HAKEI - good in Spain

A dress from HAKEI has been so far my only purchase from the sales. I could fulfill my desire to buy something mint. Mint has been on my mind since last year, starting with the trousers of Borne by Elise Berger (Feb -12) following by a blazer from HAKEI and continuing as a possible color for a room, but the only real thing I have so far is this dress. It is a 100% linen dress, I'm thinking of having it as an end of summer/beginning of autumn dress.

HAKEI is a Spanish family firm that dates back to 1946. Since then they have designed fashion and leather goods that are mainly produced in Europe, mostly in Spain and Portugal. They do have some clothes made in or imported from China/India, but they are only few, mostly you need to keep an eye on the etiquettes of jerseys if you want to stick to Made in Europe.

I recommend especially their shoes and bags; shoes are chick (and funny) good quality shoes (I own a few pair of them) and the bags have a huge selection of colors. I have no bag yet, but hmmm, that could be a good idea for a possible birthday present in October.

This is my mint linen stripes dress, very freshy. As it is white and the material is light linen it is quite transparent, so I need to invent something to prevent shoving off my panties.

Prado -blazer that has interesting texture and quite curious star button.

An example of different colors in form of a Subi -bag.

Old/New fashion

Everything seemingly fresh might be  incredibly old. Well not old, but already presented in the past.  We know in fashion world everything is recyclable and invented already, but this clever blog shows it clearly. Part Nouveau is a blog hold by a graduate student of fashion history, Lilah Ramzi, and in her own words: "The blog seeks to aid our contemporary eyes, so used to being presented with the newest and latest within the creative world, to recognize and give credit to what has come before."

Art and fashion go hand in hand and sometimes there is a great homage to the original creation and in other moments it might pass to be a plagiation...the line depends many times of the honesty of the creator.

Following few examples are from the blog "Part Nouveau" and there are plenty of more comparisons, so pls have a visit on her blog; it is so interesting!

1955: Audrey Hepburn by Norman Parkinson

2013: Natalie Portman by Tim Walker for Miss Dior Cherie-campaign

1956: a short film "Le Ballon rouge by Albert Lamorisse

2009: Maryna Linchuk by Tim Walker for Miss Dior Cherie -campaign

The lila building in Barcelona

Isn't this pretty, this lila building in the street of Diagonal? My favorite ones in town. There used to be Habitat, the British furniture and decoration company which I also like and regularly visited, but as you can see Habitat has already moved away. What a pity. Now we can only enjoy the Habitat in Plaza Catalunya.

This building is just at the end of C/Enric Granados, so if you go and have Cup&Cake you will definitely see also this lila empty building looking for new inhabitants.

Cup&Cake; my new favorite cafeteria in Barcelona

Cupcakes are no longer the "thing" in pastry as macarones and cake pop sticks are the newest in desserts, but I still do love them. In Spain there is no great culture of cafeterias, as they tend to have their coffees ("cortados") fast on the corner bar and with no sweets accompanying the cafe. For this reason I haven't found too many sweet cafes to enjoy a large milk coffee with some cake in beautiful surroundings. Finally yesterday I visited Cup&Cake, a beautiful and tasty cafe in the quiet, but centric street Enric Granados, 145, just before the Street Diagonal.  And surely I will repeat the visit.

The place was spacious and beautifully decorated and the cupcakes + cafe were delicious! They also have a terrace where you can enjoy these sunny summer days. From 12 flavors of cupcakes my selection was Brownie. They have also some cheesecakes and sandwiches to order and all are home made with fresh products.

I warmly recommend this place if you are a fan of long coffee moments with a friend or reading a magazine. From their web page I found out they have another "Brunch&Cake" -place at the beginning of the same street. It might be also worth visiting in the brunch hour.

Cosy street of Enric Granados

Finally I have all Monocle 2012 issues

Yesterday I could finally complete all my Monocle 2012 Issues when I picked up a beautiful package from the post office. Why I want them all? Because in 2012 Monocle had a section called "A fresh look at the best of Spain" and throughout the year they introduced top 100 experiences from Spain under different categories; Design&Fashion, Food&Drink etc. The section was made in collaboration with Spanish tourist office and Monocle. I already had most of the issues, but as few were missing I could order them from Monocle's web shop.

A toast to this; an international publisher brings out something positive and innovative from Spain. Not only dull news about the crashing economy. Thank you for that!

I already fancied Monocle as a chic, interesting, well written magazine and now even more when saw its packaging. So well styled and branded product.

In the final issue (59) of 2012 there are Monocle's annual softie awards: a ranking of the world's top 30 softest super powers. Spain is 16th with the phrase:
"Things are not sunny in Spain these days but we love it anyway."
Indeed and I keep buying Monocle.

More plastic "all weather" shoes

As it is not clear whether it is sunny&warm or grayish&rainy it is better to stick with plastic shoes. Brazilian brand Melissa is perfect for that. Melissa designs and makes plastic shoes from recycled plastic in Brazil. When the shoes get broken and old you can recycle them as they are made from plastic. Practical.

Melissa does lot of collaboration with different designers. I think the most successful in the past has been with Vivienne Westwood (in 2008) and this years's collaboration with Jason Wu also looks great. I was a bit disappointed to the shoes designed by Karl Lagerfeld as an ice cream on the heels was not something I was expecting from the master. Well, maybe the shoes, or plastic shoes, are not the thing for K.Lagerfeld. Quite consolidating that not everything turns to gold although great designer designs it. A curiosity is the collaboration with Angry Birds...that is strange. I don't know whether the shoes are already a history thing or they will be in the future collection, but I would be interested to know what kind of shoes they created/will create.

I love the following pics from the Melissa Magazine. They are so candy.

My favorite Melissa Trippy shoes.

Model Jean+Jason Wu is also my favorite and it has lovely colors

I can't believe these 90's bags make a return! Gosh; I should really search for my mother's white plastic beach bag, whether it would be still in condition to be used. In fashion everything really returns sooner or later.

Melissa Incense+Karl Lagerfeld's ice cream shoes

If someone got excited here is Melissa's online shop.

Good news and bad news

The good news are that Sami Sykkö has returned as a blogger to Helsingin sanomat. Here is the well written, funny blog (only in Finnish, sorry): Sami Sykön tyylillä.

The bad news are the actual highly embarrassing situation where one of Mariekko's designer has actually copied one piece of folk art to be her print. We are speaking copying here and it is sad and scandalous to such a design house that Marimekko pretends to be. Well it has been that the designer Kristiina Isola was "inspired by" folk art piece created in 1963 by Maria Primatšenko, a renowned Ukrainian folk art painter. The similarity is obvious. Kristiina Isola, a dotter of Maija Isola (one of the most successful designer of Marimekko), has apologized and said she didn't thought of the copyrights, she just wanted to share the lovely feeling of the original illustration. Highly dull from a designer who probably doesn't like if hers or her mothers prints would be copied. Where is the professionalism and designers pride?

The print was in Marimekko's 2008 collection, so it is not on sale anymore, except some companies as Finnair have used the print to illustrate their airplanes...uups. Finnair is about to hide the print asap from its planes. To paint the planes all white.

At the moment Marimekko and the National Museum of Ukraine, to whom the original illustration belongs, are negotiating the next step, Maria Primatšenko's niece has said he doesn't want any compensation as in Ukraine they are violating the copyrights of his grandmother all the time and no one actually cares. Marimekko has also said to continue the collaboration with Kristiina Isola, which I don't know if it is stupid or noble. Apparently there exist already a lack of ideas and honesty and maybe might be a time to retirement for Kristiina Isola. That would be my opinion.

Maria Primatšenko's "A Rat on the Road"

Kristiina Isola's "Metsänväki"