Sea shanty style

Get out your old Blue Peter badges, retro sea shanty style is the latest trend to inspire fashion and interior designers.

In case you’re wondering, sea shanties are ‘work songs that were used on the square-rigged ships of the Age of Sail. Their rhythms coordinated the efforts of many sailors hauling on lines.’









They are rarely used today, perhaps because modern rigging doesn't require many people to be working in the same rhythm for long periods. However, shanties are much loved by modern sailors, folk musicians and specialist choirs.





I may not be joining in the singing part, but we’ve got our own selection of maritime design art at ShopCurious in the form of quirky accessories for the wardrobe and home. Salty old seadogs will love our vintage maritime brooches, featuring Dutch barges and galleons – and this curiously collectable early Royal Navy anchor pin.






For the professional collector, we’ve a couple of fabulous Victorian hand carved conch shells. And we’ve added to our range of retro Perspex paperweights, with some rare, nautical curiosities from Portugal.









So, are you ready to have fishermen the world over as your new best friends?

Are you?

Swanning around in ballet bling

In the fast moving world of fashion, black swans are already passé. But ballet inspired clothing and accessories are still very much in evidence.

In a new twist on an old idea, Annie Sherburne has created these fabulous ballerina brooches. Their elegant classic swan-style ballet dresses have been upcycled from scraps of original vintage jewellery. The brooches are available from ShopCurious in a range of colours and each brooch is totally unique.



Meantime, here’s some inspiration for later in the year: Ballet dancers not so much swanning as sailing down the catwalk - with balloons as rigging, and billowing, acid bright chiffon dresses as flapping sails...

Dancing en pointe looks a rather precarious business to me… I think it’s curiously clever that none of the girls got into a nasty tangle.

Do you?

PS Check out the crazy new fashion in headwear at my latest Curious Trends post.