Insadong

Yesterday was spent in a district in Seoul called Insadong. The area is in the northern part of the city, and is known as their antiques/arts district. Every Saturday and Sunday Insadong-gil (a street) is closed off from traffic. Along with having all of the antiques shops on the streets opening their doors, additional vendors come to pedal their wares:




You can find almost anything here: old coins, embroidery, jewelry, tons of hand-made pottery, wood carvings, and a lot of amazing food (and drinks later at night!!).

What else can you do here? Try roasted silk worms from a vendor near the end of the street:


I decided to try them, because when else would I have the chance, right? If you ever get the opportunity to snack on roasted silk worms, it should not be for the taste (which is really.really.really. not good).

Seoul

I've sneaked a few minutes to add a quick post -- there's so much to do here, and so we're not sitting in the room terribly often! Seoul is an amazing place, and it's absolutely massive.

The first day we were here we took the subway for a bit and went to the National University, which is absolutely gorgeous. The campus is situated in the cradle of the mountains (which are green and always seem to have clouds hovering at the top).

Later the first day we went to a "music" district near another of the city's universities. There were people everywhere, even late into the night. The area was filled with lots of little bars, restaurants and jazz clubs. Street vendors are all over the place as well. My favorite thus far has been a stand where you could buy masks, and your options were: a horse head, a camel head, Osama bin Laden, and George Bush.

On day two, at night, we walked down to a really cool district where pretty much everything was covered in neon. Malls here are quite different from what they are in the states. Here the malls are in high-rises, so each floor has two or three restaurants/shops.

12 . days . and . counting...

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Seoul, South Korea and will be gone for the next 12 days. I'm terribly excited for the trip, and will try to post an update every now and then, but don't know how often I'll be at the computer.

So along with the wonderful.fabulous.always enjoyable blogs listed to the right, here are a few stories to keep you (hopefully) entertained:

♥ American Apparel seems doomed to continue churning out borderline pornographic ads that have little to do with what they sell

♥ Absolutely everything is worth reading/looking at/devouring at Oh Joy

♥ This site seems to only have one image, but it's fascinating

♥ I've always told my fiance that I would like to have an owl and name him Fox (though this is both strange and impractical). Oddly enough, this blog has a post on this woman's art that includes them side by side:


♥ Slate reviews a horror film about paper bags

♥ Al Gore wants your help

♥ Just Jared thinks the new 90210 series will be a "cult hit." Hmm...really?

and finally...

♥ I want to live in this hotel

Have a wonderful two weeks!!

nico

When I went to get my hair trimmed yesterday, I decided I wanted a change - but just a little change - so I got some fringy bangs cut. When I came home and asked my fiance what he thought, he said that he liked them and it reminded him of Nico. So since the reference came up, here's a little fashion post inspired by her (in her not-so-heroin-addicted phase):

she . hit . pause

She Hit Pause Studios, Inc. was created by
Matt Schwartz, photographer, and Kate Shawver, web designer/developer, in Spring of 2002." I've long been enamored with photographs that are taken TTVF -- the color (or lack of) and grainy texture of the images feels personal, as though there's a forgotten memory waiting to come out of each picture.

Matt Schwartz' photographs (though they're Polaroids, not TTVF) evoke a similar feeling, but one that's discernibly more visceral. The pictures are larger than just memories - they're complete stories. Really. Fascinating. Stories.





All images (and so many more) can be purchased on his website in different sizes, framed or unframed.

runway . review.

I do sometimes wonder if the pressure of having to create (at least) four collections per year - Fall/Winter, Resort, Spring/Summer, Pre-Fall - is a bit too much for fashion designers. Some seem to pull it off effortlessly, churning out beautiful and wearable garments season after season. Others fare not so well.

Earlier this year I raved about Erin Fetherston's dresses - they were glamorous and whimsical. This morning I peeked at her 2009 Resort collection hoping for a lighter version of her signature fairy-esque style.

But, no.

Look and judge for yourself, though my opinion remains firmly grounded in the, "Why did you put shiny wallpaper on the models?" category.




(My fingers are crossed that something a bit more inspiring will appear in her SS 09 collection.)