Surrealism from the thirties

The surrealist movement of the 1930s extended from art into design through jewelry and fashion, particularly in the work of Elsa Schiaparelli. Here are two scarves I made from a 1930s silk with a surrealist influenced design. Biomorphism and microscopic images are characteristics of surrealism and these characteristics are apparent in this print that has the appearance of strange blood cells under a microscope. This is one of the earliest fabrics I've found and I've made it into a number of scarves with different backings. This image shows one with a sheer black wool backing and another with a teal blue wool, mirroring the teal in the print.

Tziporah at Bullock's Wilshire

I showed you Tziporah's visit to the old I. Magnin store in an earlier post. Here she is a few blocks east at the former Bullock's Wilshire, the art deco masterpiece which was thankfully preserved, and converted into Southwestern Law School. Tziporah is emulating the fashionable shoppers of an earlier era with her head wrap made by The Scarf Moment from a Valentino couture fabric.

Fuzzy thought bubbles

I come across some unusual fabrics in my search for interesting materials for The Scarf Moment and I count this print amongst the most unusual. It's a 1940s silk with a design that features what look to me like thought, or speech bubbles that you'd find in a comic strip. There are no characters expressing these thoughts and not even any words in these speech balloons. Just scribbles. A very enigmatic print. I've made some scarves with this fabric using a cashmere backing, and some, like the one shown here, with a sheer wool and silk voile that allows the print to show through the back.

Tziporah Salamon for The Scarf Moment!

Our featured model for Fall 2013 is stylist and story-teller Tziporah Salamon. Well-known in New York for being a walking-work-of-art, Tziporah has been collecting vintage clothing for years and appears frequently in Bill Cunningham's column in the New York Times. She visited Los Angeles this Spring and I had the opportunity to photograph her wearing scarves by The Scarf Moment. Here Tziporah is wearing a scarf made from a vintage mohair fabric with a floral print, backed with yellow silk.

Gwendolyn in a Granny dress, and flowers

Here's my favorite Los Angeles singer/songwriter, Gwendolyn, backstage at the Bootleg Bar where she was performing with her country/western band. This scarf I made from a floral corduroy that's probably from the 70s matches quite well with Gwendolyn's 70s granny dress. Do you watch the show Weeds? Gwendolyn makes some of the music for that show. If you like it, check out her latest album, Bright Light. And you too can have a scarf like Gwendolyn's. I will be posting soon about which craft shows The Scarf Moment will be selling at.

Silk Stripes for 2012

Here's DJ and musician Charlie Sputnik modeling a scarf made from a fantastic striped silk. I met Charlie when I myself was DJing at the Standard Hotel. I've made a few versions in the limited amount of this vintage fabric I found. Although I'm sold out of the grey flannel backed scarf shown, I have one backed with green silk, one backed with yellow silk (which Charlie is wearing) and one backed with a black quilted cotton. Soon to be sold at a craft fair near you.

Another Shade of Grey

For the 2012 season I've made some monochromatic scarves, which is a change of pace for the Scarf Moment. I usually look for prints and stripes and plaids. I found a few yards of this very fine silk with a windowpane jacquard pattern in a shade of grey that perfectly matched some vintage cotton velvet (velveteen, for those of you who are into fabric technicalities) from my collection. Omar is modeling this scarf, that will look as good on a woman as it does on this man.

The Lady Bunny, having a Scarf Moment!

The Scarf Moment does not discriminate on the basis of age or weight when selecting our models. Witness The Lady Bunny! Ha ha! I saw her in her hilarious show That Ain't No Lady at La Nueva Escuelita and it was full of self-deprecating jokes like that. But of course, she is neither old, nor fat. Look how fabulous she looks in the scarf I made! This queen knows how to coordinate her look. The Lady Bunny took her silk scarf to the set of RuPaul's Drag U for this fantastic shot. If you are in NY get your tickets for That Ain't No Lady here.

Denim and Silk a la Martin Margiela

This scarf was inspired by one I saw at Maison Martin Margiela; a simple length of blue denim on one side and silk satin on the other. The MM scarf had fringe but I decided to leave mine plain (mine is a little less expensive too!). I've made a few versions in different shades of blue and in different widths. Our model today for this French inspired scarf is Frenchman Art Bleek, a talented musician, producer and DJ, and one of the creators of Zoowax and their catchy song Nine to Five. Watch the video here.

Sally Go 'round the Roses

The Jaynetts had a hit in in 1963 called Sally Go 'round the Roses. But here we have the roses going 'round Sally. Our model Sally is wearing a new scarf made from vintage fabric that might possibly be from the era of the Jaynetts hit song: roses in many colors on a green background, in this case with red silk on the reverse. I also made some with green silk on the back. Sally works at Svenska Mobler, where the Scarf Moment had a trunk show last year.