Kalla

All Images courtesy of Kalla.

Hitomi Kimura hand screen-prints her own textile designs under the name Kalla. Her work is bright, playful, and fun! Her blog and shop. Found via True-up.

Inspiring. Especially the shots of her mood board and studio. I may have to do some screen-printing for ERMIE Spring 2011!

Rachel Comey SP '11

Is it obvious that I was waiting for this show?
Her whites that she showed were beautiful, but for me, RC is still all about the prints (and the shoes ;) .

All Images Style.com

** I'm extending the Giveaway until Midnight, Sunday Sept. 12th (PST).

Happiness is...

Making a home-cooked meal (comfort food: Lemony Lentil Soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, red wine & Swiss chocolates for dessert) for your husband who has returned from a two-week business trip.

Being able to make yourself an iPhone case when you need one (out of stuff you already had on hand in your studio, including a few scraps your very favorite Nani Iro fabric no less).

Looking forward to this opening this weekend.

Hearing J.B. play ELO on the radio this morning.

(Receiving Marant and Mina as gifts doesn't hurt either!!)

After I announce the winner of the Giveaway (you still have time to enter) on Monday 9/13, I'll be taking a break from blogging as I try to finish the ERMIE end of the year collection.

xo

One Dress, Three Ways.

Textile design © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010



Textile design © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010



Textile design © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010


Textile design © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

One dress- can be worn three ways! My first time working with a knit fabric. Why did I wait so long to sew with knits??

Several things inspired the creation of this dress: All of the caftans worn in the film version of Play It As It Lays, what I learned from making this dress (it's basically two rectangles of fabric sewn together with openings left for the head & arms) and all of those slouchy, over sized Alexander Wang T pieces that I love but don't really want to shell out the cash for.

Mainly, though, the fabric itself inspired the design- this 100% Organic Cotton Jersey is so thick and silky, it drapes so beautifully.

Textile design, photograph © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

Detail shot of the ERMIE Bling Print.

My best friends Gian & Sandra brought back some loose Swarovski crystals from their last trip to Europe. I was playing around & taking photographs of the crystals, and the Bling print was the result from this particular shot above. The actual print on the fabric is not as crisp as this photo, but I wanted to give you some idea of what you are looking at ...why I called this the "Bling Print."

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY!

Name That Print Giveaway!

"Untitled" Print
Textile designs © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

The Fire Season Print
Textile designs ('gown' and backdrop) © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

The Mariposa Print
Textile designs © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

The Bling Print
Textile design © Jennifer Parry Dodge 2010

My post on Beatrice Wood was my 600th Post!!! Wow!
To celebrate, I am showing you a sneak-peek of the textiles I've developed for ERMIE Holiday:

The Fire Season Print
The Mariposa Print
The Bling Print

But wait! There's more- I don't know what to call this print (topmost photo)! Will you help me?

Just leave a comment- give me a name for this print- under this post by 12 midnight on 9/12/10 PST. I will announce the winners on Monday 9/13/10.

If I select your suggestion for a name for the print, I will send you 2 yards of fabric from the ERMIE Fall/ Winter/ Holiday Collection. I will also choose 1 additional winner at random!
So two of my dear readers have a chance to win!!

Winners will have the option of choosing 2 yards of one single print, or to select 1 yard each of two different prints from any of the following ERMIE prints:

The Bokeh Print- 100% Cotton Lawn (53" Wide)
The Magic Marker Print- 100% Quilting Weight Cotton (42" Wide)
The Fragment Print -100% Quilting Weight Cotton (42" Wide)
The Fire Season Print- 100% Organic Cotton Sateen (56" Wide)
The Mariposa Print- 100% Organic Cotton Sateen (56" Wide)
The Bling Print-100% Organic Cotton Knit Jersey (56" Wide)
and The as of yet "Untitled" Print- 100% Organic Cotton Sateen (56" Wide)

Please allow approximately 2-3 weeks for delivery of your prize! I will ship the fabric free of charge to any location in the world. This fabric is to be used for your personal use only, as the designs on the yardage are copyrighted and not to be used for resale. The name chosen in this contest for the print will become the sole property of Jennifer Parry Dodge/ ERMIE, and will be featured in the Fall/Winter/ Holiday Collection.

Good luck and Thanks!

Beatrice Wood

My friend Hadley mentioned Beatrice Wood to me when we were planning our trip to Ojai. "Who's that ?", I asked?

Hadley informed me that Wood had been a ceramicist, and that she had been affiliated with the Dadaists and Surrealists. That she had had a studio in Ojai. That she wore saris and lots of silver jewelry.
I vaguely recalled this photo from one of Heather's posts on Ojai.

Well. The cabin that we stayed in happened to be filled with original work by Wood. Drawings, little sculptures, ceramic plates.
The countertop in the kitchen was made from tile produced by Wood. On the evening of my 37th birthday, we watched the documentary on VHS that they had in the cabin library: The Mama of Dada. I read all of the books on her in the cabin.
I was hooked.

Mostly, I think because Wood was a late bloomer. She did not even start making pottery until she was about 40 years old. She lived to be 105. She was honestly one of those people, like Audrey Hepburn, or Georgia O' Keeffe, who as they aged, became even more beautiful.

Her ceramics are sublime. The glazes, the forms. They look like ancient artifacts, but you can see her influence today on designers from Jonathan Adler to Arielle de Pinto.

The images above are all from this book on Wood by Garth Clark.

Also from Clark's book:

Usually when she was asked about her philosophy and the secret to her long life, she playfully responded with one of her standard ripostes; "art books, chocolates, and young men." Surely these are the ingredients to a certain frisson in her life, but in an interview in 1986 with the Los Angeles Times, she explained her philosophy of life differently and with a remarkable economy: "The Japanese have these little [poems]- what do you call them?-yes, haiku.
This is mine. The first sentence is, 'Now,' which I firmly believe in. Everything's in the present. I try to run my business, pay my bills, keep my appointments, do all of it squarely in the now. The second sentence is, 'Shit,' because nothing really matters. That's really profound. The third sentence is, 'I do not know.' That's the whole philosophy."

Zero+ Maria Cornejo

Happy Labor Day weekend- it's about 100 degrees in Los Angeles, but the end of Summer is upon us! Time to marshal in Fall.

My friend Jeana said in a post this week that she would choose to live in Marni everyday if she could afford it. Likewise, I might choose to live in Zero + Maria Cornejo everyday, especially these autumnal print pieces (if only I could afford it, that is).

All Images via Bird and Zero+ Maria Cornejo, with the exception of the tree photos, which I took in NYC in fall of last year. Reposting them because they are so perfect with these clothes...and because it's my blog and I can do what I want! Ha!