Vienna Sparkles in Many Ways

Looks like I wasn't the only one loving the Saturday Naschmarkt in Vienna. I was selective and only bought a few necklaces to repurpose along with some really cool little vintage medals that were awarded for climbing mountains or visiting tourist spots in Austria. I am planning to create something really funky with these medals. More about that in a future post.

Of course the best selection of all things sparkly was at the Swarovski store in the center of Vienna. Several floors of gorgeous Swarovski crystal creations dazzled onlookers, a great tourist attraction to be sure.

These were some of my personal favorites from Swarovski. Yes, you do need to be invited to some grand ball in order to wear these!

Moving on from the Swarovski store I met a beautiful mother and daughter team from Vienna selling gorgeous vintage jewelry at an antiques show inside a shopping mall. I loved meeting Gitta Landgraf-Hausmann and her daughter. What a delightful duo! Gitta is an artist and you can see her work at www.artforsale.at

Everyone deserves a little distraction now and then, and here is mine. When you visit Vienna you MUST go to the coffee shop at the Hotel Secher. It is truly the best in decor, elegance, service, and people watching. Of course their Sacher tortes are to die for and the Cafe Melange is true perfection. Yes, it is worth the splurge.

One final  distraction worth noting is this stunning Viennese coed from the Univeristy of Vienna posing here in her native dress while attending the largest open air wine and beer tasting I have ever seen! Actually we just stumbled upon this event as our hotel was close by the campus. Not only do the citizens of Vienna know how to create great food, music and gorgeous jewelry, they also definitely know how to party!

Czech This Out!

Just returned from Eastern Europe. First stop was the gorgeous city of Prague in the Czech Republic. Favorite shopping street... Parizska.  Favorite store there... Fendi. Beautiful space, fabulous clothing, impressive handbags, and great service. This store is a must see. I caught this faceless mannequin relaxing in the corner.... loved everything she was wearing.

Probably the coolest handbag in the store was this three dimensional baguette with lots of sparkle. And the color scheme really intrigued me. More about that later.

I tried hard to find a hip Czech woman meandering through the City Center, but to no avail. The best portrayal of Czech fashion was this poster in the railway station! Love the way she layers those necklaces.

Call me crazy, but the colors of the tile work at the Cafe Imperial served as great inspiration for me for my Spring 2014 collection. I would translate this into a combination of citrine with white moonstone and aquamarine accents. Now you see why I was attracted to that Fendi baguette.

My final inspiration was this magnificent stained glass window. As you can see, I was drawn to this color scheme again and kept thinking about how the pattern reminded me of antique filigrees.  Who knows how I might interpret this into some really cool piece of jewelry one day. That's the great thing about travel. It plants seeds in your thoughts that take root and blossom when you least expect it.

My Treasure Hunt

These street smart ladies in the photos above were featured on the ever so popular jewelry blog, Adorn London. The talented photographer Hannan captured these fashion fabulous women on the streets of New York.

  

I'm about to embark on a vast scavenger/treasure hunt.  I will be visiting Eastern Europe finding new resources to create more exciting and unique designs for my 2014 jewelry collections.  I will be searching the streets of Prague, Vienna and Berlin for inspiration and looking for some equally dazzling examples of stunning street fashion to photograph.

 My first stop is Prague, well known for their gorgeous garnets. Rough cut garnets like the ones pictured here really capture my attention. I will definitely be on the look out for them.

Next stop is Vienna and all things Swarovski. I will be filling you in on all those wonderful sparkling stones and what is trending in the world of Swarovski crystals.

Because I love to mix the old with the new, I can't wait to visit the Saturday Naschmarkt in Vienna where a real treasure hunt will ensue as I scour the market for antique trinkets to add interest to my designs.

And the final stop will be Berlin, home of one of my favorite designers, Hugo Boss. (Definitely bringing my Boss olive cotton military jacket.) Stay tuned to see the variety of artifacts I uncover on my thousands of miles long hunt.