Marion Bolognesi: It's In The Eyes

Marion Bolognesi is a New York based artist whose work focuses on illustration and accessories design, her passion however lies within her watercolour pieces. Melancholic in mood, they speak of emotion and expression amongst the watery eyes, with the often pained look and trickling ink stain like tears.

Painted of beautiful people, the eyes are the main focus, and although the look isn't always pained it feels like a gateway into their world, with seduction, sadness and sultry looks encompassing the imagery.

She received her BFA with a focus in illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, 2003.

Punky Allsorts

Punky Allsorts is the fun of fashion, the downright inner child and playful one within us. Run by self proclaimed Mad Hatter Madame Allsorts, who not only creates quirky jewellery for the like sof ourselves, but also writes, sings and is a performer. She is the madame of all sorts, as well as taking inspiration from sweets, food and childhood memoirs of boardgames, she ran to the bright lights of New York and in her early 20s began running this jewellery business. Below are some of the best most fun and exciting pieces from the collection all available at www.punkyallsorts.com. 

Sophie Cochevelou on Costume and Fashion

"My best ideas always came to me when I'm one my bike!"

You might recognise Sophie from my latest Street Style Vlog which we did on Brick Lane. I met her at Brick Lane market where she introduced herself and I was so struck by what she was wearing, I just had to find out more. Sophie Cochevelou is in her second year of her MA in Performance Practice and Design, she recently started a blog about he creations at cyclinginheels.blogspot.com.

As a course with people with a vast set of skills, performance, costume design, lighting design and set design to name a few Sophie specialises in many areas of performance, " One day, I can be making a dress in the costume department, the next day I’m rehearsing the show of the play I’ve written and the day after that I'm shooting some footage for a pre-recorded performance. You have a lot of freedom so you have to be really organised in order not to disperse yourself too much. It's really rewarding." She began the course as a playwright and thinks that after the course she will become a costume designer instead, " I came as a dramaturge and a play writer and I think I'm going to end up more as a costume designer."

Inspired by childhood and common cultural imagery, "I think that artist see the world differently, or, more precisely as a material for art, we see the potential of creativity in the everyday life and every single object." Which she claims, makes life more exciting. "I'm convinced that reality is not fixed, it can be turned in something completely different at every moment. When you are an artist, boundaries are moving, you don't see that things are either beautiful or ugly but more as are they inspiring or not."

Delving in to her own past and childhood Sophie explores her childhood and ways of holding onto that magical time in her life through her use of Barbie dolls, as well as reconstructing the beauty ideals that Barbie portrays to young girls, and women in society. Instead of conforming to this beauty she reconstructs it, “By cutting them into pieces, I guess it's a way to claim my own freedom by damaging the perfect body of the feminine ideal embodied by Barbie. In a way within this act of destruction there is an act of creation.  But at the same time is a remaining of childhood: because I'm not interesting in playing with them anymore, the fact of turning them into jewels is a way to keep them by my side in another form.'

“No I don't really have a style icon, I don't understand pages in magazines like "copy her style".  I’d rather say that I get inspiration from what I see. I like to take what I like in everybody style and make the synthesis of it.  As a designer, I think Jean Charles de Castelbajac is my favourite, a kind of spiritual guide in the way he uses pop art and childhood references.” Instead she prefers to have fun with her clothes drawing inspiration from what surrounds her. For Sophie, dressing up is a game and is as fashion should be, fun, “Anyway, I think is really easy as a "people" to be well dress, you just have to go on shop on pick expensive stylish stuff. But it's not funny, it's not really challenging, everything is affordable. I think my creativity in outfit come from my limited budget. It's becoming a game  "be the best dress as possible with the less money as possible. By accessorising cleverly a £5 dress you can make it look like a  £200 one!”

Instead of separating fashion and costume through her life she intertwines the two fields to create a cross over, perhaps this explains her eccentric style of which she finds difficult to define, “I don't think I have a really defined style. One day I can dress really futuristic with really bright colours and geometrical shapes, one other day I dress really vintage with a dress inspired from the 20s and pastel colours. One day like a posh lady and the day after I’m nearly a Goth. I just wear what I feel like, according to my mood.” However, the creativity found within her clothes and outfits is unmistakable. Perhaps her relationship with costume design is why, “I like to intertwine the two fields of fashion and costume.  I like to make my costume really stylish inspired by what I see in magazines, and in parallel, I like to bring the craziness, the eccentricity and the extravagance of costume into fashion in my everyday dressing. For me, costume has a performance aspect, it's more about creating a character and give life to him.  The costume turns you into someone else, whereas fashion is more the expression of your own personality through clothes. But I like to blur the line between them, where disguising is revealing your true self.”

All Images from Sophies blog:cycleinheels.blogspot.co.uk

Trend Stop: Outer Space

All clothes from H&M, Topsop, Nasty Gal and ASOS

Never mind my country break from last week, this week I'm travelling to outer space and back. There'll be a day trip to the moon, complete with crackers and cheese with the machine from A Grand Day out and all. Wallace and Gromit are promised to have a guest appearance and out hotel is said to be the quietest there is with no drafty windows to deal with. ALthough it's set to be cold, there is a day trip also to the edge of the sun to catch some rays and heat in a bottle to take back to our rooms. So all in all, it should be pleasant. Crater skiing, silent discoing and cheese eating definitely sounds like a weekend break for me.

So what do you think? Who's in? 

Dane Shitagi: New York City Ballet Project

From Honolulu, Dane Shitagi is a New York based photographer who likes to explore the rawness of the world around him. Preferring the outdoor setting to the studio, he takes inspiration from the city and the sounds around him, including the energy and diversity to be found.

Recently he undertook a New York City Ballerina project during which he was trying to express how much of a magnet for creativity New York City is. Exploring his hardship as a creative individual, he used the project to connect with other individuals creatively and in hardship too realising that his story was part of a larger tale of the city - thus he was uncovering a true identity of the city through the expressions of the ballerina's and himself through his lens.

The Ballet Russes and Fashion

Ballet was first made fashionable by the Ballet Russes of the 1920s – who were one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20^th century. Costumes designed by Bakst – a Russian scene painter and costume designer, he designed increasingly fashionable and colourful costumes for the company.

Diaghilev, the creative director of the Ballet Russes during their golden years first established the relationship between the art form and fashion by collaborating with artists, musicians and designers who were at the time popular such as Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Stravinsky. Which in turn has played major influence in designers of the modern day and age, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent and Galliano.

“The quality and novelty of productions made the Ballet Russes fashionable – so that leading composers and artists wanted to collaborate with the choreographers and dancers on the productions.” – Jane Pritchard

During the 2011 catwalk shows the ballet trend really took heed with the trend being impossible to miss. Delicate lace, ballet pump shoes and tutu shaped dresses stole the show, Erdem, David Koma and Richard Chai were just a few of the designers gaining influence from the art form of ballet.