I'm currently running around New York, so I've yet to see my interview with the Vancouver Sun in print. However, I received scans of the profile (titled "Booking a date with her destiny"). Click on the images to enlarge.
NYC photos coming right up!
VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE SCANS: CANADIAN FASHION DESIGNER AND BLOG LA CARMINA.
I'm currently running around New York, so I've yet to see my interview with the Vancouver Sun in print. However, I received scans of the profile (titled "Booking a date with her destiny"). Click on the images to enlarge.
NYC photos coming right up!
BLOGGER SIGNS TWO BOOK DEALS: LA CARMINA VANCOUVER SUN NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW.
It certainly is strange to open up a newspaper and find a photo of La Carmina staring back. Fortunately, it isn't a mugshot. Today's Vancouver Sun has a front-page Arts & Life profile about my fashion line and upcoming books, Cooking Cute and Tokyo Theme Restaurants. As you can see, I wore a gigantic tower-of-flowers Gothic Rococo hat for your amusement. You can read the article here; below are some quotes. The story is accompanied by a video, which you can view here. Intrigued about my work? Clickity click on lacarmina.com for more.
"I'm just so enthusiastic and passionate about these ideas. I guess that when publishers looked at it they could pick up on that, too. Ask me to write about the history of automobiles and I just couldn't do it, even if you were paying me a million dollars."
"I'm a creature of the night," she says, "and I like to sleep in; ideally it would be 1 or 2pm but I don't usually allow myself to sleep in that late."
"I love the interplay between things that are frivolous and serious. For example, the Rococo era was considered very frivolous but I think there is a lot that can be learned from that. Now that kawaii is getting more popular in the west I think that it reveals a lot about Japanese culture and the reasons why it became popular here [the whole Hello Kitty phenomenon]. I think down the line we'll be reading a scholarly text on kawaii."
"People who knew me growing up knew me as the goth kid, always the one that loved underground culture into strange music from the 60s - it's just me. I consider myself an esthete; there were those people like Oscar Wilde and those in the Victorian era such as the dandys who were very flamboyant and out there, but at the same time they are joking behind the façade - they know it's a façade, they play around with it, and not taking themselves too serious."
"I loved the training [of law] and I really think it made me really focus and work smart," she opines, "but I'm not passionate about the law the way I'm passionate about fashion, about writing, about the creative world."
"To quote a fellow bootstrapper, 'I work for no man,'" she tells me. "Since both book deals came through, I'll have enough to work on (and live on) for the next while. The creative and entrepreneurial paths are always perilous, but I thrive on the thrill and risk, the sense of self-determination... I certainly wouldn't trade them for a comfy corporate office."
World knocking on Vancouver blogger's door
Published: Saturday, August 30, 2008
Interview by Lucy Hyslop
Photos by Jenelle Schneider
GOTHLOLI OF THE WEEK #38: KARIMA.
† Name/URL: Karima (mostly called Kari)
† Age: 20
† Location: 's-Hertogenbosch, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands
† How were you introduced to Gothic Lolita fashion?
The way the clothes make me feel. Whenever I wear my lolita clothes I always feel pretty and cute. I guess that's just the most important reason to wear whatever you like. Just to feel good in it.
† What do you find appealing about GL style and culture?
The friendliness of other Lolis and how many variations of the style there are!
† What are your favorite GL clothing brands?
Moi meme Moitie, Mille Fleurs/Mille Noirs, Putumayo, Victorian Maiden
† Any other comments?
Just do whatever you like~ ^^
If you would like to be the next Gothloli of the Week, please read the submission instructions here.
CICADA SHELL HAIR ACCESSORIES ON SHOKOTAN, JAPANESE IDOL ACTRESS BLOGGER.
Remember the handmade spider and cockroach brooches from the early days of my blog? Japanese idol and OCD blogger Shokotan is also fond of insect accessorization... but she takes creepy-crawly to a whole other level.
According to Pink Tentacle, the singer showed up at a recent concert with her hair covered in insect shells. The crowd went wild when she tossed the crispy cicada molts into the front row. Would you eat them? Would you wear them?
I'm off to NYC with Count D... stay tuned for Fashion Week!
AKINA: YOUNG GOTHIC LOLITA FASHION DESIGNER, LANG LEAV OF SYDNEY AUSTRALIA.
Ever imagine that there was someone just like you who lived on the other side of the globe? In the net age, there's no need to dig a tunnel through the center of the Earth to find out.
Fate (or a random Google search) led me to Akina, a multi-award winning fashion label based in Sydney, Australia. I've been exchanging emails with designer Lang Leav (wearing the red belt in the above photo) - and it's sort of like communicating with Bizarro Carmina. Both of us are 20-something designers heavily influenced by Gothic Lolita, Japanese kawaii, and the darker side of life. Both of our paths have led to Tokyo (I'll be there next month to work on my theme restaurants book; Lang just completed a fellowship). As Lang writes, "It's really cool we are in two completely different parts of the world but are doing similiar things!"
Ready for another uncanny parallel? Lang and I come from families involved in the garment industry. But Lang has a real Cindarella story - she's the daughter of a seamstress who grew up in the sweatshops of Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney. Following the creation of her label Akina in 2005, Lang was awarded the Qantas Spirit of Youth Award (to support young Australian designers). In 2007, she received the Winston Churchill Fellowship to research Goth Lolis and the fashion market in Tokyo. Her label was picked up by key Australian boutiques, and her inspiring story was featured in an ABC documentary.
It's recognition well-deserved. Lang's fashion line has a charming Alice in Wonderland feel, with signature lace collars, ruffle hemlines, and puffy sleeves. My personal favorite is the tuxedo top (top right) with a smart little bow tie. The central character is the cute-but-malevolent Akina, a villain with a button fetish. Watch out, Basil Farrow - she attacks teddy bears to steal their eyes!
And like me, Lang doesn't limit her design work to clothing. She also produces these intricately-detailed sterling silver charms. Each features a moveable head and comes tucked away in hand-made gift packaging.
Lang's dark fairytale world crosses over to her limited edition storybooks. Marvel over the accordion design, button closure, ornate edging, and rivet detailing! "A little treasure for yourself or a friend to keep forever after."
Keep your eyes on this rising talent - I certainly will. You can purchase Lang Leav's delightful designs from the Akina web store.
VAMPIRE PENGUIN: SCARY BLOODY GOTH STUFFED PLUSH TOY, PENGUIN BOOKS MASCOT.
Three Gothic Aristocrats walk into a bar: Count Drunkula, Count Mackula, and Count von Pennies. The first one hails from Ireland... the second is Italian... and the third is a Jew.
Oh, I crack myself up! One could write a book about the bizarre things La Carmina does to amuse herself. Chapter One: She was so excited to be publishing her next book under Penguin that she immediately ordered a plush toy version of the publisher's mascot. ($15 from Penguin USA, reduced to $13 if you enter the coupon code NACCP.) It met her kawaii standards, but was far from sufficiently Gothic. What's a Goth Loli to do?
Turn him into the avian cousin of Bunnicula! She replaced his goofy orange bowtie with a shimmery red and black cape. His flippers got the corset treatment with white nail polish. A few strokes from a bottle of red gave him a bloody beak and hellfire eyes. The final touch - a metal nose (beak? ) stud. Bwa ha ha ha!
Can you think of a good name for the little vampire? Count Waddlesworth, perhaps?
PS - Actress Joanna Lumley recently caused a stir with her words: "The young ones don't do anything nowadays. You must learn to sew. It is pretty shaming if you can't sew." What are your thoughts?
MITSUKO COUDENHOVE-KALERGI: JAPANESE AUSTRIAN COUNTESS, MUSE OF GUERLAIN.
Japanese Gothic Lolitas are walking historical contradictions, especially when they're modelling Victorian bonnets against the backdrop of modern Tokyo. Or are they? The following is the true story of Mitsuko Aoyama, a mid-19th century Japanese teen who fell in love with an Austro-Hungarian Count. May it inspire you! (Source: Sothebys)
In the days of Queen Victoria, there lived a dashing young Count named Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi. He belonged to an ancient Habsburg noble line that had several castles and estates in Austria. A diplomat and brilliant linguist, Count Coudenhove-Kalergi spoke 18 languages and was posted to Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Constantinople, and Buenos Aires.
In 1891, the Count was named Deputy Minister of Austria-Hungary to Japan. He often visited a curios shop owned by a samurai family. One fateful day, his horse slipped on ice and he fell. Mitsuko Aoyama, the owner's teenage daughter, ran to his aid and made a lasting impression on the 32-year-old bachelor. The Count convinced Mitsuko's father to let her work as a parlor maid at his legation.
Faster than you can say "kawaii", the two fell in love and the Count asked Mitsuko's father for her hand in marriage. He flatly refused, but the couple defied him and married anyway in 1892. As a result, 18-year-old Mitsuko was disinherited and forever banned from her father's house.
She gave birth to two of their sons in Tokyo. In 1897, the family decided to move to Vienna. Prior to their departure, Mitsuko was received by the Empress of Japan, who advised her: "No matter what your destiny may be, you must never forget the self-respect befitting a Yamato-nadeshiko (a Japanese woman)."
She took these words to heart - the fact that the charming and witty Count returned to Vienna with a wife, much less a Japanese one, was greeted with dismay by the young ladies of the court. Ignoring the xenophobia, Mitsuko threw herself into the study of German, French, mathematics, history, and geography. She gave birth to five more children.
When her husband died in 1906, the 33-year-old mother taught herself law and economics to manage the family estate with which she was entrusted. To provide her children with the best opportunities, she stayed in Vienna until her death in 1941. All of her children were well-educated and spoke multiple languages; her second son, Richard Nikolaus, became the founder of the "Pan-Europa" movement after WWI.
The spunky Japanese-Austrian Countess inspired Jacques Guerlain to create a perfume called "Mitsouko". Like its namesake, "It does not reveal its beauty all at once, nor does it allow one to treat it casually. It starts out aloof and cool, before revealing its intense and sensual side." The chypre and peach-infused scent debuted in 1919 and is still sold today.
