Travel Inspiration: OLD ISTANBUL

I've been always fascinated by ancient Istanbul houses and if I ever had a chance to live in Istanbul, I would definitely decide for a residence in any of such oldest Istanbul districts! 

I wish I could have made these beautiful photos, but, alas... I am, temporally, a camera-less blogger (that's why, for example, you might have noticed, no new recipes here for a long time:(). Meanwhile, please, enjoy this amazing Istanbul's mosaic I have gathered up via different internet sources!

Better yet, use this Orbitz promotional code for possible savings, and be there in person!

via octopuses garden on tumblr

via here

Postcard (1973) via here   Old style houses of Balat district via here

via here

via here
Çengelköy/İstanbul via here

via here

via turkça on tumblr

via here  
via here

via here

via here

I've also stumbled upon a book that promises to be something exceptional:

 “Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names”

Photography by Alex Webb and an essay written by a Nobel Prize Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk (one of my MOST favourite writers).

 The hardbound book measures 12 x 10 inches and has 136 pages with 77 four-color plates. Price: 120$. via topchoicebooks 

And this video features wonderful works by Alex Webb capturing Istanbul's daily life, accompanied by some relevant information about Turkey.

P.S. Also, I am taking the opportunity to say that I pray for the areas of Turkey that have recently suffered from an earthquake and their soonest possible relief and recovery. Aamen♥

NOON by NOOR: Spring/Summer 2012+resort

I've just thought, why should my blog not to start to deserve its name (at least, from time to time:) and thus, here I am, posting something gypsy-like and namely, a lovely fashion collection from a Bahraini brand Noon by Noor: elegant, very feminine and wildly romantic!

 I like also their Resort 2012 collection - interesting cuts, flowing drapes and lot's of minty&pink pastels!
discovered via Burrs&Berries

GRANTA MAGAZINE 112 ~ PAKISTAN

While I was preparing my previous post on Pakistani truck art, I got to know about Granta magazine which has a really long history of existence as it was founded in 1889(!) by students of Cambridge.

As the Observer wrote of Granta: ‘In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, Granta has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world.’

The reason for this post is that issue 112 of Granta, published in Autumn 2010, is dedicated to Pakistan and below you can see a beautiful cover of the edition!  

The cover was specially created by a truck and bus artist from Bhutta village in Karachi Islam Gull (below).

{...In addition to trucks and buses, Gull decorates buildings and housewares and has worked for several consulates in Karachi, as well as travelling to Kandahar, Afghanistan to paint trucks there.

...Commissioned with the assistance of the British Council in Karachi, Gull produced two chipboard panels to be photographed for the magazine’s cover, using the same industrial paints with which he embellishes Pakistani trucks...}

image via here

 

This issue is available for purchasing right from their website, but they are also offering some on-line reads extracted from the magazine.

PAKISTANI TRUCK ART

I don't know if there exists any official list of man made world wonders, but if I built it from scratch, the first position should have definitely gone to the traditional truck art of Pakistan! Grandiose beauty of so skillfully painted and richly decorated heavy trucks is simply breathtaking, and needless to say that every such vehicle is absolutely unique, literally, one of its kind!

  I couldn't hold myself from bringing here some accompanying texts from here (you may then visit the link to read the whole article and see some more photos).

{...The freight trucks which are built by Ford, General Motors, Hino Pak etc in beautiful aerodynamic shapes are first retro-fitted with very Pakistani style bodies and a special ‘viewing deck’ at the top of Driver’s cab. The viewing deck is a very multipurpose extra space. It is used by ‘cleaners’ to sleep at night and also to load extra luggage when needed...}


{...The whole truck bodies are immaculately painted in brightly colored patterns by the street artists who can be found at Truck stands all across the country...}

 {...It is said that every city’s artists have perfected their art in their own signature way. Thus, trucks decorated in Quetta (Balochistan) and Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) get lots of wood trimming where as those in Rawalpindi get lots of plastic decoration. Karachi excels in using reflective tapes, also called ‘chamak patty’ in local language. Camel bone decoration is used by artists of rural Sindh...}

 {...In Karachi alone… more than 50,000 people toil in small, family-run workshops comprised of apprentices and highly trained artisans, each with his well-defined specialty. Dominated by the painstaking ethic of proudly independent craftsmen, this time-consuming manufacture is the opposite of mass production: Every hand-painted truck, bus and rickshaw, despite sharing numerous signs and symbols, virtually screams its uniqueness...}

 {..The extraordinary tradition of decorating trucks has its roots in the days of the raj when craftsmen made glorious horse drawn carriages for the gentry. In the 1920s the Kohistan Bus Company asked the master craftsman Ustad Elahi Bakhsh to decorate their buses to attract passengers. Bakhsh employed a company of artists from the Punjab town of Chiniot, whose ancestors had worked on many great palaces and temples dating back to the Mughal Empire...}









 {..Pakistani trucks are also used as means of displaying the owner or the Painter’s Poetic taste. It also serves as a calligraphic board as well as a notice board for public messages...}
 {..It was not long before the truck owners followed suit with their own design. Through the years the materials used have developed from wood and paint to metal, tinsel, plastic and reflective tape. Within the last few years trucks and buses have been further embellished with full lighting systems...}

The article has a reference on an astonishing book (see below), called Food Path- Cuisine Along The Grand Trunk Road From Kabul To Kolkata published by Roli Books India and Lustre Press:


 

Size: 8.2" X 12.2"

Pages: 141(Coloured Illus: 115 & One Map)

Jamal Elias breaks down the motifs for truck art into the following 5 categories:

1. Idealized elements of personal and communal life.
2. Elements of political and national life.
3. Talismans, trinkets, and clothing.
4. Talismans or religious symbols.
5. Obvious religious symbols and images.

Images via google search and from here

Fashion Inspiration: ETHNIC WINTER

Sera Park for Marie Claire Korea, January, 2011