xx

Yesterday I was working up a sweat in The American Book Center window – hanging, cutting, taping, threading, and banging my head against the hot lights every now and then too.

I created this window display in celebration of the Urban Culture event coming up this Saturday, where you will find me signing copies of Paris: Made By Hand, right here in Amsterdam! I must say, it was a bit of fun to be doing up a shop window again – something I have not done since having my own shop in sydney some 10 years ago now.

For this window, I wanted to really incorporate the ‘made by hand’ feel, so I printed out photos from my book on plain, recycled paper, then I cut them up into individually letters which spell the words “made by hand’, “d.i.y.”, and “customize”. I then stitched them together with white thread and left all the threads hanging loose. I also made some hanging pinwheel thingos (do you like my lingo?) in all different sizes from Ferm Living wallpaper which I bought some time ago at Danielle’s online boutique Le Souk. I really like the paper and have been wanting to use it for something special but hadn’t decided what. Until now!

I also printed out some of my favourite photographs and stitched around the edges. And I chose heaps of fab books from within the store that are all about making things by hand, customizing, and doing it yourself. It was so much fun perusing the store’s shelves and selecting books for the window. I was so excited to see Faythe’s book Handmade Nation in store too!

I hope you like my window display and if you live in Amsterdam or near by then I hope this post will entice you to come and have a look and better still, come and visit me while I am there from 1-6pm. One of the marvelous girls in the store made these great handmade signs too…

…”be there on the spui square”, how clever! I hope to see you there!

xx