Archives for June 2009

Design & D.I.Y. Finds: 06/28/09

June 28, 2009 by Renee Claire

More design & D.I.Y. finds! From top to bottom, starting with the left column:

dear ada posted photos of gardener Piet Ouldof’s work.
Kindred has 10 free computer wallpapers designed by artists like Jessica Gonacha (above) and Blanca Gomez (via How About Orange).
Craft found a how-to video by bento genius Anna the Red (who I previously blogged about). I love how she dyed the egg.
Finally, Design*Sponge took a sneak peek at Scott Engler’s home (both right-hand photos). It’s got retro-style appliances, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and vintage science charts–in other words, it’s perfect.

Snack Monster: Glico Harumachi Ichigo

June 21, 2009 by Renee Claire

For $2.69, I added a box of Glico’s Harumachi Ichigo (Strawberry Chocolate) to my latest Asian Food Grocer order. What I got was a tasty blend of white chocolate, crispy wheat bits, and dried strawberries.

There’s not much online about Harumachi Ichigo, so I don’t have a lot to offer aside from my own opinion & photos. J-List says each treat is 25% real strawberry, and the box does list “dried strawberry” high on the ingredient list, though. The strawberry flavor is pleasant, too, and not overly artificial.

Isn’t it pretty? Each box has about 15 candies, each individually wrapped.

And, here are the candies themselves. They consist of dense white chocolate flecked with dried strawberry on top, followed a layer of crispy wheat cereal (think Rice Krispies), and then a pink layer of (I believe) tinted white chocolate, possibly with some artificial strawberry flavor.

Here’s a tighter close-up of the different textures. For me, that layer of crisp cereal makes Harumachi Ichigo work. While the white chocolate is firm & not overly sweet, and the strawberry flavor convincing, the cereal changes the candy’s mouthfeel, adding welcome heft & crunch, as well as a respite from the top layer’s creamy sweetness. Highly recommended.

On Uniforms, or Would You Wear the Same Dress For a Year?

June 17, 2009 by Renee Claire

A Cup of Jo recently posted on The Uniform Project, Sheena Matheiken’s attempt to wear one dress for a year. Below are some of my favorite outfits thus far:

Uniform Project

While it’s true that Alex Martin did something similar with her brown dress project in 2005*, this iteration offers something new. First, the two projects have different goals: the brown dress project was a direct challenge to unsustainable consumerism, while The Uniform Project is a fundraiser and decidedly more fashion forward. Because she was promoting sustainability & personal economy, Martin used one dress for the entire year; Matheiken, on the other hand, has 7 of the same dress, has a vast closet filled with layering options and accents, and lets readers donate accessories.

Matheiken’s inventive styling offers women wardrobe inspiration that previous, similar projects have not**. She’s also using the stunt to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation, which provides education for Indian slum children. Less than 2 months into the project, she’s already raised $1,479.00.

In addition, The Uniform Project explores the interesting tension between conformity & self-expression. Matheiken wrote that part of her inspiration was that:

I was raised and schooled in India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. (link)

Anyone forced to wear a uniform will recognize their experience in that statement. And yet, strangely, I’ve always considered uniforms as freeing rather than constricting. It’s the difference between the uniform you’re required to wear, and the one you adopt for yourself.

Because although I like fashion, it’s mostly in theory. By nature, I gravitate towards a uniform: a white, blue, or black form-fitting top paired with dark pants and black flats. My college friends once teased me for only wearing white, blue, & black, so I tried branching out to reds, pinks & lavenders. Each new color foray ended up rotting in my closet, though: I always felt like I was wearing someone else’s clothes, trying to be something I wasn’t.

To this day, the bulk of my wardrobe is white, black, or blue, although I’ll stray into greens, and (if I’m feeling daring) purples. I comfort myself that at least I’m more flexible than these fellows. And truthfully I know what I like, what suits me, and best of all, everything matches.

Finally, here’s a quote on uniforms from Marguerite Duras’ Practicalities. I read it years ago & it managed to burn its way into my subconscious:

For fifteen years I’ve had a uniform – the M.D. uniform. It apparently created a ‘Duras look’, which was taken over by a fashion designer last year: black cardigan, straight skirt, polo-neck sweater and short boots in winter. I said I didn’t care about clothes, but that’s wrong. A uniform is an attempt to reconcile form and content, to match what you think you look like with what you’d like to look like, what you think you are with what you want to suggest. You find this match without really looking for it. And once it’s found it’s permanent. And eventually it comes to define you.

*Andrea Zittel also did something similar before, but as with Alex Martin’s, the goals & functions of her project were significantly different. For starters, Zittel embraced the monotony of a uniform, while Matheiken does not.

**For more inspiration, Sally Jane Vintage has a series called “Four Ways,” where she styles one item, umm…four ways. Other bloggers have done a fashion blogger version of the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” first with a striped shirt and then with a leather jacket.