Baltimore Artscape 2009, Product Trends Observed
Artscape, known as America’s largest “free arts festival was held the weekend of July 17-19, 2009 . The weather was great and there were lots of people of all shapes, sizes and colors to watch. I have always loved “people watching,” and this weekend was no different, except I had my new camera with me and I wanted to take pictures to post to show some of the trends I spotted. Unfortunately some of the vendors had posted signs saying<“No photos, Please.”
I have just begun using a digital camera and I am still shy about asking people if I can take their picture and seeing the “no photos please,” posted with some of the vendors made me even more hesitant to ask to take photos . I did take a few pictures of things I found interesting and I actually asked one young woman if I could take her picture. In the future , I hope to post more pictures showing examples of flattering fashion as well as examples of what not to wear.
The product trend I spotted at Artscape this year was recycled or re purposed items made into costume jewelry, including earrings, over sized rings, cuffed bracelets , and totes.
Some of the recycled items included vintage soda bottle caps made into earrings and other jewelry. Debby Caplan-Ziman stated she has been making bottle cap earrings for the past 3 years as part of her therapy in recovering from Colon Cancer. poptopearrings@yahoo.com
Clever Cat Bags are totes and bags made from recycled woven coffee bean containers imported from Brazil. Another vendor of recycled fabrics is Jen Athanas. Her company is Jenafusion. Jen makes totes, change purses, and makeup cases out of recycled fabric. She says she got started recycling fabrics when she was a child making clothing for her dolls. Her contact info is : Jenafusion.etsy.com/
Another vendor at Artscape was , “I Wanna Be Made Over.” (I love the name). This company makes wrist cuffs and ties out of used inner tubes.
During the fashion shows ( I only saw 5 of the 15 shows) there seemed to be a trend toward more feminine, girly and romantic styles. Teronce Styyles, Baltimore fashion producer extraordinaire kept audiences entertained in between the fashion shows.
This year I bought a cosmetic case from Jenafusion, a guatemalian shawl from Corpus Cristy Church which I plan to make into two pillow covers and a wall hanging and a piece of silk that used to be a sari from “A People United.” I’m not sure how I will use the silk yet. I might make it into a wall hanging or a scarf.
Have you recently been inspired to re purpose or remodel something you already own or something you just bought.? I would love to hear from you, you can share in comments section of this blog.
Nancy Goldblatt, Wardrobe Wizard of Baltimore is a professionally trained personal image consultant. She specializes in working with women whose size or shape has changed and or who have lots of clothes and nothing to wear. Reach her at nrgoldblatt at gmail. com/ her website is www.Wardrobewiz.com
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