It's a tribal thang...

Tribal interior pic from stylebeat.blogspot.com.  Mere wears Nine West boots, tribal print leggings by Supre, yellow sheer top by Backdoor and tribal necklace 

Aztec, bohemian, ethnic you name it, if the pattern is bright and bold and punchy with a strong sense of form and symmetry then it's bound to have a tribal influence.  Whether its the sight of these crazy but cool leggings or this bold feature wall print, these patterns awaken the Aztec in me and suddenly I feel the need to get up and dance....ok ok or perhaps you could just watch Miss B demonstrate tribal fierceness in this amazeballs vid, yep that's right cue Beyonce... (at 2min 50 to be precise)

Beyonce in Deja Vu - turn it up!

Tribal influences are everywhere.  Just check out these 

tribal-esque fashion inspired pieces 

Sass & Bide

Aztec jacket from Thehunt.com

Multiple heavy-set rings by Illtakethatinpurple.com

Finger cuff from Etsy.com

Chevron necklace from Etsy.com

Givenchy 2010 - Woah!

As you can probably tell I am a black and white fiend, but tribal is not merely just black and white, oh no no, in the home tribal prints can be bright bright bright!

Rug by Cocoonhome.com

Moderneve.com

If you are the creative type I thought this amazing yet simple DIY tribal feature wall could be your next home project..tempted?

Learn how at vintagerevivals.com

Can you hear the sound of tribal drums yet?  Perhaps not, nonetheless this little tiki-tour into tribal prints for the home and fashion has really inspired me to inject some more vibrancy and colour into my style choices. I've always loved tribal prints so expect a follow-up blog about my fave tribal fashionistas Sass & Bide in the next couple of weeks.  

If the tribal waters are just luke warm for you, how about starting off by making a itty bitty statement.  Check out this vid - ooh la la!

How to paint Tribal Aztec Nails

Until next time...

Karen Walker

Karen Walker
Image courtesy of HOME NZ

I'm a huge Karen Walker fan, not just for her beautiful designs, but also for her (and her husband's) business savvy in terms of how they've created a hugely successful international brand. Karen Walker's style (from my perspective) is often a juxtopostion of extreme styles, mixing masculine and feminine, and overall the label is relaxed, effortless and timeless. 

As with some other famous international fashion brands Karen Walker has also made the transition from clothing and accessories across to home interiors and home-wares. She already has her own paint color range from Resene, but what got me really excited was her step into linens and crockery.

The Karen Walker paint range. Image courtesy of Resene Paints

The jewelry is from Karen Walker's Super Fine range and this cup is available from Myer Australia I must obtain the full set!

Superfine diamond Daisy ring and matching mug

Unfortunately the home-wares range is only available in store from Myer Australia, but fingers crossed they start online sales soon. The bed linens and towel designs are based on an archive of prints that Karen Walker has accumulated over 20 seasons of international fashion shows.

Some bold prints that have transitioned well into home-wares. Image courtesy of Karen Walker.com

From Karen Walkers Spring/Summer 10 Runaway 

Check out her latest show at style.com for the review

Check Style.com review

Finally some words of advice from Karen Walker herself ....

"Good things happen when you take yourself out of your safety zone."
 

Check NZ Herald  for full interview and article

Cameo

This ring was my mothers, which she recently gifted to me. It is beautiful and is quite sentimental to me because it has a very beautiful story to go with it.

Since a little girl my mother had a massive obsession with rings. She came from a very humble upbringing and one of my favourite stories is how her father made her a ring by cutting out the centre of a penny.

During the 1960s my koro (grandfather) was a street sweeper in Gisborne and he found this cameo ring on the footpath. He handed it in to the local police and if it wasn't claimed in two weeks he could keep it. So after two weeks passed he was given the ring to keep, and he of course gave it to my mother. She remembers this clearly, she had never seen a ring like this before and was absolutely ecstatic to have received it.

My mother, 1963 - age 16. She tells me she is actually wearing the cameo ring in this picture but it is hard to see. 

Leaping about 50 years forward to 2012, I was helping my mother clean out her drawers when we stumbled upon the heavily tarnished looking cameo ring. She told me the story which intrigued me even more. So feeling like I was on a bit of an Antiques Roadshow mission, I took it into the jewelers to get polished and also find out a bit more about it. They looked at it and said it was copper, then polished it and said, hmmmm it may be silver. So I needed another opinion and took it to another place where they said it was stainless steel and were not sure if it was a real cameo. Then they did another polish of it and realised that actually it was gold and it had a strange marking on it making it confusing for jewelers to decipher. What they believe is that this was a sample ring that a jewelry designer would have taken from store to store to get more orders and dropped it on his travels. In the end I'm not sure if it is real, but I don't actually care. It's beautiful and means a lot to me now.

So this experience has inspired a cameo themed post, and I was impressed by how many lovely and elegant cameo interior accessories and artwork I found.

Image courtesy of Marcus Design

Image courtesy of Marcus Design

You could even have a cameo themed wedding! Image courtesy of
  My 1 wedding

This is my favorite find - the ultimate his and hers dressers/sinks - Image courtesy of Design Folio

Image courtesy of Marcus Design

Image courtesy of Marcus Design

Go to What Delilah Did for a cute Cameo cross stitch pattern to try

This Victorian fashion trend originally popularized by royals is having a bit of a revival thanks to some high profile fashion designers. Check Lanvin's pre-fall show below and check Fashionising.com's latest post on the resurgence of the cameo jewelry trend. So raid your mothers or grandmothers jewelry box, you never know what you may find....

From Lanvin pre-fall 2012 - Courtesy of Fashionising.com

Upside down style

Image of DC Espresso Coffee Shop besthouseinterior.com

Remember that fantastic 90's craze of Magic Eye books.  Full of bright kaleidoscope like imagery that made you go cross-eyed (and I do believe that was the whole point) only to reveal an amazing shape that jumped out from the page and played tricks with your eyeballs!

Electrolux wine pendant light by seeingdesign.com

Well being the curious bunny that I am I decided to venture off the beaten track and celebrate an intellectual yet challenging kind of style.  

Image: Sky Planters from Boskke

Upside down, back-to-front, whatever you call it a great interior needs to have a sense of quirk to challenge the norm and still be stylish - like these clever and slightly odd sky planters.  A work mate brought one of these as a gift for his sister the other day and I think they are the 'bees knees'.  In NZ you'll find these at The Department Store in Takapuna or online at Boskke.

Indeed there is a fine line between clever and just plain weird but there is something so intriguing about reworking a standard object to become something else altogether, something just as interesting and stylish.

Versatile dress by butterbynadia.com

In fashion you would liken this kind of creative style to the versatile dresses that can be worn 50 million ways, or the 'wait there's more' jackets that can be worn inside out and outside in.  An adorable brand we have in NZ that often pushes the boundaries of versatile style is Taylor boutique as seen below.

Versatile wrap tunic from Taylor

Now for a tutorial: Fancy you're own little slice of juxtaposed style (for the ladies), try this funky upside down braid - it's B-A-N-A-N-A's.

Upside Down French Braid 

I don't quite know how I got so intrigued by this quirky take on style.  But I think it has something to do with one of my favourite shows at the mo The Block NZ .  Aussies will know this concept but for those that need a synopsis it's like The Amazing Race for house renovation - but with less contestants (and no world travel). I probably haven't talked it up well but it is a great watch (trust me;-).

In week two my fave team Ben and Libby created this amazing feature wall by reusing their old Matai floor boards and as you can see this is pretty inspirational.

The show announces the winner tonight so fingers crossed that by this time next week they'll be the winners (haha).  Nonetheless they've inspired me (and this blog post) and hopefully you have been inspired too.

Til next time...