A sampling from the collection of colorful, original scarves and shawls from Hermes.com creates this wonderful, colorful border above
Chanel evening bag sold on Rebag
WHAT I LOVE
I love all kinds of colorful accessories. They range from head to toe. For example, these include items from hats to handbags. Then handbags to scarves and shawls. Even scarves and shawls to shoes. As well as shoes to costume jewelry. Whatever the item is, there is one thing that they all have in common.
Stepping out in Stride
Kurt Geiger makes an outrageous colorful statement in the shoe department. No need to take my word for this. Instead check what’s next in colorful accessories.
Kurt Geiger shoes for casual and dressup occasions.
Going Out in Style
Emphatically, the one thing all these items share is their flair. The Kensington collection from Kurt Geiger of London is a statement to their pallette.
The Kurt Geiger Kensington Collection of very Colorful purses
OVER THE RAINBOW
Colorful accessories come in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. These Balenciaga bags are definitely at the over the rainbow end of prices. But appeal is not always based on cost. In fact, I have also found some very affordable brands that are equally as attractive. Dasein and Diophy are two such companies. You can learn more about them in a little while.
This Balenciaga Logo Ville Bag Printed Leather XXS available on ReBag is a perfect example of a fantastic colorful accessory.
IMAGINE: Everyday Affordable and Still Colorful
Here are two colorful bags that I have now. One is a Dasein handbag in turquoise. The other is in orange. They are available is numerous other solid colors in addition to a leopard print. Just imagine if this style came in the colors of the Balenciaga bag above. It is my dream idea for Dasein to create a bag in the Rainbow pattern colors. In fact, I plan to ask them to make this design.
Above are the Turquoise and Orange Faux Patent Handbags available from Amazon.com and Daseinbags.com
Last but not least is a brand called Diophy. In fact, they carry some amazing colorful patterns at very reasonable prices. Here is an example of both the affordable and the irresistible.
This series of blog posts about KNOLLING is dedicated to Andrew Kromelow who coined the term ‘knolling’ in 1987 and to Tom Sachs who expanded on the concept of knolling to ‘Always Be Knolling’.
Vintage bracelets, lots of rings. Can knolling help to keep them organized?INTRODUCTION
Now that I have a fair understanding of Knolling, I wondered if it might be the answer to this 21st Century woman’s fashion accessories challenge. Could it help organize my costume jewelry collection? Collecting and wearing vintage accessories is my passion and hobby.
I have so many bracelets, pins, necklaces, earrings, purses and rings. I store them in the closet, protect them in fancy boxes and display some of them on my dresser where they just collect dust. That is not why I got them. I love them. I want to enjoy them. This means, wear them to enhance my outfits and show them off to everyone else to enjoy, too.
This system makes it hard to quickly reach the bracelet I want to wear and sometimes I am not sure where I even put itCHALLENGE
It’s very time consuming to find what I want to wear to accessorize my outfits for both daily attire and special occasions. I always forget pieces I have because I don’t see them. In addition, there are so many accessories stored in so many places, I can’t remember where I put them. I also have a problem with my shoes collection.
MY INITIAL KNOLLING BLOG POST
After hearing about knolling, I wrote an initial blog post about it, KNOLLING: Organizational or Graphic Design Layout and Product Branding System? I decided to see if knolling was an organizing system or just a design/branding technique. Could it be a solution to my fashion accessorizing challenge or just a pretty way of photographing my collections? The rest of this post and the following posts about Knolling explore the various aspects of knolling and its metamorphosis into flat lay photography and flatlays.
WHAT’S NEXT
By Wikipedia definition, Knolling is the process of arranging related objects in parallel or 90-degree angles as a method of organization. Therefore if I could use knolling as an organizational system, my next steps would have to be:
• to design a template that could organize my vintage jewelry collections
• to display them to see if the process of knolling could solve my fashion accessories challenge
• to determine if knolling had other practical uses and ‘Always Be Knolling’ (ABK), as Tom Sachs suggested
• to discern if ‘flat lay photography’ and social media ‘flatlays’ are actually knolling
• to confirm what Andrew Kromelow’s meaning was when he coined the term knolling
ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME: KNOLLING BRACELETS
I decided to tackle one challenge at a time. The first challenge and priority was to see if I could knoll my bracelets. Here is what I did. I took a 24″x18″ office cork board and divided it into three” squares. That gave me 48 squares or 24″ divided by 3 = 8 and 18″ divided by 3 = 6. Since 8 x 6 = 48 that is how I determined the number of squares that would result from this division. I marked off each 3″ box with ribbons both vertically and horizontally. Then I began to add my bracelets unsure that I would even have 48 of them. I still have plenty more to include. But at least the 48 knolled bracelets are easily and quickly accessible.
There is an additional reason I can find them so easily. I employed another element to my jewelry knolling, a color order system. I started with the red ones and variations of red. Then I went through the rainbow adding solid colors and then variations on that color. I can now find any bracelet I want to wear in record time as long as it is included in this set up.
knolling my bracelet collection using color order as an addition system
MY DECORATIVE PINS COLLECTION
At first, I had trouble with my decorative pins. I thought that the grip template I used for my bracelets would carry over well for my pins. It did not. Once I realized that I should lay them out in rows, I found the solution to this part of my knolling challenge.
My decorative pins collection knolled and easy to identify
NEXT CHALLENGE: EARRINGS
The next knolling challenges included my earrings, then my necklaces, pins, purses and shoes. Here is the progress I have made so far. How do you think these work?
Earrings Pre-Knolling System Works WellKnolling Earring Collection Needs Solid Background
The earring knolling project is ineffective. The background on the right should be a solid color so that the earrings stand out better. Also, I still have a lot more earrings that need to be added. I came up with a great solution totally by happenstance. This lampshade is a ‘street find’ and an excellent solution to earring knolling.
EARING PHOTO TO COME
NECKLACES
I am finding it difficult to knoll my necklaces because hanging them vertically takes up a lot of room and is not optimal. But it is better than no system at all. Pre-knolling: Using Necklaces for DecorationNecklaces Semi-knolled, Colored backgournd is distracting
Finally I figure out the best way to knoll my necklaces for the time being. It is working okay.
knolling my necklace collection using color order as an additional system
PURSES
I decided that the best place to position my purses is near the door since they are one of the last things I grab before I leave the house. Here is my knolled board of them.
IMAGE FOR PURSES
MY ‘FAMOUS’ HAT COLLECTION
I am known for my hats. I love hats and I am almost never seen without one. It’s funny. My mother hated hats; she never wore them. But my grandmother and great-grandmother adored them. In fact, the greater the grandmother the more outrageous the hat.
Knolling hats posed a problem for me. I was able to organized them to some degree. Some are on a plant stand. Some are on vintage hat trees that I found. Some are balancing on my bed frame. I can’t really say that I have knolled my hats. But I can find them easily so that I don’t end up wearing the same one every day.
IMAGES OF HATS
SHOES
Shoes hold a particular challenge for me. I insist upon keeping them in their original boxes. In fact, I even keep the receipt in the box. That way I can refer to when I bought them and how much they cost. The boxes are actually easier to knoll. The shoes are harder to remove from the box every time I want to wear them. Here are the results.
Knolled Shoe Boxes
To be continued with . . . Part Three, link below.
