Amélie Alice: illustration

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Tea Pony, vintage children's designer love, and a little Belle and Boo

I have been meaning to share one of my children's clothing industry favourites, the wonderful, vintage inspired Tea Pony.

Australian made and so sweet, Tea Pony has such lovely vintage inspired, unique and imaginative designs. x

Another favourite Tea Pony creation is the Belle and Boo 'Lost' dress,

... a collaboration with the lovely UK artist, Belle and Boo, the creator of some very sweet children's illustrations.

If I may sidetrack for a while, because it is funny who is connected to who in this small world... The above Tea Pony dress was lost, with little wooden duck on the back of the dress as well.
Here is the Belle & Boo print 'found'...

found

and Belle hugging Boo

I also heard of Belle and Boo from child photography friends, via her very special illustrations for the beautiful Ava.

... and Ava's mother Sheye is such a wonderful soul, a beautiful children's photographer and writer.

~*~*~*~

Tea pony love
etsy
Tea Pony blog

p.s. here is another Tea Pony dress to admire with a touch of Belle and Boo,
this sweet Tea Pony denim dress

and we love the look of this dress as well!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Because it is one of my favourite children's books and one of the inspirations behind Amélie & Alice (of course!), here are some favourite Alice in Wonderland images & items, just because...

The original illustrations

In 1865 John Tenniel illustrated the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

( i love the cheshire cat! )

(... which was first a story called 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground', itself a story written down from a tale told by Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, to three young sisters, one of which was Alice Liddell, while on a boat trip on the river Thames.)

I like Alice in Wonderland for a thousand different reasons ;), and I also like that Charles Dodgson, or his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was also a mathematician (which I love, as I was a student of mathematics) and a photographer!

(Lewis Carrol was a mathematician at Christ Church, Oxford,
and Alice was one of three daughters of the Dean at Christ Church.)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published on July 4, 1865, exactly three years after Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls:

Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13) (Primus in the opening verse)
Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10) (Seconda in the opening verse)
Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8)

...whereupon the beginning of Alice In Wonderland was told that "summer afternoon when the sun was so burning that we had landed in the meadows down the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a new-made hayrick" ~ Alice.

.. which is also now part 'Hogwarts'!

But anyway, back to the book...

Tenniel's colour illustrations

In 1907 the English copyright to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland expired, and new editions from other publishers were printed. These illustrations are now also in the public domain,
my favourites from 1907 are Rackham, and Attwell :)