UP and ARMED

A few pictures from the Dolorous Pop-Up Shop at ARMED Jewelry Closet in Toronto. Check it out if you're in the city. Only until January.

Pop

I was lucky enough to see Prince this past weekend for my birthday. Seeing a living legend is not something that one takes lightly, so i did my duty and screamed my head off and danced with pleasure for his entire 4 hour show. He blew my mind. It was very likely the best live performance Ill ever have the luck to see, and frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way. Prince is my #1

Now I'm busy recollecting after a long party weekend to get ready for my december feature in Toronto shop Armed on Dundas! For the entire month of December the shop will be transformed into a Dolorous Pop -up shop and will be featuring a number of one of a kind pieces as well!

G that was fun!

Just got back from New York where I was visiting my sister for the launch party for her new custom blazer collaboration with Leandra of TheManRepeller. The blazer they came up with is amazingly fun, and adorably named the Mr. G Blazer after the incomparable character on Summer Heights High. The party was SO fun and the rest of the weekend was a whirl wind of art and fun family drunk time.
I love New York

Photo from The Man Repeller

Check out my sister's amazing blazer on her website AlexandEli.com

More Girls Girls Girls

I just keep collecting girlie pics, so I'm going to keep showing them to you. This edition, in honour of my most recent collection inspiration, is a collection of a few of my 90s heroins.

This is how we do it

Well I won't speak for everyone, but this is how I do it. I've run myself completely ragged since September with no end in sight. In retail the holiday season starts pretty much in August, and in jewelry it continues through till Valentines Day. Then maybe I'll have a day or two off before I need to start producing and market the S/S collection. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I wouldn't trade it for a thing in the world, but this picture pretty much sums it up. Including the fact that I somehow keep finding the time to go out and get a little silly on weekends. Lets be honest though, after a tough week at work dont we all want to throw on some sequins, kick up our heels, and wind down with some adult beverages? 

Slave to Fashion

I'm a 90s kid, through and through. The soundtrack to my life is Nirvana (and speckled with the Reality Bites soundtrack and spice girls), there is no shoe styles I like better than chunky platforms and tomboy boots and Grunge has been my personal style since about the age 9

So it was really only a matter of time before this infiltrated my designs and surprise surprise its manifested int he form of two of my favourite 90s trends chokers and moody hues. 

The Dolorous F/W 11 collection features several styles of chokers in leather and suede in several tones and a new design of Slave Bracelet which is adjustable and is made out of the most comfortable cotton cord in a variety of colors like Forest Green, Burgundy and a deep Blue Gray.

F/W 11

Dolorous Jewelry F/W 11 Lookbook Sneak Peek. Enjoy!

A little inspiration

A collection of pictures that helped inspire the F/W11 Lookbook

Sneak Peek coming soon

Sheer Genius

Marios Schwab Spring 2012

Delirious Dolorous

I am currently delirious with both excitement and exhaustion. The past couple of months have been extremely busy and equally exciting; designing, producing, and eventually shooting my F/W 11 Collection.
I'd like to say that now that the lookbook is shot that all I have to do is sit back and relax, but alas this was step one of a long series of plans regarding the evolution of Dolorous.
For all the hard work put in, there is nothing nicer than when things work out better than expected. Today I was lucky enough to have my wildest expectations for my lookbook exceeded thanks to the fabulous photographer Adam Moco, my stunning model (and friend), a very talented makeup artist and one of my very best friends there to help with everything and anything. After all of my meticulous planning today came together so organically and evolved into something I never could have created on my own. I want to thank everyone involved a million times, but we are all busy professionals and that would take lots of time, so instead I'm doing this.

Expect a behind the scenes video of the shoot very soon

Interesting Fact: When I was really young there was a hamster in my family named Dolores (a name that has popped up repeatedly throughout my life) and she was an extremely gassy hamster who could actually clear a room with her foul stench. Because of her habit of overwhelming people with her stink we nick named her Delirious Dolores

Styling Session 1.0

The Styling Session is an idea I've wanted to incorporate into my blog for a long time now as a way to show the versatility and wearability of even my more dramatic jewellery. This is the first edition of what will hopefully becoming a recurring feature, and who better to begin with than my longtime friend and current roommate Sacha Columbia (a fashion designer with a great blog here). I've also used a few blouses from my sister's line Alex and Eli.

As this is the first of many I expect it to be a work in progress, so feel free to leave feedback and let me know what you think/what you'd like to see more of. Hope you like it!

fall fall fall

I've been busy working up a storm on the new F/W collection and the upcoming collection shoot and decided to share a little sneak peek of some of my new favourite supplies.

This collection has been a blast to design. I often take inspiration from a variety of places, and my design process varies from calculated to organic. This collection was the first where all it took was a few supplies that seemed to shout out what they wanted to be. Before I knew it I had a large collection that shares an overall aesthetic with my previous collections, but in a way, stands entirely on it own. Whats so unique about this collection is that it features loads of leather and suede in deep burgundy, sandy tan, a rich soft black, buttery soft grey, and my personal favourite, a rare vintage leather cord. Expect lots of leather and suede straps mixed with aged brass and vintage crystals and several new options for chain/crystal colour combinations. I've also added a number of new styles of bracelets, and even have a new crystal bodychain that I couldn't be more excited about. I can't wait to show off everything in the F/W look book, but until then look forward to my mid season styling session, coming soon.

Sneak Peek: Styling Session F/W 11

Styling session with a few old pieces and a bunch of new ones, coming soon

OMG!

SO busy! I should probably be posting about all the super exciting Dolorous things that have been keeping me so busy, like working on the new collection, getting tons of crazy new materials (the likes of which you've never seen in my shop before . . .), doing an awesome styling shoot with my very good friend and current roommate Sacha (she leaked a sneak peek on her blog here) AND getting a new ad on a great blog coming soon . . . but I'm not.

No, I don't really want to talk about that right now because I'd rather talk about how I'm so excited that its fall and I get to get back into all of my favourite snuggly sweaters and awesome boots, and how in honour of my favourite season I went out and bought a whole bunch of new favourite boots and sweaters! YAY! I'm not really one to take pictures of my own stuff, or of me in outfits but I will say that I bought two pairs rad Dolce Vita boots, including some killer black platform wedge booties and some awesome vintage sweaters including the most amazing mustard coloured sweater I've ever seen in my life. Thank you fall :)

All about the Bolo

I've been very busy the past couple weeks working on the F/W 11 collection and I've come to realize something about myself. I'm totally bonkers for Bolo Ties. They're just so perfect! They effortlessly combine leather and metal, they can be super masculine or totally feminine, they can be fancy with gems or silly and casual, they pretty much embody everything I want in a piece of jewellery; something that can be everything at once!

As you may have assumed, there are going to be some bolo ties in my new collection, and frankly, you can expect quite a variety. This one is a one of a kind Bow bolo, made from a vintage brooch. If you love it don't despair, I recently purchased a set of similar brass bows and will be selling them in an edition of 12.

DIY Day!

Sometimes the most productive time in the studio is when you spend it doing something your not supposed to be. Oh the beauty of procrastination.

Yesterday I did some extremely efficient procrastination, and came out with these fun lovelies! They are leather and rhinestone friendship bracelets, amazing for stacking, and I'm totally addicted. I think I want to make a million. For the first three I settled for peach, forest green, and a gray that gets darker towards the center. I love them. I seriously want to make colours for every possible outfit

I know its tons of pictures, I just REALLY love these bracelets (^-^)