Motherland

Back a couple years ago, when my life was still exciting, I lived in the great red land of yore: the Russia. And I still have plenty of little tokens around that serve well to reminisce of my time there. Colorful, kitshcy and somber, the design that I found during my time in St. Petersburg continues to shade the things I cherish: striped shirts, leather shoes, floral wallpaper, canisters.

Flipping through the dense new issue of Readymade, I came across some things in their holiday gift guide from a funny website devoted to peddling traditional russian garb. One of the magazine's featured designers, Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop in SF, cited two things from the internet store on her own wish list: a pair of wool boots and a telnyashka, a striped wool shirt worn by men in the navy. I brought such a shirt home for John upon my return and he still wears it.

In a funny coincidence, my friend Mary Wegmann sent me some socks recently, which I happen to be wearing today and they have the same seemingly haphazard color combination that I used to find so interesting in Russian handicrafts, specifically knit ones. Here is the note that accompanied my socks:




I brought her socks from Russia which were also knit by ladies on the side of the road, imperfect and chunky. My new ones are the same way. And here are some swatches; note the play between hot pink and ochre beneath burgundy stripes.




Anyway, this time of year I always seem to develop a hankering for more nordic, soviet, woolen components in my wardrobe. The consistency is really pretty nice. It means I don't have to worry about "updating" too often. And apparently I'm still sort of in as my grandma would say...