I wish all of my lovely readers a wonderful Holiday Season and a fantastic start to the new year! I am heading home to Zurich for the holidays and will be taking a little break from my blogging, and well everything else as well for that matter.
But do not despair because I have prepared some holiday treats for you, my lovelies.
First of all, if you want to check out what it is that I actually do, apart from entertaining you with my silly writing of course, go check out my website, displaying my best work from the past half year. So slide on over to: http://nina-paitula.squarespace.com
Secondly, to spread some holiday-joy, here is break-dance-elf-(N)-ina wishing you happy holidays as well! Trust me, you really want to click on the link below….
Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to my favorite Zurich based jewelery brand; FiliNi. The two beautiful sisters Filippa and Nina started their line a few years ago. This is what they say about themselves:
“We founded FiliNi Collection based on our common passion for fashion and trends. The inspiration for our collections comes from the travels we make to places all over the world. Our aim is to create a lifestyle jewelry brand that represents our passion for beauty and to pass on this passion to others with our designs. The philosophy of FiliNi Collection is to offer trendy, elegant, exceptional and affordable but yet high quality lifestyle jewelry, as well as sophisticated accessories. We believe that you, with help of our selected products, can transform every outfit into a suitable one for any occasion.
We hope that we can enthuse you with our jewelry and convey a feeling of elegance and glamour to you – the FiliNi Lifestyle”
And if this doesn’t make you want to check out their jewelry I don’t know what will! Also, if you haven’t bought me my christmas present yet, this is a fantastic source! 😀
So rush on over to filini-collection.ch and check out their amazing stuff NOW!!!
The biggest challenge I am facing being out here in San Francisco getting my degree isn’t actual going to school again, ten years after graduating high school, nor is it the actually workload from school, nor coursework and projects. It is being separated from my partner. A man so secure in our love for one an other that he supports me in all my crazy little endeavors, even if it means that we are separated by over 9’000 km for about a hundred days at the time. The decision to take our relationship intercontinentally wasn’t an easy one, and it was the main point that would have held me away from pursuing my further education. That’s when my super-man stepped in and promised that he would wait for me, drunkenly shouting out the words on a crowded dance floor, yodeling along to Mumford and Son’s “I will wait”, and it is a memory I fondly think back to with very mixed emotions. Even as I am writing this I am giggling at the memory, while my eyes fill with tears.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love my man beyond the world, and feel guilty for taking myself away from him for limited time periods, but it is him who is strong enough to be the glue that keeps us together. It is his dedication of waking up at 6 am every morning to speak to me before he is off to work, and I am off to bed. It is his strength of encouraging me when I call him crying and yelling in frustration, which allows me to keep on going, not only with my studies and our very long distance relationship, but in general. He is the strongest person I have ever met, and therefore, this post goes out to you. I salute your strength and your belief in me, even when I don’t believe in myself. I bow to your calmness of our separation, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your love and support.
And at the end of the day, distance doesn’t mean very much when the person you are distanced from means everything.
Last week I wrote about the fascinating, recycling, bag and purse company FREITAG. This truly is one of my absolute favorite Swiss brands! Not only for their slick designs and useful products, but perhaps first and foremost because of what they stand for. What FREITAG has managed to create is truly unique in the sense of recycling and sustainability in the fashion world. By only using used materials, which were originally street trash, they have managed to re-contextualize garbage into something instantly classical and trendy.
And now to the exciting part, THEY HAVE STARTED PRODUCING COMPOSTABLE F-ABRIC FOR THEIR FIRST EVER FASHION LINE!!!!
Check out the great video below for more information:
Thanksgiving has come and gone and christmas is around the corner. I’ve been an awfully good girl this year Santa, I promise! I’ve gone to all my classes and done every single homework assignment. I paid my taxes, rent, and all my bills on time. I have helped friends and lent my shoulder to be cried upon, and everything else which has been expected of me. Therefore, I believe that I truly deserve a kick-ass present this year!
Please find my unattainable wish list attached.
Cupcakes, bows and kind regards,
Nina
PUPPYValentino – Short-Sleeve Lace Dress, Black:IvoryStella McCartney – Half-Sleeve Flower Lace Jumpsuit, BurgundySaint Laurent – Mid-Sleeve Silk Tie BlouseSAINT LAURENT – SIGNATURE RANGERS STUDDED BOOTS IN BLACK LEATHERPaul Smith – Wide lapeled Denim BlazerOscar de la Renta – Sleeveless Leather Dress with Cutouts, BlackMARC by Marc Jacobs – Sixties Bow-Front Silk MiniskirtMaledives Holiday for a few weeksLanvin – Sleeveless Bicolor Bow-Neck Dress, BlackHerve Leger – Boat-Neck Bandage DressGucci – Black Stretch Leather LeggingsGivenchy – Shark Lock Wedge Ankle Boot, BlackCHLOE – Suzanna Studded Leather Bootie, BlackChanel – Classic Jumbo Flap BagBurberry London – Collarless Fox Fur Jacket, BlackBalmain – Skinny Moto JeansAlice + Olivia – Hope Metallic Bow-Neck JacketGucci – Emily Guccissima PurseBurberry Brit – Leather Pea Coat W: Shearling Fur Collar
Today I have the absolute pleasure to lend my blog to one of my absolute favorite bloggers! I turn to her for advice, courage and inspiration.
Hanna is the founder of Grainbrain (www.grainbrain.ch), a nutrition practice specialised on helping people with diabetes to be healthier and more confident, by pinpointing a few lifestyle changes. Having grown up with Diabetes Type I, she knows what it means to take your health into your own hands. Hanna is a passionate foodie and believes that self-care can be fun and easy. She is in love with the moment when her clients realise that they can create the health and life that they want for themselves.
I asked Hanna to especially write a lil something for us regarding confidence, something we all struggle with at one point or another.
The Confidence Is In The Dress, Right?
You know how it is.
You step out of your favorite shop, with what you see as The. Perfect. Dress. in a gorgeous bag on your arm. The dress is also known as The Confidence-Booster, or Dr. Feelgood.
Just to let that glow of “omg I found IT” last a little longer, you browse a few more stores, just as to validate your purchase even more.
And you swing by Starbucks to treat yourself to a coffee because you found the Saving Grace to your wardrobe.
Once at home, you hang your new little darling so that it’s visible every time you look at your closet. You admire it. Perhaps you even Instagram it, tweet it and put it on your blog.
Not to mention your at least 5 closest friends who have all already received the almost-never-flattering fitting room picture of you and The Dress on WhatsApp.
By this point you are certain that your confidence will get on a space shuttle and skyrocket as soon as you put that dress on. And perhaps it does. At least momentarily.
But is that really real confidence?
Putting the value of your confidence on a dress means putting a lot of pressure on yourself. What if you happen to feel bloated on the day you want to wear it? Or the shoes you imagined to wear with it just don’t work with the outfit? Or, shock and horror, it’s too cold outside for the dress and you need to wear something else?
Does your whole confidence fall on that? And, more importantly, should it?
To me the answer is clear: no. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever should a dress be the make it or break it for your confidence. That’s not real confidence. That’s frankly an extremely cowardly try to express courage.
So, are you validating your existence based on your subjective opinion of yourself, such as, say, seeing yourself in that dress?
And, besides, what is confidence really based on anyway? Is it really that perfect dress? Or is it the perfect (and expensive) make up you wear?
Let’s face this together, so that it doesn’t become so scary: confidence doesn’t come from the outside. It comes from the inside. From the person you are.
It comes from the things that make you feel comfortable in your own skin, and from the clothes that make you shine from within. Often, a person looks their best (and their sexiest) when they wear something they are comfortable in, and not when they wear the awesome, yet slightly uncomfortable, dress we talked about above. Just ask your friends.
That of course doesn’t mean you should lounge around in your yoga pants and a t-shirt all day, every day. But it doesn’t mean that you need to dig out the Spanx to fit into that overly slimmed dress either. And here’s another ground-breaking thing: it’s finding your personal style that gives you confidence and courage. Dare to listen to yourself and find out what suits you, not runway models.
So, I want to ask you to stop looking for confidence from the outside. Instead, find confidence in YOU for what YOU are – a perfect human being.
If you didn’t have the chance to attend the event of the renowned Swiss bag company FREITAG at the FREITAG tower, you truly missed out. Not only was it the pre-launch of their newest REFERENCE-baby, namely the Austin bag, but also, and perhaps first and foremost, it was an homage to the powerful woman, who will be sporting the Austin bag once it is released. It also marked the re-opening of the FREITAG Container Flagship store in Zurich after its restorations. Female Power- Straight From The FREITAG Tower was a collaboration between FREITAG and the hottest and strongest female DJ’s the city of Zurich has to offer. And what a success it was! Although many aspects of the FREITAG brand was celebrated this Saturday night, it is the innovative thinking of using recycled materials in fashion, that has made all of this possible for the brand, and for it to become such a huge success.
With loud pumping deep house beats shooting out of the strategically placed speakers, the hosts managed to modify the unique and well lit, four-floor retail space into a beaming nightclub dance floor. With this female power event, surrounded by beautifully crafted bags, accessories, as well as women dressed in their Saturday finest, FREITAG managed to create a happening that was truly one-of-a-kind, just like their brand. The ladies of Zurich’s elite were styled up to their teeth in their regular effortlessly stylish manner. As you entered this unique construction, you quickly became a bit overwhelmed with the smell; a mixture of different perfumes blended in with the smell of old truck tarps and hairspray. Though after dodging past a few clusters of shopping hungry women, you were greeted by meager-clad, flamboyant transsexuals in oversized wigs, squirming with joy while handing us a glass of bubbly. And this is whilst performing, what could only be described as a balancing act, on their sky-high heels. Once you managed to navigate past the abundant mass of ladies, you entered a superbly unique, contemporary, and brightly lit shopping space. Dancing around a tall display wall full of merchandise, swaying on stilettos with a half-full glass of Italy’s finest Prosecco in hand? Why not? The bags are made out of truck tarpaulins; they’ll be easy to clean.
Looking up at the vertigo inducing height of the 26 meter tall tower, constructed out of 19 recycled containers, you straight away realize that this is not a usual flagship store, this is not a usual event, and therefore this cannot be a usual brand. The FREITAG Flagship store, in the company’s beautiful hometown of Zurich, is built out of used freight-containers, which shows exactly what FREITAG does; re-incarnation of trash – recycling, or “technical re-contextualization” as the company calls the process themselves.
The FREITAG Flagship store in Zurich is comprehensively assembled using rusty, recycled freight-containers, which have been lovingly gutted, steadily reinforced, precisely piled up and perpetually secured. And turned into the company’s flagship store. Once again, it is a perfect indication of what it is that FREITAG has achieved. Since the start, FREITAG has developed a strongly established brand image. This has primarily been in connection to the reincarnation of trash, or “technical re-contextualization”, which is the way the bags have been created since the get-go of the company over 20 years ago. This is something that they have managed to illustrate through their flagship store since 2006, namely the reincarnation of old, recycled freight-containers into a beautifully, original, urban retail space.
This building is the first of its kind in Zurich’s history – it is the first bonsai skyscraper, meaning that it is sufficiently low, as not to violate the city’s strict laws and regulations on high-rise buildings, but high enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. “The four sales floors, selling over 1600 individual and unique bags, are home to the unquestionably largest collection of Individual Recycled Freeway-bags in the world. And yes, there really are four sales floors.” Marilyn Dietrich, the brands’ Specialist Product Management Operation, informed me over a glass of Prosecco. The view from the roof of the FREITAG Flagship Store onto the transit-bridge is the same view that catapulted the start in 1993. For some it’s just noisy, while for others, the loud highway with the flashing colors of the cars passing by is a source of inspiration.
The two innovative graphic designer brothers Markus and Daniel Freitag established FREITAG in Switzerland over 20 years ago. The brothers were looking for a bag that was water-repellent, robust, and functional to hold their drawings. Additionally, it had to be easy to wear while riding a bicycle. This is due to that anyone calling themselves citizens of the urban space of trendy Zurich, travel by bicycle. The initial inspiration was extracted from the multicolor of the heavy traffic that roars through the Zurich transit intersection in front of the brothers shared flat. They developed a messenger bag from used truck tarpaulins, discarded bicycle inner tubes and car seat belts. This is how the first FREITAG bags were developed and produced, in the living room of their apartment – each one recycled, each one a truly unique item.
With the creation of the first bags, “the Freitag brothers unintentionally triggered a seismic event in the world of bag-making, with tremors that have since been felt in Zurich and the cities of Europe, and have spread all the way to Asia.” (“Freitag – R.I.P.* Since 1993.”) This has made FREITAG the unofficial urban outfitter of all bike-riding people who care about recycling, sustainability, and fashionably trendy products. As luck would have it, the brothers’ personal need turned into a business, which now employs around 160 people.
Recycled materials in fashion will forever be relevant as the world searches for options of becoming more sustainable. Recycling in fashion is something that has been, and will be, a prominent force to be reckoned with in the future; especially interesting is the question if recycling can be trendy. And, what FREITAG has managed to create is truly unique in the sense of recycling and sustainability in the fashion world. By only using used materials, which were originally street trash, they have managed to re-contextualize garbage into something instantly classical and trendy. They use old truck tarpaulin as the body, second-hand car seat belt webbing as the carry belt, and old inner tubes from bicycles as the edging of their original design. The inner lining of the bag is furthermore made from recycled P.E.T. bottles. “Per year we recycle 440 tons of truck tarpaulins (equivalent to a 68-mile-long line queue of transport trucks), 35,000 inner tubes from bicycles and 288,000 car seat belts into stylish bags. Most of the seat belts and inner tubes come from the surplus production of cars around Europe,” Ms. Dietrich informs me between sips of her drink.
The product designs are still created under the controlling eye of the brothers Daniel and Markus Freitag today. As Creative Directors, they create a new design, develop it and oversee every new FREITAG model until the point that it is ready for production. The headquarters of the tarp-bag company have since 2011 been located at the Nord site in Zurich-Oerlikon. “The work surface FREITAG uses is huge! Covering approximately 80’000 ft2, where the tarps are disassembled and washed, and the bags are cut out of the tarps by hand,” I overhear a woman wearing a bright pink feather boa explain to a young girl. Wait, was that really a woman or one of the lady-boy waitresses? Either or, she seems deeply informed about the company and the brand, as does every third person at the event. This makes it clear that FREITAG’s recycled trends are already well known to the Zurich public.
“It is about solving urban dilemmas”, Ms. Dietrich told me. Today’s society is becoming increasingly mobile, and for FREITAG, it’s about providing light vessels to carry whatever you need in a safe and stylish manner. “Though more importantly, it’s about by making everyday materials, often seen as garbage, into a completely new context; a new meaning, making use of the materials’ natural robustness, with a dash of vintage coolness, from being on the European highways in every possible weather for years,” Ms. Dietrich explains passionately, and continues; “FREITAG’s target customer is the creative urban brainworker, concerned with products and the source of the materials and how it was produced, but at the same time fulfilling the need in a smart and functional, yet appealing way.” A citizen of the urban space of trendy Zurich needs a functional and trendy bag that will be easy to wear while riding a bicycle, just like the founding brothers vision proclaimed some 21 years ago. Though new innovative designs have since seen the light of day, and a constant improvement of design ideas. Ms. Dietrich smiles and says, clearly proud of the company’s achievements; “it is a great success that the first design is still in the product assortment 19 years after its launch. And it has not lost any of its contemporary feel.”
Sustainability, innovation, recycling, and re-contextualization are the key words describing FREITAG as a brand, and this was more than evident at their Female Power- Straight From The FREITAG Tower event. Managing to translate these key concepts, and to be true to their brand identification, through using recycled freight-containers to create their flagship store is truly mesmerizing. In addition, the fact that they have managed to create something as unique as their bags are, is a huge achievement on its own. I do not know of any other company that has managed to translate who they are into their retail space in such an innovative manner. Heck, it is safe to say that FREITAG is the most innovative fashion brand that has ever come out of Switzerland, and they have managed to create a truly captivating shop to show their unique re-contextualization of recycled materials. FREITAG’s success proves to us that there is an increased demand in recycled materials for fashion.
FREITAG TowerGreeting LadiesWOMEN ONLYMerchandise wallFREITAG tower at nightFREITAG flagship store Zurich
So you know that oversized shirt hanging in your closet that you’re kinda bored of wearing? Yeah, that one! Well, I have a similar one, mine is an over-sized denim shirt which has been hanging in my wardrobe for the past 7 years or so. I was considering tossing it into my donation pile but then I remembered that I am a creative art student, who is actually specialized in styling and especially re-styling garments.
Here is a slideshow with 20 different ways to wear that tired, old, and boring oversized shirt.
Or Zurich Tuesday for you non-Swiss out there. I have decided to dedicate Tuesday’s to fashion news from my hometown Zurich, Switzerland.
And as it happens, this past week, the annual Mercedes-Benz Fashion Day Zurich took place, which I am honestly über-bummed about missing out on.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days Zurich is the premiere fashion event in Switzerland, hosting over 20 domestic and international designer labels each November at the Schiffbau. The annual event will take place from November 12-15, 2014 and is expected to once again attract more than 5,000 visitors including press from Switzerland and abroad.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days Zurich provides fashion brands a platform to showcase their vision on the catwalk while inspiring style and trend setters to shop their favorite designers. Entering its fifth year, Mercedes-Benz Switzerland continues its commitment to the event as title sponsor, signing on for another three years. (Check out more official information on: http://www.mbfashiondays.ch) The following Swiss and international brands were shown during the fashion days last week:Lug Von Siga, Julian Zigerli, Lala Berlin, Studiowinkler, Elisa Kaufmann, Julia Seemann, Nitya Unju Maria Park, Nathalie Lukasik, Tosca Wyss, Costume National, Studiopretzel, Vivetta, Diliborio, Kazu, Pelikamo, Rs Hader, Laend Phuengkit, Berenik, Van Bery, Javier Reyes, Aziza Zina, Stefanie Biggel And Lbd. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days Zurich is made possible by the generous support of title sponsor Mercedes-Benz and presenting sponsor Paul Mitchell and H&M as well as media partners annabelle, Friday magazine and radio partner Radio24 and the City of Zurich. This entire even was organized by International Management Group (or better known as IMG).Here is a little slide-show of my favorite looks from last weeks Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days Zurich :
cupcakesbows 