Accessories of love?

I was going to talk about the forthcoming celebration of Burns Night, of revelry and all sorts of quirky, fun accessories like sporrans, kilt pins and brooches. However, the horrors in Haiti have thrown me completely off kilter (excuse the pun). This sort of occurrence makes us reassess our lives. What really matters – our family, our friends, our material worth? It makes me wonder if even our clothes are important, let alone the concept of fashion, or jewellery.

Why isn’t there a universal set of rules in the event of a natural disaster? Why should anyone be reduced to an anarchic, Lord of the Flies type, scenario? How about a job for everyone in an emergency situation – and some guidance as to what to do if everyone else around us dies? Meantime, we're left feeling pretty powerless, after being told there’s nothing we can do to help survivors across the sea - apart from sending money - when what we’d like to offer is tangible love and support like hugs, food, water, shelter and hot baths.

Of course, a few decades ago, we wouldn’t even have known about distant seismic activity, until it was far too late to be of any assistance. The problem now is that, despite all our economic and technical progress, and all the power of modern communications, we’re still at the mercy of our geography and the earth’s basic elements. The best we can do is to educate and co-ordinate ourselves to try to cope as effectively as humanly possible in natural disasters – though, surely, more could be done in the way of teaching, organization and self-sufficiency?

Which brings me back to the ancient Celts. They coped with adverse weather conditions and difficult terrain and survived long before and after the Romans left our shores. Their society was based upon class and kinship, on tribes and clans – the very structures that seem to be neglected today. Hardly surprising then, that gang culture should be emerging out of the fragments of our former society?





I’ve digressed quite a lot, so I’ll get back to my main point, that the embellishment of clothes is a luxury. Accessories aren’t essential, so why not recycle them and invest in vintage bags, belts, jewellery and adornments? For instance, I can recommend this stylishly-plumed, old-fashioned Scottish kilt pin from ShopCurious, if you’re planning a bit of a highland fling on the 25th, and you don’t want your kilt flying open all over the place.







Anyway, I’ll leave you to slope off to the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond for a spot of haggis to consider this food for thought. I expect you’ll be taking the high road…

Will you?

Timeless city style...

Our cities are in a constant state of flux. Acting as a hub for residents and commuters alike, major cities are, by definition, ever-evolving through time…Yet, if we consider the history of art, architecture, design and the prevailing culture and tastes of significant cities around the world, we soon discover that their essential character hasn’t changed so much over the years. Each of our great cities is imbued with a timeless style of its own.






In fact, I was just looking up ‘timeless cities’ on the internet and, perhaps appropriately for the times we find ourselves in (and the time of year) the first thing that popped up was something called Timeless Jerusalem (beta), which describes itself as’A 3D virtual city of History, Identity, Learning and Fun’. Built using the Second Life technology platform, the website claims that “Virtual worlds are widely hailed as the future of the Internet.” This one proposes to offer religious and spiritual education and to address the ‘challenges of youth identity development’- whilst, of course, enjoying the benefits of a mercenarily monetized business model.



The second listing by the search engine was a book entitled Timeless Cities: An Architect’s Reflections on Renaissance Italy. Judging by this inclusion in the line up, fantasy hasn’t quite become fact yet, though if we believe everything we read, we’re rapidly headed in that direction - the realities of geography and nature willing! By the way, if you want a sneak preview of our virtual future, I’d recommend you take a look at what the Metaverse Roadmap envisages for us.






Anyway, all this is a rather long-winded introduction to the rather curious, eco-friendly ‘city rings’ that are currently available at ShopCurious. Each of these fantastical creations is made from ‘found objects’ coated in silver and gold, with semi-precious additions to the otherwise quirky array of components - including pencil sharpeners, bottle tops and hair slides. The rings are the uniquely arty interpretation of famous cities, according to innovative young jewellery designer, Alina Jessipovich.




I’ll leave you to work out which cities are represented…and to make your own conclusions as to whether their style is truly timeless.

Will you?

Maps re-fashioned

The fashion for maps has changed somewhat over the years, to say the least. I remember learning all the symbols on Ordnance Survey maps in my geography lessons at school – a far cry from the earliest cartographical representations of the ‘flat world’ – and now, of course, we have have satellite GPS and digital services, such as Google Maps.







Some might question the need for a physical map in this day and age, but most ‘sat nav’ systems seem to be far from perfect. The version in my car is pretty useless, so I still resort to the good old A-Z of London (though most of the text is miniscule and, these days, my arms aren’t sufficiently long to hold the book far enough away to read the damned street names).



If you’re a tourist coming to London, perhaps for London Fashion Week, I have a novel suggestion for finding your way around town. How about one of these curiously cool papier mache mini bags from ShopCurious to help with your directions. Each of the handmade bags is totally unique and made from original recycled maps.





The map of London bag seems to cover most of the centre of town, including key landmarks like Buckingham Palace and The Houses of Parliament. All the bags have a usefully long carrying strap, so they can be slung across your torso, keeping your valuables safe from petty thieves.








There’s also one featuring an antique map of the world, though I’m not proposing you try to use this when planning out your trip.





It’s been a bit of a circuitous route, but I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our new theme: For the next month or so, I’ll be focusing on the topic of ‘memories’. Trying to be a bit clever, I looked up ‘memory map’ on the internet – apparently there’s a course on ‘memory mapping’ as part of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Essex.






However, memories of place (where you were born, where you have lived and travelled to) are very personal. What I like about maps is that they are pretty universal and can be understood and appreciated all over the world, regardless of language or culture. Over the centuries, maps have been re-fashioned to bring people closer and closer together. I just hope new trends in the mapping of our actual location don’t impinge too much upon our individual sense of place and time…

Do you?