Germany and Spain

Yesterday Germany lost in the Euro 2008 Final against Spain. My loyalties are divided - I still think of Spain as my second home. And I am not very interested in football. Still, some time ago I got a German flag from the charity shop (for free - they gave it to me because they did not think anybody would want to buy it) and I thought maybe I could hang it up in the window for the occasion. But my girls would not let me - they said people would throw eggs and bricks at our house.

Socks again

"tumblr is my sock drawer - Paul Mison's random stuff that doesn't go elsewhere. Is it microblogging, or microactivity?"
http://tumblr.husk.org


"Put a sock in it
In a desperate bid to cut emissions, the Japanese government is advising housewives (can't men do their own washing?) not to separate their husbands' socks from the normal wash. The country that washes everything together lowers its emissions."

The Observer Magazine, 29 June 2008, p.73

The Devil wears ....

The Devil, as always in the detail, wears Primark, Prada, stripes or Zara?

Michel Pastaureau, The Devil's Cloth: A History of stripes and striped fabrics, Simon and Schuster 2003

The Devil wears Prada, USA 2006, David Frankel (director), Aline Brosh McKenna (screenplay), Lauren Weisberger (novel)

The Devil wears Primark, Channel 4 documentary, scheduled to be shown 1 June 2008, pulled at last minute for yet not further specified editorial reasons.

The Devil wears Zara
http://devilwearszara.blogspot.com

Hairy things and entanglements

"The ‘bald’ objects of the recent past have become dishevelled, hairy, networky ‘things’. Everywhere, matters of fact are slowly graduating to the new status of matters of concern [...]

[...] if we are correct in saying that this general philosophy of objectivity is now changing, that we have never been modern, that a second modernization is underway that transforms all objects into things, all matters of fact into matters of concern, then what does it mean for modern styles? From the present vantage point, we can now see that they have always rejected, externalized and ignored all of the attachments that enabled the efficiency, efficacy, elegance and functionality of which they have always been so proud. In effect, the battle with decoration dissimulated another fight against entanglement."

Bruno Latour, Is there a non-modern Style, Domus January 2004
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/presse/presse_art/GB-01%20DOMUS%2001%2004.html

Unsightly straps

As the weather gets warmer, straps become a common sight - no longer, it seems, considered unsightly. Are lingerie guards a thing of the past?

When we were flowers

I found the handkerchief in the street - Borough Lane, Eastbourne - next to a walled garden full of flowers in the same colours as those embroidered on the handkerchief.

"Like spiders spinning webs from their own bodies or birds feathering their nests, women also adorned their homes with what they were. [...]
As women themselves were conventionally idealized as flowers, by depicting flowers they again symbolically represented themselves in their work."

Classen, Constance (2005), Feminine Tactics: Crafting an Alternative Aesthetics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, in Classen, Constance (ed), The Book of Touch, Berg, Oxford, New York 2005, pp 234, 235

Casting clouts in June

"Hooray! May is out ...
And we are officially allowed to cast our clouts whereever we please. A 'clout' in the old English proverb 'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out' is any warm garment that shouldn't be removed until the balmy days of June [...] Research reveals the Spanish have similar wise sayings apparently.... 'En mayo, busca la vieja el sayo.'"

Selvedge on-line newsletter June 2008
www.selvedge.org

Shopping

While I was giving a talk on myth and weaving at the University of East London, my daughters were weaving their way through the Canary Wharf shopping experience.

SATC is now showing in cinemas nationwide.