Beyond love

What lies Beyond Love?
For Love never dies.
Love lasts forever.
Love transforms.
Love multiplies.
In the Lover’s eye,
ascending,
transcending mortality.
In the dance of the butterflies,
an ethereal coronation,
the perfect union.





Described by L’Officiel magazine as “one of the most original jewellery designers of her generation”, London based Brazilian, Marcelle Lawson-Smith is also something of a poet. Her verse, as well as her latest collection of digitally printed leather cuffs, are inspired by love’s power to transcend mortality.









Marcelle’s wedding to her English husband, twelve years ago, was an “unusual and elaborate celebration, with pairs of butterflies as its central theme – to represent eternal love.” One wall was covered by two thousand butterflies and Marcelle’s dress, the invitation and the wedding cake were all covered with pairs of butterflies.





Marcelle was also influenced by the symbolism of Victorian mourning jewellery when creating the vibrantly coloured pieces in her new range, which are available online, exclusively at ShopCurious.

In Victorian times, secret messages were sometimes hidden in small accessories. Butterflies, symbolizing resurrection (as in the metamorphosis from a chrysalis), were often depicted in sculptures and on cemetery headstones in Victorian graveyards.






Lover’s eyes were also popular as pieces of mourning jewellery, but some debate surrounds the details of their initial introduction to the UK. It is thought that they were originally used by secret lovers in the late 18th century – the Prince of Wales and Mrs Fitzherbert being widely cited. A unique collection of antique Regency curios, including lover’s eyes can be viewed on the romantic novelist, Candice Hern’s website.

Marcelle Lawson-Smith’s lover’s eyes are also based on William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55:


“Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.”


Will you?

Naturally sensible style - it's Hatastic!

I thought I’d celebrate a lovely late summer day in London by waxing lyrical about the wonders of nature here along the River Thames. The other day I spotted a dragonfly on my terrace, which was a really wonderful surprise – and makes up for the legions of nasty mosquitoes and irritating little flies that seem to come our way. This year there have also been quite a few more butterflies, although apart from the odd Red Admiral, it’s mainly been Cabbage Whites (click on the pics to enlarge).


There are plenty of birds by the river as well. There were goldfinches nesting in my sixth floor olive tree - and we even had a visit from a friendly robin the other day. Down on the river, there are wagtails, swans, cormorants, ducks, geese, seagulls, crows and herons – plus massive flocks of starlings and swallows that flit from bridge to bridge and across the rooftops every evening at this time of year (see above) ... though I'm never quite fast enough to capture the perfect photograph of thousands in flight.

I won’t mention the pigeons as, thankfully, they’re probably better catered for elsewhere in town – or in the nearby park, where I’ve seen a lady throwing bag loads of breadcrumbs to them.


Talking of which, my mother recently went on holiday to Devon and came back laden with bursting plastic bags full of huge pebbles and shells from the beach, which she collected for me to 'decorate' my outdoor plant pots with (thanks Mum - good job you didn’t go abroad, as the plane would probably have fallen out of the sky under the weight).




Equally inspired by nature is the inventive British milliner, Chloe Haywood, whose Hatastic! fascinators are currently available at ShopCurious. If you’ve a late summer wedding to attend, a dressy garden party, or any posh event, (indoors or out), one of these beautifully handmade creations could be just the thing to set off your outfit.



The hats are individually made using recycled pieces of vintage fabric and quirky bits and bobs found by the designer – and each one is totally unique, so you won’t suffer the embarrassment of someone else turning up in the same design. Eco-friendly, reasonably priced and totally timeless, these curiously cute little fascinators simply ooze sensible style. What’s more, they’re really unusual too, so you’re bound to end up with lots of interesting comments from all sorts of curious types…





In the words of that great social butterfly Oscar Wilde, ‘there’s only one thing worse than being talked about …’

Are you?

Curious colours of nature in fashion

Earlier this year, I attended a talk by Abigail Ingram on the subject of ‘structural colours in nature’. She asked important questions like ‘why are some animals and plants brighter than others?’ She also mentioned a few naturally colourful species in passing: the dragonfly, the lavender beetle, the chalk blue butterfly, the shoal fish and the peacock (or at least its feathers).








Apparently, it was Newton (in the 1700s), who first linked the diffraction of light with the structure of peacock feathers. However, it wasn’t until the early 1970s that physicists became fully aware of structural colour.



It’s interesting how in some insects, like butterflies, the dorsal side of the wings is pure colour, but the other side is camouflaged. The males are often very brightly coloured, apparently to ward off others from their territories and not, as Darwin thought, to attract females. Butterfly wings are actually like a multi-layer reflection of colour – of the sort you might see in an oil slick or an opal stone. The morpho butterfly, left, is the perfect example of this – in fact morpho butterfly structures are applied to products such as makeup and there's even a ‘morpho tex fabric’.



As Kate Fletcher explains in her book, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: “Developed by Teijin, Japan, and inspired by the iridescent morpho butterfly of South America, Morphotex achieves its colour by causing light to diffract and interfere with the fibre in ways that can amplify certain wavelengths. This creates brilliant colours to the viewer through the use of physical structure rather than with pigment or dye...






In effect, the surface layers play with light and reproduce a coloured fabric without the energy and resource impacts associated with dyeing and printing. The Morphotex fibre has a multilayer stack structure made up of 61 layers of polyester and nylon, each with different refractive indexes. By controlling the thickness of the layers, it shows variations in the four primary colours: red, blue, green and yellow, according to the angle and intensity of light"

By using nano-scale structures, it's possible to create new paints, fabrics and cosmetics – what’s more they’re free of toxins and require less energy to manufacture. Modern technology also draws upon this phenomenon in nature to create holograms – useful in anti-counterfeiting measures for credit cards. Using a similar technique, brightly coloured sea creatures, called Aphrodite, right, can also be used for optical purposes. Biomimicry is probably the ultimate eco-friendly activity, since it's all about using nature and natural ecosystems as a model for innovative solutions to our own design requirements.

Hopefully, I've got all these facts right ... I'm not an expert on matters of science. In fact, generally speaking, men seem to be much more absorbed by the wonders of modern technology than women. However, biomimetrics is an area where modern technology, practical design and colour coincide - as in the case of these curiously colourful and stylish phone cases by Jack Spade, currently on sale at ShopCurious.










They're rather unique and could be perfect if you're looking for a useful, but unusual gift for any man (or woman) who owns a Blackberry or an iPhone - and who also likes to stand out from the crowd.

Are you?