// Like I needed any more temptations…
Posted on | July 9, 2010 | No Comments
…Jeffrey Campbell shoes now available at Office. And they do ship to Finland.
Posted on | July 9, 2010 | No Comments
// Longing for the long dress
Posted on | December 10, 2009 | 3 Comments
Can you explain why I feel suddenly a need for a long, casual dress? They haven’t been around in ages… …with ongoing search for couple of months I have come by these:
Art Lab Space Odyssey dress (thanks for Steff for pointing this out). I adore it — but I’m afraid that the bust construction is totally bad thing for my body type. I’m relatively free of body issues in that sense that I would be constantly bothered about them — but I would certainly like to shrink my chest to proportions that allow this kind of cut. Actually I would prefer my lady lumps almost nonexistent, thnx.
This Acne pre-summer dress is actually truly amazing in person, the cut is quite clever making the stripes do some interesting zigs and zags in some strategic places and it is dyed beautifully, the dark shade is not even. But it is so stripy! I’m still considering it, but I definitely need block of solid black or white to calm it down a bit. Ah… …it was sold out from the online store already, so it might be too late. I stole the pic from Claudia (BTW check her blog out if you haven’t already!).
This simple T-shirt dress from T by Alexander Wang is probably my favorite. Hard to find online, though — and the bastards (sorry, I love ur stuff but not ur shipping policy) from Alexander Wang webshop don’t ship to Europe. What makes it even more bitter is that the dress is now absolute bargain with it’s $66 sale price. I may or may not have some plotz in my head on getting my sweaty paws on this baby…
Image from Polyvore.
Posted on | December 10, 2009 | 3 Comments
// Berlin
Posted on | December 7, 2009 | 5 Comments
Oh yes, I loved Berlin for sure! My three day visit included also participating to conference — and that took about seven hours away from my both two full days in there. But still I had plenty of time to wander around and do some shopping. I have to admit that the nightlife aspect I left totally unexplored. For me the going out thing is mainly hanging out with friends — so I don’t see much point of nightlife excursions when traveling alone. My taxi driver from the airport to hotel took a really nice route through Tiergarten, later via Checkpoint Charlie, so there was no need to run through the obligatory sights. I also opted for quick visits to small galleries instead of large museums…
I wish I had photographed more — but the conference was on daylight time, and evenings were quite dark. But here we go…
Weather was actually very nice — but as cold as here in Helsinki at this time of year. I love metros…
I really like to sense the feel of new cities, and Berlin certainly has it’s own characteristic: a fabulous mixed architecture, layered, varied, surprising — covered with additional layer of all sorts of graffiti, which is only adding the charm somehow. Streets and pavements are wide, trees and parks are everywhere; currently in gloomy romantic state of bare trees and leafy decadence. The two centers, eastern and western are within easy reach with U-bahn, in addition to these areas I mainly explored Kreuzberg where my hotel was. And still my feet were killing me — it might be a good idea to pack an option for 12 cm heels, even when traveling lightly.
The lovely Andreas Murkudis boutique was located in the eastern side, hiding in the corner of this gloomy romantic courtyard.
Small but well selected, second hand high fashion in Cash.
My favorite area was the eastern center, the concrete high built Alexanderplatz changes abruptly to the eastern side network of charming little streets lined with lovely boutiques, cafes and bars. I wish I could mention every little shop by name, but I’m afraid I can’t. Andreas Murkudis is a lovely boutique located in Münzstrasse (bit hard to find on an atmospheric inner courtyard of an old building), they had a great selection ranging from Kostas Murkudis to Yohji Yamamoto and Martin Margiela. Ulf Haines stocks for example Ann Demeulemeester and Helmut Lang. From the second hand boutiques especially unforgettable were Cash with limited but well selected collection of mainly high fashion brands and Made in Berlin with huge selection presented in very orderly way. Unfortunately I did not score any vintage finds this time, the pieces I loved were wrong size for me…
From more affordable options I have to mention German shoe store chain Görtz. They sure could refresh the company image, but I have no complaints about their selection (or pricing) — for some reason their online selection looks less alluring than the actual selection in the store. They had truly affordable own line called COX. In addition to suede booties I fell love in with, I also liked a lot of a pair of OTK boot with great wedge heel.
Lavish Christmas decorations at KaDeWe — and the substantial apple pie in the top floor with a great view… …mmm… …delicious… …had to skip the conference lunch, though…
Largest department store in Berlin is KaDeWe in the western side, conveniently located next to Wittenbergsplatz metro station. KaDeWe’s Christmas department was amazingly elaborate. Fashion selection was not that interesting, but at least you can find all commercially established German brands conveniently under same roof. A good co-incidence was that they had a small Christmas sale going on, and from several brands they had a limited selection of next summer samples available in bargain prices. I thought I got an amazing little piece of German fashion when I picked up a neat little dress from brand called Gustav… …just to discover at hotel a faint text on label: designed in Denmark. Ouch, Danish people are seriously invading the fashion business!
On Lafayette Berlin (Friedrichstrasse) I visited only very briefly. But next to Lafayette you can find Departmentstore Quartier 206, an exclusive shopping center with many high fashion brands well presented. Most of that stuff was naturally out of my reach, but on the basement floor they have the more affordable Cabinet with labels like Sass & Bide, T by Alexander Wang, Acne… …and the outlet stores for womenswear, shoes and menswear, all worth of browsing through. I was standing in the Cabinet for a while, stroking the Christopher Kane mushroom cloud T considering blowing (oops, no pun intended) my shopping budget there… …but then the recognizability-issues kind of prevented me making that move…
Just window shopping here, unfortunately…
And next to Departementstore I found Annette Görtz boutique with awesome selection of “window ware” in reduced prices. Considering the very grown up image of this company I really found lots of wearable stuff there… …wearable, what an understatement! The garments were beautiful, materials and cuts excellent and the finishing immaculate. I was especially tempted by one long velvet jacket with amazing pouf hem and lovely details, but I guess that the memory of origami jacket perfection prevented me actually making any other purchases. There was also one amazing dress constructed from silk grosgrain tape sewn on sheer silk chiffon, unfortunately in wrong size.
Shan Rahimkan is actually a luxury hairdresser and wellness center — but they had also very pleasant bar. I managed to take the picture just before it filled with Berliners enjoying their evening out.
In Kreuzberg a memorable place was Bergmannstrasse, a lovely street with charming little shops (especially antique) and restaurants. One amazing aspect in Berlin was that every cafe, bar or restaurant I went into, was at least nice — no murky outdated interiors or rude bartenders… Ethnic restaurants were amazingly affordable, too. With 7,90 € I got an excellent meal accompanied with beer in beautiful little Thai restaurant. In worst cases here in Finland you end up paying the same amount just for that beer…
Lively Christmas outdoor markets were actually nice places to just hang around — and taste some spiced hot wine…
If you love all that Christmassy stuff, Berlin sure is the place to visit before the holiday time. From the local magazine I counted ten (10) Christmas outdoor markets — even more here — and actually visited three: one in the west center, Kurfürstendamm, in the square next to “hollow tooth”, one in Alexanderplatz and one in the Mitte next to Deutcher Dom. It looked like those markets were not just tourist attractions, locals seemed to have a good time in the cute Glühweinhuttes and just wandering around in the shine of a sea of Christmas lights. One of the most interesting ones I actually missed, German young designers Christmas market opened according the paper on Saturday when I was already on my way home — but when checking the site it says on Friday… …grrr…
Thought that this church would act as a signpost when getting back to hotel… …but Germans are not as eager as us Finns to light everything up with million watt beamers…
Posted on | December 7, 2009 | 5 Comments
// Lasipalatsi Design Markets
Posted on | August 6, 2009 | No Comments
5.-8.8.2009 — Lasipalatsin aukio.
I visited Lasipalatsi Design Markets yesterday. Unfortunately it was bit too crowded to take decent photos — good for all participants, of course! What to get from there: some nice handmade and recycled accessories and clothing, Lumi Accessories bags with good discount, super cute Muru organic cotton clothes for kids (no images from the kids wear, unfortunately).
Posted on | August 6, 2009 | No Comments
About
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com
I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!
You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.
You might be also interested in DIY posts, How-to posts, DIY ideas - or my adventures in Etsy =).
Subscribe
- Subscribe feed
- Follow in Twitter
- Subscribe in Blogged
- Stumble it
- Follow in Facebook
- Follow in Bloglovin
- Tilaa Blogilistalla
To e-mail
Search
Recent posts
- Time for a change
- Looking good, H&M
- Sweet obsolescence
- 2ndhand coat
- Altewai.Saome online
- Spring accessories
- More structure
- Paris second hand
- Paris, Instagrammed
- The beggar
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
Webshopping
Stores & labels
Second hand & vintage
Daily dose (in Finnish)
Shopping, style & fashion
Style galleries
