It's been a while!

We're up an rolling.
Literally!
Babyketten is calling beautiful Portland, with it's rolling hills, steep climbs and amazing bike routes home these days!
We are still The Brooklyn Syndrome, we still create, but it's a whole lot of cycling, tattoos and outdoors from here on out!!

xx - Babyketten

Inspirational Photography

Stumbled across Lisa Hasselgren's beautiful photographs and these really popped. 

(Naturally because of the black and fuchsia!)

Happy Lazy Sunday!

Lisa Hasselgren - Photography

Fall is here

 

With fall in the air, it's time for our favorites to come out (or be created!) 

Our jackets, cozy scarves and cut-off mittens. 

We're switching our tall order of ice-coffees back to those warm cups of java

and digging out our pretty socks and lacing up. 

I recently assisted my boyfriend as a "personal shopper", scouring the Lower East to West Village to Chelsea and the Upper East.

A fun challenge I gladly accepted but of course I couldn't go on a shopping trip without falling upon great finds of my own, like this  fuchsia J.Crew fully lined blazer hiding at Buffalo Exchange.

Scored for $22 by said boyfriend as a peace offering for my patience as his shopper :)

Naturally, I couldn't leave this poor blazer alone.

 The sleeves are very long and the collar is just...too plain.

And so it's getting under the knife to be remixed with an old leather biker jacket that has been hanging in the dark for far too many seasons now. 

The ideas are running wild for this project, but the colors are set: fuchsia and black!

Some of the objects for remixing purposes

including the black leather belt with pyramid silver studs from ZARA 

found in Las Vegas on sale for $5!

¨¨

Stay tuned for this one!

The Sin City Story

My trip to Liberty Fairs in Las Vegas with Art Comes First marked my first ever trip to the west coast, and by far my first exposure to the Sin City which is Vegas.
Experienced friends and family used the likes of "make-belief", "fake" and "crazy" to describe this strip of doll party-houses in the middle of the Nevada desert.
The tradeshow was held at the Sands Convention center inside the Venetian Hotel. The hotel in itself is like it's own world boasting boutique shops, a mini-Venice - equipped with azure canals reeking of chlorine, gondolas and singing gondoliers.
A rendition of the Piazza Venezia takes care of the food court in this gigantic indoors mall and before you know it you've spent an entire week entirely inside this complex since you really never actually have to leave.

The trade show was a lot of fun with so much creativety and inspiration under one flourescent-light ceiling. I met familiar faces again that I'd met at the NYC show and many more.
 I am so honored and happy to have had the opportunity to be a part of this in NYC and Las Vegas with these people. It's inspired me to continue to be creative and to create.

 The Venetian Palazzo where we were staying. 

Auron(Lotho eyewear), Sam, Ougi(BKcircus), Shaka talking business at our stand!

 A project Sam and I collaborated on, adding ACF fabric and t-shirt as lining to a vest.

 Finishing the Liberty Jacket!

 Finished Liberty Jacket!

 Veronica, Sam, Me, Shaka, Jennifer, Matteo taking pictures on a big green hill inside the convention center

 Licia Flora and Francio of L'F unisex shoes

 The whole Freedom Hall gang! So much talent right there!

After the convention was over I got a chance to make my way down to the Bellagio Hotel and take a look at the incredible Dale Chihuly glass sculptures in their lobby.

Next stop: Las Vegas!

The day has come for The Brooklyn Syndrome and Art Comes First to team up again. In LAS VEGAS!

A rush order of express-made TBS business cards were in order,  DIY-style of course.

I got some hot pink pre-cut business cards and black ink from Paper Source on Smith Street and got out my type-writer and top hat skull stamps and had at it. 

Now I'm busy like a girl packing for summer camp to get all my essentials in my bag and ready by 4pm to catch my flight out to Las Vegas. 

So far so good and I'm ready to bring Brooklyn to the desert!

 And of course, my essential tools:

The Liberty Jacket

Photo cred: Paul Tamayo/Hypebeast

The tethered Woolrich vest I snatched as we were packing up in NYC, turned into the Liberty Jacket inspired by Art Comes First, created by yours truly, The Brooklyn Syndrome.

The process:

 

 

Upcycled a pair of discarded jean jacket sleeves from an old project and made them substantially slimmer.

Removed the pockets, ugh gross, cleaned them and removed the old trim and replaced with new black woven trim. Discarded the top pocket and replaced with broad woven satin trim.

Hand-stitched an appliqué of woven rope over the front shoulders.

 Found an old men's button down with a nice pinstripe and reshaped and fashioned it into a lining for the jacket. 

The Result: 

(last and final hand-stiches on lining will be made at Liberty Fairs, Las Vegas)

 Payed homage to the origin of the 1950's Woolrich vest, but added my own "custom fit" label.

 

If you're in Las Vegas, or at the Liberty Fairs at The Venetian Palazzo this week, make sure to stop by booth 315 where you can view my Liberty Jacket, Art Comes First and much much more!

On-going project - The Liberty Jacket

Gigi Gray (TheBKcircus), Veronica Cornacchini (SuperDuperHats), Licia Flora (LF Unisex shoes) 

The Liberty Fairs NYC HQ was bustling; everyone frantically packing their props and garments in suitcases and cargo boxes to be shipped off to the next show in Las Vegas, while photographers scurried for their last shots of the day.
The lovely ladies Gigi, Veronica and Licia grabbed a box and yelled "Next up Vegas!"and we all cheered.

"It's yours, it'll be your piece to remix until we meet in Vegas" Sam said as I fingered the small pin-striped black Woolrich vest among all the vintage garments.
The creative potentials were unraveling in my head and I couldn't wait to get started with the tattered vest.

 Woolrich men's vest, front/back

First I began by removing the old trim around the edges of the pockets, neck and hem...
Then I went on a search for sleeves which would work with the vibe I was going for.
The distressed black denim sleeves from a recent jean-jacket dissection project would be great.
Mind you though, the sleeves on this thrift store find rocked someone's socks in the 60's, so major down-sizing was in order!

The over all width and circumference of the wrist were minimized:

 Much to come, stay tuned!