bonne fete

happy birthday mary, we're thinking of you. xo.

cocooning

i'm obsessed with this silhouette for spring. i love the idea of my body enveloped in a diaphanous cocoon which drapes around me and moves as i do. i don't know when this love affair started, though looking through my old collection of paper dolls i have a pretty good idea.

paper dolls were my toy of choice growing up (i'll have to show some of my collection one day). i was one of those obsessive, perfectionist kids who didn't mind being alone and who liked a lot of options so paper dolls were a good fit. they allowed me to play with 'grown-up' figures and a lot of elaborate costumes which wouldn't have translated to real dolls. besides the ones i made myself, some of my favorites were these erte fashion plates:


and a set of belle epoque styles:
both featured various forms the 'cocoon' shape i love.


though this 'volume at the hip, narrow at hem' skirt shape has belonged to many cultures and eras of fashion it is the europe circa WWI version from which my obsession stems.

shortly after the turn of the century, parisian couturier paul poiret started to change the silhouettes of womens' fashion. credited with inventing the sheath and the sack dress, he enticed fabric to fall and drape more naturally around the body resulting in simple and comfortable garments which drew fashion rebels to him (thanks textile history class!) poiret found inspiration in the costumes of the ballet russe and the romantic orientalism in vogue at the time.

he also championed dress trousers or narrow skirts to be worn under wide 'minaret' or 'lampshade' tunics as well as harem pants, two styles which are wildly popular again today. it's obvious he drew on many cultures and locales to create his unique garments.

when i was designing our spring collection for nokomis i wanted to focus on my own environment, locale and natural surroundings, along with my love of vintage fashion, to inform the shapes, fabrics and colours of the pieces.





thus our cocoon-like 'thistle' dress came to be. modeled by tara during our photoshoot last july, it's a perfect dress in which to butterfly into spring.

nokomis would like to welcome you to spring...

hurrah! it's spring! no, don't look outside silly, come visit us at the store where we've got new spring styles from nokomis (that's us!), as well as edmonton label cinder & smoke and toronto-based favorite preloved. from now on we'll be receiving new shipments on a semi-regular basis and we'll be sure to do lots of posts and photoshoots to show off our beauteous new goodies.

in the meantime, here's some photos of new nokomis pieces we've just put on the floor. our spring collection directly relates to memories of solitary sun-drenched summer visits to nana's house with days spent dressing up in her vintage clothing and escaping into one's imagination.

'harvest shirt', indigo cotton chambray $108





'morel tee' lyocell jersey in "moss" $75



'morel tee' in "mushroom"

'sarsparilla jeans' in pale grey denim $149

'thistle dress', lyocell jersey in "moss" $135





'thistle dress' in "mushroom"

ps. i stole the image of the poppy from my sister's blog, xo.

lazy day lookbook

i should've gone into the studio this afternoon to work on our fall collection but opted instead to distill and mull over some thoughts and inspirations. it's getting down to the wire so hopefully i can pull all these somewhat disparate elements together in two weeks. i usually can. wish me luck.

some current fixations in life, design and otherwise:

final 4 days!

daily inspiration

images from the shy little girl by phillis krasilovsky, illustrations by trina schart hyman published by houghon mifflin company boston, 1970

mac attack

so last week jessica called me at the studio and our conversation went like this:

*ring* *ring*
-nokomis studio, liz speaking
-hey it's me
-hey, what's up?
-oh my god! guess what?!
-oh my god! did they find the fabric?!
-what? no. but fleetwood mac is coming to edmonton!!!!!!
-wow that's awesome, are you going?
-totally!
-i bet tickets are expensive. (me being debbie downer)
-who cares? (she totally didn't say this, we had a whole conversation about how no one in their right mind should pay $150 for nosebleed seats, or something) i'm totally going and it's totally going to be f*cking awesome!
-i'm totally cheap so i'm totally not going! but i'm totally going to play rumors and have a stevie nicks fashion shoot at the store on monday (ok, i didn't say this at all, i just had the idea sunday night in fact, but i'm an 'artiste' and thus may take artistic license)
-what a great idea! i'll help out and then we can skip work and go eat cake (ok, at this point i'm totally making things up. jessica would never skip work to eat cake--she is a very hard worker)
-so they didn't find the fabric then huh?
-nope
-ok, bye
-bye

and voila! stevie-tastic!



body bag 'glam cami' on sale for $39 from $74, black denim 'andi jean' $89 down from $142, biko 'chain scarf wrap necklace' on sale for $71.20 from $89, bennie and olive belt on sale for $20 from $40 & bentwood buckle $28 down from $56, myrtle and pearls feather earrings $30, ashley watson 'small plover bag' $360



preloved 'shelly dress' on sale for $49 from $156, preloved 'amelia vest' on sale for $79 from $120, lisbeth 'waxed coin' necklace $69, alyzo peacock earrings $40



sunjalink 'silk baseball dress' $99 from $210, dagg and stacey 'danville skirt' $69 from $140, nokomis 'posh belt' $29 from $95 and myrtle and pearls feather earrings $30