Manya's Fashion Philosophy

Comfort and style.  That about sums it up!  I like to look nice and feel comfortable.  I also like it if my clothing is pretty easy to care for.  So, naturally, that's what I look for when choosing clothing for Manya Vee Selects.  I think I'm in the minority about jeans.  I don't find them comfortable, and I don't think they're particularly stylish.  I think another issue is they are pretty ubiquitous.  Since I like to look distinctive, jeans don't fit the bill there either.

I had a chance to show off some of the comfortable and stylish outfits at the Edmonds Fashion Show last Thursday.  It was great fun putting things together, and finding two wonderful Manya Vee Selects customers to model them for us.

Kris Browne and Laura Hamilton
modeled for us at the 2012 Edmonds Fashion Show

Kris Browne shows off her
sassy outfit.

Stretchy waistbands are a must for me.  In fact, in Kris's first outfit, the waistband on her skirt is super expandable, which also translates to super comfy.  This is one example of the one-of-a-kind skirts made by California designer Marcia Bloom.  Each skirt is a full circle, making it swish sassily when you move.  She's paired it with a nylon cami from California's Luxe Junkie.  These are also super stretchy and comfy.  We've got women with 4 or 5 in their closets, and still looking for more because they come in a huge array of colors.  Also available as a tank, a cap-sleeve and a 3/4 sleeve.  Finally, she's wearing a pewter jacket of the softest cotton around, made by Testimony Los Angeles.

Laura Hamilton looks awesome

Laura's first outfit featured pants and a jacket from Testimony Los Angeles.  Made of cotton with spandex, it just doesn't get more comfortable.  But the style doesn't stop!  The jacket is their new design for spring.  She's paired it with a red tank top from Luxe Junkie.


Best of all, everything they are wearing can be washed in the washing machine.  Just turn it inside out while washing.  Hang it on the line to dry.  That will keep its shape and color in the longest-lasting condition.

I was so excited watching the cat walk that I forgot to go back behind the scenes to get photos of their second outfits.  Instead, Jeff was practicing with our new video camera, and so we'll have to watch a video of round two.

Manya in Testimony's
brown skirt and vest

For Kris in round two, we get to enjoy Testimony Los Angeles' rayon/spandex line.  She's wearing their new "gypsy" skirt in brown.  Later you'll see Laura wearing hers in black.  Kris paired her skirt with a brown suit vest (also Testimony's) and a coral 3/4 sleeve shirt from Luxe Junkie.  She's got her own brown boots with it, and it really looks smashing. Here's an image of me wearing that outfit, then click on the link below to see Kris in action.

Kris Browne at Edmonds Fashion Show 2012

Elana Kattan Jacket over
Luxe Junkie tank

Laura has gorgeous white hair and pale features, so bright colors look just great on her.  As you recall, in the first outfit we put her in that bright red top.  Well, for outfit number two, she's wearing the wonderful "gypsy" skirt in black from Testimony.  Her turquoise top is from Luxe Junkie, and with that she's wearing a gorgeous multi-colored mesh jacket from Florida's Elana Kattan.  This jacket is very versatile due to all the colors.  You can pair it with turquoise like Laura did here, or also fuschia, coral, lime green, black, white, mocha, aqua and more.  That makes it a very useful piece for travel.  Alas, but our novice video skills made this video not turn out at all.

Come on in and let us put together a comfortable and stylish outfit for you!  And know that every single piece is Made in America!

Manya Vee
ManyaVeeSelects.com

May 1, 2012

It's a Wonderful Mystery: Birgit Moenig's Silk Scarves

Birgit Moenig has been sharing her love of painting on silk for over 25 years. What she loves even more than painting on silk is meeting women who feel happier because they are wearing one of her scarves. And that's what it all comes down to: bringing as much happiness as possible, through the beauty a silk scarf can bring to a person and her world.

A happy customer, wearing her
new Birgit scarf

Hailing from Germany originally, Birgit was exposed to silk painting very early. Many German housewives know how to paint on silk, so it was a common, everyday thing to do. Initially, she just picked up some silk, opened some dye, and put it on the silk as she had seen so many others do so effortlessly. She applied her artist eye to it as well, and got inspiration from other artist friends also applying dye to silk. “It's an on-going learning process even today,” she exclaims. “I still talk to my artist friends, and we are always trying new things to see what works best.”

Before painting on silk, Birgit had tried watercolor on paper, “but it didn't take,” she says. Acrylic on canvas was better, and in fact she painted and sold miniature folk paintings at the Pike Place Market when she and her husband first arrived in the States in 1980. But dyeing silk was what she really loved to do. “Designing something and staying inside the lines isn't very fun,” she says. “So I developed my silk dyeing to avoid that. It's a more abstract approach with colors overlapping and flowing together.”

Using a brush to "paint" the dye
onto the white silk

People are drawn to the beautiful colors Birgit uses on her scarves. At Manya Vee Selects, we love to watch people have their eye drawn to our scarf rack and its colorful array of her scarves. They can't resist walking over and touching them! Birgit finds the color choices and blending to be a constant challenge. “It's a wonderful mystery. When it's all done, that's when you know whether it worked or not.”    

Multi-colored scarf by Birgit

The technique is what causes the challenge. A non-toxic, water-based liquid dye is applied to dry, white silk. Colors are always more intense when they are wet, so controlling the strength of each hue is difficult. In addition, not as many colors are available as before, so that means more blending is required to achieve a full palette with lots of variety. In the end, Birgit confesses that her color choices are very intuitive. Of course, I have a feeling her 25 years of experience helps guide the intuition to get her beautiful results.

Birgit's scarf rack at Manya Vee Selects

Birgit works with her husband, Dieter, closely these days. This teamwork began when he lost all contracts for his own business after 9/11. He had been making high-tech satellites for ships. That left him with a lot of time on his hands. One piece of equipment he used in his business is a water-jet, which can cut cleanly through metals. He designed some 3-D ornaments made out of Boeing surplus aluminum, each one cut with that water jet. They were very successful. More designs followed based on customer requests.

Next, customers began asking for 3-D earrings. This required much smaller pieces, and thus more precision in cutting. His huge machine wasn't made for such detail. Upon discovering it would cost $28,000 to re-tool it, he gave up for a while. But the requests kept coming, so he figured out a way to re-tool it himself, costing only $2,000. He graduated the metal to titanium since aluminum has such a low perceived value, and grew his own customer base with this new product.

Three notKnot styles

A scarf woven into a
notKnot

The next product he invented ties Dieter's and Birgit's respective products together very closely – the notKnot! Based on a concept floating around in Birgit's head, each notKnot is cut out with the water jet using thick stainless steel. It allows a person a great deal of flexibility in how to wear the scarves, by weaving them in and out of the openings, making the scarf a bit more like a piece of jewelry.

Now, in addition to showing her scarves at Manya Vee Selects in Edmonds, they tour the country together doing art fairs and selling their wares together, finding new fans at each new show they do. Birgit loves returning to a place and meeting customers for a second, third and fourth time. It gives her great joy to hear how much the women enjoy wearing her scarves. It is an extra special day when someone sends her a card or email letting her know how much they love wearing her scarves.

Birgit and Dieter at an art show

We're in our 12^th year now at Manya Vee Selects, and Birgit is one of just a few artists whose work we've carried since the beginning.  Her scarves find passionate new wearers almost daily. We love passing along those stories to Birgit from our own customers, who simply can't resist that scarf rack and end up buying one, then two, then another for a gift, and so on. Go ahead and write your story here in the comments about your Birgit scarves, so we can share it with her too.

And of course, make your own pilgrimage to The Scarf Rack, and see for yourself how happy and beautiful a new Birgit scarf can make you feel!

See you soon,

Manya

P.S.  Here are links to previous blogs that show some scarf-tying methods.

http://manyaveeselects.blogspot.com/2011/11/3-scarf-ideas-to-spiff-up-your-wardrobe.html

http://manyaveeselects.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-neophyte-to-expert-in-2-hours.html

April 16, 2012

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

Yes, yes.  We've heard it hundreds of times before.  And indeed, diamonds are a pretty amazing stone!  The hardness and clarity make it capture all the colors of the rainbow, even without having any actual color inside the stone.  This optical illusion has mesmerized many of us over the centuries.


And they take a while to get such beauty, too.  According to Wikipedia,  "most natural diamonds are formed at high temperature and pressure at depths of 87 to 120 miles in the Earth mantle.  Carbon-containing minerals provide the carbon source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years (25% to 75% of the age of the Earth).  They are brought closer to the earth's surface through deep volcanic eruptions."

Rough diamond crystal in matrix

First recognized and enjoyed in India possibly 6000 years ago, where their use in religious iconography, and also for engraving tools, dates back to the earliest human history.  But what we now think of as a rather ubiquitous stone, hasn't always been that way.


It was the discovery in 1867 of large diamond deposits in what is now South Africa that radically changed our conception.  In the subsequent 10 years, diamond production increased more than tenfold.  Several fortunes were made, and we now think of diamonds as an easily-available stone.  


And now it is April, with diamond as the birthstone.  As you well know, we at Manya Vee Selects enjoy how artists use these amazing materials in unusual ways.  So of course, you can find some beautiful diamonds for both men and women.  Check out this 10-point diamond set in white gold by Seattle jeweler Michelle Logan.

10-point diamond in white gold

The white gold chain is diamond-cut, so it sparkles in such a way as to enhance the diamond.  Truly amazing.


We just received five rings from master metalsmith Sarah Gascoigne, all of which include diamonds.  Two are wide-band rings for men, and three are delicate and unusual rings for women.  Simple, but far from boring.  Come on in and check it out!


ManyaVeeSelects.com