Hopeless Lingerie - Hip Hip Hooray

One of my favorite and one of the most inspiring Australian handmade labels turned three today, and so I thought I'd give you all a quick look at whats currently floating my boat from Gaby's collection. Her photo shoots are sometimes spooky, sometimes sad, sometimes wistful, but always awesome.

Have seriously been considering getting these for roller-derby. All the girls would be SO LELLOUS. :)

See what I mean about styling? And that bow - the talented lass also has an accessories range, but she might have discontinued it because I cant find it right at this moment, although I did do a feature on it back here.

The gorgeous photoshoots are often the brainchildren of the photographers Gaby employs to present her handmade wonderfuls in the best light possible - I'd love to have a label that not only promoted myself, but others in the independent creative scene too! Love the cut-away details of this piece - a regular feature of Hopeless designs.

The colour palettes she chooses for her collections are always unusual - but they work so well, you almost dont notice them unless you pay attention.

This is what I mean about the spooky.

These would also get some use as outer wear at rollerderby practice methinks... that triangle panel on the side is actually see-through mesh! Awesome...

Further Info:

Website

Flickr (for perving on more of the stunning photography)

Tumblr (for more vintage/retro/nostalgia inspiration images than you can poke a stick at)

the Blog (for inspirational pin-boards, photoshoot-behind-the-scenes, plus debuts of her new works)

Facebook (her updates are always awesome)

Twitter (for whatever thats for :P )

and of course the Etsy and bigcartel stores for buying.

Montage Collective 3

Hi All,

On Thursday this week me and 14 other buddies from the Perth indie-designer-biz scene opened up our third pop-up shop under the moniker of Montage Collective. Our first attempt in Fremantle earlier this year for three weeks in February was a slap dash of whatever we could get together into the HUGE, cobalt blue carpeted space. The second go was in a beautiful old shop in one of the underground/trendy spots in Northbridge which is just coming to be known to regular people, after about 5 years of independent bars, retail, and a super-interesting east-asian community making a dynamic and awesome street.

Our little shop was due for a reno, having been a barbers shop for more than a couple of decades at least - which meant horrible walls and man-hair in every single crack and crevice of the space. The original high pressed-tin ceiling was a real show stopper though! We were there for the month of July, with a vintage/retro furniture theme - which I loved to bits!

This time around we're slicking it up though - CBD location, immediately across from the train station, in one of the partially restored heritage retail spaces in the 140 William precinct. The beautiful main building by HASSELL was the host to the last Made on the Left market, which until a couple of weeks ago I was Vice-Chair of (my masters course uni commitments mean I have to take a break for a year and a half), and they also host many of the "cooler" Perth Fashion Festival events in their awesome industrial/office spaces. Plus a couple of my uni mates work at the Perth branch of HASSELL :)

Anyway, back from architecture to Montage! In the space this time around we have had the wonderful fortune of being sponsored by Shop4Shops for our shmick, more professional retail fittings, which really help pull in the city-type people. I hope you can go have a look at the space, it really is something awesome. Otherwise, check out the photos on our facebook page.

Oh, and we have a man-land themed space, so you can start thinking about fathers day!

xx Lauren

Montage 3

Part of the preparation for the new Montage Collective shop coming soon to Perth! xx L

Yeah!

Guess who just passed her Level 1 Perth Roller Derby testing?

Me! Now I've just got to not suck at next weeks Level 2 testing, then I can relax for a tiny while - until Level 3 & 4 testing come around.

Cant wait to show you a pic of my helmet. The lovely Lisa from lisamax did an AWESOME job, I wore it for the first time tonight and got SO MANY COMPLIMENTS.

xx L

Love!

This new artwork by Ali J (my good mate so I am a little biased but meh!)

"I Don't Drink Tea"

Mixed Media on canvas - collaged 1920's paper, acrylic, coloured pencil

61cm x 61cm x 4cm (16" x 16" x 1.5")

Some nights I dream about teacups. Lovely beautiful teacups. Teacups covered in patterns, flowers and gold rims. The type you find at grandma's house or like treasured hidden away in old boxes. I love the thought of collecting them, although I don't know what I'd do with them, as I don't drink tea.

Christmas Presents from Crafty Friends

Check out how awesome my crafty buddies are!

Soaps, bathbombs and body butters from Jacquie's own Empire of Delight
Super-sweet O-Check stamp set from Niina
Black Apple paper-doll book from Ali, plus an art print from la la land - a really awesome art-print experiment.

Thank you my dearests!

Flood Releif

Hey All,

Just letting you know about the awesome way that Etsy sellers are helping those affected by the floods in QLD. I've been donating a couple of my Christopher rings and they've been selling well, but once I saw this gorgeous vintage brooch I couldnt resist...




Isn't it so so so nice?! You guys should find yourselves something nice too, I mean, where else do you get anything for donating? In your dreams, thats where (I am of course dis-cluding warm fuzzies and and sense of doing whats right - which are both also pretty nice things to get).

xx Lauren

OSIER will have a brick & mortar store!!!

Well, for a month anyway... as part of the MONTAGE COLLECTIVE.

Read the pamphlet for deets, I'll tell you all the days I'll be behind the counter but my stuff will be there all the time. I AM SO DARN EXCITED!!! (Plus my architectural neurones are itching to do the shop layout!!!

Oh, and I'll also have STACKS AND STACKS of my amasing vintage clothes, homewares and etc from my Acorns Vintage label! Whee!



We also have a facebook page.

xx Lauren

Benefits

As part of your duties as MOTL member, you may be required to attend hello/goodbye parties when a LARGE number of people leave and arrive in the organisation within a year.



Sigh, the things one must do for the greater good.

What I Wore Today

Well not today, really, a while ago.

Sometimes I marvel at how many new friends I've made through the craft world, and just how special some of those friends are to me. We've shared deaths, births (a freaky amount of twins actually - another reason for me not to procreate!), separations/divorces, and marriage.

Annie is one of the women I identify most with in our little group. She lives a creative life and has lived overseas for long periods of time - some of my life goals. On top of this she's a wonderfully warm, kind and giving person, and despite our rather signifiant age-gap, I really do relate to her easier than a LOT of people my age. So when she invited us all to her re-wedding ceremony this month, I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot the whole time.

Love you Annie dearest!

And here is a pic of me at the wedding just so I don't melt into a pile of love-mush. Haha. The dress is an op-shop find for $7, which the other craft-ladies in attendance told me this was a exxy myer brand. While that does explain the expert lining and beautiful pintucks, I really love it just because it suits me and now has the extra special memory of Annie's wedding attached to it - its old life as a designer dress isn't even really a sweetner for me, I've just accepted it as part of the story that most second-hand clothes have to offer. The ring (which you cant really see) is an old thrifted wing charm glued to one of my ring-bases, and the glasses are the most expensive peice of fashion I own (by a LONG LONG way) at $350 dollars or so ...eep. The shoes are just op-shop buys that were new at purchase - original pricetag and elastic still attached.

SUCH a beautiful setting. And the bride looked very gorgeous and "freo" in a bright floral print top, hand-dyed orange pants, a flower wreath in her hair and a GORGEOUS button bouquet by Liza, a very talented (and busy) lady in our group.

p.s. thanks Niina for the pic! xx

See me at : Made on the Left Pops-Up for a Market

See me here;


Art by the very lovely Nicole from Tallrabbit. She's our new graphics wizz over at MOTL, so glad I no longer have to wrestle with it, and that MOTL will be getting the awesome graphics it deserves.

As a side note, I'd love all you readers to perhaps start thinking about donating some time to MOTL. In the next few months we'll be doing a call-out for new committee members, and the more awesome dedicated people we have to choose from the better.

xx Hope to see you at the market... the organisers tell me there will be a vintage carousel... SO SWEET ARGH!

xx Lauren

If I had Money

I've been hopelessly in love with hopeless for a while now...

Handmade in Melbourne, with an appropriate but out of my league price tag. So beautifully tailored, each collection SUPER well designed... gah. Plus her blog is SO inspiring ALL THE TIME.

Links;

Etsy Store
Blog

I havn't seen a boy reading in ages.

This brooch is sold out. Sadness abounds. Perhaps I will make an osier-y version. What do you think guys? Yes? No? Don't give a flying hootenanny?

P.S. An effload of travel-posts coming soon, i've been without internets and so have been writing them in a notepad, which harked me back to the days of primary and early high-school when I used to keep a diary about which boy I was making out with in which week. Slutty, slutty me.

x Lauren

Thx Thx Thx

Dear Rather Expensive Vintage Dress,

Thank you for validating my decision to purchase your sparkly, sequiny goodness by winning me a bottle of wine for best dressed stallholder at Vintage Vixens and Vamps. I know we don't get to hang out as much as I'd like due to your extravagant 80s style, but I'd like to think that we're off to a good start in our relationship.

Here's to many more good times together.

Love Lauren


inspired by http://thxthxthx.com which I have been transfixed to for the last two hours.

Coolest Ever

coolest ever re-use of a jacket.

Pigeonhole Vintage Opening

These are from way back when Pigeonhole Vintage opened, we visited 4 of the 5 stores that day, and I got major blisters from wearing my t-bar heels - which are sexy as hell but quite high.

Niina wore a super cute vintage sailor dress, which spawned a conversation about Sailor Moon with the very friendly shop assistant in Shop 9 Shafto Lane (next to Capitol and Amplifier) who's name was Patrick.

So yes, don't have photos of the vintage store, but have photos of Shop 9 - the mural is by local artist Sean Morris. I love the restricted colour palette, really classy.

x Lauren

Apply! Apply! Go!

Applications are open and we so desperately want you there if you are creative. You don't need an ABN, business name or table, we just need you and your creations!



Click HERE!

Oh, in other news, I'm now vice chair of the Made on the Left Committee. A lovely newcomer named Mel has now got my old position of Secretary (or sexytary as the team like to call it, teehee)

Can you volunteer your time to Made on the Left? Click HERE!

xx

Dwellingup Residency

Decided I'm going to do more of a photo journal as I cant be sh*tted to tell you about all the sleepy towns, heritage buildings and cute baby moments (not mine, I can assure you - Ali's baby Eloise).

Basic Info : I've been in Dwellingup since Monday living with Ali while she does her 3 week artist residency. I've been creating my socks off and making a stop-motion animation of Ali creating one of her works... I'll show it to you once I'm done.

And now Niina's here too. Yay!

Note the Harry Potter reference (getting so excited it's rather embarrassing), the Little Red postcards (seeing their new show on Saturday night, triple excitement - they're such a great band) and the candy heart lollies from my friends 21st last Saturday that had treasure-lolly-bags when you went home (with parachute soldiers, bubble-mix and party poppers), so cute, reminded me of how awesome parties were when I was little.

So yeash, making lots of cards, going bonkers with paper doileys, having fun spelling things out with scrabble-tiles, and making fabric-covered buttons.

Oh. And drinking tea. Can't forget that.

Pitter Patter

No that isn't the sound of tiny feet (i.e. an "I'm pregnant!" blog post - shudder/yuk/I'm way to young.

Its the sound of what all the farmers and gardeners want - rain!

I admit I would find it a lot more enjoyable if I could find my yellow polka-dot umbrella, or if I had some bright red gumboots...

But instead I decided to look at Australian made items that went with the theme!

Epheriell $28	pocketcarnival $18
Incalesco $189	MelsHandmadeTh... $23
RedLetterStudi... $12	benconservato $10
miniEnvy $30	alyoisiusspyke... $55

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On the plus side, I saw so many rainbows today that my gloomy weather mood got cancelled out with joy - I even saw a double one - you know, the ones where theres the normal rainbow and then another on the outside of that, but fainter? It was so happy inducing I actually slowed down enough to notice the cars coming the other way were flashing at me so I slowed down and didn't get pinged by the good folks in blue. Brill!

xx Lauren

Treasure, me Hearties! Volume 10

A lovely treasury I was featured in :)

'Frosted Sage' by soubretteknits

The last fading greens of summer with a hint of frost to foreshadow winter both signal the start of my favorite time of year, autumn!

Sage Zombie Moon Bun - ... moonscreations $12	BLUE OLIVES II Color C... WollesYarnCrea... $16	Our Waterfall Design wi... TwistedRiverCl... $25
tiny teapot linocut pri... rubyvictoria $10	Peacock Pillow-Minty Sa... sewluckygirl $30	Sterling Silver and Pre... KriksSilver $28
Hanging Vase TortoiseLovesD... $8.5	Frosted Leaf - Tiny Cha... OrdinaryMommy $14	Riverside - Fine Art Fl... bomobob $35
Three Sisters - Genuine... SeaFindDesigns $33	letterpress leica camer... bittersugar $35	1970s Sage Long Formal ... starletvintage $64
Vintage 50s LUSH FOREST... studio1950 $20	White Rabbit Ring by Os... Osier $23	vintage MOSSY GREY sued... shopREiNViNTAG... $42

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