The Brown’s Shoe Experience

I was asked a month back to redesign or repurpose a pair of Brown’s Shoes for The Celeb and Designer Initiative  Sponsored by Brown’s Shoes themselves-Hosted by Frugal Fashion Week!!  I met with Gillian (founder of Frugal Fashion Week) to go over the details of the initiative and some guidelines to go with. She really let me just go for it!

She then handed me a pair of Red Paris Hilton Pumps

At first I was thinking of using a lot of colour and frills but when I saw these shoes, it just hit me! I was going to make them a true Handsome&Lace inspired original, incorporating my love for Silver Screen movies into the redesign.

I had never fabricated or re-fabricated a pair of shoes in my life so I must admit that this was a challenge (I love to be challenged) First I had to find salvaged materials for my project. I so happened to have lace from an old tank top and some black velvet from a shirt gone wrong a few years back.  I managed to gain the rest of my materials from friends and family in order to execute the design just as it was envisioned in my head!

Here is the result!

The shoes actually have little ties down the front now but I had to send in my shoes before I could take any more pictures…But there will be more pics to come! The Gala is THIS Friday, July 23rd starting at 8pm at the Bata Shoes Museum on Bloor where the shoes will be modeled in a runway fashion and then auctioned off to some lucky person or collector.

There will be drinks, food, music, photographers, magazine, and other media so don’t miss out on this event!  Come watch shoe history with me!

-Keira XOXO

What area of Toronto do you frequent most and why?

All The Rage

Rage

The Rage is a shop in Kensington Market full of wonder and surprise!  Highly recommended for anyone who is into funky, rare, and eclectic things, Rage is really grabbing the attention of the media and public for new and inspiring designs from in-house designs to local artisans after the same goals.

Focused on gaining exposure for new designers and old, this shop should be on your list for fun day out, even if you have already been there, Rage never stops short of keeping items fresh and keen.

Just dropped off a fresh batch of:

Hair Pieces

Shrunken tie-necklaces

Shrunken tie-pocket clips

Shrunken tie-earrings

Velcro ties

Now go adorn yourself accordingly!

Have fun and win!

Today I am so excited to announce a collaborated giveaway with OneCraftyFox

Diana, the delightful owner of OneCraftyFox, approached me with an adorable idea of a giveaway where one lucky winner could win some free adornables by Handsome&Lace through entering a fun contest;  so of course, I was all in!  We must have had fun putting this together because we had about 20 emails back and forth!

To see more info or to enter, please visit her website and good luck to those who enter!

A Crafty Collaboration

So after several attempts at solely trying to create some stimulating tags for my line, I realized that I was too close to what I made; It was going to be too hard to have an outside perspective on what my label should express, so I enlisted the help of Shannon McCarthy from Comfortably Lovely to design the overall portrayal of Handsome&Lace.  Shannon is known for creating memories out of nostalgic and whimsical images; Her creations are often reminiscent of naive past times, innocent grace and thought provoking visuals that simply make you feel familiar with what you see.

(Photo by Comfortably Lovely)

Ordinarily, Shannon creates one-of-a-kind greeting cards, collages (the occasional album cover) and various other paper goods, continuously using vintage materials. I just HAD to have her presence on my tags somehow!  Shannon surprisingly agreed to custom decorate my tags/labels, so I did a little dance in my kitchen and got coordinating!

(Photo by Comfortably Lovely)

I am sending her my tag templates this week so stay tuned to see what her beautiful mind creates!

I simply Can Not Wait!

You can find more about Comfortably Lovely here!

We strongly encourage outsourcing other designers for help with areas you are not totally familiar with. It enables communication among creatives, cross promotion, shared ideas, learning about other crafts, or simply just spreading the love!

-Keira

Dancing in the kitchen

It isn’t often you get to see the blogger in motion, especially dancing on video, so here you go!

Just starting Out

Hello everyone!

I’m just getting this site going so don’t worry!!

In the meantime check out my Etsy page…

You will find fun novelty treasures on there…..

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HandsomeAndLace