Posts from ‘Folklore’
Cover up with Ivko cardigans and hoodies
If any of these beauties strike your fancy and you do not live in Montreal, we will serve you by phone and ship your order to you same day if you call the Boutique 514-678-9616
Nous allons mettre la collection Ivko printemps 2012 sur le plancher de la boutique vendredi 5 Avril à 11h.
We will be releasing the Ivko Spring 2012 collection onto the floor of the boutique Friday April 5th at 11AM.
The flowers remind me of Frieda’s infamous hairdo that she defiantly wore to to represent the traditions of her people.
The Day of the dead is a traditional Mexican holiday to remember and celebrate our ancestors.
Ivko scarf $159 each. Made from the softest lambswool.
This year browns and blues are strong for Fall.
Just forget about black.
Ignore it.
Look below and you will see why.
These Ivko sweaters and hoodies are both $199 at Boutique Katrin Leblond
The crop sweater is for all you ladies who want to show off your waist. Your true waist. It brings the eye up and away from the tummy and the hips and low and … drumroll please … behold we see the waist. Curvaliscious as you are, it is great to draw attention to your best parts. Throw it over a cute dress, or wear with a pair of jeans, the crop sweater is worth a try.
Ivko bolero $189
Gypsy skirt 100% American made cotton, $189
This cardigan is full of fine detail. Right down to the scalloped edge around the collar, it’s incredible detailed intartia and it’s exceptio0nally high quality 100% cotton yarn.
We have been excitedly anticipating new Ivko pieces. They are finally here! Coming to us all the way from Serbia. These Incredible knit wear designs are covered in beautiful pattern, exquisitely made using top quality yarns. The spring collection offers beautiful styles in linens and cottons.
This great skirt is in store now. For $135.
Come see the whole Spring collection in the store. It is fun and playful and cheerful.
Finish of your look with a pair of our elf heels available in store soon.
Mushroom earrings are available for $22 a pair at the boutique.
Mushrooms are a real life fantasy. The link between the fairy world and ours. a magical surprise that pops out of the grass and amazes us with its unexpected shape and it’s sometimes wild colours. Celebrate some mischievousness, celebrate spring, call to the fairies and elves. Wear a mushroom skirt.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
It seems I am not the only designer totally inspired by Haeckel’s art. Below you will see the most incredible dress by artists/designer Toolgrrl (that is her etsy name).
It’s inspired by an Ernst Haeckel illustration of a stinkhorn fungus from the 19th century. The relationship this piece has with the environment isn’t just limited to mushrooms, though, as every inch of the dress is made with recycled materials.
And now for some mushroom art that fits into our everyday. This is the new toadstool skirt that we are currently selling at the boutique. It is playful and clearly a reminder of the fact that Spring is on its way. YAY!
They say you can’t throw a stone in Montreal without hitting a church. Well, in Austin Texas, where I just spent a week’s vacation, you can’t throw a stone without hitting an image of the Guadalupe Virgin or the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I wasn’t raised with any Catholic education, so I was unfamiliar with the Sacred Heart. On this trip, as I began to see so many beautiful hearts all over town, in boutiques, on murals, and even just on keychains, I noticed I was really drawn to them.
We LOVE hearts at Boutique Katrin Leblond. Just look at our logo.
The heart’s bursting over with flowers, just like many sacred hearts burst with flames.
They say that, in Catholicism, the Sacred Heart of Jesus represents Jesus’ divine love for humanity. I like to think that when people enter the boutique, they are nurtured and inspired to show divine love towards themselves. We want every woman to feel they are entering a temple that worships the beauty that exists in all of us, inside and out.
this hand embroidered pillow is available at the boutique
I left Texas with a little hand-made Sacred Heart made out of tin that I bought from a Mexican artist. I’ve hung it over my work desk, so that the radiance of that divine self-love may carry me through my work days, and inspire me to be my best self.
Like a new dress or scarf, this little Heart of mine is a simple gift to myself that makes me feel special and loved. Come on by the Boutique and you’re bound to find something that does the same for you!
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen, and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
On February 2nd, pagans around the world pay homage Brigid, the goddess of poetry, smithcraft, and healing.
This is the first of a new thread on this blog called The Goddess Series, profiling goddesses from all different cultures and finding a little place for them at our Boutique.
Brigid: who is she?
Brigid is the fire of creativity and inspiration. Celtic tribes burned and protected sacred flames celebrating her spirit for centuries, until the Norman invasion of the middle ages. Legends of Brigid date back to ancient Ireland, but she has also been adopted by the Catholic Church as St. Brigid. She is symbolized often as an “eternal flame,” a spirit that lives in our hearts. Brigid is also considered a goddess of hearth and home. It is customary to offer her cakes and breads, as well as offer her words of poetry or wishes for the world.
A traditional alter for Imbolc, Brigid's pagan feast day.
What does Brigid teach us?
Brigid teaches us the grace of healing and handiwork. She guides us as our most passionate muse, but also nourishes us with the warmth of her fire. Brigid can make things whole, whether through her healing powers or through the synthesis of poetry. We celebrate Brigid as the days begin to grow noticeably longer, but while the earth is still clothed in white. Brigid reminds us that, while all may appear quiet and bleak on the surface, the earth is stirring, preparing for spring. She is modest and homely, but teaches us to go deep within ourselves. She holds our hand as we stir the soils of our own soul, anticipating spring.
Imbolc is celebrated with Brigid's creative fire
Where Brigid lives at Katrin Leblond
Brigid is in Katrin’s warm and sunny studio on Casgrain. She is in the hands of every person who stitches the clothes, cuts fabric, embroiders appliqué. She is the quiet inspiration that befalls a designer. She is in the hands of our fashion consultants, who lovingly craft beautiful outfits for all our clients in the dressing room. She is in the healing grace that comes from an hour spent in a colourful boutique, immersed in beauty.
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
- This Frida inspired art is made by Lulu an artist from Frelighsburg, Southern Quebec, Canada.
- I found these sweet paintings while trolling the E world for things to share with you.
- Lulu writes in her blog:
- I love my life… I love my son Ulysse and my husband Francois and my entire family. I love painting and collaging and drawing and illustrating. I love animals of all kinds, which explains why we have 5 cats, 3 dogs, 6 hens, 2 roosters, an hermit-crab and a turtle. I love colors, I love gardening, I love Mexico. I am French, I live in Southern Quebec about 5 minutes from the Vermont border. I love to laugh and I am pretty much always in a good mood. I talk a lot, this comes from my dad but I hate the telephone. I love nature, bird nests, rocks, old rusty things. I am curious and will try anything new I have not tried yet. I love staying in my studio late at night to paint mermaids, fairies, angels, cats, Frida, flowers and so many other things. I speak French, English and enough Spanish to get around. I can not live without the ocean and the beach, gotta go taste the salty water at least once a year. I love pink, I love skulls and skeletons, I love frogs and toads. I love black licorice and white chocolate. I love to hike the mountains around and I love to drive my old Volvo. I love my life…
- With Lulu’s art you can capture a reminder of a great person in an cute decoration for hanging in your kitchen or hallway or bathroom.
Sometimes Kat wonders why Frida is such a powerful Icon to so many people… so many women. “In many ways she was strong, courageous, political and creative, but in many ways she was also injured, heartbroken and self-deprecating ” Says Kat.
Kat admires her because of how she faced life with a fierce passion.
I admire her because she tried to tell the story she knew. The story of her self. There are few things more honest than that. She didn’t try to pretty her life she tried to tell it the way she felt it.
When I was younger I wanted my art to be truthful and because I felt I could never assume I knew everything about anyone the most truthful art I could make would have to be what I felt about myself. I ended up doing a lot of self portrait. In fact one of Kat’s and my first creative collaborative efforts involved her photographing me for a self portrait I was creating about the pain I was feeling in breaking up with my first love. I eventually titled the self portrait Offering. I think it is still the best most truthful painting I have ever made.
Frida’s very personal work ended up making powerful political statements about women, about art itself, about her community, her country, about nature and the environment, about spirit, about sexuality, and our relationship with ourselves.
I admire Frida for her deep concern for the world around her. I admire her for her belief that art is in everything you do. She used to ask her students to set the table and prepare the food and arrange the table with the same consciousness they would paint a painting. Both were of equal artistic value to her. That is amazing.
Discovering Frida affirmed for me many of my own ideas about my own art.
She was unapologetic.
She was politically fierce. Despite what Hollywood would have you believe… She died because she went to a protest against the American occupation while she was already sick. She was willing to die for her convictions.
The earth, it’s people…justice, peace mattered to Frieda.
Kat’s mother wants her to name a daughter Frida (Kat doesn’t have any children yet and isn’t pregnant but Barbara will be ready!).
some more paintings by Lulu:
The flaming heart really gets me. I love it!
It is cute, folkloric and yet retains the traditional iconography of Mexico.
This brings to mind the Day of the Dead. November is a Time of remembering our ancestors. Kat suggests you go take a walk on the mountain in the cemetery to enjoy the falling leaves.
Happy Autumn!
Thank you Frida for reminding us to be honest with our selves, to live life, to never deny the body, to love passionately, to never give up, to live what you believe in.
for more from lulu check her out at:
http://mypinkturtle.blogspot.com/
I think Frida would have agreed….
Your life is your most powerful art.
See you at the boutique.
erin
How happy do these shoes make me?
I especially love the little garlic bulb reference in the first shoe on the heel. It is wintery and foresty and fit for an elf queen.
And these little numbers below remind me of the totally-blew-my-mind away book called Fairyality in which the artist creates fashion out of leaves and flowers and feathers for an imaginary fashion house called Ellwand. I have inserted the book cover below. We have a copy at the store for you to come and see.
You have already decided which one or ones you love the most months ago. This is it! We are finally welcoming back the beautifully intricate IVKO sweaters! If you have not experienced these sweaters face to face you are truly missing out. Detailed knitwear in exotic colors bring a colorful dash of culture and ethnic abstracts to the table… making gorgeous statement pieces to add to your wardrobe. Based out of Serbia, I love the feel of far away lands and folklore this brand consistently gives off!
Did I mention that the Katrin Leblond Boutique will be the only store in Canada to carry this exclusive line? See you soon in the store!
Boutique Katrin Leblond
4647 Boul. St. Laurent
Montreal, QC
H2T 1R2
For an amazing personalized dress-up consultation (got an event, wedding, performance?), book an appointment today!
514 678 9616
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique
erin
Look at this Klimt inspired image. These textiles are crazy awesome and inspiring.
These are not all traditional wax prints, but for the most part a wax print has more than one layer of printing anyways.
How it is done: The core element in Wax Print is of course the wax. Using two deep engraved copper rollers, with the mirror image of the design, the two sides of the cotton fabric are printed with a pattern of melted wax, hence the name Wax Print. The fact that the cloth is printed on both sides enables you to wear the fabric on either side. This is the true sign of a quality wax print. Following this, the cloth is immersed in a bath of dye, often Indigo, that penetrates into the areas that are not covered with wax. After the wax as been washed off in varying stages, a negative image of the printed pattern remains on the cloth.
The next step is called a The Wax Cover. It is a Wax Print which is enriched with one or more coloured patterns. These ‘cover’ patterns can be of very varying designs such as circles, stripes, birds, leaves, in fact any graphic form.
Even the photography blows me away and I can’t get enough of these prints. They are beyond incredible. They are so bold it would scare any North American Fashionista into a rabbit hole to hide and cower with her wardrobe of shlumpy grey and black minimalist modern outfits. If the goddesses from the heavens could come down to earth and shop, I am sure that these are the fabrics they would buy for their ceremonial gowns and cloud sitting leisure wear.
All of these prints are from a company called Vlisco. They are a Dutch wax printing company that have been making high end fashion fabrics destined for the African market for over a century.
Here are the photos from the most recent collection at Vlisco. Just stunning!
and my favourite ones have been saved for last:
All photos in this post by Erin unless other wise mentioned
Fabric. Art, that is then used to make more art, that is then used in the art that is your life. High quality 100% cotton. This is luxurious, high thread count, cotton. We love this print by Kaffe Fassette. Kat’s team made it into a “cerise” dress (that means “cherry” in french), a skirt, bedding and more…. available in the store.
I personally can’t wait for it to come in as throw pillows. I really want one for my bed that is already dressed in various Katrin Leblond bedding mix and matches.
It reminds me of a kaleidoscope, mandalas, Van Gogh’s Starry Night swirls, Klimt, Toller Cranston’s costume details in his paintings of the nutcracker, summer, fall, arts and crafts, the universe, gypsy magic, and the bindis on my daughter’s custom embellished bicycle that she loves and I Love, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOOVE.
Bindis are normally used for ceremonially decorating the faces of women and girls all over south Asia including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indian. They are kind of like tattoo stickers. They come in all different shapes, sizes and colours. The ones on Aya’s bicycle are covered in rhinestones.
I have to brag. I thought I was a genius when I came up with the idea of lacquering bindis onto her bike.
I loved fitting the bindis onto the shapes of the bike frame. I loved finding a place for them that seemed like they were always meant to be there.
Try and find the bits of broken disco ball.
Peeka boo! I see you!
Dring! Dring!
The image on the bell is Ganesh the Hindu elephant god of abundance. Success! Good fortune! This cheerful safety accessory for your two wheeled vehicle is made by a local Montreal artist, Glen, that crazy Mile end metal sculpture artist, responsible for the sculpture park near the train tracks. You can get his bells at the used sports equipment store on Bernard between Parc and Saint Urbain.
The seat is covered in swimwear fabric, of course! Kat helped to hand stitch. Swimwear: Stretchy so it fits snug and dries fast when it rains. Cover a bike seat for a small person you know with one of the swim suits they have just out grown. A few whip stitches is all it takes!
We made this bike from a street side reject with a sign on it that said “If you want it, you can have it”. My daughter and a friend cleaned it up and she rode it for a while till she complained about the rust.
What colour would you like it to be? I asked.
“Gold” she said to my surprise.
The end result is covered in bindis, spray painted gold, lacquered with nail polish, sparkles and more spray laquer.
I am very proud of this little art project and Aya and I had a really lot of fun doing it. The basket and handle bar fringe are from Canadian Tire.
Yeah for bikes! Pedal freely forward. Free from gas prices. Free from constant repair costs. Free from the emissions guilt. Float on two wheels. Yeah! Bikes! Don’t forget your helmet!
I bike in my cerise dress on my own bike, along side Aya, all the time.
Kat wears the cerise dress available in store. Photo by Barry Maccleod.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
Erin.
All photos in this post were found and pulled from the web by Kat
I am bedding designer.
I love sleeping.
Here are some of my favourite beds.
They are art. They are inspiration. The winds are blowing cooler and it is time to nest.
Above is the “Apple tree” bed by Atilla design
This is a bed I have imagined in my mind and wanted to build myself one day. Looks like someone else had the same idea.
Above is the “Tree” bed by Shawn Lovell. It is cast iron.
These hand painted lovelies are made by a company called Sticks Beds
I found the pictures of these built in cubbyhole beds and they have a really cozy feeling. They remind me of traveling and of my childhood fairytale fantasies.
I would love to build something like this in a child’s room.
Sweet Dreams.
All posts in this post were found and pulled from the web by Kat
I am a spiritual person. I am a political person.
I believe that I am empowered to make ethical decisions that are beneficial for my community by the money I spend as an entrepreneur . I believe that as an artist, it is my duty to create beauty for my customers to enjoy. I believe that women deserve to be treated like goddesses entering a temple when they come in to my boutique. They are to be served, taken care of, draped in fabric and made to feel beautiful. I believe this from the bottom of my heart.
I have always been politically active and I have always been crafty. There were certain points in my life where I felt guilty and pained because “just making pretty things” was not saving the planet. Now that I am running an ecological and local manufacturing business that serves and adores women, I feel better. I have merged my environmental activist with my feminist and with my local economist in a way that allows me to keep being a creative human being.
And here is Linda Evangelista, our Montreal-born International Fashion Icon, merging her political views that something is wrong in the world and someone should be held accountable with her love of the Madonna. She got to play a living Madonna in a Religious procession. I have traveled to Antigua in Guatemala to see these processions. They walk the streets playing sad brass band music all the while carrying statues and crying for the death of Jesus. They walk for 12-13 hours. My main reason for traveling there was to see the “carpets” that the locals make from coloured saw dust and flowers. The carpets are made in the street prior to the passing of the procession. When the procession passes, the carpet gets trampled. It was incredibly beautiful. (This is reminding me that I should do a post about those carpets.)
I am unusually attracted the the iconography of the Madonna even though I was not raised in any form of Christianity. To me the Madonna is the “mother”, gaia, goddess … and those are all great things. It represents female divinity, something each woman carries within herself.
I love religious art. I love folk art. I love making pretty things.
It can take quite a while in life’s journey to settle into being who you truly are and not who you wish you were.
This post was written by Erin based on Katrin’s telling of the making of her embroidered travel belt.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
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While on my first road trip across Canada, with the man I later married, I wanted to record our travels. The problem was I get car sickness.
Despite, the fact that I couldn’t write in my journal, I found embroidery to be something I could handle even with the rock and roll of the road. Embroidery became my traveling form of journaling.
I stitched the landscapes and the names of all the animals we saw along the way.
The coloured threads depict the story of our road trip together.
I would sit in the passenger seat of our non air-conditioned van and stitch away.
The finished belt wraps around my body twice.
The needle pulled the thread in and out of the fabric stitching the moments I wanted to capture. The van hit the road. My needle pulled the thread. The wind swept us away at the start of our journey. The stitches became pictures. The pictures began the story of our journey. I stitched the flower called Indian paint brush. Wild to Canada, this flower called out to be remembered. I stitched the orange and yellow of it’s petals. The lakes in Ontario were numerous swimming pleasures. There were so many lakes. I painted with the blue of my embroidery thread just one to remember them all. As we approached the prairies fields of Canola, also called Rape seed, danced yellow blooms that waved in the wind. Dots of yellow thread floated across the belt.
The car broke down and we had to spend three days waiting for a part in Edmonton. I stitched the part we needed called a U joint. We drove on to the Rockies. Nights under the crescent moon were beautiful.
We took the fairy to Salt Spring Island and went swimming with purple and blue dragon flies.
We watched boat racing on a Native reserve on Vancouver Island. We walked in the red wood forest under the full moon.
Then we left Canada. We hit Seattle and we went to the fish and flower market. Four hours from Seattle, we spent two days at mount Saint Helen the mountain that erupted years before.
LOVE…….LOVE LOVE WAS EVERYTHING. Our van was love parked in dry lands that had sage bushes all around. I stitched a heart floating over our van. I stitched my love. My heart.
We drove through the Craters of the Moon and finally got back to the rivers of Ontario. Eager to get home we drove and drove and drove…day and night. We took shifts.
The road took us home.
Sometimes we fall, we slip.
Sometimes things don’t all go as planned.
Sometimes a great idea turns out to need a lot of tweaking.
A sting.
A zing.
A bit of a sour thing.
Sometimes a bit of sour helps you appreciate the sweetness that comes along next.
My husband and I have bought our first home. It is not a tree house. Just a regular semi-attached single family cottage. I am in the middle of boxes and packing tape and I am feeling very inspired by homes and trees. I will soon be the owner of both.
…and now for the really wacky futuristic wood art….
…and some land art…
I have owned this Treehouse book for many years. It shows the step by step construction of a round treehouse, as well as featuring many different styles of tree houses that people occupy for living in, making art in and play.
Plant more trees.
Ok, so we all love men in tight pants. Are we agreed? Add silver and gold tread, pink and orange capes, heart stitching and pretty buttons and my heart goes pitter patter.
Photo: La Presse Canadienne /Rafa Rivas Corrida espagnole
I love the hot pink tights! It is a moment of glory when hot pink tights are a symbol of masculinity and dominance.
The love and detail that goes into costume making is very different from all the assembly line of fashion production. These garments are made tight so that there is less material for the bulls horns to catch on. I love the embroidery. I love the embellishments. I love the tassels and pom poms. The layers! The capes! The little hats! I love that there can be a ritual for men to get this glamed up and that this much pomp can actually contribute to their sense of masculine power.
black and white toreador portraits by photographer: Christian Courreges
The Catalan people have recently voted to stop bull fighting. They are breaking with tradition and choosing to move forward into a cruelty-free world. They are courageous and I have great admiration for the willingness to evolve. Congratulations!
Down with needless torture of innocent animals. Down with the idea that we are not animals ourselves. Down fear of the other.
Cheers to men in tights. Cheers for playing dress up! Cheers to ornate fabulousness. Lets find a better reason for men to get this dressed up. End the blood….. Keep the fashion!
Torro! Torro!
Visit the Official Site!
