little grey dress

a mother of the groom -- i am going to be. i am going up to tokyo for my son’s wedding this weekend. he and his girlfriend have been living together for almost five years now and at last, this sunday, they are tying the knot at the imperial shrine, meiji jingo. we have a wedding reception afterwards. mr piano-man (my ex-husband, he will be playing his tune on the piano) and i will be the parents of the groom. wonderful. the thing is, i still have no idea what a mother of the groom really should wear.

in japan, most mothers would be in a traditional garment, kimono, for the children's wedding. in my case, no. i’m not good at conventional things. i had my son when i was just twenty-one and i cannot be a mothering type for ever. i still go on in the same old dr martens or cowboy boots. but yet, it’d be nice for me to be feminine once in a long while. i wish i was like carine roitfeld this sunday, though i usually wish i was like angela merkel … i’m just kidding and besides, i am even (but only a little bit) younger than them.

i don’t know the dress rules. i’m not good at sticking to them either, even if i knew any. anyway, i’ve chosen to wear this grey sheath dress. i didn’t buy its matched bolero because the design was not my cup of tea. instead, my pink pashmina shawl would be a match, but not for the wedding? and i’d better hide my arms? so, i’ve decided to wear my purple silk chiffon blouse over this twinkling grey number. in that case, my shawl and clutch should be black to glam up like this? -- i hope my “mother of the groom gear” will be all right.

wish me luck?

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biscuit tins

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this time, i’m going to talk about nothing to do with weather or floras. well, it’ true that the most enjoyable part of my life is associated with seasonal changes of nature. but, my artsy side seems never to be influenced by seasons or even bad weathers. (oh, it’s another fine summer’s day; ideal for an italian white wine here in osaka.) matter of fact, i’m pretty design-conscious. i can be fussy or crazy about colours, patterns and shapes of end products that some talented persons have created. for this reason, i have a tendency to fall for things that can be my collectibles.

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meanwhile, i tell my mother, who can’t throw anything away without feeling guilty, to stop accumulating rubbish. in her drawers and cupboard, i’ve been seeing a host of strings, rubber bands and shopping bags sit still over these years. i do understand that any woman of my mother’s generation experienced the times when anyone simply could not afford to waste anything because of the war. i, however, say to her mercilessly: “mother, do you really need a dozen of empty plastic yogurt tubs?” it’s no joke.

on the other hand, when it comes to pretty things like ribbons, boxes and biscuit (or tea, coffee, cocoa power?) tins, i am not in a position to tell my mother to get rid of that stuff. actually, i used to have way too many tins. i still keep some in spite of frequent relocations of my base crossing the seas, back and forth, in the past. my old biscuit tins all look ravishingly beautiful. in fact, years back, when i jumped off a double-decker i’d taken from piccadilly after shopping at fortnum & mason, i left my handbag. i was totally carried away with a gorgeous lazzaroni biscuit tin i’d just bought there. i know i’m sometimes such a comic. * **

pic 1
maker-unidentified french bonbons tin: i don’t really remember this … probably i bought this in london since the tin charmed me, while i clearly remember the bonbons were not so tasty. this tin now contains my sawing kit.

pic 2, 3
lazzaroni amaretti cookies tin: this is quite ubiqitous. i used to have all three sizes. the tall one is a perfect size for spaghetti. this spicy macaroon’s tissue wrapper is beautiful, too. design-wise, i prefer retro to modern, by the way.

pic 4
another lazzaroni biscuits tin: i eventually bought this after several visits to fortnum mason. this is the tin that cost me my handbag. several months later i received a letter from the london transport lost property office, telling me to collect my handbag. a good world? but, i had to pay for restoring charge.

pic 5
ladyfingers (french sponge type biscuits) tin: i think i bought this when i lived in 横浜 yokohama. i was going to make a charlotte with these biscuits, but i ate them all before making one. threads, buttons and beads are crammed in there now.

pic 6
末富 suetomi japanese biscuits tins: my new numbers. in my opinion, these minimalistic tins are the best designed confectionery tins in japan. 末富 suetomi, an well-established confectionery in 京都 kyoto, does have its own aesthetics not only for confectioneries but for packaging as well.

pic 7
(additionally) whiteman’s sampler box: i bought this in new york last year. it is not a tin as you see. and it is a bit girly, you might think. still, this nostalgic feel makes me so hard to throw away when empty.

have a beautiful sunday, everyone!
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paper chase

are you on holiday somewhere sunny? i am not going anywhere and have been thinking of a painting project – to paint dull and naff walls crisp white in my flat. so, when i took some interior books off the bookshelf for inspirations, i came across my old scrapbook, which i made during my “flower london” era when i was studying floristry at college and working as an apprentice for jane packer. the scrapbook, however, doesn’t suggest my then-obsession with flowers. it was paper, such as tickets, stamps and labels. you know, ubiquitous things you find in foreign countries, materials and colours are slightly different from ones you familiar with, which fascinate me a great deal.
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i’ve been prone to accumulate pretty little but trashy things like ribbons and wrapping paper since my childhood, anyway. you can call me a real scrap-maniac or a rag-picker. i simply could not throw them into a dust bin because i got hooked on the beautiful colours and textures of paper, let alone memorabilia like tickets of exhibitions and concerts i took my kids, or went by myself, on weekends or on holiday; postmarks on stamps reflect on how good i was in communication with my mother and friends from around the world. after all these years, i am still surprised at the supposedly big number of letters that they wrote me while living in london. i could treasure each of them in a form of a book for life.

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well, once upon a time, people bought stamps for sending letters and tickets for taking a bus and a train. In lieu of taking extra care not to lose those tiny pieces of paper, we text, email and use e-tickets for travel these days. it’s economical as well as ecologically better this way. wonderful designs can still remain in the virtual world. then again, i can’t help but feel like i am missing out on something sensuous more and more. my old scrapbook took me back to the good old days, apparently. apart from that, my scrapbook also includes my daughter’s drawing and scribbles as well as messages that i asked jane and my then-workmates to write when i was leaving london for tokyo. i rediscovered the warmth of handwriting, too.

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marcel wanders

i was in london in the spring and the early summer of 2005. until then, i had been living in my mother’s flat in osaka for several months, trying to find out where my “home” should be. one evening, i had a big and most regrettable argument with my mother, which resulted in taking another chance to start over with mr dreamer who were back in london. so i flew to heathrow. i soon realised there was no easy way-out, however. he couldn’t change. i couldn’t change, either. one morning, casa brutus magazine, my client, rang me from tokyo while mr dreamer and i were only wearing each other down. there was a god. the voice over the phone sounded like an angel. i started working on a project right away and was due to fly to schiphol in early june. i booked a room at the lloyd, the newly opened quirky design hotel whose historic building was once used as a prison. how exciting my assignment would be!
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on arrival at schiphol, i had a good feeling about amsterdam. in fact, that was love at first sight. ah, by the way, i used to have a very good dutch friend, named ruud, in tokyo. i also remember that the dutch lady-artists i met at a symposium held in a former monastery in bohemia were indeed charming. i was busy associating amsterdam with anything i could think of on my way to the lloyd. i always love the process of getting to know an unfamiliar city. i explored amsterdam till it got enough dark to go to bed. the next morning, i visited marcel wanders, one of the top and most innovative designers in the world, in his studio for an interview. he was so amiable and so funny. then my photographer and i did lots of photo-shoots at the places marcel chose for my article: lairesse apotheek; stedelijk museum cs; club 11; fifteen; droog and lute suites. i wonder if marcel “wanders” around there for seeking inspiration. still now? i guess he does. lots of things must be happening in amazing amsterdam.

palermo soho

i don’t look back. i always look ahead. that has to be my saving grace. still, i way too often cast my mind back these days. i admit it, but being “un etranger” is a different story. i love to recollect all the magical moments of my photographic memories: colours; light and shade. and i simply love to recall the wind, the smell and the sound of the places where i embraced each scene with my five senses. my five senses.
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meantime back in buenos aires, i kept on wandering. i just couldn’t cope with life without deadlines to meet. i was at loose ends. besides, i lost faith in mr dreamer who lost himself in his own drama. we had a row everyday. to avoid any feel-bad factors, i needed to wander the buenos aires polluted streets with heavy traffic of eco-unfriendly old cars and buses. on the other hand, every little thing came across as a lovely surprise. tord boontije’s midsummer light, for instance. i found it in an office window in palermo soho, the most stimulating barrio of buenos aires. the romantic light brought to mind the very first day i visited his studio in peckham, london. that was 2003. that interview with tord was fun to do among usual arduous ones. the photo-shoot by annabel went great, my casa brutus magazine article on tord made his debut, then he became the most sought-after product designer in japan. that was the world where i had lived before moving to belle époque-ish buenos aires.
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shops, cafés and people in palermo soho revived me. i could feel congenial about palermo that showed me its vibrancy. i never missed london. i was only missing my deadlines.