Inspired by Milan Fashion week (fall & winter 2011/12 collections)

Loved Lisa Tant's Tweets this week!

On February 17th, World Wildlife Fund Canada brought Canadians National Sweater Day to promote awareness of personal action including demanding action on climate change from government, business leaders and decision makers'. It made an impact on me -- I thought twice and put on a sweater yesterday instead of turning up the thermostat. I wonder what, sweaters were in collections shown in Milan. Very cool dresses by Mark Fast though.

At recent social media week the audience learned about the DANIER Design Challenge, a partnership between Danier and Ryerson’s School of Fashion supported entirely online and through social media. Ryerson had been seeking an opportunity to demonstrate relevancy to the fashion industry and to students. The winning submission video (worth watching despite the quality issue):

Toronto has a inspiring resource of textile and fashion history at the ROM’s Patricia Harris

Gallery of Textiles and Costume including Elsa Schaparelli, Galiano
and Scalamandre Silks Inc., plus ancient islamic textile remnants from Egypt. Would love to see compelling podcast content about this rich information on ROM's site. Photo Credit:Royal Ontario Museum © 2011. All rights reserved.

Groovy Fashion Art Vid about The Counterfeit Crochet Project

Back to Milan with a post by Reuters today. Trend Watch?

"The next big issue for fashion is not China's economic boom but Chinese creativity," Italian trend-setter designer and retailer Elio Fiorucci said on the sidelines of a Dolce and Gabbana show...

We know little about Chinese sense of beauty. Chinese designers have got talent, they know all about us and they will be the next big surprise," he said.

China is predicted to become the world's biggest luxury market with sales of $14.6 billion in the next five years, according to the World Luxury Association."

By Antonella Ciancio

MILAN | Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:44am EST

RESOURCES

fibrequarterly.blogspot.com

Toronto Fashion Incubator
stylecollective.ca

#Advocacy&SocialMedia

#Education&SocialMedia

Winter Thriving

I love xcountry skiing; those trails leave me feeling truly happy. Ontario's forests in wintertime are a beautiful place to be. Silent and clean. Meditative; deep breathing fresh, clean air feels great.

As a whole body workout and stretch, its unbeatable. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Goodlife membership and watching the Food Network when I’m working on my fitness. But its a pretty solitary event. There's also the connection time factor with favorite fellow skiers. Shared happiness is the best kind. Photo credit

Canadian Winter/Snow/Art/Research Huzzah! Shout out to Lab Space Studio for their innovative Snow Days collaborative ‘arts based research project'. Here's Melissa Penney's Feb. 17th Documentation from Labspace Studio:

RESOURCES

Ontario Trails
Ski Ontario
Kawartha Nordic Ski Club (KNSC)
ABOUT ONTARIO'S FORESTS | Ministry of Natural Resources

Never Say Never

Its Family Day weekend. And what couldn’t be more about family, than the Biebs in 3D with teen gal family members. Courtesy March's Rolling Stone Magazine -- Justin's fave meal? Swiss Chalet, quarter chicken.

The Biebs had a nurturing, stable home, where he had the opportunity to learn about music early in life. These organizations provide learning opportunities locally and around our planet. So much possibility: never say never.

Because I’m a Girl
Habitat for Humanity
Ontario Science Centre

SKETCH working arts for street involved and homeless youth

Royal Ontario Museum

Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada

Whales + User Generated Content

Whales made news headlines this week. First, the appearance of an endangered Pacific Gray Whale in the San Fran Bay Area. His transoceanic journey is being tracked by The Marine Mammal Institute. Feeding areas of Western Pacific Gray's are impacted by offshore oil & gas drilling near Russia. Russia controls more prospective drilling area in the Arctic Ocean than the United States and Canada combined.

Yesterday, Japan called of its annual arctic whale hunt after being hounded by activists.

Sperm whale photo, courtesy of Brandon Cole © Brandon Cole

Closer to home is Whales | Tohorā, a feature exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. The show explores the cultural and historical significance of whales to Māori and Pakeha cultures of New Zealand & other Pacific nations. With specimens from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, its an show worth seeing rich with history, culture and whale'y might. To March 2o.

Nature Unleashed is also at the Ontario Science Centre, examining the science, history and the headlines of natural disasters. The exhibit includes haunting images of vacationers on a Thailand beach reacting to the 1st of 6 Tsunami waves.

At a recent Toronto Social Media Week event, a panel of journalists discussed the role of user generated content (USG) in news gathering -- natural disasters included -- immediately capturing our attention and impacting our collective memory, empathy and compassion.

A quote from William Shakespeare at Nature Unleashed reads "One touch of nature makes all the world kin" -- perhaps more true now, than ever before.

L'Amour (Pas La Mort)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese

in spite of everything

which breathes and moves, since Doom

(with white longest hands

neatening each crease)

will smooth entirely our minds

--before leaving my room

i turn, and (stooping

through the morning) kiss

this pillow, dear

where our heads lived and were.

e.e. Cummings, 1926

Craftsmanship: Opportunity & DIY Revolts

"Perhaps we're entering a new age of craftsmanship, one where we can see craft in the way a new business is devised, a sale is made or a website is coded. A craftsperson might be particularly talented and connected in the way she deals with clients, or be able to meet deadlines with alacrity. Just because it's not in a crafts fair doesn't mean it didn't demand craft."

Sethgodin.typepad.com, Feb 8, 2011

Am inspired by Etsy's Success Symposium this week and the spirit of community that Rob Kalin’s team fosters. David Brown

did an amazing job of leading the Etsy community through the Symposium via Twitter yesterday, and he spoke at a NY social media week event last night. Would love to have been there. Etsy.com

Cupcakes photo credit: Heather Katsoulis, CC BY-SA 2.0

So... (1) February is the optimal time of year for Canadians to craft happenings. Baking is an option, like the heart shaped rock solid bread I baked for a boyfriend once. It made a great door stop. Or try coupltography DIY. Dramatic and memorable.

Photo credit: Rodney Smith via mymodernmet.com

Two (2) For props, there's Canadian fledgling biz Panty by Post. Owners Lori Sholzberg and Natalie Grunberg will appear on Dragon's Den this

spring.

The site's men’s only room area on the site, gives tips on how to ‘size her up’ by digging into her drawers. That's an exact quote.

http://pantybypost.com/

Or there's the Toronto's Erotic Arts & Crafts fair at the Drake Hotel. Eroticartsandcrafts.com

Three (3) Entirely unrelated to February but definitely to the

business of content distribution -- there’s currently 'a DIY e-book revolt' in Japan. Dedicated craftspersonship indeed.

Photo credit: Smh.com.au

Updated Feb 18, 2010

http://bit.ly/getgbP

BookScan, has a team of 120 employees who convert your paper books into electrons* for around a dollar (¥1,000) per book. http://www.bookscan.co.jp/

Toys, Today & Yesterday

The international toy industry unites in Nuremberg and New York each February, at the cities’ respective trade-only Toy Fairs. While the general public beaver away to pay for recent holiday season excess, bets are placed on what products will garner the biggest ‘nag factor’ from kids next fall. February is also Black History Month, and hey its now year of the Rabbit: Gung Hay Fat Choy! C'mon, February's not so bad...

One (1) Keep an eye out for Tandar’s, recently launched at the Vegas CES show -- an interactive plush creature modeled on the endangered Tarsier, among the smallest primates on the planet, and nocturnal.

Two (2) At the Royal Ontario Museum currently, Playful Pursuits: Chinese Traditional Toys and Games. The only material used in the collection

is paper, wood and clay. These are not the toys of today.

My fave: the cricket house and 6 teeny plates for feeding your pet cricket. Crickets featured large in the Chinese culture, which we know from Mulan (the Disney version). Adults even held -- wait for it --cricket fights. Mellow.

Three (3) Also at the ROM: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa.

The exhibition is a lesson in material as vocabulary and African history seen through the lense of visual artist, El Anatusi.

Anatusi constructs massive wall hangings from materials he finds in Narobi, where he lives, which are mostly pieces of aluminium and liquor bottle caps. The artist notes that liquor was first introduced to Africa by European traders in the exchange for African goods.

Anatusi’s Open(ing) Market installation represents local & global African Markets, featuring hand made tin boxes, product brand logos & adinkra symbols, a West African writing system made up of ideograms.

This is the exhibition’s first stop on a 3 year North America tour, which closes at the ROM on February 27^th. ROM.on.ca

Shown here: Playful Pursuits Photos courtesy: © Royal Ontario Museum, 2010. All rights reserved | El Anatsui, Three Continents, 2009 Aluminum and copper wire Photo courtesy: Jack Shainman Gallery

February: Crowdsourcing Love

Three thought provoking approaches to crowdsourcing crossed my path this week. #GreatCaseStudies

One (1) Crowdsourcing Fun

If you haven't already heard of The Awesome Foundation’s Toronto launch - a truly awesome concept! “ The Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in a paper bag full of cash by a group of ten self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest. The Awesome Foundation

Two (2) Crowdsourcing Differentiation

Mashable Headline: How HSN’s New Crowdsourcing Project Could Shake Up Online Retail Of note: HSN’s recent gamble on consumer product entrepreneurs and experimentation with crowdsourcing.

Three (3) Crowdsourcing Expertise

The International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition "engaged the best and most innovative international, interdisciplinary design teams—comprised of landscape architects, architects, engineers, ecologists, and other experts..." to create wildlife crossing structures. arc-competition.com

From Lisa Rochon's G&M article: A safe passage across treacherous roadways. A great contrast to the human centred design focus of last week. Toronto's Janet Rosenberg & Associates entry shown here.