Silence...

Please excuse me whilst I disappear for a few days to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Will you?

PS If you’re already missing ShopCurious, do check out my post at The Dabbler today, and take a look at the curiously inventive retro trends.

Intelligent design? London Fashion Week goes digital

London Fashion Week’s exhibition has a brand new digital space – where fashion becomes digital art. For the first time ever, there’s also a digital schedule with live streamed fashion shows.

At ShopCurious, we usually create trends rather than following them, which is why we asked members of our group at Polyvore to use their creative skills to make up digital collages showing 'style with brains'. They produced intelligent designs you may not have thought of in your wildest dreams, but are certainly worth considering for the future.

And, finally, a photo of digital diva Susie Style Bubble - just to prove she’s not surgically attached to her computer (only to the digital device at her ear), or is that a laptop she's clutching by her side?

I’d love to hear your views on digital fashion – is it intelligent design? Is this the way of the future? Has it got style with brains?

Do you?

Curiously crafty knitted chairs

The ubiquitous plastic chair comes in all shapes, colours and sizes. Whilst many have attempted to re-design its form, resulting in all manner of cool, ‘designer’ versions, few have been creative enough to look beyond the actual fabric of the chair itself.









Here’s an example (left), where a plastic chair has been recycled to create a rather curious looking piece of furniture … it’s intricate, arty and fairly pleasing to the eye, but I’m not sure how comfortable this chair would actually be to sit on.





The Brazilian Campana brothers have inventively embedded plastic chairs in what appears to be natural wicker to create a sprawling, organic-form sofa – perfect if you have plenty of room, or your own art gallery to put it on display.









Yuvinia Yuhadi, a recent graduate from London, has come up with a rather more practical solution in the form of these curiously quirky hand-knitted chair covers - now available online at ShopCurious. They’ll transform any standard plastic garden chair into a cozy and inviting armchair.





Collectively branded as ‘the not-so-ubiquitous knitted chairs’, each of the covers has been lovingly handmade by an eclectic group of passionate knitters from around the world. The designs currently for sale include a cable-knit version, based on the traditional gentlemen’s club style leather armchair, a lacy-knit nature inspired design and a racy-knit laced up mini-length number.

If you can’t afford to buy one of the ready made versions, there’s even the option to knit a cover yourself, with free patterns provided by the designer.



This would probably be a lifetime’s work for me, although I did manage to knit the odd scarf back in my dim an distant school days ... however, if you’re the crafty type, who’s willing an to take on a challenge and dedicated enough to see it through to completion, then this could be just the thing to while away the winter hours.









And I don’t think there’s anything more innovative-but-sensible that you could do with a plain old plastic chair.

Do you?

A little bird told me

I was sitting at my desk this morning when a curiously cute little bird appeared outside my window. It simply sat and looked at me .. and I thought this bird is just waiting to be photographed. So I grabbed my camera and wondered how I could catch a crafty shot without scaring it away. First I thought I would poke my camera through the blind and capture it through the somewhat rain-splattered window (remind me to call the window cleaner!), then I decided to venture nearer - towards the door ... and I was just about to open it when the pesky bird flew away. So I looked up said bird on the internet and here's a photo of one very similar - a goldfinch. Though mine seemed even prettier than this.

If you're equally curious about the colourful variety of nature, there are some beautifully hand painted mother of pearl pendants available at ShopCurious. These are vintage pieces, which have been recycled with the addition of a matching necklace made of natural materials (like rice pearls and crystal) and an inventive antique style magnetic clasp. Each one of the pendants is totally unique.


I believe that these are originally from Persia (can anyone verify that?) and quite a few of the designs feature rather exotic looking birds. Some of the birds look like doves and others more like birds of paradise (maybe those are imaginary varieties dreamed up by a curiously creative artist?) Do let me know if you can identify any of these. Will you?