Rewind Wednesday: Designer-wear, Shopping, and a Colourful Discovery

Hello DesignTies readers… today is Rewind Wednesday!!

First off let me shout out a great big THANK YOU to all of our blogger friends who have participated in previous Rewind Wednesday blog parties!! Kelly and I are so very appreciative of your support, and we hope that a few of our readers made it over to your blog for a visit! From this point forward, though – well, unless we change our mind (which we could!) – we’re going to be a bit selfish with Rewind Wednesday and keep it to ourselves. I hope you don’t mind!!!
Also… we had originally planned on running Rewind Wednesday just through the summer. You know… to free up some summer-fun time! But wouldn’t you know it, life gets in the way of all plans! What do I mean? Well… Kelly and I plan on continuing with Rewind Wednesday through the next 4 months. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy our re-played archived posts for a little while longer!

So why are we keeping Rewind Wednesday through the fall?

If you’re a regular reader of DesignTies you know all about Kelly’s design class plans for the fall. And wouldn’t you know it, I’m taking classes this fall too! Yep. I’m enrolled in two courses at our local college: “Colour Theory” with Maria Killam from Colour Me Happy AND, like Kelly, I’m taking a beginner’s drafting course too. It’s a total coincidence that we’re taking the same courses – on opposite sides of our country – I promise! Anyway, we’ll both be busy with school. Not too busy to continue to write great posts for DesignTies, but busy enough that having one free day will make all the difference. I’m sure you understand!
So… in acknowledgement of our much anticipated 4 months of drafting and colour study, I’m re-playing a post I wrote about colour combination discovery! Enjoy!!
What do Dolce & Gabbana Eyewear and Coach Leatherwear have in common? I’m sure if I put some real thought into that question I’d come up with some great answers for you! :-) Actually, these designer accessories-wear came to my attention the other afternoon when my husband and I took his daughter - beautiful Ashley - downtown to purchase new glasses. She’d had her eyes (pardon the pun!) on these D&Gs for several months and was excited that she was finally going to get them. Let me tell you, they look fantastic on her… but then everything looks wonderful on Ashley!!
As we strolled Robson Street window shopping and watching people, Ashley pulled Brian and I into Coach Leatherwear to show us a wallet she’s saving up for. I’m such a bump when it comes to designer-wear – my kids are regularly rolling their eyes at my lack of sophistication and knowledge! True to form, I’d never heard of Coach Leatherwear. As you can imagine, Ashley was excited to introduce this store – and it’s lovely accessories – to her Dad and I.
As wonderful as all of these handbags, wallets & shoes were, all I could see were the fabulous colour combinations! Yep… the time I spend on Maria’s blog Colour Me Happy is starting to rub off… I’m looking at colour everywhere! HaHa!! And – lucky me – I had my camera in my “D&G” knock-off bag (pictured to the right… and purchased obliviously in South Korea; I’d never heard of Dolce & Gabbana at the time and bought it for it’s convenient zipper. Ever practical!)!!
Everywhere I turned in the store I was taken with the colours used in their current line of accessories…

Ashley was laughing at me as I took photos of beautiful things. But she was a little curious, too. I said to her, “look how they’ve combined these colours – you could decorate a FAB room using these combinations!” I was on a roll– and whether she was interested or not (probably not!), I started telling her about colour, texture (pleats in the bags) and pattern (the Coach “C” graphic) - how important they are in decor and how the display-designers had used the same techniques to pull their accessories together in interesting, eye-catching ways.
Of all the displays, this one caught my eye. Everything in the store was bright and fresh – greens and pinks tempered with a browns and blacks. Here, though, they’d taken yellow and paired it with goldish-beige (is that a colour, Maria?!)… almost a grey. So much more subtle then the other displays. I loved it!
And I knew right away that I wanted to search through our favourite blogs for examples of rooms decorated in this colour scheme.

Let me share with you what I found: (Clicking on photos will take you to the blogs where these lovely rooms are discussed)




So what do Dolce & Gabbana Eyewear and Coach Leatherwear have in common?
Well, for me… if it weren’t for a D&G purchase and a D&G knock-off bag carrying my camera… and if it weren’t for my wonderful step-daughter’s love of all things designer made :-) I wouldn’t have discovered Coach’s beautiful, colourful accessories… and I certainly wouldn’t have been motivated to search out these fabulous examples of the pretty colour combination out in blogsphere!

Thanks for exploring a little colour with me on this Rewind Wednesday!!