Tuesday 7 April 2009

Wonderland

More and more we are surrounded by this trend for ‘wonderland’; of surrealism or imaginary worlds of awe and wonder. Personally, I love it; I think we all need a little bit of escapism in our lives, and now more than ever with the world recession and the long dark winters that some of us have just gone through, we need a little bit of fun and fantasy; wonderland is alive and everywhere.

copyright Tim walker

Fashion Photography
Tim walker has captured this in his delicious photographs, exhibited last year. He creates marvellous shots with vintage colours and a fairytale feel.

copyright Tim walker

My favorite is this one, ode to the princess and the pea.

copyright Tim walker

Circus inspired
Here in Denmark, we have this great style magazine called ‘Rum’; a couple of issues back, they did a shoot called ‘Vintage Circus’, take a look.

copyright RUM Magazine DK

I love these pictures

copyright RUM Magazine DK

Modern and surreal
Found a great young designer too; working in a very contemporary way with surreal themes. Ashley Thomas creates prints, wallpaper and accessories which can be purchased from her on-line or from outlets throughout the world see her site at:
www.ashleythomas.webs.com


Look at these, based on surrealism, Ashley mixes everyday objects and domestic scenes, with quirky characters. It is a world where cats wear glasses, pigeons have moustaches and Llama's wear monocles.

Over at Fairy Cake Pond

Maybe we should all indulge in some creative play; a flickr friend who is doing exactly that is ‘oldflowers4me’.


Jo from Melbourne regularly dresses in anticipation of the white rabbit, runs away with the circus, and indulges her toys and pets in tea party activities and costume changes fit for a queen.


Thank you Jo for inspiring my creativity and giving us all a wonderful bit of your magical world. Find Jo here, www.oldflowers4me.blogspot.com/


All this got me thinking about styling some ‘wonderland’ sets for our boboho interiors magazine site, might take a while but watch this space…..

13 comments:

  1. The world is so much nicer when seen through our imagination .The older I get the more I want to believe in fairytales. I love your inspiring wonderland posts.
    PS. Thanks for your comments on my recent blog which was incidently posted on 1st april a day specifically designed to allow us use our imagination ! It was aspirational thinking on my part,one day it will be true.Hope your smiling, Elaine ;)

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  2. I love it...it reminds me of McKenzie-Childs.

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  3. Why did you move to Denmark, come back to UK now!

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  4. ahhhhh....the dresses in the tree! How beautiful.

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  5. What a great atmosphere you have recreated here....the vintage feel, the surreal world of fairytale...
    The choice of photos : Just amazing!!

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  6. love the looks of these surrealist set ups (especially the dresses in the tree, if only dresses would go from trees).

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  7. I agree escapism is what everyone needs from time to time. Maybe it is a glimpse of what heaven will be. xo
    (the photos you chose are perfect)

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  8. These images are fantastic...I love them: The Princes and the Pea and the one underneath that in particular.
    I work as an artist in a slightly skew-wif way and really like the clarity in oddness.
    As an actress I have worked with the Brother's Quay; they were the first directors I worked with who wanted me to be 'me' and not someone else! They are wonderful surreal animators, who introduced me to Svankmaier's work too and your pictures have something of the 'Alice' about them. I'm a big fan of 1950's, Canadian surreal animator Norman McLaren too: 'Neighbours' is amazing...it's on YouTube, if you don't already know it.
    Your blog is really inspiring...
    Many thanks
    x 5ft inf

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  9. LOVE everything here!

    i saw that tim walker photo with the dresses in the trees somewhere awhile back...and i fell madly in love with the concept of it...i've been trying to figure out how to make dress-lanterns ever since!

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  10. I have the dresses in tree print framed at home. I will never tire of gazing at it! Like your blog too by the way!
    Kerry.

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  11. I know what are you talking about and you are right. The reason why I choose the name for my blog is because I like fairy tale, fantasy, "wonderland"...We need to remain always kid...Love your blog!
    i'll be glad if you decide to stop by to mine as well, just to say hi!

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  12. So full of whimsy! Love it. I recognize my favorite stylist's work - Christine Rudolph. And how ironic, just posted some of her whimsical work today.

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