FashBlog.com

Before I describe this lovely concept, I want to get credit to my source for some of this week’s information, the constantly interesting Lucky Magazine. I use several publications to bring you the latest ideas-and to prompt my own creativity-but this is my favorite right now. Pick up a copy if you get the chance. (I’ll provide my opinions about other glossies in the future.)

Anyway, this week I posted a piece about how eyelet has transcended from the linen closet into the clothes closet, and, coincidently, found a similar move of another product. It's a style of embroidery that's combined with raised needlework called suzani, but I like to call it mosaic stitching. With symmetrical patterning and detailed design, that's what it looks like to me.

Suzani originated in Pakistan, and was used in wall hangings and bed covers. It’s hard not to imagine royalty falling in love with the rich, exotic textures and unbelievable colors-which have now made their way into the fashion world of the west.

If you ever had one of those mosaic stone sets as a kid, you may have an appreciation for how special mosaic is. It’s the interplay of varying hues of certain colors within structured spaces, in conjunction with an overall regular design, that makes the result so stunning. I can’t imagine the time spent to create a large item utilizing the suzani process by hand. (If you find what part, if any, of modern day suzani fashion is done by machine, please post a comment here so that we all know.) The prices seem to reflect a high effort of man-hours for the creative process, but probably different companies have different methods of production. The costs range from $5000 for a short jacket to $3000 for a mini skirt (about 15 inches in total length) and $1800 for a purse (hard to tell how large). So, it’s clear that suzani items would be considered a high end luxury for most people.

But I will describe these items for you just in the event that you’ll be able to recognize the effect if you see it used anywhere. It appears to be somewhat heavy-as befitting most tapestry wall hangings, but the jacket, at least, does not appear to have the same coarseness, and when used in a skirt, it doesn’t give a “hard” look. In other words, instead of sticking straight out like you would think a tapestry would, this version seems to mold to the shape of the model’s hips and thighs.

The jacket actually could be considered a button-less sweater, and employs tan, olive, gold and burnt orange in 3-tiered patterning of large circles, smaller sunbursts, and comma-like curlicues. Oscar de la Renta expands on the embellishment even more by adding beading. There is no doubt in my mind that this could be passed down through generations; it seems to know no particular era.

As far as the black, white and red skirt by Derek Lam, it was paired it with a lime green crepe de chine blouse with embroidery on the upper chest and elbows which matches the skirt colors and patterns. Barney’s and Neiman Marcus are offering the set.

Now, every so often, I come across items that seem too pretty to actually use. You know, things that should simply be gazed upon, like statues or other works of art. I love the purse by Escada, but really can’t imagine exposing it to the elements, plopping it down on a theater floor, or stuffing my kid’s snack inside. But, if I had unlimited funds and wanted a showpiece handbag to brighten a monotone ensemble, I’d pick this one from Italy. It’s described as using the colors of “fuschia and camel”, but that doesn’t do it justice. The bag has a beige center, in which is a flower-like design of orange and wine, surrounded by swirls, curlicues and triangles in more of the same colors. This square of beige is framed by a band of tan (I guess that’s the camel), then finished off with another frame around the purse edge, which utilizes a beige flowers with wine centers, edged with orange, and set against a wine background, peppered with dots of more beige.

Check it out-suzani is magnifico!