Thursday, April 26, 2007

Brand New from F.S.U.






Tyson's been painting his tush off to make new spring F.S.U. shoes for all you girls looking for something a little different. If you're having a hard time fitting some of the vintage shoes Tyson uses or have a fave old pair you'd like to jazz up, Tyson can do custom orders of any design we have in the store. All F.S.U. shoes are $35 a pop, $30 if you bring in your own shoes. What a steal for a handpainted piece!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Indyish: Monthly Mess, part deux


The Monthly Mess = a Pay What You Can show

Friday April 27
The Tricycle Media Studio
1180 St. Antoine West, # 2118 [ map
]
Located near Lucien L'Allier metro.


Find out about the awesome artists in this Monthly Mess (The Unsettlers! Michel Lista! and much much more) here:
http://www.indyish.com/events/monthlymess

This Monthly Mess (the second ever!) will be an opportunity to meet the nice Tricycle people (if you haven't already that is), scheme with the Indyish team about the big fun coming up over the next few months, and enjoy some really excellent art and new experiments. They strongly suggest you come earlyish, if you can, to take in the visuals, have a drink and get cozy.

Doors will open @ 8 and performances start closer to 9.

Friday, April 20, 2007

I been sewin'!

Vintage fabric organized by colour, finally!

Yes, Tyson and I recently reconfigured our studio space at home, and I have been quite productive since. Behold the three new purses I made, which are currently hanging out at HQ just waiting for someone to come along, scoop them up and take them on some fun summer adventures. But first, the miraculous "before" and "after" shots:

Before: Yikes!


After: Still looks like a work space, but a damn well organized one!


Vintage reclaimed buttons, vintage floral fabric and pink/brown/yellow topstitching!


Two tiny puffy charms, a flower and a leaf. Feel free to add your own charms at will.
Aria makes some damn nice ones that we have down at the shop.



Vintage handle, vintage fabric


This vintage scarf is removable, so you can switch it out for a different one,
or use it to tie up your hair, around your neck, as a belt... you get it I'm sure!


The inside has a double pocket to stach your metro card and
the whole purse is fully lined with... more vintage fabric!



A great vintage bamboo handle and navy corduroy flecked with grey


What a beautiful scarf, kind of 40's ish, this one would look great with a white summer dress


A fun raffia looking lining, soft though, not scratchy!


Enjoy! I'm working on some dresses and tops tonight, hopefully a few will make it into the store by early next week. Some fun striped bubble tops with huge buttons and a new sleek dress design of fun vintage jersey is on the way.

Shorty!

OK, I'm having a bit of deja-vu over this whole "Hey, spring is here!" feeling I'm having, but I'm gonna go with it. Maybe you already bought some shorts over the past month, thinking you'd wear them once the weather got warmer. And now you've been waiting, like, a month and you want to get that same excited feeling as when you first got them. Hope this helps, some fun styling involving shorts. I like that a lot of them involve tights of some sort, good news for those of us with less than stellar gams and day glo white winter legs. (images from www.facehunter.blogspot.com & www.thesartorialist.com)

Happy weekend folks, see you at HQ tomorrow if you're stopping by, I'll be joining Tyson around 2ish! (he'll be there at 11am though, I'm trying to get some more sewing done before I come down)








Earth Day this Sunday



OK, so it's earth day this Sunday, and all I've been hearing about the last month is "green". Wonderful, fabulous, I am totally happy about this. But some of the tips magazines, TV shows, etc. are giving are really freaking me out. Not because they are so radical or super hard to do, but rather because they are sooooo obvious, and it makes me really wonder "are these really new tips for people? Are people really so unaware?"

Some of the tips that I've been hearing that I find shocking are:

"don't run the faucet while you're brushing your teeth" - I believe this was something I learned at about age 3...from my mom.

"recycle glass, paper and tin". Um, yeah. Duh.

"clean out the lint catcher in your dryer after each load". Of course, what do you want to start a fire or something!!!

"use cold water to wash your clothes". Of course, that's what cold water detergent is for.

"Take shorter showers". Seems a bit obvious.

"plants in the house make for cleaner air". Yes, it's called "nature".

"turn off the lights when you leave a room". What, do these people not have parents?! I thought this was nailed into our heads at about age 14.

But all joking aside, I have heard about some other tips that I thought were useful, but not necessarily something you think of:

- don't take a receipt at the ATM unless you REALLY need to know your balance.

- Bring your own travel mug if you're one of those people who picks up a coffee every morning, most coffee shops will fill it for you, and Starbucks will give you a 10cent discount. If the person won't fill up your cup, their loss, no more business for them.

OK and now some other green tips that we all know we should do, but maybe we need a little reminder:

- switch as many lights in your house as possible to CFLs (compact flourescents) There are soooo many options out there nowadays, there isn't really much of an excuse not to.

- Use natural cleaners, or even no cleaners at all. When you're cleaning glass, all you need is water and one of those awesome microfibre cloths and you will SOOOOO not get streaks. You can pick up those cloths at the dollar store. Remember,"clean" is not lemon scented.

- try to take public transport whenever possible, or now that the weather's nice pull out your bike.

- Try to remember your tote bags to haul groceries. And if you're thinking of throwing out plastic bags, don't! Give them to us and we'll use them for picking up doggy business.

- remember that Reduce and Reuse come before Recycle: Try to buy items with less packaging, and when possible reuse whatever you can. This of course includes clothing, so drop off your unwanted stuff at a second hand store, or organize a clothing swap. Same goes for furniture. Who throws their clothing in the garbage anyways?! The only clothing I've ever thrown out in my life is old socks and undies.
In terms of reducing clothing consumption...um, that's a hard one. I'm going to work on reducing packaging.

- Support local industry. A lot of $$ and wasted energy goes into transport of goods, so buy local produce when possible or pick up a shirt from a local designer.

- Lastly (and this should be incredibly obvious) Don't litter!!!!! The below picture is what Notre-Dame right beside our apt. looks like in the spring, from all the winter littlebugs, shame on you people!!! Do you enjoy living in a garbage pile? The only garbage pile I want to live next to is the one from Fraggle Rock, and this is nothing like that, so enough already!! And using the planters as garbage cans, enough of that too. As of right now, I'm starting to yell at litterbugs, so watch out. Tyson's been reaming people out full force for awhile now, time to join him.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Friday Night Fun!


Hey we just got a heads up from our friend Maryanna, girl about town, creator of Detention Studios (screenprinting and great design), member of Les Enfants Terribles art collective, and creator of really nice stationary for HQ. She's participating in this art party thing that looks like lots of fun. Oh and it's her birthday on the same night, so go and give her a big hug!

Monday, April 16, 2007

OK people, something fun to do while supporting local artists!

Lovely cover art by MTAF


I'm sure most of you have noticed, when we post band/music stuff on the blog, it's because we have some sort of artistic connection with what they're doing ... or if Tyson just went to a really good show and wants to tell the world. Well this post is of the former variety. Four of our wonderful artistic friends, Krista Bursey and Jason Wasserman of More Than A Friend and Fred Casia and James Braithwaite of Pony of Prey have been working on some pretty amazing animations, graphics, etc. for the upcoming release from Elsiane. Freddy just gave me a little preview of one of the animations on his iPod the other day, and combined with the music it is just beautiful.

Elsiane will perform their new show at a special album launch concert, April 25th, at Espace Dell'Arte in Montreal. Tickets are on sale at their site: www.elsiane.com

The album "Hybrid" will be released in Canada April 24th! From what I've heard on the site and on the little video, it's very mellow, summer makeout music. Now start planning who you're going to be making out with this summer, and you'll be set.

They are also throwing out there a special free download for their MySpace community! You can now download the song Vaporous for free on MySpace. Share with your people! Click here: http://www.myspace.com/elsiane

Elsiane is a musical project created and developed in Montreal (Canada) by Elsieanne Caplette (vocals/ keyboards) and Stephane Sotto (drums). This project came to life after Elsieanne arrived from Peru in the fall of 1999. She met Stephane on the same week of her arrival and started to build the foundation of the project. Combining both their names created "Elsiane", it's the hybrid of both individuals.

Musically, the result of this combination is a deep, textured sound that defies categorization. Listeners will detect hints of electronica, classical, experimental, ambient, jazz and world music. The uniqueness of the project comes through with Elsieanne's vocals, angelic and yet haunting, each song has its unique melodic characteristics. This project is strongly influenced by different forms of art and is striving to build a different musical and visual experience through the expressive power of emotion.

As a last little note, I think a lot of my peeps in the Peg would be into this band, especially you Darren and Diane!! So take the time to take a listen, I think you will be really into it.

Outfits of the Week, April 16 2007

Hey, what the hell is going on? Enough with the damn snow, I want to wear spring clothes! I'm just gonna keep putting up spring clothing, in the hopes that sometime soon we will be able to wear them somewhere other than changerooms and prancing around our own apartments trying on outfits that we hope to wear in the somewhat near future!


Outfit #1
Black/cream striped polo by MX Jeans (Montreal) Olive drapy jersey dress/tunic with gold elastic waistband by Soi Disant (Montreal) and black skinny Penelope jeans by MX Jeans (Montreal). These jeans are made right here in Quebec folks! Vintage sling back sandals with gold details finish it off.


Gold chain necklace with black acrylic skull by Glittery Vitamins (London), catch one while we've got a few left. These Montreal ex-pats are busy bees over in London and won't be making many new pieces for awhile, boo!




Outfit #2
Cool linen/cotton blend shorts from MX Jeans (Montreal), check out the beautiful embroidery on the back waistband, and the stunning lining fabric.


Super cute floral print stretch top from Supayana (Brooklyn). The vintage wallpapery look of the this fabric looks equally good with dark jeans.


Vintage navy peep toe sling backs complete the look and take the shorts up a notch, making them city worthy. Check out the pleated leather detail on the toe, killer.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Outfits of the Week, April 10, 2007

The sun keeps peeking in and out of my window today, very indecisive!
Here are some fun new spring outfits, enjoy!



Vintage striped jersey dress with anchor print by Junkstar (Calgary), white racerback tank (layered under dress) by MX Jeans (Montreal), bright coral/orange deep V-neck sweater by Majolie (Montreal), knotted chain necklace by Liv & Lucy (Ottawa), vintage woven leather belt & vintage pink flats with cutouts (size 9/10!!!)



Striped T with ruffle sleeve by Soi Disant (Montreal), grey bermuda shorts with suspenders by Anastasia Lomonova (Montreal), gold bird and claw necklace by Live & Lucy, vintage wooly bag with bamboo handle and vintage white leather peep toe sling backs.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Valerie Dumaine, Spring 2007


One of the shining stars of the Montreal indie fashion industry has just dropped off her Spring 07 collection at HQ. As usual, we are falling in love all over again.



This collection focuses on simple yet refined fabrics & flattering cuts. These are the kind of items that slip seamlessly into your existing wardrobe and somehow creep into your favorites pile, almost never hitting the closet again because they are on on such heavy rotation between wearing and washing.

Just in time for this weekends art exhibitions, as always the boutique is open, so come on down and try on a couple of pieces and start dreaming of the warm weather again.


This top is the perfect summer layering piece. It looks great thrown over the tights as shown, but what about belted and with a pair of jeans? Or flowing over a pair of tailored shorts with heels? Heck you could even throw it over a t-shirt or blouse when you need to be a little cozier, talk about versatile!

Nice, simple, black tailored shorts, a wardrobe staple for this summer.
Ka-bamm, a red dress with a sweet and charming cut. I like the idea of wearing red in a totally non-vampy way. Retro yet still sleek. Trade the self fabric belt for a leather one for a different look.
A beautiful delicate blouse that goes with everything. I believe we also have this in black. It looks so soft and wispy, no doubt this top makes you feel like the most beautiful girl in the world!

www.valeriedumaine.com

Modern Animalia Reminder


This Saturday is our April vernissage, "Modern Animalia", presented by the Felino Collective. Check the upper right hand corner of this page for all the details.

Be strong, brave the snow for a fun night this Saturday. Remember...
Group Show = lots of variety and lots of people and possible dancing

Yay! We're super excited!

Also, if you're up for it, we're hosting a Dawson College fundraising art auction this Friday night, 2 art nights in a row!

Red Hot


Just a little reminder that if you're looking for some hot red skinny jeans, we've got 'em in stock at HQ.

This pic is from the new Kate Moss collection for TopShop (only available in the UK, sorry folks). So if you've got a hankering for some red skinny jeans, your best bet is probably the Penelope style from MX Jeans. The rise is a little higher than the TopShop ones, which we're kinda more into anyways. They're made right here in Quebec, and retail for $90, so they're a damn good deal as well. And if you like the fit, we also have them in black and white....that's right, we've got you covered.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Dawson College Fine Arts Auction

Hey, this weekend is a double feature at HQ!

Friday night we are hosting an event for Dawson Colleg Fine Arts students. They're having an art auction to raise funds for their year end show. This is a great opportunity to support some local students and score some great art for yourself. Not to mention there's going to be raffle prizes, free food, and music by DJ Garry Vickers.

Come on down between 6 and 10 and put in a bid for your favorite piece.

Save some energy for Saturday night though, when we are having our monthly vernissage, Felino Collective presents "Modern Animalia" (see upper corner of this blog for all the details)

The boutique is open during both events, and a bunch of the spring vintage shoes are out, so why not have a glass of wine and teeter around for a bit, check out some of the new jewelry we have and see the new clothing collections from Valerie Dumaine (in today!), MX Jeans, Soi Disant, Anastasia Lomonova, Majolie and Homebaked Fashions!

And you thought you knew all about recycling...


Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure 99% of you recycle your household junk. Plastics, paper, glass. It's all very good, and I'm very proud of you, don't let the following text make you feel inferior, we're not all recycling superheroes.

Marc Simard, the guy behind Broundoor, is totally devoted to reusing as much as possible. Never mind recycling, for him, this is a last option. Instead he scours thrift stores and junk piles on the sidewalk while keeping his ears open for news from friends who may be getting rid of stuff he could use for supplies.




Working mainly in leather and wood he crafts nicely worn in wrist cuffs, wallets, notebooks, binders and all sorts of accessories with a conscience. New on the design table are earrings and i-pod cases made from recycled leather (he cuts up old belts, skirts, jackets, broken purses, whatever he can get his hands on)





We just got in 5 pairs of the earrings in browns and blacks, and Marc has just informed me he picked up a good haul of coloured leathers, so these are in the works as well.

Everything is cut, carved, burned, sketched or painted by hand. The notebooks are hand bound for crying out loud, and whenever he can find it Marc uses discarded or end runs of paper. I really like the fact that there may be a couple kinds of paper in one notebook. Keeps things interesting.





If you want to keep up to date on all the new designs Marc is pumping out, check out his blog at www.broundoor.blogspot.com