FREEDOM

"Vodka Factory" is a Swedish documentary about the daily life of a russian girl who´s trying to pursue her dreams. To earn her money she has to work in the local vodka factory. But her dreams go far beyond; she wants to become an actress and move to Moscow. Yet, having a dream is one thing, turning it into reality another.

If eventually she´ll succeed will be part of the story of her life, but what she already did succeed with was that she learned not to be afraid. She didn´t give up, even when the whole world around her wasn´t particularly in favor of what she wanted to do.

Years ago I made the picture here below. To me it represents the same story and it made me realize; becoming a free person -in all the meanings of the word- is probably the biggest challenge one can ever have! It´s not the big blue sky that is the dream, but what it represents; ultimate freedom!

EARTH CHRONICLES - A COLLAGE ART PROJECT

"Earth Chronicles" is my on-going collage art project dedicated to Nature. Earth, Wind, Water and Fire play the leading roles. It´s our world as seen through a kaleidoscope. A place where darkness and light, destruction and new creation, meet each other in the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Bellow a first selection of images from the project.

ELLE BELGIUM AND MODEL TALK

As a monthly contributor to Elle Belgium, you can now check out my latest "Model Talk" cartoon episodes there. Model Talk/Fashion Flash is a fashion cartoon which I started back in 2007. Main stars from the series are Babs and Trudy -2 superstar supermodels- and their daily adventures in their magic universe called "fashion wonderland". It´s a cartoon inspired by great designers, amazing collections, news and events in fashion land and funny behind-the-scenes one liners. You can also check out some more episodes on the Model Talk/Fashion Flash website, or quickly run to your nearest magazine and newspaper shop and get yourself the Elle Belgium november issue before the month is over!

ARCTIC DELIGHT ❤ JUDELOVESYOU

I love independent entrepreneurs who do their own thing, who make their own creations, who create something with a vision, who start their own brand or... who start an own little shop. My longtime friend Julie did the last. A year ago, she opened the doors to "JuDeLovesYou"; a fun little concept store -with Fresh Art Gallery connected to it- in the heart of Antwerp! In her shop you can find her own lovely Fimo jewelry collection and all kinds of cool gadgets from all around the world. The little atelier above the shop looks like Santa´s magic factory. With all the tiny small fimo creations waiting in line amongst thousands of small treasures, making that room feel almost more amazing than the shop itself! Pictures from this magic place and her super inspiring apartment will hopefully follow later with a next posting, but bellow are some of the lovely toy presents I got from her shop! To celebrate her first birthday there´s also a tag and win competition on the JuDeLovesYou facebook page, so for all of you who love little treasures; definitely take a look there! All I can say is; a happy first birthday!! ArcticDelight❤JuDeLovesYou!!!

ONE OF THOSE PRETTY UNEVENTFUL DAYS...

VERSACE FOR H&M

Today it´s all about VERSACE for H&M here in Sweden, with later on this afternoon runway show to start the weekend. The launch in shops will be next week, on November 17th. Lot´s of glamor, gold, swarovski´s and bright colors can be expected from the design collaboration. Looking forward to see a recap from Versace history on the runway, as the concept behind the collection was to remake iconic pieces from the brand´s glamorous past. The campaign images and the video are fun to see, and I guess that those who have some knowledge about all former Versace campaigns will see the references to those great pictures -from back in the days- with the original supermodels all dressed as goddesses in pieces from the Italian luxury brand!

WHITE

WHITE...........the extreme end of the visual spectrum

WHITE.....................................clouds, flowers, snow

WHITE..........................symbolism, cleanness, purity

november 9th 1520....................Stockholm Bloodbath

november 9th 1967....1# issue Rolling Stone Magazine

november 9th 2011...............still NO snow to be seen!

but here nevertheless some white interior pictures to get in the mood!

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Today I was watching the video from Alexander McQueen´s Fall-Winter 2010/2011 collection. The pieces were nothing new for me, but I hadn´t seen the full length video from the show yet. On the website from the designer you can see the entire collection, giving you the opportunity to admire the beautiful embroidery work in detail! The delicately embroidered birds, tigers and medieval motives -with gold tread, pearls and sequences- are from an amazing quality! What touched me with the video from the show was the total focus on craftsmanship, detail and passion for the creation, besides the heart and dignity in the setting. Given the tragic death from the designer few weeks earlier, this intimate and small scaled presentation was as a tribute. But to me it wasn´t only as a tribute to the designer, but also to all the very talented persons behind those creations; the unknown hands who helped create such wonderful designs.

A great artist is someone who makes you dream, but who´s also skilled, knows craftsmanship and has eye for quality and detail. To me, all those elements are the heart and the soul of a creation. When working with so much passion on something, then the creation takes over part of that energy, this love, that the creator puts into it. I suppose that this is also what feels so special to me with couture pieces -no matter if it´s a haute couture creation or an embroidered folk costume- to actually unconsciously capture those energy vibes... the soul from the creation!

all images are from www.alexandermcqueen.com

MOSHI MOSHI

Nowadays -with internet showing everything on the very second something gets presented to the public- it´s sometimes hard to still feel surprised when seeing new trends. But Tokyo manages to keep that element of innovation and fun. A lot of brands also have limited edition collections which are only sold on Japanese market. So yes, I have to agree with everybody else; making a trip to futuristic Tokyo is totally worth its money.

Unless previous seasons, Japanese fashion had turned a little more low key this time around. Tsunami, earthquakes, nuclear problems and bad economy are most probably the main reasons. Meaning; less Harajuku & over the top rock´n roll glam, but way more preppy all American. But for what´s concerned the street styles, I mostly liked those wide traditional Japanese trousers, the slightly seventies inspired flare trousers, the new color settings with light pastels versus bright details, and of course the 5 billion different types of accessories!

LIFE IN A DAY

Today I was watching a documentary called "Life in a day".

On july 24th 2010, thousands of people all around the world could upload videos of their day on YouTube to take part in "Life in a day". Idea behind this cinematic experiment was to make a documentary with footage from a single day on earth. It´s a nice documentary to watch, even if it in the end comes down to one thing; people all around the world are united with similar habits, needs, dreams and desires. Watching this film made me realize that we all want to feel special, that we all want to give love and feel loved, that we all want to feel like our presence matters.

ONE YEAR AGO;

EÍNARR WAS STILL A LITTLE KITTEN, 4 MONTHS OLD

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN DAY IN STOCKHOLM

I VISITED "AQUARIUM" WITH MY FRIEND AGATA&HER SON

In the end we need to make every day special for ourselves. It doesn´t matter if it´s world changing events, or just small nice moments, as long as it makes you feel happy about life!

PEARL HEART

Last few months have been mostly about working on new embroidery couture pieces. But since pictures from that will have to wait for the day when the collection shall be ready, hereby meanwhile another embroidery piece which I made; the pearl heart for Josephine Bornebusch´s couture dress. The dress was called "waiting for my love", and told about a girl -in a dark nordic country- who was waiting at the edge of the dark cold sea for her long lost sailor, with nothing left but a broken heart and a memory of true love...

I LOVE DESIGN DIARIES

I love making little design diaries. Time and money might be a limitation to create everything in real, but to me those design books are like small stories... Designing is ideas, music, movement, nature, psychology, history, pop culture,... all melting together to one new line on the white paper. While drawing I feel like being in another reality, where those lines are alive... like an actual entity walking around in its own small universe; the bubble I created in my imagination, where -for that one moment in time- everything came together to a small sparkle of ultimate life. It´s the prime moment where sight, sound, movement, surrounding and design had their supreme moment of sublimation... Just like a raindrop making it´s journey through the sky; a small bubble of imperfect perfection, which will live it´s short moment before turning into the life energy for a new creation.

creating is my oxygen, my life.

LEGENDS OF THE FALL

Same-same but different. Even when you think you know something, then it can still totally surprise with mood, colors, light and feeling!

Today Wikipedia learned me "autumn" used to be called harvest (like herfst in Dutch). But, when people moved from country side- to city life, autumn and fall made their introduction. Fall is supposed to come from the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall. Both mean "to fall from a height", and are a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year"…

Well anyway; harvest, autumn or fall, each season brings its own story board.. and with the return of dark evenings, a cozy evening at home with "Legends of the fall" -a childhood favorite movie- could actually be fun! Just as a landscape can look totally different, am I also going to watch the movie with a new color now, 16years after I saw it for the first time?

What´s your favorite autumn movie?

HIGH IN THE SKY

“A Boeing 767 carrying 230 passengers made an emergency landing at Warsaw airport after its landing gear failed”, news channels wrote today. When traveling by plane on a regular base, this is probably the type of situations you don´t really want to think about... even if this crash landing eventually ended well.

As a child I always loved the excitement of traveling by plane. It´s slightly surreal to stand in an airport and realize that most people around you will -24h later- be at all corners of the world. Back in the days, crossing the Atlantic -with Lufthansa- was always the ultimate delight! We could visit the pilots in the cockpit, we got plenty of toys (small Lufthansa planes, white Porsche toy cars, books,…). It´s not all that hard to imagine that one of my childhood dreams became to always be able to travel. I didn´t end up working in aviation, but traveling continued to be an important part of my life.

My worst souvenir would probably be the one time a pilot announced on the intercom that the breaking system didn´t work. At first I felt a slight panic coming up, especially when the air hostess said to the passengers “no worries, everything´s OK” (meaning; “things are actually NOT OK, but it´s my job to say all is fine!”) …until I came to the conclusion that no matter what; there was either way nothing I could do about it. We flew in circles, and ultimately got derived to Stockholm's main airport, which would “improve our chances to make a more successful landing”. In those minutes you make a recapitulation from your life and the minutes before touching ground there was not a single word being spoken by anyone. Eventually everything went well, and we landed without any major issues. A more detailed explanation was never given.

But besides that trip, a few air turbulence's and a missed plane in Heathrow (due to having gone to the wrong airport… yes), most souvenirs are very nice. During my recent SAS flight from Copenhagen to Tokyo, while flying over Siberia, I saw the amazing Aurora Borealis or Northern Light, and probably something like 15 falling stars in 1hour only! Who needs an on board entertainment system when the best reality tv is just outside that little window?!

What are your worst and best plane souvenirs?